December 24, 2021

A Special Christmas Message from Pastor Jon-Marc MacLean

Click the video above to watch a special Christmas message from Pastor Jon-Marc, or visit our YouTube channel.

Christmas & New Years Office Hours

Our Hope office hours will be adjusted for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The office will be closed at noon on Friday, December 24^th and Friday, December 31^st. The office will be closed all day on Monday, December 27^th and Monday, January 3^rd. Thank you!

Budget Meeting on January 9^th

We will be having our make-up Annual Budget Meeting on January 9^th at ALL THREE CAMPUSES following the 10:00am worship services, as close to 11:15am as possible.

It is very important that all voting members make an effort to attend. We failed to meet a quorum at our last meeting and must meet our quorum at this upcoming meeting.

Please make every effort to attend!

Faith & Fellowship Now Meeting at All Hope Campuses

Faith & Fellowship South Group will be meeting on the second and fourth Monday of each month at 1:30pm. The group will meet on the second floor of the Magnolia Publix across from the Everglades Rec Center. 

Faith & Fellowship Lake Weir Group will meet on the first and third Monday of each month at 1:00pm at Hope Lake Weir Campus.

Faith & Fellowship Central Group will also continue to meet on Mondays at Hope Central Campus at 9:30am every week.

This is a perfect time to join Faith & Fellowship! All are welcome, including non-Hope members, so please invite your friends to join the fun. The Zoom link is active on Mondays at 9:30am every week, so those who cannot attend in person can use the link below to join the conversations online. Meeting ID: 952 5901 4615. Join by phone: (929) 205-6099. ID: 95259014615# 

A Message from the Seasonal Decorating Team

Thank you to everyone who helped decorate both Hope Central Campus and Hope Lake Weir Campus for the Christmas Season. Your help was appreciated. The team also needs your help to take down and store the decorations. The date to undecorate Hope Central Campus will be January 10^th at 9:00am. We will undecorate Hope Lake Weir Campus on January 13^th at 12:00pm.

Please email Nancy Shephard at kpandnan@comcast.net or text or call at

(269) 598-0445 if you are available to help.

Global Mission Breakfast, Hosted by the Women of Hope

January 13^th, 2022 - 9:00am at Hope Central Campus

Hope Lutheran Church will welcome Pastor Katie Carroll, Chair of the Global Mission Table of the Florida-Bahamas Synod, for Global Mission Weekend on January 15^th and 16^th.

To celebrate her visit, the Women of Hope are hosting a breakfast in partnership with the Men of Hope and Mission Outreach Ministry on the Thursday before Global Mission Weekend. 

Enjoy breakfast with a special presentation from Pastor Katie on January 13^th at 9:00am at Hope Central Campus. The cost will be $7.00 per person.

Menu will include Herbalicious breakfast egg casserole, ham and cheese breakfast sliders, Applewood smoked bacon, roasted breakfast potatoes, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, coffee, and juice.

This is an opportunity for all Hope members and friends to learn more about Global Missions. The 18-member Florida-Bahamas Synod Global Mission Table guides the Synod's five companion relationships in Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Guyana, and Suriname. Join in learning more about God's mission throughout the world.

Help us welcome Pastor Katie and enjoy a delicious breakfast together. Everyone is invited, including both men and women, so bring your neighbors and friends. 

Questions? Please contact Margaret Furlong at mjf.furlong@gmail.com or (352) 430-5092, or Marion McClarin Blomberg at dmmcclarin@live.com or (352) 751-4338.

Heritage Series Course To Be Offered in January

Heritage Series Winter 2022

"Your Church: Where we came from and how do we do it."

This 6 class course provides background information for members to enable them to understand our heritage, beliefs, and how we are organized to fulfill our mission. The course will share current information about Hope Lutheran Church as well as provide a solid background of our church history including how the Bible was developed, our Jewish Heritage, and how Christianity evolved.

The attendees background may include other denominations and we do not assume a strong Lutheran knowledge.

The class will run on Wednesday nights from 6:15pm to 7:15pm starting beginning Wednesday, January 12^th and concluding Wednesday, February 16^th. You can confirm your intention to attend by calling Dave Withers at (352) 233-7533) or by email at davidwithers@msn.com.

Prayer Study 

On January 6^th, 2022, the Prayer Study class will continue our study of prayer with an investigation of Embodied Spirituality.

Psalm 63:1 reads: O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.  

“My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you.” How down-to-earth the psalmist is; how human is his relationship with God. His physical and spiritual worlds seem so interchangeable they might well be one and the same.  

He couldn’t pray and talk with God without mentioning and discussing his physical condition. When the psalmist writes, “Deliver me, O my God,” he means these words with both his body with his soul. It is like his body is treated as an equal partner with his heart and soul during prayer. 

“Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you” Paul told the Corinthians. “God’s Spirit dwells in our bodies,” Paul added: “Therefore glorify God in your body.”  So, including God’s holy temple - our bodies - in our prayers glorifies the One who created us – who created our bodies. 

If you think about it … Christians and Jews in the Western world are surrounded by playing fields and fitness centers but when we step into the church or synagogue to enter prayer with the Divine, we mostly leave our bodies at the door.   

In contrast, a Muslim who prays is constantly bowing and kneeling, touching his head to the floor, and moving his arms and the head to incline the heart. A Buddhist enters into a series of prostrations. A Hindu learns yoga in order to meditate with greater stillness in the body and focused awareness in the mind. 

While Christians may have one of – if not the – highest theologies of the body among the religions of the world, they also have one of the lowest levels of embodied spiritual practice. We in the western world have tended to separate the body and spirit, saying that the body is bad and the spirit is good. As a result, we westerners tend to live “in our heads” and ignore our bodies when it comes to spirituality. We forget that Jesus was the Divine in a physical body. 

In Memoriam

Ed Rankin passed away on December 21. Ed was born on June 10, 1941. He and his wife Kat were married September 28, 2003. They joined Hope Lutheran Church on November 18, 2012, where they both served as ushers for several years.  

Arrangements are pending at this time. Please keep Kat and their family in your hearts and prayers during their time of grief. 

Worship Attendance for December 18-19, 2021

Central Campus:

4:00pm = 206

6:00pm = 69

8:00am = 153

10:00am = 375

Lake Weir Campus:

10:00am = 83

Everglades Rec Center:

8:00am = 63

10:00am = 93

This Week's Flowers Given By...

Jack & Judy Reimer, in honor of their 62^nd wedding anniversary

Kathy Gordon, in loving memory of her mother Toinette Gordon-Miller

Rudy Kietzmann, in loving memory of his wife Judy Kietzmann