September is upon us and once again we rally together as the people of God. What does it mean to rally? We see political rallies all the time nowadays on TV, but when we rally at church does it mean the same thing?

Well, I have returned from the great adventure of New Orleans. The Youth Gathering was full of the energy of young people (on our last night, our group sang all the way back to the hotel, filling the streets of New Orleans with music). I think we learned a lot about ourselves and about the state of our church. We saw and experienced things that were life sustaining and life draining. We walked the streets together with 16,000 of our brothers and sisters in Christ...

Growing up in Ohio, I remember summers being so much fun! We had paid for the nice weather with winters full of snow and ice. Summer for me was baseball and bikes, ice cream and candy, grape Kool-Aid and bologna sandwiches with chips taking the place of lettuce to give that extra crunch…

Spring has sprung! Life has been renewed! Winter has passed us and together we move forward in the light of resurrection, love, and grace. Alleluia, Christ is risen, He is risen indeed, alleluia! The cycle of life begins again. Springtime planting will bring the autumn harvest. Life is fresh and new. God is providing for His children…click to read more

"Take my yoke upon you," Jesus declares, "and I will give your rest." Rest in the Grace, sisters and brothers. Walk with me to the Cross and together let us find the empty tomb of Easter…

In February we see the beginning of Lent. Once again, this year both Calvary and Christ we be participating in a round robin preaching series with area Lutheran churches. We pastors will rotate among the congregations. The difference this year is we will be celebrating Wednesday evenings by trying a new thing, Dinner Church.

As stewards in God's creation:

• We are called and BAPTIZED children of God. We know whose we are, and we know we are never alone.

• We have our identity in this family. We have purpose.

• We come together in WORSHIP where we gather, confess, sing, pray, and hear the Word.

• We share COMMUNION together as the body of Christ. With Christ within us and with all the saints who have gone before us, we become a special community bound by the love of God.

• We are COMMUNITY and we are SENT out into the world to share the love of Christ with others. We don't have to do it alone because we have each other. We share a special joy together as a sign of the Spirit and we pass it on in many different ways.

Dear Friends in Christ,

This month instead of writing to you I am going to write a letter to Jesus. I have attached it for your review…

Sunday mornings come early. Depending on the quality and length of sleep I receive, getting up on Sundays can be interesting. Sometimes a nudge from Sandy is necessary to get me up and going. The fog begins to clear in my mind and the day in front of me begins to come into focus…

The desert is stark and barren and plain and simple. There is no complexity in the desert. Life is teeming in the desert even though we Ohioans might not think that anything could live there...

On November 4, 1962, the Reverend Theodore Bunt, presided at the Sunday Service at St. Marks Lutheran church in East Toledo. It was a cold day by all reports. A large baby (only 3 months old) was baptized, and my life was changed forever. My parents and sponsors were there. My grandparents were there. Most importantly, Jesus was there as another broken human was claimed by God and washed in the waters of the Holy font. I do not remember that day…

The term “stewardship” evokes all kinds of responses in people. Many people think that when a congregation undergoes a stewardship program that the congregation is looking for members to increase their family’s offering to God. Financial response is a good component of stewardship. Disciples explore and discover new ways of understanding the world and, in this case, our individual relationship with Jesus.

Emmanuel God is with us. We remember and celebrate God’s coming to us this month. Christmas is a time of great joy and excitement. The promises of God are kept. The Messiah comes to heal the brokeness of the world. Everything is made new in Jesus. We are made new everyday through the gift of our baptism. Joined to the Baby of Bethlehem, we are commissioned by God to share the Good News that the old of of looking at the world has changed. The change comes in the greatest Christmas gift of all time, Jesus who is the Christ!

Joy is something that is hard to quantify sometimes…