Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran Church
Helping our community experience a new life with Jesus
		Pastor’s Letter from the July edition of the Herald Angel We’ve been talking about evangelism this year in the “A Letter from Pastor Mike” column. In the act of evangelism we cannot help but speak of the places in which we hear the Gospel and how those places nurture us in our Christian faith. With that in mind I’ve been asking folks why they go to church. Several of our young people preached on that subject on “Youth Sunday” and their witness has been repeated in the newsletter these past few months. This month I turn the remainder of this space over to Ellie Crawford, summer administrative assistant and full time PK, who has excerpted parts of a paper she wrote for her Intro to Religion class at Capital University that address this topic. Her account follows. Peace, Pr. Mike Before I left for school at Capital University my mom told me that she wanted me to go to church every week. I’ll admit, her request made me roll my eyes a little. However, I promised that I would at least check out what Capital had to offer and try going to church once a week. I had always gone to church with my family, but I wondered how easy it would be to force myself to go once I was on my own. During the first week of classes, I went to Wednesday Chapel, mainly because I had a class before it and was already out of my room and awake. As the semester went on, I found myself going to Wednesday Chapel every week. I don’t really know why I kept going back, it actually kind of surprised me. I also got very involved with the Lutheran Student Movement (LSM) and became the First Year Representative. Along with that I went to Candlelight, which is a service that includes singing praise songs, hearing a reading and short sermon, and getting a chance to pray with and for fellow students, every week. My first few months of college I was completely surprised in myself because all of my major, regular activities were church related. Keep in mind, I was the one who rolled my eyes when my mom wanted me to go to just one church service a week, and here I was going to three, and sometimes four if I was feeling ambitious on Sunday morning. Looking back, I think I suddenly became all about religion because I finally became spiritual. At a time when I was constantly uncomfortable with new friends and a roommate and being far from home, I turned to God. I started praying a lot more and I felt safe when I was at church or LSM. My spirituality became one of the most important things in my life this year. Sometimes people separate religion and spirituality, but I don’t think it is possible for me to do that. My religion made me more spiritual. Attending religious activities forced me to look more closely at what I believed; and for the first time it was really what I believed, not what my parents believed. I made a lot of decisions this year. It was my decision to go to Wednesday Chapel instead of going back to bed every week. It was my decision to miss “The Office” on Thursdays to go to LSM. It was my decision to put off my homework until 11 pm because I was at Candlelight with my friends. And most importantly, it was my decision to let God into my life and to work on strengthening that relationship, on my own. I guess looking back I am not surprised that I made those decisions this year, considering that religion has always been a part of me, but going into college, it was something I didn’t expect. Gloria Dei Lutheran Church is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) For comments or problems with this website: webmaster