Faith Formation at Home In our two-year Confirmation curriculum, one year is focused on Luther’s Small Catechism (The Ten Commandments, The Apostles’ Creed, The Lord’s prayer, Confession, Holy Baptism, and Holy Communion).  The other year is focused on what it means to be a disciple of Christ in today’s world (Serving, Generosity, Loving our neighbor ..read more

Come, Holy Spirit… Every morning during breakfast I play a little game on my phone called Wordle.  It’s an online game where you have 6 chances to figure out a 5-letter word.  If you select a correct letter that’s in the right spot, the letter turns green, if you select a correct letter in the wrong spot, it turns yellow.  Some days I get it in 3 or 4 tries and other days it takes 5 or 6 attempts.  On occasion, I don’t guess the correct word at all.  But here’s what makes it fun:  I play with my son Jake who lives in Charlottesville.  It’s a neat way to conne ..read more

Those shiny headstones! If you’ve been by Salem lately, I’m sure you’ve noticed a change in a portion of the cemetery.  Recently, the Cemetery Committee contracted a company to clean the headstones in one of our older sections.  This section is right beside the road as you enter the church facility.  Unless you’re REALLY not paying attention, you can’t miss it.  I notice it every day as I pull into my parking spot, because those headstones that used to be much darker, those headstones that were sometimes hard to read, are now sparkling white and shine like the sun. It remin ..read more

Lent and the kingdom of heaven In looking at the upcoming readings during the Sundays of Lent, it strikes me that we’re going to be talking a lot about the “kingdom of heaven”.  Matthew uses the phrase kingdom of heaven thirty-two times, and is the only gospel writer who uses it at all. The other three use “the kingdom of God.” It is probable that Matthew used kingdom of heaven because it was more understandable to his primarily Jewish readers. Jews would not speak God’s name (Yahweh, or Jehovah), and would often substitute heaven when referring to God. Many ..read more

Faithful stewards During the month of June, our sermon time in worship will be a bit different.  We will be going through a series called “Living an Abundant Life”.  The purpose of this series is to invite and encourage us to remember that being a faithful steward in God’s Kingdom involves more than just money, but our entire selves.  One of my favorite authors is Mark Allan Powell who writes, “Stewardship means giving 100 percent to God”.  Notice he doesn’t say 10 percent, because Dr. Powell is not simply speaking about money, but our entire lives as disciples of Jesus.&nb ..read more

Our projected voice It happens all the time.  You’re in church, or a conference, or a large meeting and someone stands up to speak.  The person is offered a microphone, but refuses saying, “I don’t need that, I’m loud enough.”  Loud they may be, but more times than not, someone will be excluded from hearing. Here at Salem, we record our worship services and put them on YouTube for those who cannot be with us in-person.  Everything is recorded through the microphone, so not using it prohibits anyone online form participating.  For those who are hard of hearing in our sa ..read more

Holy Week This year, Holy Week begins on April 2nd with Palm Sunday.  We’ll begin worship that day by waving palm branches from the steps of the church and then into the sanctuary.  It marks the beginning of Holy Week and all that unfolds in the story of the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.  After Palm Sunday, the next time we’ll gather as a worshipping community will be on Maundy Thursday.  A potluck meal will begin at 6:15 pm with worship following in the Imagine Center.  At the conclusion of worship, we will move into the sanctuary for the stripping of ..read more

Sore Toes Luke 12: 13-21 tells the parable of a farmer who is blessed with an abundant crop, it’s such an abundant harvest that he decides to tear down his old barns and build bigger ones.  By doing this, he can sit back, relax, drink, and be merry!  But then the parable continues as God calls the farmer a fool by storing up treasure for himself rather than being rich toward God. So is Jesus saying we shouldn’t save for a rainy day?  Is Jesus saying big barns and retirement plans are a bad thing?  Is he saying it’s a bad thing to make money or have a bumper year?  I do ..read more

Pull-ups Recently, as I was changing my grandson’s “Pull-Up” diaper, I was reminded of doing pull-ups when I was bit younger.  I remember practicing them for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.  I remember a screaming drill sergeant in the Air Force demanding that I do more.  I was pretty good at pull-ups back in the day, completing anywhere from 20-30 without stopping.  Later in life, pull-ups became more of a challenge.  I guess if those muscles aren’t exercised on a regular basis they tend to forget how it’s done.  A few years ago, I was at the gym and I n ..read more