Online Worship
March 26, 2023
5th Sunday of Lent Worship Service
Masks are optional
March 22, 2023
Wednesday Lenten Service
Lent 2023
Core Values
Advent Connections
Lenten Devotionals
We are offering two Lenten devotions this year to enhance your spiritual journey through this sacred time. Both devotions are available in a printed version at church and a digital version you can access from the links below.
Wendell Berry and the Sabbath Poetry of Lent is a resource appropriate for adults and youth confirmation age and above. This devotion offers weekly bible readings, poems, and practices in addition to Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. If you would like to discuss this devotion, please join our Wednesday Word class via Zoom at 12:00 on 3/15, 3/22, 3/29 and 4/05.
The 40-day Love Builds Up Family Challenge is designed for family units to do together. It includes bible readings, discussion prompts and a weekly challenge. We will also be using some of the materials in this devotion with the kids during Children’s Church as an additional touch point.
Four ways to get a copy of these wonderful devotionals.
1 Hardcopies are available in the Narthex
2 Click on the title of the devotion booklet above
3 Click on the picture of the booklet cover below
4 Simply scan the QR code below.
A Little About Us
Welcome to the Advent Lutheran Church online community! We are so happy you have found our spot on the web! We are a diverse community of real people striving to live into the Micah 6:8 mission to seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God. Being church in the world looks different today, as we emerge from our pandemic lockdowns. How do we re-engage with each other and the world?
This year, as we began to regather, church leadership decided it was time to define our values as a congregation. Members, council, and staff were all asked to reflect on the most important parts of our ministry together. The feedback was used to create 4 core values, outlined below, that are meant to represent who we are to the community as well as guide us in our daily walk with God.
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We believe that everyone could use more of the radical love modeled by Jesus Christ these days and we hope that you will find examples of that love here at Advent. You can join us for worship in person with masks optional or online Sundays at 10:00 a.m. The service is streamed live each week – the link to our YouTube channel will be posted here at 9:45 a.m.
STUDY OF MATTHEW
During this liturgical year, many of our Gospel lessons will be from the book of Matthew. There’s a reason why this is the first book of the New Testament, it was written to prove that Jesus Christ is the long-awaited, promised Messiah, the King of all the earth. Matthew emphasizes the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfills, from His birth through His ministry and right up to His death and resurrection. There is more material in this book of the Bible than we will ever be able to cover on Sunday mornings. With this in mind, we have developed tools to help you to explore deeper into the book of Matthew.
- There are monthly Intergenerational studies for the entire family which will be offered on the first Sunday of the month following the worship service.
- The Wednesday Word group will also study this book in their weekly Zoom meetings from noon to 1pm beginning January 18. Here is a link for the Zoom for Wednesday Word (accessible by website login).
We realize, however, that there are many who would like to learn more about Matthew but are unable to participate in either of these groups. With that in mind, we have made available a series of videos viewable at your convenience using this link Matthew Weekly Video and Readings. We do hope many of you will take advantage of one of the learning opportunities available. For more information access the Learning Opportunities page on the adventlu.org website
Thank you, Pastor Ward
Meet Our Pastor
WARD MISENHEIMER
I never imagined being ordained (I’m sure it was a shock to many others, too!), much less serving as a pastor at Advent for almost 13 years! But, now I can’t imagine being anywhere else. This congregation has watched me grow as a pastor and extended much grace to me when I’ve completely dropped the ball. We have celebrated together when goals have been attained. They have loved me in the midst of the ups and downs of life. And I hope that I’ve shared as much grace and love with them as I have experienced.
Advent is blessed to have the liturgical art of Ernst Schwidder in our sanctuary. These three pieces, the reredos, altar and pulpit, are beautiful pieces that add to our worship each week. His mahogany wood sculpting is easily recognizable for its long, lean, flowing lines, as well as for its idiosyncratic uppercase lettering of Scripture passages. In the craft of an artist, Schwidder did not intend to produce lifelike images, but to design through wood carving and other media visual theological truth apropos to the church setting and ministry in which his work had been commissioned.
The body of Jesus on this cross is not dying – it is the risen Christ. His hands indicate a servant posture as he returns to serve the world, which is reflected in the circle behind the cross. The clouds at the top of the circle show Jesus “coming on the clouds” – this proclaims Jesus as the bridge between heaven and earth. There are 8 stars. The center star is the “morning star” from Revelation 2:28 heralding the dawn and representing resurrection. The other seven stars represent the Christian churches in Asian Minor from Revelation. As John was instructed to write to these churches, we ponder what John would have to write about Advent today as we strive to live into the light and love of the resurrected Christ.