Our Mission Statement:
We are a Gospel-centered community of people blessed by God to be a blessing to others.
Get involved!
Highlights of our upcoming events:
Prince of Peace hosts an Alzheimer's support group on the first Tuesday of each month.
-We educate and inform participants about dementia and help them develop problem-solving strategies. if yuou know of someone who cares for a person with dementia, please invite them to attend.
Want to spotlight your event? Email the webmaster at popdsm@gmail.com and we'll put it here!
This month's letter from Pastor Roger Osbeck
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The much anticipated Royal Wedding of Britain's Prince Harry to American actress Meghan Markle took place on May 19. There were two reasons I had any interest in the ceremony.
First, I happen to share the same birthday with Prince Harry (September 15), so I have some sentimental affinity for the lad. Second, I was interested in the sermon to be delivered
by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church in America. When I heard he was invited to speak, I became intrigued by what he might have to share with the couple and the world.
I watched a little of the recorded ceremony, particularly the sermon of Bishop Curry. If you happened to catch it on TV, you may remember he spoke passionately of the power of love. (Most fitting for a wedding, don't you think?)
He emphasized how this power has the ability to change the world. Here is a short excerpt from the Bishop's message:
Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial. And in so doing, becomes redemptive, and that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives.
And it can change this world. If you don't believe me, just stop and think or imagine. Think and imagine, well, think and imagine a world where love is the way.
Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way, unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.
When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream
and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook. When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.
When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields down, down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there's plenty good room, plenty good room for all of God's children.
Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all and we are brothers and sisters,
children of God. My brothers and sisters, that's a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.
These are powerfully profound words meant to sink into the soul of all who listen. Although he never alluded to it, I suspect Bishop Curry repeatedly utilized the word
as a memory hook meant to evoke the lyrics to one of former Beatles member, John Lennon's popular song, Imagine.
There is a generation of people who remember that tune as an anthem for peace, unity, and love. Bishop Curry rightly points the way to the love of Jesus as the influential force to bring such aspirations into being.
If Christ's way of love is truly employed, the peace and unity God longs for us to experience becomes reality.
If you happen to attend any weddings this summer which include a spoken message, perhaps the preacher or lay person delivering it will refer to some of the points
raised by Bishop Curry in his semon at Prince Harry and Maghen Markle's nuptial ceremony. Even if the speaker does not, I hope you will still reflect on his important insights and feel
the movement of the Holy Spirit as you embrace these principles in your life of discipleship.
Peace to you. Enjoy your summer. See you in church.
Pastor Roger
Outreach links:
Meals from the Heartland
Habitat for Humanity
Lutheran Services in Iowa
Lutheran World Relief
ELCA Malaria Campaign
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