Trinity Lutheran Church

Villa Park, IL

^{And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)}

Where Schooling Begins and Ends

When I was a kid, school was thought of as something to be handled by “professionals” who we called teachers. I never knew any kids who didn’t go to a school where people who had advanced degrees were in charge of educating us. My parents would not have even considered keeping us at home for our education because we had teachers. Our teachers were all Christians. They were good citizens. They were salt-of-the-earth people who, for the most part, were fine examples. They were like the teachers we have at Trinity. Now, however, many people whom society calls teachers; people with advanced degrees who are hired by the state to educate children are, in reality, left-wing propaganda agents. For whatever reason, many of the people trained to be educators have drunk the left-wing Kool-Aid. Instead of standing for Biblical values, they stand for whatever the popular myths of the day are. Today we have so-called teachers espousing in the classroom homosexuality, transgenderism, Marxism, sexism and racism thinly veiled in DEI curriculum (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). When I was a young man, one was promoted in life based on his competency and performance. While I would not say that race, creed or gender never played a role (for certainly there has always been and always will be racism, sexism and religious persecution), for the most part, people rose or declined based on their abilities. Now our children are being taught that they are owed something if they are in someway a minority. They are being taught that they should be rewarded based on their sexual preference, gender identification and racial heritage. Anyone who is a thinking person knows that this is utter nonsense but many are afraid to stand up and say it. However, more and more parents are speaking with their feet.

There are now over 2 million children being homeschooled in this nation. Parents have grown tired of hearing their children come home from school identifying as an animal, or a different gender. They have grown weary of gay, lesbian and transgendered teachers wearing their sexual perversion as a badge of honor instead of a thorn in their flesh (for anyone who wants to be upset that I said homosexuality is a perversion, please see Romans 1 and understand that your argument is not with me. I don’t really care who you sleep with, but God does care and is most explicit about it.)

“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26-27)

We recognize that some teachers struggle with being male or female, gay or straight and we are sympathetic to their plight as we all struggle with sin in our lives. However, what about alcoholism or drug addiction? When I was in Middle School, one of our teachers was an alcoholic. He drank at school in his workroom and students knew this. We all told our parents and our parents went to the administration and he was fired. Why? Who are we to say that alcoholism isn’t a valid way for him to express who he is? It is silly to ask that just as it is silly to suggest that a teacher is doing their job when they teach children to embrace homosexuality or transgenderism, Marxism (Black Lives Matter) or Socialism (Democratic Socialists of America). This country is founded on the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God’s Holy Law is that from which all our civil laws comes. We are a capitalist nation and communism and socialism is not what we proclaim in our Constitution, or our Bill of Rights.

We also defend free speech and you are free to disagree with any of the above. In fact, many of the young men and women of Trinity (including my son and daughter-in-law) have served or are serving in the military to protect your right to say and believe whatever you like no matter how impractical or stupid. But neither a teacher nor a school system has the right to brainwash fragile children by imposing their personal beliefs that conflict with God and/or the law of this land. Because many of the current judges and politicians protect these people who are brainwashing our children, parents are voting with their feet and homeschooling is surging.

I would like to see Trinity play a role in supporting this homeschooling surge. We certainly have the space to devote to it and we have a number of parents who are seriously considering homeschooling their children. We also have many current or retired educators who are sickened by what has become of our education system. My understanding is that we have a robust community of homeschool families in our community but I need your help to reach them. At a minimum, I would like Trinity to offer homeschool families the opportunity to come together once a week for chapel, basic religious instruction, fellowship and time in the gym. There may be more we can do but that is a start. In the fall, we will have a “Homeschool Open House.” I hope to get that scheduled soon and what I need from you is to be the public address system that gets the word out to homeschool families. Our Preschool closed after 50 years of serving children in Villa Park. I believe that this can be the next wave for us to ride, a wave with which we can bring Jesus to many children who may not otherwise receive him. Help me this fall to find homeschool families and reach out to them. Let them know that we want to serve them. We want to help them offer their children not only an education, but a conservative, Christian education: the kind of education most of us received and probably took for granted. My prayer is that Trinity can be part of the solution in helping children walk on a Godly path.

Music and Worship

Handbells, banners, organ, percussion, choir! 

All were featured at Valparaiso University in July at the national conference of the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians. It was held simultaneously with the final week of Lutheran Summer Music, a camp for the most promising young Lutheran musicians in the U.S.

The conference sessions gave me many ideas for handbells and percussion, two new areas of ministry for Trinity's young members. I also assisted in making the paper banners displayed in the photo and gained lots of information about how to create our own at Trinity.

I was one of 24 conference attendees that joined a professional ensemble of singers and instrumentalists to perform in the St. John Passion. Our group assisted with the opening and final choruses. The entire work then ended with the entire audience singing their hearts out on the closing chorale "Lord, Thee I Love" (LSB 708).  A mountaintop experience!

Thank you to Trinity for supporting this continuing education opportunity for me. It was an uplifting experience that gave me lots of ideas for future ministry at our church.

Mary Stahlke

Golf Outing

Worship Services

Saturdays 4:30 pm

Sundays 8 am & 10:30 am