Birthdays This Week: Michelle Wang, Sophia Tang, Celeste Li, Bethlehem Michael

Anniversaries This Week: Gary & Lynette Goodenough

2026 Flower & Eternal Candle Calendar

Flowers: To donate and/or dedicate flowers for a birthday, anniversary, special even or person, choose a date, print your name clearly on that line, and then under “Dedication: list what or to whom you are dedicating the flower bouquet(s). There are 2 spots available for each week. It will be noted in the News & Notes for that week. You do NOT have to donate in order to dedicate, but it does help the church if you do. Donation for each bouquet is $20. Checks should be made out to Loving Savior and placed in the flower envelopes provided and placed in the offering plate.

Eternal Candle: To donate and-or dedicate the eternal candle in remember of a person(s), special occasion or event, choose a month, print your name clearly on the line, and then your “Dedication” for the month. It will be noted in the News & Notes for the entire month. You do NOT have to donate in order to dedicate, but it does help the church if you do. Donation for a full month is $20. Check should be made out to Loving Savior, placed in the eternal candle envelopes provided, and place in the offering plate.

National Lutheran Schools Week

National Lutheran Schools Week is coming up January 25-31, 2026.  National Lutheran Schools Week provides more than 1,800 preschools, elementary schools and high schools with the public opportunity to proclaim and celebrate God’s work among us in schools of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. We thank God for the opportunity to provide excellent academic preparation for the children we serve. We are most grateful for the opportunity to share Jesus’ amazing love with children and their families. National Lutheran Schools Week gives us an opportunity to proclaim these great blessings within the communities we serve. Our schools are amazing incubators for faithful witness of God’s love for us through Christ by teachers and students alike. This year’s theme is Let’s Make a Joyful Noise.

LCMS Stewardship Ministry Newsletter Article – January 2026

“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new. Also, He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:5).

In January there is a great deal of “new” talk. Parties are held to ring in the “new” year. “New” year’s resolutions are made to set a “new” course of life in the “new” year. There is date forgetfulness as checks and other forms are filled out without using the “new” year on the dateline.

We use all this “new” talk because there is very often so much wrong with the old in us. We think back to the “new” resolutions from the previous year that only lasted a few weeks. That “new” person did not shed any pounds and instead, picked up a few. The “new” habits of going to the gym were soon replaced by even more time on the couch binging on Netflix. The “new” person who does not lose their temper, use sarcasm as a lethal weapon and spend more money that necessary, but who worships, prays and serves the Lord and the neighbor, never seemed to stick around. We need “new” talk because the Old Adam is alive and well within every one of us.

But this promise of “new” is a matter of stewardship. It is the Lord Himself who makes the promise of all things being new. These words recorded by St. John are not pious wishes or hopeless promises. They do what they say. YOU, that one baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection, are NEW! These words are indeed trustworthy and true. This “new” comes to you in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It comes free of charge, even without our prayer.

This stewardship of “new” is not a vague, someday kind of stewardship either. You are NEW now! Forgiven. Reborn from above. The old is gone, nailed to Calvary’s cross and buried and rotting in a tomb that was only borrowed by Jesus for His resurrection rest. The Gospel is what makes us NEW every morning. Remembering your baptism, you are new. Confessing your sins and receiving absolution makes you new. Hearing the Gospel filling your ears makes you new. Feasting on Christ’s body and blood in the Holy Supper makes you new.

These mercies, totally undeserved as they are, are entrusted to us to steward TODAY even as we long for the Last Day. But we know how often we fail in this stewardship. We hoard God’s creation as if it belongs to us. We belittle and devalue our neighbor because they look or sound or act in a way that we do not like. We seek to make the Holy Word of God softer and more palatable for those, or even ourselves, who refuse to confess sin as sin and repent. We value our comfort over truth, our reputation over faithfulness and our treasure over making sure that people get to hear of the Jesus who has done so much for the world and us.

We, as stewards of the Gospel, need to be made new every day. This is exactly what the Lord does. We failed in stewardship of the Gospel last year, so He gives us a new year. We failed in stewardship of the Gospel yesterday, and He gives us a new day. We failed in stewardship of the Gospel in the last few minutes, and yet in mercy our newness comes with each tick of the clock! Because that is how the Lord works.

As we see this working of all new things in us, it then calls us to be stewards of this newness to the world. This starts right in our own homes. It radiates out to our neighbors. It beams out from our congregations. This newness is teamed at the circuit, district and Synod levels all to shine the newness of the Gospel to those who need it.

Your new talk starts in the newness of the Gospel. Steward this treasure in this new year and this new day. It starts with a new you in Jesus. This is indeed trustworthy and true.

LCMS Life Ministry Newsletter Article – January 2026

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

Christians may think of the birth of Christ as His incarnation — His moment of “taking on flesh.” But rather than on Christmas Day, His birthday, Christ’s incarnation took place at the moment of His conception. That which the angel Garbiel announced to the Virgin Mary — “and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31) — is a pronunciation of Christ’s first coming. The One who is the eternal Word (John 1:1) clothed Himself with flesh and inhabited life in the womb for the first nine months of His life. This month, we celebrate Christ’s birth and the redemption that He won for all flesh, even those who are yet unborn (Psalm 22:23).