Shalom Anglican

 He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!  I got to baptize my grandson John! Happy Eastertide to you as we enter into this high season of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Because Jesus rose from the dead everything will ultimately be okay! He rose to never die again and the tomb remains empty. Hallelujah! We had an incredible Holy Week and Easter Sunday this year. The highlight was celebrating a baptism together for two babies, a teenager, and a young adult at our Saturday evening Easter Vigil! We had over 80 folks at our Vigil and over 70 on Easter Sunday join us in worship. It was truly a glorious weekend! Updates: Happy Birthday Shalom! On Tuesday April 14 Shalom turned two years old! We gathered for an evening to celebrate, share what it's meant to us to be a part of this church, as well as share some vision for the future. It was a wonderful evening! We had several folks attend all of our Holy Week Services (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil) for the first ...

Simple Pastoral Ministry Our Family! Something that I'm reminded of on an almost weekly basis is how much people appreciate simple pastoral ministry! In our day, people can get online and find polished platforms, excellent teaching, and never ending Bible resources for free. But what they can't get is a pastor who will sit with them and listen to what's going on in their life. What they can't get is a pastor who will remember their name, pray for their needs, and offer spiritual direction for their souls.  I recently received a message from someone who had been to our church a few times but then ended up attending another church on and off.  "I just wanted to tell you what a joy it was to be back in Shalom's service again today. This morning you welcomed me with a hug and remembered my name. That meant so much to me. I've decided I want to make Shalom my home church and want to learn more about how I might get involved." Another person I met with recen...

 Friends of Shalom, Freshly Painted Sanctuary As I was re-reading my journal over the last month, I came across this sentence, "Things are going well, but there's a lot to do!"  I think that describes this season we are in. As we're moving from what's felt like an experiment that may or may not work to a church community getting planted I'm seeing the needs for more organization and development.  Included in the work is also good old fashioned pastoral ministry. There are many opportunities for me to meet with folks one on one as they are growing in their faith or navigating difficult circumstances. I've had several of these kinds of meetings lately. Updates: Everyone has been enjoying our newly painted sanctuary. We were able to partner with the school that owns the church on this project to get this done!  This Friday I'm meeting with 3 other couples and we are preparing to launch "Table Groups" in March. These are basically monthly dinner...

 Momentum... Meet our new grandson John Michael Clark! Momentum is a funny thing in church planting. It's when things feel good. There are new faces and new things happening. There seems to be an excitement around the community. I think over the last month we've experienced some momentum. It's interesting that this has happened now because for most of the last month we had to meet in the basement of the church while the sanctuary was being repainted. This created some inconvenience and "funkiness" to our Sunday and Christmas services. But at the same time... it also created some momentum.  In all this I'm reminded of something St. Paul said, " So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth," (1 Corinthians 3:7). Whatever has been happening, I'm thankful for what God is doing and how he is causing our little church plant to grow. Updates: A huge praise was that our daughter Elena Clark gave birth to John ...

Friends of Shalom,  As we come to the end of 2025, I am truly amazed and so grateful for all that our Lord has done and continues to do in our church. The best way to describe this year for me would be “holistic growth.” We’ve seen this in terms of new folks checking out Shalom (many new to faith), we’ve grown deeper in Christ as a church, and we’ve grown as a community in our relationships with one another.  Merry Christmas! Here are some highlights from 2025. Three adult baptisms. We regularly have people new to Christianity or who haven't been to church in years join us on Sunday. Two catechism classes with a total of twelve adults. Inside giving growth by almost $2,000 a month. Our average Sunday Attendance has grown from 30 to 45.  We collectively gave $1,500 for our lenten offering to Scarlet Road (a local non-profit that works with survivors of sexual exploitation). And we volunteered to help with several projects as well. Two weddings and Two engagements! W...

Young Adults The church we rent was recently painted. We're so grateful to be able to partner with All Saints Academy!  One of the exciting things about church planting is that as we open our doors for Sunday Eucharist and scatter gospel seeds in our community we don't always know which ones will grow up. We don't always know who God will allow us to reach. In many ways this reminds me of my wife's garden. Last spring she planted a bunch of different veggies some took and some didn't. It was a surprise to see as we moved through the growing season. One of the surprises in planting Shalom has been the number of young adults we have seen find a home at Shalom. I wasn't expecting that and it has been a true joy! We've already had two weddings with a third one this summer. We've had three babies born and one more coming in a month. We also have several single young adults in their 20's and 30's who are a part of our church. Please continue to pray fo...

 Our First Confirmation! On September 28th we celebrated our first confirmation at Shalom Anglican! We had seventeen folks confirmed by our Bishop, Jake Worley, and celebrated afterwards with a potluck. It was a beautiful liturgy and I think we all sensed the presence of the Spirit and left deeply encouraged!  Confirmation is an ancient liturgical rite where those who have been baptized and catechized publicly affirm their faith through confessing before the church their baptismal vows. Then a bishop of the church confirms and commissions each person through the laying on of hands to be strengthened by the Spirit for ministry in and out of the church. As you can imagine it took a little while to confirm seventeen folks in one service but it was sweet to watch as the church prayed for each confirmand during the Bishop's prayers. This is a HUGE step for us as a new church. When I see this picture I think of how Paul speaks of the church like a body in 1 Corinthians 12. Each...