Our Mission Statement:
We are a Gospel-centered community of people blessed by God to be a blessing to others.
The Sunday morning service at 10:30 will be live-streamed through the church's Facebook page. Limited in-person attendance is allowed with mask-wearing
and social distancing. Joe Nolte is in charge of setting this up. You can contact him with any questions, at jtnolte22@gmail.com.
Get involved!
Highlights of our upcoming events:
The Coming Back Together Committee
-A new committee has been formed to make decisions about worship as we deal with COVID-19.
Join us at the fall festival!
-The Fall Festival will take place on October 23, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
-Join us on October 10 for the Des Moines Area Hunger Hike
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,
Some of you are aware that our son Joshua, his wife Kellie, and their Golden-doodle, Luna, are now living in Heidelberg, Germany.
Josh was sent there by his company, Collins Aerospace (of Cedar Rapids), for a two-year commitment to work on a collaborative
project with a partner company. Josh has become a software project manager, so he has been given a lot of responsibility to help
make the project successful. In case you are interested, Kellie keeps a blog of their life and travels at kosbeck.wordpress.com.
One way in which they have become fortunate is they have time on the weekends to take some small trips to explore around the area.
They've been able to drive to places in Switzerland and the small country of Liechtenstein. Very expensive, they say ($20 for a
hamburger).
Another of their trips was to the city of Worms. You may recall this little town along the Rhine River became quite important (at
least to us Lutherans), as the place where in 1521, the Diet (a legislative assembly) was called in which Martin Luther was summoned
to refute or affirm his writings and theological views. The leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, which Luther served as a Wittenberg
University professor, were quite upset at some of his teaching and wanted him, first to admit the writings were his, and second, to
renounce them and recant. Expecting to debate the writings rather than be on trial, Luther asked for a day's delay to respond. The
account is explained in Wikipedia this way:
On April 18 Luther, saying that he had prayed for long hours and consulted with friends and mediators, presented himself before the
Diet. When the counselor put the same questions to him (to recant or affirm), Luther first apologized that he lacked the etiquette of
the court. Then he answered, "They (the writings) are all mine, but as for the second question, they are not all of one sort." Luther
went on to place the writings into three categories: (1)Works which were well received even by his enemies; those he would not reject.
(2) Books which attacked the abuses, lies, and desolation of the Christian world and the papacy; those, Luther believed, could not safely
be rejected without encouraging abuses to continue. To retract them would be to open the door to further oppression. "If I now recant these,
then I would be doing nothing but strengthening tyranny." (3) Attacks on individuals: he apologized for the harsh tone of these writings but
did not reject the substance of what he taught in them. If he could be shown by Scripture that his writings were in error, Luther continued,
he would reject them. Luther concluded by saying:
Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone,
since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience
is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God
help me. Amen.
As Lutheran Christians, our theological understandings are rooted in Luther's actions and the following Reformation they produced. We
commemorate the anniversary of Luther's beginning of protest, in Wittenberg, every last Sunday of October as Reformation Sunday. We hope
that you all seek to become better able to learn of the history and events which led us to Luther's theological findings and the changes
in the Church which occurred. It's good stuff.
Peace to you. See you in church,
Pastor Roger
Outreach links:
Meals from the Heartland
Habitat for Humanity
Lutheran Services in Iowa
Lutheran World Relief
Make Malaria History
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