Church of the Loving Shepherd

09/12/2026

Want to hear more of this? Join us in person or virtually tomorrow at 10 AM!

09/12/2026

🌅TOMORROW AT CLS (9/13 at 10 AM)

What if the things we can see in the world around us could become windows into the things we cannot see? Romans 1:20 offers a beautiful thought: “The invisible can be understood and seen through the things God has made.”

Maybe worship begins when we stop waiting for something spectacular to happen and start paying attention to the ordinary things that have been revealing something to us all along?

Join us in person or virtually tomorrow as we begin our new series, “Made to Worship,” and discover what happens when we simply… look up. 🌿

📖 Open tomorrow’s bulletin:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nRMhMReIh0WTOFC3lQAqRYLF__6dCeGl/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104329012180150365045&rtpof=true&sd=true

💻 Worshiping from home?
Join us online through the CLS Zoom Room on our website. Just visit the CLS website and click on the Zoom link to join us Sunday morning. www.churchofthelovingshepherd.org

Whether you are in the sanctuary or joining us from home, you are welcome here. ❤️

We’ll see you tomorrow!

Join the Church of the Loving Shepherd for inclusive spiritual gatherings, outdoor reflections, and community support rooted in Quaker and interfaith traditions.

09/10/2026

Join us this Sunday at 10 AM!

09/06/2026

Today’s lunch & learn had a great turn out! Gary Soulsman led an engaging conversation and presentation exploring one of life’s most profound questions:
What is the modern evidence for consciousness surviving beyond death? (THANK YOU GARY!)

For the October 11th Lunch & Learn, bring a bagged lunch and join us for the conversation about how to give more to the causes we love and less to the government. Drinks will be provided. Come ready to listen and learn from Edward Jones Advisor, Lizzy Darling, about how to maximize your gifts to both the people you love and the organizations you care about, from 11:15 AM -12:30 PM at Church of the Loving Shepherd’s stone barn.
No RSVP necessary.

08/30/2026

From this mornings worship: A Moment for Our World
Before we move into our time of Healing and Prayers this morning, I want to invite us to widen our circle of compassion for just a moment.
There is so much suffering in our world right now. We hold in our hearts the people of Nepal, China, and India who are experiencing devastating loss. We remember those who have lost homes, loved ones, livelihoods, and any sense of security.
We know their suffering is not isolated. Around the world, people are living through war and violence, displacement and hunger, poverty and injustice, natural disasters and unimaginable loss. There are people whose names we will never know, whose stories may never reach our screens, and yet whose lives are just as precious as our own.
And perhaps we might even imagine that the Earth itself is crying out with us…bearing the wounds of the world we share.
So for just a moment, let us hold all of this together, because we believe that suffering should never have to be carried alone.
(Pause.)
Carol brought in objects from Nepal - the prayer flags I hung outside for you to pass under, the doll on the piano to remember the children facing extreme loss, and the passage to the Divine hanging over our prayer box as a reminder the many requests beyond our own that we cannot physically hear. These are all symbols of our shared intention for peace, healing, and compassion. Across cultures and traditions, people have found ways to give their prayers a physical expression; to place their hopes, their grief, and their wishes for peace into the world.
So as we look at these objects, as we light candles on the prayer table today, let them remind us of all the prayers we carry.

May these prayers move beyond this moment and beyond this room. May our prayers become compassion. May our compassion become action. And may our action become part of the healing this world so desperately needs.
And now, I want to offer one final sound as a gentle reminder to pause, to listen, and to remember that we are connected to one another and to this Earth we share by ringing this bell from Kathmandu.

May we carry these prayers with us.

08/28/2026

Last night we gathered beneath a remarkable sky in a place of healing. A lunar eclipse is a moment of transformation, a time when the light we normally see is temporarily shadowed, and the moon takes on that beautiful, coppery glow.

There is something deeply symbolic about that. Because sometimes, transformation asks us to enter the shadow…not because the light has disappeared, but because we are being invited to see differently.

The copper moon reminds us that even in darkness, there is beauty.
That what appears to be an ending may also be a beginning. And that we do not have to have everything figured out before we allow ourselves to be changed.

So because of that, we were open.
Open to the vibrations of the bowls and the large copper gongs.
Open to whatever each individual body, heart, and spirit may have needed to receive.

Under the copper moon, we allowed the sound to meet us exactly where we needed it to. And maybe that place was…
A prayer for healing.
A prayer for release.
A prayer for someone loved.
A prayer for the world.
Or perhaps simply the quiet intention: “May I be open to what I need.”

If you didn’t join us last night…we hope you trust that even when you cannot see the whole picture, the light was never truly gone. It was simply being transformed.

08/24/2026

Margaret and David brought some sunshine to our altar!

08/19/2026

🌻 When your sunflowers are taller than your pastor…you know they’re having a good year! 😂

Jill is 5’8” and these giants are towering over her!

Come enjoy them (and get your picture) before the rain and the weight of those enormous blooms bring them down. 🌧️🌻

Come wander the grounds, take a photo, and enjoy a little bit of summer beauty at Church of the Loving Shepherd. 💚