Resurrection Remembrances

Transcription

1 Resurrection Remembrances 50 th Anniversary of God s Work sunday, April 17, 2016 Resurrection Lutheran Church A Ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

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3 Resurrection Remembrances From two members of Resurrection Lutheran Church. LIVING OUR FAITH A Remembrance by Judy Koontz Faith History A Remembrance by Connie Shoop, No single person can capture all that has been done in God s name through Resurrection Lutheran Church. These two remembrances capture some of the highlights. Please fell welcome and invited to share your remembrances with us. We will continue to compile these and share them with others throughout our 50th anniversary year and beyond. Please send them to the church office through mail or .

4 LIVING OUR FAITH On Sunday, April 17, 2016, the congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church, Lebanon, Ohio will celebrate our 50th Anniversary. It has been fifty years since the service of organization was held in the multi-purpose room of Dunlavy School on April 17, Pastor Edwin Fidler, our first pastor, met with Ninety persons (64 adults and 26 children) who joined as charter members. During the first 25 years, we purchased land with an old farmhouse, built a sanctuary (dedicated April 14, 1968), and completed the Jack Kinney Educational Wing (dedicated Jan. 1977). God is faithful and has blessed us from the beginning and by God s grace our commitment to do God s work grew in this special place. To meet the needs of our growing congregation and our ministries, plans were approved for a three-phase building project. Phase one was completed with the construction of the new sanctuary dedicated April 11, Today our beautiful church is surrounded by a lush green lawn, colorful blooming flowers and a memory garden located on the back of our property. The path through the garden has memory stones engraved with the names of special people, favorite bible verses, and messages for special memories. It is a peaceful place for those who wish to meditate and walk along its path. It was started around Worship, learning, and serving others has always been a priority for those individuals who are part of our Resurrection Lutheran Church family. We commit to serving those in need in our church, our community, and in our World. Some of the Missions Resurrection supports are: Graceworks House in Middletown, Habitat for Humanity Faith Build, Mission Trips to Harlan, KY and The Navajo Lutheran Mission, Rock Point, AZ; IHN (Interfaith Hospitality Network), Lebanon Food Pantry, Christmas Food Baskets, Monthly Community Meals, First English Lutheran Church in Overthe-Rhine area of Cincinnati, Ohio, Helping Hands; Resurrection Quilt Ministry. The Community Blood Center of Dayton, Ohio, holds an biannual Blood Drives at our church in memory of Resurrection member Jan Laird. Graceworks is a Lutheran social service agency that supports the elderly and mentally disabled. Our Arts Ministry volunteers visit the group home in Middletown once a month to bring art to the men who live there. Projects have included everything from painting and fabric arts to bubbles, kites, clay, singing and music. The Resurrection Mission Team went to New Orleans (Slidell) in 2008 and Rock Point, Arizona in In New Orleans, repairs were made to a home that suffered damage from hurricane Katrina. In Arizona, team members assisted children at an elementary school (K-6th grade), reorganized the school library and completed two building projects in the community. Both trips were made in partnership with other area congregations, Resurrection in Anderson and Christ the King in Centerville. In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 members of the Mission Team traveled to Harlan, Kentucky. The team, adults and youth from ages 6-17, spent a week at a Mennonite work camp called SWAP Sharing With Appalachian People. The group teamed with our volunteers from many faith backgrounds and helped with a variety of home repair projects including siding, flooring, drywall, plumbing and deck building. Some volunteers worked at CompCare, a day center providing art classes for mentally ill clients. The work continues at CompCare as the personal mission of four Resurrection members. The Mission Team members work with our youth on the Helping Hands Projects to assist those in our community and congregation who need special help with home repairs. They repaired a handicapped ramp (2012), painted the outside of the IHN Warehouse (2013) and a house for a neighbor (2014) in Lebanon and built a ramp for a handicapped person in Lebanon (2015).

5 A Remembrance by Judy Koontz Resurrection has a long history of building homes with Habitat for Humanity Faith Builds. The most recent projects have included a house in Lebanon (2011), a house in Milford (2012), and a house in South Lebanon (2015). A new project will be underway in May 2016 in Goshen. Resurrection is one of the area churches participating in IHN (Interfaith Hospitality Network) to help homeless families in our area to achieve sustained independence. Our congregation provides meals and housing at our church for a one-week period, several different times during each year. Each stay involves 30 volunteers to meet the needs of our guests, including evening and overnight hosts, set-up at the beginning of the week and volunteers to clean up and launder bedding at the end of each stay. Resurrection supports The Lebanon Food Pantry a community project through food and monetary donations. We provide staffing for food pickups at Walmart and Kroger each week and on the 2nd Friday morning each month to assist the people who visit the pantry for food. We deliver Christmas food baskets to families in our community who can use a little extra help during the holidays. Members prepare and serve a community meal the second Wed of each month at the United Methodist Church. Other churches in our area also provide meals for this program. We help with the clothing ministry on the 2nd Monday of each month at First English Lutheran in Over-the-Rhine. Our church donates clothing, personal care products, towels and washcloths to First English Lutheran. Members of Resurrection supported Warren Co. Race Unity Group that held discussions and community events between 1990 and 2001 to promote understanding and listening between races in our community. The Quilters at Resurrection are a very busy group of women who produce more than 100 beautiful quilts each year for Lutheran World Relief. The shipment of the quilts also includes bars of soap donated by the congregation. The Mission Team has taken quilts to some of the people in Harlan, Kentucky and to the Navajo Mission in Rock Point, Arizona. Smaller quilts are presented to the parents of children who are baptized at Resurrection. As individual Christians in our congregation, each of us learn and grow in our Christian faith through worship, celebration of Holy Communion, Bible studies; Sunday School for all ages as well as through the many gatherings, funerals and celebrations that we share with each other. Children from our community are invited to our Vacation Bible School one week each summer. We Pray for each other, and provide help and support. Art and music are an important part of our ministries. Our Arts Ministry is a part of everything we do. Angels watch over us in our sanctuary; praising God through liturgical dance, and the sounds of beautiful music from our choirs, our Praise Band and all the instruments played by talented people increase our joy of all that is good and beautiful. The congregation of Resurrection Lutheran Church has been blessed to be served by rostered leaders who have served Resurrection Edwin Fidler, Wm. Makley (deceased); James Miller, Virginia (King) Kaada, Jon Buuck, Ronald Redder, Harry Biles, Sharey Biles, Doug Campbell and our present minister Pastor Frederick Cook. Each pastor brought their families and their unique spiritual gifts to our congregation and each pastor has a special place in the history of our church. Each of you helped us to grow in our faith and closer to God. From each of you we learned more about how to live out our baptism each day and to our mission to serve others. May God continue to bless you and us as we continue LIVING OUR FAITH! Empowered by the Holy Spirit through God s grace, we are a welcoming community. Reaching Out to Others. Living in Faith. Celebrating Christ s Love.

6 Faith History Pastor Edwin Fidler came to Lebanon as a mission developer for a Lutheran church here. After knocking on doors and making phone calls, our official beginning as a congregation was April 17, 1966, when the service of organization was held at Dunlavy School, with ninety persons (64 adults and 26 children) joining as charter members. The early congregation was challenged by meeting in the multipurpose room at Dunlavy School, having to put up and take down folding chairs each Sunday, arranging a portable altar, lectern, and altar rails and then storing them each week. This early church meeting at the school had a junior and adult choir with robes, Sunday classes for all ages and hymnals. Until the first structure was built, which is now our fellowship hall, the congregation met in the parish house, which was the original farm house on the 6.25 acre piece of ground purchased for the new church site. This farmhouse was built in 1812 and had a fireplace in every room and a winding narrow staircase from the kitchen to the second floor. It had served as a stagecoach stop for the Columbus to Cincinnati route, and the old barn on the property had housed the teams of horses. The congregation enjoyed many happy times in that old house and barn. The house was used for worship and Sunday school. One room was the sanctuary, but overflow had to sit in an adjoining room and could only hear Pastor Fidler, not see him! The barn was used for many Halloween parties, barn dances, and a live Nativity scene at Christmas. Our youth enjoyed parties and activities and overnight stays in the parish house. The sanctuary was constructed and then dedicated on April 14, 1968, the second anniversary of the church s birth. Pastor Fidler left to develop another area in August Pastor William Makley came to Resurrection as pastor in December Pastor Makley s ministry came at a time of growing pains for Resurrection as new families joined only to have others leave due to job transfers, marriage and sometimes death. Growth was slow, but Pastor Makley s strong faith that God would provide and lead us sustained the congregation in their faith as well. During this time a strong youth group was established and such outreach as prison ministry to Lebanon Correctional Institute was started and carried out for years. We also had a youth ministry to Mary Haven, a detention center for boys east of town, many Bible study groups, and participation of youth and adults in overnights at Camp Firefly near Ft. Ancient. We had an active women s group and participated in the Honey Festival parades and other community activities. The barn was torn down in 1972 in the spring and had stood near where we now plan to put up the playground equipment. Frames that were made from that barn siding still hang in our church. The old parish house was torn down in 1977 to make room for our educational wing that was completed in January Plans and construction of the educational wing fell mostly on the lay leaders of the congregation as Pastor Makley retired in August Jim Penwell, Randy s father, built a new altar and cross for the church. The education wing was dedicated February 6, Pastor James Miller became the new pastor at Resurrection in February Where Pastor Fidler brought his vibrant enthusiasm and vision and Pastor Makley developed a very strong spiritual movement and outreach to community, so did Pastor Miller bring his gift of strong leadership, love and talent for music and worship. Under his leadership, Resurrection began the CROP walk each year for world hunger with huge participation and leadership from our congregation. We continued many outreach programs with our youth s Clowns For Christ group. We hosted a Lutheran Youth Circus from Maryland on our front lawn, and we worked in the Lebanon Food Pantry. We enjoyed events such as the church progressive dinners, and our youth attended national conferences and days at Wittenberg University. New chairs for the worship area were purchased.

7 A Remembrance by Connie Shoop, The parsonage Pastors Fidler and Makley had called home was sold, and Pastor Miller purchased his own home in The church also enjoyed very successful Vacation Bible Schools in the summers having them in the evening. Many were with tents set up on our lawn for numerous crafts and activities. Resurrection moved off mission support from the LCA in 1983 after seventeen years. Pastor Miller left the congregation in Pastor Virginia King was called as our new pastor in March During Pastor Ginny s time at Resurrection a singles group was formed, and the church continued a strong outreach in our community. Pastor Jon Buuck came to Resurrection in 1992, and under his leadership the church had a renewed excitement about our future here and real growth began to happen, more than ever before. The women s group began to have yearly retreats, and the music was enhanced by the beautiful voices of Ruth Buuck and Lisa Koressel. A youth director was hired, Kim Vaughn and later Angel Seitz. Plans were drawn up for a three phase building project. On April 11, 1999, the new sanctuary was dedicated. We began to do the Thirty Hour Famine. Resurrection welcomed Pastor Harry Biles and Sharey as their new leaders in September Our congregation continued to grow, and many exciting and new changes took place. Sharey was consecrated as a diaconal minister and installed here at Resurrection on September 29, 2002 as our first Director of Lay Ministries. The congregation moved forward in substantial growth and many new outreach ministries. The old committees were renamed ministries and some have become the true heartbeat of the congregation such as a Mission Team Ministry. This ministry has made mission trips to serve those in need to hurricane devastated New Orleans. Another mission trip was made to Lutheran Navajo Mission School in Rock Point, AZ. Where a lot of construction work and clean up was done along with establishing a workable and updated library for the school. Still another mission trip took this team to Harlan, KY. Where they repaired and constructed many buildings and homes for those in need. The Helping Hands group from this team also has done numerous jobs in our local area including helping with Habitat for Humanity. Outreach programs have also continued to grow with the quilters supplying around 150 quilts each year for Lutheran World Relief. Members continue to serve in the work at the Lebanon Food Pantry and A Prayer Shawl ministry was started to give prayer shawls to the sick or shut-ins. Another ministry started at this time was Spirit Scribe, a writing group who shared their writing with each other but also furnished writing for Advent and Lenten services. Interfaith Hospitality became a big ministry through these years with Resurrection hosting and feeding many homeless families during this time. Arts ministry became very active during this time presenting many visual and performing arts shows, workshops. Performing arts, under the excellent direction of Bill Keezer created plays and dramas opportunities for those thespians in the church. These plays were well done and gave the congregations an opportunity to be a part of or the audience of what will be known as events of joy. Equipping the Baptized was also formed at this time. They helped the individual congregants to understand their gifts and how to use them to the glory of God. Junior High Ministry program continues to be a huge success with our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. Pastor and Sharey Biles, like the pastors that served here before them, all brought their own unique gifts to Resurrection. Pastor and Sharey brought excellent teaching in worship and bible study and an awareness of our spiritual gifts as we had never known before. Pastor Harry Biles and wife Sharey left Resurrection in November of May God continue to bless Resurrection as he has from the beginning in renewed faith and commitment to do God s work.

8 RESURRECTION LUTHERAN CHURCH 1270 North Broadway Street Lebanon, Ohio (513) Office Hours: 9:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday