Grace is word we use often and in a variety of ways, but what does it really mean? As Lutheran’s, grace is central to our theology. Grace in central to the Gospel. We all know and love the various forms of the song, Amazing Grace, but do we really know, embrace and dispense God’s Amazing Grace? This sermon series will help us explore all those questions.

A three-week sermon series addressing the questions ‘What does it mean to live the missional life?’ and ‘How can we join Jesus on His mission and partner with the Holy Spirit to being Jesus and the Kingdom to the people and places in our lives?’. Learn how to join Jesus on His mission in a simple way!

You may notice that this is a phrase that appears in many places at St. Michael, and you may wonder what it means. We are going to take a journey through some of the aspects of the Spirited Life: Be with Jesus, Become like Jesus, Do as Jesus Did, and Trust the Holy Spirit. As we move into the exciting future God has for us, you will not want to miss this sermon series. Following The Spirited Life Sermon Series, the sermon series will be about Missional Life which will coincide with our all-church study and Greg Finke’s visit November 15-17!

What does it mean to live a generous life? Living a generous life is more than what we do with our money, how much we give, or what we give to. Living generously is a posture and a lifestyle that involves all of our resources: our time, our talents, and our financial resources. Often when it comes to the stewardship of our time, talents, and treasures we either avoid talking about these things in the church, or we talk about them in an unhealthy way. This sermon series will explore, in a healthy way, what it means to live generously in all areas of our lives.

Over a six week period we will look at all of the parts of the Lord’s Prayer that we say each Sunday. We will explore their meaning in the scripture, Luther’s thoughts and more. The goal is to deepen the meaning of this all too familiar prayer and to think more carefully about what it means to our lives today. If you are looking for an interesting resource on the Lord’s Prayer, check out Max Lucado’s book, The Great House of God.  

The next new sermon series, which began on June 30, is “Parables of Jesus”. Join us as we experience the power of

|story through the Parables, stories that Jesus told. Story always speaks profoundly to us in a variety of ways, no more so than the story and stories of the scriptures. As we examine a variety of familiar and unfamiliar parables, we will consider what it really means to be transformed by the words of Jesus today.

For six weeks, we will take a journey through the book of Ephesians, looking at verses from a different chapter each week. It will be an exciting and meaningful series to learn and grow both in our own faith, but also in our understanding of what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ in a complicated culture. Join us in person or online! 

We will explore and journey through some of the well known and not so well known miracles of Jesus and reflect on what they mean for our lives today as we seek to follow Jesus.

After the conclusion of our Habits of Healthy Churches sermon series, we are going to start a short, 3-week sermon series leading up to Easter called “Hard Truth, Transforming Grace”. We will look at some important but hard aspects of following Jesus in the Church and the world and an accompanying grace that is transformative for us. Don’t miss this great series!

Starting January 13 / 14 we will begin a new sermon series, Habits of Healthy Churches. This sermon series is based on the book Habits of Healthy Churches: 7 Practices to Transform Your Church Culture (written by Pastor Marcus). We will be providing a guide for reading later this month, but if you want to follow along, you can pick up the book and read through ahead of the sermon for that week. The schedule is below. You can get the book on Amazon and limited copies will be available to purchase from the church for $10. 

Habits of Healthy Churches Reading Schedule

• For January 13 through the end of chapter 5
• For January 20 Chapter 6
• For January 27 Chapter 7
• For February 3 Chapter 8
• For February 10 Chapter 9
• For February 17 Chapter 10
• For February 24 Chapter 11
• For March 2 Chapter 12-end

Advent is a season of expectation, preparation and anticipation. In Advent we expect, prepare for and anticipate the coming of Jesus to the world once again. During Advent we will look at how we come to anticipate Jesus everyday, in our lives, our church and in the world. In this season of transition at St. Michael, it is critical to our healing and health to anticipate Jesus to work in our midst. Join us as we anticipate Jesus together!

Leading up to advent we will have a short, 4 week sermon series called All In. We will examine what it means in this season of transition and transformation what it means for all of us to be all in on what the Holy Spirit is doing and wants to do in and through St. Michael Lutheran Church. Inn this series we are looking at what it means to be all in. All in with Jesus, all in with the church, all in at St. Michael, all in with the Kingdom.There are many ways to be all in for Jesus, the church and the Kingdom of God. 

We kick off our six- week fall sermon series titled "YHWH - How Big and Awesome is our God." Sometimes in life, we put limits on what we feel God can do. We place Him in a small box and impose our own human limitations on Him. Our awesome God is bigger than all the challenges and struggles of this life and world. YHWH is the Hebrew name of God used in the Bible. It is a name that came to be regarded as too sacred, too holy to be spoken out loud.

In this sermon series we will be learning what the Bible says about the divine attributes of God. Each week, we will be studying a different divine attribute or quality. Such attributes of God include that He is eternal, unchangeable, all powerful, all knowing, ever present, holy, merciful, just, and loving. Come join us as together we can grow in a deeper understanding of our awesome and big God. 

This sermon was previously recorded and used for this week due to special circumstances.

In Romans Rom 12:1 Paul writes, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed

by the renewing of your mind.” Renewing our thinking so that we no longer think like the world is important.

But so is renewing a whole lot of the rest of us which we can do because of Jesus. We need to renew our strength,

renew our relationships, renew our faith, and renew a whole lot of other things. Thankfully, we follow a Lord who is the renewer, the One who makes all things new!  Join us for this summer preaching series that begins on

July 1st as we discover real renewal for all of life in Jesus!

You were saved to be someone “unique.” Those who are claimed by Jesus are meant to be fundamentally different than they would be without him. But what does that difference look like? Join us for our new weekend message series that goes from the end of April through the end of June called, “Unique: Living the Christian Life.” This series is an exploration of Colossians chapter three. 

The Bible is loaded with questions. Some are questions of God, and some are questions for you. Either way, questions can help you to deepen your faith and your understanding of God and your relationship to him. Join us for our Lenten message series called, “Questions” as we journey to the cross by wrestling with some questions posed by scripture.

We live in anxious times, but we are also advised in the Bible to be “anxious for nothing.” How do you do that? Join us for our winter sermon series beginning January 28 called, “Anxious for Nothing” as we explore how to find God’s peace in the midst of an anxious world.

The book of Acts has an unusual name for the church. They call it, “The Way.” The church is meant to be more than just something we go to or watch online. It is a journey engaged in with others. Join us for this three-week message series that begins on January 7/8 at our weekend worship services.

Every year we celebrate the coming of that special baby in a manger in Bethlehem. It’s a great celebration. But why did he come? It’s pretty radical for the Father to send his only Son into our world, especially in such humble circumstances. So why did he do this? This season leading up to Christmas we will look for answers to this question of “why?” in this series called, “Why in the World?” Discovering why the Father did this promises to make your Christmas this year even more meaningful. Join us on the weekends for worship this Advent season! 

The 3-week stewardship series this year is “Heart Matters”. When God gets first place in our hearts, everything else falls into place. When God comes in second, third or last place, everything seems to fall out of place. It’s a matter of the heart. 

Are you a fan of Jesus? That’s good. But he wants you to be more than just a fan. Jesus is looking for followers, for disciples. Beginning in September, we will be looking at what it means to be more than just a fan of Jesus, to be instead a disciple of Jesus. What is the difference? What is at stake? Where is the blessing? We will have a devotional available (for a free-will offering) for you and your family to use during and following this series. So join us on the weekends for “Not A Fan.” 

People were attracted to Jesus for many reasons, but chief among them seemed to be the miracles he performed because in them, the power of God was revealed. Join us for this message series this summer as we look at the miracles of Jesus and what they might mean for us today.

Week after week in worship we say together an ancient statement of faith called “The Apostles Creed.” But what does it mean? It proposes some pretty radical ideas for which people over the centuries were willing to sacrifice and even die to defend. Join us as we explore in this spring message series the things we say we believe in the Apostles Creed.

Covid and the division of the past several years have left a lot of people feeling kind of unmotivated and aimless. How do you break free of this post-covid rut? In scripture it says that in Jesus we are “more than conquerors.” What is more than a conqueror? It is an “Overcomer.” One who overcomes those things that hold you back from that vital relationship with Jesus. One who overcomes that rut that seems to never change. One who overcomes those things that keep you from the fullness of life promised in Jesus. Join us this Lenten season for our new weekend worship series as we discover how we might live as Overcomers in Jesus.

Ash Wednesday is both a time of solemn contemplation and a reminder that Christ assures us of eternal life through the cross. Join us for our Ash Wednesday worship service on March 2 at 7pm. We will continue gathering throughout the Lenten season in person and virtually on Wednesday evenings at 7pm as we journey toward the cross and the empty tomb. Hear testimonies and become engrossed in dramatic presentations.

Surely that title must be wrong! Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? How can one be a Christian and an Atheist? Good question. When our lives don’t match up with what we say we believe, we live as a “Christian Atheist.” Join us for our weekend message as we look at how to make our walk match our words of faith. You also have the opportunity to join a small group that will give you the opportunity for discussion of this topic with others during this six-week series.  

Jesus frequently uses the imagery of sheep and the shepherd to describe those he calls to follow him and their relationship with himself. In this message series we look at how we might fulfill Jesus’ teachings on reaching the lost and following the Good Shepherd.

The Advent season is a time of waiting and expectancy. Kids are counting down the days to Christmas. Adults are checking gifts off their lists. Advent wreaths are lit – one candle at a time. Jesus is coming! The question is, what do you want for Christmas? We can all say, “Jesus.” But how about being even more specific than that? Each Advent candle stands for something that the Messiah brings. So each week of Advent we will be looking at the meaning of these gifts of Joy, Hope, Peace, and Faith. Couldn’t you do with some of that this Christmas? Join us for this series weekends and Wednesday nights during Advent.

We will look at how Jesus desires us to experience a joyful life to the fullest, growing in our faith walk with Him. That is life at it’s best. He calls us to timely living, faithful giving and joyful serving in an increasingly unwise world.

Will we ever go back to normal after Covid? Will there ever be an “after Covid?” What is “normal” anyway? Join us this fall for this timely weekend message series called “Finding Normal.” In it we look forward to discovering how finding what it means to be fully human will lead to healing of our post-Covid world. 

All believers go through times of peaks and valleys in their faith. The question is, how can we experience a mountain top kind of faith in the valleys of life? People don’t live on the mountaintops. We live in the valleys. Be sure to be part of this summer’s weekend preaching series, “Climbing the Peaks” as we discover that mountaintop faith for everyday life through a study of the book of Philippians.

We live in a very anxious time that demands healthy spirituality. But many find themselves still spiritually immature, unable to slow down and just be with Jesus. This series, which begins April 17 / 18, is based on the book, “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.” Discover this spring how to be set free from the things that have been blocking you from experiencing all that God has for you.

God had a plan. It might have been hard for people to see at times, but God was working to save people long before He sent his Son into the world. When He did, all of salvation history was found in the path that Jesus took to the cross. This Lenten season our weekend message series will be based on Ray Vander Laan’s study, “The Path to the Cross.” In the story of that path you can find new meaning for your own faith walk and journey to be Christ’s follower. This series starts in the middle of February and continues until the end of March.

Based on Ray Vander Laan’s study, The Path to the Cross, The Path is where you'll find fresh meaning for your faith journey. Join us — online or in person — for special worship services that include video dramas and powerful testimonies from St. Michael's members.

Wednesday, Feb 24 – John Kersten

Wednesday, March 3 – Ann Marie Corey

Wednesday, March 10 – Matt Adams

Wednesday, March 17 – Nita Maxwell

Wednesday, March 24 – Abby Dunn

People love a true story well told. That is the story of Jesus. But truth has fallen on hard times these days. Does truth matter anymore? This weekend message series, called “True Story”, began in late January and continues through mid-February.

What is your purpose or mission from God? Our church has a mission and as a member, this mission is also yours. Our mission as a church is “To connect people to the Living God.” But, what does this mean for us? Where is God leading us – in life and as a church? Join us for our new January message series called, “The Mission,” starting right after New Year’s on the weekend of January 3.

Christmas isn’t the only thing that is coming soon. Jesus is coming soon. So, how do you prepare for His return? That’s what this Advent message series is about. It is about how to watch and wait for Jesus with an expectancy that gives your life hope and purpose. Join us every weekend for this series between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We will examine what Jesus teaches about priorities, generosity, and contentment in life as we seek to manage and share the blessings that God has entrusted to us, all by His grace. God desires us to live our lives joyfully and in service to Him and to our community and world.

Satan has done all he can to change things but now it’s time to get back to being the church!