Author Archives: Lynn Golen

Time.  The subject of time, and its passage, probably has more idioms relative to the subject than perhaps any other (with the exception of love).  “Time stands still”, “Time heals all wounds”, “Time is a thief”, etc.  The truth is that time, and its passage, is relatively constant.  The variable is our perception of time.  When we are experiencing something we enjoy, time seems to pass quickly; conversely, when we experience something we do not enjoy, time seems too slow.

But the fact is, time, as measured here on Earth, passes at the same rate–60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 365.25 days in a year.  Our relationship with time changes based on our circumstances.  Watching a child grow can give us the perception of time passing ever so quickly; suffering pain (physical or emotional) often seems to bring the passing of time to a halt.  When we are busy, “there’s not enough time in a day”, and when we are not busy or are bored, “time goes by so slowly”.  Sometimes we anticipate an event so much that time seems slow, and then when the event is over our hindsight tells us that time moved too quickly (my childhood Christmases come to mind!).

Whatever the case, time moves on.  With or without us, the clock keeps ticking.  I believe that our amount of time is not as important as what we do with our time.  Obviously, there are certain things we must do with our time–work, eat, hygiene practices, etc.  We all need to have time to relax and reflect, but we also need to make time for fellowship, worship, and being with our Lord.  Not just on Sunday mornings but finding time in our busy schedules to spend time in prayer and reflection with God.  Scripture tells us that our Savior will return someday and that we must be ready when that occurs.  In preparation for Jesus’ return, let us spend time reading scripture, learning more about our Lord, reflecting on our relationship with Christ, and identifying and removing any barriers that might exist.

April is here, and Easter is approaching fast.  Let us look into ourselves and our relationship with the Christ so that we are better prepared to greet His coming.  Afterall, “There’s no time like the present!”

I wish you all many blessings from our Lord this Easter and thereafter.

Well our Ash Wednesday service went very well and attendance was great and that led us to our Wednesday Lenten Soup Suppers and Evening Service for five weeks.  Our first two suppers were also well attended with inspirational messages from Pastor Gerry.  I am hoping the rest of our Soup Suppers and Evening Services will continue to be well attended.  These are the functions that keep our church together and we become stronger in our beliefs and love of God and these functions make us a stronger Living Lord Lutheran Church.  Our weekly church service, our Adult Forum, our Sunday School (when we have children in the building), all the causes that we ask you to support, are all part of Living Lord Lutheran Church.  These are the things that make our church stable and we can continue to do God’s work.  We are now working on some new Fellowship ideas to have here at the church.  We are thinking of Bingo parties and game nights or afternoons and maybe a Chili cook-off.  These will be causal with snacks and beverages and allow more fellowship between our members and possibly other area churches.

At times I feel that we get bogged down by silliness, which means nothing or at the most very little.  And that  is not our goal as a church.  Our purpose is to spread the word of God, help in our communities when we can, have a vibrant and healthy atmosphere in which to worship, and to support our church.

Look, as Council President, I am doing my part the best I can.  We realize that the future of our church is to attract new members.  We are doing our best to make our church as attractive as possible to potential new members.  But I need you all to help me keep us heading in the right direction, to support the church.  I am not saying financially–you are doing that–just please also support the church through its functions.  That makes us stronger as a church.

I would like to take a minute to comment on our pastor.  He is doing a great job learning our liturgy for our Sunday services.  He and his wife, Marian, have settled right in to our congregation.  They are active in most all of our functions here at the church.  Pastor has not said no to anything I have asked of him.  And remember, he is also the pastor to another congregation and that he is a part-time pastor.  I think sometimes he has gone beyond part-time.  So hats off to our pastor!

Let me finish by telling you a little story about Karin and I joining Living Lord.  At the time, we were looking for a new church.  Karin’s best friend was a member here.  She suggested that we consider Living Lord.  Well, an appointment was made for Pastor Williams to come visit us.  I was a little nervous about the meeting because I did not know what to expect.  I was not sure if we were going to hear fire and brimstone and we needed to get to church or we were going to hell!   Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but when the pastor came, Karin and I were so taken by him that we ended up joining Living Lord.  That was 42+ years ago and Karin and I still love this church and the members are part of our family.  We both feel we want to see this church continue on as long as possible.

Church Information…Please remember that you can obtain church information from the monthly Lamplighter Newsletter, the Constant Contact emails you receive, on the church website (www.lllc.org), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Living-Lord-Lutheran-Church-493806727349110/), and postings on the church bulletin board.  Church Council Meeting minutes are posted on the bulletin board and sent out via Constant Contact.  We would like to see a better “open rate” when we send information to you via Constant Contact so that we know you are being informed of the activities that are occurring at the church.  If you have any other suggestions on how best to reach out to our parishioners, please see a Council member.

Sincere thanks to our members for the generous donations of T-shirts and socks to the Howland Local Schools’ Paw Pantry in March.  Your generous gifts of these two clothing items will be greatly appreciated by students in need in K-12 grades in our schools.  We will be collecting toiletries for the Paw Pantry in June and July 2025.  A list of requested needed items will be posted on the bulletin board in the narthex after Easter 2025.  Again, many thanks and have a blessed Easter!

As we welcome in Spring, we enjoy the longer daylight hours and God’s warm sunshine.  Our Soup Suppers have been a wonderful get-together on Wednesday evenings.  Good soup and great fellowship are a winning combination.  Pastor Gammon has provided us with a mid-week message for Lent as we prepare for Holy Week.  Thank you!  We have started planning our June Flea Market and Bake Sale.  The Bake Sale was a success last year and I hope for a repeat.  More info coming soon.

Fellowship Sunday…Please plan on joining us on April 13, Palm Sunday, for our monthly Fellowship gathering.  We are planning a breakfast menu following our service with cinnamon rolls, breakfast foods, and good conversation.

We will be offering Easter Food Baskets.  The board with donation lists will be in the narthex.  The last day to bring in food donations is Sunday, April 6.  Food Basket pick-up will be on Palm Sunday, April 13, after the worship service.  If you wish to reserve a basket, please contact Pam Boothe.  Thank you in advance!  God bless.

Here it is March already!  And with it we will begin the Lenten season.  March 5 is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.  Each of the following Wednesdays until Holy Week we will share in our Soup Suppers, read and reflect on scripture, and enjoy fellowship all in our Fellowship Hall.  Last year we experienced good attendance at these gatherings, and it is my hope that we will do even better this year!  Lent is a wonderful time to work on improving our relationship with the Lord.  We can use this 40-day season to really dig deep into ourselves and identify things that might be obstacles in our relationship with the Lord.  We can read more scripture, we can spend more time in prayer, we can give more of ourselves and our resources to those in need, we can abstain from things that take time away from spending time with our Lord and really focus on Jesus.

The purpose of Lent is really to prepare ourselves for the Risen Christ.  If you knew that Jesus was coming back in the next few days, what would your priorities be?  What are the things that you would want to better or get in order before His arrival?  These are the things we can use this wonderful season working on.  And who knows, they might just become habit forming!  Maybe we will discover new ways to always be ready for the Lord’s return!  Just maybe we will be better equipped to face judgement day!  And how wonderful would it be if we were able to help others do the same?

I wish you all a very blessed March.  I pray that you all will use these first few days of Lent to find ways to bring yourselves closer to God and experience the love He has for you always.  May His grace bring you peace, now and always,

Pastor Gerry

PS:  I want to thank all our returning service leaders in our Church Council.  I also want to extend my gratitude to all those who have served previously and have decided to rest for a while.  I also encourage all our members to support those who are working so hard to keep our church viable and try to increase our numbers.  If you have interest or ideas, please feel free to approach Council members or myself.

Well hello members of Living Lord Lutheran Church!  Here I am again, your Council President.  I will be happy to stay on as President until you are sick of me!  Let me say how appreciative I am for your support last year with all the housekeeping items we took care of dealing with the leaving of the ELCA.  Believe it or not, we are still finding references to the ELCA in some of our documents and we will take care of those as the year goes on.  We will be working on a few funds to amend the requirements of the fund.  The first will be the Maggiano Scholarship Fund.  We would like to get back to awarding scholarships and we cannot do that as it is now written.  We have two Council members who volunteered to work on that Committee and we are looking for a Chairperson.  Our second fund is the Fuchs Fund.  We are looking at ways to use that fund to pay certain general fund expenditures which would free up that money for other areas of the general fund.  I realize that the Fuchs Fund seems to be a sacred cow here at Living Lord, but what we would be suggesting should not be too controversial.  We will keep you informed about both of these items.  The Property Committee is working on the projects they would like to see done this year going through the Fuchs Fund.  We will be getting estimates and making final decisions on which projects to proceed with as the weather changes going into spring.  These will then be presented to Council for approval and then to the Fuchs Fund for their approval.  Stay tuned.  Well, that’s the start for 2025 and as other things come up we will let you know.

Church Information…Please remember that you can obtain church information from the monthly Lamplighter Newsletter, the Constant Contact emails you receive, on the church website (www.lllc.org), on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Living-Lord-Lutheran-Church-493806727349110/), and postings on the church bulletin board.  Church Council Meeting minutes are posted on the bulletin board and sent out via Constant Contact.  We would like to see a better “open rate” when we send information to you via Constant Contact so that we know you are being informed of the activities that are occurring at the church.  If you have any other suggestions on how best to reach out to our parishioners, please see a Council member.

Our congregation is being asked by the Evangelism/Membership Committee to collect in March all sizes of socks and all sizes and colors of T-shirts.  These are for the students in need at all Howland Local Schools through their Paw Pantry.  The Paw Pantry provides clothing, food, hygiene products, and school supplies for those students in need.  Teachers for all the schools in the district submit referral forms for items needed and requested.  We at Living Lord Lutheran Church will collect socks and T-shirts for students in need in grades K-12 in all colors and sizes to help fill the requests.  Let’s fill the collection basket in the narthex for the entire month of March.  Go Tigers!

Please join us every Wednesday night during Lent (starting March 12, ending April 9) at 5:00 pm for our Soup Supper meal followed by a lesson from Pastor Gammon.  This is a good Fellowship opportunity as we prepare for Easter week.  There will not be a Fellowship Sunday in March with our Wednesday gatherings.  April Fellowship falls on Easter Sunday (April 20) this year.  I am still working on that.  More info to come.  I don’t know about you, but I am ready for Spring and warm days!

We will be offering Easter Food Baskets.  The board with donation lists will be in the narthex.  The last day to bring in food donations is Sunday, April 6.  Food Basket pick-up will be on Palm Sunday, April 13, after the worship service.  If you wish to reserve a basket, please contact Pam Boothe.  Thank you in advance!  God bless.