Interim Update for January 25, 2019

First Healthy Congregations Workshop next Saturday

The first of three Healthy Congregations Workshops that we have planned for 2019 is next Saturday, February 2, from 9am - 1pm. Pr. Rob Johnson from Holy Trinity in Toledo will be our leader. Here is the description of workshop 1:

An introduction to thinking of your congregation as an "emotional field" that can be driven by the wind of anxiety rather than reflective faith and devotion to Jesus, with a focus on strengths, and mission mindedness.

Some of you have indicated that you are not available for this workshop. If you know you are unable to attend and haven't let me know yet, please do so with an email or text (419-239-8444).

Furnace update

Every once in a while we brush away the icicles, but otherwise have been surviving in a building that is running on 1/3 of its normal BTU generating capabilities. Two of the building's three boilers are down, and the building is being kept from turning into a popsicle by boiler number 3. Of the two disabled boilers, one is repairable, and we are waiting for parts to be delivered so the service personnel can complete their job. Lenny has been in constant contact with the repair service, the company which installed the boilers. We learned this afternoon that the parts have arrived, and the repair will be completed, hopefully on Monday. We will also be receiving a quote for a new boiler #3, as repair costs are almost as much as for a new boiler. Executive Team will move on this matter of great urgency. Expenses for this repair/new equipment could reach 5 figures.

Worship and Sunday School in light of heat deficiency

At Education Team meeting Thursday night we decided to cancel Sunday School for this Sunday. However, we are proceeding with worship on Saturday and Sunday. Holy Baptism for little Ella Burkhart, daughter of Lauren and Derek Burkhart, granddaughter of Denise Roth, and great-granddaughter of of Joanne Reiderman has been scheduled for Sunday. I have placed the following announcement on the St. John's Facebook page:

Although we are still awaiting repair to our heating system, available resources are able to maintain a temperature of about 60 degrees in most public gathering areas of the church, including the sanctuary. 5 pm Saturday and 10 am Sunday services will proceed as usual, but be advised to dress accordingly. As reported in an earlier post, we will be canceling Sunday School and adult class. We are expecting repairs to be completed on Monday.

You can view and share the post here, or copy and paste the above message and email it to your St. John's friends, so the word gets out.

Pastor's Parochial Report and Congregational Report to ELCA

I have spent time this week preparing my parochial report for the Annual Reports Meeting on February 24. This includes a listing of all pastoral acts conducted during calendar year 2018, as well as attendance reports. Completing the parochial report is a prerequisite fore completing the ELCA Congregational Report, in which we report membership gains and losses, as well as our financial information of income, expenses, and benevolences. Shaun will complete the financial sections of the report, and I will complete everything else. The due date is February 15.

Reports for Annual Reports Meeting

Just a reminder that if you haven't submitted your committee or offices's report to the church office, you should do so ASAP. Kristen will be putting the reports together into a tradition booklet that, as I understand, is distributed the Sunday before the meeting.

Newsletter items for February newsletter

More work for you here -- it's newsletter time. We will be combining elements and reports from both January and February, as the January issues was published only online.

Interim process timelines (August 2018 and January 2019)

In the Pastor's Message for the August 2018 issue of St. John's Word, I provided an overview of and timeline for the interim process as I had envisioned it at that time. You can read that message here. As requested by Council, I will be be providing an update on the interim process as a part of announcements before worship on January 26 and 27, and have created an article that is printed at the end of the service bulletins. You can read that article here.

ELCA Disability Ministries

"As a church committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is called to welcome all people in all its congregations and ministries into full participation as baptized members of the body of Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:14-26).

This statement is from an ELCA Social Message on People Living with Disabilities. Our ELCA does some amazing and inspiring ministries with and for people are differently abled. You can read more about this important work our ELCA is doing here.

How to keep volunteers

Breeze, our Church Management Software provider, also provides ministry helps with occasional articles on various areas of congregational life. A recent issued focused on the theme "How to Keep Volunteers." You can read all about it here.

Orchard and Beulah Care

Tuesday was my day to conduct a brief group service of Holy Communion at Orchard Villa and Beulah Care Center. Several of our members were present for these services, which are open to who desire to come. While at Beulah Care, I have stopped to visit Pat and Helen Sellingers, long-time members of St. Peter in Norwalk. Pat kept the financial books, and Helen was Sunday School treasurer, each them decades in their respective areas of service. I am inspired by congregation members who serve faithfully year after year.

Education Team

Our Education Team met on Thursday evening and discussed a number of items, including First Communion, Confirmation and plans for Vacation Bible School. The current plan with regard to First Communion is to focus on 2nd grade as the congregational program of preparation for first communion. Since all of this year's active 2nd graders are already communion, we will not plan a scheduled program for first communion. The team also did a division of labor, assigning the various ministries to each of the three team members.

Thursday 10 am Bible Study

Since the Thursday Bible Study is a redo of the Sunday session, and since this Sundays session is cancelled because of the furnace repair, the Thursday Class will not meet this coming week, January 31.

Interim Update for January 18, 2019

Storm's a-comin' -- Here's the plan

At Council meeting last night we decided to cancel Saturday service and Sunday School and Adult Class on Sunday. Here are a few other details:

• Sunday worship has not yet been canceled. We will wait until later in the weekend to make this decision. I will be in touch with Mike and we'll make the call.
• Signs announcing the Saturday and Sunday School cancellations were placed on both entrance doors
• I recorded a new phone greeting announcing the Saturday worship and Sunday School classes cancellations
• The cancellation announcement has been posted on the St. John's Facebook page. You can view the post here and if you have lots of St. John's FB friends, you can share it, which will help to get the word out.
• Jan L. will be available if needed to accompany worship on Sunday morning, if indeed we decide to not cancel.
• Kristen printed a minimal number of bulletins for Sunday
• Lois T. has been contacted regarding Altar Guild. I still need to contact reader and acolyte.

Martin Luther King Day

Martin Luther King is listed on the ELW Calendar as a Renewer of Society and Martyr Commemoration on January 15. Here is a prayer for this day from ELW:
Holy and righteous God, you created us in your image. Grant us grace to contend fearlessly against evil and to make no peace with oppression. Help us, like your servant Martin Luther King, to work for justice among people and nations, to the glory of your name, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Conference Pastors

The Eastern Conference Pastors met on Tuesday, January 15. Our worship centered on the commemoration of Martin Luther King. Our program was Becky Seibert, who gave a presentation on her many trips to Tanzania with other member of our synod. The Dodoma Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania has been a partner synod with ours since almost the beginning of our synod in 1987. Our synod Global Mission Board has coordinated many mission trips to Tanzania and our other partner synods. Another mission is planned for this summer, and Becky will be going. It will be her 16th trip. We learned that Pr. Blair Miller, who has been at Zion Gibsonburg for 12 years, has retired, and is in the process of moving to the Columbus area. Thanks, Pr. Blair, for your faithful service.

Frank Osborn Funeral

Frank Osborn, after long battle with cancer, died on Monday, January 14. Funeral services were held at Auxter, and interment was in Riverside Monroeville. Our funeral luncheon team served (as always) a tasty lunch following the committal. You can read the obituary for Frank here.

Interim Pastors Meeting

On Thursday afternoon I attended our monthly meeting of Synod Interim Pastors. This group has grown, and it is a meeting that I look forward to. There were eleven interim pastors in attendance, and also Sherry Krieger from synod staff.

January Newsletter posted on Facebook

With the transition to Kristen as our new office manager, the January newsletter has been delayed in its publication long enough to combine it with the February issue. The January issue has been posted in pdf format on the St. John's Facebook page. Since this is a completely public place, we have omitted from the online version information which would be considered in-house information, such as the treasure report, and various other financial information. You can read the FB version here.

STEW-About-It, issue 6

Pastor Wilson, our Synod Director of Leadership Development for Congregational Vitality, has published the sixth issue of STEW-About-It, a newsletter with ideas and encouragement for our congregations' stewardship ministry. Most relevant for our Stewardship, but I encourage all of you to take a look. You can get that look here.

Interim Update for January 11, 2019

Healthy Congregations Workshop

I'm still a bit up in the air about the date for our first workshop. I've been communcating with Pr. Rob Johnson on the date, and February 2 works out best for him, and I know that doesn't work for at least one council member, but will any date work for everyone? I'm waiting for Rob to get back to me about February 9, 16 or 23. All would work for me, although February 2 would be best. Let me know of any conflicts for you, as we'd like to have as many as possible be available to attend. Remember the time frame is 9-1 on a Saturday.

Meeting with Kleins regarding picture directory

I met with Doug and Cindy on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of them doing a new photo directory for St. John's, as an alternative to Universal, who has given us Easter Monday (one afternoon and evening) to photograph the congregation. The Kleins are unable to provide free directories, and I assured them that such was not an expectation. However they would be able to provide a weekend, and possible follow-up on a second weekend, to photograph the congregation. They liked the idea of an online directory, which would be free, but for the hard copy directories, the congregation would have to pay, either selling them to congregation members, or from congregational funds. Personally, I think we should cancel our plans with Universal and go with the Kleins.

Funerals for Norma VanDemark and Marlene Schwartz

We learned this week of the deaths of long-time members Norma and Marlene. Marlene has been living with family out-of-state for some time, but was still a member of St. John's at the time her death. Services for Norma will be at Auxter Bellevue Chapel on Saturday, January 12, 11am, and services for Marlene will be at St. John's on Monday, January 14, at 11am. I've linked the obits below:

• Norma VanDemark
• Marlene Schwartz

New Adult Bible Study begins Sunday

In our Sunday morning Adult Forum we have competed our study of the book Healthy Churches Faithful Pastors, and are now ready to move on to something new. Since Bishop Daniel has declared 2019 as the year of Scripture, and has challenged us to read through the Bible in a year, I thought it would be appropriate to do some Bible Study on Sunday morning, and a good place to start is with a "bird's eye view." An excellent resource or this is on of the several courses developed by Rev. Dr. Harry Wendt through his organization "Crossways." I used his courses for adult study at St. Peter, and they are very good, very thorough. We'll start with his three session course called "The Bible for Busy People. The course is a Genesis to Revelation overview, with a timeline included main events in each of the two testaments, Old and New. We all know the basic Bible stories -- Creation, Noah's Ark, Jacob and Esau, Exodus, Jesus birth, death and resurrection, but how do they all fit together? Crossways courses seek to answer this question. For a description of the course The Bible for Busy People course from the Crossways website, go here, and for some recommendations from Lutheran pastors who have used the Crossways resources, you can go here

As we did with the Healthy Churches class, I will offer the Bible for Busy People course also on Thursdays at 10 am.

To get the word out to more members of the congregation, I used the email address book from Kristen's gmail account, so most of you received that email from Kristen earlier today. Keep in mind that the name that will show up in your email in box will be Kristen Rhineberger. It is the exact same address (stjohnsofficesec.@gmail.com) as for Terri, only with Kristen's name associate with that address instead of Terri.

New Facebook admins

Many thanks and kudos to Jan L., who has been keeping the St. John's Facebook presence up to date and relevant. She has recently added Kristen and me as admins, so that among the three of us, we can increase our postings and hopefully make the FB page an important part of our PR program. Andrew Drown continues to be the admin for our website, but if we want to add things to our website, we have to send it to him. Wondering if we should break ranks with him and find someone more local, or do it ourselves and keep it updated that way. Would have helped at Christmas to have our service schedule posted on the website, as that's usually the first place that many people look.

Interim Ministry Online Group

Today I participated for the first time in an online Interim Pastors group, organized by the Interim Ministry Network. This organization is an interdenominational organization that provides training and support for interim pastors. I attended their annual conference in St. Louis last summer, and a benefit of membership in the organization is to be a part of this group. It was my first experience of such a meeting. It's not the same as being live, but we are able to share ideas and concerns. I shared that we had used the book Healthy Churches Faithful Pastors, and learned that one of my group had just ordered it. I was joined by interim pastors from around the country, and our moderator is from Germany and doing an interim in the US. Meetings are monthly on the 2nd Friday at 11am. Next meeting is February 8.

Church Records Big Red Book

One of the responsibilities of a pastor is to keep up-to-date records of pastor acts. Once we got back into the safe, I was able to retrieve the current book, of which there are several that cover the many decades of pastoral acts over the course of the congregation's history. I have noted that there have been no entries in the book for the last several years. Sometimes pastors assume that the records are kept in the Church Managment Softward database, but this is unreliable as a permanent record of the pastoral acts in the congregation. Would anyone be interested in helping me get that book up to date, or suggest someone who might do that? Would help to have someone with good handwriting, as mine is atrocious.

Confirmation starting Baptism unit

In Confirmation we started a unit on Baptism Wednesday evening, just in time for it to coincide with Sunday's celebrating of Baptism of our Lord. Sunday's sermon is entitled "Baptism -- What Does It Mean?" and will include a review of the Holy Baptism section of Luther's Small Catechism. You know, the document that you who endured Lutheran confirmation classes in your youth memorized, and is forever etched in your consciousness. Anyway, hoping to tickle some of those memory cells this weekend. To observe this Sunday, we will also do a couple of thing -- for the Gathering rite, instead of Confession and Forgiveness we will use Remembrance of Baptism, and after the Hymn of the Day, we will do Affirmation of Faith (for the Assembly option). This is similar to what is used for Rite of Confirmation, and is an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the promises we made in Confirmation.

Worship Committee

Worship Committee met on Thursday at 10 am. We had lots to talk about, including Ash Wenesday, Lenten Services, Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter. Yes, those seasons are around the corner, but this year starting much later, as Easter isn't until April 21. For Lent we are considering a light supper in the Fellowship Hall, say, 6pm, followed by a brief worship around the tables at 6:30. Stay tuned for more details about that. On another note, we talked about Pulpit Supply for the weekend of February 9-10. I had suggested the possibility of preparing a sermon, and for the service to be led by congregation members (had a volunteer) but Worship Committee says that the congregation prefers an ordained person who can preside at Holy Communion. I have a tentative commitment from Pr. Richard Weaver to provide supply for those services.

Year End Giving Statements

Kristen has prepared end-of-year giving statements, complete with the front-of-the-envelope notice, "Important Tax Info Enclosed." The Stewardship Team prepared a letter of thanks for those who returned their plan for giving cards, which were inserted with the appropriate statements. The statements will be available in the narthex for the next two weekends -- January 12-3 and January 19-20, so be sure to pick yours up. Those not picked up by then will be mailed out on Monday, January 21, so members can have them for their taxes. My guess is that few members will be able to utilized their giving for tax purposes, because the new standard deduction for single filers is $12,000 for single filers, and $24,000 for married filers.

Interim Update for December 28, 2018 and January 4, 2019

Greetings all -- Happy New Year! This is the first post in a year that will keep us all busy doing the usual as well as the extra. The extra will include forming a Transition Team, small group meetings and surveys and completing a Ministry Site Profile, and later appointing a Call Committee. On tap for Council will be, hopefully, three Healthy Congregations Workshops. More about some of these items in this week's update.

Christmas report

I thought the Christmas services went very well. Many thanks to everyone who went above and beyond to make it all happen -- music and office staff, volunteer decorators, all who provided poinsettias, just to name a few. Don't have the exact attendance in front of me, but numbers were very close to last year's, about 150 for 5pm and 100 for 9pm.

Transition Team

One of our agenda items for January Council Meeting will be to appoint a Transition Team. Rather than type a lot more about this in this paragraph, I will simply link some documents that will explain what the Transition Team does and the process for forming it. Please read the docs linked below:

• Forming the Transition Team
• Transition Team Job Description
• The Work of the Congregation During the Interim Period: Focus Points

$2500 gift received from Samuel S. Johnson Foundation

We received a check in the mail from the Samuel Johnson Foundation -- not sure I have the details right, but my understanding is that Elizabeth Hill Johnson (daughter-in-law of Samuel?) was a former member of St. John's. The gift was for $2,500, and the accompanying letter requested that it be used for something physical at the church, or for community outreach. This should be an agenda item for next week's Council Meeting. You can find more information about the Samuel Johnson Foundation here and here.

Congregational Picture Directory

At our December meeting, we heard a presentation from Universal Church Directories, with sales rep Lyndon Loewen from the company making a presentation. The company could only promise a one day picture shoot on a weekday, first a Tuesday, then a call from Lyndon to say Monday, April 22. I now have serious reservations about how realistic this is, fearing that a one day shoot during the week will severely limit the number of participating families.

I asked around a bit and learned that Doug and Cindy Klein are professional photographers in Bellevue. I gave them a call and left a message, and Cindy returned my call with a message, and said they would be interested in talking more about helping St. John's do a picture directory. They are currently out of town on vacation, but Cindy said she would call me next week to set up an appointment for a conversation about this. My hopes for such a conversation is that they would be willing to do the photography for a new directory, giving them the rights to sell portraits to anyone who sits for photos, and giving us the rights to use digital copies to create our own directories.

Our Church Management System, Breeze already allows us to create directories, but will also quickly create a photo directory with uploaded digital photos. This could create on online directory at no additional cost to us. Our costs would include per copy printing costs. One option would be lulu.com. Our costs might also include royalties for digital photos, although we won't know this until speaking with the Kleins. Would anyone be available and willing to take that meeting along with me?

Council Installation reminder

Just a reminder that Congregation Council members will be installed at the 10am service on Sunday, January 6. We will do this after the Sermon, Hymn of Day and Creed. I will call you forward, and you'll stay through the prayers, and will return your place after the Peace. Ann P., Linda B. and Ron A. were not re-elected to council because of term limits, but continue to serve on their respective committees. I have included their names in the bulletin, and would like them to come forward with Council members for the installation service.

Larry the piano guy and George the furnace guy

There were two service people in the building this week that I'm aware of. Larry the piano tuner was here and tuned half the pianos. He'll come again in the summer to do the other half. Also, there was a guy who I assume was the furnace repair person. I know there have been some issues with the furnace, but I'm unable to describe it in detail. I didn't talk to him as I did to Larry, so I don't know his name, but I'll just call him George.

Some pastoral care

On Wednesday a returned a phone call to someone who had called asking for help. Needed money for a train ticket to San Antonio, Texas to visit son who had stroke, and whose wife also had stroke an is on life support. She had no idea of where exactly her son was, or if she knew, how she would get there when she arrived. Just spent some time on the phone with her, and then offered to bring her a Subway sandwich and some milk and OJ. On Thursday I went to visit Frank and Nancy O. Frank is under hospice care. This was my first visit with Frank. Will plan to make regular, likely weekly visits.

Supply pastor for February 10?

Just a reminder that I leave for my continuing education early on Sunday morning, the 10th of February. We need to decide how to cover the Saturday and Sunday services. In previous interims, I either didn't take vacation Sundays as I saved them for the end of the interim, or a lay member of the congregation did the service. Do you want to consider that before engaging the services of a supply pastor? I could provide the text for a sermon; we would not be able offer Holy Communion, although there is a service in ELW called Service of the Word that is very nice. Heather S. had indicated her willingness to step up and help. Let's talk more about this at the Council Meeting. And, just a reminder that I leave early on Sunday, February 10, and return late Friday, February 15. You can read more about this continuing education experience here.

Healthy Congregations Workshop

In the December 21 Update I mentioned two possible dates for the first of our Healthy Congregations Workshops, Saturdays January 26 and February 2 from 9-1. I wondered if either of those dates was a problem for anyone, and I had one who said February 2 would not work. I'm waiting to hear from Pr. Johnson if either of those dates will still work for him. I'll let you know as soon as I hear more, which hopefully will be soon.

Committee Meetings

There were two committee meetings scheduled this week -- Education and Stewardship. Education canceled, because of the death of Sherri's father-in-law. Stewardship met (I did not attend) but in a phone call with Linda, learned that they are working on a thank you letter for those who returned Commitment Cards. I informed LInda that the office is planning on running the 2018 final offering statements, and that the thank you notes could be inserted with the giving statements for those who responded. There are other things that can be included in the giving statements. These are enumerated by Pr. Kent Wilson in his fifth issue of STEW-About-It. Good stuff for Stewardship and everyone else, too! You can read it here.

Attendance last week

Total attendance for last weekend was 85.

Office Update

I know that many of you have already met Kristen, and if you haven't and have the opportunity, stop in and say hi and introduce yourself. There's a lot to learn in this job, but Kristen is learning fast and doing well. I have introduced her to the "The Big Red Book" which needs some updating with permanent entries for pastoral acts, something that we as pastors are expected to do or delegate. The annual report forms have arrived, and need completed by February 15. Shaun's help is needed for the financial aspects of this report. Also, I spent some time this week reprogramming the phones, so Kristen's name and voice are heard instead of Terri.

Adult Class will resume Sunday

On December 23, we covered chapter 10 of the Healthy Churches Faithful Pastors book and discussion. We'll come together again on Sunday and to a summary and wrap up of what we've learned. There may be some helpful info here that could be incorporated into the Ministry Site Profile.

Christmas Un-decorating Party

Don't forget the Christmas Un-decorating Party which will be held Sunday after worship. Many hands make for light work, as the saying goes.

Weekend Bulletins

You can view this weekend's bulletins as listed below. I'll need to make an announcement about Confirmation on Wednesday the 9th, as they should be returning to their regular Wednesday night schedule.

• Saturday
• Sunday