We Care Because He Cares! 2401 S. Tamiami Trail Venice, Florida (941)

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1 HE MESSENGER We Care Because He Cares! 2401 S. Tamiami Trail Venice, Florida (941) OCTOBER 2017 EDITION Dear Friends in Christ, What s new? You are! I am! Together we are. An old congregation with an even older pastor. Kind of funny. But think of what God did with Abraham and Sarah. They thought that was funny too which is how Isaac got his name: It means, he/she laughs which is what they did when they considered the outrageous promise of God to make a great nation of them when they were childless in their old age. But God had the last laugh when Sarah bore a bouncing baby boy in the geriatric ward of the Hadassah Hospital. Jesus promised, Behold, I am with you always! Paul wrote, If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he/she is a new creation! Together, God is going to be doing a new thing through us. I hope you are as excited as I am to see what God is up to. I trust that you will be adventuresome, tolerant, patient and open to the Spirit s leading as we move forward in ministry together. I cannot be to you what your former pastor, Dr. Randy Winkel, was. All I can be to you is who I am and I hope you will find that to be enough. I dearly love God and I love the people of God as well. I never cease to be amazed at the wonderful things God can do through a clay vessel such as myself. But God does ministry and God gets the glory for whatever good comes from my life and service. So let s roll up our sleeves and get to work. I mean that. In a few days we will celebrate the Reformation of the Christian Church which God accomplished through a far from perfect human being, Martin Luther. Let us rededicate ourselves to the great Reformation principles: By grace alone; by faith alone; by scripture alone. And by God s providence, grace, faith, and scripture are never alone. They exude the power of the Holy Spirit through which the will of God happens in our lives and world. St. Paul had it right when he said that we are saved by grace, through faith both gifts from God but we are saved for good works which God determined that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10). Let s have our own little synod syn hodos two Greek words which mean to walk the path together. Precisely where the path will take us I cannot say today. Ultimately the path leads to the home of our heavenly Father. What a privilege to walk with you! Your Fellow Pilgrim, Pastor Lobien WORSHIP SCHEDULE Traditional 10:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary Contemporary 9:00 a.m. in the Sanctuary MISSION STATEMENT United by the all-embracing love of the Triune God, our purpose is to know and share Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit become more active, responsible, caring members of this church, carrying out our part of His mission. OFFICE HOURS Monday Wednesday 8:00 a.m. 4:00 p.m. Thursday & Friday 8:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m.

2 ARE YOU A NEW MEMBER? WELCOME! If you have not yet received your name tag and/or giving envelopes please contact RuthAnn Eesley, Assimilation Committee Chair ( ). Wondering what the star means? It represents Lakeside s newest stars, YOU! Members of the congregation can recognize our newest members by the star on their name tag and welcome them to Lakeside and introduce themselves. Not only is the pumpkin patch a fundraising effort for our ministries, it is also a way for our church and preschool to be involved with the community. We are excited to see friends and neighbors come to enjoy the sea of orange pumpkins. Many families will mark the occasion with photographs of their children taken at the patch. There will be pumpkins of all shapes and sizes, from baseball size to monsters that will take two people to carry - pumpkins and colorful gourds of every size and description - and maybe even some decorated and painted pumpkins. Prices for the pumpkins start as low as fifty cents. Everyone in the community is invited to come out and enjoy the Pumpkin Patch festivities. Dress the children in costumes and take fabulous pictures of them enjoying their day in a wondrous setting of hundreds of Pumpkins. Watch Lakeside Lutheran lawn transform into a sea of orange. Plan to get your pumpkins here and support the various Lakeside ministries. As we wait for the delivery call, there is much work to do and we need your help! If you d like to volunteer for the Pumpkin Patch, please call Emily at the Preschool, to sign up to volunteer. Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 2

3 Happenings at our Preschool Lakeside Lutheran Preschool strived to reintegrate normalcy into the lives of our families, after Hurricane Irma. We have worked close with the State of Florida and Licensing to ensure the preschool was safe and functional. The staff cleaned up debris, took down shutters insuring we maintain the highest level of safety. We were thankful to regain power and be approved by licensing to reopen as quickly as we did. I would like to acknowledge Lakeside Lutheran Preschool teachers and staff: thank you for helping us get ready to open so we could welcome our families back Thursday morning. I know this was a hardship for the majority of you as you did not have power, water or both. I would like to personally thank the Congregation of Lakeside Lutheran Church for the extension of love and support through your donations of food and gift cards to assist our teachers during this time of need. Your support aided teachers in restocking their kitchens as they shopped the food donations and helped to offset putting gas in their cars and making additional purchases at Walmart and Publix. Your generosity was an overwhelming blessing. Thank you. In His Service, Claudia Albert OF THE WHO IS MARTIN LUTHER? He was very bright and his father wanted him to be a lawyer but during a violent thunder storm he promised God he would be a Priest. He studied the Bible and found the Roman Church to be corrupt and in conflict with the Holy Word. He posted his 95 point Theses on the church door in Wittenburg on October 31st, 1517 telling all that forgiveness of sin was a gift from God not something you could earn. He was excommunicated from the Church and threatened with death. He went into hiding and during that time he translated the whole Bible into the German, the language of the people. With the new invention of the printing press his teachings spread far and wide. MARTIN LUTHER was a man of God who through Bible Study and the printing press...changed the...church, WESTERN CIVILIZATION and the WORLD!! COME JOIN LCMC SOUTHWEST CONFENENCE SUNDAY - October 4:00 p.m. Beautiful Savior LCMS; 7461 Prospect Road, Sarasota, FL; ; beautifulsaviorlcms.com Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 3

4 Submitted by Donna Smith BELL CHOIR REHEARSAL Tuesdays, 4:30-5:30 p.m. CHOIR REHEARSAL Resumes October 11 Wednesdays, 6:30-8:00 p.m. PRAISE BAND REHEARSAL Wednesdays, 8:15-9:00 p.m. MUSIC NOTES CALLING ALL SINGERS! The choir begins rehearsal, Wednesday, October 11, 6:30-8:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary. If you are interested in joining us, please contact Donna Smith to learn more, or Praise band rehearses from 8:15-9:00 p.m, following the choir. This rehearsal is also in the sanctuary. We are still seeking a guitarist and a melody instrument, such as flute. Bell choir, under the direction of Gayle Heskett, begins rehearsals, Tuesday, October 3rd from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Please consider participating with one of these music ensembles. Regards, Donna Smith drsmith90@comcast.net talk or text SOCIAL MEDIA Are you a Facebooker? Do you Tweet? How about Pin? Search for Lakeside Lutheran Church on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to stay connected to the latest news and fun happenings! OCTOBER PRAYER CHAIN Nancy Lindquist - (941) nancyjean.lindquist71@gmail.com is the prayer chain contact for the month of October. Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 4

5 LAKSIDE LWML 2017/2018 PROGRAMS October 5, 2017 November 2, 2017 Mission trips presentations by Sharon Ladigowski, Maria Krieger, Judy Meske Pastor Bob Selle Amigos en Cristo December 7, 2017 January 18, 2018 February 1, 2018 National Convention Report by Jean Roehrs Christmas Party and Gift Exchange Style Show Accessories & More with Janet Carr SPRAC (Safe Place & Rape Crisis Center) Linda Bergen, Auxiliary President March 1, 2018 April 5, 2018 May 3, 2018 American Cancer Society The Windsor of Venice, Caring Community Programs, Shelly Cunningham Day of Pray, Old World Restaurant AMAZON GIVES TO LAKESIDE! DO YOU SHOP ONLINE? When you shop online using AMAZON SMILE you will also be making a donation to Lakeside Lutheran Church! Amazon Smile is the same trusted company as Amazon, however this is their charitable site. It s a simple and automatic way to support Lakeside. When you shop smile.amazon.com,.5% of the purchase price will be donated to Lakeside. Simply register Lakeside as your charity on your first visit to AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) on your Amazon account and we will receive a donation every time you shop! Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 5

6 Ministry of the Month We are about to launch a new ministry at Lakeside Lutheran Church, A PROCH CALL MINISTRY. This is the way it will work: During the worship service, we will ask people to pass back and forth an attendance pad. Everyone will use the attendance pad and by doing so, you will know the names of the people who share the pew with you. Visitors (guests) will be asked to include their address. After the last service of the morning, our Porch Call Team for the day will go through the sheets and take down the name and addresses of our visitors. We will provide the Teams with bags of goodies from our congregation. They will then go to the homes of our guests, ring the door bell and say, We are from Lakeside Lutheran Church and would like to thank you for worshiping with us today. We hope you felt welcomed and you will return next week. Are there any questions we can answer for you? That s it. We do not want you to enter into anyone s home unless you are invited. Each call should take no more than five minutes but the people on whom you visit will know that we valued their presence at Lakeside. We need 10 volunteers to carry out this ministry since we work in pairs. That way you only need to make calls once every five weeks. We will ask you to let us know what you learned from your visit and we will keep a record of calls made so that we do not duplicate visits. Reason for this ministry: We know that people who are warmly welcomed tend to return to that congregation for a second visit. If they return several times they tend to stay with the congregation. This ministry helps them feel genuinely appreciated and Christian fellowship often takes place through these visits. Please call the church off ( ) and let Shelly know if you would like to participate in the Porch Call Ministry when the program is read to begin. Thank you for you help! Together we can show God s love and be a blessing to people. With Love in Christ, Pastor Lobien Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 6

7 Meet Pastor Lobien, Lakeside Lutheran s Interim Pastor The Rev. George F. Lobien was born in Summit Hill, PA and raised in Mauch Chunk, PA, now known as Jim Thorpe, PA. After studying Business Administration for a year at Drexel Institute of Technology, Pastor Lobien attended Concordia College in Bronxville, NY where he met his wife, Jane. They were married in 1957 and that marriage was blessed with two children, a son and a daughter. Their son and daughter-in-law have two children, Sarah who teaches children with Asperger s Syndrome in Montgomery County, MD and Rachel who is a student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. After graduating from Concordia, Bronxville Pastor Lobien attended Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. He graduated from there in 1960 and was ordained in 1962 after going to Graduate School at the Seminary to earn an STM (Master of Sacred Theology) Degree and completing his residency for his ThD degree (Doctor of Theology). His major was Systematic Theology with Minors in New Testament and Historical Theology. Pastor Lobien s first congregation was in Hillsboro, MO which he began to serve while still a Graduate Student. In 1964 he went to Madison, Wisconsin where he served Immanuel Lutheran Church until He was also the President of the Dane County Citizen s Association for Children and Youth, and was appointed by the Governor of Wisconsin to a committee charged with revising the birth control laws of the State. He became President of The Writing Academy, a group of Christian Writers from many areas of the United States. From 1970 to 1996, Pastor Lobien served The Lutheran Church of St. Andrew in Silver Spring, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC. His ministry there was blessed by a large staff and included a building expansion program. Upon retirement he served three Interim Pastor roles in Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, VA, to which the couple moved upon retirement. During that time Pastor Lobien worked with Capital Funding Services, an arm of the Lutheran Church Extension Fund, an agency of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod which helps congregations accomplish building programs and reduce debt. Now Pastor Lobien and Jane live in Venice, FL and are members of Lakeside Lutheran Church where he is the current Interim Pastor. Lakeside Lutheran Newsletter Page 7