Middle School Retreat - PHOTOS!

Our middle school confirmation class had a retreat in the middle of October. You can check out some additional of the pictures from the event at the Lutheran Youth in Service blog.

MSU Lutheran Campus Ministry Update

Tim Spring, our campus pastor at MSU, sends occasional updates to students and those of us on the LSF (Lutheran Student Foundation) Board. Students are the target audience, of course, but since campus ministry is OUR ministry, I thought you might like an update on some of the latest from the Christus Collegium. Here's the latest update.

Also there is at least one MSU student who regularly participates in worship here at CtK who won't be able to go home for Thanksgiving due to his work schedule. Anybody planning an early Thanksgiving feast (he has to be at work at 4pm Thanksgiving Day) and willing to set an extra place and extend some Christian hospitality to a brother in Christ? Let me know!

Enjoy the snow today, and please remember to pray for all those who have to be out on the roads, especially those whose job it is to help us all stay safe.

Hate Free BoZone March & Rally

In response to recent white-supremacist activity by "The Creativity Movement" that has targeted the university community, local schools, and people of color, Bozeman United, a nonpartisan coalition of concerned citizens and organizations, will hold a march and rally THIS SUNDAY, November 1st. YOU ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE RALLY!!
Participants should assemble at 2:00pm at the corner of 8th and Cleveland (MSU campus) and will then march down 8th to Main Street for a rally at Willson School. You might consider parking downtown and then walking up to campus for the beginning of the rally.
Feel free to make signs or posters using the artwork above (designed by Brickhouse Creative - David Thompson, Abby McMillen, and Jessica Burch). And get the word out!

This is a great opportunity for those of us who follow Jesus to witness to the creation of ALL people in God's image.

Reformation Sunday

Reformation Day is always October 31st (the day Luther nailed the 95 theses to the castle church door in Wittenberg in 1517). We CELEBRATE Reformation Sunday on the last Sunday of October every year, which is THIS Sunday, October 25th.
Remember to wear red to worship as we celebrate not only the beginning of the Reformation almost 500 years ago, but also the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in the church today.

A thought for you, from volume 26 of Luther's Works:
Let us thank God, therefore, that we have been delivered from this monster of uncertainty and that now we can believe for a certainty that the Holy Spirit is crying and issuing that sigh too deep for words in our hearts. And this is our foundation: The Gospel commands us to look, not at our own good deeds or perfection, but at God himself as he promises, and at Christ himself the Mediator. [God] says: 'I am giving my own Son into death, so that by his blood he might redeem you from sin and death.' 'Here I cannot have any doubts unless I want to deny God altogether. And this is why our theology is certain: It snatches us away from ourselves ... so that we do not depend on our own strength, conscience, experience, person or works but depend ... on the promise and truth of God, which cannot deceive.'

Photos from the 2009 Cardboard Box City

First, it was COLD! I am very thankful to have a warm, dry and comfortable place to sleep each night.

Second, THANKS - to everyone who donated money to Family Promise and to the folks who came down to check out the Parade of Boxes. It was nice to see so many folks there.

Third, THANKS - to Susie Siemsen, who remembered her camera and took a bunch of fantastic pictures. Here's a sampling:

Sleeping in a Box

Tonight is the 3rd Annual Cardboard Box City to raise funds for Family Promise of Gallatin Valley. While it's too late to register and sleep in your own box in Bogert Park, it's not too late to do something about homelessness right here close to home.

Come and check out the Parade of Boxes from 7:00-8:00pm tonight at Bogert Park. Donate to Family Promise. Get trained as a Family Promise Volunteer (Paula Beehler, CtK's Family Promise Coordinator, will be at the Cardboard Box City and would LOVE to hear you want to volunteer). Learn about the causes of homelessness here in Bozeman and around the US and world. Pray for those who are homeless; and pray for those who serve them.

See you at the park!

WARNING!

*This blog may contain photos and language that some will find offensive.

The old hatred is in our midst again.

A news article in the September 29th edition of the Bozeman Daily Chroncile reports that White Supremist groups are once again on the rise here in Montana.

Racist literature is being distributed through out Bozeman. Some pamphlets are being left at the library and at area businesses.

Lies are being told about our current president, fueled by fear and rage over the current economic situtation.

I take offense at the young man featured in the photograph for this blog. The language on his shirt causes my stomach to heave and my face to burn red.

Whatever side you fall on politically (and our political environment is becoming increasingly polarized) this act of "free speech" is really an act of hate speech.

Children learn to hate from their parents, and from the adults around them.

I commend you to make a commitment not to speak words of hate.

In our order for baptism there is a section of the service where we ask baptism candidates or their parents and sponsors these words "Do you renounce the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises?"

We hope candidates, parents, and sponsors cry out "We do!"

When someone is attacked, whether its our president Barak Obama, or any other person of color, we all are demeaned, belittled, and made less than fully human.

A wise old Christian taught me when "you speak words of hate you are speaking against what God has created and has made in God's image."

When a Jewish synagogue was vandalized in 1994 in Eugene, OR I stood with 100 of my fellow citizens in solidarity with that community of faith. Collectively, we renounced racial hatred in our midst.

Let us once again, renounce the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises.

And let's speak of God's love for a broken world.