​The Stewardship and Outreach Committee of the Red Lodge Community Church is joining with a group of funders to fill Christmas backpacks for the children on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation who will have a very bleak Christmas otherwise.  They have suffered so many family deaths and haven’t had their normal support groups such as their schools and the Boys and Girls Club.  We are raising last minute funds to provide hats, gloves, games, books, art supplies, hygiene kits and other good stuff to fill the back packs. You can either drop your donations off at the church or make a financial donation through our giving link on our church’s website, www.redlodgecommunitychurch.com. 

Thank you Red Lodge!

The Harvest Dinner at Red Lodge Community church was cancelled this year, but members didn’t want to pass up a chance to share Love in Action altogether.  Enough funds were raised to buy 78 gift cards to our Beartooth IGA grocery store. In cooperation with the Red Lodge Area Community Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club we distributed the cards to friends, neighbors, community front line workers, and to some who could use a little financial help.
​
Sharing good thoughts and thanks to all our community during these difficult days, there is hope and strength that connects us. Happy Thanksgiving to you all, and we hope to see you next November for a real Harvest Dinner celebration.

Red Lodge Community Church

This is your last week to donate for the Virtual Harvest Dinner.  You can find the giving link and more about how this dinner will work here.  Please enjoy listening to a few words from some of those in our church who have helped out so many times with Harvest Dinners in the past and look forward to so many more in the future.  

Last Sunday's community worship service held jointly by Red Lodge Community Church, Messiah Lutheran Church, and Calvary Episcopal Church was a great success and enjoyed by all!  If you missed it, you can watch the video right here.  

For those of you who missed the outdoor worship service last Sunday at Kaleva, you can watch it  here .  Enjoy! :)

​John 4: 19-20 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
 
In this time of COVID we have discovered that we are able to worship in places other than our church buildings. Can you imagine what our grandchildren are going to say when they look back at our historical worship? Will it sound like the Samaritan woman speaking to Jesus? “We worship on a mountain, and you say we need to be in a building??!!” I hope so!
 
Children are so much better than adults at figuring things like this out. After spending a week with Kora, watching her “figuring out” nature, I realized that I just need to follow her lead on outdoor worship. As she toddled around the mountain top she didn’t worry about the weather. She played hide and seek with a pica, smelled the flowers and splashed in the puddles. Perhaps this was the litany that was going through her toddler mind:
 
You are there, and then you are gone. I will wait for your return.
Your fragrance fills my being. Does the yellow flower not feed the bees?
I am bathed in your presence, washed clean for yet another day.
 
If we just follow the children’s lead and play in God’s beautiful mountain top creation, our worship will come.
​
Peace
Pastor Pam

Did you miss the outdoor worship service and baptism at Kaleva on July 5?  Or, maybe you were there and enjoyed it so much you'd like to see it again?  Well, you can watch the entire service and baptism right here!  Enjoy!  (Please note: The services are in chronological order, so scroll down past last Sunday's service to see the Kaleva service.)

Red Lodge Area Community Foundation's COVID-19 Relief Fund was the recipient of a Hazel Chamberlain Endowment Fund grant given through the Red Lodge Community Church.  You can find out more about the program and the grant in the video below.  

The Confirmation Class has begun their mission work! They are raising funds for blankets through Church World Service. Each student will be trying to raise the MOST funds...and the one who succeeds gets to have their own success shared with Pastor Pam. If Eliza comes out on top, Pastor Pam has to bake her bread. If Samarra is the top fund raiser, Pastor Pam has to make her Rice Krispie Treats. And Mason...well...Mason has challenged Pastor Pam to cracking raw eggs on her head...in public!! So support these great mission-focused students by going to the "Giving" link on our website and selecting which student you would like to support. The blankets are $30.00 each. The mission campaign will run until August 15. Good luck, Confirmation Students!!

Did you miss the outdoor worship service at Kaleva last Sunday?  If you did and you'd like to watch it, you can view the video of the service on our website.  Just click the link and scroll down to the video.  Yes!  It DID rain!! :)  But, it was all wonderful!! 

​https://www.redlodgecommunitychurch.com/watch---worship-services-music--sermons.html

​Proverbs 16: 3 “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”
Psalm 22:1 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Do you find yourself wafting between these two verses like I do? One day it feels like everything is going right and then the next day…the Plague of Frogs has descended on our plans. One minute we are rejoicing in the sun and then next day we are grumbling when we see our newly planted pansies covered and frozen in snow. One day we were all rejoicing in worship and then the next day we were trying to figure out how to log on to FaceBook just to see a familiar face…and FaceBook needs a password.

Make a plan and watch God laugh, they say. That doesn’t sound much like the proverbial success that we were planning on, does it? I sometimes that if I hear one more person say, “This is the new normal” I will just sit down and…and…and what? Scream? Cry? Laugh until I cry?

We know that we want to “get back to” where we left off on March 16. And we know that we can’t. So, then, what do we do? In this time of lament and laughter we do need to re-group and go back to what we were working on and look to the Lord in our commitments. Look to the Lord in our questions, curiosities and hesitations. Look to the Lord in all that we were doing so that we know how to ask, “Have you forsaken me…or strengthened me?”

During a time of mediation this week God reminded me through that still small voice that I have the tools that it takes to get through whatever comes my way. Tools to think deeply, reflect mightily and ask myself the tough questions. And one of those tools is indeed the ability to lament. It is also the ability to laugh at the smallest of blessings…especially the still small voice that guides me. As we go forward let me remind you that it is OKAY to lament…and then laugh. Though these two verses seem to be the ones that I find myself reciting almost daily, the one that bubbles up from within the lament is Ecclesiastes 3, “There is a time for every season under the sun.” Right now we make plans and watch God laugh. That’s our season, and I am here with you…right smack dab in the middle of it with you, lament and laughter and all.

Peace,
Pastor Pam

When the Spirit overwhelms us, we must respond. When we are frozen in place and cannot move, that is when we must listen. Just sit and listen. We cannot move and yet we must respond.
 
Silence everything and wait for Wisdom to raise her mighty head, and we will see the direction that She is leading us to, the direction to go in. Just wait. And then respond. The direction comes so clearly that we feel that when we move, we are moving in a dream. We will ask, “Is this a dream? Am I really doing this?” and we will receive confirmation that we are doing the right thing.
 
This takes work. Work to separate ourselves from asking for advice, from seeking a sign. We move forward in a way that is mystical and yet real. And when we have done what Spirit has told us to do… yes told us, not asked us, we will know that we have done the right thing.
 
As we wander through this life, we are not in it alone, we are in it together. Together with Spirit and the other. The other who needs us to listen and respond. This is not about us. It is not about what we want or need. It is about what the other needs and Spirit knows that and draws us into the relationship of care.
 
Spirit comes to us in Truth. A Truth that is as pure and unselfish as the love that confounds us and confuses us all. A love that sometimes we doubt, question, and run from. But it is through love that Spirit speaks, and that love is not selfish, it is all encompassing.
 
Let yourselves act in confidence…through Spirit, Truth and love.
​
Peace,
Pastor Pam

Have you missed the church calendar and wondered what's happening in the RLCC virtual church world?  Well, we have created a "virtual" calendar to help you find out!  You can check it out and/or download a copy of the calendar here.  Enjoy! 

Psalm 121:1 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains-- where does my help come from?”

“It is DONE!” The three favorite words of any student looking at a looming assignment. For me it was my Environmental Ethics paper… all 5000 words of it. It is such a good feeling of accomplishment when we can say, “It is DONE!” For many of us we have taken on tasks while being sequestered at home during this pandemic. Things like cleaning out closets, washing windows and cleaning up our yards. After each task is completed, we stand back and say, “It is DONE!”

That is how I felt this afternoon when my “word counter” hit 5085. DONE. SEND. RELAX…and then…repeat. The next two papers are not as long or detailed, but I know that after each one I will say, “It is DONE.”
We are all looking forward to the day when we can look COVID19 in the face and say, “YOU ARE DONE.” But what we also must realize is that we are going to continue with those next steps…relax…repeat. What?? Repeat?! Yes, we now realize the ease and extent of how a pandemic works. The scientists and theologians both agree…we will be repeating this someday. This is just the beginning of a new way of the world. No longer is it just the flu that we must be aware of.

How do we relax then? I know that once my doctorate is finished it will be another item on my long list of lifelong goals checked off, not unlike cleaning out my closets, so I can relax. But knowing that somewhere out there on the horizon is another pandemic looming? I look to the Word for my instruction on how to relax. And I lift up my eyes to the mountains, knowing that God will move them for us…again. This morning as I shared my thoughts on Good Morning, Red Lodge I realized that I said that the mountain had moved out of the mist. And I did not correct myself. God can and will move the mountains for us.

We just have to relax…and stand still long enough to see them move.
May God’s peace surround you as you relax…and stand still long enough in trust that God will move that next mountain just like God has all of the others before this one.

Peace
Pastor Pam ​

1 Thessalonians 2:17 (NRSV) “As for us, brothers and sisters, when, for a short time, we were made orphans by being separated from you—in person, not in heart—we longed with great eagerness to see you face to face.”
 
Oh how we long to see one another…and we wait for that day when we can once again join TOGETHER in worship, meal and celebration!
 
Knowing that our community needed to “keep our spirits up” until that time, Bill (the Mayor) and I (the Minister) came up with the idea for a “positivity” campaign. With the help of Junction7 we have been able to plaster our “Together we can do this!” signs all over Red Lodge and those signs are now finding their way across the country. (Please note that this was a personal endeavor and we are funding it through our own donations and those from the community, not the city or the church.)
 
While this campaign came out of a sense of relationship and community, I can’t help but see the spiritual connections that are celebrated as well. First, we followed a nudge to talk about this as a possibility (ok, so we talk for hours on end every day…so that’s not a stretch), but when this idea “clicked” it was at the very same moment. The nudge had done her work yet again.
 
We are all longing for a return to our “place” of worship and celebration. We are yearning to be reunited with friends and family, a “yearn to return,” if you will, to what we once knew. “Longing with great eagerness” as Paul put it, to see each other face to face. In the meantime, we are blessed with the technology of Facebook, FaceTime and other social media platforms to “see” each other as best we can.
 
Some of the conveniences of those technologies will continue long after the “Stay at Home” orders are lifted. Some of the discoveries about quiet reflection time, long walks and home cooked meals will become our new normal. Some of the delightful things that we’ve discovered under the guise of being sequestered for long afternoons we will then yearn for when our doors are once again open to the public.
 
Separation creates a yearning of the heart that brings us together in a way that is challenging, especially when we do not have an end date. So as we continue this time apart, we know that “Together we can do this!” Together in thought, prayer and technology. Together in our yearning and in our new discoveries. Together in our hearts, minds and souls.
 
Together with you in every way,
Pastor Pam

​“One protection we desire: that we not stumble in this life.”
From the Prayer of Thanksgiving
 
Every time that I approach my truck from the berm side to clean off the windshield, I am aware of the unstable-ness of my left knee. I can’t tell how deep the snow is before I hit ground and I’m not sure of what is under the snow…ice, stone, water…so I take a deep breath and very carefully plant my foot and make sure I’m stable before taking a good long reach across the windshield to clear the snow and pray under my breath, “Oh Lord don’t let me stumble.”
 
In this time of uncertainty, that has become my regular prayer. “Oh Lord, don’t let me stumble.” I want to get my sense of running through life with a certain feel of reckless abandon back. Like that of my granddaughter Kora in this picture, I want to just pick up my feet, spread out my arms and run like there’s nothing that is going to send me sprawling flat on my face. “Lord, do not let me stumble.” I want my pace to be uninhibited by a fear of making a mistake that will hurt someone. I find myself measuring my words before they leave my usually unfiltered mouth. “Lord, do not let me stumble.” I want my steps to take me places without having to look down and watch each one. I find myself hesitating before answering a question or giving an opinion. “Lord, do not let me stumble.” I want to have un-checked conversations about the future that go late into the night without fearing I’m being misunderstood. “Lord, do not let me stumble.”  I want to pour out my praise to God without checking it to see if it’s praising God for something that I have that has brought pain to someone who lost it. “Lord, do not let me stumble.”
 
I have been trained and educated for disasters, including pandemics, for over a decade. And yet, here we are and all I can think is, “Oh Lord, don’t let me stumble.”
 
For me, the key to not stumbling is to be stabilized in my trust. Trust of God, trust of myself, and trust of the other. Trust that the ground beneath me may move, shift and be altered…and that God will lift me back up when I fall. I will be lifted by not only my strength, but by the strength of the one who discovers that I have stumbled along the way.
 
“Oh Lord, don’t let me stumble…and when I do, thank you for giving me someone to lift me back up.”

​Peace,
Pastor Pam

​Did you enjoy last Wednesday's music from Red Lodge Community Church?  If you did, or you missed it, you can listen again on our "Watch - Worship Services, Music, and Sermons" page! 

The video offered below is a Public Service Announcement with safety tips for grocery  shopping and bringing home take out food.  We hope it serves you well in this trying time.  

If you missed the latest live stream worship service held by Pastor Pam on Facebook, or if you just want to watch it again, you can find the video on our "Watch a Sermon" page, as well as Pastor Pam's timeline.  

Our new online giving page and process is all set up, tested, and ready to go.  You can make online contributions to the Red Lodge Community Church on our Giving Page.  

For those of you wanting to do text giving, we do have that process set up.  As soon as it is tested, we'll provide you with that number.  

Please join us Sunday morning at 10:00am on Facebook as we live stream our worship service!  You can find us on Pastor Pam's timeline.  This live stream event can be seen by anyone.  You don't have to be a "Facebook friend" to enjoy it.

You can find the bulletin for Sunday's service here.  Print it out at home or just use it online.