Updates from congregations around the Church of the Lutheran Confession
Peace Lutheran Church sits about two miles south of the town of Mission, on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, in southern South Dakota. Each week I drive about thirty minutes north from my home in Valentine, Nebraska, to lead services in the small, metal-sided building our congregation has set apart for worship. Sometimes there are horses in a trailer in the parking lot—for checking cattle after. This is the Great Plains, and this is beef country.
The drive never gets old. After coming up out of the Minnechaduza Creek canyon, green with ponderosa pines, the view turns decidedly vast. It’s always the same: grassland, grazing cattle, windmills pulling water from the Ogallala Aquifer that lies under these fields, and it extends as far south as Texas. Did I mention the drive never gets old? Sunrise on the plains has something to say about the glory of God, and the work of His hands, each and every morning (Psalm 19:1).
Peace Lutheran Church is part of a tri-parish here in the Sandhills region. About thirty minutes north is our sister congregation of St. Paul’s, in White River, South Dakota. And thirty minutes south is our other sister congregation of Grace Lutheran Church and School, in Valentine, Nebraska.
At present, I lead Sunday Worship at Peace at 8:00 am, followed by Bible Class at Grace at 9:30, and Worship at 10:30. In the afternoon we have Bible Study and Sunday School up at St. Paul’s (White River) at 4:00, with Catechism Class at 5:00. On the last Sunday of each month, we swap morning church at Peace for an afternoon Communion Service at St. Paul’s instead.
Throughout the year, various joint “Tri-Parish” services are held at Grace Lutheran Church in Valentine (Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, and so forth.)
This past October Pastor Aaron Ude, from Good Shepherd Lutheran in Rapid City, came over for our tri-parish mission festival. During Bible class Pastor Ude led us in a great conversation to discover different ways of sharing the Gospel at home and abroad.
This year the Immanuel Lutheran College Tour Choir also came to visit the Sandhills. On a Saturday in March, they sang a great service at St. Paul’s Church, and then another at Peace. The next day they sang at Grace Church also. We were glad to host the Tour Choir and were encouraged by their voices, their joy in coming to visit us, and the message brought by theology student Troyal Mayhew. We look forward to the next time we get to host!
Members of the ILC Tour Choir warm up before their concert at Peace Lutheran Church
In preparation for the Tour Choir being here, Amanda Jones (Peace) and Stephanie Bernthal (Grace) put together some personal invitations and posters for getting the word out. Members of our churches extended personal invitations, hung posters at local businesses, and posted other invitations online and on a local radio station. We weren’t sure if the Tour Choir services would serve more as an outreach event, or a way to reconnect with folks from our own fellowship. Turns out it was both. Altogether we had 120 people attend our tri-parish Tour Choir services.
None of the tri-parish churches are big. We’re small. But so was that one kid’s lunch. What was it? Five loaves and two fishes. And in the hands of our Savior, it was enough. With open fields surrounding us all the time, it’s easy to be reminded of the Good Shepherd Who sees each individual soul as precious, and goes into the open country if only to gather in one lamb.
May our Savior teach us to value our neighbors the same, and to speak freely and openly of His grace and power with one another—as well as with our friends and neighbors.
“As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to stay with Jesus. But Jesus would not let him. Instead, he told him, ‘Go home to your people, and tell them everything the Lord has done for you and how he had mercy on you.‘ The man left and began to proclaim in the Decapolis everything Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.” (Mark 5:18-20 EHV)
is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Valentine, Nebraska, as well as Saint Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in White River, South Dakota, and Peace Lutheran Church in Mission, South Dakota.