May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Dearest Mount Olivet Community, 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In May, we are launching a new sermon series on faith and mental health. Because this can be a tender and complex topic, we wanted to reach out and let you know more fully what to expect. 

Scripture calls us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our strength, and with all our mind (Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Luke 10:27). Caring for our minds, therefore, is a spiritual practice. Yet many of us neglect mental health care as part of caring for our whole selves. 

While there is greater openness in our culture around mental health, many people are also carrying increased stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and other mental health challenges. The layered burdens brought on by events outside our control can intensify existing conditions or create new struggles. 

Your pastors believe faith can help, because we have experienced faith sustaining each of us in our own journeys with mental health challenges and emotional wellbeing. Our faith gives us both tools and truths to help us care for our minds, so that we can use them to love God, our neighbors, and ourselves. 

Talking about mental health can bring up painful memories and experiences, so we are sharing the schedule ahead of the series. The second week, in particular, will touch on suicide. If that or any of these topics is not safe for you to sit with, please know there is no shame in opting out. If you are struggling with any of these topics, please reach out to one of us and take gentle care of yourself. 

Each week we will talk about a different way mental health challenges can present themselves: 

Sunday, May 3 | Clouds in the Sky: Living with Ongoing & Chronic Mental Health Challenges 

Many of us go about our daily lives carrying depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or other ongoing mental health conditions that mean our minds are not always working in our favor. How can faith help us calm, cope, and center ourselves in God’s truths about us? How can Christians support healthy practices in ourselves and our neighbors? 

Sunday, May 10 | When the Waves Roll In: Facing a Mental Health Crisis 

Sometimes mental health conditions intensify into a full crisis, making it difficult to function as we would want. What does our faith say to us in a crisis? How can Christians support others in those scary and crucial moments? 

Sunday, May 24 | The Immovable Mountain: When Mental Health Needs Are Severe 

Just like physical health conditions, some mental health conditions respond well to treatment and management, but not all. How do we pursue faith while living with severe and persistent mental health challenges? How can Christians welcome and include our neighbors, seeing beyond labels? 

Sunday, May 31 | The Unfamiliar Landscape: Seeking to Understand Others 

Most of us know and love someone living with mental health challenges we do not personally share. How can our faith support us in supporting them? How can we offer empathy from the outside, when we can never fully understand? 

So that you will know what you can expect, here are a few of the guidelines we will use when we preach: 

We promise to stay in our lane. We are not trained therapists or psychologists. We are pastors. We are not equipped to diagnose or treat clinical conditions, but we are equipped to walk alongside you, speak God’s truths, and remind you of God’s love. 

We promise to treat faith and science as compatible partners in health. God has given us extraordinary gifts in medication and evidence-based therapeutic practices. Faithful mental health care honors God by making use of those gifts, along with prayer, scripture, and religious community. 

We promise to use loving language for people experiencing mental health challenges. The church has a long and painful history of treating people dismissively or even cruelly, sometimes framing mental health struggles as sin or spiritual failure. Yet Jesus was drawn again and again to people who were suffering, to heal and restore them. All people, regardless of what is happening in their minds, will be treated as beloved children of God. 

This is only the opening of a much bigger conversation. Here are a few extra resources if you need them: 

• Mental Health Connect is our partner in helping people to locate resources and therapists - https://www.mhconnect.org/  

• The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has incredible resources, both nationally and locally - https://www.nami.org/  

• Mental Health First Aid offers trainings on how to support people in a mental health crisis - https://mentalhealthfirstaid.org/  

• The PC(USA) Mental Health Network offers resources from a faith-based perspective - https://pcusa.org/about-pcusa/agencies-entities/interim-unified-agency/ministry-areas/mental-health-ministry/mental-health-ministry-resources  

• Psychology Today keeps extensive lists of local therapists to help you find someone local to talk to - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists  

This topic is near and dear to both of your pastors, and we are looking forward to proclaiming God’s hope for our minds during the month of May. It is our prayer that you will find the series meaningful, helpful, and hopeful as well. 

Peace be with you, 

Pastor Desirée and Pastor Michelle 

“Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” — Isaiah 41:10 

Claiming Who We Are: Mount Olivet Becomes Reconciling in Christ

A Reflection from Pastor Desirée

There are moments in the life of a congregation when something long hoped for finally becomes clear. Not because it was rushed. Not because it was trendy, but because the time was right.

At Mount Olivet, becoming a Reconciling in Christ congregation in 2026 feels like one of those moments. This past Sunday, Mount Olivet celebrated becoming Reconciling in Christ with joy and gratitude. We worshipped with prayers and liturgy written by our partner ReconcilingWorks. We sang songs composed by our Queer siblings in Christ. During the postlude, we danced with a rainbow unicorn to “Pink Pony Club,” a song especially meaningful to many in the LGBTQIA+ community who have often felt more accepted in nightclubs than in churches. Then we gathered around tables in our community room for a bountiful meal and ice cream! You can see pictures of this amazing day HERE.

Reconciling in Christ (RIC) is a public commitment to welcome, celebrate, and advocate for LGBTQIA+ people in the full life of the church. It is a way of saying clearly what we believe about the wideness of God’s love and the dignity of every person created in God’s image.

Yet this milestone is about more than a designation. It is about identity.

When I first arrived at Mount Olivet fifteen months ago, I remember feeling surprised that Mount Olivet had not become an RIC congregation years earlier. There was already such a deep spirit of warmth, openness, and generosity here. The seeds had long been planted. But sometimes congregations, like people, grow into clarity in seasons rather than all at once.

There is an ancient Greek word often used in the church: kairos. It means more than ordinary clock time. It points to a significant time, a grace-filled moment, a season when something becomes possible because God is especially at work.

Chronological time asks, “What time is it?”

Kairos asks, “What is this time for?”

This time, it seems, is for courage.

This time is for clarity.

This time is for witness.

We live in a moment when many LGBTQIA+ neighbors, especially transgender people and youth, are facing renewed hostility, harmful rhetoric, and setbacks in public life. In such a season, a congregation’s welcome cannot remain vague or assumed. Love needs language. Belonging needs visibility.

That is precisely why Mount Olivet’s decision matters now.

Becoming Reconciling in Christ does not change who this congregation has been at its best. It reveals it more fully. It names publicly what has been growing inside our walls and in our hearts. It aligns values with action. It tells people who may be searching, wounded, or uncertain: There is a place for you here. In fact, we are not complete without you.

And perhaps that is one of the gifts of God’s timing. What may have seemed delayed can become deeply meaningful when it arrives in the moment it is most needed. Congregational identity is never static. It is always unfolding as communities listen for the Spirit, respond to the needs of the world, and ask what faithfulness requires in the present tense.

Mount Olivet’s answer in this season is clear. We are called to be a community of welcome. We are called to be a people of courage. We are called to embody the love of Christ without condition. And in God’s good timing, we are becoming more fully who we already are.

With Love and Deep Gratitude ~ Pastor Desirée

MO Food Ministries: Feeding Hunger, Growing Connection

MO Food Ministries: Feeding Hunger, Growing Connection

“If we didn’t attend Wednesday Meals, I’m not sure we would have met your family and discovered that you live just two blocks away. That’s exactly why we decided to come here, to build community and connections closer to where we live.” ~ From one parent to another at the Wednesday meal

An invitation for you to be a part of an amazing ministry…

Something sacred happens when people gather around a table. As Mount Olivet fully lives into our mission, we invite you to prayerfully consider joining in a $25,000 spring appeal to ensure we have the capacity to maintain and expand our food ministries.

If you recall, in our 2026 appeal, we set our sights on three primary initiatives:

1. Open Hearts – to expand our food ministries

2. Open Doors – to transform our community room into a versatile place of welcome

3. Open Arms – to deepen partnerships, making us more responsive to community needs

While our pledges did not entirely meet the scope of our original plans, we feel called to focus our energy on our food ministries. Now, one-time gifts totaling $25,000 will allow us to fully implement the Open Hearts initiative. Amid the strain and uncertainty of our world, Mount Olivet has responded – with compassion, steadiness, and a clear commitment to love our neighbors. It’s an exciting time to be a part of this congregation.

Your gift will help alleviate hunger!

Our food ministries feed a deeper hunger, not only hunger for food, but hunger for connection, recognition, and belonging. You may give online here to support the spring appeal.

Monday Community Meal

In partnership with Loaves & Fishes, we prepare a free and nutritious meal served to all people, without exception. So far in 2026, we have served an average of 162 meals on Monday nights, including a recent all-time high of 212! Many of our neighbors receive their meal to go, often bringing food back to family members or sharing it with others. We honor that need.

Now we imagine a next step – offering an open invitation to stay and dine in community for those who wish, providing an opportunity for connection when it feels right.

Wednesday Dinners

On Wednesday evenings, our congregation gathers for a shared meal before worship and faith formation. Right now, this meal primarily serves Mount Olivet members, many of whom already attend Wednesday worship and faith formation. But the meal is becoming something more.

We are seeing relationships form across generations. Children recognize one another. Parents make connections. A sense of community is taking root. One young participant, just six years old, recently pointed with excitement and exclaimed…

“Daddy, those are my friends!”

We envision our Wednesday meal becoming an even greater intergenerational gathering space, bridging our Sunday and Wednesday communities as we expand opportunities for adult faith formation. In time, we imagine this table growing wider, welcoming neighbors from beyond our congregation. In addition, we continue working to source food from sustainable farmers, artisans, and markets with the goal of creating a more sacred food system that stewards our natural resources responsibly.

Why does Food Ministries at Mount Olivet matter?

By supporting Mount Olivet food ministries, you address not only hunger itself, but the inequities that determine who eats well and who goes without. You break down the social and economic barriers that keep too many families from nourishing meals. You alleviate isolation and strengthen community bonds.

We invite you to join this work by donating to our spring appeal. Together, with gifts of all sizes above regular giving, whether $2,500, $250, or $25, we will raise the $25,000 to make this possible.

You may give online here or send a check to the church, specifying “food ministries” in the memo line.

With gratitude and hope,

Desirée Uhrich, Lead Pastor

Lauren Schroeder, President

Wally Palm, Vice President

Deb McDonald, Treasurer

Joe Himmelberg, Secretary

Love in Action: One Family’s Palm Sunday Experience

Palm Sunday was so meaningful for me this year - both the church service at Mount Olivet, and then the rally in St. Paul. I wasn't initially signed up for the event at the Capitol, because I had another event to take my younger three children to right after church that day, but something kept stirring in me to attend, so we did!

Because we didn't go with the group, we ended up parking nearby and just walking straight to the Capitol on our own. We got there on the earlier side, before the people in the march arrived. After a bit of waiting, I noticed the marchers arriving. I wish I would have taken a video of that moment, to capture what it was like to see a large crowd of people coming over the hill on the left side of the building. They kept coming...and coming...and coming! It was very emotional to see everyone flooding onto the lawn, signs in hand and from churches around the state. What a powerful moment I won't soon forget!

It has been a hard season to be a Christian these last 5-10 years. So much has been publicly done "in Christ's name" that doesn't look much like the Jesus I read about in the Bible. I have not wavered in my love for God, but I have certainly wavered in feeling comfortable identifying as a Christian, wondering if by outing myself I will have people ascribe violent, racist, and hateful attributes to me. However, Palm Sunday felt powerful as I was reminded that my understanding of Christianity - a religion that is filled with love for neighbor and care for the vulnerable - is not a view I alone hold, but there are so many others like me who see it as our calling as Christians to love.

I am so grateful I got to be a part of the Palm Sunday Rally for Justice and Love, and I know this experience will stick with me and continue giving me hope on the hard days. I am not alone. We are not alone. And together, we can love and care for our neighbors.

~ Amber Harder, Mount Olivet Member

The Way of Jesus: Living the Resurrection Together

An Easter season reflection from Pastor Desirée

Easter does not end when the lilies fade or the alleluias quiet. It continues, unfolding in our lives as hope, newness, and transformation take root among us.

In these past months, many of us have felt how hope can ebb and flow. There are seasons when it feels strong and steady, and others when it seems to recede, revealing the weight of what we carry. And yet, Easter meets us right there. It reminds us that hope is not dependent on perfect circumstances.

Our hope is grounded in the living Christ, who meets us in our fragility and stays with us. The good news of Easter is not that everything suddenly becomes easy or resolved. The world is still the world. We still carry grief, fear, and uncertainty. But something has changed. Christ is risen. And because of that, we trust that God is always at work bringing life out of death, making all things new, even when we cannot yet see it.

This is the promise of new creation. Not a return to what was, but the unfolding of what God is still doing among us. As a community of faith, we are invited to look ahead with expectation. To follow the Spirit into places of connection, healing, and belonging. To trust that we are part of something larger than ourselves, a story still being written in love.

And this is where transformation begins. Not all at once, but in small, steady ways. In moments of courage. In acts of compassion. In choosing hope when it would be easier to give in to despair.

On that first Easter morning, the women went to the tomb expecting death, and instead encountered life. They ran with fear and great joy to share what they had seen. In many ways,

they were the midwives of hope, helping bring this new reality into the world. That is our calling now.

We are invited to live as people of the resurrection. To stand in the space between what is and what could be, grounded in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, and guided by the Spirit forward.

As you view these Easter Sunday photos in this LINK, may you see more than moments captured. May you glimpse signs of hope rising, new life emerging, and transformation already underway among us.

Christ is risen. And the story is still unfolding.

With love and gratitude ~ Pastor Desirée

Hosanna in the Sanctuary & the Streets: A Church That Shows Up

Pastor Desirée Reflects on the Palm Sunday March for Justice and Love

Palm Sunday always sends us somewhere. We gather, we hear the Word, we share the meal and then Jesus says, Go. This year, that sending was especially meaningful as more than 100 people from Mount Olivet Lutheran Church of Plymouth climbed onto school busses and made our way to the Capitol, joining 10,000 other Christians for the March and Rally for Justice and Love.

We are living in a time when truth is distorted, fear is amplified and power is too often used to harm the very people Jesus centers. We see policies and systems that neglect the hungry, abandon the sick and turn away the stranger. We see Christianity used as a cover for domination rather than a call to love. This is not the Way of Jesus.

And so, we went.

We went because following Jesus is not passive. It is embodied. It is public. It calls us to live what Jesus names so clearly in Matthew 25: feed the hungry, care for the sick and welcome the stranger. Love of neighbor is not a private belief. It is a lived witness.

Palm Sunday was never meant to be safe. The cries of Hosanna mean save us. Save now! It is a protest prayer rising from people who refuse to accept injustice as the final word. Jesus rides straight into the heart of empire, and he still does. And he invites us to go with him.

What mattered most was not just the size of the crowd, though 10,000 voices carry power. It was the clarity of our witness. Mount Olivet showed up with courage, with joy, and with a deep commitment to the kind of world God is bringing into being. You can view photographs of our time at the Capitol HERE. You can view photographs of our Palm Sunday worship HERE.

This is what the church is called to be. Not silent. Not neutral. But a people who follow Jesus into the world, trusting that love, justice, and mercy will have the final word.

With love and deep gratitude ~ Pastor Desirée

Compassion in Action:

Continuing Bob Carlson’s Legacy

This week, we remember Bob Carlson, whose birthday is March 25, and we give thanks for the legacy of compassion he left among us. After Bob’s passing, a special fund was created through memorial gifts, and today it continues because of your generosity. If you feel called, I invite you to join in this ministry, whether with a one-time gift or ongoing support. You can use this LINK to give. If you prefer a check or cash, please include a note to direct it to the Bob Carlson Compassion Fund. Checks or cash may be dropped off at the office.

I want to share just two glimpses of what that compassion looks like in real life.

Not too long ago, a woman and her teenage son reached out. They had been evicted, and everything they owned was in storage, about to be auctioned off. They asked for just enough help to buy a little more time. Because of this fund, we were able to pay it down to zero and give them breathing room to begin again.

Another family, with a young child, had been displaced by a medical crisis. They were staying in a hotel and needed just one more week before moving into a new home and starting a new job. Without help, they would have been sleeping in their car during that last snowstorm. Because of this fund, they didn’t have to.

This is what Bob’s compassion looks like, alive and moving among us.

My husband and I have made the decision to give to this fund on a recurring basis, in addition to our regular offering, because I see firsthand the profound relief and gratitude it brings to our neighbors in moments of real crisis.

Thank you for being a part of Bob’s vision and caring for God’s beloved ones. ~ Pastor Desirée

Youth and Children Lead Mount Olivet in Worship

This past Sunday, March 8, and Wednesday, March 11, youth and children led the Mount Olivet community in worship.

Youth Council, the Faith Formation Co-Op Team, adult leaders, Pastor Desirée, Pastor Michelle, Kim Capel, Rich Holleque, Tim Strommen and Beth McGrew-King planned together for weeks leading up to worship.

Thank you to student leaders who shared their gifts on Sunday and Wednesday, and thank you to Pastor Desirée, Pastor Michelle, staff and adult volunteers who invested in building relationships and sharing their wisdom in support of young people leading at Mount Olivet. And a shout out Bridgette Weber and the kitchen volunteers for feeding a full Community Room of 182 people a delicious pancake breakfast -- with bacon, sausage, and fruit! So much gratitude for the Mount Olivet community’s generous support of high school students attending the Denver, Colorado service learning trip this summer with over $1,000 raised for the trip so far.

Mount Olivet values being a place where children and youth lead, and where everyone can find their place to participate in God’s unfolding story. On Sunday and Wednesday, as a community, we experienced the Spirit bringing us together as students led in new ways, discovered new possibilities, and built intergenerational connections through volunteering and meals together.

Check out more photos from Sunday and Wednesday below.