Interim Update for December 27

Two funerals

• On Saturday, December 21, I conducted the funeral for Harley Polley at Auxters. I had met Harley at the Bellevue Care center, but did not make the connection that he was a St. John's member.
• On Thursday, December 26, I conducted the funeral for Sandy Warden, also at Auxters. The committal was at the Bellevue Cememtery today, Friday.

Christmas Eve Dinners Delivered

On Tuesday, a large number of volunteers from St. John's gathered at the church to cook and deliver 165 meals to shut-in and economically challenged St. John's and community members. Menu: ham, scalloped potatoes, bacon green beans, dinner roll, apple sauce, fruit cookie. Sunday School children and youth created candy cane Christmas tree ornaments that were delivered with the meals. Thanks and kudos for all who took time out of their busy Christmas Eve schedule to do this ministry outreach.

Care center Communion

Christmas Eve was my scheduled day to do communion at Orchard Grove and Bellevue Care. So I brought my guitar, we sang some carols, read the Christmas gospel, and celebrated Holy Communion.

Christmas Eve Services

I thought Christmas Eve worship went well. Attendance was up over last year.

• 2018 --- 5pm 147, 9pm 106, Total 253
• 2019 --- 5pm 186, 9pm 113, Total 299

The music was excellent. Erik and Sarah, my son and daughter attended 5pm, and Erik was "blown away" by the organ. Shannon on the french horn, and Christ on the trumpet also added the excellence of the service. At the 5pm service I heard both the organ and the trumpet, and I looked up there was Chris playing organ with his left and and pedals, and trumpet with his right hand. Talk about walking and chewing gum at the same time!! Amazing! Thanks to all who did so much to make our Christmas celebration memorable and meaningful.

Fifth Sunday Outreach

Sunday we will wrap up our Christmas Giving Trees by bringing forward our offerings of caps, hats and mittens for a blessing prayer. Thanks to all who participated!

Council Installation

Council members, don't forget that a week from Sunday, January 5, will be installation of Council Members. Hope you can all be there -- we'll do this after the Hymn of the Day and Creed.

Interim Update for December 20, 2019

Well done Christmas Program!

Thanks and kudos to Cindy M., who put together and directed our Sunday School Christmas Program this past Sunday. Good job done by all in telling the Christmas story!

Funerals for Harley Polley and Sandy Warden

St. John's member Harley Polley died on Tuesday, and the funeral will be at Auxter's on Saturday, December 21, at 10:30 am. Harley was originally a member at St. Paul's but transferred to St. John's when he and Kathleen were married, as Kathleen has always been a Lutheran. They attended mostly Saturday worship, although not in recent years. You can read the obituary for Harley here.

This week I got a call from Kathy, Sandy Warden's daughter-in-law, that Sandy had taken a turn for the worse at The Meadows in Sandusky. I visited on Wednesday afternoon, and did a service of commendation for Sandy. I received word this morning that Sandy died late Thursday. Visitation will be December 26 from 4:00 - 7:30, with the sevice following immediately at 7:30 pm. You can read the obituary here.

Birthday Party for Jesus on Wednesday and Thursday

St. John's Preschool staff rolled out another super-fun Birthday Party for Jesus program on Wednesday morning and Thursday morning and afternoon. Parents and grandparents accomplished pre-school kids through many stations set up in the classrooms, Gathering Room, narthex and chapel. Then all gathered in the sanctuary for a message from "The Innkeeper" followed by songs by the kids. All the kids received a Christmas tree ornament crafted by the preschool staff. Lots of hard work and dedication by the staff made it all possible. Kudos and thanks!! Very impressive!

Plans for Offering Envelopes

Kristen has been working with the Stewardship Team to implement a new system of envelopes for congregation members to begin use in 2020. Kristen will print a sheet of labels for each regularly giving family, and a bundle of 50 blank offering envelopes. Members will peel off labels, which will have members name and offering number, and place on envelopes. Those who give weekly will need new labels in about a year. Those who give monthly, their lablesand envelopes will last much longer.

Visit to Ted K. at UTMC

On Tuesday I went to see Ted K. at UTMC -- he had just gotten out of surgery, and was just starting to wake up. Don't have an update as of this writing, but guessing that he's back in Bellevue and continuing his recovery at home. Keep this family in your prayers.

Poinsettias delivered on Thursday

Thanks to Roger, Ann, Jan, Shannon, Sophia and Olivia for picking up, delivering, and arranging the poinsettias for Advent 4 and Christmas celebration.

Busy time getting things ready for Christmas and end of year

Kristen, Jan and I have been working on the Christmas Eve bulletins, getting all the details ironed out with regard to the 5 pm and 9 pm services. Kristen has also been working on January Newsletter, our first online edition. Shaun will be working overtime to get things in order for end of year. Denise and Joanne will be busy getting the building looking its best for Christmas Eve. Thanks and kudos to our hard working staff!

Synod and ELCA links

• You can read Bishop Daniel's weekly message here.
• You can read the latest issue of ELCW Worship News here, including a Christmas Message from Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton.

Interim Update for December 13, 2019

Lunch with St. NIck

The Lunch with St. Nick event sponsored by the Bellevue Ministerial Assocation at the Bellevue Rec Center was, I think, a very nice community event. I attended representing St. John's. Each of the participating congregations had a table with an activity for the kids. For example, First Methodist did the lunch table. Another congregation did hot coca, another did face painting. I joined the group from Fireside UCC, which was headed up by Dale and Karen Wilson's daughter, Jeri (apologies if I have spelled her name wrong) who had purchased supplies to make caramel apples. She also brought a chocolate fountain, and kids would take an a pre-carmeled apple and dip it in the chocolate, then the kids colored on a Merry Christmas tage and attached it to the box holding the caramel apple.

It was a very nice activity, and Jeri had brought supplies for 120 caramel apples. I volunteered to take some off her hands, which I placed in the narthex on Sunday, and St. John's members picked them up. An offering for the apples was received, which was given to Linda L. to augment the proceeds from the Preschool Silent Auction

Preschool Silent Auction wrapped up on Wednesday

Speaking of Silent Auction, this annual fundraiser for the preschool wrapped up its bidding at 1pm on Wednesday. Winning bidders picked up and paid for their winning bid baskets. It is amazing to see all the donated items for this excellent fundraiser. Kudos and thanks to all!

Preschool teachers make Christmas gifts for kids

Our preschool teachers have been busy recently, putting in extra time to create Christmas gifts for the kids in their preschool classes. This year, a photo of each child was decoupaged onto a cross section of a tree trunk. A hole drilled in the top of the disc accomodates a string and hook to create a Christmas tree ornament the the kids and their families. Another example of our preschool staff going above and beyond.

Birthday Party for Jesus next week

Next week, on Wedneday and Thursday will be the Preschools "Birthday Party for Jesus." Parents are invited to a program in the sanctuary, for which I get to provide the December temple talk. Last year I was the shepherd. Maybe I'll be the Innkeeper this year.

Willows Communion

On Monday I joined Jan L. at the Willows to lead the monthly service of Holy Communion. Normally led by Pr. Katie from Grace Castalia, I filled in this month, which gave me a chance to visit all our members who are there, as some of them do not attend the group service. It was good to see Carol H. again, she is making good progress since she got the pins removed from her shoulder.

Midweek Advent Service

The second of our midweek Advent Services was Wednesday evening. Total attendance was about 15. Messages are focusing on the the Old Testament lessons from the previous Sunday of Advent

Funeral for Clara Recktenwald

Funeral service for Clara were held Wednesday at the church, with luncheon following. Thanks to the funeral crew for another excellent lunch. Burial was after the lunch and at Union Cemetery in Oak Harbor, next to Clara's husband Ralph, who died in 2005. Obituary for Clara can be found here.

Carpet Cleaning Friday

The carpet cleaners (Balduff's) were going to come Wednesday, but were rescheduled for Friday because of the funeral. They will be cleaning carpet in the, narthex, lounge, and pastor and treasurer offices.

Sunday School Christmas program Sunday

Cindy Mira is directing the Sunday School Christmas program which will be Sunday during worship. Some service elements will be deleted to make time for the program.

Zoom Interim Pastors group

Friday was my monthly Zoom meeting with other interim pastors from around the US and world (Lieve, our convener is a pastor in Belgium). There are six to eight of us in that meeting, and we talk about what's happening in our congregations, and share problems, questions, and prayers.

Kristen working on January newsletter

Kristen has been checking out some possibilities for formatting the newsletter which will be primarily delivered by email. She's found a template in Microsoft Publisher which looks like a good possibility, and which can easily be converted to a pdf and printed out for in-church distribution and mailing to our shutl-ins.

Council meets next Tuesday, December 17

Our meeting will include adopting a new contract for me for 2020. My current contract expires December 31, on my son Erik's 30th birthday.

Plans for Christmas Eve worship coming together

Christmas Eve worship will follow the same basic pattern as last year. There will be two services at 5:00 and 9:00 pm, with only minor differences between the two. Both services will conclude with candlighting and singing of Silent Night.

Bishop Daniel's weekly email message

You can read it here.

Interim Update for December 6, 2019

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

For more info about St. Nicholas, you can go here

Update on Clara R.

On Sunday I went to see Clara at St. Vincent in Toledo. On Tuesday she was transferred to Stein Hospice inpatient care at Firelands South Campus. She is being kept comfortable -- I visited today and will continue to stay in touch with her and the family in the coming days. Keep her and the family in your prayers.

Giving by text message activated

We have made known the opportunity and method for giving to St. John's using the online giving portal that is available through Breeze, our church management system. Another way to give online that is available through Breeze is by texting with your smartphone. I activited this feature this week, and received from Breeze a phone number to text. Simply text the word “give” to 4197578467 using your smartphone. You will receive a return message with a link to the online portal. The first time you use the service, you will enter your name, email address, and credit card or bank info. This will associate your phone number with Breeze, so that the next time you text to give, all you need to do to give $10 is text "10" to the giving by text number, and you're done. The contribution will automatically be added to your giving record. Keep in mind that you can also give online through your computer's web browser, which you can see by clicking here. You can find a complete list of giving by text commands in Breeze here.

How 2017 Tax Bill has affected charitable giving

St. John's did not receive the usual end of December bump in giving last year, they we were not alone. Churches and many other non-profits report similar results in their end of year giving receipts. At least part of the culprit seems to be the 2017 Tax Bill which raised the standard deduction to $24,000 married couples filing jointly, and $12,000 for single filers. In the past when the standard deduction less than half those amounts, many taxpayers were able to itemize deductions and thus benefit from making end of year contributions. For more info on this phenomenon, go here.

Call Committee does mock interview

I was informed that the Call Committee met on Tuesday evening, and conducted a mock interview with Pastor Scott as the guinea pig. I have done several of these myself, and the response has always been positive, as it gives the Committee at least a bit of practice in conducting a thorough and effective interview. Thanks, Pastor Scott for your continued service to St. John's!

Bishop Daniel's weekly messagge

You can read it here.

Visits

Trying to get to as many of our shut-ins as I can before Christmas with Holy Communion. Bellevue Care and Orchard Grove last week, Tom L. at Providence Commons and Sandy W. at The Meadows at Osborn Park in Sandusky on Thursday. Will do group Holy Communion at The Meadows on Monday for Pr. Katie, so will see the Meadows group then.

Advent Midweek service

We have two more Advent midweek services, on Wednesdays, December 11 and 18 at 7:00 pm in the chapel. We will focus on Old Testament texts from our Sundays in Advent as the basis for our messages. Wednesday night, confirmation youth presented a skit which served as the introduction to the sermon, "Is It Time Yet?"

Lots of very nice silent auction items!

Don't forget to take a look at the dozens of gift baskets that are on display in the preschool hallways, and available for your bid. A great opportunity to do some of your holiday gift shopping without going to the mall, and support St. John's Christian Preschool in the process!

January Newsletter items due soon!

Yes, it's still early in December, but getting your January newsletter items to Kristen sooner rather than letter will make it easier for her to complete her many projects, including Christmas Eve bulletins in a timely manner.