A New Beginning
Peace to you in Jesus! He renews us with His forgiveness!
The Peace Lutheran congregation has had a website for many years. My guess is that Pastor Cluppert started it initially with his God-given abilities with computer technology. The website has served the congregation well over the years.
It has been increasingly difficult, however, to work with the original website on the administrative side of things. Challenges include the following:
1.
The livestream is not always reliable. It seems there is a disconnect between our website and YouTube that “broadcasts” our worship services. This requires members to bypass the website and go directly to YouTube to watch our livestream.
a.
On the website:
i.
The date on every livestream says January 29, 2023. Amid many attempts to change that, it cannot be changed.
ii.
Each livestream doesn’t start until the 3 minute and 12 second mark, and then the same service plays regardless of date.
2.
The current website is very time-consuming to maintain and update each week.
3.
Technical support/service for the website has been poor when help is needed. Hours of time are involved.
4.
The Member Directory on the website is difficult to update.
To address these challenges and with the blessing of the Church Council, a committee of volunteers was formed of members who are willing to work on an update of the congregation’s website.
On March 20, 2026, an e-mail was sent to everyone in the congregation on behalf of the committee asking for input about our current website. The committee asked the following:
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What would you like to see on the website?
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How can the website be improved?
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What do you like or dislike about the website?
With the feedback from members and input from Kris, who does the administrative work on the website, the committee has already made some changes to the current website even as it works on the new version. It removed some of the links due to little or no use.
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the “Hymns Only” link.
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the Link for smartphones.
Two things have not changed. The “Saints Alive” insert with announcements is still on the home-page under “Newsletter”. The full bulletin is still available under the livestream tab.
The committee has been very pleased with the website developer who has been assisting us. He is competent and responsive to the questions and requests of the committee.
The committee thanks you for your patience with this process. Though there will be some changes with new things to learn and that will be done differently, the committee is confident that the efforts to renew the website will be well worth the time and finances invested. Watch for more information.
We are praying that the website will be easier to manage and easier for congregation members to use as a tool for different tasks in our life together of following Jesus Christ in faith.
A new beginning is not just for our website. It is for us as well—by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. Because of His innocent suffering and death on the cross, Jesus has made possible the free gift of His forgiveness for us as sinners. His glorious, bodily resurrection from the dead on Easter day confirms the reality of His forgiveness that renews us and gives us a brand new start each day.
Through the prophet Isaiah, the LORD talked about His forgiveness and what it would do.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”
(Isaiah 1:18, ESV)
God’s forgiveness washes us clean and restores us to a peaceful relationship with Him. The Almighty gives us that gift of forgiveness beginning in our Baptism as well as the gift of faith in Him through which we receive it.
With that forgiveness paid for by Jesus with His blood shed for you and me, He “cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7, ESV)
Confessing our sins and repentantly trusting in Christ as Savior, you and I enjoy the renewing benefits of His forgiveness each day.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9, ESV)
As we work on our church website, I pray that it will be more useful in helping us to bring the message about Jesus and His renewing forgiveness to those around us.
I pray also that you and I grow in rejoicing in that forgiveness for ourselves every day. Though your sins and mine are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow—only because of Jesus. Amen!