Welcome

Welcome to the blog of Living Word Lutheran Church, mostly written by Pastor Lori Ruge-Jones (that’s me).

It’s an interesting thing to have the name “church”, because some people run TO it and some run AWAY. I’ve always been fascinated by those who run away, being wired to run to, myself—how far, for how long, and why the connection with a community of faith is severed.

So part of my hope in leading a community of faith is to make sure there are enough spaces for all kinds of people—intellectual spaces, personal spaces, physical and geographic spaces, spiritual spaces. That means a chair in the worship space as well as a place at God’s table. That means we don’t agree on everything, but we are willing to walk this part of the journey together. That means we are willing to suspend our fears and prejudices to make room for the Holy Spirit to move among and through us. It’s kind of messy work, when you try to avoid “we’ve always done it this way”, but it’s a lot of fun, and God continues to amaze and surprise us, as promised.

Confession: I’m not very disciplined when it comes to things like newsletters and blogs, so my entries may be sporadic. I’ll try. The media guy told me twice a month is good for a blog, so if I can keep to that, I’ll be doing well. Then again, I may be prolific and bother the cyberwaves more often than needed.

And I always like to pray.
Gracious and amazing God, bless us along this journey, that we may be faithful: to be kind to friends and strangers; to be brave enough to look where you want us to see, inward and outward; to discover what it means to live as a child of God with others, together the body of Christ. You are our God (thanks!) and we are yours (are you sure?!?). In this holy relationship we live and move and have our being. Amen.

Peace upon you++