God’s work. Our Saviour Lutheran Church’s hands.
LANSING, Ill. (September 11, 2023) – For a small group of people from Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Lansing, church didn’t end with the service on Sunday morning. It continued on into the afternoon as part of the nationwide “God’s Work. Our Hands.” service project campaign.
A group of 10 from Our Saviour arrived at LARC, an organization that serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, at around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, September 10. They spent a couple hours pulling weeds, clipping dead branches, and tidying the landscape.
Nationwide service
Wearing yellow shirts that said “God’s Work. Our Hands.” — the group joined hundreds of other churches across the nation in the 10th annual service campaign, which was started by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
According to the ELCA’s website, “It was introduced in 2013 as a special day of service across the church to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the ELCA’s formation.”
Outward, not inward
Pastor Kyle Johnson of Our Saviour said the event is an opportunity for the church community to reach outward.
“It’s very easy for a church to be inwardly focused,” he said. “It’s things like this that remind us that we have a relationship with God and a relationship with our neighbors, and both of them are terribly important. You don’t want one over the other. Otherwise you become a closed-in fortress.”
Judy Beuster has been attending Our Saviour Lutheran Church for over 50 years. In that time, she’s been a part of the church reaching outward.
“It’s just to do something,” she said when asked why she was at the service event.
Our Saviour’s congregation has helped with a food pantry in Calumet City, a Toys for Tots campaign, Feed My Starving Children, Girl in Lansing, and other ministries throughout the years.
Johnson, who’s nearing his one-year anniversary as Our Saviour’s pastor, says service is inherent to following the commands of Jesus Christ.
“I don’t think Jesus was kidding when he said, ‘Feed my sheep, feed my lambs.’ He wasn’t kidding and he wasn’t being metaphorical,” he said.
Our Saviour Lutheran Church is located at 19058 Burnham Avenue in Lansing.
Related
- Our Saviour Lutheran Church to install Kyle Johnson as pastor (September 18, 2022)
