WELCOME
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Rolly View is sometimes called “the little church with the big heart” for good reason. We’re a picturesque country church surrounded by the pastoral beauty of gently rolling farmland just east of Leduc and south of Beaumont. Our purpose is to serve our community and beyond as we live and share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We hope you like the fresh new look of our recently revised website. This is an exciting time as our spacious new addition is fast coming to completion! It’s the fruition of a long time dream come true with vision for the future. Our church, however, is defined by much more than its’ building. We’re a community of imperfect but welcoming, caring people committed to putting our faith into action by serving God as we serve one another. Please join us for worship each Sunday morning at 10:30 am, for any of our midweek activities or simply drop by for a visit. And let’s keep in touch via the web. We look forward to meeting you soon!
Pastor Dennis Aicken
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Rolly View is sometimes called “the little church with the big heart” for good reason. We’re a picturesque country church surrounded by the pastoral beauty of gently rolling farmland just east of Leduc and south of Beaumont. Our purpose is to serve our community and beyond as we live and share the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. We hope you like the fresh new look of our recently revised website. This is an exciting time as our spacious new addition is fast coming to completion! It’s the fruition of a long time dream come true with vision for the future. Our church, however, is defined by much more than its’ building. We’re a community of imperfect but welcoming, caring people committed to putting our faith into action by serving God as we serve one another. Please join us for worship each Sunday morning at 10:30 am, for any of our midweek activities or simply drop by for a visit. And let’s keep in touch via the web. We look forward to meeting you soon!
Pastor Dennis Aicken
A CARING COMMUNITY
Just today I received a mailing about wellness. What’s wellness? Wellness means staying healthy and enjoying a great quality of life. According to the article being socially active is one of the best ways to enhance our wellness with balanced living. For this reason health professionals encourage us to join a community group. Social isolation is a growing problem that can adversely affect our health. This was reinforced for me by a recent news report that one in five Canadians admit they’re lonely. In fact this is fast becoming such a pandemic that the British government last year appointed a minister of loneliness to address the problem! Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, many people in large urban centres are among the most socially isolated even though they live in close quarters with thousands of other people.
The church is a community of imperfect but caring people who have experienced God’s grace and forgiveness. We know we need each other and that we’re better together! You’re invited to join us at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Rolly View for uplifting worship at 10:30 am each Sunday and/or for midweek activities as we grow in faith and understanding of God’s unconditional love for us and all people. We look forward to meeting you soon!
Pastor Dennis
CHRISTMAS SEASON
Christmas lights are one of the special joys of the holiday season. It goes without saying, however, that none of us wastes time with Christmas lights in June because light depends on the deepest darkness to enhance its brilliant beauty. Dark winter nights accentuate the power of light and its radiant splendor as nothing else can do. Light and darkness have a profound psychological impact on us all. So much so that behavioral scientists in the early 1980s identified a unique form of depression brought on by the long winter months called SAD, ie Seasonal Affective Disorder, once described as “cabin fever” or the “winter blues”. It’s well named because deprivation of light makes so many people feel sad. The winter solstice arrives December 21st, the shortest day of the year when here at Rolly View we’ll have just seven hours and thirty-nine minutes of daylight.
Christmas is the celebration of God’s light triumphing over a world enveloped by the darkness of sin. So the prophet Isaiah announces the coming of the Savior: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” (Isaiah 9:2a) Are you surprised to discover Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th? I certainly was many years ago. We don’t know the precise day of Jesus’ birth and it really doesn’t matter. When pagan people gathered on the shortest day of the year to celebrate the rebirth of the sun, source of light, warmth and life itself, the early church seized this as an opportunity to celebrate the rebirth of the SON of God whose birth brings eternal light to a world held captive by the darkness of sin. So it’s not by accident then that when the nights are longest, the darkness most powerful and our spirits lowest we celebrate the light of God’s love all wrapped up in the gift of Jesus that first Christmas. May Jesus, the Light of the world, fill your heart and home anew with wonder and amazement this Christmas and always.
Pastor Dennis