Hope Church Mission Statement. A life defined by faith in Christ... every day. Hope Church Vision Statement

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1 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Elder Board, Second Quarter Report The Elder Board continues to meet on the 2 nd Tuesday of each month. Our meetings always begin with extended time spent in prayer for the various needs of the church. Pastor Dave led us in a study of The Externally Focused Church which has spurred good discussion about where God is leading Hope Church in the future. We are excited to discuss this concept with the congregation at this meeting. We have finalized our Mission and Vision Statement (below). There has been a significant amount of prayer and discussion regarding the formation of these over the past year. It is only through God s working that the development of these has tied in so closely to our study and implementation of being externally focused. We will continue to look to the mission and vision as a basis for decisions going forward. We continue to pray specifically for our ministry team leaders. We are very fortunate to have such a strong dedicated group to lead our various ministries. Doug Wynveen Chairman Hope Church Mission Statement A life defined by faith in Christ... every day. Hope Church Vision Statement We, who call Hope Church home, live lives that confirm our love of God. Our church extends beyond these walls. We live lives of grace, compassion, kindness, humility, patience and love toward others. We are able to describe the reason for our peace and joy and how we came to know Jesus Christ in a personal way. We desire to learn more about our God and Creator and seek to increase our knowledge through Bible study and prayer. We believe God gave each person talents and abilities that can be used to improve the lives of others. We believe God wants us to care for one another, and by serving at church, in the community and in the world, we carry out God's purpose for our lives. We generously give our time and money to help meet the needs of others. We will live out our faith in God by loving and serving others, giving glory to God.

2 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Pastor s Report, Second Quarter You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? You are the light of the world let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:13, 14, 16) These verses still ring in my head as I think of our time both from the pulpit and in small group going through The Externally Focused Church. The time has been challenging, thinking about the very structure and mission of Hope Church. We have been called to be ministers in our community, to the poor, to the elderly, to the needy, to our neighbor, to the hungry. I pray the time in the book has encouraged you to look at how you spend your time and money and make changes. While there is no ministry named Community outreach nor is there a line for this in the yearly budget, I pray each ministry and each person will take this challenge seriously. A big Thank you to everyone involved in the Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack. Over 575 volunteers helped pack over 108,000 meals! Partnering with Bethesda Lutheran was a wonderful blessing as well. Please pray as both churches meet soon to discuss hosting the event here again next year. It is my hope that over the next few months we can continue to evaluate the impact of each ministry especially as it relates to its outreach and community impact. I desire to meet with each ministry leader to discuss how their ministry can be planning now and implementing some of the ideas which will flow from our Externally Focused Church discussions. One challenge I would like to put forth: please pray. Our weekly prayer times have dwindled down to a small, faithful few. It would be my strong desire to see our Wednesday evening and Sunday morning prayer times overflowing the rooms they currently meet in. Maybe they are not your favorite times to pray, maybe you feel a little uncomfortable (which is not necessarily a bad thing- God may want to grow and stretch you) or maybe, if you are honest, you have become a little lazy in your prayer life. Hey, I have been there too! But whatever the reason (read: excuse), please come pray. We pray for each other, we pray for our church, we pray for our nation, we pray for our missionaries, and we pray for the world. Remember, Jesus wanted His house to be called a house of prayer! (see Matthew 21:13) In His Service, Dave

3 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Worship Ministry, Second Quarter Report The Lord is faithful in all His words and kind in all his works My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord - Psalm 145:13, 21 As we end this quarter as a church and move ahead into the next, we, as a worship ministry eagerly expect and await what God has in store. We have seen some transitions in the last quarter within the worship ministry: Steve Rosenthal has stepped away from the Sound Ministry Leader position and Clarence Ahlstrand has stepped in to oversee that aspect of the ministry. A huge Thank you!! to Steve for all the hours of dedication, work and expertise that he poured into the sound ministry. It has been a blessing to our church! Continue to pray for him as he serves the church as treasurer. There has been an addition to the Worship Ministry with in the last couple of months as we have developed a Worship Advisory Team. The purpose of this team is to provide additional support for me, as the Worship Director, as well as help to plan events that directly involve the Worship ministry of Hope Church. This team has met together twice already and will continue to meet together to plan and carry out events for the year. This team is also helping to develop and put feet to externally focused ideas for the worship ministry. I am excited to see how God will use this team to grow the worship ministry! Also, if anyone is interested in joining the worship ministry, there are several opportunities and needs that we have to be filled: - Drumming - Percussion - Vocals - Piano/synthesizer - Electric guitar - Brass/ Wind Instruments - Audio/Visual Ministry (New training policies in place for this aspect) *All of these positions include filling out an application for the worship ministry as well as an audition with the Worship Director (Mary). We are also looking to include more creative/worship enhancing dramas into the services, so if you are interested in being a part of the drama team, please let me or Karen Wynveen know! Additionally, we are again looking for people who are willing to share testimony during the service of God s work in their lives. If you are willing to consider encouraging the Church in this way, please talk to me (otherwise, I might come and talk to you! )

4 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Looking ahead, August 25th, we are planning an on-site outdoor service and potluck/cookout. There are also several other exciting events coming in the fall, so keep an eye out for more information! It is a joy to serve Christ Jesus our Lord with you all! Humbly in Christ, Mary Schock Hope Church Worship Director Prayer Ministry, Second Quarter Report Please join us on Thursday, May 2 nd, for the National Day of Prayer. This year s theme is Pray for America. We are planning to have the sanctuary open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and a prayer service from 6:30-7:30 p.m. We come to lift our hearts in prayer for families, churches, schools, businesses, media, our cities, county, state and federal government and all God lays on our hearts. There will be a sign-up sheet in the foyer for the time slots to pray. My prayer is that the whole day will be covered, whether you come to pray at church, home, or elsewhere. There will be prayer guides available. Please join us on Wednesday nights to pray from 7:00-8:00 and Sunday mornings from 8:15-8:45. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil 4:6-7. Pray without ceasing. 1 Thes. 5:17 Blessings, Patti Ahlstrand Missions Team, Second Quarter Report The Missions Team continues to meet on a monthly basis while continuing prayer and financial support of our designated missionaries. We were very pleased to have Keri Gustafson here recently to report on her work. We hope to schedule additional missionaries who we support for personal visits to Hope over the coming months. The team continues going through a process of re-evaluation trying to bring clarity and direction to how we chose who to support, how we can increase awareness and communication relative to missions throughout the church and how we can involve more people in the various aspects of missions. We are initially working on four areas. We want to establish a standardized application package for people and organizations who request support from the church as well as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of current support areas. We want to build awareness and excitement for missions throughout Hope Church by challenging each ministry team to incorporate a

5 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April missions project or theme into their ministry. We want to promote more awareness of short term missions opportunities and have a goal of seeing many at Hope go on a short term missions trip. Finally, we are searching for ways to bring missions to the local level. How can we make an impact locally with service and funding? We are developing a survey for the congregation to fill out to try and determine where people s interests lie and their willingness to get involved in a missions project. We continue to pray that we can find additional people in Hope Church who are excited about missions and can bring leadership and administrative skills to the team. Doug Wynveen Acting Chairman Children s Ministry, Second Quarter Report Sunday School: Scott Lee from Creative Outburst Studio moved into the 5 th and 6 th grade classroom in January. We temporarily moved the 5 th and 6 th graders into the Youth Room and the 7 th -12 th graders into the library. Thank you Karen Wynveen for managing the 3 rd and 4 th grade class while Janel has been out. Thanks to Marie Waterworth for painting the remainder of the brown border in the Sunday School area. The children of Hope Church collected 180 hats, gloves and mittens for the children in Capetown. Some people have asked why these items were needed there. That is so that the children can keep warm when it gets cold at night. Those items will now be sent the next time Dean De Vries goes to South Africa. Way to go kids! Praise God for nearly doubling our goal of 100 items!! For Palm Sunday we enjoyed meeting and greeting the 3 rd and 4 th graders in costume and welcoming guests. It was a beautiful sight watching the kids wave palm branches as they honored Jesus and His triumphal entry! The children collected $ in change for Feed My Starving Children in April. What a wonderful sight to behold children young and old pouring out their change for others their age in need! Please let us know if you would like to create and implement an idea involving children for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 2. As the Children s Ministry prepares for the School Year, please prayerfully consider if God is leading you to: -teach -be a teacher s helper -substitute teach

6 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April order Sunday School curriculum -decorate the new bulletin board -clean and upkeep classrooms -be on an a newly developing Advisory Team -planning a Fall Sunday School kickoff Nursery: A new nursery schedule is ready. We have several worker openings in the toddler room and need people who are willing to serve here. On average, there are children in the toddler nursery and 4-6 children in the infant nursery. Marie Waterworth is leading the effort to paint the old infant nursery room. We would enjoy having new faces to join the list of helpers. Thank you to all the dedicated servants in the nurseries! Vacation Bible School will be July 8-12 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.. The title is Kingdom Rock: Where Kids Stand Strong for God. Each day will be packed with Bible truths and tons of fun as our kids learn how to stand strong for our God! Our church will transform into a castle! We are partnering with the Alliance Church of the Valley this summer to reach as many kids as possible in this valley with the message of the Gospel. Registration begins May 19 th! Don t miss this! It s gonna ROCK! (Parents, if you are interested in helping, you can contact Brodie or Mary Schock.) Children s Church We continue meeting each Sunday using the David C. Cook Adventure Trails That Lead to Jesus curriculum. Children s Church will continue through July and will take the month of August off. We are grateful for our 12 teachers and helpers who have helped us throughout the year! During the summer we will discuss curriculum for the fall and will define a process for checking kids out of C.C. at the end of the worship service. If you are interested in lending your talents to this planning effort or would like to teach or help, contact Sheri Williams or Rebecca Stenberg. In the Fall, Children s Ministry would like to attend another Child Evangelism Training. Youth Ministry, Second Quarter Report I want to say thank you to the team for all their work and investment in the lives of our students during the past year. Our leaders do a fantastic job. Middle School: Nathan & Leanne Waterworth, and Brian Bechard Senior High: Steve Nelson, Matt & Alicia Fisk Sunday School: Brodie Schock

7 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April We have had great year with students in the Middle School and 6-8 students in the High School Group. Attendance has continued to hold throughout the year. About 35% of the students are not from Hope families and they are being brought by their friends. Last weekend we had a big event weekend in Duluth, MN. There were 17 students and 6 leaders that attended the Blitz Weekend and were challenged in their faith. It was the largest group participation in many years. Our summer mission trip had to be cancelled due to low interest, but we are anticipating future ministry trips. We are hoping to find local opportunities for ministry, but none are currently finalized. We did have a large group of students involved with Feed My Starving Children. We had a good Easter Breakfast with many students involved. We had more people eat but our fund-raising was down from last year. However, we do appreciate your donations. In the summer of 2014 we are planning to have a group students attend the National Student Challenge conference July 6-10 in Kansas City. Please be planning to have your student involved in this tremendous opportunity for spiritual challenge and ministry. This event will be for students who are in grades 8-12 during the next school year. Start planning and saving now. We will be doing fund-raising to assist the students and their families. Please continue to pray for our students, that they will be open and receptive to God s work in their lives. Also, please continue to pray for our team as they work with our students to help them expand their view of God and their relationship with Him. This school year program will wrap up by mid-may. Watch for schedule information as they may or may not be meeting every week. Respectfully submitted Jonathan Waterworth Women s Ministry, Second Quarter Report If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Phil 2:1-2

8 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Most of us are very aware the family is under attack in our world. The moral foundation of our nation is crumbling all around us. Yet God still uses individual families and the family of God to be a light in our dark world today. Together we can be channels of His love, mercy and grace to a dying world. It starts right here in our church, encouraging and supporting one another in our roles and responsibilities, in our gifts and passions, fueled by His love, filled with His Spirit. It s an amazing thing when people of different genders, races, unique personalities, gifts and passions and even denominations can work together, being like-minded, having the same love and being one in spirit and purpose, being for one another to bring glory to God! Lives are changed! People get saved! God s family grows! Women s ministry desires to be that support and encouragement to the women of Hope church, to their families and beyond our walls. We desire to provide opportunities for women to be strengthened in God s Word, strengthened through connection with those in our same life stage as well as inter-generationally for encouragement, growth, discipleship and accountability. We ask for your prayers as we follow the Lord to this end. If God is laying it on your heart to join this great ministry team, call Carolann Rosenthal (651) I d like to thank Rebecca Stenberg, Janel Anderson, Shannon Nelson, Twyla Pennel and Katie Severson for all they do to serve in women s ministry! They are such a blessing. 2 nd Saturday breakfasts have been a very special time for women of all ages to really connect with one another. We enjoy a great breakfast, warm fellowship, worship, Bible lesson, discussion & prayer. Join us 8:00-9:30 am the 2 nd Sat. each month at the church. Our last one for the season is May 11 th. Would you like to understand more about how God has gifted you and those around you? Our topic will be Bloom Where You are Planted - Discovering Your God Given Gifts. Come and get connected. Consider inviting someone and help them make a connection too! The Kay Arthur Bible study, Lord, Only You Can Change Me, ended and a new study titled, Wrestling with God began Tues. Apr. 16 th 7-9pm at church. For questions about this engaging study, contact Shannon Nelson Connect with God through His Word! Interested in facilitating a Bible study? Contact Carolann (651) The Apples of Gold mentoring program in March was a great success! It was a valuable time connecting women inter-generationally and encouraging each other. Thanks to all who served and participated! Coffee and snacks are provided on Sunday by the hospitality volunteers, led by Twyla Pennel. Please join me in thanking these servants for the chance to connect and fellowship after church, over these treats. If you d like to serve on this team, help with potlucks, etc, please contact Twyla

9 HEFC Second Quarter Report, April Janel Anderson continues to coordinate our meals ministry which provides meals for new moms, those recovering from surgery or illness, etc. Meals are lovingly provided by women from the congregation. Please contact Janel if you are interested in signing up to help with meals. Katie Severson hosts a popular Women s Book Club at her home. Ladies meet for supper and discussion about pre-assigned books. The conversation is always meaningful and encouraging. Please contact Katie if you want to know more or have a book suggestion. Come and get connected! Next one Mon.Apr. 22 nd 6pm Lastly the Serenity House is a great place to get connected in our external focus as a church. Prepare and drop off a meal (contact Katie Severson).They are also looking for people to lead bible studies. They have a residence meeting every Friday at 6:00 PM and are looking for people to give a 5 minute devotion, teach basic housing skills, share job leads, lead workshops on budgeting/finances, nutrition, baking/cooking, outdoor activities, etc. Questions contact Pastor Dave Respectfully submitted, Carolann Rosenthal Financial Report, Second Quarter We ve now completed the 2 nd quarter of our fiscal year. Our giving has been steady as we are making 97% of our budge so far this year. However we still have a shortfall of $6,217 for the 1 st & 2 nd, and at that pace we will have a $12,400 shortage for the year. Please continue to keep the finances of Hope Church in prayer. The business of running a church and maintaining a facility costs money. This building has been a blessing. See attached Balance sheet and Income Statement for the church for the first 6 months of the year. Should you have any questions on any item, please feel free to discuss with me. Most line items are tracking very close to budge. There have been missions dollars coming in for the Stephens mission trip, if anyone wants to support them please put the amount and note on the memo line of your check. Sincerely, Steve Rosenthal, Treasurer