River s Edge Good News

Transcription

1 St. James Lutheran Church River s Edge Good News Pastor Michael Nielsen Office: 1106 S. Main St. Necedah, WI stjames.luth@tds.net St. Paul s Lutheran Church A L E T T E R F R O M T H E P A S T O R A U G U S T Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, It s time to start looking at the future of our congregations. Forming a vision for the future is not always easy. A lot of times it means saying good-bye to the past and making some changes, changes that might be uncomfortable for a while, until they become the norm. It is time now to look ahead and cast a vision of where we want to be in the future. What is a vision though, you might ask? That is something that I have been fighting with for several months in my own head. I found a definition of vision that I like: Vision is a picture of what God wants us to do. This statement was brought to A N I M P O R T A N T A N N O U N C E M E N T It s Finally Here! VBS 2011 Jungle Adventure with Jesus! August am- Noon my attention as I was reading an article by a Baptist Pastor about casting a biblical vision. I believe he has it right. How do we go about forming a vision for our congregations? It takes time in God s Word, in Bible Study, and Prayer. It takes some service opportunities; it takes a lot of man hours to build a vision. It also takes you--the members of these churches. Most importantly it takes the Holy Spirit guiding us through our Biblicallyfocused vision. What does God want us to do? God wants us to be a united group of disciples. God wants us to live for him and reach out for him. God wants us to share the message of Dear Friends in Christ, It s August already and before you know it school will be starting and then Rally Day! Some things to keep in mind, on August 7 th there is a Voters Meeting and everyone is welcome to come and see what s happening around Church and get involved. We also need more members to add to our Vision Team, which we have three right now. Our hope is to have at least one member from every group to get involved on this Team. In order for this Church and Congregation to move forward with 1 the Lord the Gospel around us. God wants us to do ministry. It s what the church is supposed to do! However, each congregation has its own unique people, challenges, opportunities, communities, etc. Each congregation has to seek out what God wants them to do in their own contexts. God s Word and prayer are the two places to start when forming a vision. But even before that, the congregation needs to be willing to develop a vision. (Continued on Page 6) A L E T T E R F R O M T H E C O U N C I L P R E S I D E N T Jesus Christ in our hearts we need you all to be a part of it. To those that are already contributing you have my heart felt THANK YOU. See you on August 7 th. Yours in Christ, Brian Jump, St. James, Congregational President

2 A N N O U N C M E N T S Servants Elder of the Month: Richard Braund Trustee of the Month: Kelly Jump August Needs Tomah VA-Popsicles (sugar-free) and Toothbrushes Necedah Food Pantry- Any non-perishable item Please leave your items in the VA Box or the LWML Box Altar Care St. James: Sylvia Heinzelmann and Eva Simonson St. Paul s: Donna, Lori, Hope and Mary Lou If anyone would like to follow Tyler s adventures in Tanzania, Africa you can find him at tylerintanzania.blogspot.com. He is on a 2 year Peace Corp assignment. There are some amazing Upcoming Events 1st-Trustee s Meeting 7pm 6th-Elders Meeting 8am 7th-Fellowship Hall Celebration Voter s Meeting pictures on there that he has taken since he has been there and very interesting stories of his adventures thus far. You can also follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google or Yahoo. (Both following Sunday Service) 8th thru 12th-VBS 8am-Noon 14th Fellowship in Celebration of VBS (Following Sunday Service) 17th-Council Meeting 8pm 31st-Confirmation Orientation with Parents 7pm 2

3 S T. J A M E S B I R T H D A Y S A N D A N N I V E R S A R I E S Birthday s 3rd-Bonnie Petersen 4th-Dorothy Hillerud Lily Belmonte 9th-Tommy Houy 11th-Sheridan Reichel 12th-Courtney McLellan 13th-Stephanie Emanuel 15th-Wade Jump Erin Smelcer 16th-Ernest Strey 18th-Jameson Oens 20th-Kamie Bluell 24th-Ken Nordall 25th-Elaine Lorenz 26th-Doris Anderson Taylor Lewis 27th-Sandy Harry Brian Jump 28th-Scott Wilhorn 31st-Tylinn Houy Anniversaries 9th-Brian & Terri Jump Aaron & Sheri Reichel 16th-Byron & Doris Anderson 21st-Gary & Jackie Jump 27th-Dan & Joan Rabold S T. P A U L S B I R T H D A Y A N D A N N I V E R S A R I E S Birthdays 1st-Nora Pfannerstill 2nd-Joseph Skibba 21st-Shelley Castellon 22nd-Joshua Skibba 23rd-Charles Klein 25th-Scott Murray Anniversaries 2nd-Dennis & Shelley Castellon Adult Tuesday Night Bible Class for September Angels and Demons (The Lutheran Difference $9) (4 Sessions) - sign up for September is encouraged October-November Islam (Text TBD) (8 sessions) December Advent Break January February Book of the Bible (7 sessions) March Lenten Break April-May Christian Denomination TBD (7 sessions) 3

4 L A D I E S A I D Our Picnic by the River was a great success! Thank you to Pastor Mike for being our Grill Master. The night was full of fellowship, good food and great conversations. The next Ladies Aid Gathering will be August 14 th with fellowship after church for the VBS volunteers. It s our way of saying Thank you for your talents and time. Also, on August 7th the Ladies Aid is contributing the cake for the celebration of the renovations in Fellowship Hall,so please join us following service that day. At September s Gathering (9-1-11), we will be planning for our Veterans Gift Bags! Bags will be given for Veterans Day Warm Summer Blessings to You All! Deb Belmonte Q U I L T E R S C O R N E R Greetings Everyone! We hope all of you are staying cool this very hot hot summer! We would like to ask that if anyone has any computer paper boxes that are not being used and would like to donate them for shipping of the Quilts, please drop them off at the church office during office hours. Or you can bring them along with you to church on Sunday s. We also ask that they please have the lids. We are now up to 80 quilts and are looking to surpass our count of 107 from last year! Thank you all, And have a great summer! St. James Quilters 4

5 O U R M I S S I O N To share God s love in Jesus Christ with those around us as we continue to experience and grow in His goodness and mercy. Y O U T H G R O U P Have you ever heard of Eutychus? Check out Acts 20. Eutychus was a young man who was sitting in the back by a window alone listening to St. Paul share about Jesus. It becomes evening and he eventually nods off to sleep and falls out of the window. Paul then goes to raise him from the dead by the power of Jesus Christ. You see, Eutychus is a young man a teenager in all reality, who is bored and at risk. Doesn t this sound like our teenagers today? What can we do to help our teenagers? Think about that question as you read this following statistic: Thirteen years ago the LCMS baptized 47,000 infants, and this year we confirmed 19,000 of them. Where have the other 26,000 children gone? Frankly, the statistics even drop after confirmation or at least, that is the current trend. How can we help reverse the trend? Partly, we can encourage our youth, and become mentors to them. One way we can do that is by encouraging them to be in church and to participate in the youth group. It s been a summer of opportunities, with no fruit. In November we have the State Youth Gathering in the Kalahari; it should be a good time, but we need our youth back! So let s encourage them to come back! And support them when they are back! C O N F I R M A T I O N Wow! It seems like May 1 and the end to the Confirmation Year was just here. You all know the school year is just a month away. Where did the summer go? We are two-thirds of our way through the summer as I write this, which means I have been working diligently on the Confirmation Curriculum for this upcoming school year. There will be some changes this year, which includes more learning taking place in the home and more assistance from the parents. There is also a new part to the program entitled, My Role at St. James/St. Paul s. If you are interested in finding out what that is, please contact Pastor Mike. I will be explaining all these changes to the parents and students on Wednesday, August 31 from 7-8:30 PM at Orientation. P R E S C H O O L It s almost that time again! Preschool begins September 7th. So if you have a child that you would like to enroll, or you know of one, you can pick up an application in the church office or you can contact Sandy Harry at

6 L E T T E R F R O M T H E P A S T OR ( C O N T. F R O M P A G E 1 ) A congregation needs to back their vision and where they seek to spiritually grow. When a congregation grows spiritually, it will also grow numerically. There are also other questions to ask ourselves when forming a vision. What does God want us to do? Where do you see yourself serving the church? Where do you see your congregation in 3-5 years? How do you want to see the Kingdom advanced here in your community? How are you going to help in carrying out the vision? With all of these questions in mind, one needs to truly focus on: What does God want us to do? The sole answer to that question is to be disciples, put God first over everything else, and make your church a priority in your life. This can be done through the motivating power of the Gospel. Jesus Christ came to seek and to save those who were lost, so shouldn t that be our mission, vision, and purpose? In the coming months you will hear more about our goals to form a vision team: a team that is willing to do the homework needed to present a vision to the congregation. If you are willing to be part of the team please let Pastor Mike or Brian Jump (Congregational President) know that. We are seeking people from each generation to help in this vision-casting process. What is YOUR vision for YOUR congregation? Pastor Mike Discipleship Class Starting in September there will be a discipleship class for both St. James and St. Paul s members and prospective members. The classes will be held at St. Paul s in New Miner. The schedule is as follows: September PM October PM November PM (This is also opening weekend of Deer Hunting so it may change) December PM Class outline will be given on the first day of class. Please sign up with Pastor Mike if interested in attending. Bible Readings for August: Week 31 August 1 1 Kings 19:1-21 August 2 1 Kings 20:1-43 August 3 1 Kings 21:1-22:53 August 4 2 Kings 1:1-2:25 August 5 2 Kings 3:1-4:44 August 6 2 Kings 5:1-27 August 7 Come to the Lord s House and Worship Him Week 32 August 8 2 Kings 6:1-7:20 August 9 2 Kings 8:1-29 August 10 2 Kings 9:1-10:36 August 11 2 Kings 11:1-12:21 August 12 2 Kings 13:1-14:29 August 13 2 Kings 15:1-16:20 August 14 Come to the Lord s House and Worship Him Week 33 August 15 2 Kings 17:1-41 August 16 2 Kings 18:1-19:37 August 17 2 Kings 20:1-21 August 18 2 Kings 21:1-26 August 19 2 Kings 22:1-23:37 August 20 2 Kings 24:1-25:30 August 21 Come to the Lord s House and Worship Him Week 34 August 22 1 Chronicles 1:1-4:43 August 23 1 Chronicles 5:1-8:40 August 24 1 Chronicles 9:1-12:40 August 25 1 Chronicles 13:1-14:17 August 26 1 Chronicles 15:1-16:43 August 27 1 Chronicles 17:1-27 August 28 Come to the Lord s House and Worship Him Week 35 August 29 1 Chronicles 18:1-20:8 August 30 1 Chronicles 21:1-30 August 31 1 Chronicles 22:1-19 September 1 1 Chronicles 23:1-27:34 September 2 1 Chronicles 28:1-21 September 3 1 Chronicles 29:1-30 September 4 Come to the Lord s House and Worship Him 6