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Holy Week at Faith

Dear saints of Faith,

Lenten greetings to you all! Here are the services that we will be having this Holy Week. Please consider attending as many as you can this week as we reflect together upon the Second Article of the Creed, about what God has done for your Redemption.

Peace in Christ,

– Pastor Laws

PS: Please note that this year we will be joining with St. Paul’s in Grants Pass for their Easter Vigil Service of the Readings.

PSS: Also note that I will have time set aside for Individual Confession & Absolution on the afternoons of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.

 

Palm Sunday (3/24): Bible Class 8:45 am, Divine Service 10 am

Maundy Thursday (3/28): [No Bible Class] Individual Confession & Absolution 2-4 pm, Divine Service 6 pm

Good Friday (3/29): Individual Confession & Absolution 2-4 pm, Tenebrae Vespers 6 pm

Easter Vigil (3/30): Service of the Readings, 6:30 pm at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Grants Pass (865 NW 5th St Grants Pass, OR 97526).

Easter Sunday (3/31): [No Bible Class] Divine Service 10 am

Services for Lent 2024

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

This Lent we will be diving into the Psalms for our midweek services. Specifically, the 7 Penitential Psalms. This season we will reflect on various themes in these Psalms, including sin, repentance, confession, the Law, faith, the Gospel, and especially Christ’s redemptive work to forgive your sins.

This season of Lent, we will be field-testing two midweeks, a 10 am and a 6 pm one for Ash Wednesday through Lent 5, for those who let me know they cannot drive at night. They will both be the same service/sermon. If these are well attended, I will consider doing this in future years.

Please join us at the following times:

February 14th: Ash Wednesday (Psalm 51), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, NO Soup Supper

February 21st: Lent 1 Midweek (Psalm 6), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, Soup Supper @ 5PM

February 28th: Lent 2 Midweek (Psalm 38), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, Soup Supper @ 5PM

March 6th: Lent 3 Midweek (Psalm 32), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, Soup Supper @ 5PM

March 13th: Lent 4 Midweek (Psalm 130), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, Soup Supper @ 5PM

Marth 20th: Lent 5 Midweek (Psalm 143), Services @ 10AM & 6PM, Soup Supper @ 5PM

March 28th @ 6PM: Holy Thursday Service

March 29th @ 6PM: Good Friday Service (Psalm 102)

March 30th: Easter Vigil Service of Readings @ St. Paul’s in Grants Pass *CHECK BACK LATER FOR THE TIME*

March 31st @ 10AM: Easter Sunday

The Lord bless and keep you all this Lenten season as we reflect upon our need for His redemptive work.

– Pastor Laws

Services for the Christmas Season and Epiphany

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, greetings!

As we prepare for the Twelve Days of Christmas (Dec 25th-Jan 5th), I wanted to share with you all our special services which will take place beyond our normal Sunday morning Divine Service:

– Christmas Eve service: 6 pm on Sunday, 12/24.
– Christmas Day Divine Service: 10 am on Monday, 12/25.
– Matins service for the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs: 10 am on Thursday, 12/28.

and to start the season of Epiphany, which runs from Jan 6th to Ash Wednesday:

– Vespers service for Epiphany: 6 pm on Saturday, 1/6/24.

I pray you will be able to attend some or all of these services and hear of the gifts which Christ brings to us in His Incarnation and Nativity!

Peace in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Pastor Laws

CTSFW Presidential Search

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

As a member congregation of the LCMS, we have certain responsibilities toward our wider Church body. One of those is to nominate presidential candidates for the seminaries when a president retires or is removed from office. The current president at Concordia Theological Seminary, the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Rast Jr., announced this fall that he would be retiring from the presidency at the end of this academic year. He began his service as CTSFW’s president in May 2011.

We here at Faith, as a congregation of the LCMS, are entitled to put forward the name of qualified pastor for the office of seminary president. The candidate must be an LCMS pastor with an earned doctorate in theology who is an exemplary pastor and churchman (see the “Call for Nominations” for a full list of the qualifications). The nominations must be in by December 31st, 2023. The nominations all come from congregations, the CTSFW regents, and CTSFW faculty members. The list of nominations is then the pool of candidates from which the leadership of the seminary and our Synod then choose to call a new president.

After speaking with the Council, I think it would be prudent for the following process to take place for our nomination. I invite any members to email or text suggestions to me, Dave (Council President), or Bryan (Council Secretary) before the next Council meeting on Dec 10th. The council will then make a decision on the candidate, which will then be affirmed at the Voter’s Assembly on Dec 17th. Our nomination will be sent off with the full approval of the congregation.

Click the link here for the Call for Nominations and for the Professor Biographies for my two suggestions for nominees. This list will be added to when and if we receive additional suggestions from our membership.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to send me an email or give me a call to clarify anything in this letter.

Peace in Christ,

Pastor Laws

 

For more information, check out the CTSFW webpage for the nomination process.

Monsters!

Are you scared of monsters? You should be! I don’t mean the monsters that come out of the closet or monsters that lurk in the dark. I’m talking about Monstrum incertitudinis which is Latin meaning “The Monster of Uncertainty” and it’s a phrase some of the old Latin theologians would sometimes use.

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A Sinner’s Guide to Confession of Sin

Anyone who has even a surface level knowledge about the medieval reformation knows about Luther’s posting of the 95 theses.  The 16th Century Roman Catholic Church was involved in many practices contrary to the Scriptures and many mark the nailing of the 95 theses on the church door in Wittenburg, Germany as the beginning of the Reformation.  Read more →

An Office for Sin–An Office for Forgiveness

One of the wonderful teachings that is unique to the Lutheran church is the teaching of vocation.  Usually when we hear the word “vocation” we think of a job or career.  We think of one’s “chosen vocation.”  But the word vocation comes from the Latin vocatio meaning “calling.”  The teaching of vocation refers to the various stations God has placed us in.  In addition to the job God has given you, He has placed you in many and various stations: father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, citizen, Christian, neighbor, church member, PTA member, city councilman, etc.  In addition to vocation and station, another word that describes this idea is “office.”  Certain things you do you do according to your office of father or your office of neighbor or office of Christian.  You really shouldn’t do anything which you don’t have the office for.  All the acts you do according to the office you’ve been given, you do in service to your neighbor.

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Rule Breaking, Excuse Making Humanity

At the beginning of the a brand new year, it is not uncommon for many people to set out for the new year with resolutions in hand wanting to create new good habits, get rid of bad habits or to simply better themselves in some way. Read more →

Peeling Away Callouses of the Heart

A few weeks ago in Sunday Morning Bible class, we were looking at Eph 4:18-19:

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

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