Across the Pastor’s Desk by the Rev. Sean Forde.

Sean Forde is associate pastor at First Lutheran Church.

Since moving to Albert Lea, I am continually amazed at the level of collegiality and partnership efforts of our local churches. We can always improve, but we all do our part in caring for our community. Our local nondemonational and denominational churches provide monthly Communion services at all the nursing home facilities in the surrounding area, we take turns providing spiritual care at the hospital, we have the ecumenical service at the Freeborn County Fair, we participate in Shinefest and other Az-One opportunities, we share in providing the daily KATE Radio devotions, we take turns writing this article for the newspaper and we all support our local charities. These are just a few examples of what it means to be the body of Christ working and serving together.

Earlier this June there was a planning meeting for what started as a simple golf event at Wedgewood Cove. When ideas for shaping the event started taking some awesome twists and turns, I got excited because it was clear that God’s Spirit was at work leading the group to support local charities with a Christian community event, not just a golf tournament. The result is many people from varying local churches coming together to support three local charities — Youth for Christ, Salvation Army and The Arc —with a Christ-centered family event for non-golfers and golfers of all ages. On Saturday, Sept. 16 our community comes together to enjoy bubble soccer, bounce houses and face painting, putt-putt golf, golf, a free lunch and a testimony from Albert Lea’s Chrissy Monson. It truly is great to partner with each other for the sake of the gospel and to have a spirit of inclusiveness and collegiality. All proceeds will benefit the three local charities to further help people in our community. This is yet another way to see what we can accomplish together as the unified body of Christ.