Friends of Immanuel,

Coming off last night’s thrilling Denver Broncos’ come-from-behind-victory and in light of my Packers’ dismal start to the season, I thought it would be fun to lighten things up a bit today! The world of college and professional football is, by and large, a make-believe world for most of us. The players and coaches are paid exorbitant amounts of money to play a kid’s game, money that we can’t imagine even over the course of our entire lifetime! And still, we watch and pay, cheer and boo, as we try to escape some of the realities of our “real world” problems and challenges over the course of a weekend of watching football.

I posed a question in yesterday’s sermon – “Does it really matter how we live our lives?” For those football players, it should matter, at least for those 3 hours of their game. They are getting paid to perform, to do a job, to block, tackle, run, pass, catch, and kick, in other words, to “live football lives”! So how are those Bronco and Packers players doing? Both teams got boo-ed into their locker rooms at halftime in their last games – in other words, not so good! The Broncos responded to their fans’ disappointment by coming out in the second half and playing football like it mattered – turning a 16-point deficit into a thrilling victory. The Packers not so much. They came out lackluster and dispassionate, certainly not living or playing as though anything mattered.

As fans and armchair quarterbacks, we’ll talk about our teams this week, some of us second-guessing the calls, the effort, the attitudes. But when all is said and done, we’ll be back in front of the TV next weekend to cheer on our teams (some of us hoping that our team decides that it actually does matter how they live and play – Go Pack Go!).

But for us, I would contend that the stakes are much higher when it comes to answering the question, “Does it really matter how we live our lives?” We’re not entertainers or athletes. We’re ordinary, everyday people with particular vocations – whether it’s with our jobs or in retirement or as students. We all have our circles of people we know and interact and hang out with – co-workers, neighbors, friends, family – and, in the big picture of life, it may seem that what we do doesn’t really matter much.

But here’s where I want to encourage you today – your life does matter! Our spheres of influence may be relatively small, and that’s OK. Remember that you are a child of God who is loved, forgiven, and valued by your Creator and Redeemer. Remember that you have people in your life who love and care about you. And remember that there are people in your life who need you, who depend on you, who love that you’re part of their life. Every day we can wake up and look into The Face of Grace, which is Jesus, and take these realities to heart.

As the Lord sends us out into His world each day, we in turn get to reflect that Face of Grace to others – friends, colleagues, and strangers. You and I don’t know what people are going through as we pass by each other, nor do we know what they need. What we do know is that we can show them the grace that has been shown to us – with a smile, an act of kindness, a simple “Hello!” or taking time to listen and show that we care.

Does it matter how we live our lives? I think it does! The Lord through St. Paul reminds us, “Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:1-5)

What Now?

Be intentional and thoughtful about how you live this week. Be mindful of how precious God’s grace is and humbly seek that grace each day through repentance and prayer.

May our Savior bless the lives that we lead and the grace that we share, for the furthering of the Kingdom and the encouragement we can offer to others in Jesus’ name – because YOU matter and so does the life you live!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Did you know that there are well over 100 ways that you can serve, learn, grow, and participate in various ministries with others at Immanuel? If you’ve had a chance to look at the tri-fold brochure we had available at the Ministry Showcase on September 13^th and then inserted into the worship folders last Sunday, you can get an overview of what some of those many opportunities are. If you missed those, here’s a link you can use to check out that brochure (ILC Ministry Brochure), or you can stop and grab a paper copy from our Information Station in the atrium.

The opportunities are all over the place and cover the spectrum of big and small, huge commitments to small commitments, at Immanuel and in our Loveland community. But each and every one of them are of tremendous significance. Why? Because they involve sharing the Good News of Jesus in words or in action, showing our Savior’s Radical Hospitality, providing ways for us to serve others in Jesus’ name, or even giving us opportunity to strengthen our own faith – as we give and serve or as we study and learn. It’s how the Lord designed His Church to function – beautiful, isn’t it? And we get to be part of it!

Today I want to hold out for you just one of the many ways we can serve each other here in this community of faith, and that is through our Meals Ministry. This Ministry of hospitality and love is when meals are brought to individuals and families who have gone through surgery, brought home a new baby, or experienced the death of a loved one. Many times these are home-cooked meals, but other times they are pre-made meals delivered that can be easily heated up, or even gift cards for meals to be delivered.

I know that many of you here at Immanuel have been blessed by this amazing ministry. I asked a few people who have recently been on the receiving end of this ministry to share their experiences and what it meant to them. Check these out!

“The Meals Ministry was an incredible blessing to our family during one of the most difficult seasons of our lives. While my wife was undergoing major life-saving surgery and our family was focused on her healing and recovery, receiving meal assistance from our church family lifted a tremendous burden from our shoulders. More than the food itself, it was a tangible reminder that we were loved, prayed for, and not walking this journey alone. We are deeply grateful for the kindness, generosity, and compassion shown to us through this ministry. With gratitude!”

“Immanuel's Meals Ministry was such a blessing to us after the birth of each of our babies. That newborn time is so special – and foggy at times under the veil of sleep deprivation – but the generosity from the Meals Ministry is to remember! Now we know more faces with names, new faces to recognize in the congregation, and new friends that know our children as we see each other in the Immanuel community. Thank you for supporting our family and for the lasting impact of your generosity!”

“I cannot express how important the meals ministry is to those of us who have been the recipients. When I needed help, I was amazed that these busy ladies took time to prepare home cooked, delicious meals and delivered them right to my kitchen. I will always remember their generosity. They are angels on earth indeed.”

There is an email group that includes people who have agreed to help and provide meals when the needs arise. However, we really could use some more people to be part of this important ministry. How it works is that when a need for meals is made known, an email is sent out to the group with dates for when meals are needed. You do not need to respond every time you receive a meal request. As meal requests are received, you decide if there is a date that works for you and, if so, sign up to bring a meal on that date, Or you simply wait until the next meal request is received.

If you’re interested in being part of this simple yet powerful ministry of hospitality and love, you can email churchoffice@immanuelloveland.org and we’ll add you to the email group, or you can add yourself to the group by using this link – ILC Ministry Interest Form. Thank you for considering this opportunity and for using the gifts of your time, resources, and abilities for the caring of God’s people!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Yesterday I preached about how (thankfully!) unfair grace is. Grace is a gift that we all need, no matter how “good” we’ve been or how “good” we are. We all need His grace – grace that encompasses the forgiveness He offers us and the love He shows us. To better understand this, we explored the Old Testament account of Jonah and then the story Jesus told in Matthew 20 of the workers in the vineyard.

Early on Sunday morning, I typically listen to The Lutheran Hour sermon and this week Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, The Lutheran Hour speaker, preached on this same parable of Jesus from Matthew 20. He took a little different direction with it, one that I thought was very interesting, insightful, and helpful. If you have time and opportunity, I’d encourage you to listen his September 20^th sermon entitled, “High Bar to Clay Jar” at www.LHM.org.

Here’s the link from the website, and below that is a link for Apple Podcasts.

https://media.lhm.org/lutheranhour/mp3s/big/9403.mp3?_gl=1*1qy3m0r*_gcl_au*NTgxMDQ4NzQxLjE3ODM2MTY2Mzg.*_ga*NDE0ODg2MzM4LjE3ODM2MTY2Mzg.*_ga_C0WSM9LLDH*czE3OTAwMjMyNTkkbzUkZzEkdDE3OTAwMjMzMDAkajE5JGwwJGgw

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lutheran-hour/id112493205?i=1000790755251

Also, here is this week’s What Now? for you to consider:

What Now?

How can you generously share this “unfair” grace with someone in your life this week?

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

The start of a new season brings with it the opportunity for change, not for the sake of change itself but for helping us see something in a new way. Last Sunday, we introduced a new way we’ll be approaching our time of offering. This change comes after questions raised, suggestions given, and fruitful discussions by our Board of Elders and our Worship Planning Team.

The questions raised about how we receive the offerings during worship included a desire to make sure that we are not only giving all of us the opportunity to respond to the Lord’s grace as we tithe (an Old Testament command to give 10% of our income back to the Lord out of gratitude for all that He provides) and give our offerings to Him, but to make sure that we are modeling for and teaching our children the importance of giving back to the Lord.

Through the various discussions, the point was raised that the way people give to the Lord through their offerings has changed over the years. Many of us now give online and through texting, concepts that weren’t even an option a generation ago. The norm was that most people put cash or checks into the offering baskets as they were passed along each row every Sunday. I have fond memories, and perhaps you do too, of my parents giving me and my sisters a quarter to put into the offering plate as it was passed. With the dramatic change of how we give today, we discussed how passing the offering plate today might be more discouraging than encouraging, because of how few people would put anything in the offering baskets – and for children (and adults) to see a basically empty plate passed along row after row could have a negative effect on everyone. So we wrestled with the question of how receiving the offering should look in our times of worship today in light of these changes.

There are many different options and creative opportunities and this is what we’ve settled on trying for starters. Currently, what I say during the time of offering has become a pretty regular statement, saying pretty much the same thing week after week. I’m guessing that many of you have come to the point of tuning me out because “you’ve heard it all before.”

One of the main changes you’ll see happening is each week we will have a different family bring forward to the altar a basket with the offerings that have been given so far that morning. Families of our congregation will include couples, individuals, and families with children. This will accomplish multiple goals. It will be a reminder that the offerings we give, whether left in the baskets at each of the doors to the sanctuary, or given on our website, or by texting, are offerings that we are returning to the Lord, as His presence is represented by the altar. As different families bring the offering forward, we are reminded that we are all part of the ministry we call Immanuel. It will also serve as another opportunity for children to be involved in worship and will provide parents an open door for talking to their children about what they are doing and why. (If you would like to be included in this opportunity, contact Kathy and let her know – kschlecht@ImmanuelLoveland.org.) It will be a visible affirmation of the importance of family, that is so important here at Immanuel and throughout God’s Word.

While the offering is being brought forward, what I share during that time will vary from week to week: using one of our many Stewardship Litanies, highlighting a particular ministry being supported by our offerings, sharing where we stand with our budget and offerings for the year, and highlighting one of our Community Assistance partners, are some of what you will hear from week to week.

There are many different options and creative opportunities, and this is what we’ve settled on trying for starters in our attempt to continue to hold up the time of offering as an important time of our worship of our Triune God. I pray that this will enable all of us to give appropriate attention to this important part of our worship of our Lord. I value feedback, thoughts, and other ideas as we move forward with this. Thank you for your many generous expressions of love for your Lord as you faithfully return to the Lord a tenth or a portion of what the Lord has entrusted to you financially for the purpose of furthering His Kingdom as we serve Him together!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

Yesterday was awesome! Let me follow-up with a couple things – from the sermon on forgiveness and also from the Ministry Showcase.

It was a real joy to worship together in one combined worship service and hear all of the singing and speaking in “full voice”! A couple of you asked me about the interview I referenced in my sermon with the late pastor and theologian Timothy Keller. His interview includes more on the topic of forgiveness as well as interesting thoughts on many other topics. If you’re interested in hearing the entire interview, here’s the YouTube link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAkTnhdQkY8.

On the topic of forgiveness and relationships, I hope that some of the practical suggestions I mentioned at the end of my sermon will be of some help. As I said, forgiveness is hard! But at the same time, forgiveness is worth pursuing and working at, with its foundation of our Savior’s grace and love for all of us!

Here’s this week’s What Now? that I would encourage you to take to heart:

What Now?

Be in prayer over relationships where forgiveness is needed. Begin taking steps toward restoration, reconciliation, and healing with offering or asking for forgiveness.

For all who were able to stick around for the brunch and Ministry Showcase, I hope you enjoyed that as well. Thank you to everyone who baked those amazing egg casseroles – I sampled about 5 of them and WOW! There seems to be a beautiful and healthy buzz in the gym with many, many conversations going on and a true sense of community and fellowship.

I spoke briefly about how the goal of the brunch and Ministry Showcase was community and fellowship. My prayer, as we talk about Immanuel and our ministry together, is that we recognize Immanuel as “our” ministry. I encourage you, when you are thinking about or talking with others about Immanuel, that you speak of it as “our” ministry and the many ways “we” can serve our Lord as we give and learn and grow together in this awesome community of faith. With Jesus at the center, what makes Immanuel so special is each one of you – the relationships we enjoy and the Radical Hospitality that we show.

If you missed the brunch and Ministry Showcase or were too busy talking with each other to sign up for any of the ministry opportunities or to write down questions you may have about different ministry opportunities at Immanuel, here is a link you can use to indicate an interest you have about various ministries or to open the door to one of our ministry leaders reaching out to you to answer questions you may about what some of these are all about – https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=ye75eAw3gEiH41opZhxgsVuwUWt3ss5EgV0jW_EoWVNURFNVWTVOVlgxWFhKWjM1UE5HMk5PQ1NJRi4u. This coming Sunday we will include the tri-fold brochures as inserts in the worship folders so you will have access to a paper copy of these many opportunities, as well as a QR code that will be on the front of the worship folder.

As we kick-off the fall with the Education Hour starting up on Sunday as well as many other small groups, choirs, interest groups, Bible studies, and more starting up over the next few weeks, it’s a great time to explore some of the ways you can be involved in your church! I’m looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us in this coming season of ministry and life together!

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

This coming Sunday we begin a new worship series for the fall entitled, The Face of Grace. Grace is at the very core of who we are as followers of Jesus. And it’s because Jesus is The Face of Grace – He is grace incarnate. That undeserved love that He poured out on us in Creation, by His incarnation, throughout His ministry, on the cross of Calvary, and through the empty tomb, is what allows us to be who we are, to live the lives we lead, and to know the certainty and hope of eternity.

The beauty of grace is that it’s not just this amazing gift that we receive from our loving God. It is also a gift that we, in turn, can live out every single day. We can, or perhaps we should, recognize grace also as a verb – an action word. God’s action toward us and then our action in response. We live it, we experience it, we respond by giving thanks and worship and praise to God, and by sharing it with others. What an awesome life that allows us to live!

Over the next month, we have several very troubling and austere anniversaries in our country and across the globe. Today is the first anniversary of Charlie Kirk’s death, tomorrow is the 25^th anniversary of the attacks on 9-11, and in a few weeks, October 7^th is the third anniversary of the surprise attack of Hamas on Israel that killed about 1200 people. As we remember these events, we continue to hear the news of ongoing wars in our world, hundreds and hundreds of people killed in natural disasters, the flooding in Nepal being the latest tragedy. And right here at Immanuel we continue to experience deaths of loved one, so many here who are dealing with various types of cancer, and ongoing struggles that are part of our day-to-day lives.

What are we to do with all of this? It can overwhelm us. It can discourage us. It can anger us. But where I hope all of this will lead us is straight back to The Face of Grace. No matter what it is that we may be dealing with in our personal lives, in our congregation, in our community, country, or world, I pray we realize that all of this is too much for any one of us alone. We need Jesus. We need a Savior. We need His grace. We need each other.

Throughout this series, we’ll hear clearly about Jesus as The Face of Grace; and we’ll also see the many opportunities and encouragement we receive from our Lord for us to be The Face of Grace to others as we share Him and His love with others in our day-to-day lives. The graphic for this series, designed by Ashley Jones (Immanuel’s Director of Communications and Marketing), places Jesus prominently at the center as The Face of Grace. As His grace emanates from Him, it touches each of our lives. It’s obvious that we are not alone – but we are together, walking hand-in-hand as we experience His grace together, and as we share it with others.

I look forward to resting confidently in God’s grace, to looking regularly at The Face of Grace (Jesus), and to exploring how He invites us to join Him in this grace-filled life we lead under His guidance and blessing.

Serving together in Christ alone!
Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

On Monday we celebrated 18 years in our current location at 4650 Sunview Drive. How can it be that long already? On Sunday, September 7, 2008, we had our Dedication and Grand Opening service for what was a 10-year project of faith.

In 1998 we determined that a decision had to be made as both our church and school were continuing to grow. We had built out as much as we could on our property at 1101 Hilltop Drive on the 3.5 acres that we owned. We were already using modular buildings to add needed classrooms and space. Now what were we going to do? We put several options to the congregation and in December 1998 the congregation voted unanimously to search for an appropriate larger site to relocate the church and school where it would be possible to more readily expand our ministries.

After exploring many different parcels of land all around Loveland, a 25.5 acre parcel of land on Highway 287 and 50th Street was brought to our attention. It seemed ideal! We put in our offer but we discovered that we were the lowest bid of three offers being made. One of many miracles we witnessed throughout the relocation process was that our offer was accepted in early 2000!

Building plans began to be made, a $2 million matching gift was generously given, ministry campaigns were put together, and many wheels were turning. On Sunday, October 30th, 2005, the members of Immanuel voted 148-32 to accept the proposal from the Thompson R2-J School District for the purchase of our current facility at 1101 Hilltop Drive. The offer was for the full appraised value of $2,250,000. However, this offer was contingent upon the passing of Referendum 3B on Tuesday, November 1st elections. This referendum, a bond issue, did pass by a margin of 51%-49%. With the passage of this referendum came an official, signed contract for the purchase of our current facility.

The contract with the school district stated that we had approximately 18 months to vacate 1101 Hilltop. During this time there were tremendous challenges and uncertainties – it was truly a leap of faith. Questions were raised second-guessing the decision to relocate. Families left Immanuel. Leadership struggled with how best to move forward and how to keep the congregation and Immanuel’s ministry together. And over and over again, we witnessed God performing the miraculous, most often just when miracles were needed – not well in advance but also not too late! We did receive several extensions from the school district as well as multiple extensions from the Loveland City Council to be able to keep using our modulars well past the normally-allowed-timeframe.

Everything came together on April 16th, 2007, when we broke ground on that Sunday afternoon, receiving front page coverage in the Loveland Reporter Herald the next day. It was a glorious celebration with over 300 people attending, and our men’s ministry group feeding the entire crowd. Over the next year, we held many different activities on the property, including outdoor worship all summer long, as we watched the building emerge. We had a stud-signing day where everyone was invited to come and write Bible verses on all the steel studs in the walls on the first floor – filling our building with God’s Word!

We had to move out of 1101 Hilltop Drive by June 5th and our last worship services at 1101 Hilltop were on Sunday, June 1st. We had the first of 7-10 tractor trailers delivered for us to fill on May 16th. We had several big “load days” where we filled those tractor trailers with most of Immanuel’s necessary furniture, files, and material goods. After worship on June 1st, we carried out all of the pews from the sanctuary, the altar, pulpit, lectern, and baptismal font, as well as the large 30’ high white metal cross that hung at the front of the sanctuary, with plans to use all of them in the new facility.

The following Sunday, June 8th, we worshiped together in one service on the new property. We then had a summer of waiting while the facility was completed and a Certificate of Occupancy was received from the City of Loveland. During this interim period, we had made arrangements for our offices to be housed at Edmonson Elementary School just to the west, across 287. Our 8:00am Classic Grace worship services were also held at Edmonson, in the gym, and our 9:30am worship service was held on the new property with needed equipment stored in a trailer for the summer.

Then, on Sunday, September 7th, 2008, we gathered together to dedicate this building to the glory of God with a wonderful celebration! We have been so blessed over these 18 years to see the wonders God has done and is continuing to do. I thank God for all of you who are here and call Immanuel your home. Yes, as the children’s song goes, the church is much more than a building – it’s the people! And as we continue to gather as God’s people, as His Church, and as we do so in this building at this location at this particular time in history, we continue to do so to God’s glory and for the furthering of His Kingdom! I look forward to seeing the awesome things He has in store for us in this coming season of our life together!

I’ve included pictures below of one of our loading days, the removal of the sanctuary cross on June 1st, Groundbreaking, the steel structure (which is the atrium), and Dedication and Grand Opening Day.

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

With Labor Day weekend just ahead, for many this officially brings the summer to a close. Here at Immanuel, next week and in the weeks to come, many of our ministries that have taken a short break for the summer will be starting up once again. As we get ready for some fresh starts, I thought today would be a good opportunity to remember why we do what we do here at Immanuel.

The simplest answer to why we are here is “Jesus!” It’s simple and it’s true. Everything we do – from the big and obvious of worship and our school ministry, to the many ongoing groups and ministries with Small Groups, Bible Studies, Sunday School, and many age-specific groups that meet for fellowship, study, growth, and service, to the once-a-year big events like Fall Fest, the Christmas Bazaar, the Car Show, and Vacation Bible School – all have Jesus at the center.

We do what we do in order to share the Good News of Jesus and His suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, which brings us forgiveness, shows us His love, and offers us real hope. At Immanuel we express what the Lord has asked of us in our Mission and Vision:

Immanuel’s Mission
Transform lives by Loving, Learning, and Living in Jesus

Immanuel’s Vision
We reveal the love and grace of Jesus to our community by our Radical Hospitality, Transformational Learning, and Fearless Living

We value creativity, innovation, and new ideas as to how we can better carry out this Mission and Vision in our world and, specifically, in our greater Loveland community.

Men’s Movie Nights at Immanuel (MMN) is one of those creative ways we have to accomplish this. MMN will be starting our 19^th season next Wednesday, September 9^th. This idea grew out of my personal enjoyment of movies, especially “guy” movies with plenty of action and lots of things blowing up! With MMN, we typically take two weeks to watch a movie (from 6:00pm-7:00pm) and then spend time the third week discussing it. We do not watch exclusively Christian movies, although we have watched a few over the years. By and large, we watch those “guy” movies.

For example, over the years we’ve watched Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Gladiator, several Mission Impossible movies, Twisters, Lincoln, A Few Good Men, Nuremburg, American Sniper, Armageddon, and some of the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, just to name a few.

We’re starting this new season out with F1, a fictional Formula One racing movie starring Brad Pitt. I’ve been partnering with Joe Sarr of our congregation, who for many years has been putting together our discussion guides and who does an amazing job of researching the movies and coming up with questions and discussion starters that are not just digging into the movie but which have us thinking about our calling to be men of God.

MMN has provided an open door for many of us guys to invite friends and other guys who enjoy movies. So for all you guys who are reading this (or wives who know your guy would enjoy this!), come and join me and some of the other movie-loving guys next Wednesday and check it out! I’ll have signs out to give direction to our movie room (equipped with a full-wall screen and surround sound), and we’ll have fresh popcorn popping and some pop and water to drink.

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

It’s the last day of August, schools throughout our community are in full swing again, and here at Immanuel plans are well underway for another great year of adventure, growth, exploring, and following Jesus and where He’s leading us, and all that He would have us do as we serve together for the furthering of His Kingdom!

Next Sunday, Labor Day weekend, will be the last Sunday on our summer worship schedule, including our final outdoor worship service for the year. The following Sunday, September 13^th, we will kick-off the fall with a single combined worship service at 9:00am followed by a brunch in the gym (that everyone is invited to) and a Ministry Showcase, highlighting some of the many ministries happening at Immanuel. If you can help with food, you can sign up with this link: https://signup.com/go/sdWXRgL. Thank you!

The following Sunday, September 20^th, we return to our regular schedule of 8:00am Classic Grace worship, 9:30am-10:20am Education Hour, and 10:30am Contemporary Joy worship. Miss Emma is lining things up for the Education Hour for children, confirmation classes, and youth Sunday School (she could still use some teachers and helpers – if interested, contact her). For adults, there will be three classes options during the Education hour – Kathy Schlecht will be teaching Heaven on Earth: There’s More to Come—what we can know from Scripture about what happens after death, and Gail Hein will be teaching a class on the Augsburg Confession—a great opportunity to walk through some very foundational writings from the Reformation era in the late 1500s that have shaped our Lutheran heritage. I’ll be sharing some more details of those classes in some upcoming email updates.

I will be teaching the third class being held during the Education Hour this fall, Immanuel 101. This class is open to anyone interested in learning about who we are at Immanuel and what we believe and teach. For those interested in joining Immanuel or who are considering joining, this class is for you! There’s no obligation to join by simply attending the class. We’ll take 9 weeks to go through some of the basics of our core beliefs and talk about what makes us who we are. If you’re interested in joining me for this class, please email me to let me know so I make sure and have enough materials ready (gschlecht@ImmanuelLoveland.org). It’s a great opportunity to invite a friend or for our current members of Immanuel to get a refresher on what makes us Immanuel.

Be praying for the year ahead and how you can engage in some of the Transformational Learning opportunities that we’ll be offering all year long! Through the many learning opportunities, my prayer is that we grow in our faith and that our eyes are opened more and more to how God is working in and through each of us to spread His love and to share the hope we have in Jesus! As we talked about yesterday in worship, Jesus IS our Hope! And as a reminder, and for those who may have missed, here is this week’s What Now?

What Now?

How do you answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?”? Take time this week to consider this important question. Then look for an opportunity to ask that question of other people as a conversation starter.

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen

Friends of Immanuel,

I want to thank those of you who have said something to me over the past month about our summer worship series, A Summer of Hope. This has been a series that has truly impacted many of you in different ways, and I’m humbled and thankful for how many of you have taken the time to share what a difference this series has made for you. As we on the Worship Planning Team brainstorm and work together to develop the different worship series that we have each season, that truly is our prayer. And it is also my personal prayer as I work on developing each week’s particular theme and direction, as I write each sermon, and as I prepare for each worship service. I pray that the Lord would guide us in speaking of Jesus and His Truth, His Love, and, especially this summer, His Hope, as clearly as we can.

As we near the end of our summer worship series (“Boo!” for the end of summer! LOL!), we are turning our eyes toward the fall and plans are well underway for the months to come. Today I want to highlight what I hope will be a fun and important transitional Sunday coming up soon. Our last Outdoor Worship service and the last Sunday of our summer schedule is Labor Day weekend, Sunday, September 6^th. The following Sunday, September 13^th, we will have one combined worship service beginning at 9:00am.

Over the past number of years, we have had a Ministry Fair on that first Sunday following Labor Day weekend. This year we are looking to try something a little different. Immediately following worship on September 13^th, we will have brunch in the gym and what we are calling a Ministry Showcase.

The two main overarching goals of our time together that morning are celebrating the Community we enjoy together with food and fellowship and, second, providing opportunities to consider the part each of us can play as important members of this Community.

The goal of the Ministry Showcase is to provide information about the many areas available to grow in one’s faith as well as areas in which to serve using your unique giftedness. On all the tables where we’ll be eating there will be information about the many different opportunities to grow and serve, along with a place to indicate which ministries you’d like to receive more information about. Many of our ministry leaders will be available for casual conversation about the ministries they lead, and we are hoping to include a fun surprise as part of the Showcase.

My hope and encouragement is that all of us plan to be here that morning for worship and then hang around a bit longer for a delicious brunch and some good fellowship in the gym. It’ll be a great way to kick-off our fall season!

If you are willing, we could use some volunteers to make a breakfast casserole to share that morning. If you’re willing and able to do this, you can sign up using this link (https://signup.com/go/sdWXRgL), the signup sheets in the atrium, or by calling the church office, 970-667-4506. Thank you for helping in this way!

Thanks for being part of Immanuel – this is an amazing community of faith and I’m honored and grateful to be your pastor! I’m looking forward to all that the Lord has in store for us together in the weeks and months ahead!

Serving together in Christ alone!

Pastor Glen