Don't miss out on important announcements via our member email lists!
CLICK HERE for registration Instructions

Welcome to the Internet site of
Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church in Ramona, California

You'll find our worship services expressive, open to all, and full of the presence of the LORD.

Our goal is to glorify God in our meetings and meet your needs with his Word. Spirit of Joy is diverse in age and ethnic and social origin, but we are united by love for Jesus Christ our Savior.

There is no better life than one based on the Word of God and lived in relationship with Him.

Please visit... we'd love to know you. And we promise you'll feel welcome!

We're located in Ramona, California, on the edge of the "back country" in northern San Diego County... Click here for directions.

Message Moments, January, 2012

We begin 2012 with new beginnings in ministry. We welcome Tyler Andersen as our new children and youth ministry director. We also welcome Bryce Harrison as our contemporary praise worship leader. Along with Bryce we welcome his wife Britany who will bring her musical talents and gifts as well! This means transition for us at Spirit of Joy. Tyler and Bryce bring their gifts to us and will share in our life together at Spirit of Joy. We rejoice in this, and welcome them! Take time on Sundays to share the joy of our church family with them.

Tyler will be involved in all aspects of our children and youth ministry: Kids Klub, Junior High Youth and Confirmation, Senior High Youth, Junior/Senior High Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, and all retreats including Houseboats, Winter Retreat, and Beach Camp.

Bryce will be helping to plan our worship format and music for the 9:45am service each week. Plan to come and try this new contemporary praise worship service. We will be introducing Bryce in worship each week in January, and we will begin this new service in February.

January also brings new beginnings for each of us in our personal faith journey. Where are you in that journey, and where do you want to be? Now is a good time to find ways to be involved, to volunteer, to share in Bible Study, to worship regularly. Make the commitment and join us at Spirit of Joy for great things in 2012!

See You Sunday!

The Big Bang

Questionable Universe

Christianity is true. This being so, you would expect to see evidence of its truth staring you in the face everywhere you turn. So why do so many people miss it? Part of the secret is learning to ask the right questions. For example:

• If God isn’t there, then why is the world there?
• If the universe is just matter and energy evolving by chance, why has it bothered to evolve at all? Why hasn’t it already run down into a pool of useless entropy?
• Why does it behave so consistently? If things just happen by chance, why are all the natural laws the same today as they were yesterday?
• Why do we want things to make sense? Where did the notion of sense come from?
• If intelligence and order were not put into the universe from the outside, how did they get here?
• If matter is such neat stuff that it has the tendency to evolve intelligence all by itself, why has it evolved a life form whose intelligence only serves to keep it from feeling at home in the cosmos that gave rise to it? Why does that life form have aspirations for love, meaning, purpose, and immortality, all of which are unfulfillable, indeed meaningless, in a universe in which matter and energy are the ultimate reference point?
• Why does the universe make sense only up to a point? Why does that fact bother us?

None of these questions is answerable from outside the Biblical worldview. The postmodern generation is suspicious of people with answers. So maybe, first, we should just be the people with questions.

Copyright ©Touchstone Magazine, May, 2009, p.5