Big anniversaries call for big celebrations. It’s hard to get bigger than a service with 10,000+ people, 1,000+ voice Adult choir, 3 honors youth choirs, and a nationally-recognized Lutheran preacher. The Reformation is monumentally significant for world history and religion alike. Christians, not just Lutherans, not even just Protestants, around the world are celebrating this anniversary. Even Prof. Michael Root from The Catholic University of America asserts that “the Protestant Reformation is in many ways is the most significant event in Western Christian history.” (pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2017/02/03/500th-anniversary-protestant-reformation/34420/)

Big celebrations lead to big questions. From early on kids know that Easter and Christmas are a big deal…why? Because we make a big deal out of them. Celebrate big and people ask… “why?” Come to the service and you’ll get to an opening to talk about Jesus and what he’s done for you with whoever you bring along and whoever you chat with the week after. Because it’s a world history event and a religious one, it will feel even more comfortable talking about it with those who normally wouldn’t be interested in anything religious. Even if it only leads to a conversation around the dinner table, you get a natural, organic opportunity to talk about the significance of the good news that was reclarified through the reformation: we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, through the word alone. Our hope comes not from money we pay or things that we do, so we can always be confident that what has been done is enough—Jesus did it all! That message got lost along the way in the Christian church, so it’s rediscovery in the reformation is worth celebrating.

Do you ever wonder: “How will God accomplish much through me, my little family, or my church in a world so big and so uninterested in Him?” It’s tempting to feel alone and hopeless in fulfilling God’s mission for you in the small corner of His kingdom where you live. That’s why we’re encouraged to not give up gathering together with other Christians (Hebrews 10:25). Can you imagine the way that the hair will stand up on the back of your neck as 10,000 voices sing and pray and confess our common faith in unison? It’s going to feel like a taste of heaven! We are together in mission--blessed to be dispersed all over so the good news can spread, and we, by our collective presence together, will be encouraged in that mission as we stand together that day. It’s one thing to know that you’re not alone in this. It’s another to stand together in person. Don’t miss the once-in-a-lifetime chance to be encouraged by the presence of other Lutheran Christians from around Michigan whom you’ve never met, but are following Jesus with you.