The Rev. Steve Nelson, pastor of First English Lutheran Church, talks on the “Seeds and Loaves of Bread” during Wednesday’s Community Lenten Service at St. Joseph Catholic Church. The services are organized by the Wapakoneta Area Ministerial Association. Staff photo/William Laney

By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
Holding a loaf of fresh-baked bread, a local minister explained the similarities between a seed germinating in the soil which eventually is used to make bread and the growth of person in faith.
Incorporating the biblical passage of the mustard seed into the Lenten theme of “Be What You Are ...,” The Rev. Steve Nelson, pastor of First English Lutheran Church, discussed the three parts of the seed and compared each to a person and their faith.
Nelson explained a seed is composed of an embryo, a seed coat and food storage. He compared the embryo to a person’s faith and the food storage, which nourishes the embryo, to those people who have had an impact on a person’s life and faith.
He said the food storage permit the seed to break through the seed coat and break through the soil to become a plant.
The people, who he compared to food storage of a seed, assist with a person’s faith and are working to help them grow so they can grow, learn and pass the knowledge they obtain onto the next generation.
“The foundations of our faith have been built literally through the help of others who taught us about faith and what it meant to them,” Nelson said during the third week of Lenten Services. “The Holy Spirit works through others’ actions and that helps us to believe, too.”