Finding Faith ... in our Sunday service

An artsy filtered photo taken from the balcony of Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn., in late 2019. Photo credit goes to Mandy Schroeder.

Simply put: I love our church's Sunday services.

I know that sounds ridiculous on its face, because if I didn't, it wouldn't seem healthy for me or my congregation for me to be there.

But my love for our services goes so much deeper than I enjoy being there, or that I find them fun.

No, our Sunday Services at Faith Lutheran restore my soul. They help me recharge for the extremely busy week ahead, and they remind me why it is that I am on this very difficult journey toward ordination in our church.

I will be completely honest: There are some Sunday mornings that when the alarm goes off, I want to turn over, shut it off and go back to sleep. I suppose it's inevitable when you are essentially working six to seven days a week for months on end. ... But then, after a lying there for a few last moments, listening to my wife sleep, I slowly creep out of bed and begin the day.

And by the time I reach the church, open the front doors and walk into our gorgeous entryway, the Spirit has fully taken hold of me. I often get anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes at the church before others arrive, and I like to walk through it all. Cruise downstairs to check to see if everything in the Sunday school rooms and in the Fellowship Hall are in place, and then I head upstairs to the Sanctuary, where the only light is the light pouring in from our beautiful stain-glassed windows and from the "Eternity" candle burning on our altar.

Then I make my way back down the hallway toward my pastor's office and the community room. And both are situated on the second story of the southern end of the building, and on many mornings the dawning sun is pouring through those windows, warming up my office and casting a golden light on everything in site.

Faith Lutheran Church dressed in its Advent best in December 2019.

And this all takes place before anyone ever even arrives.

Eventually, the first people -- usually Sunday school teachers or maybe the day's usher or a council member -- begin to arrive, and our church slowly comes to life. Lights get turned on, and the Sanctuary is prepared for service, and I begin to dress with my alb, pectoral cross and microphone.

From my office, I can hear the hubbub and babbling noises of people beginning to drift into the church. Often times, they will congregate in the entry to our church, first because it is only a dozen years old and is a beautiful gathering place, but also because they miss their neighbors, and this might be the first time they've seen them since last Sunday.

That's about the time I generally grab my sermon notes, my marked up bulletin and any other tools for the day, and I had to the Sanctuary. On the way, I will run into many who will want to talk and bend my ear for a few minutes, and I love each and every one of those conversations. Everyone of them!

Finally, I arrive at the Sanctuary doors, and looking in, I can see there is already some folks who have staked out "their" pews for the day. The lights are now on and someone has lighted the candles on our alter, and the Christ candle if it is a communion Sunday. And that is when the church is truly in its full glory!

As I stride down the aisle between the pews, the deep read of the carpeting and the rich, dark wood of the pulpit and altar simply gleam.

The sun streams in two of our east-facing windows on a recent winter morning, during the winter of 2019-20.

And then there is the sun streaming in through our beautiful stain-glass windows. ... Words cannot truly describe their beauty and grace.

As I reach the end of the aisle, I hook a right and grab my portable lectern that I use to set up in the aisle between the pews, I carefully arrange my tools of the day -- my sermon notes, the bulletin, a hymnal ... a pen -- and then I get a minute to converse with our organist just to discuss any possible last minute changes to the service.

And he returns to his station, and most often launches into a beautiful prelude on our exquisite grand piano. ... And for two or three minutes, I get to stand there, soaking it all in: watching the stragglers file in for church, breathing in the smells of a 90-year-old church and seeing all of the glorious colors bursting all around me.

Yes, I love our Sunday services at our church. ... Because there is nothing else like it to recharge, reboot and rebuild me for the upcoming week. ... I pray that it may always be so.

And that is why today I am finding faith in our church's Sunday services. ... Amen.