Pray for Benjamin

Vicar Benjamin Prill tested positive for COVID 19 on Monday of this week.  While all of the LSIM pastors and I have maintained physical distancing and wearing masks during our bible studies, it was felt to be more prudent to cancel worship this Sunday.  Both Arise in Christ and Abiding Christ have also cancelled services.  All of us are also undergoing COVID testing as a precaution.  Our church is being sanitized after our services and before services.  We all have maintained physical distancing in worship.  The Vicar has not been with us since the June 7th service so we are 14 days out as a congregation.  Our goal as church leaders is to minimize risk to parishioners in all ways possible.  To that aim, we will postpone the congregational meeting to June 28th following service.  Please avail yourselves of the LSIM worship service Sunday morning.  I will keep you informed as information comes up.  Please pray for Vicar Benjamin and his wife and our communities and country as well as all Fathers this Sunday.

Max Lucado in Grace for the Moment, shares a verse from John 12:24.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and die, it remains a single grain of wheat; but if it dies, it brings a good harvest.

He writes that we do all we can to live and not die. God, however, says we must die in order to live. When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can grow. What we see as ultimate tragedy, he sees as the ultimate triumph.

We are facing the closure of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, a presence for over 175 years. Is this church dying? Yes it is. Is it a failure in its life, no. Many have worshiped, been baptized, been married, been ordained, and been blessed by its presence. John’s writing holds much for us. The seed has been planted by our ancestors, has grown, ripened, and now spreads seed once again in another life. It is ready to blossom into a new calling to Christ. The soul of St Mark’s will not die, but live again in another way. We hope blessed by God and filled with the Holy Spirit for mission to the community of Fairborn. It is not over, but it IS God making something new again.

Please join us for our last regular worship service on June 28th with guest pastor, Carl Fischer. The final closing worship will be sometime this summer, so stay tuned.

Blessings this week. Deacon Nancy Trimble