Friends of Immanuel,
As you’re reading this email, I’m at Moraine Park Campground in Rocky Mountain National Park (our favorite!), sitting with Kathy by a campfire, reading a spy novel, our dog Luther sitting by my side, and enjoying the beauty of the mountains and the great outdoors that our Lord has created and with which He has so amazingly blessed us! We’re taking a couple days to enjoy a change of scenery before re-entering the real world when we come back down the mountain on Saturday night to worship with all of you on Sunday morning.

Labor Day camping has been a long-standing tradition in the Schlecht home! Kathy and I have taken our kids up, most often to Moraine Park, to camp around Labor Day weekend since they were toddlers. Neither of us grew up camping but when we got to Colorado, someone in the congregation loaned us their pop-up camper, gave us some quick instructions on how to put it up and take it down, and told us to go camping. We were hooked!

I had done some reading about parenting, families, and how to be a better dad, and one of the things that I remember reading in multiple books and articles was the importance of time together as a family. That time together could be experienced in lots of different ways – regular time around the dinner table together, going to worship together, family devotion time, taking walks or bike rides together, intentional dates (dad-daughter, dad-son, dad-kids, or the same with mom and the kids, or the family together), and so many more ideas. But it was the suggestion of camping that jumped off the page for me.

What I loved about our bold venture into the camping world, and our continued camping through the years, is what it offered me as a dad and us as a family. When we camp, we’re together and there’s no escape!! LOL! Whether it’s sitting around the campfire watching it burn, or playing a game in the pop-up, or going on a hike, skipping rocks in the lake, reading books, making meals together, eating meals together, or cleaning up after meals together, we were together. And so many of those times afforded us the opportunity, either as our entire family or in one-on-one situations, to talk about all sorts of things – school, band, the Packers, growing up, dreams for the future, and so much more.

I share all this as a way to offer some encouragement. God placed us in families very intentionally. Family is at the foundation of God’s plan, as well as how societies and cultures are supposed to work in healthy ways. Here at Immanuel, we recognize the value and importance of family. As “A Family Place,” we try to provide resources, support, and encouragement to families of all shapes and sizes, from single adults, to married couples without kids, to divorced and/or remarried couples, those families with kids and without kids, empty nesters, widows and widowers. We’re certainly not perfect, nor do we have all the answers, but we strive by the activities and ministries we offer, the way we choose to worship, the staffing we provide, articles I write and sermons I preach, and in many other ways, to support and build-up families as God intended.

I feel so blessed by the resources provided to me and by God’s leading me as a child of His, as a husband, as a father, and as your pastor. This Labor Day weekend, whatever your family looks like, take time – with friends, with family – to spend some time together. Talk, share dreams, ask questions of each other, get to know each other better, and wonder together about things in your life. Reflect on how amazing our Savior is and the blessings He has poured, and, I pray, continues to pour into your lives.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

What the Lord gives to us in yesterday’s Old Testament reading from Jeremiah 1:4-10 are some simple yet powerful promises that I want to reiterate for all of us to be encouraged by today. Jeremiah 1 is the Lord’s call to Jeremiah to be His prophet, his voice to the nations, speaking the Lord’s Good News and hope.

As we explored these verses, we discovered that what the Lord was saying to Jeremiah was just as applicable to each of us still today. I share these promises with all of you to build you up and encourage you today!

The Lord says to you and to me, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.” You are the very handiwork of God. Check out Ephesians 2:8-10 also. There are multiple places where the Lord is very specific in telling us that it was He who formed us, who knit us together in our mother’s wombs, who gave us our personalities and traits, who made us just as we are in all our uniqueness, those things that make me me and you you! You are a child of God who is loved and cherished by our heavenly Father.

He also says to us, “Before you were born I set you apart.” We are not some accident of evolution or purposeless people. Far from it! As New Testament believers, we know that one of the promises of baptism is that through water and the Word, we are set apart, made holy, assured of the purposes which God has given us. The Lord God has always known you, loved you, and set you apart for Himself! We are the beloved children of our heavenly Father!

Finally, the Lord says, “I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” This is our purpose! While we may not have literal nations to whom we are being sent like Jeremiah did, we have been given this purpose. Jesus told us in Matthew 28:18, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” For us, those “nations” are likely family members, extended family, friends and neighbors, classmates and teammates, co-workers, bosses, and employees. What do we share? Essentially, we share “Jesus,” by sharing the wonders God has done and is doing in our lives, the difference Jesus makes in our lives, even what it is the inspires us and gets us out of bed in the morning. We can share our faith stories, both the ups and the downs of following Jesus.

As the Lord urged Jeremiah when Jeremiah gave several excuses as to why he wasn’t qualified to do what the Lord was asking of him, I encourage all of us to step into this week’s What Now? with boldness and courage. Be willing to move out of your comfort zone, assured of the Lord’s promise to us – “I have put my words in your mouth.” The Lord will help us to speak of Him, to share His love, to show His grace. Everything we’ve been given is gift upon gift upon gift from our Lord. And why? Because He loves you! 

What Now?

Set aside your excuses and your fears this week and pray for an opportunity for God to use you to share Jesus and His love with someone.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
I got word that Dr. James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, passed away today. That caused me to pause and reflect a bit on the blessing he has been for me as a husband, dad, and pastor over these many years. I would put him in that category of a hero of the faith that we’ve been reflecting on the past couple of weeks in worship from Hebrews 11.

His work, including the studies he conducted, books and articles he wrote, and the encouragement given to parents and families around the world, have had a tremendous impact on so many. We can truly thank God for the blessing of Dr. Dobson and the ways He chose to use this faithful man of God.

I’d like to share a few quotes from Jim Daly, current president and CEO of Focus on the Family and host of the daily “Focus on the Family” radio broadcast, in an article that he sent out today, sharing the news of Dr. Dobson’s death.

“If you’ve followed Focus for many years, you’re already familiar with Dr. Dobson’s remarkable life. And if you’re a relatively new friend of Focus, you should know that so much of what we do here is a testament to his passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his desire to nurture and defend the God-ordained institution of the family.

Although Dr. Dobson departed Focus in 2010, even today we continue to hear testimonies from people who were impacted by his books or broadcasts, or whose lives were touched as a result of his care and compassion for the hurting and the vulnerable. We have put together a web site in his memory here, and we have also recorded a tribute broadcast that you can find here.

Please join me in remembering Dr. Dobson’s wife, Shirley, a Focus board member emerita, and their family in your prayers during this time of mourning. And rejoice with us in the knowledge that he is now in the presence of his Savior, and that his legacy lives on in the generations of families he touched. God bless you.”

I know that Dr. Dobson had an impact on Kathy and me and the way we raised our children. The ideas and encouragement given through a myriad of Focus on the Family resources, including the beloved radio drama series, “Adventures in Odyssey,” that we enjoyed on so many road trips, have helped strengthen our marriage and our family in many ways. In later years, Focus on the Family branched out to support pastors and that, too, was a help and encouragement to me and certainly played a part in our adopting the phrase, “A Family Place,” to describe who we are here at Immanuel. So I give thanks to our Lord for this man of God and the powerful ways He used him through his lifetime, to strengthen families in such solid, bible-based ways for the furthering of the Kingdom.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel, 

I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday and rounding out God’s Hall of Fame, the Heroes of Faith chapter of the Bible from Hebrews 11. It’s so inspiring to be reminded of the many amazing and unexpected ways in which God has chosen to work throughout history – including the wide variety of people He chose to work through. Three things I want to encourage for today – one is this week’s What Now?, which is the same as last week. I’m using the same one as the previous week because of the importance and value of stories when it comes to sharing our faith and the impact that faith has had on our lives. So think about the questions in this week’s What Now? and look for those opportunities to tell your stories and also to seek out the stories of others. 

Second, from yesterday’s message, I had you think about who your heroes of faith are – the people who have had an impact on you and your faith. While we didn’t have time to share during worship, I would love to hear who those heroes of faith are in your life. Send me an email or a text or drop me a note. 

Third, I want to encourage you to see yourself as a potential hero of faith for someone else in your life. Not that we aspire to hero-hood, but believe that God wants to, and can, use every single one of us to speak Jesus and His messages of love, grace, and hope into the lives of others. As we walk together, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, look for those opportunities to walk alongside others in our lives, to befriend or care for or show love to those God has put into your life. Show them Jesus by your words and your actions. 

What Now? 

Think about some of the faith stories from your life – when you came to faith, times when you grew in your faith, or times you’ve struggled with your faith. Then share some of those stories with your spouse, family, or friends, and ask to hear their stories as well. 

Finally, I want to share a few pictures with you of Miss Emma and her wedding! Rick and Annette Overton (Rick is our high school’s Executive Director and Annette serves on our Executive Council) attended Emma and Josh’s wedding in St. Paul this past weekend and passed along a few pictures to all of us who weren’t able to be there. They were married in the chapel at Concordia University—St. Paul, where both Emma and Josh attended and graduated from. The first picture is of Emma and her parents walking her down the aisle. Her dad, who is also a pastor, was blessed to not only be a proud dad on Saturday but was able to be part of the “official” parts of their being joined as husband and wife!  

Congratulations to the Hubbles, Emma and Josh, and our Savior’s richest blessings as they begin this new season in their life together! They will be returning to Loveland around the first of September and Emma will be commissioned and installed as our Director of Christian Education (DCE) on Sunday, September 7th at our single service (9:00am). Exciting times for all of us! 

Serving together in Christ alone! 

Pastor Glen 

Friends of Immanuel,
On Monday morning, Pastor Robin asked to talk with me and what he shared was some very surprising and some very big news. I’ll let him share by way of what he wrote to Immanuel’s leadership on the Executive Council and the Board of Elders on Tuesday.

Hi dear friends – I’ve decided, after TONS of prayer and thought, to “retire” from my call as Immanuel’s Director of Discipleship and Connecting ministry position effective November 1^st, 2025. 

Vicky and I have been so blessed in the past four years that we have shared with all of you: life in Jesus and His mission. We are and will be eternally grateful for your love, friendship, generosity, and support. To have the opportunity to share this precious time with you in a staff capacity has been a blessing in our lives. You (and our Pastor, Church/School staff, and Congregational Leaders) have graciously given me the trust to lead you in vital areas of our congregation’s life and ministry vision from which I’ve grown along with you in dependency and fruitfulness as a disciple in God’s Kingdom. Though not on staff for a given number of hours per week, I will continue to be part of Immanuel’s future in whatever ways I feel led to offer my gifts, talents, and ministry passions. That means that I will be “pulling back” for a bit after November 1st, but during that time, I will be seeking the Lord on how best to serve our congregation with my gifts. So, you’re not done with me yet!

With all my heart, I’ll close by stating again our love and our gratitude to God and you! If you have any questions, please know that I am available for a conversation. 

In Jesus’ love,
Robin

Pastor Robin and I first met in October of 2020 when he was driving back up to Fort Collins after spending time with his dying father in Boulder and, driving past Immanuel on highway 287, he pulled over in the parking lot between the Burger King and Christian Brothers and called the church, asking to set up a meeting with the pastor. As I remember, we met within a day or so and during that conversation as we shared our ministry and life stories, we made a wonderful connection, and I knew God was working out something pretty special.

It wasn’t long after that first conversation that he and Vicky landed here at Immanuel. After more conversations with our leadership about the possibility of bringing Pastor Robin on staff, it didn’t take long for us to see God’s guiding hand. On Sunday, March 6^th, 2022, we installed Pastor Robin as our Director of Discipleship and Connecting Ministries. And we were off and running! Pastor Robin has been an amazing addition to ministry at Immanuel these last 5 years with his high energy, his passion for discipleship and connecting people to Jesus and to each other, his creative ideas, his obvious love for Jesus, his humor, his many gifts, talents, and abilities, his depth of theology and ability to teach Scripture and difficult topics in a very practical and easy-to-understand way, and on and on it goes! He is going to be sorely missed!!

You can talk directly with Pastor Robin about some of what was behind his decision – I want to let him tell more of that part of his story. As we talked on Monday, I assured him that as hard as it will be to not have him on staff, I fully honor and respect his decision to retire. I’m thankful that he and Vicky will continue to be part of our Immanuel family moving forward, just in some different capacities starting November 1^st.

I appreciate the transition plans that he has shared with me, to ensure as best he can that the various ministries he has led and participated in will continue to move forward. As leaders and as a congregation, there will be some decisions we need to make in terms of how we will move forward as well. It will certainly be a new and different season for us – but one that the Lord, as always, will lead us into! In the meantime, let’s enjoy these next few months of working and serving together with Pastor Robin as we transition together and pray over what the Lord has in store for us.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is a core matter when it comes to our lives in Christ. As we talked about yesterday, faith is about belief, trust, and relationship. And a beautiful part of faith is that it is a gift – pure gift from God to us! When it comes to saving faith, that is pretty straight-forward – do you believe that Jesus is who He said He is and do you believe that He did what He did for you? I earnestly pray that everyone reading this email today can respond with a bold, confident, and definitive, “YES, I believe!”

When it comes to living out our faith in the day-to-day grind of life, there are definitely challenges that can come our way. We hear about that in Hebrews 11 with recounting some of Abraham and Sarah’s story – the questioning of God’s timing with the promise of a son, uncertain as to how God was going to do that, trying to take matters into their own hands, and more! And if walking by faith was not easy for these two heroes of the faith, you and I know that it’s not easy for us either!

But don’t forget – you are not alone on this journey of faith and life. We have our Savior’s promise that He will always be with us. In addition, He has placed us into families, given us friends, and offers us a church home, all of which are filled with people who are here to walk together with us. And we truly need each other – to encourage one another and cheer each other on, to call each other out when we go off the rails, to pick each other up when we fall down, and to celebrate the joys of life with each other.

Living by faith is not a solo venture – faith is a family affair! As a community of faith here at Immanuel, we, too, are called to live by faith. And just like it is for us as individuals or families, living by faith can be a real challenge! We’re in the midst of that right now. From a financial standpoint, we know what we’ve been called to do and who we’ve been called to be – we’re here to live out our Mission and Vision, which we are doing in some very powerful and exciting ways. But the financial resources to do what we need to do aren’t always sitting in a bank account flush with funds!

In my 36 years here at Immanuel, I’ve seen miracle after miracle as God has provided needed resources, above-and-beyond what we could have dreamed possible. And oftentimes He provides those resources at the exact time when they are needed, not far ahead of time and never too late – as we’ve taken some faith-filled leaps of faith with staffing or projects or ministry events, all for the sake of the Gospel and furthering the Kingdom. Many of these leaps of faith stretch us beyond what we think possible, but have us doing what we believe God would have us do and going where we believe He's telling us to go. Is this an exact science? Not by any stretch of the imagination! It is about prayer, about mutual conversations, about planning, about dreaming, and about the Gospel.

What does God have in store for us with regard to our current mortgage and meeting this current year’s demanding budget and expenses? What is God wanting to do through our school ministry and the many children and families who don’t have a church home and some of whom don’t know Jesus? What does God have in mind for us when it comes to the 25-acre parcel on which we are doing ministry? Where does God want to stretch us when it comes to using our personal financial resources, our time, and our talents and abilities? These are some of the many, many questions that will require a lot of faith on our part as we journey together here at Immanuel – questions that I’m excited to be exploring and experiencing with all of you!

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

Here's this week’s What Now? that I hope you can have some fun with…

What Now?

Think about some of the faith stories from your life – when you came to faith, times when you grew in your faith, or times you’ve struggled with your faith. Then share some of those stories with your spouse, family, or friends, and ask to hear their stories as well.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
Life is definitely starting to ratchet back up around Immanuel! The teachers reported back to work on Monday, I led our annual All-Staff retreat on Tuesday morning, there have been lots of meetings and exciting conversations around planning for the fall and where our God of the Unexpected is going to be leading us in the months ahead – I’m a little out of breath and it’s only August 7^th!

While “it’s only August 7^th,” I want to put some dates and times and ministry events on your radar right now in anticipation of what will be an amazing, wild, and crazy fall! You’ll be seeing more of this information in these email updates, in worship folders, in social media posts, and other communication.

September 7^th – One worship service at 9:00am with our annual Bible Study Fair in the atrium before and after worship. On this day, Miss Emma will be commissioned and installed as our Director of Christian Education, giving us the opportunity to give thanks and celebrate her and the fact that she is here with us!

September 14^th – We’re back to our regular schedule of worship with 8:00am Classic Grace and 10:30am Contemporary Joy. During the Education Hour on this morning (9:30am-10:20am), I am encouraging everyone to come together in the sanctuary for some Vision Casting. Miss Emma, Pastor Robin, and I will be sharing some of the many exciting opportunities that are coming this year.

• Miss Emma will speak to children, youth, and young adult ministries through the eyes of Radical Hospitality.
• Pastor Robin will speak to the educational, small group, discipleship, and connecting ministry opportunities under Transformational Learning.
• And I’ll be speaking to some of what lies ahead in a bigger picture sort of way for our ministry as a whole, using the third leg of our Mission and Vision, Fearless Living.

Starting in September, our fall worship theme will be The Way of Jesus – there will be more coming that I can share with you as I continue to work on and develop that theme with our Worship Planning Team.

Finally, be sure to have these two big events marked on your calendar: Family Fall Fest and Trunk or Treat on Wednesday, October 29, 5:00pm-7:00pm, and the Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, November 22, 9:00am-3:00pm.

There is more! But that’s enough for now. Stay tuned, continue to pray for our work together here at Immanuel, give thanks for the many blessings that we enjoy, both on a personal level and as a ministry together!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,
Today’s lead article is from Miss Emma, giving us the scoop on their recent experience with the LCMS Youth Gathering in New Orleans. Enjoy!