Council Extends In-Person Worship Suspension
Council voted at their monthly meeting Tuesday evening to extend the suspension of in-person worship until at least February 14. A Mailchimp message was sent on Wednesday to inform the congregation. In case you missed it, you can also view it HERE.
Welcome back Mike!
You may remember that Mike Berger completed his term as Congregation President and did not run for further office. You may also remember that there was no one on the ballot for Vice-President. Mike has kindly offered to serve as Vice-President for the balance of the year (if necessary) but will willingly step aside if another candidate steps forward. Council officially appointed Mike as VP with a unanimous vote.
Hardcopy Newsletter Sent
Kristen and I have been sending out a hard copy version of the newsletter to those who do not have an email address in the system. Using the "active" and "friend" filters in the status field of the data base, this is currently generating 28 addressees.
Lent and Easter Reimagined
On Wednesday afternoon I attended a Zoom meeting led by Bishop Daniel which included several presentations with ideas for observing and clebrating Lent and Easter. Ideas included home based versions of Ash Wednesday, and a Palm Sunday procession through the neighborhood. Ash Wednesday is four weeks from next Wednesday on February 17. Palm Sunday is March 28 and Easter April 4.
ELCA Resources
Healthy Congregations Leadership Series
I have mentioned this before, so this is just a refresher. Since September I have been participating in the Healthy Congregations Leadership Series. This is my primary continuing education event for 2020-2021. It consists of eight full-day seminars, one a month from September to May minus December. The monthly seminars cover conceptual learning in the morning, and group discussion in the afternoon. The sessions seek to teach and apply Bowen Family Systems theory as it applies to congregations and their leaders.
Today was was our January session, which focused on "Polarities," or opposite sides of an idea or process, which are necessary to manage for balance for healthy congregational functioning. Here are some examples of polarities to manage in congregations
- Tradition AND Innovation
- Spiritual Health AND Institutional Health
- Management AND Leadership
- Strong Clergy Leadership AND Strong Lay Leadership
- Inreach AND Outreach
- Nurture AND Transformation
- Making Disciples: Easy Process AND Challenging Process
- Call AND Duty
This was one of the better programs in this series. I also attended the series in the 2016-17 season.
St. John's Preschool sets Trike-a-Thon record!
Reported by Mrs. Lilly
Our preschoolers joined St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® in the fight against childhood cancer by participating in a St. Jude Trike-A-Thon the week of January 11-14. This week-long event teaches our children that they have the power to help others. They also learned trike safety through fun lessons. They prayed for all of the children, their families, and staff at St. Jude. Every dollar that was raised helps St. Jude ensure that families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food - because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. I am happy to share with you that our preschool families raised $7,337 for St. Jude! This is the highest amount raised in our past 13 years of participating! And this was done with only 65 children enrolled this school year compared to 90+ all other years. Nice work, preschool families!!!
Reading the New Testament Chronologically
Here is the next group of links in our chronological read of the New Testament 2021, a project which Bishop Daniel has challenged us to undertake. The year-long reading guide is also linked below.
- January 21 1 Corinthians 2
- January 22 1 Corinthians 3
- January 23 1 Corinthians 4
- January 24 First Corinthians 5
- January 25 First Corinthians 6
- January 26 First Corinthians 7
- January 27 First Corinthians 8
- January 28 First Corinthians 9
- January 29 First Corinthians 10
- January 30 First Corinthians 11
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