Seeking to serve the community and help to raise awareness of life issues, Lord of Life Lutheran Church of Plano formed a “Life Team” one year ago. Since its formation, the Life Team, under the dedicated leadership of Jennifer Cinquepalmi, has been very active sharing information and working in the community for Life causes.

Rev. Joel Shaltanis, the pastor of Lord of Life, explained that there are three areas of involvement for those who love God’s gift of life: “There is an educational component…teaching that all life is a precious gift from God. We respond to those who approach the issue with secular views. There is a political component… encouraging people to elect leaders who value life and raise awareness of the current issues in the public square,” he said. “And there is an immediate mercy component…helping women with an unplanned pregnancy to choose life, as well as valuing the elderly and those with physical or developmental disabilities who are often marginalized by those who rally for assisted suicide or so-called ‘mercy killing’.”

“As Christians committed to cherishing God’s gift of life, we must remain resolute in this battle of ideas and speak up for life,” added Shaltanis. “We must take the long view. One person or church cannot resolve the conflict, and we cannot do it overnight, but we can do our part. The Life Team at Lord of Life is doing an excellent job of supporting the cause. While we do not see our role as political – for example, we have opted not to protest and picket, nor are we actively campaigning for pro-life politicians – we do engage in the arenas of education and mercy.”

As part of this effort, Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Plano has partnered with Real Options for Women of Plano to provide financial support and goods donations to the non-profit organization.

Real Options provides women’s healthcare education, pregnancy testing, sonograms, options counseling and women’s health screenings and has served the North Dallas area for more than 25 years.

“Real Options provides valuable counseling and even sonograms for women who view their pregnancy as a crisis and are tempted to abort their child,” said Shaltanis. “Real Options is on the front lines of saving young lives, and they need the support of individual Christians and congregations like ours to help them support their noble goal.”

The Life Team at Lord of Life Lutheran Church collects financial donations for Real Options for Women and recently started a goods donation drive called “Bibles, Bottles and Diapers.”

“We provide children’s Bibles in the hope that as a child grows, their parents will share God’s Word with them and raise them in the faith,” said Shaltanis. “The bottles also provide a necessary tool for helping mothers feed their children. And the diapers, well, you know what those are for! You probably also know that they can get quite expensive. Real Options provides diapers for the first year to mothers who chose life. Our goal is to have an ongoing supply of diapers on hand, so that Real Options can contact us when their supplies run low.”

The church’s Life Team has also worked to provide life-focused educational resources for their members and those in the community. In addition to creating a “Life Library” housed at the church, Lord of Life has hosted Bible studies and presentations on life issues and provides donations for and works closely with the national group Lutherans for Life, a group that publishes pro-life works and promotes speakers to teach in various forums.

Lord of Life Lutheran Church is located at 3601 W. 15th Street in Plano.  For more information, please visit www.planolutheran.com or call 972.867.5588.