Skip to main content

May Newsletter

 Alleluia! Christ is risen!

The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia! 

Palm Sunday begins outside with the liturgy of the Palms.

This is our Eastertide acclamation and how we begin each service through Pentecost (June 8th). It's meant to orient us to the reality of our resurrected Lord who is reigning now. Easter isn't simply one special Sunday, but a whole season of being drenched in the joy and glory of Jesus' victory over his own death and now ours as well! If you find yourself drifting from the power of the resurrection that we celebrated on Easter, here is a link to my message on Easter Sunday to stir up hope once again!

I have to say, this last month was simply AMAZING! God has been so good to us. Here are some highlights.

Updates:

  • We held our first Triduum (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil) and it was a rich time of worship that culminated in a Taco Potluck on Saturday night with most of our church joining in! Through these three services as well as Easter Sunday we had almost our entire church participate in all our some of the services through reading Scripture and other ways of participating in the liturgy. 
  • On Easter Sunday we had our largest attended service yet at around 80 adults and kids. The highlight was a baptism for a father and his special needs adult son. It was a baptism I will never forget! There were tears of joy all around. 
  • I recently talked to a father who told me his teenage daughter who has not yet expressed faith has been considering getting baptized!
  • Last Sunday we were blessed by our newest lay preacher who delivered an excellent sermon. I also trained up a new volunteer to serve at the altar with me in distributing communion.
  • Over the last few weeks we've had repeat visitors as well as a new visitors join us on Sunday. 
  • During Lent our church collected a total of $1,500 for Scarlet Road which is a local organization that works with survivors of sexual exploitation. 
    Easter Sunday

  • We recently had two non-Anglican churches in Kitsap give us one time offerings which totaled $5,000! 
  • I was able to get away for a personal retreat for silence and solitude as well as join other clergy from our diocese for our annual clergy retreat. 
  • On a personal note, this last month we were able to host our oldest son Sam and his fiancé Sola during Easter. We were also able to celebrate with our daughter, granddaughter, and her husband over Mother's day weekend. 
Prayer Requests:
  • At the end of May I'll be attending our Provincial Church Planting training over in Edmonds, Wa. Please pray that the Lord will guide me in this next season at Shalom. I feel like this training is timely for this moment. 
  • Please pray for the healing of one of our members who has had several surgeries and is in recovery.
  • Please pray for one of our core families to be able to find a home in Kitsap as they desire to remain here but are finding it hard with the high prices.
  • I also continue to covet your prayers for protection from the powers and principalities (Eph. 6:12) both personally and for Shalom! 
  • Please pray for the salvation and discipleship of those who have been visiting! 
  • Please pray for the salvation of someone who recently called me and is interested in Christianity. We talked for an hour and a half! 
Thanks again for all your support and prayers!

For the Shalom of Kitsap,

Fr. Rob Steinbach


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

December Newsletter - Year End Report and Year End Giving

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

November Newsletter

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

September Newsletter

 Friends of Shalom, Just like life has many phases, so does church planting. Recently I was reflecting on this for Shalom as I believe we are heading into a new phase. Here's where we've been and what's next. Phase 1: Is anyone going to come? When we began at the end of October of 2023 this was the question we were asking. We wondered if this new church plant would even work. This was evident in the fact that we only reserved the church we were meeting in for 1-2 months. We started with Evening Prayer on Saturday night and began slowly seeing folks join with us and begin to explore Anglicanism and starting a new church in Kitsap. This phase lasted through the end of March. Phase 2: What will happen when we actually start the church? As we began Sunday morning services this past Easter followed by my ordination to the priesthood, this was our next question. It was interesting to see how some folks dropped out once we began Sunday morning and others joined us. Overall beginn...
Post a Comment
Read more