Rally Day and Day of Service 2015

Come join Abiding Love for a day of fun and community as we celebrate Rally Day and have a Day of Service this Sunday!

Austin Interfaith

Accountability Session

Sunday October 5, 2014

3:00 PM

Abiding Love Lutheran Church

Click here to listen to the proceedings

Debut of Tom's new song "Woman at the Well" 

Chip in for Children Golf Tournament Helicopter ball drop and some short clips at tee off.

Good Friday Music Video

Luann Glowacz sings "Is That My Hand Upon the Cross?" Good Friday service at Abiding Love Lutheran Church, Austin TX. April 18, 2014. ©Copyright Tom Hokanson 2007.

A talk with Thomas Chaing on Sharing Enough

A talk with Jacob Hartzer on Acting Together

A talk with Annie Verzwyvelt on Facing the Truth

Who do you rely on when you are afraid?

Facing the Truth

Mark 4:37 - 41 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the seas, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"

Why is it so hard to MAKE IT SIMPLE? We face daily a complex world of our own making. We feel pushed and pulled by forces beyond our control. And when things feel like they are out of control, we often feel afraid. We become like the disciples in the boat with Jesus. We are afraid that we are perishing, tossed about by the "wind and the waves" in our lives.

Imagine being one of the disciples in the boat. When you decide to wake Jesus up, what would you expect of him? What do you need from Jesus in the midst of the storms of your life? Can you hear Jesus' question in the calm in your life? "Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?"

Jesus' question can lead us to hear the words of the psalmist found in Psalm 51:10-12:

Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

Look at all that God does in our lives. Where do we focus? On the wind and waves? Can we focus instead on what God provides? And how do our choices matter or what we see?

Excerpts from ELCA, "Make it Simple" series

A talk with Sam Collins on Following Jesus

Introducing Dawn Wetzel

What a wonderful blessing we have to have added Dawn Wetzel to our church staff. My short interview truly does not do her justice. I strongly urge you to spend a few minutes dropping by the office sometime and talking one on one with her. She is a truly inquisitive soul with a great knack for getting people to open up and chat. In fact, I'm thinking about handing over my camera to Dawn for future interviews! My apologies for the mediocre sound quality. Hopefully, you can still get a quick snapshot of Dawn and what drew her to our congregation!

Abiding Love: Creating Space for Grace

Creating Space For Grace Are you ready...? Creating Space for Community I- Bible Study and Friendships “Women Alive!” began on Tuesday, May 29, 2007 with a book study guide and continues meeting weekly having already celebrated five years of fellowship and study! The Women Alive! Group meets every Tuesday morning at 7:15 — 8:30 a.m. in the Library. If you are interested in joining the next study, contact Joan Hokanson, 963-1708 or jhokanson@abidinglove.org This particular interviewee rambles a bit but hopefully his point gets across that we are a wonderful community and all of us contribute our part because of our love for Abiding Love despite any personal travails. Water to Thrive is a great example of our church's generous nature Creating Space for Generosity- Pastor Lynnae reflects on a kind and generous soul. Creating Space for New Friends. Our Sunday School is a great connection to the Children's Center Creating Space for Children. New Children's Center Director, Debbie Tonne, shares thoughts about making connections between the Children's Center and the Church and her reasons for moving from another center to take over at Abiding Love. Creating Space for Community Service. Abiding Love is full of people who volunteer in a variety of ways! Creating Space for Amazing Grace. Pastor Brad goes solo in this version,

Pastor Brad Highum!

Howdy y'all- I sat down and chatted for a few minutes with Abiding Love's new associate pastor, Brad Highum. He's a very affable man whose energy and enthusiasm really shine through, even on camera! Our new associate pastor spends a few minutes discussing Abiding Love's welcoming community, his sartorial selection as a metaphor for his personality, guitar pickin' and Don Ho's "Little Bubbles." Even in just a few minutes of conversation it becomes very apparent that Pastor Brad is a terrific addition to the Abiding Love family.

VBS 2011

Yet another successful joint venture at Abiding Love. Directed by Melissa Ortiz, featuring Bethany Sump as the Song Leader who got us going to start each day and helped bring it to a close, Tom Hokanson leading the band of merry musicians and with the dedication of a multitude of fabulous volunteers, the Abiding Love VBS experience is the best around. Enjoy the three minute video below capturing some of the highlights. Thank you Ashley D for taking the photos!

Vacation Bible School 2011 Trailer

Symbols of the Church: Prayers, Exchange of Peace and Communion

Welcome to our last installment of Symbols of our Church.
If you missed the previous episodes, then go to our video blog home page:
http://abidinglovevideos.blogspot.com/

Today's episodes are on Prayer, Exchange of Peace and Communion. Hope y'all have enjoyed these videos!

Prayer:



Exchange of Peace:



Communion:

Symbols of the Church: The Pulpit, Altar and Baptismal Font

I hope that you enjoyed our first installment. If you missed it, copy and paste this into your browser:
http://abidinglovevideos.blogspot.com/2011/06/symbols-of-church-candles-trinitarian.html

Our next two segments are on the pulpit, altar and baptismal font.

Pulpit


Altar and Baptismal Font

Symbols of the Church: Candles & Trinitarian Blessing

This past Sunday, a video was interspersed throughout the late service, detailing some of the symbols of our church. This video was well-received by most accounts, so we will present to you the opportunity to watch it again, or for the first time, whichever the case may be. It has been divvied up into easily managed sections and will be dispersed over the next week or two. A couple of young ladies at our church put in a lot of hours to narrate, act, film, video and edit this program- they hope that you will learn a few things, so, enjoy!

Today's segments- Candles and Trinitarian Blessing (girls presented this one especially well, I thought)

Please note that each one is its own video below:

Candles:



Trinitarian Blessing:

Macey and Maria present...

Boy, have we got a treat for you. A couple of young ladies of our congregation have spent hours working on...well, just watch the following 17 seconds of video to find out. Hope to see you Sunday!

An Amazing Worship Experience

It's going to be AWEsome. Join us this summer for some fantastic worship services. A mixture of traditional, contemporary and, most definitely, unique experiences await you beginning June 5th!

Help!!!

The Pastoral Call Committee wants your help! Pressure is on. The previous Call Committee hit a Grand Slam with Pastor Lynnae and the current Call Committee wants to avoid striking out. Watch the message below and please feel free to communicate with any of the committee members: Jan Haas, Emma Albin, Nader Ayoub, Jill Feary, Trey Huddleston, Bill Nicholson, Kyle Olson, Pastor Lynnae and Bob Thonhoff. Or, you can send an email to the committee: AbidingLoveCall@gmail.com