Staff Trax

Six years ago, an incredible team effort was started to provide a movable gaga ball pit for our youth. If you aren’t familiar with gaga ball, it’s a dodgeball-inspired game played inside a low-walled circle that you can see in many elementary school playgrounds and camps (including Rainbow Trail Lutheran Camp). In September 2020 we had just started worshipping at Central Baptist Seminary and…

There’s a song we’ve sung over the years at Salem titled “Blessings” that says, “What if Your blessings come through raindrops? What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?”

It was written by Laura Story after her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and their prayers for healing were not being answered.…

I’m not a fan of conflict. Thankfully, I didn’t have to deal with it much growing up; my extended family all got along and went out of their way to spend happy time together. My parents always “presented a united front” to us, so we never saw them argue, or really even disagree. They both knew several foreign languages, so perhaps some of the negotiation was in front of us but we didn’t…

After reading this Sunday’s Gospel lesson, I’ve been thinking about how many different ways we are growing God’s kingdom. In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about scattering the tiniest mustard seed, which grows into a large plant and provides a home for others in its shade.

I love that picture of sharing our faith for so many reasons: we may feel that it’s small, but we share it anyway.…

Salem has a quite a few super powers. We love to serve our neighbors, we’ve become very adaptable in our transitional years since 2020, and we are all about being welcoming. I also consider us a pretty tight-knit group, which in other situations tends to lean toward not letting others in, but Salem is an open-arms community.

We do this by leaning into our relationships. We chat over coffee…

I’m guessing some of you remember this if you were involved in meetings with Pastor Dave: many years ago, Salem spent an entire year starting each staff meeting and council meeting dwelling in the Word with the same scripture, ALL YEAR. Every week, dwelling in the same words. I’m sure we squeezed every ounce of possibility out of that scripture many times over!

I thought of it this week…

As we prepare for our final worship service at Overland Park Lutheran Church this Sunday, I looked back on the Staff Trax I wrote before our first service almost 2 1/2 years ago. I quoted a beautiful song called “Grace Alone,” which talks of promises, prayers, steps of faith, and differences we make that are only by His grace. The words keep coming back to me as we have spent the last few weeks…

This June is my 16-year anniversary of becoming Salem’s worship and music director. This Sunday, as we honor our graduates, I’m thinking about how old my kids were when Salem became our church family: Casey (graduating from college) was in first grade, and Brandon (graduating from high school) was 2 years old. Whoa.

We are celebrating 15 fantastic graduates this Sunday: six from high…

David Hellwege built this beautiful cross for Salem in 2017. It is hand carved to hold 190 taper or tealight candles, and we use it for prayers and memorials on All Saints’ Sunday and Good Friday. I like this description of a candle: it connects your space to celebration and memory, to relaxation and peace. I can tell you that one of my most meaningful moments in Holy Week is when the Good Friday…

If you know me, you’re probably not surprised that I am an extreme optimist. I look for the good in people and situations. This can be … ahem … annoying, as I like to “romp through my field of daisies” instead of looking at things in a more realistic light; I leave that up to my auditor husband!

God obviously created us to be different from each other, and I find it so interesting…