A Place to Worship, to learn and to serve
Christ Our Savior Lutheran
Church is a warm caring fellowship of Faith. Our congregation, which has grown
to over 300, strives to communicate God's awesome gift of love to our ever
changing world. We are a collection of natives of East Tennessee and
transplants from other parts of the country who now call
Our Beginnings:
• 1996 A group of people, led by the Holy Spirit sought to plant a new Lutheran Church in East Tennessee.
• 1997 We worshipped in a store front while purchasing 7 acres on Highway 72 and Wade Road.
• 1998 A building committee was established as Rev. Bob Torgler served as worship leader.
• 1999 Dedicated members paid for the property
• 2000 In May the construction of the new worship facility was begun.
• 2001 The first worship Service in the new church was held on January 7th. On August 26th our first permanent pastor, Rev. Jim Kirk, was installed.
• 2009 The church membership has now grown to over 300. We have added a Christian Ministry Center that will expand our worship and fellowship facilities.
Who we are:
• We are a people who share a common faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
• We are natives of East Tennessee and transplants from other parts of the country.
• We live in Blount, Loudon, Knox, Monroe, and Roane counties.
• We worship with different styles in order to meet people's needs
• We are a growing church with over 200 in worship on a regular basis
Christmas Traditions
What are your family Christmas traditions? The biggest part of our Christmas tradition is going to worship services. As a child, our children’s Christmas program was always on Christmas Eve. After the service, each child would receive a bag filled with fruit, peanuts and candy. Our family would open presents after the service on Christmas Eve. The focus on Christmas morning was going to church rather than opening presents.
Our parents did a good job of teaching us that worshipping the new born King is what Christmas is really all about. This is a tradition I pray will continue in our family for generations to come. But presents are still a part of our Christmas tradition.
I don’t like shopping. I’m not very good at picking out presents and I don’t like giving presents that people don’t really want or need. As a result, a peculiar tradition was followed in my family for several years. My present to my wife and children would be cash, but to make things interesting, I would hide the money and give each of them a riddle that would lead them to their gift. We had a lot of fun with this as a competition would arise to see who could find their gift first and debate would begin over who had the most difficult riddle.
Do you suppose the shepherds and the wise men debated over who had the most difficult clue?
Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Luke 2:11,12
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Matthew 2:1,2
God had given us the perfect gift. It’s what we really need, and He leads us right to it.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Pastor Brian Truog
Pastor's Message
The Light of Epiphany
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” Is. 60:1
January can be a very difficult month. The days are short, the nights are long. The weather is harsh. The bills from Christmas start coming in. We take down all the lights and decorations proclaiming the joy of Jesus’ birth. All of this simply adds to the exhaustion of the season. If you feel like taking the month off to recuperate, you're not alone. The last thing you may want to hear and do is “arise, shine”.
Indeed, if it was up to us and our own human abilities, we could not arise and shine. Left to our own imaginations and desires, we would choose the darkness. God knows this. In His love, He sent His Son, Jesus to be the light of the world. This is the good news of Epiphany, “your light has come”. The memory of the glow from candles on Christmas Eve can still warm our hearts and minds as we reflect on the light of Jesus and His love.
Light drives out the darkness, but not the doubts. Light reveals the road ahead, but it doesn't reveal everything that will happen. The season of Epiphany, which means revelation, begins and ends with the same rev-elation. At both His baptism on the first Sunday of the season and again at His transfiguration on the last Sunday of the season, we hear the voice of God revealing, “This is my Son, whom I love”. Jesus reveals Himself as the Son of God in each of the gospel readings this month. As we journey with the people of God recorded in Scriptures, the light of God's Word reveals our way as well. We do not know everything that 2022 holds for us as individuals or as a church, but we know the One who holds us in His hands.
What is true for us as a church is also true for us as individuals. Your light has come. Jesus brings hope, peace, joy, and love to you. God is faithful and keeps His promises. Through the waters of your baptism, the light of God's truth and love has been revealed to you. As a child of God, “the glory of the Lord rises upon you” and within you each and every day. As you experience the hills and valleys of this season and throughout the new year, let the light of Jesus shine through you. It is His light of love that enables you to “arise, shine”.
In His service and yours,
Pastor Mark R. Rhoads
What Does a Pastor Do?
Here’s an interesting comparison by Rev. Dr. James Baneck of the LCMS that might answer that question. The lambs and sheep our Savior sent Peter to feed and tend were not the wooly kind residing on a beautiful hillside. There are, however, rich parallels between shepherding sheep and shepherding God's people.
James Rebanks watches over real four-legged sheep in the United Kingdom. He writes about the parallels in his article, “Are You Hard Enough to Survive as a Shepherd?”
"The romance wears off after a few weeks, believe me, and you will be left standing cold and lonely on a mountain. It is all about endurance. Digging in. Holding on. You will also need to be emotionally. tough … Carrion crows hang over our lambing fields waiting to steal the eyes out of anything sick or dead that cannot resist … You’ll need the patience of a saint, too, because sheep test you to the limit with a million ways to escape, ail, or die … It requires a body of knowledge and skills that shepherds devote decades to learning."
How this applies to our pastors! There is nothing romantic about being a pastor; it is hard work and often lonely. It demands an endurance that comes only from God. Like carrion crows, Satan seeks to devour God’s people. The pastor stands guard. protecting and feeding God’s sheep with Christ in the preached Word and blessed Sacraments. The formation of men for the Holy Ministry begins at Baptism. And while pastoral formation is intensified during seminary, “it requires a body of knowledge and skills that [pastors] devote decades to learning."
Pastors are to be clothed with the humility of Christ, “who humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8). Pastors must be equipped to lead Gods people to the waters of Holy Baptism, where God gives new birth to sinners and opens the kingdom of heaven for them. Pastors are formed to be stewards of the mysteries of God. Pastors feed God’s sheep the Word of God in preaching and teaching and with the body and blood of our Lord at His table. Pastors listen, love and seek the lost.
Looking at all that a Pastor does, how is he prepared for this role at the Seminars’? Can you help with this preparation? Could you sponsor a seminarian? Could you help COS in their sponsoring of eight seminary students? Please help with your gift! ‘For more information, contact John W. Smith. God bless your help.
