As We Gather
Why must we endure the questions, the challenges, and the things that are not as they should be? The disciples long ago wondered about this too. Why are there weeds in God’s field and what can be done about it? The seed was good, but God has enemies, and so do you. It is not given to us to resolve this until the Lord’s time, when He will separate the weeds from the wheat. It is enough for us to know that God knows the hearts of people and that this tension will not endure. When Jesus comes in His glory, the angels will gather out of His kingdom all who do not belong. Then the righteous shall shine like the sun, so take heart, people of God.
Holy Communion
The Lord’s Supper is celebrated today with the confession that we receive the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, in, with and under (a way of saying that Christ is fully present in) the bread and wine. Christ's presence gives us the assurance that our sins are forgiven and to nourish our faith. This is a solemn celebration, “For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves” (1Corinthians 11:29). The Lord’s Supper is meant for our good, not to our judgment. But, before presenting yourself ask these questions:
1. Am I sorry for my sins and need forgiveness?
2. Did Christ die and rise to forgive my sins?
3. Am I receiving the very body and blood of Christ Jesus?
If your answers are yes, you are welcome. If you are not a member of a LCMS church, or have further questions about The Lord’s Supper, please speak with the pastor.
Stewardship
It is very easy to get caught up in the present and lose track of our ultimate destiny in the Kingdom of God. St. Paul encourages us to keep eternity in mind. This certainly has an application to our support for the Gospel. If we keep our focus on “the glory to be revealed,” we will see our tithes and offerings in a new light.
Lutherans For Life
Benevolence
Altar Flowers
The Altar Flower Chart is posted on the bulletin board in the Narthex by the drinking fountains. Check chart for donation opportunities and availability.
Children Sunday School
Marionette Puppets
The Israelites did cruel and evil things that displeased God. After a while, God sent Samson who He blessed with strength. Unfortunately Samson was not faithful and used his gifts for his own selfishness. When his circumstances change, Samson remembered that serving God is better than just being in the crowd.
MomCo Planning Meeting
We are gearing up to launch MomCo, a ministry dedicated to providing moms in our community with a welcoming place for fellowship, scripture discussion, encouragement, and connection. To bring this vision to life ahead of our late-August launch, a leadership team will meet in Classroom 6.
For more information contact Kathy Lee
Youth Group
Nurturing discipleship by building a community focused on the Word of God with food, studies, service, games, crafts, and cultural commentary. For more information contact Family Life Minister Curtis
Church Directory
The Church Pictorial Directory is back on track! A church directory helps us put names with faces, encourages meaningful relationships, and builds a stronger sense of belonging within our church family. We need at least 35 families to participate. Photography is scheduled for Thursday, 23 July and Friday, 24 July, with signups now available before and after each service. Participating families will receive a free directory and 8x10 photo. Please sign up and help us strengthen connections in our church!
For more information contact Anna Haase.
Sharing and Caring
A ministry supported by our congregation through donations of non-perishable food items, placed in the collection basket in the inner Narthex. Sharing and Caring serves individuals and families in need by providing food, clothing, and emergency assistance. It brings hope, encouragement, and practical support to those experiencing hardship or crisis.
Back To School Supply Drive
We are collecting school supplies for Kenwood Elementary. With school starting on 11 August, now is the perfect time to help students begin the new school year with the supplies they need. We will take care of delivering the donations to the schools! If you don't feel like shopping, monetary donations are gladly accepted, and we will do the shopping for you.
Jean Greive.
Mite Boxes
Board Of Outreach
Philemon 4-6. The Board of Outreach has a two fold mission: To Communicate the Gospel of Christ through the members of our congregation and in the endeavor to identify the congregation with the Gospel in the local community. Meets with Pastor Klemme in the Cafe.
Board of Properties
For the maintenance and repair of the congregation’s facilities; to enable the congregation and its members to carry out our Christ centered ministries. Meets in the Library. For more information contact Jeff Adams
American Heritage Girls Troop 1517
For more information contact Jen Manis.
Board of Elders
Meeting with the Called Ministers and the Board of Elders to discuss, plan, and implement strategies to carry out corporate worship, and addressing the spiritual health of the congregation.
For more information contact Joe Staton
Cruising with the King Car Club
All men of the congregation are warmly invited to join us, along with men from the community, in Cruising with the King Car Club. Whether you’re a car enthusiast or simply looking for meaningful fellowship, we gather regularly for monthly to build friendships while reaching out to our local neighbors. We already have a strong group of men actively participating. Join our signal group.
Dancing Through the Decades
Join us as we celebrate Lance's birthday! Enjoy an evening of dinner, fellowship, dancing, and timeless hits from across the decades. Come as you are or dress in the style of your favorite decade. Bring your dancing shoes, leave the gifts at home, and join us for an evening of fun, laughter, and good company with your church family.
Pastor Klemme Salutes the USA
Celebrate America's rich folk music heritage! Enjoy favorites like Oh! Susanna, Home on the Range, and more. Sing along to timeless songs by Stephen Foster and others. Join us for this free event celebrating America's 250th anniversary with music, memories, and community.
For more information contact Pastor Klemme.
Council Meeting
Let us do everything with love. The Church Council is a gathering of elected advisers who serve and guide the ministries of the congregation toward our given mission. (Matthew 28:19-20).
MomCo
The MomCo leadership crew is currently inviting Moms in our communities to join us in the Fall. Our Meetups are scheduled for the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. Membership Fee $37. Limited free scholarships are available. We’ll offer moms in our community a welcoming space for fellowship, scripture discussion, and connections with other moms as we enjoy friendships, fun, and food.
For more information contact Kathy Lee
Kenwood Elementary Donates
Kenwood School is currently in need of donations of pants and shorts for students who may require a change of clothes during the school day. Gently used items are welcome, including sweatpants, leggings, jeans, pajama bottoms, athletic shorts, and similar styles. Elastic waistbands are especially helpful, and well worn pants are perfectly acceptable. Needed sizes range from children’s sizes 5 through 14, as well as adult size Small. For more information contact Rachel.Bollinger@okaloosaschools.com.
Rally Day
Whether you're returning after the summer or joining us for the first time, Rally Day is the perfect opportunity to reconnect, build relationships, and find your place in our church family.
This special day highlights God’s desire for all His people—children, youth, and adults—to grow in faith by grounding their lives in His Word. It’s a joyful reminder that learning and living God’s truth should be part of our daily rhythm.
Join us as we celebrate the ministries of our congregation with a day full of fun and fellowship—including food, games, displays, a water slide.
Sanctuary A/C Replacement
After many years of faithful service, our Sanctuary air conditioning system is reaching its end of life and needs to be replaced. A new system will help us maintain a comfortable and welcoming environment for worship. To meet this need, we are launching an AC Replacement Fund. The estimated cost for the new unit is $45K. Your generous gifts will allow us to gather together without the distraction of extreme temperatures, so we can focus fully on worshipping God.
Commemoration of Ruth
The Church honor's saints for showing us how living out faith can be done.
Ruth of Moab, the subject of the biblical book that bears her name, is an inspiring example of God’s grace. Although she was a Gentile, she is the great grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:17), and an ancestress of Jesus himself (Matthew 1:5). A famine in Israel led Elimelech and Naomi of Bethlehem to emigrate to the neighboring nation of Moab with their two sons. The sons marriend Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, but after about ten years, Elimelech and his sons died (Ruth 1:1-5). Naomi then decided to return to Bethlehem and urged her daughters-in-law to return to their families. Orpah listened to Naomi’s but Ruth refused, replying with the stirring words: “Where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). After Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, Boaz, a close relative of Elimelech, agreed to be Ruth’s “redeemer” (Ruth 3:7-13; 4:9-12). He took her as his wife, and Ruth gave birth to Obed, the grandfather of David (Ruth 4:13-17), thus preserving the Messianic seed. Ruth’s kindness and selfless loyalty toward Naomi, and her faith in Naomi’s God, have long endeared her to the faithful and redounded to God’s praise for his merciful choice of one so unexpected.
Source: Lutheran Calendar of Saints
Commemoration of Elijah
The Church honor's saints for showing us how living out faith can be done.
The prophet Elijah, whose name means, “My God is Yahweh [the Lord],” prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel, mostly during the reign of Ahab (874-853 B.C.). Ahab, under the influence of his pagan wife Jezebel, had encouraged the worship of Baal throughout his kingdom, even as Jezebel sought to get rid of the worship of Yahweh. Elijah was called by God to denounce this idolatry and to call the people of Israel back to the worship Yahweh as the only true God (as he did in 1Kings 18:20-40). Elijah was a rugged and imposing figure, living in the wilderness and dressing in a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt (2Kings 1:8). He was a prophet mighty in word and deed. Many miracles were done through Elijah, including the raising of the dead (1Kings 17:17-24), and the effecting of a long drought in Israel (1Kings 17:1). At the end of his ministry, he was taken up into heaven as Elisha, his successor, looked on (2Kings 2:11). Later on the prophet Malachi proclaimed that Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5-6), a prophecy that was fulfilled in the prophetic ministry of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14).
Source: Lutheran Calendar of Saints.
Commemoration of Ezekiel
The Church honor's saints for showing us how living out faith can be done.
Ezekiel, son of Buzi, was a priest, called by God to be a prophet to the exiles during the Babylonian captivity (Ezekiel 1:3). In 597 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army brought the king of Judah and thousands of the best citizens of Jerusalem—including Ezekiel—to Babylon (2Kings 24:8-16). Ezekiel’s priestly background profoundly stamped his prophecy, as the holiness of God and the Temple figure prominently in his messages (for example, Ezekiel 9-10 and 40-48). From 593 B.C. to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 586 B.C., Ezekiel prophesied the inevitability of divine judgment on Jerusalem, on the exiles in Babylon, and on seven nations that surrounded Israel (Ezekiel 1-32). Jerusalem would fall, and the exiles would not quickly return, as a just consequence of their sin. Once word reached Ezekiel that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, his message became one of comfort and hope. Through him God promised that his people would experience future restoration, renewal and revival in the coming Messianic kingdom (Ezekiel 33-48). Much of the strange symbolism of Ezekiel’s prophecies was later employed in the Revelation to St. John.
Source: Lutheran Calendar of Saints.
Festival of Saint Mary Magdalene
The Church honor's saints for showing us how living out faith can be done.
“An excellent wife who can find?” (Proverbs 31:10). The Lord’s love does not search out what is lovely. Instead, His love seeks out sinners and dies for them, washes them clean, and presents them to Himself as a spotless bride (Ephesians 5). Christ had no wife on earth; His bride is the Church — the assembly of forgiven sinners rescued by His death and resurrection. Among them is St. Mary Magdalene, one “who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem” (Acts 13:31). The Lord rescued her from the power of seven demons, and she provided for Him out of her means (Luke 8:2-3). Christians have traditionally connected her with the unnamed penitent woman who was forgiven much by faith and thus “loved much” by anointing Jesus’ feet (Luke 7:36-50). She was there at Christ’s death, present at His burial and honored as the first witness of His resurrection. She would have clung to Him there in the garden, but the Lord had “not yet ascended” to His Father and our Father (John 20:16-18) to “fill all things” (Ephesians 4:10). For now He is heard in the Word of His witnesses and is here bodily in His Supper, not just for Mary, but for all penitents “who [fear] the Lord” (Proverbs 31:30), so that grace may abound “all the more” (Romans 5:20).
Source: Lutheran Calendar of Saints.
Festival of Apostle Saint James the Elder
The Church honor's saints for showing us how living out faith can be done.
The sons of Zebedee ask for seats at Jesus’ “right hand and … left, in your glory” (Mark 10:37). But they do not know what they are asking (Matthew 20:22), for God’s kingdom is not of glory and power but the cross. We will bear ours after Him. “For [His] sake we are being killed” and “regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him” (Romans 8:36-37), for Jesus’ death is unique. He alone is baptized with our sin and drinks the cup of God’s wrath against it (Mark 10:38). We live in service to our neighbors after His example; He alone is “the Son of Man,” who came “to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Today the Church commemorates the fulfillment of Christ’s prophecy about James, killed with Herod’s sword (Acts 12:2). He is honored as the first apostle to be “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” (Romans 8:29). But what is that when “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God … interceding for us”? Nothing (not even a sword) can “separate” James and “us from the love of Christ” (Romans 8:34-35).