Faith Lutheran Church

06/01/2026

Join us as we celebrate Pride Month and our anniversary of becoming an RIC church in the ELCA. Come for a special worship on Sunday, June 14 where all are truly welcome!

05/31/2026

Join us for Worship Holy Trinity Sunday - May 31

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05/30/2026

We are grateful for these members of Faith who attended today’s Synod Assembly, serving in a variety of roles across the synod!

05/29/2026

Please be in prayer for the voting members of this year’s New Jersey Synod Assembly, including those from Faith: Mike Volpe, Ellen Lindemann, Kiera Mazurek, and Pastor Jill Collict, as well as Jim Harris, who serves as synod treasurer, and Debra Porowski, who is a leader of synod youth ministry.

Join us on Saturday for Worship and Plenary Sessions. Livestream will be available on our NJ Synod YouTube Channel beginning at 9:30 AM
www.youtube.com/njsynodelca

Links and worship booklet can also be found on the NJ Synod website: njsynod.org/assembly

05/26/2026

We are each called to be that adult.

I've spent the last few days updating slides and preparing for some upcoming workshops - it's summer camp training season!

While doing that, I dug into the latest data from The Trevor Project national survey on LGBTQ+ youth mental health released earlier this month (link in the comments). I've really appreciated how this data has gotten more specific and robust over the years, but the thing that struck me the most was how much the conclusions remain the same:

👉 LGBTQ+ youth are negatively impacted by high rates of bullying, discrimination, rejection... which largely correlate to high rates of anxiety, depression and suicidality.

👉 Youth who experience higher rates of discrimination and harm as a result of having two or more vulnerable identities (like LGBTQ+ youth of color) experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality.

👉 The current political climate and all attempts to legislate away the humanity of LGBTQ+ cause stress and anxiety, at best.

👉 When those same youth experience support, safety, and access to mental healthcare and medical care, those rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidality drop.

Rejection and attacks = bad. Support and safety = good.

Sure, seems obvious. Still, you might wonder, but what can I do? Well, data from The Trevor Project and every other source bears out over and over again that access to affirming adults and reasonably safe spaces improves outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth. So, what can you do? Be that adult. Build that place. In your home. In your school. At your local library. In your faith community. At your summer camp. Engage in real conversation with the people around you to equip them to do the same. We aren't helpless. We are the helpers.

Keep showing up in the face of EVERYTHING going around you and these young people. Those same actions we've been telling you to do for years are more important than ever. Sure, we're tired and we're overwhelmed... but we're the grownups. Keep going.

05/26/2026

Join us this evening for pre-assembly Workshops. We gather together at 6:30 PM via Zoom. Workshop descriptions and zoom link can be found on the assembly page.
www.njsynod.org/assembly

05/24/2026

Join us for Worship Pentecost Sunday - May 24

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05/23/2026

Join us for worship this Sunday at 10:00 am as we celebrate the Festival of Pentecost.

05/22/2026

05/17/2026

Join us for worship 7th Sunday of Easter - May 17th

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