What is Lifetree Café and who loves it?

Lifetree Café is a comfortable place and time for people to gather every week to explore life and faith.  It’s the kind of place where the atmosphere encourages conversation, questions, and personal stories.  And the conversations about life lead to seeing God’s presence and love.

The hour-long Lifetree Café experience features real stories of real people, guided conversation, biblical insights, time to build relationship with new and old friends and laugh!  Lifetree stories dig into the big and little things that shape our lives:  Family,  Friends,  Fears,  Balance,  Money,  Materialism,  Health,  Heaven,  Peace,   Purpose. 

Lifetree Café is designed for the large portion of the population that is spiritually curious and wants to talk and ask questions about life issues.  Lifetree Café attracts the un-churched, the de-churched, the churched who desire what Lifetree uniquely offers, and the churched who wish to share their faith stories with others, including pre-believers.

Who loves it?

Young Adults love it.  It’s great for exploring life’s purpose and connecting with new people.

Couples love it.  It’s like a date night, only free!  Couples learn something about each other because they talk about things out of the routine.

Students love it.  Teens enjoy the multigenerational conversations, where they’re listened to and respected.

Adults love it.  Whether busy, retired, working, or in transition, adults find the conversation invigorating and thought-provoking.

Spiritually curious people love it.  Those who have abandoned the church, never experienced God, or carry baggage from their past find Lifetree a safe place to explore life and faith.

Lifetree Café is national!  Check the website www.lifetreecafe.com for other locations.

Lifetree at Peace meets Tuesdays, 12:00 noon and 7:00 PM.   Come join the conversation!  Invite someone along!

                                                                     Polly Wegner, Director of Discipleship

                                                                     pwegner@peacelutheran.net

                                                                     303-424-4454

Kingdom Business

I have to confess, when I attend meetings and functions outside the church, I love it when people ask me where I work. “Oh, I work for a church,” I say. “Really? What do you do at the church?”  “I’m the Business Manager.” Huh? People look so puzzled; I mean what kind of business needs attending at a church? One of the first expressions I learned when I started working at Peace was “Kingdom Business.” I love that phrase!  There is a lot of business to attend to at Peace, through this blog/newsletter I would like to share with you what I have learned about Kingdom Business.  Not only what it means to me, but what it might mean to you as a member of Peace. 

There is so much I have learned working here at Peace, I decided the first place to start was Worship and yes, offerings. During the offering on Sunday Worship, the pastors often say “We now worship the Lord with our offerings.” I don’t think it gets any clearer than that! One way we worship our Lord is through our offerings. First fruits. Tithe. Giving. These are a few of the names for the Lord’s offerings.

I am excited to share with you that the leadership at Peace has instituted something new to our cash-flow management.  That is, our Mission projects will be paid out of the first fruits of our offerings! So for example, if the deposits for the week total $28,000, then 10% (or $2,800) of that will be paid towards one of our budgeted mission projects. This is exciting for me and our leadership to determine when and how to pay mission projects. Our leadership has prioritized the mission line items and every week as we total the plate and online offerings, we will know exactly how much to distribute to God’s kingdom!

 I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about offerings, and one of my favorite phrases, “Kingdom Business”.  Over time I will share more (kingdom) business “tidbits” that I have learned being a part of this staff. Like your own household, our Lord’s house has bills and a budget. Even in Kingdom Business things have a cost. I am so thankful that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we know that the ultimate cost is the cost of sin: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23).  May our Father in heaven pour out his blessing on Peace’s Kingdom Business, as we offer our first fruits to Him. May we always remember the ultimate offering, his son, Jesus Christ, on the cross at Calvary.

Thankful to be of His service and yours,

Patti Ninneman

Business Manager

pninneman@peacelutheran.net

If you would like me to address a certain aspect of church business, please feel free to call or email me at the church office!

Known By Love?

What’s the hardest thing about being a disciple of Jesus?   Love.   Jesus said, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34-35

We are to be known as Jesus’ disciples by how we love one another.  Just think about that.  There are so many other things Jesus could have said His disciples would be known by.  He could have said we are known by our faith.  Then we could carry a big Bible, wear a Christian T-shirt, memorize some church teachings and be known by our faith.  That may not be easy, but compared to being known by love, it would be a breeze.  Or Jesus could have said that we would be known by our morals.  Being known by morals would give us an achievable standard.  That may not be easy, but it would be easier than being known by our love.  Morals are good and we should teach them.  But they are not what we are to be known by.

Jesus said that what we are to be known by is love.  And then He gives us a standard:  “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  Wow.  That’s hard.  How do we begin?  By getting to know the God of love. 

Come get to know the God of love in a Bible class, in a small group, at LifeTree Café, in worship, in fellowship and service along side other brothers and sisters in Christ.  Together we seek to be known by love.

Polly Wegner,

Director of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454

The Punches Hurt

I recently attended a Conference that didn’t hold back the punches.  We church workers were hit with realities of the coming years… and the punches hurt.   The statistics showed that 80% of next generations will not go to church.  Today on surveys nearly 20% of Americans are already selecting “no religion” as their affiliation preference.  These punches should knock us to our knees praying for God’s mercy and direction for His Church on earth.  How can we equip tomorrow’s believers to reach the 80%, that some may be saved?  How can we, who have been entrusted with the great commission to “go, baptize, teach” reach those today whose preference is no religion?  I would love to hear what your thoughts are on this. 

The reality of these statistics is what makes the LifeTree Café approach very exciting to me.  The safe environment offered at LifeTree Café allows you and me to invite those we know who have questions, those who struggle with spiritual stuff, those who have chosen “no religion”.  LifeTree Café weekly presents an experience packed with stories, fascinating video testimony on trending topics, and lively conversation that feeds the soul.  It is just one way we may reach the 80% who will not go to church.  It is an easy and safe way to listen to others and share God talk with them.  I pray as this opportunity becomes available at Peace, that you will take the challenge to reach out and invite a searching soul to come along with you for some God conversation.  “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”  John 20:31

Worshiping, Connecting and Serving with you  –

Polly Wegner, DCE

Director of Discipleship

Peace Lutheran Church

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

Go quickly and tell

“Go quickly and tell.” Matthew 28:7

On that first resurrection day the angel at the tomb delivered the most important message anyone can ever hear: “He is not here; for He is risen.” Death is a defeated foe! Christ has won the victory. Jesus is our resurrection and life. How hopeless our lives would be if these words were not true. Every cemetery and every grave site would be a mute witness to the futility and despair of human life. But His words are true! What a glorious hope we have because Jesus is alive. We must not keep this to ourselves. We are to do as the angel said, “Go quickly and tell” this fabulous, life-changing information to others.

At Peace and in many churches throughout the Denver area, the week following Easter we have a “neighboring” theme. Sunday worship, Saturday workshops, and even small group studies will focus on how to build great neighborhoods. The idea of loving your neighbor is SO simple, yet SO powerful, and how we can respond to the angel’s direction to “go quickly and tell”. Be watching for more information on these events and studies to take place after Easter. Even better, invite your neighbor to celebrate the resurrection with you at Peace Lutheran Church!

He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed. Alleluia!

Polly Wegner, Dir of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

Because I’m Not Perfect

Visiting with new people to our church is the favorite part of my job. I love getting to know them and hearing their “story”. No two stories are the same but a few themes emerge. One I hear often is “I stayed away from church because I’m not perfect and I didn’t want to be a phony Christian.”

It makes me sad to think that a person would stay away from church because they thought they weren’t good enough. Church is where we go because we are not perfect. Church is where we receive hope and encouragement straight from the Word of God. Worship, holy communion, Christian fellowship and connecting around God’s Word is where we receive strength to live for Jesus and forgiveness when we fail. I can’t fix all my imperfections and countless failures, but through the grace of God I am changed into something new and beautiful. Jesus’ sacrificial death for me makes me perfect in God’s eyes.

This Lenten season, let’s make a point to invite someone who has been away from church for awhile. Let’s encourage them to look to the cross for forgiveness, come to God’s altar, hear His Word, and get to know a whole lot of other imperfect people at Peace. Because we are not perfect, we all need Jesus.

Polly Wegner

Dir. of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454

The Slower Group

As I write this note many people at Peace are nearing the end of a month-long study entitled “Simple Abundant Life.” It is a spiritual growth study that looks at our relationships with God, Time, Money and Others. I lead two of these groups and, as usual, the teacher is convicted by the subject matter. For me personally, the subject of honoring God with my time has convicted me the most.

It reminds me of the guy who comes home with a big pile of work he needs to finish. His little kindergarten daughter looks at the pile and asks him why he’s working so hard and why he always has to bring work home. The father answers, “The problem is, I just don’t get it all finished at work so I need to bring it home and get it done here.” The daughter looks up at him and says, “Daddy, I think they should put you in the slower group.”

Why is it we keep every moment of every day busy? Why do we have the mind-set that everything has to be done right now, and wherever we’re going, we have to get there quickly? The truth is, life’s not a race, it’s a journey. I don’t think I am the only one who struggles with having no white space on my calendar. It’s absolutely crammed with meetings, reminders and a task list. We’ve left no margin in life, no place for rest, and I think God would say, “This is not good. This is not how I intended you to live.”

Another great quote comes from Elizabeth Elliot, “You have just the amount of time to do what God wants you to do. If you run out of time you must be doing something else.”

Focus is hard but so necessary. Choosing the simple, abundant life means eliminating some things in life in order to elevate those things that are most important. Are our priorities God’s priorities? We have to focus on what God wants of our day and let the rest go. It isn’t how fast we live that’s important, it’s how well we live. Some of us just need someone to give us permission to slow down. Why not consider this your permission? “Be still and know that I am God”. (Psalm 46:10)

Polly Wegner

Dir. of Discipleship

pwegner@peacelutheran.net

303-424-4454