Holy Trinity Lutheran Church - Ankeny, IA

  • Home
    • Church Calendar
    • Mission Partners
    • Council
    • Staff
    • Governing Documents
    • Building Use
    • Employment
    • Mobile App
    • Realm Tips
  • Worship
    • Worship
    • Welcome Card
    • Devotions
    • Music Ministries >
      • Adult Choir Schedule & Resources
    • Baptism
    • Weddings
    • Prayer Requests
    • Flowers
    • Serve
  • Learn
    • Children's Ministry
    • Middle School Ministry
    • High School Ministry
    • Adult Learning
    • Grace Notes
  • GIVE
    • Give
    • Capital Campaign
    • Memorials
  • Participate
    • Sign Up
    • Small Groups
    • Calendar
    • Email News
  • WELCOME
    • Welcome
    • I want to Join
    • Our Mission
    • How We Worship
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Food Pantry
  • Home
    • Church Calendar
    • Mission Partners
    • Council
    • Staff
    • Governing Documents
    • Building Use
    • Employment
    • Mobile App
    • Realm Tips
  • Worship
    • Worship
    • Welcome Card
    • Devotions
    • Music Ministries >
      • Adult Choir Schedule & Resources
    • Baptism
    • Weddings
    • Prayer Requests
    • Flowers
    • Serve
  • Learn
    • Children's Ministry
    • Middle School Ministry
    • High School Ministry
    • Adult Learning
    • Grace Notes
  • GIVE
    • Give
    • Capital Campaign
    • Memorials
  • Participate
    • Sign Up
    • Small Groups
    • Calendar
    • Email News
  • WELCOME
    • Welcome
    • I want to Join
    • Our Mission
    • How We Worship
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Food Pantry

bless the journey

4/14/2022

0 Comments

 
Lillian Daniel and Martin Copenhauer authored a book several years ago entitled This Odd and Wondrous Calling: The Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers. I think of this book as I reflect on my years in ministry. Ordained ministry is a wonderous calling. Over the past 30 years I have served in a variety of churches and as a hospice chaplain. There were joys and challenges throughout the journey. Each congregation and setting had its own personality. All have been on a journey to be faithful to their mission. I am blessed to have walked along with them.
I am privileged to have served as your Pastor for Care & Community. As I reflect on my years walking along side each of you, three ways that you imitate Jesus are truly clear to me. You are a congregation that serves the Lord. There are many ministries that require the work of the people, lots of people, in order to happen. Family Promise, FreeStore, the Food Pantry, Love Lunch, just to name a few. Without the support of people in this congregation, those ministries of love could not happen. The love you share outside the walls of this building tells the world that the Church is about love. Love of God and love of our neighbors. This is an important message in a world where love is at a premium. 

Love is lived in this community. Pastor Tim led the congregation in identifying values and beliefs early in my years at Holy Trinity. I have seen the church move intentionally into living those values and beliefs as we relate to one another and the world in which we live. Love is seen as individuals offer support to someone facing challenges in life. Love is extended to those who are guests in worship to help them know they are welcome, loved, and then included. Love is put into action as you live the Holy Trinity Welcome Statement, intentionally welcoming all people who are just as broken as we are. “You are Loved” and you are welcome here is a profound message. It is sad that it is profound in the Christian community because it is the message of Jesus and the message throughout scripture. You boldly proclaim it and live it! 

You are grace filled.  We all fall short. We are all imperfect. I sure know that I am! I have appreciated your grace in my own failings and your love in unexpected times. I see you offer grace to each other. You dispense grace to the world in your generosity and compassion. You, Holy Trinity, continue to grow increasingly of who you are as a representative of God’s love, grace, and peace for the world. Thank you, Holy Trinity, for who you are and for your love! You are a blessing. 

God is at work, ever shaping and molding this community to be an expression of life in Christ. I am blessed to have served in your midst. It is the cross of Jesus that brought us together on our journey. The cross upon which Love suffered. Love who became incarnate and lived among us, doing what humans do, experiencing what humans experience, yet remaining focused on his goal and purpose of giving life through his self-emptying on the cross. Except for Jesus’ resurrection, there has never been a love so profound. As we move toward celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, we first remember his journey to the cross, his suffering and death. 

As I leave your community as your Pastor for Care & Community, I am confident that we remain connected though Jesus and the cross. We will continue our journeys in faith, together in the one great body of Christ, yet physically apart. We will be serving the same Lord and Savior. The words to the hymn, “Bless Now, O God, the Journey,” speak of the journey. Blessings on your journey! 

Bless now O God, the journey that all your people make, 
The path through noise and silence, the way of give and take. 
The trail is found in desert and winds the mountain round, 
Then leads beside still waters, the road where faith is found. 

Bless sojourners and pilgrims who share the winding way; 
your hope burns through the terrors, your love sustains the day. 
We yearn for holy freedom while often we are bound; 
Together we are seeking the road where faith is found. 
​
Divine eternal lover, you meet us on the road. 
We wait for lands of promise where milk and honey flow, 
but waiting not for places, you meet us all around. 
Our covenant is written on roads, as faith is found. 

In Christ, 
Pastor Pam 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    ​Categories

    All
    Learning
    Outreach
    Spiritual Transformation
    Stewardship
    Worship

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019

    RSS Feed

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
A congregation of the Southeastern Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
517 SW Des Moines St.
Ankeny, IA 50023
Phone: 515-964-4348
Office hours: M-Th 9:00 am-3:00 pm

Worship Schedule:
Sundays at 8:30 and 10:00 am
Livestream on Sundays at 10:00 am on YouTube

Picture
Picture
Privacy Terms

Subscribe to News
Realm
download our app
Calendar