Posts from 2023 (Page 6)
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week June 1, 2023
Dear Peace Families, The end of the school year is finally here! Last night, seniors at Bloomington Jefferson High School graduated and received their diplomas—including Peace’s own Julia Freemark and Elena Stockinger. The commencement ceremonies for our other graduates—Marta Borggreve (Eden Prairie), Harrison Oxford (Blake), and Ava Scribner (Edina)—continue next week as well. In addition, today is the last day of school for all of the other students in the Bloomington School District. Congratulations and well wishes to all! To celebrate the completion of another school year, we…
E-Note May 26, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends of Peace, This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, a festival day in the church that comes 50 days after Easter. Pastor Joe writes, “Pentecost is a day of promises fulfilled, and this Sunday serves as an opportunity to celebrate God’s promised presence within and among us—through the power of the Holy Spirit. I’ll say more in my message titled, ‘Where They Were.’ And because of the Holy Spirit within us, we are empowered and sent out to proclaim God’s unconditional…
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week May 25, 2023
Dear Peace Families, This week, as students near the end of the school year, I offer a prayer from writer, Kayla Craig: O God, Creator of beginnings and endings, we pray for our students. Walk ahead of them and beside them as they step into a big world littered with loss but glittering with hope. You were there for every newborn squeal and first step and lost tooth. Remind us that You are with them now, too, as our child…
E-Note May 19, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends, Good morning on this fresh, green spring day! This Sunday is the 7th, and final, Sunday of the Easter season. Pastor Joe writes, “In worship we will also commemorate the Ascension of Our Lord, focusing on Jesus’ ascension into heaven following his time with the disciples after the resurrection. Before Jesus goes, he reminds the disciples that they are called to be witnesses to Him. And afterward, they are encouraged to put their faith into action for…
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week May 18, 2023
Dear Peace Families, This weekend in worship we will be recognizing our high school graduates—five students from four different high schools. Each of them are exceptional individuals with bright futures ahead, and I ask you to join me in both celebration of them and prayer for them—celebration for the wonderful young adults they’ve become and all their accomplishments along the way, and prayer for them as they enter into this next season of their lives. Marta Borggreve is graduating from Eden Prairie…
E-Note May 12, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends, We have an exciting Sunday this weekend! Along with Mother’s Day, it is the 6th Sunday of Easter as well as the last day of Sunday School for this school year. There’s a lot happening in worship! Both the children’s musical groups—the Sunday School Singers and the Alleluia Singers—will take their part. We’ll share Holy Communion around the altar, sing Easter hymns, and thank our Sunday School Staff for ministry well done. I’ll have a message on one—if not the most important—ingredients for thriving and loving family relationships. There’s…
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week May 11, 2023
Dear Peace Families, This weekend marks the last day of Sunday School for the 2022-2023 school year. We have had a wonderful year growing in faith and community. In the fall we read and learned about stories from the Old Testament, starting with Creation and Abraham and moving through the Exodus narrative. Beginning in Advent, we started reading through the Gospels and learning about Jesus. On Sunday we conclude our spring adventure through the New Testament with a lesson on Paul’s Letters. …
E-Note May 5, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends, The season of spring seems to be (finally!) here. I hope that all of you, in some way, are able to enjoy it. Open up a window, take a walk, ride a bike—all to relish in the greening up of God’s earth once again. The season of Easter continues this coming Sunday with some of the most memorable words of Jesus: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in me….I am the way,…
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week May 4, 2023
Dear Peace Families, As many of you know, I am a big sports fan and care a lot about our Minnesota professional sports teams. And last week, Thursday-Saturday, the 88th annual NFL Draft was held down in Kansas City. Over the course of seven rounds, there were 259 players selected by the 32 NFL teams. Prior to the draft (sometimes very prior—Todd McShay’s “Way-Too-Early 2024 NFL Mock Draft” was just posted by ESPN), there are mock drafts created by analysts and writers…
E-Note April 28, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends, I love not only the day of Easter but the season of Easter. Why? If the Christian faith was only made up of Good Friday, that would be a tragedy and a horror. If the Christian faith was only made up of Easter Sunday, it would be like those dried-up Easter lilies that are long gone. It is only after Easter that we come to know who the Risen Christ is; and in the New Testament we see that it is in…
CYF Blast & Family Tip Of The Week April 27, 2023
Dear Peace Families, On Sunday during worship, we celebrated the Rite of Confirmation for our 8th grade students as they professed their faith and affirmed the promises God made with them at their baptism. Faith is many things—a gift, a trust, a belief. But it is also a responsibility—to live among God’s faithful people, to hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following…
E-Note April 21, 2023
Dear Peace Members and Friends, Gerhard Manley Hopkins has a poem in which he inserts the prayer, “Easter in us.” He uses the noun Easter as a verb. “Easter in us.” Let Easter get into us, come where we live. Which sounds strange. But that’s exactly what happens on Easter evening. Luke’s gospel tells us that two of Jesus’ followers are on the 7-mile walk to the village of Emmaus, talking about all the events that had happened in Jerusalem that morning, when suddenly the now Risen…