I am truly pleased to be serving as the interim pastor at Bethlehem.  I have come to know the people of this congregation to be genuinely and generously welcoming towards all.  I like to say if I’m welcome everyone is welcome.

I realize that Lutheran may mean different things to different people, but as for me it comes down to a couple of key concepts.  The first being grace.  Grace is a gift freely given and undeserved.  It is the unconditional love Christ revealed on the cross when he uttered the words, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

Secondly, being Lutheran goes back to the concept of simultaneous sinner and saint.  No one is good enough to lord it over others and no one is so bad to be beyond God’s forgiveness.  Finally, it is the Theology of the Cross.  God meets us in our humanity.  We can be real with God and one another.

I look forward to the opportunity to greet and meet you.  I hope you will check us out and see for yourself whether what I’ve experienced is true for you as well.  Yet whether we meet or not may you always know that God’s unconditional love for you is real.

Peace,

Pal (Pastor Al)