September 2020 Ministry Messenger

A message from Pastor

Here we are on the precipice of another school year and ministry year. It seems crazy that we are already here, and I am very aware of the reality that this school year is not starting in the way that any of us would have chosen or were hoping for. There are so many areas of our life that are not how we would have chosen or imagined. We are definitely living in some crazy times. Uncertainty abounds with COVID-19 and fires. Anxiety and fear over how this year is playing out loom large. Financial and emotional insecurities are very real and are just beginning to scratch the surface.

Yet God, in the midst of all of this, has called and chosen each and every one of us to be placed in this moment in this place to be his hands and feet doing ministry to people in need of love, grace, hope, and especially Jesus. While this task may be daunting, please know that every step of the way God is with you and empowering you. Not only is God with us, but we are all in this together as a ministry united together under Christ to accomplish His mission among us.

As we walk into this year, I want to bring you back to our theme verse for the school for the coming year from Romans 15:13:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”

As I look at this passage, I want to invite you in this moment to stop and focus on where this passage starts.

What is the third word? God.

What is the foundation for the entire message of this passage? God.

What is source of the promise of joy and peace and hope found in this passage? God.

Who is the one who called you into this place into this moment into this season of ministry? God.

Who is going to get us through the messiness that is this coming year? God.

So, let’s take a moment and reflect upon who this God is.

God is our maker. With a word, He spoke creation into place making the sun and the moon and the stars. He made the Grand Canyon and the Andes and the Alps. He made the aardvark, the anteater, and the ant. And God made you and me. God is not a wimp. God is great. God is powerful. God is mighty. God can do more than we could ever imagine.

But God is not just mighty. God is a real present God. It’s the story of the baby crying in a manger in Bethlehem and the message of the angels on that first Christmas so long ago, as God himself came down to make his presence among us in Jesus. God is our Immanuel, God with us. It’s the promise of Matthew 28 that God will be with us always. It’s the picture of the fire coming out of the dudes’ head on Pentecost as they received the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. It’s the reality that there has never been a breath that you have taken when God hasn’t been there with you. God is an ever present God who is always with us in the best of times and the worst of times.

It’s what we see on the cross that God is a God who is for us not against us. He is a God who loves us so much that He would die for us. He is a God who would take on sin, take on death, take on the devil, take on everything in this world, that He might give us victory on Easter morning. He is a God who loves, forgives, heals, restores, and renews.

This is the God that Paul says is active in our lives filling us with joy and peace and hope.

As we walk into this year, if our focus is on what is happening in the world around us, we will most likely get depressed pretty quick. If we spend our time navel gazing focused on ourselves and what we want and aren’t getting or our circumstances making ourselves victims, we will be disappointed pretty quick. But as our focus turns from out there in the world or inside on us to focus instead on the God who made us, loves us, and is always with us we can be filled with joy and peace and hope. As we walk into this new ministry year, let’s fix our eyes on God and focus on Him.

I know this new year is going to be a wild and crazy ride, but I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in us, among us, and through us. Through God’s grace and power, let’s make it a great year!

Pastor Kevin Austin

Changes to Worship Starting September 6

Alameda County is now allowing up to 100 in attendance at outdoor services. We can accommodate up to 20 benches for families in our courtyard. Registration will be done online as before, but now we will be tracking registrations per family for a bench rather than the per person count.

Starting Sept. 6, we will have 3 services at 8:00 and 9:00 am as well as 7:00 pm.

Registration is now open for Sept. 6 services, please RSVP for worship HERE or by calling the church office at 925.447.1246.

Installation of new Director of Launch & Online Ministry

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Dave Rueter to our ministry staff here at OSLM. Dave and his family (wife Andrea and their sons James and Wesley) come to us from Southern California, where Dave has had a 20+ year career as a Director of Christian Education, most recently at Concordia University Irvine and the Pacific Southwest District. Dave joins our staff in order to help launch the members of OSLM out into ministry and service in our community, to minister to our school families, and expand and further develop an intentional online ministry.

Dave was officially installed as a part of our called staff on Aug. 29 at the conclusion of our leadership meeting. When you get the chance introduce yourself to Dave and his family and welcome them to our OSLM family.

OSLM Serve Opportunities

As a part of the Body of Christ here at OSLM, we desire be a launching pad for disciples of Christ who serve and bring the love of Christ to the community. As a partner with Shepherd’s Gate we can walk alongside them in their efforts to help women & children escaping cycles of addiction, homelessness, and abuse.

Current opportunities to serve can be found here:

Employment

Volunteer

Quilters Corner

Quilters Kris, Cathryn, and Donna need your help to produce Lutheran World Relief Quilts as they are running out of backing material. Please search your homes for clean sheets, in modestly good shape, or fabric you are not going to use, and also ask your neighbors or friends who sew or quilt to search for fabric. Drop off your fabric at the church office ( M-F 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m.).This is a great mission opportunity to get more quilts to cover people in God’s love!

Women's Bible Study

Save the Date! Saturday, October 3rd, for a 9 a.m. to noon zoom event hosted by St. Philip, Dublin, with “Cleaning Out My Closet” presentation by Denyse Blasdel, Certified Christian Consultant (Fashion).

The bible study of the morning will be on Galatians 3:27 NIV “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” This is an LWML Zone 7 event. More information to come.

Lutheran Women’s Missionary League: Mission Grants

Even in these difficult times, we can still support mission work: in our district, in the USA, and worldwide; and a way we can do this is through LWML Mission Grant funding.

CURRENT GRANTS

Nationally, the LWML set a goal of $2,100,000 to fund a variety of projects from 2019 to 2021. Right now Grant #12 and #13 need donations.

Grant #12 is for “Women’s Witness and Mercy Asia Mission Central” to support the work of 10 Women Missionaries who are bringing God’s word to the largely secular populations in Asia.

Grant #13 will support “Digital Media Development for Lutheran’s For Life”, so that life issues like abortion, embryo experimentation, and assisted suicide can be discussed on digital formats with people who need to hear the message of the value of life and God’s love and grace for each one of us.

California-Nevada-Hawaii LWML set a goal of $248,000 to fund grants from 2020-2022. The “Sewing Machines for Kenyan Deaconesses” has already been funded. Grant #2 was just funded for “Loving Retreat for the Lord’s Disabled” at St. Andrews in Stockton, CA, for the every other year retreat that they have been hosting for the last 54 years, where 43 mentally and physically challenged followers of Christ come together for Bible study, fellowship, crafts and more. Now money is needed for Grant #3 “Bringing Children to Jesus Christ with Noah’s Ark” at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Kahului, Maui, Hawaii, in cooperation with Trinity, Manila, Philippines, a project which is bringing the Gospel to children through overseas electronic classes and media.

How can we all help these grants get funds?

Grants will be funded when we send in a check to LWML , so think of the grants when you have a special celebration, like a birthday, anniversary, or answered prayer or to honor a loved one. Small donations add up quickly, so don’t think it needs to be a lot.

A check to LWML, with “Zone 7 – mites” in the memo line, can be sent to the LWML Zone 7 Treasurer, and it will be portioned out to grants of LWMLCNH and the national LWML grants. Address:

LWML Zone 7 Treasurer, Diana Cuva, 2108 Dena Drive, Concord, CA 94519.

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