John Louk

Come celebrate the Consecration of our new facility on Ascension Sunday, May 17. Bishop Julius Trimble, who oversees the Iowa Annual Conference, will join us to consecrate, preach, and celebrate Holy Communion. It is a joy and a privilege to have our bishop with us. Our District Superintendent, Rev. David Crow, will also be with us. Consecration sets apart a person, object, or place for the worship and service of God. On May 17 we will set apart our new place of worship as a holy space dedicated for the gathering of people to hear the Word of God, offer prayer and praise, and to celebrate the sacraments. While the church building is not the Church, it does stand as an image of the Church in the world. In the Orthodox tradition, consecration has roots in Baptism. It is the Baptism of the church building, so to speak. Just as a person is changed in baptism and becomes a new creation, the consecration changes an ordinary building into the house of God. Likewise, this change takes pl...

The wrapping paper lays crumpled and thrown haphazardly about. Bows and ribbons are stacked on the arm of the couch. Boxes left opened. It’s hard to walk through the room. The dishes still dirty on the table. The food has just been put away. Everyone is tired. It’s a moment to sit down and relax, look at the glorious mess and smile, reminisce. Take a nap. You’ve been there. Whether it’s Christmas or a birthday, you know what this looks like, feels like. Perhaps that’s how it feels after a glorious Easter grand opening at Salem. We’ve been waiting and watching, anticipating, and working—not just for months but for years. And then our moment came. It was powerful, meaningful, beautiful. A new facility. 369 people! Lots of new people with more coming regularly. Now the downtime. The glorious mess. The need to sit down or take a nap. Is that it? Now what? Our bishop will be with us on May 17 to consecrate, to set apart our new facility for the worship and service of God. As we’ve...

So go into the streets and invite anyone you see; invite everyone you meet. Matthew 22:9 (Voice) Jesus liked parties, getting people together and celebrating something in the community. Jesus even told a story, saying the kingdom of God is like a party, a wedding party a king gave for his son. The guests were invited, but when the servants went out to get the guests, they chose not to come. So the king sent his servants out once again saying, “So go into the streets and invite anyone you see; invite everyone you meet.” Everyone gets invited to the kingdom of God party. We’re throwing a big kingdom of God party at Salem on Easter Sunday, April 5. We’ve built a new facility. It’s ready. But this hasn’t only been about a building. In order to live out our mission, we’ve created ministry teams to help us with prayer, discipleship, and outreach (the mission team was already in place). We have more ministry teams to implement along the way, but we’re ready to go. Now our Grand Openin...

"Then Levi gave a great banquet for Jesus in his house; and there was a large crowd of tax collectors and others sitting at the table with them." Luke 5:29 Our youth director, Mac Cain, recently shared a story on Facebook. He takes classes at Kirkwood Community College. A  couple days ago he was in his math class and a man sat down next to him. The guy asked Mac about his tattoos and about his Noah's Ark tattoo, specifically. So Mac asked him about his tattoos, especially his swastikas and various other Nazi symbols including the SS he had on his face. The two of them talked for a good hour. During that time the man asked about God. Mac said he told him everything he knew. He asked if anyone was welcome, and Mac told him that no one is too far gone. The guy wondered how that could be true. So Mac told him, “Come to church with me on Sunday and find out.” Mac said it was great, aside from the fact that neither of them did any math that day. I often get to h...

How are we doing, making disciples of Jesus Christ who transform the world? 2014 was a great year! Each year, in assessing the state of Salem, we take a look at some benchmark statistics. Our membership now includes 227 people. We also have 34 baptized infants and children— so 261 total. This past year 6 members died, 3 transferred to other congregations, and 8 were received as new members. We have received 66 new members since arriving at our current location a little over four years ago! We actually put the brakes on receiving new members this past year as we worked on our new discipleship pathway. We have several wonderful people who have been waiting to become members and we will receive them this year. Our worship attendance increased again. We averaged 185 this past year, up from 177 the year before. That equals 71% of our members and baptized infants/children! While that is fantastic, our goal is to have an average attendance that is higher than the number of our m...

Philip told Nathanael about Jesus and said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:43-46 A woman called and made an appointment to see me. She told me she had moved to Cedar Rapids and had visited five churches. Out of those five visits, only once did people at the church speak to her. That one church was Salem. I was saddened to hear of her experience at the other congregations. I was pleased and a little relieved to hear that she experienced at Salem what so many do: a warm and hospitable welcome. This simple habit of intentionally speaking to others at church cannot be overestimated. I told her what I’ve shared many times. When I first arrived at Salem, the leaders told me that Salem is a very friendly, warm and caring congregation. I thought to myself, “Okay, well, we’ll see.” After all, there are a lot of congregations that consider themselves to be warm and friendly when in fact, not so much. But it turned out that Salem is exactly that. Over and over again, guests come and tell me ...

Jeff, a long-time member of Salem, makes lots of phone calls. He leads the Tuesday prayer room. If you fill out a yellow prayer card and put it in the offering, Jeff and others will pray for your request. He will likely call you to see if there has been an answer to the prayer. He calls people in the church regularly. A year ago, we asked Jeff made calls to church members as part of the Salem Rising capital campaign to encourage them to come to worship for the Salem Rising kick-off. That Sunday, a woman in our congregation (who said I could share this) came out after the 11 am service and said, “Now, who is this Jeff that called me?” I looked around and saw Jeff getting into his car and pointed him out. I said, “There he is.” She said, “He called me.” I said, “Yes, he made calls this week to members to encourage them to come to worship today.” She said, “Oh, he called everyone?” I said, “Yes.” She looked around sheepishly and said, “When I got the call I was in Las Vegas,...