Visit to Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Coralville, IA

Today (Sunday August 19th, 2012) I had the pleasure of visiting my closest LCMS neighbor, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Coralville.  After the 8:00 service, at Bible study, and before the 10:15 service I introduced myself and made two main points:

1. I'm Pastor Andrew Richard, planting St. Silas Lutheran Church in North Liberty.

2. I'm not here to steal any of your members.

With a portion of the members of Prince of Peace living in North Liberty, the last thing I want to see is an exodus to St. Silas in the name of convenience that would leave Prince of Peace struggling.  I'm not simply looking out for myself or St. Silas, but neighboring LCMS congregations as well.  There would be no purpose of planting one congregation at the expense of another.  We would just end up shuffling the same people we already had.  Rather, as a mission start the intent is for St. Silas to do as little borrowing from other congregations as possible, focusing instead on those in the community of North Liberty who do not attend a church at all.

Thank you, Prince of Peace, for hearing me this morning.  It was a pleasure hearing God's Word faithfully preached and receiving Christ's body and blood with you.

In Christ

Pastor Andrew Richard

St. Silas Lutheran Church
www.facebook.com/stsilaslutheran
stsilaslutheran@gmail.com
and coming soon... www.stsilaslutheran.org