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:
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.
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