Shepherd of the Hills is a joyful, growing, multi-generation congregation in Flagstaff, AZ that is looking for a half-time Youth and Family Director to join our staff. The qualified candidate will have experience working with all ages of youth, lots of joy and organization, and a passion for bringing people together to grow in intergenerational relationships and faith. View job description here.
Read MoreWe pray for Rev. Adam Barnhart and the people of Shepherd of the Hills Evangelical Lutheran Church in Flagstaff, part of the High Country Conference. Visit their site at sothflagstaff.org, and their YouTube page.
Read MoreLent is a practice of pouring myself out. An act of emptying out all I have collected in my heart.
Well, at least this is what I am praying for: that I might pour myself out before God and the World, and then be filled up through the promise of Easter.
Read MoreWe pray for the friends, family, and former congregations of Rev. Harold D. Stromer, who died January 7, 2022. We especially lift up his wife Kathryn in prayer.
After retirement, Harold and Kathy moved to Sun City West, AZ where he continued his work by serving as interim pastor for Desert Cross Lutheran Church, Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Celebration Lutheran Church and Spirit of Grace Lutheran Church.
Read MoreWhen I first saw this image I felt a wave of release of personal judgement and connection to these two women, a wave full of humanness and grace.
It felt like the meeting of the selves, for me, almost in the way Martin Luther speaks about each person being concurrently Sinner and Saint.
Read MoreWe pray for Rev. Adam Barnhart and the people of Shepherd of the Hills Evangelical Lutheran Church in Flagstaff, part of the High Country Conference. Visit their site at sothflagstaff.org and their YouTube page.
Read MoreCasey Goslin, PhLY Youth Director, and Allie Papke-Larson, Youth Director for Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran in Flagstaff, share this story of collaboration between two youth groups in different parts of Arizona.
Read MoreWe pray for Rev. Adam Barnhart and the people of Shepherd of the Hills Evangelical Lutheran Church in Flagstaff, part of the High Country Conference. Visit their site at sothflagstaff.org.
Read MoreThis year has been bittersweet as a youth director at Shepherd of the Hills in Flagstaff. As a youth director just starting out in my call in the last few years, in March of 2020 I felt as if I was just getting some traction under my feet when, like for all of us, it was yanked away.
Read MoreI am ready for a new season, one to comfort and cool our nation’s hot wounds. A season for allowing the swelling to go down long enough for us to feel something besides the pain and see something besides the red blisters.
I am praying for a season change that will be long enough for us to put a balm on our wounds. I am longing for a cold, quiet winter.
Read MoreI have started to notice a sense of distance between myself and others. My heart sometimes feels like rubber, and human interaction, virtual or otherwise, bounces away, without a sense of connection.
It’s easy for me to go through my days trying to camouflage my way through any interaction. I move quickly, avoiding potentially hazardous strangers, anxious about six feet of distance, camouflaged behind a mask and caution.
Read MoreWhen I was 10 years old, I was in a community theater’s production of the musical Peter Pan. I was apart of the chorus, a lost boy who would run around the stage with twigs in my hair, a wooden sword in my hand, singing about flying to Neverland. This play gave me a taste for fantasy.
The author of A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle talks of fantasy being a guide to truth. She said; “Fantasy goes beyond easy possibilities to the possibilities that are much harder which open us and push us.”
Read MoreAllie Papke-Larson provides this update from the Shepherd of the Hills Youth Ministry in Flagstaff, which “has been discovering how to be a youth ministry in a time of COVID-19.”
“We have been gathering once a week as a middle school and high school group over Zoom, playing games, checking in with each other, and praying together. We began a youth community art project based on Micah 6:8, written letters to seniors living in lockdown, and are staying connected through sharing pictures and videos on a social media platform. While this time has been challenging, it has also allowed for connecting in new ways.”
Read MoreWe pray for the people of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Flagstaff.
We lift up: Pastor Adam Barnhart; Randy Colvard, Sanctuary Choir Director; Allie Papke-Larson, Youth Director; Emily Stice, Nursery Coordinator; Donna Natseway, Pianist and Accompanist; Marie Zelenka, Pianist and Contemporary Worship Team Leader; Sheryl Vrba, Organist; Glenda Odegaard, Physical Property; and Rachael Dingman, Church Office Manager.
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