First, a word from Kept Moments, by Gerhard E. Frost

 The Difference

He’d just received a box of crayons, a birthday gift. Deluxe, it was, with more than seventy colors, and he was proud..…

Here we are in the heart of summer. The time many of us look forward to all year round. Yet as I write this we are only 29 days away from the Minnesota State Fair. You know what that means. We can almost see the end of summer from here.…

Jacob in the Desert, A Baby in an Airport: Unexpected Grace!
“Jacob’s dream of angels on a stairway to heaven, strikes me as an appealing tale of unmerited grace. Here’s a man who has just deceived his father and cheated his brother out of an inheritance. But God’s response to finding Jacob vulnerable, sleeping all alone in open country, is not to strike him down for his sins but to give him a blessing...…

I live 40 minutes from St James. That’s what Google Maps tells me. It assumes I will take the fastest route. The freeway. But there are times when I deliberately take a different path to my destination..…

Along our Way
Summer is often a time filled with motion and emotion. Many are on the move. Some travel. Some move between home and “the lake.” There are some preparing to move away from home to attend college...…

John 3:8
The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”..…

Though certainly not the case for everyone, one of the things Summer often means for many people, is a bit more relaxed time. You know, the “Summertime, and the liv’n is easy,” sort of vibe. This is a time folks often turn to thinking about Summer reading, on a deck in the backyard, at the lake, or on a beach somewhere..…

In this space last week, I wrote of the arrival of Summer and the kinds of opportunities the season provides.

Today, I want to extend to you an invitation to join me and Pastor Nancy for some conversations around worship practices, here at St James, and more broadly within the whole Church.....…

Our weather has suddenly turned very summer-like. While Summer has its own busyness there is something about sunny days, warm nights, birdsong in the morning, the profusion of color blooming around, and children laughing and playing in their yards and in the parks, that naturally draws us toward rest and renewal....…

First the word. Then the meaning(s). Then the amazing powerful implications. 

Pentecost did not begin with the Christian Church. Its roots are found in the Jewish celebration of the Festival of Weeks, typically called Shavuot by Jewish people...…

This Sunday will be filled with music as we gather for worship and hear the choir sing, as we join our voices in singing the hymns as a congregation and hear piano and organ music.…

This time of the year you can experience a cavalcade of seasons within a matter of days. You never quite know what season you will wake up to each morning. One day it is 87, the next is 37. It snows, it rains, the sun shines. This is Minnesota!..…

Your Transition Task Force (Judy Jensen, Jim Soleim, Miriam Ring, Jim Collins) appointed by the church council, has been hard at work since January gathering information to complete a document called the Ministry Site Profile (MSP).  This MSP will act as a guiding document to support the Call Committee through their process. .…

Based upon the list of nominees provided by the congregation, in accordance with the provisions of our constitution, and following our synod call process guidelines, your council has prayerfully selected these persons to serve as your call committee.…

Alleluia! Christ is risen!                                 

Christ is risen indeed, alleluia!

Then all the people said, “Now what?”

Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection. We decorated the church, sang songs, words were spoken, and we shared a meal we call communion or eucharist, which means, “thanksgiving.”…

Welcome to Holy Week!
 As I write on the morning of April 5th the temperature outside is only 35 degrees. Snow still blankets much of the ground. The skies are gray and gloomy. There is a foggy mist hanging in the air.…

As we stand ready to enter the rush of events leading from Palm Sunday to Easter, I share a reflection meant to bring these events from the past to our present and help us see ourselves as present to them.   – Pastor Lamont…

It was just another warm summer morning as a group of children filed down the stairs into the basement of the Reformed Church in Ashley, North Dakota. We gathered around tables prepared for the bible school art activity appointed for that day…

“ That you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith” — Romans 1:12

Friends,  
It has been a few years since the group “Senior Moments” has gathered for meetings and outings around the cities. In the past, these gatherings were wonderful opportunities for fellowship, community engagement and learning for our senior members of the St. James….