In-person worship is cancelled this Sunday, March 15, due to the weather.
We will be broadcasting from our Facebook page. Please make sure people you know in the congregation are aware in case we have missed anyone through our communications.
Sunday Worship
9:30 am
In-person and
Live-streamed on YouTube
Wenesday Lent Schedule
5:45 pm Soup Supper
7 pm Worship
Come join us for Lent worship on Wednesday evenings! The theme of our Wednesday Meditations is “Heroes of the Faith.”Lenten devotional booklets will be available for your use. Worship services begin at 7 pm and are preceded with soup suppers beginning at 5:45 pm.
Holy Week Schedule
Maundy Thursday
April 3
7 pm Worship
Good Friday
April 3
7 pm Worship
Easter Sunday
April 5
9 am & 10:30 am Worship
Family of God Lutheran Church
YouTube Channel
To view the livestream:
- go to our YouTube channel
- click on "Live" on the horizontal menu, and select the video you wish to view. Typically the Sunday livestream will say "Upcoming" if you go to the channel prior to the start time.
Additionally, you can turn your YouTube notifications on in Settings so you will be alerted when Family of God goes live!
A Message From Pastor Paul
March 2026 Newsletter
Lent got its name from an Old English word for the lengthening of days in springtime. Lent is 40 days long—if you count from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, excluding Sundays, it is 40 days. Easter Sunday marks the end of the season of Lent. When we think of Lent practices most of us think of Roman Catholics not eating red meat on Fridays. However there are Catholic websites with all sorts of additional ideas for Lent, either fasting from some action or adding a spiritual action.
Lutherans are not known for requiring actions in our spiritual lives – though some like attending worship are strongly suggested. I remember giving up a late night comedy rerun for Lent and instead spent the time in prayer and devotion (sometimes falling asleep). One Lent I tried to give up red meat entirely for the season. Unfortunately we had a choir tour during Lent that year so eating salads on the road got to be difficult. I suspended my practice until we got home. I think I ate at McDonalds a couple times the day after Easter.
Martin Luther was known for translating the Bible into the language of the people. Given this gift, however many of us do not read Scripture enough. Oh, we hear it on Sundays, but what a treasure to read some throughout the week.
When doing premarital counseling with couples we would talk about religious faith, and often one of the persons would be more fervent about religious belief and the other not very much. I would suggest: “What’s there not to like about Jesus?” I then would encourage them to read the Gospel of Mark together. It is the shortest of the gospels, which helps. In fact, it is only about 20 pages long.
So, this Lent I am encouraging you to read the Gospel of Mark. If you read two chapters per week, and one chapter per day on Holy Week, you will have completed it by Easter. When we read things, and sometimes read them over again and again, we begin to see meanings and subplots we might not have noticed before. It is well worth it to read Scripture, which is the Word of God for you.
You could even read it while eating a Quarter Pounder with cheese over the lunch hour.
A blessed Lent to you – Pastor Paul
A Message From Pastor Erin
March 2026 Newsletter
Greetings to everyone at Family of God —
One of the things I love about FOG is the way different personalities can join together in one community. Each of us has unique talents, interests, and quirks that make us who we are. We can understand personalities as a concept in quite a few ways. Some people are into western astrology. Many people know their star signs, even if they aren’t familiar with the wider practice. The Chinese zodiac divides time into twelve-year cycles, with animals and personality traits being assigned to certain years. (Happy Year of the Horse!)
Another classifcation of personalities is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, also known as “sixteen personalities.” People are divided up based on introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuitive, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. It’s not a terribly scientific tool but it can be a helpful one in understanding someone’s perspective. The Enneagram is similar in that it places personalities into nine types, with names like “the reformer (1),” “the helper (2),” and “the peacemaker (9).
I’ll be using the Enneagram as part of an icebreaker activity at our church council retreat. This retreat is the kickoff for this year’s council, including new members elected at the annual meeting. I hope to learn more about our council’s values, how they solve conflict, and the ways we can best work together. As preparation, I’ve been looking through a book our own Sue Arens loaned to me. It’s called “Parables and the Enneagram” by Clarence Thomson. He describes the personality types of the Enneagram as a lens through which we view the world. Our “fatal flaws” are obstacles in understanding each other. He writes: “Our flaw is, first of all, a distorted vision of the world view of God, for these wrong viewpoints or —and a correspondingly skewed attitudes are usually the same. Thus our flaw is a strategy for dealing with God and this world that we see through a murky and distorted lens. … ‘I'm acting out my imagination. I'm acting out who I think I am, who I think God is, and what I think the world is like. The reason my behavior may seem bizarre to you is that you don't know my inner images, the furniture of my mind.’ The contribution of the Enneagram is to describe the inner geography of each other's minds. The contribution of the Scripture is to offer alternatives to that geography.”
God meets us where we are and equips us uniquely to play our part in the body of Christ, as described in 1 Corinthians 12. Sometimes, though, we need to put our own desires and tendencies aside, get over ourselves, and see God’s action and instruction more clearly. It ference! We are all on that journey. ’s a lifelong task to tell the difference!
Blessings to you and your loved ones!
— Pr. Erin Koster
The Lighted Globe:
The Lighted Globe at the back of the sanctuary is for the lighting of a votive candle by anyone wishing to express a particular prayer or hope in this symbolic way. Candles remain lit after all have gone, a visible sign of the prayers of our community of faith "for the whole people of God, and for all people according to their needs."
Holy Communion:
All baptized persons are welcome who believe Christ comes to us in the bread and the wine to bring forgiveness, life, and salvation. Children not yet communing come forward for a blessing. Children receive instruction and usually have First Communion in Fifth grade. We receive the sacrament standing. Grape juice is available.
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Worship with Holy Communion
(Current Season)
Regular Worship
(September - May)
Sundays - In Person and
Live-Streamed
9:30 am
Summer Worship
(June - August)
Sundays - In Person and
Live-Streamed
9:30 am
Interested in making your own communion bread just like we use at church for the coming services? Click the yellow button to view/download the recipe from Jane Nelson.
Children in Church
Children in Church: At Family of God, as Jesus did, we welcome children of all ages as integral members of the body of Christ, and we welcome the sounds and activity that accompany them! There are a number of spaces and activities designed for children to experience and participate in worship according to their needs (see reverse); we trust families to work out the best option(s) for them and their child(ren) on any given day. We also understand that it takes a village to raise a child. A few tips for engaging families with small children include:
- Greeting/learning the names of the young children who sit near you in worship.
- Offering to read or color with one child during worship, especially if another child in the family is especially fussy or upset.
- Helping preschoolers and elementary-aged kids to navigate the liturgy, locate the hymns, etc. (Children learn to worship by participating!)
- Inviting kids to serve alongside you in worship, as greeters, ushers, etc.
- Recognizing that certain conditions or disabilities don’t present physically, and some children (and adults) may make noises or act in ways that seem strange or upsetting, but are perfectly normal for their situation.
- Celebrating that God put the wiggle in children, and that children’s “mode of being” in worship is intrinsically more vocal and more physical than that of adults.
Busy Bags:
Located in the back of the sanctuary, these bags contains books, crayons, toys, figures, and other things to keep little hands busy and occupied. Children’s Bibles and Bible Story coloring sheets are also available, near the busy bags, and Scribble cards are located in the pew racks.
Family of God Sunday School:
See CYF/Sunday School pages. FOG students (3 years olds - 5th grade) worship with their families through the children’s sermon, then attend FOG Sunday School classes through the end of the service.
Nursery: If your little one simply needs a break, a nursery is staffed through every Sunday worship service for children from birth to 3 years of age.
*In order to comply with Family of God’s Child Policy, parents and guardians are asked to pick up their own children from both the nursery and FOG classrooms rather then, for example, allowing one parent to pick up children from two families. Thanks for understanding.