Christ Lutheran Church

As our lives become more and more hectic, it becomes more and more important that we find places that bring us peace. Christ Lutheran Church is a place like that. If you join us on a Sunday morning for worship, you will experience a bit of the “peace that passes understanding” that our Lord Jesus brings us whenever we gather in His house.

You will also meet a caring group of people who are working to share that peace with people outside our building in our community, country and world in many ways. Come and work with us to make the world a better place! Even though peace can be scarce in this life, our Lord promises us perfect peace in the next life with Him, and the strength to get there through faith in Him, and so we live in hope of that day. Come and share that hope with us!

If you have questions, please call me; I would be happy to answer them!

Pastor Gary Kuenzel

Pastor’s Ponderings

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament of the Bible instructs us that  “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” One of the strangest things about living in the tropics (as I did in Papua New Guinea a few years ago) is the lack of seasons. The climate could not be better there, but to wake up every day of the year to the same “season” eventually had a subtle effect on me. I sometimes felt stuck- as if I were in some kind of time warp, or something. I found that constant perfect weather can gradually hypnotize a person into less and less action, and finally even, inaction.

For us in our North American culture, which I believe moves way too fast, that might not be such a bad thing. It wouldn’t hurt the great majority of us a bit to slow down and enjoy our beautiful weather while it’s here. That’s just the point though, isn’t it? “While it is here.” This is not Papua New Guinea. Fall is coming, and not so very far away, so even when we do take time for ourselves in the summer we feel stressed to rush and enjoy it before it disappears. Not only that, but we Canadians tend to live in two seasons- the one we are in and the one that is coming (which we feel we must prepare for), never completely living in either. Of course we must plan ahead and properly prepare for the next season, but we pay a steep price if it’s at the expense of living fully in the season we are in.

Jesus tells us that we Christians, live in a “spiritual” season too. This is the season of harvest before our Lord returns to take us home. We don’t know when this season will end, but we do know that it has gone on for a long time now, at least by our human standards- almost 2,000 years. This long season of harvest can easily seem like the “endless summer” of Papua New Guinea and lull us all into less and less activity in the harvest field of souls. Because of the great prosperity many of us have been blessed with, we can also be tempted to live in the next season- heaven, forget about our soul-saving mission and just enjoy ourselves.

Jesus said: “The harvest is plentiful and the labourers are few; pray the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into the fields.” Let’s pray that, and then let’s get to work ourselves.

–Pastor Kuenzel

“Finally friends in Christ, aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”