Interim Update for July 27, 2018

Hospital and Care Center Visits

Heard that Carol H. was in the hospital, so went to visit her before VBS on Monday. She is now home and doing much better. On Tuesday I went to Bellevue Care Center and Orchard Grove to bring communion to gathered Lutherans (and a few others). Saw Florence O. and Vera B. at Orchard Grove. The plan is to go monthly on the fourth Tuesday, 2:00 at Orchard Grove and 2:30 at Bellevue Care Center.

One on (One or Two) conversations

One of the things I hope to as interim is lots of listening. I want to hear your stories about St. John's, your memories, hopes, dreams and concerns. I won't be able to meet with everyone for such conversations, but will do those as time and schedules allow. Stop in and visit in the office, or we could set something up to meet somewhere.

Bread for the World?

I received a phone call from Bread for the World, an organization that encourages our elected leaders to offer and vote for legislation and programs that serve to reduce hunger. They do what's called an "Offering of Letters" with a Sunday focus during the month of October. This organization was started by a Lutheran pastor (Rev. Art Simon) in the 1970's and since 1991 has been led by Rev. Richard Beckmann. Bread for the World, along with our own ELCA Hunger program, would be worthy partners for a congregation that sees hunger relief as a part of its mission.

VBS Kids Ride the Rolling River!

2018 VBS is now history, and once again it was a raging success. Our "Rolling River Rampage" theme took kids on a white-water rafting adventure to experience the ride of a lifetime with God! Along the river, children discovered that life with God is an adventure full of wonder and surprise, and that they can trust God to be with them through anything. Here's a summary of our daily Bible stories and reminders:

• Jesus Calls the Disciples (Matthew 4:18-25) Rapid Reminder: Find Adventure on the River!
• Jesus Accepts Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) Rapid Reminder: Find Acceptance on the River!
• Jesus Walks with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) Rapid Reminder: Find Joy on the River!
• Jesus Shares a Special Meal (Luke 22:14-20) Rapid Reminder: Find Rest on the River!
• Jesus Makes a Promise (Matthew 28:16-20) Rapid Reminder: Find Peace on the River!

Kids joined together for openings and closings in the sanctuary, and rotated through Bible Story, Music, Science and Craft rooms staffed by our many adult and youth leaders from both St. John's and ICC. Pre-schoolers met in the Fellowship Hall for their activities. All, including parents and other adults joined together for the closing program in the sanctuary on Thursday, with ice cream and games following.

It was a an excellent week of fun and learning with our partner congregation, Immaculate Conception. Everyone worked hard and did an outstanding job to make this a memorable experience for our kids. Special kudos and thanks to Heather Smith for being our chief leader this year!

Ice Cream Social next Sunday, August 5

Speaking of Heather, she asked me to share the following announcement before services this weekend: "VBS has come to a close and with the congregations support, we were able to teach the word of Christ to 80 children through songs, crafts, food and science experiments. As a thank you, we will be having an Ice Cream Social after the congregation meeting on August 5th. Please come and join us for some ice cream and fellowship."

Evangelism Team activity bears fruit

The Evangelism Team recently sent out a letter to inactive members encouraging them to return to participation with us at St. John's, or to wish them well in a new church home. This past Sunday, one of those members returned, and wants to continue. This is a person who needs transportation to get to worship, and St. John's members are responding to make it happen. Thanks Evangelism Team!

Death of and funeral for Phyllis Neill

Long time member of St. John's Phyllis Neill died Tuesday at her home at the Willows. Pastor Henry Seibert is related to the family, and as Phyllis's own pastor for five years, was called upon to officiate at the funeral. Visitation will be 10:00-11:00am Monday, July 30, 2018 at the Auxter Funeral Home, 1105 Castalia St, Bellevue, with the funeral service following at 11:00 am. Burial will follow in Castalia Cemetery. You can read the obituary here.

Breeze Up and Running

Breeze, our new Church Management Software, is now up and running. The technicians at Breeze exported the data from our previous program, Revelations, and formatted it for Breeze. The database installation was completed on Wednesday afternoon, at which time I was notified by Breeze in an email. I have begun to create Folders and Tags (started with a Leadership folder, and included tags for Council and each of the committees). Folders and tags enables leaders to quickly locate people in the database.

The next major task will be to create users who will be able to access and make changes, add tags, record attendance. We will also invite everyone for whom we have a valid email to register as a user, which will allow them full access to their stored data, and make any changes, such as address, phone number and email. Users will also have access to an on line password protected church directory. For a full explanation of the security of data on Breeze, you can go here.

Another major task will be to make the database as up to date as possible. This includes identifying who are active members, and who has moved away or we know has joined another church. I have also noted that school children do not have their current grade in school indicated. This was always an important piece of data to know, as I used it often at St. Peter in Norwalk to generate lists of children and youth to send parents info about congregational children and youth ministry activities. I'd suggest a team or committee of members who could work with Terri and me to get our database as up to date as possible.

Other things that will be possible with Breeze is to create an on line calendar which Andrew can post on the St. John's website, and which forms the basis for recording attendance. Breeze also offers an on line giving portal (at no additional charge) that integrates with the Giving module of the program. This also could be incorporated by Andrew into the congregation website.

Return to Eastern Conference

I received an email from Pr. Katie Suggitt (Grace, Castalia) inviting me the next meeting of the Eastern Conference Pastors. During my 16.5 years as Associate Pastor at St. Peter in Norwalk, this was a group that I fellowshipped with on a regular basis. Since 2012 I have served in other synods and conferences, so it will be good to return to the conference I knew for so long. Strangely, (or not so strangely), only a few pastors that were serving when I left are still there. That list includes Pr. Katie at Grace, Phil Gardner at Trinity, Sandusky, Blair Miller at Zion Gibsonburg, and Jody Rice at Grace Fremont.

ELCA Stewardship Newsletter

The ELCA publishes a quarterly newsletter focusing on Stewardship -- it is called stewardNet, and the latest issue arrived in my inbox the other day. You can read the web based version here.

Bishop Daniel headed to Tanzania

From Bp. Daniel's weekly email message: "From Sunday, July 29 through Saturday, August 11, I will be a guest of Bishop Amon Kinyunyu and the Dodoma Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. The Dodoma Diocese and the Northwestern Ohio Synod have enjoyed a long and fruitful companion relationship." You can read the entire message here. BTW, Bishop Kinunyu came to NW Ohio in 2016 for the installation of Bp. Daniel. He also visited St. Peter Blackberry, my 2013 interim, to thank them for their support in funding a well for the village of Mlenga, where one of the congregations in the diocese is located. I posed for a pic with Bishop Kinunyu - you can see it here.

Don't forget the Special Meeting

Remember that there will be a special congregational meeting on August 5 follwoing 10 am worship to vote on proposals for the parking lot. Council will meet before worship to receive and decide on the bid to accept.

Other Web links for your info and edification

• ELCA Seeds Monthly -- you can read it here.
• A Reflection from the ELCA Youth Gathering -- you can read it here.

Interim Update for July 20, 2018

My First Council Meeting

I now have my first St. John's Council Meeting under my belt. Many thanks to all of you who give of your time, talents and treasure to serve our Lord through the ministry at St. John's. The breadth and depth of your involvement are impressive and commendable. I look forward to my continued work with you during these months of interim. When we were writing thank you notes at the end of the last night's meeting, someone should have written one for each of you. So let this sentence by my thank you to you. I want to give a special shout-out and thanks to Heather for everything she has been doing with regard to VBS and the approaching Sunday School year, and to Sean for his many hours of time and diligence in keeping the financial records and preparing the reports for all of us. Your hard work and dedication have not gone unnoticed! And, Sean -- best wishes as you begin a new chapter in your coming vocation as an electrical student and electrician!

Breeze export/import

I mentioned in last week's update that we have subscribed to a new system to replace Revelations, the program that has been in place for a number of years. The move was made because it is no longer being supported. The new system is called Breeze, and on Wednesday afternoon, one of their technicians connected remotely with Terri's computer, and exported all the data in the program. The only data that the technician was unable to export was Attendance. We can use the old system to check that, and start out new entering attendance in the new program. It takes some time for Breeze to organize and load it into their program, but it should be completed in the next few days, at which time I'll be able to view everything (except contributions) on my computer. One thing that will need to be done is to define and assign people in the database to a status -- active member, active attender, inactive member, inactive attender, etc. I know that some people's status has changed in the past year, but hopefully we can get things up to do date. If anyone would like to help with this process, let me or Terri know.

Three Strategies for Recruiting More Volunteers

All the people who work at Breeze are active in their own congregations which also use Breeze, so there's lots of hands on experience that has formed this Church Management System. They also have a blog that speaks to issues that face all congregations. The latest blog entry proposes some strategies for recruiting more volunteers. More of those need around St. John's? I'm guessing yes. You can read more here.

Website updated by Andrew

In last week's update I mentioned the congregation's website, which he manages. He emailed me this week to let me know that he had spent some hours updating and improving the site. I had indicated to him that the site was not displaying properly on my smartphone. This is important, as most people moving into the area have and use smartphones to begin their search for needed services. We hope that one of the services they will avail themselves of is Saturday at 5 and Sunday at 10. He said he could do the online calendar, but we will wait as Breeze utilizes an online calendar that we should be able to display on our website.

Confirmation Ministry at St. John's

The Education Team, in their report last night, spoke of the Confirmation Program, including a few changes that we would like to implement for the coming academic season, including some different expectations regarding the faith paper that confirmation candidates write. We are suggesting an evaluation of Confirmation at St. John's for possible new directions that we'd like to take this ministry. I have shared with Team members several documents for their review, including the ELCA 1993 Confirmation Ministry Task Force (25 years ago!) which is the most recent statement and document from the ELCA that outlines best thinking and practice for how we understand and implement confirmation ministry in our congregations. I'd like to share this document also with you -- it's about 14 pages, but lots of good, helpful content which can give us direction as we evaluate this ministry. Your can read the document here. Note: you can simply view and read the document in the Dropbox window in which it will be displayed, or you can download the pdf and even print it out if you wish.

Remember William Meyer?

Does anyone remember William Meyer? He was the editor at the Bellevue Post Gazette from 1977-1981. He later went to seminary and became a pastor in the The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He was my breakfast partner one morning at the Interim Ministry Network Annual Conference that I attended in June in St. Louis. He remembers fondly his years in Bellevue.

Interim Ministry Plan

At council Thursday night I presented a hard copy of my August newsletter Pastor's message, which focused on an outline and description of my time and work with you as your interim pastor, along with a tentative schedule for the coming months. I said I would post a link to this document in this message, so I have linked it here.

Northwestern Ohio Synod eNews for July

Your can read the latest Synod news and announcements here.

Vacation dates

Just a reminder that I have requested vacation days for August 7, 8 and 9. As mentioned at Council, I will be traveling with daughter Sarah in her car, helping her move from Ohio to Logan, Utah, where she will begin a PhD program in mathematical ecology. Will depart with Sarah early on Monday the 6th, take three days for travel, and fly back to Cleveland on Thursday from of Salt Lake City.

URL for blog

I used to do these updates just with an email message, but then decided that it would work better to put them into a blog. That makes them readily accessible if you need to look back at some information that was shared here. I will provide the link to the current blog in an email, but keep in mind that you can access the entire blog with the url stjohnsbellevue.blogger.com. Links to the blog archives are in the right column organized by year and month.

VBS almost ready to go

Kudos and thanks to everyone who is working hard to make VBS a success again this year. A forest has popped up in the sanctuary, and if it hasn't already, a river will soon be flowing. Sure to be a good week with the kids. The fun starts at 6:30 Sunday night, and continues every evening until Thursday.

Interim Update for Friday, July 13, 2018

Greetings all -- hope you've had a good week. The weather forecast for the weekend is 90 degrees, so Executive Committee has decided to hold both services upstairs. It was a plenty busy week -- here are some of the highlights --

Parking Lot Getting Sized Up

Lenny Bowers and Tom Andres were at the church on Tuesday measuring for the parking lot sealing and striping project that I understand will be started soon. Good to hear, as the parking lot is part of the first impression that first time visitors have of the church.

Sharing files and info with Terri

As a pastor who lives out of town and isn't in the office as much as a settled pastor, I've made good use of the internet to share documents and collaborate with office personnel and others with whom I need to share files and info. I use Google Docs and Dropbox, which usually work better than attaching files to emails. Thanks, Terri, who has been very willing to learn new tricks for more effective collaboration.

Connecting with shut-ins

Terri gave me the names of several shut-in members. I have made some initial phone contacts, and will plan to visit at a later time. Some of those members don't always feel up to a visit, so it just gets done at a later date. I still need to get the list of St. John's members who are residents at local care facilities so I can get over and meet those saints.

Lay Visitors for Holy Communion

Some previous interim congregations have had lay visitors bringing Holy Communion to shut-ins. This kind of program is not intended to replace a pastor bringing Holy Communion, but provide our shut-in members with both contact from the congregation as well as sharing the sacrament. I like to have have communion sets on the altar, and have lay visitors come forward at the end of the service for a prayer before the final blessing and sending hymn. This reinforces the idea that the Holy Communion that is brought to our shut-ins is an extension of the distribution during the weekend service. Would any of you, or do you know of anyone that would like to do this?

New Church Management Software (CMS)

CMS has always been a helpful ministry tool. Whether it's finding a street or email address or a working phone number, who's having a birthday, or which kids are ready for first communion and who their parents are, CMS helps get the job done. St. John's has used a program called Revelations for some years, and is installed on Terri's computer. After investigating the possibility of getting Revelations installed on my computer also, I learned that the company that issued the program is no longer supporting it. I went to the Facebook ELCA Clergy group, and asked for advice, and one suggestion was for a program called Breeze. It is web based system that is highly customizable, allows multiple users, and even includes a portal for online giving. It is easy to learn and use, provides lots of short videos that show you how to do things, and has good customer service. The cost is a flat $50 per month, and includes everything, including unlimited customer service phone support. There are no setup fees and no contracts. After consulting with Terri, I suggested to executive committee on Wednesday that we give it a try. We paid the first month service, and next week a customer service rep will assist with exporting data from Revelations and importing it to Breeze. If you'd like to take a look, you can do so here. I'll have more to share about the functionality once we get our data moved in and start using the program.

Stewardship Team Meeting

Stewardship had planned to meet Thursday, but postponed until next Tuesday at 6pm. We will be viewing the video that was prepared by Pastor Kent Wilson, our synod Director of Leadership Development and Congregational Vitality and in that position offers resources and programs to help congregations strengthen their mission and ministry. The title of the video is “The 7 types of givers in every congregation and why you can’t treat them all alike.” If any of you would like to join us to watch the video, you are most welcome. We'll put a few more Coke's on ice and make an extra batch of popcorn.

Trinity's New Beginnings

St. Benedict, who lived in the sixth century, formed small intentional communities of monks in what today is Italy, and is commemorated by the Church on July 11, this past Wednesday. Dr. Kit Kleinhans, Dean of Trinity Seminary, focuses on Benedict in her weekly message. You can read it here.

Hunger Grants Available

Some of the congregations I have served as interim have vibrant feeding programs. Trinity in Vermilion serves supper every Tuesday and Thursday, about 1200 meals per month. St. Paul in down town Toledo also serves hot breakfast twice a week, feeding hundreds every meal and thousands per year. My recently completed interim in Galion, average Sunday attendance of 50-60, serves hot breakfast every Saturday morning, and a supper once a month, for over 5,000 meals per year. The ELCA offers grants to congregations to help fund their feeding ministries. This is one of the many ways that out Mission Support dollars support ministry throughout our ELCA. If you want to know more, you can go here.

Communicating with Andrew about website

I have exchanged a few emails with Andrew, who is still maintaining the congregation's web site. Anything we need to add or change needs to be sent to him, as he is the only one who has access. I'm hoping we can add an online calendar of church events, so that anyone, especially members, can check the congregation's schedule for up and coming events and meetings.

Tentative Interim Schedule

One of the things that I shared at Exec on Wednesday was a tentative schedule for my time as your interim pastor. I won't outline what I said here, but will share it with you at Council next week. My August newsletter pastor message will cover this topic, and as I'm sure you know, the deadline for newsletter is the 20th of the month. (hint, hint, if you have items to submit for Terri).

Throw away your mission statement?

Pastor David Hansen pastors Spirit of Joy, a mission congregation in The Woodlands, Texas. I first met him when I was doing my interim in Minnesota in 2015. My synod, (Southeastern Minnesota) brought in Pr. David to do a full day workshop of communication, particularly electronic, including websites, and use of Facebook and Twitter. Pr. David has used these tools to their fullest in the advancement of their ministry. When I posted the question about suggestions for Church Management Software, he recommended Breeze. He writes a blog called Digital Pastor//Building Community in the Digital Age. His latest post is titled "Throw Away Your Mission Statement." It's worth a read, which you can dohere.

Bishop Daniel's weekly message

Bishop Daniel continues to interpret Nehemiah to us. His theme this week is "Money Matters." You can read his message here.

That's about all for this week. I look forward sharing Word and Sacrament again with you this weekend.

Interim Update for July 6, 2018

Welcome to the St. John's Interim Update blog! I have gotten into the habit of writing a periodic email message for council members and other leaders, to keep you abreast of what I've been doing as interim and how the interim is progressing. It's also provides a way to share important information, documents, and links to other resources on the internet. Writing a regular blog post also helps me keep on top of what I've been doing and how I've been spending my time. I am putting these updates into a blog so that everything I have written will be easily accessible, in case there are bits of information that you may be looking for.

Death of and Funeral for Bob Birr

At the close of my first Sunday service at St. John's last Sunday, I received word that Bob Birr had died. His son Jim and his wife Karen were present at worship, and I was able to meet with them following the service. We planned another meeting on Tuesday morning to continue plans for Bob's service. Here are the details, ICYMI: Visitation at Foos and Foos Funeral Service in Bellevue on Friday, July 6, from 4-7 pm, and service on Saturday at 10 am at St. John's. Commital service at Bellevue Cemetery and then lunch in the fellowship hall following. Bob was a long time member of St. John's, and for years was the Plant Manager at the GE Lamp Plant here in Bellevue. You can find the full obituary here.

My First Week at St. John's

Because of the 4th of July holiday on Wednesday, my time in the office has been rather limited. I've spent some time just getting myself oriented to the details of a new office, such as how to send items from my computer to the printer. Terri has been very helpful, and we are already exchanging emails and documents such as weekend bulletins by email and shared Google Docs. Later on Tuesday afternoon, I met with Treasurer Shaun, and we got things set up for payroll, and me registered with Portico for the billings that will come from them for such things as pension and other benefits that employers provide.

On site vs. Work from Home

As your interim pastor, I will be working both on site in the office and around town and the area for ministry purposes, and from home. My proposed schedule is to take Monday as a regular day off, and be on site on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Friday will be a work from home day. I will do additional travel on Mondays and Fridays for such things as funeral ministry, or for emergencies.

Trinity Seminary's New Beginnings

I'm on the email list for a Trinity Lutheran Seminary update written by the seminary dean, Rev. Dr. Kit Kleinhans with the title "Trinity's New Beginnings." In recent issues she announces the death of former Trinity president Fred Meuser and reminds us of his ministry and legacy to the church (June 20 and 27) and in the July 4 issue she addresses the immigration crisis on the border. All three of these are available to read using the links below.

• June 20 issue - read it here.
• June 27 issue - read it here.
• July 4 isssue - read it here.

Death of Pr. John Mawhirter

I have just learned, via a Facebook post from the family, of the death of Pastor John Mawhirter. John was called by Zion in Sandusky first as associate, and then as senior pastor, and served there for twenty years. In December of 2014, he underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery, and after recovering from that was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June of 2015. He subsequently resigned his position at Zion and he and his wife Dianne moved to Columbus. He was a faithful pastor, and much loved by both members and friends of Zion. He was a huge Ohio State fan, and his son Aaron was a walk-on long-snapper for the Buckeye football team. A December 2016 article in the Toledo Blade told of how, in the midst of being treated for his cancer, he still wouldn't miss seeing his son Aaron play at the Shoe in Columbus. You can read the article here. I wasn't a close personal friend of John, but knew him well through our Eastern Conference pastors meetings. He had a passion for the gospel and a Christ-like love for the people he served as pastor. Rest eternal grand him O Lord, and let light perpetual shine on him. Just posted by his wife Dianne, the arrangements: "Sat. July 14 visitation from 1pm-5pm at Spence Funeral Home in Pickerington. Sun. July 15- Visitation from 2pm with Memorial Service at 3pm at Epiphany Lutheran Church Pickerington. We appreciate all the thoughts, prayers and cards over the last 3 years. Well done good and faithful servant."

Stewardship Training from Pr. Kent Wilson

Not sure if anyone from council was at the synod assembly, but if you were, you may remember Pr. Kent Wilson's request to fill out a stewardship survey. Those who did so had a chance at winning a gift basket. Those of us who didn't win got a email from Pr. Wilson asking us to view a video on stewardship. Pastor Wilson is our synod's Director of Leadership Development and Congregational Vitality and in that position offers resources and programs to help congregations strengthen their mission and ministry. If you're on the Stewardship Committee, I'd recommend reading this and viewing the video. He says it's 57 minutes long, but he also says there's some freebies for us if we view it and answer a few questions. You can read Pastor Wilson's message here.

Bishop Daniel's Weekly Message

Perhaps some if not many of you are already on the Bishop's email list for his weekly messages. You may know by now that this year's them is Prayer. It is good to see the theme verse, Philippians 4:6 "Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" displayed prominently in the welcome center of the church. You can read Bishop Daniel's latest message, focusing on Centering Prayer, here.

That's about all I have for the first installment of St. John's Interim Update. There will be more. Look forward to seeing you again this weekend -- don't forget the Meet and Greet where I will be able to meet and greet you all at 9:30 on Sunday morning. I understand that we'll be upstairs again in the fellowship hall again. With the meet and greet, that will work well. See you soon.