Pastor Jim’s Blog
We Are Better Than This
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... Scanning the horizon of current events, I can’t help but think that we are better than this. We are better than the circus that is being portrayed in the media and played out in Washington DC. We are better than the nightly vitriol of...
Nobody Ever Changed the World by Staying in Bed
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... Some days it might seem like a good idea to just pull those covers up over your head and stay in bed. The thought could cross your mind, that perhaps calling in sick and checking out might be the sanest response to all of the pandemic,...
Unmoored
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Several years ago, prior to moving to the island after retirement, I was driving through Mukilteo heading for the ferry. It was a weekday morning. I was early for the ferry and not in a hurry. As I was passing through the 20 MPH...
Masks
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... Everyone is wearing masks these days! The truth is, most of us have been wearing masks for a very long time. Masks hide emotions, masks hide facial expressions, masks hide the truth, masks keep us from being found out. Some religious...
It Is Well With My Soul
Today's Word from Minister of Music Karl Olsen... Horatio Spafford was a successful lawyer and Presbyterian lay leader in Chicago, who had invested heavily in real estate on Lake Michigan. A devout Christian, one of his close friends was the evangelist Dwight Moody,...
Patience in a Time of Pandemic
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:12 Do you remember the days of taking photographs with a camera? The photographer had to pace their production, each photo cost money, and film was a limited...
Dang 2020
Today's Word from Deacon Amy... Sometimes it feels that 2020 is just too much. A pandemic, quarantine, schools & businesses closed, weddings & celebrations postponed, funerals delayed, vacations cancelled… it’s all been too much. Then we throw in hurricanes,...
Staying Away from the DIS
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... I am writing you this morning to encourage you to stay away from the DIS. It has been a long season of DISruption, DIScomfort, and many of us have been DISplaced or generally DIScombobulated. As we move from the warm, smoky days of...
Truth
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... After ten years in parish ministry I was inspired to take a study leave and pursue a degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. When I say I was inspired I mean I left a growing parish ministry in Canada to again become a student...
Fist Shaking at the Heavens
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “I lift up my eyes to the hills; from where is my help to come.” Psalm 121 I just returned to the office after a very touching and emotional graveside service at a smoke-filled Bayview Cemetery. The theme of my meditation was supposed...
Motherless Child
Today's Word from TLC Keyboardist Sheila Weidendorf... Sometime I feel like a motherless child Sometimes I feel like a motherless child And sometimes I feel like a motherless child A long ways from home A long ways from home Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone...
A Dwelling Place
A Dwelling Place... Today's Missive by Laura Canby... Hard to believe that it was nearly 10 years ago since I traveled with a group of TLC pilgrims to the Holy Land. It was a trip that would enhance, illuminate and deepen my understanding of the Bible. Places were...
Two Bowls, One Quilt, One Baptism, Four Generations
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... On a beautiful Sunday morning in September, Blakely JoAnn Shelton, ten months old, was baptized in the courtyard at Trinity Lutheran Church. It was 8 a.m. on a Sunday, the sixth day of September. In times gone by the sanctuary would...
Reflections from Pastor Eric Ottum
Today's Word from Pastor Eric... I was pondering the parable of the Good Samaritan this morning, and I remember a presentation in my first year of work as a pastor made by a leader of the Salvation Army. It was eye-opening to me because he focused on the man in the...
Bone-Weary Tired
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Sometimes going to bed can qualify as grief work. I was bone-weary tired. It had taken the better part of a month but I was done… 67 steps, 3 landings with appointed benches, railings and post supports, stair jacks… all stained...
What’s Happening at Trinity – September 2020
Worship at TLC! It has been more than six months now since we began our online worship due to COVID-19. We have more people than ever before taking part in our worship services. It has been a joy to see our great Tech Team excel during this time. Thanks to Dream Team,...
“I’ll Fly Away”
Today's Word from Organist, Sheila Weidendorf... “Some bright morning, when this life is over I’ll fly away, To that home on God’s celestial shore, I’ll fly away.” I grew up in rural Minnesota, where summers are terribly hot and humid and winters are only for the...
Rally Day September 13th
A Note from Pastor Jim... Rally Day September 13th 2020 – Hee Haw! Get out your western gear! Please read carefully the following directions for our Rally Day Worship. We are making plans to welcome you joyfully and safely at 9:00 a.m. or 11:00 a.m. Online worship...
Changes
Today's Word from Laura Canby... To everything there is a season, and unto every purpose unto heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 I watched as an industrious gray squirrel climbed the heights of a very tall Douglas Fir yesterday. He darted from branch to swaying branch,...
Whose Voice?
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Matthew chapters 5-7 are known as the Sermon on the Mount. Nothing but red letters. That is, the only voice we hear is that of Jesus. Nothing but red letters, the most concentrated setting of teachings by Jesus in all of the...
A Season of Anxiety
A Season of Anxiety Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “And can any of you by worrying add even a single hour to your life span?” The words of Jesus in Matthew 6. The fall of the year always caused me more than a little anxiety. A new school year, a new school sometimes,...
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
Today's Word from Minister of Music, Karl Olsen... Michael S, a commenter on YouTube, gave a fleshed-out version of Psalm 90, a Psalm of Moses, about the Israelites wandering in the desert… “You have been our dwelling place A prayer of intercession The old man slowly...
Pandemic Stress
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Bear with one another.” Colossians 3:12-13b The note was left for me at the front desk, we had no face to face interaction, not this time. In the past we had...
We Get Lots of Phone Calls in the Church Office
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... We get lots of phone calls in the church office, most of them involve prayer requests for family members or friends. The phone calls are screened by our capable volunteer receptionists at the front desk, and moved on to the appropriate...
Requiem for a Church in God’s Sacred History
Today’s Word from Pastor Tom... Forgive me if I have shared something of this story with you. The scene is vividly imprinted in my memory. We were standing in the parking lot of Faith Lutheran Church, Powell River, B.C. It was a beautiful coastal summer afternoon. I...
Sunday School and Youth Update
Today's Word from Deacon Amy... “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to...
Music Matters at TLC
Today's Word from Minister of Music, Karl Olsen... African American singer and founder of the group Sweet Honey in the Rock, Bernice Johnson Reagon said: “The song is not a product. The song exists as a way to get to the singing. The singing exists to form the...
From the Preschool Hall
It’s been quite an interesting summer down the hall as we work to adjust to being primarily outdoors when the school year begins. We are excited about our new “nature trail and classroom,” and the covered areas going up on both playgrounds. Our focus for health and...
What’s Happening at Trinity – Fall 2020
Worship at TLC! It has been six months now since we began our online worship due to Covid-19. We have more people than ever before taking part in our worship services. It has been a joy to see our great Tech Team excel in this time. Thanks to Laura Canby, Deacon Amy,...
“The Peace of Wild Things”
Today's Word from Rev. Dave Bieniek... I am fond of Wendell Berry, and how he finds truth, beauty, and spiritual renewal in nature. I listened to him read his own poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” today and realized that’s it. That is where I find my connection to...
Remembering Joe Pine
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... Joe Pine was born on the 23rd day of May 1930. He came to Trinity Lutheran Church late in his seventh decade of life. Joe was a part of our Sunday morning roundtable group that met at 7 a.m. for the 8 a.m. worship service. Spike,...
Who is Rescuing Who?
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... We are a dog family. We have two rescue dogs, Gucci 14 and Cleo is 6. It is typical of us to have an older dog and a younger dog. We have found it helpful to have an older citizen mentor a younger one in the ways of dogdom in the...
Comfort Food
Today's Word from Rev. David Bieniek... Breakfast was biscuits and gravy! Now the biscuits were simply out of the can from the refrigerator section, literally just like Mom used to make. But the biscuits were really only a vehicle for the real treat – the cream gravy!...
The Virus Came Home
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... It has been six months since we began this pandemic journey together. The grief, loss and loneliness of this season of disruption have been experienced in one degree or another by most everyone. We all have our pandemic stories of...
Pay Attention to the Details
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... I have flunked one class in my educational career, so far. I am convinced that I would have flunked a few more, but teachers tended to be full of grace and probably did not want to see me the next semester. I flunked Art History when I...
I Want It to Be Today When the Coronavirus Stops!
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down and there we wept, when we remembered Zion.” Psalm 137:1 My grandson, Camden, is four years old. One eighth of his life has been lived in the midst of pandemic disruption. Quite suddenly...
It’s a Mystery Why We Follow
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Understanding is the consequence of believing. The ways of the world teach us the opposite. Consequently, I have learned that if you cannot do ambiguity and paradox, your life of faith is left to two options: fundamentalism or...
A Rain of Blessings
Today's Word from Rev. David Bieniek... Last week’s gentle rains in August remind me that we live in the Pacific Northwest near a rainforest and that at any time during the year the rains might appear. I have always felt that rain is God’s way of cleansing the earth...
Eat Your Vegetables and Know Your Place
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... When I was a kid, I did not like vegetables. When I was a teenager, I had so much faith in God, or perhaps so little faith in God, that I felt like I needed to save the world, by myself. When I began my theological studies at Luther...
Eat Your Vegetables – Part II
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... I took the text out of context, in order to further my personal agenda, convincing my mother that eating Brussels sprouts was not a good idea. It is hard to imagine Christian people taking scripture out of context to further their...
Eat Your Vegetables
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... When I was a kid, we ate a Midwest diet. Chipped beef on toast was a favorite, white bread, white food, meat with every meal, and some of the nastiest vegetables that you have ever seen. I had lots of battles with my parents. I would...
Behind the Mask
Today's Word from Pastor Jim Written on Thursday, August 6... “God will direct you; you will be able to endure.” Exodus 18:23 I was at Payless last night. For the past 30 years I have made countless visits while shopping there. Right there in the frozen food section,...
Meteors and Majesty
Today's Word from Rev. David Bieniek... “Ah, Sovereign God, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you.” – Jeremiah 32:17 For years I had tried to catch the Perseid meteor shower. It seemed that...
Madness Vs Sadness, Part Deux
Today's Word from Pastor Tom... I was pot banging cupboard slamming mad. It did not matter what Brenda said to me, I was steamed, and no one was going to deprive me of my “mad on.” The wind had been blowing. It was late; I had forgotten the depth finder, but with my...
Hold on to Hope
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Where can I go then from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.” Psalm 139:7-8. The isolation of this pandemic has had a profoundly...
Robin Got a Scooter!
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Who satisfies you with good as long as you live, so that your youth is renewed like the Eagles.” Psalm 103:5 This familiar verse touched me in a new way this morning; perhaps it was because I was watching a video last night featuring...
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like…
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... From the mailbag, yes that’s right, people still send cards and letters in the mail. This morning, after recycling the junk mail, I opened 18 envelopes. The mail came from TLC members and community members. Most of them included a gift...
Our Frail Humanity is a Thing of Beauty
Today's Word from Pastor Jim...Every day I receive dozens, sometimes hundreds, of emails. More than half of them are junk: scams, mattress sales, or forwarded jokes. Those don't last very long in my mailbox. I read touching messages from you, telling me...
Madness Versus Sadness
Today's Word from Pastor Tom Kidd... Maybe you have had those moments when the words of scripture can be pretty disappointing? No? We tend to speak of how the scriptures are uplifting or inspiring or hope-evoking. I mean, that’s what we expect from the...
A Season in Our Lives
Today's Word from Pastor Jim... “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right,for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.”Galatians 6:9Speed was never my forte. Endurance was not my forte either. In fact, I think that I am still looking for my...