Laying a Foundation Jan Stockman, Director, Cross View Early Childhood Center

Transcription

1 January 2015 Laying a Foundation Jan Stockman, Director, Cross View Early Childhood Center It s winter in Minnesota. We don t like to think about digging into the ground to start a building project at this time of year, and we can t start at the top and build down. We have to set a good foundation. That foundation is the base of the building which holds it up. However, today I am referring to a different foundation. I am looking at the foundation we set for our children and youth. With the recent passing of my mother, it gave me time to reflect on her life. In doing so, I was reminded of the many things my mother was, and how she and my father laid a foundation for my brothers and me. These things have stayed with us throughout our lives. That foundation was built upon our faith in God and the importance of family. We were taught strong values and Christian morals. We often hear about giving our children a good foundation. We want to teach children that this will help them throughout life. Christian values and morals are the building blocks for our children. They are growing and building relationships with others; and in that process learning to help, share and serve those in need. I am reminded of lessons my parents taught me as child and how they modeled them for us. And it wasn t just my parents, but it also included our church family. I have many good memories of growing up in our church family and feeling that sense of belonging. Those bonds that were made are still present today as I think about the foundation that I received from my church family. At Cross View Early Childhood Center, we help families as they seek to lay the foundation for their children. They are part of our Cross View family, and we are guiding and modeling for these children the values that will help them in life. Most importantly, we are sharing God s love and teaching His word. Through God s love and word, they are learning those important values of caring, sharing and serving. We want our children to grow and stand strong in our world. We want that foundation to hold them up through life s trials. As we begin a new year, let us think about the foundations we can help build for the children. How can you assist in building a foundation for children? Who can you nurture and guide in the step of setting a foundation? I was given a strong foundation through faith and family which has stayed with me through my life. Let us do the same for our children. Share in building up those foundations and help them to grow in their faith. May God bless you in your building projects for the future. Kidstitute Caroling Sharing the love of Christ at Edina Care Center Over 30 children and adults went to the Edina Care Center on Wednesday, December 10, to share the joy of Christmas with residents. In preparation, Kidstitute students made gifts to hand out. The residents greatly appreciated the opportunity to visit with our children, who do a great job of reaching out and sharing God s love with them. Turn to page 2 for more education news and photos.

2 PAGE 2 CHRISTIAN EDUCATION Welcome to the Lord s Table, New Classes for Adults, Christmas Programs 5TH GRADE WELCOME TO THE LORD S TABLE MARK YOUR CALENDAR Welcome to the Lord s Table is a Sunday class for 5th graders and parents in preparation for their first communion. Class begins Sunday, February 15 with first communion on Maundy Thursday, April 2. More details to come. NEW WEDNESDAY NIGHT ADULT CLASS BEGINS JANUARY 7 Led by Dr. Robert Holst, the 6:30 P.M. Wednesday night adult Bible class will begin a new study on 1 Peter in the new year. The Concordia Study Bible introduces this epistle with the theme of God s grace. Peter treats the gospel of God s grace to Christians who are experiencing the trials of persecution. The study will look at the text with discussion of how it was intended at the time of the writing and to us today. BOUNDARIES WITH KIDS NEW SUNDAY STUDY STARTING JANUARY 11 Led by Michelle Frauenshuh, licensed therapist, this Parenting class will use the book Boundaries with Kids by Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend as the starting point for discussion and study on Sunday mornings. The study will take you through the ins and outs of establishing family boundaries and cultivating sound character in your children, from a Christian perspective. Boundaries with Kids will help you give your children the skills they need to live realistic and full lives in meaningful relationships. SUNDAY SCHOOL CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS Cross View Children presented two Christmas programs in December for the enjoyment of parents, guests and members, while telling the Christmas story in creative ways. See the pictures below.

3 Volunteerism is Up Using Ministry Action Teams for Large Events! One of the questions we heard during the town hall meetings about our change in governance was, When we do large events like Children s Nativity or EasterFest, how easy will it be to find enough volunteers if we no longer have boards to help with certain tasks? It was a valid concern. Both of these large events have historically been sponsored by the Board of Outreach & Missions, who divided up the tasks and assigned them to each of the six boards. When a board received their assignment, the members of the board could either agree to fulfill the responsibilities amongst themselves, or try to recruit others from the congregation to help. The answer to the above question was, Ministry Action Teams will organize the events now, including the recruitment of volunteers. So how well is reality matching theory? We already have two large events behind us, and they give us some early insight. Before evaluating Children s Nativity this year, let s first look at another large event that we recently hosted the Trinity First Thanksgiving Meal. This event has been handled differently than Children s Nativity and EasterFest in the past. For this event, the staff representative for the Board of Outreach & Missions confirmed someone to lead the food preparation, another person (board member) to organize volunteers before the event, and a third to direct volunteers at the event. While we did not call it a MAT before this year, it has very closely resembled one for a long time. So this year, Rebecca Waller recruited others to spearhead certain areas Judy Larson and Brenda Hylle for food preparation, and Jana Poppe to organize the volunteers. Consistent with director-level staff responsibilities, Rebecca did some things upfront to get things started, made public announcements, and routinely checked in with MAT team members to offer support and finalize details. Beyond that, she relied on the MAT to do what was needed. As in the past, the event went very smoothly this year. Over 100 volunteers helped at the event and many of them were first-timers! A couple weeks after Thanksgiving we hosted another signature event which required many volunteers again Children s Nativity. In the past, a coordinator on the Board of Outreach of Missions ( Jody Buska in recent years) served as the head organizer, but she knew she could count on each of the six boards to take responsibility for certain assigned areas. This year, Rebecca, who is the director-level staff person responsible for the event did some initial planning, which included recruiting a MAT leader ( Jody again, owing to her experience in the role). By empowering Jody to take care of the rest of the details, it freed Rebecca to concentrate on other staff responsibilities. Jody was to recruit sub-leaders for each of the six areas that had been historically assigned to the six boards. Recruitment of sub-leaders went fairly well, though a sub-leader was not found for all of the areas, so some adjustments had to be made. We can highlight this as an area to improve upon in the future if we are called upon to do something like that; it is possible that some people declined to be a sub-leader because the job sounded more daunting than it really was. While we couldn t find all the sub-leaders we wanted, the great news is that overall volunteerism was up this year, and it spread to members who had not helped in previous years! In some cases, a Cross View Small Group accepted an area of responsibility. This was a goal of launching MATs, so it is a very positive sign! In the end, both Rebecca and Jody felt that Children s Nativity ran more smoothly than ever before, thanks in part to the greater number of volunteers! We are only a couple months into our transition from boards to Ministry Action Teams, but the initial signs are very exciting based upon these first two large events! Many members are involved in the ministries of our church, some are getting involved in things they didn t do before, and our staff is able to rely on these volunteers while they plan the bigger picture. Thank you to everyone from MAT team leaders to sub-leaders to every single volunteer for continuing to respond to the service opportunities as you all have in the past, and seemingly with even more gusto now that we are organized into Ministry Action Teams. Please continue to fill out your Time & Talent sheet and/or let someone know where you are interested to serve so we can match you with the needs. We encourage you to try some new area of service. In doing so, you will surely meet other wonderful volunteers! And thank you to all of our amazing staff for embracing the required adjustments to lead MATs, as Rebecca has illustrated in the above examples. In service to Him, Gregg Poppe Congregational President PAGE 3 Sarah Garner in Recital Thursday, Jan. 8, 12:30 PM At 12:30 P.M. on Thursday, January 8th, Sarah Garner will perform a 30- minute organ recital at St. Barnabas Lutheran Church in Plymouth. The Lunchtime Organ Recital Series is hosted by the St. Barnabas Center for the Arts and will be performed in the Sanctuary on their 19-rank J.F. Nordlie pipe organ. The Epiphany of our Lord and the New Year will set the tone for the recital with Buxtehude s sparkling fantasia on How Brightly Shines the Morning Star and Wilbur Held s haunting variations on The Old Year as Passed Away. Closing the program will be a chant-improvisation on an antiphon by Hildegaard of Bingen and the majestic and fiery Fantaisie: Ephiphania Domini by the great French-improvisateur Charles Tournemire. St. Barnabas is located at Old Rockford Road in Plymouth. Cross View Women Attend LWML Rally In September, five people and a friend of Cross View attended a Fall Rally of the LWML in Prior Lake, along with many other women from various churches in the Southwest Zone of the Minnesota LCMS. For those of you who do not know, LWML stands for Lutheran Women s Missionary League. We had a wonderful speaker who gave us an overview of the work being done so that the visually impaired and blind could study the Bible. For all of us, especially in our older years, we can think of nothing more important. This week we deposited $ from our congregation s mite box collections for the month. God be praised! It is our prayer that our women will be on fire for the Lord...and we have a lot of competition. If you have questions, please contact Joanie Reeves. Altar Flower Sign-Up Altar flowers are given to Cross View to beautify our worship space. You may designate a particular occasion or remembrance in the bulletin for which you have given the flowers. A flower sign-up is posted on the bulletin board in the lobby. Flowers may be ordered through Cross View s regular florist (contact Sarah Solberg in the church office) or provided by you personally. More than one arrangement can be specified per Sunday.

4 PAGE 4 Children s Nativity On Saturday, December 6, over 200 guests attended Children s Nativity, where the Christmas story was told by costumed characters. Guests also enjoyed crafts, carolers, treats and feeding the stable animals. Thank you to everyone who served at this successful event!

5 SENIOR HIGH YOUTH Christmas Party & The Story Jeopardy YOUTH SERVICE PROJECTS The Senior High youth have had many service opportunities. It started with packing the treat bags for Trinity First Thanksgiving. Many of them helped serve at the Thanksgiving meal as well. The following Sunday they were given the opportunity to go and shop for the Trinity First Christmas store. 15 youth and a few volunteers went to Kohl s during the Sunday school hour to shop for and donate gifts. They have just started a new series during their Sunday school hour titled, Holy Vocabulary: Rescuing the Language of Faith. It looks into some of the words that are being used in the Bible as well as church services, and defines them in a more understandable way. The youth who have been attending on Wednesday evenings PAGE 5 have just concluded a movie study of Elf. Over the last three weeks they watched a section of the movie and discussed biblical and societal themes that impact them in their daily lives, and how they can bring the Christmas message of joy to those that they come into contact on a regular basis. CHRISTMAS PARTY On December 21, the youth had their Ugly Sweater Tacky Christmas Game Show party. They played Christmas themed games, ate Christmas themed snacks, had a Christmas themed devotion, and had Tacky fun to celebrate the beginning of Christmas break.

6 PAGE 6 EARLY CHILDHOOD CENTER Year Ends with December Fun; New Year Brings National Lutheran Schools Week OH WHAT FUN DECEMBER BRINGS! December has been a very busy time for the Early Childhood Center. It started with our annual Scholastic book fair held the first week in December. We had an excellent fair and were able to purchase over 140 new books for the center. Thank you once again for supporting the ECC with your purchases at the book fair. We also held a pajama drive sponsored by Scholastic Books and collected 60 pairs of pajamas. The Pajama Program provides new pajamas and new books to children in need nationwide, many of whom are waiting to be adopted. These two simple gifts let these children know that somebody cares. On the 16th of December, the children adorned their Christmas best and shared the Christmas story with their family members in the annual Christmas program titled Christmas Then & Now. The children did an excellent job of singing, reciting poems and finger plays. Afterwards everyone gathered in the fellowship hall for a Christmas cookie reception. The night can be summed up by one parent s comment I love to see all the excitement on all the children s faces. It was a very exciting night! Thanks so much to our volunteers from church that helped to make sure everything was organized, and the punch cups and cookie platters were full at all times. The week of the 22nd found the center extremely quiet. The lights were turned off and the doors locked as the center was closed for the year, and the staff enjoyed a week of vacation a good time to relax and refresh for the New Year! ECC CELEBRATES NATIONAL LUTHERAN SCHOOLS WEEK In January we will be celebrating National Lutheran Schools week. It starts on Sunday, January 25th with ECC Sunday. Many of our teachers will be at worship that day to celebrate the calling that they have as Lutheran Educators. During the following week there will be special activities planned, along with a birthday party for the center complete with a cake. We should always thank our teachers here and elsewhere for the great job they do with our children, but especially during this week, please thank a Lutheran teacher for the foundation they are helping to build in today s children. CROSSWAYS INTERNATIONAL CALLING Updates from Minneapolis to the Philippines Chloris and I wish to say a huge thank you to the members of Cross View for their prayers for us since my serious health concern in October, and for the moving manner in which they welcomed us back into their midst on December 14. Thank you a thousand times! We also send a sincere thank you to those who helped us move from our townhouse into our present apartment in Friendship Village. It is so good not to have to live in a threelevel dwelling-place. No stairs! Within a few days we shall complete sorting things out in our apartment. The address information I provided in last month s issue of The Clarion was not entirely accurate. Our apartment number is B209, and our phone number is We rejoice to know that things continued to go very well in Crossways International s office. Our five office staff members are gifts of God to us (including Grace Kelzer and Colleen Helland). Reports, inquiries, and orders continue to come in from home and abroad. Vic Pabellon continues to achieve remarkable things in Zamboanga in the Philippines, including teaching God s Good News to groups that include Muslims. Another Minneapolis-based group plans to use CI s materials in a teaching ministry across the United States. A brilliant young Lutheran colleague plans to use our materials in his ministry that focuses on equipping parents to teach God s word to children and teenagers. We thank God for what He continues to help CI achieve. Harry Wendt, President Cross View Cards & Games Friday, January 9, 7:00 P.M. Location: Cross View, Fellowship A RSVP to Barb Reichert (952) or Mel Davis (952) or Susan Dietel (952) New participants are welcome to connect with Cross View members and friends (adults of all ages) for several hours of fun and fellowship by playing cards and games of your choice.

7 Art Festival Begins Early: Feb. 8, 2015 This year s Christian art festival will receive art entries for its juried show on January 30 and 31, The show will open on Sunday, February 8, with a public reception that afternoon. The featured exhibit is titled The Rains Came Down: Noah and the Ark, and is a national travel exhibition from the Bowden Collections. A description of this featured exhibit follows: Imagined with a vast variety of living things parading into the ark two-by-two, the animals intrigue most youth who hear the story of Noah s ark and the cargo it carried. The story of the flood has fascinated children and adults alike for centuries and has captured the imagination of the artist like no other biblical narrative. Medieval artists depicted the horrors of people clamoring for high ground but more recent interpretations view the event with humor and delight. This exhibition has 30 pieces from diverse sources and in a variety of media, some of which include: etchings by Marc Chagall, Ben Zion and Arthur Geisert, a 17th century engraving, paintings by outsider artists Rudolph Bostic and Dorethy Gorham, two molas from the San Blas Islands off Panama, a stencil print by Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe, and charming wood sculpted Noah s arks. Together they promise the viewer a delightful few minutes of exploring anew the beloved story of Noah and the Ark. PAGE 7 InC Plans Next Event On Saturday, December 13, 50 people gathered at the home of Craig and Rebecca Waller for a festive Christmas social. Co-hosts were Marta & Steve Volbrecht and Janet & Peter Schmiel. Fabulous appetizers, conversation, and high spirits filled the evening while new friends were made. The next event for this group (approximately age 45-65) will be Saturday, February 14. The fellowship hall has been reserved for an all-star chili cook-off, though we are looking for other possible venues. If you would like to help co-host this next event, please contact Marta Volbrecht at martasv@aol.com. The Volbrechts and Schmiels are MAT leaders for InC. Noah s Ark Arthur Geisert Lithograph 92/100 Noah s Ark Sadao Watanabe Washi stencil print WOMEN S MINISTRIES Women s Daytime Book Club, Vintage Christmas Memories VINTAGE CHRISTMAS MEMORIES Women of Cross View enjoyed an evening of wonderful food and fellowship at the Advent Reflections Vintage Christmas celebration on Sunday, December 7. They enjoyed appetizers and desserts while listening to the Christmas story, sharing their Christmas traditions, and finishing creative gift tags hand-crafted by Kathi Etchison. WOMEN S DAYTIME BOOK CLUB The Women s Daytime Book Club will meet at 1:00 P.M on Monday, January 20, at the home of Joyce Crosby. We will be discussing The Secret Keeper: a novel by Kate Morton. If you enjoy reading and would like a casual discussion and afternoon, this is the place for you. Newcomers are always welcome!

8 Cross View January 2015

9 Cross View Lutheran Church 6645 McCauley Trail West Edina, MN Return Service Requested NON-PROFIT US POSTAGE PAID TWIN CITIES, MN PERMIT NO January 2015 SCHEDULE Sunday Worship: 8:15 am (Traditional) & 10:45 am (Contemporary) Sunday Christian Education, 9:30 am Office Hours: Tues.-Fri., 9:00 am - 4:30 pm; Closed Monday Developing fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ along life s journey Rev. Steve Wheeler, Pastor ext 203, steve@crossview.net Rev. Don Taylor, Interim Associate Pastor Jan Stockman-Sater, Early Childhood Ministries ext 222, jan@crossview.net Christine Eid, Children s Ministry ext 215, christine@crossview.net Jonathan Zellar, Youth & Young Adults MInistries ext 207, jonathan@crossview.net Melanie McMichael, Finance & Administration ext 204, melanie@crossview.net Rebecca Waller, Music & Fine Arts Ministries ext 210, rebecca@crossview.net Jason Paulson, Contemporary Music jason@crossview.net Sarah Garner, Organist sgarner@crossview.net Sarah Solberg, Parish Secretary ext 200, sarah@crossview.net Gregg Poppe, President Rev. Dr. Harry Wendt, Crossways International Todd & Kim Roeske, Evangelistic Missionaries in Alaska Mark Peske, Serving Among the Ojibwe, Bemidji, MN Stephen & Krista, Missionaries in Asia The Clarion is published monthly by Cross View Lutheran Church, 6645 McCauley Trail West, Edina, MN, (Office), (FAX), (ECC). Items for inclusion may be dropped off in the church office or sent via to rebecca@crossview.net. VOTERS ASSEMBLY MEETING Sunday, January 4, 2015 at 12:00 noon Please plan to attend! Save the date: FMSC with YAMS! Saturday, January 24 5:00 P.M. dinner 6:45 PM service FMSC Socialize during our dinner at Houlihan s in Chanhassen and then serve at Feed My Starving Children, packing life-saving meals for children all over the world. Children age 5+ are welcome to attend with an adult ratio of 1:1. Contact Megan or Patrick Rooney with questions.