Newsletter
Windswept – November 2015
“Because of God’s Great Mercy” is the title of Spirit of Joy’s stewardship emphasis this year. We begin the emphasis by remembering all that God has done for us. God has created us and made us God’s own people. God has chased us with goodness and mercy through our trials.
Continue Reading
Windswept – October 2015
REFORMATION ROOTS: 500 years ago, the world was a different place in many ways than it is today. There was no separation of Church and State; there was great fear of plagues and death, there were relics and rituals, fire and brimstone. It was an era of striving—to be clean of sin by confessing enough and doing all the right things.
Continue Reading
Windswept – September 2015
Ann Burnett, a professor of communications at North Dakota State University, started noticing 15 years ago how the Christmas letters she received from family and friends were changing. More and more of them began to highlight the pace and accomplishments of another year, instead of sharing “blessings of the season.”…
Continue Reading
Windswept – June 2015
KING DAVID: OLD STORY; OUR STORY (Newsletter Excerpt) One of the more complete—and complicated—human stories told in the Bible is the story of David. Scripture passages like the one above from a sermon by St. Paul teach us that David was a man after God’s own heart. Accounts of David’s life told in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) also make it very clear that David’s heart was not always aligned with God’s. […]
Continue Reading
Windswept – May 2015
CALLED TO SERVE (excerpt) 13 teens and 3 adults from Spirit of Joy will be embarking on a trip to Detroit, Michigan the week of July 14-19 to take part in the triennial ELCA National Youth Gathering. Our group will be 16 participants out of 30,000 who will be descending upon Detroit for 5 days of worship, education and service work. The days will be long, the nights of sleep will be short, and the trip will prove to be a challenging experience that will help us grow on our faith journey. […]
Continue Reading
Windswept – April 2015
MORTAL THOUGHTS (excerpt) When Katherine and I traveled home on our vacation last month we had a four hour layover in the Salt Lake City airport. That gave us plenty of time to walk laps in the C concourse and peruse the latest magazines and bestsel- ling paperbacks. On one of our laps I stopped long enough to purchase a special collector’s edition of the Scientific American. The cover promised “Secrets of Staying Young.” […]
Continue Reading
Windswept – March 2015
THE WAY OF THE CROSS (excerpt) Religion was in the news again last month, and most of what was reported was not good. A mosque near Bethlehem in Israel was set on fire. A man was sentenced to die in Saudi Arabia because he renounced his faith in Islam. Global harassment of Jews has reached a seven-year high. At the time of this writing, Islamic State (ISIS) militants had abducted at least 220 Christians from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria. The actions of ISIS have become a weekly, if not daily, horror show. We find it impossible to imagine that any religion, no matter how twisted, could motivate its adherents to commit such violence. The truth is, […]
Continue Reading
Windswept – February 2015
HELLO! (excerpt) I am Laura Phillips, Interim Ministry Leader at Spirit of Joy. While in this position, I will be working primarily with our Outreach and Hospitality Teams as well as assisting in worship. Growing up in Farmington, MN in a country home surrounded by woods and fields, […]
Continue Reading