Lenten Reflection - Day 5: by Frank Raike

READING: Psalm 25: 1-10

Sweetwater Creek flows behind our Longwood home. The stream flows from Lake Brantley; pass our property, and on to the Wekiva River.
The creek and wooded area behind our house is one of the attractions we love about our home because it provides us with privacy and serves as a habitat for birds, deer, and bears. It has also become a natural playground for our children.
Our son and daughter’s imagination, with the aid of several neighborhood friends, has created a sort of “Huckleberry Fin” world along the stream with paths and forts. A fallen tree becomes a bridge secret world. Scrap lumber is found, my garage workshop is raided for tools and hardware, and architectural wonders are created that incorporate the collected lumber with limbs, branches, and palm frowns. Housekeeping is set up and territorial battles are fought with Nerf guns and water pistols. The daytimes replace the nightly owl hoots with laughter, yelling, and much fun along the stream in the woods.
In Psalm 25, we seek the Lord. In our youth, imagination may have given us much fun, but by ourselves and our own resourcefulness of what we have at hand, it does not give what we need to live by the stream of Life. The flow of the stream takes us to bigger adventures and joins us with other streams moving to the River. Only with God’s guidance, can we be learn the right way to live, be humble, and flow in the Lord's stream.

Lenten Reflection - Day 4 by: Lou Shives

READING: Genesis 9:8-17

The scripture reading describes God’s eternal covenant with Noah and his sons stating that He would never send another flood to kill all living creatures or destroy the earth. Such a covenant promotes a secure belief and a living, bold trust in God’s grace (Luther’s description of faith). Do you live a life of faith? Has your faith ever been tested? Mine was over the past two years when two of my adult daughters (one in VA and one in FL) were quite ill at the same time, precipitating a true family crisis. Various factors can influence one’s ability to resolve such a crisis including the presence of adequate support. God’s presence, my main support, was obvious from the beginning as excellent medical care was given to both of my daughters. Lorrie’s recovery from a coma that involved total body organ failure and amputations was called a miracle by numerous doctors. Debbie’s multiple medical/surgical conditions are now being monitored by an excellent specialist. My family and I believe that God continues to be the Chief of Staff in both of their situations, that He is actively directing their plan of care, and that He continues to answer our prayers and those of our prayer partners at St. Stephen. We believe that we are firmly in God’s hands and that no matter what happens, nothing will shake us from them.

Dear Father: Thank you for hope that makes faith possible and faith to believe in the kind of love that works miracles. Amen

Leten Reflection Day 3: by Susan Wollner

READING: Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21


In Chapter six of Matthew, Jesus teaches some very basic principals in life including forgiveness, helping the needy, fasting, sharing God’s gifts and prayer. As I reflect on my relationship with our Lord I remember back to my youth. I was blessed to be raised in a Christian family having been baptized as an infant and confirmed as a youth but, my faith became real through prayer. We had a wonderful women lead the church youth in a weekly prayer meeting. She was an inspiration to us all in the joy she shared reminding me of Christ’s words to put oil on your head and wash your face as you fast. She smiled as she taught us about fasting and prayer. Through her actions she showed us how to give and where the real treasures in life are. Her love of Christ was a living example of the true Christian life. Throughout the years her openness to the Holy Spirit and acceptance of our prayer at every level has helped me to realize the power of prayer and the joy of the Holy Spirit.
As we observe Lent, I remember back to a special Easter when I was sixteen and staying with a family in Italy. Language was a barrier but they welcomed me in their home. Easter celebration included a chocolate egg with jewelry inside for the wife and all the trimmings but no religious celebration. A silent prayer was answered when a teenage friend of the family offered to take me to church with her. Years later I don’t remember the service but I do remember the joy of worshiping together on Easter.
I give thanks that the youth of Solid Rock have such a wonderful understanding of God’s love and pray that each of us will take time during Lent to offer our praise to God in prayer.

Lenten Reflection - Day 2: by Evelyn Nasworthy

READING: Psalm 51: 1-17

Many of you know that I am a school teacher and have been educating elementary aged kids for about 30 years. About 10 years ago, I was having a particularly difficult year with one of my students. He was able to turn things upside down in the room by just walking into it. I lived for the days he would be absent…..of course “that kind” never is. A few months into the school year, our daughter, Katie, and I were in a Christian book store. Katie called me over to show me a cute key ring with a frog on it. It wasn’t anything special, and it weighed a lot. Couldn’t imagine carrying extra weight in my purse! But then I turned it over to look at the back. There blazing back at me were four words: Fully Rely On God; F-R-O-G.......of course! That was how I was going to make it through the year. I bought that key ring and began purchasing other frog things…stuffed animals, ceramic statues, posters…and placed them in my room. I even considered one for a class pet, but decided better of that. It made me realize that I wasn’t in this educational job alone. What was I thinking? God was always there with me. Why wasn’t I listening? Many early mornings before students arrived, I would pray placing my hands on the student’s desk. I would ask God to help me understand this child and better help to serve his needs. I can’t honestly say that THE CHILD in particular changed a great deal, but I did. And so did some of the other students. I have MANY frogs in my room and they have even spilled in to my house. Frogs are cool! Why not get one, too? Thanks, God, for allowing me to find YOU in a frog.
Blessings to you,
Evelyn Nasworthy

Lenten Reflection - Day 1:by Margene Wampole

READING: 1 Corinthians 5: 20b- 6:10

Lent is a time of renewal. Of letting go the negatives in our life and taking time to reflect. My parents had a strong faith in God the Creator, Jesus the love of God made flesh, the Holy Spirit the breath of God within us. They passed on their beliefs in the lives they led. But each one of us makes our own personal relationship with God or not. I am a questioner with a love of learning and I sought to discover what I really believed. My moment came when I realized God Loves Me knowing full well my weaknesses, that His love is not earned or deserved and has no strings attached. I asked that He never let me stray too far away on my own controlling path but to guide my choices and redirect me to love others as He loves us.

It was possible to give my love to our children without demanding it be deserved or earned. We can accept children as they are while we do our best to guide them in ways that will make their life better and teach them the reasons for living with others harmoniously. No matter their weaknesses we love them and try to help them find better choices. As they grow we give them more responsibility to learn cause and effect. We make sure they know we always love them even if we do not like their behavior. Could it be a little like God does in dealing with us?

Lent is a time of letting go our judgments, our jealousies, controlling possessiveness and angers toward others. A time to turn outward instead of holding tightly to our hurts and disappointments. Time to release love to spread and multiply.

Lord God let me give my love to others as you have given your love to me. Help me appreciate and respect others, giving more than I receive. Pour your grace on me and guide my choices for I want to learn to trust in you. I ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus, who willingly died on the cross in complete trust in you. Amen.

"BUILDING" Households of Faith

This is the article I wrote for the Congregation's January sounds article...talking about the vision for a new building on our campus and why it's timely and needful. As we've been doing all of the other upgrades around us, replacing rotten wood, and caulking the whole campus to keep the Florida moisture out of our buildings, the reality of the need for new discipleship spaces had become increasingly apparent. The Learning Center in particular, our old sanctuary is in radically declining shape. We will need to act soon. So read what's below, take a look at an artist's rendering of a proposed "Family Life Center" both attached in this article and on the easel in the entryway to the sanctuary, and begin to pray that the resources and vision might come together in our congregation to make this happen. Grace and peace to you all in the name of Jesus, the Lord of the EMPTY tomb! --PN

As many of you know, I’ve spent this fall having in-home “Going Deeper Conversations” with our church family. It’s typical to do something like this early in the tenure of a new pastor’s time in a congregation.
From my standpoint, the conversations have been rich and fun, filled with excitement for being the church together in what is a dynamic, life-giving and growing new chapter for our church in mission. Consistent themes that I heard from you regarding who we are and where we’re going include:

1. This is a community of deep love. Even through times of conflict, the sense of being a family where there’s always room for more at the table is incredibly strong.

2. We’ve raised our children in faith in this community for almost two generations now. And there’s excitement as new families join our life together that this calling and this gift of the past will be a gift going forward.

3. We have historically been a church committed to community engagement, and to living our missional calling as Jesus’ people in the world. We’ve been known for our engagement in the past…and there’s a strong desire for us to reclaim this piece of our identity going forward so that when people outside of our community think of St. Stephen, they think of passionate service to Jesus.

4. There’s strong excitement about the numbers of children in our worship, younger families among us, and that we as the church are growing again. In fact, our average weekly worship attendance has grown by about 20% over the last 10 months. Our visitor traffic is high…and people enjoy the preaching, the worship, and the energy in our praise of God. I get constant feedback from visitors that we’re hospitable to their children and that they feel welcome among us.

It’s great to be in a position of growth again, with the possibility of doing vital and expanding mission. For me as your pastor, being part of this rare phenomenon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America - a growing church - is like a narcotic. I’m having absolute fun.
But, part of the dynamic of growth is getting our heads out of the mentality of always losing ground as a church… and instead meeting Jesus where he is, ahead of the curve, growing and multiplying ministry.

When I arrived, I heard about building conversations the church had been having regarding a new multipurpose building on our four acres of land adjacent to the administrative building. I decided to do some explorations of my own with the help of some council leadership, assessing possibilities on our current campus. My belief is that our land, even in times like these, is an ongoing asset for us even though we owe some money on it. However, the design concepts proposed for it are probably way outside of our financial means for another 5-7 years.
However, our Learning Center (the first sanctuary), the music room (our old Fellowship Hall), and the nursery are all buildings in disrepair with limited utility. We are at capacity in our Sunday school spaces (which is actually good news), but not when you consider our anticipated growth. The Learning Center does not meet state code (by a long shot) to allow us to operate a preschool which limits us in meeting an ongoing need in our community for excellent childcare and education.

So with the knowledge of council, I did some exploratory research on easements and impacts of a “Family Life Center” or “Discipleship Training Center” on the footprint represented by those three buildings. All together they represent about 6000 square feet of space. We had two different architects draw up different visions for facility space that will expand our classroom/discipleship space capacity for ALL ages, allow for a nursery/preschool, give us new youth spaces for both junior and senior high ministries, as well as a Soul Café for community gathering and smaller special events. The two-story facility would be around 12,500 square feet.

As a church, our singular purpose is Creating Disciples of the Risen Jesus. This is the Great Commission given to us by Jesus in Matthew 28, and the marching orders we take into the world. We are called to bless it with a relationship with God and life lived in the reality of God’s kingdom where healing, restoration, and the real love of God are alive daily in the lives of all God’s people. As we seek to engage this mission more purposefully, it’s time to have conversations about how our physical plant supports (or doesn’t) this mission in the community. Also, there’s no better advertising (aside from you all inviting people into our lives together) than “turning dirt” to let the community know that there is life here, and that God is up to something in our midst.

I know the economic realities around us aren’t strong. This is probably to our advantage right now. Contractors and builders will be looking for work and as a community, anything we decide to do will be literally “economic stimulus.” So it’s time to take this conversation into the larger community. Nothing has been decided, of course, but I want you all to know the sorts of exploratory conversations we’re having about building to support our growth and our mission in this community.

We live in exciting times, and though our world is rough right now, Jesus’ tomb is still empty. It is certainly empty at St. Stephen. Pray with me that we will discern well as a church how to lead with hope in this community, and build with integrity for the mission God is calling us to!

God loves you, and I do too!

Pastor Nathan