A Mighty Fortress. Newsletter 3/16/2018 Edition II, Volume 1

Transcription

1 Holy Week Happenings March 25 th March 29 th March 30 th April 1 st Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday 10:00am Following Worship Maundy Thursday 6:00pm 7:00pm Good Friday 7:00pm Easter Sunday 8:30am 10:00am Worship NC Synod Bishop Tim Smith preaching Reception of New Members Announcement of Recipients of Benevolence from Mortgage Retirement Retirement of the Mortgage Celebration Fellowship Meal & Seder Meal Fellowship Building Communion Service Church Easter Breakfast Worship Pastor s Note Just two weeks until Easter, which means our Lenten journey should be bearing fruit. It is an invitation into a season of contemplative prayerful reflection on our role in the growth in God s Kingdom. We are children of God who have experienced God s love through grace and mercy. We have experienced God s love through instruction and rebuke. We have experienced God s love through patience and generosity. God wants us to share our experiences with others. I invited you as we began this journey to share your stories of faith with others you know well family and friends. Be curious about the story and faith of others. How has that gone? If it hasn t gone as you had planned, no worries, there are two and a half weeks left to share what God has been up to in your life. Share the ways you have experienced God s love in a variety of ways. We are disciples of God. We are to follow Jesus example. Jesus was preoccupied with helping people have an intimate knowledge and an intimate relationship with God. Blessings on the rest of your Lenten journey! Pastor CeCee lucille.mills@elca.org Page 1 Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC 28216

2 April 21 st : Pastor CeCee Will Be Offering Healthy Congregations Healthy Congregation creates healthy behaviors that optimize a congregation s ability to be in mission together for God! Come out and learn how difference can be honored and relationships be respected for the sake of working in community and ultimately growth. Open to the whole congregation. (Pastor CeCee is a trained Healthy Congregations facilitator and will be guiding the congregation through this workshop.) Council Meeting Update A DAY OF CELEBRATION MORTGAGE BURNING! PALM SUNDAY, MARCH 25, 10AM On February 9, 2018, paid off its mortgage! We are so blessed and thank God for all his many blessings! Please join Lutheran Church on March 25th for worship and a fellowship meal immediately following morning worship service. Our NC ELCA Bishop, Tim Smith, will conduct our worship service. Special guests, former members, sister congregations, and community partners have been invited to share with us in this celebration. At our January congregational meeting, Harry Sheldon suggestion that we set aside one mortgage payment of $2,400 and use that money to bless community organizations. The congregation was encouraged to nominate organizations they felt could benefit from the monies. Three organizations were selected they are: Lily Pad Haven an organization that provides a network of safe houses and transitional services to help victims of human trafficking. Page 2 Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC 28216

3 Thrift United Methodist Church Food Pantry a ministry which partners with families who are going through a sudden, unexpected financial hardship. This ministry demonstrates a passionate, caring heart towards those in our community who are in need of food. Emmaus West Charlotte A brand new Congregation Under Development (CUD) began on May 1, 2017 in West Charlotte under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Shanitria Cuthbertson. Dr. Cuthbertson grew up in and currently resides in West Charlotte. Emmaus began at ʹA Doveʹs Nest,ʹ a womenʹs rescue mission and ʹRenaissance West,ʹ a purpose built community designed to tackle the problem of low economic mobility in Charlotte. We hope to see everyone at 10am on March 25th to join in this joyful and historic event! Council Meeting Highlights March 11, Call Committee Update: Bishop Smith will meet with our Call Committee on March 25, 2018, to present them with names/information on rostered leader candidates interested in the call. Interviewing of candidates will begin shortly thereafter. Also, Joe Brigman volunteered to be the Call Committee Chaplain. This is a very important position for everything Call Committee does should begin and end with prayer. Prayers should always be for the Holy Spirit to give members discernment of God s will in all things. 2. Beverly will reach out by March 18th to Ministry Stewards and Ministry Chairs to set up a meeting for all Ministry boards to review Ministry board organization and goals. We will discuss consolidation of some ministry boards due to lack of members and some overlap of board responsibilities. 3. Pastor Ted Rust, St. Andrew Lutheran Church, New Bern, NC will conduct an Outreach Workshop training for all interested on Thursday, April 12, Pastor Rust will share community organizing strategies, how to create community centric events, ways to partner with other churches/organizations, and more. Training will run from 3 4pm; then we ll go out into a neighborhood to put learned strategies into action from 4 6pm. Afterwards, there will be a dinner and debrief session from 6 7pm. See Joyce Ohlson, Outreach Ministry Co chair, for more information. 4. Treasure report updates from Terry Saunders: $400 out of the saved $2,400 dollars we have available due to our mortgage payoff will go into a new line item in the budget for our Call Committee. That equates to about $3,600 total for the remaining 9 months of the year. AMF is Page 3 Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC 28216

4 responsible for paying for travel and lodging expenses for any candidates interviewed. Please see Rick Rozzelle, Call Committee Chair, for any questions or concerns. 5. Thih Rolan, who gifted free grounds upkeep for us the past year, will no longer be able to provide that service. Thih has become a long distance truck driver and will be on the road quite a bit. Doug Wells and Terry Saunders were able to secure our previous groundskeeper at no cost increase. AMF will need to amend our 2018 budget to reflect an additional $366/mo. for the remainder of the year. Since this is a 2.1% increase to our budget, a congregational vote is not needed. However, we do need to make the congregation aware of this. 6. The Outreach Ministry has created a Safety Team. This team will be trained by local law enforcement/fire department on evacuation plans in case of emergencies, such as fire, flood, tornado, or other natural disasters. The team also plans to have a training conducted on what protocol to follow if there is an active shooter incident, explosives, etc. This training would be open to our surrounding community. January February Financial Report: Budget ($) required thru February $21,940 Received thru February $22,187 Expenses thru February $23,827 Note: The high utility costs for heating partially account for a deficit of $1,640. Call Committee Call Committee has begun the process of searching for a new pastor and will receive our first set of candidatesʹ names in a couple of weeks. As a reminder, the process is to be conducted in confidence, so please do not ask who we are interviewing. As we narrow the selection to a primary candidate, the AMF Church Council and the congregation as a whole will be afforded plenty of opportunity to meet the person. Congregational approval is required to call a new pastor. Page 4 Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC 28216

5 Lenten Services Please join us every Wednesday from 6:00pm 7:00pm for supper and devotions: Date Host(s) Menu March 21 Bring your own dish to share Bring your own dish to share March 29 Seder Meal reservations needed by 3/28 (This will be a very special evening) As we continue to move forward at AMF, we are also developing written guidelines for all areas of our worship leaders Greeters, Ushers, Worship Assistants, and Acolytes. We invite all current, new, and prospective parishioners to join us for updates and training on Saturday, May 5 from 10:00 am noon. If there are questions, please contact Pastor CeCee or Jim McGee. Change in AMF Lawn Care Our Montagnard friend, Thih Rolan, is no longer in the lawn care business. He has joined a trucking company and he is planning to be an owner operator of an 18 wheeler. He has already made several trips back and forth to California, and we wish him all the best in his new career. During 2016 and 2017, Thih saved AMF over $8,000 in lawn maintenance costs, and we are very grateful. While he will no longer be mowing our lawn, he and his family will continue to worship in the Fellowship Building on Sunday mornings. We have again contracted our lawn care to Capps Turf Design, and they have graciously agreed to give AMF the same quality work for the same fair price we paid in Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC Page 5

6 Family Fun Night at Paw Creek On Wednesday, March 28th, Paw Creek Elementary will have Family Fun Night from 5:30pm to 7pm. AMF has contributed small wrapped candies and prizes for the games for the last several years along with volunteers to help man the games. Please bring wrapped candy and prizes on Sunday the 18 th and 25 th... a box will be provided for collection. If anyone would like to volunteer time that night as well, please see Karen Bryant (karenbryant@mindspring.com / ). Thank you for your support of AMF s faith partnership with Paw Creek. The Gathering Group will meet April 2nd at 11:30 a.m. to have lunch at the Webb Custom Kitchen, located at 182 S. Main St., Gastonia. There is limited parking in downtown Gastonia, so if you would like to carpool, we can meet at Park Sterling Bank, located at 233 S. Main St. in Mt. Holly. Reservations will need to be made, so please let JoAnn know if you plan to attend and if you would like to carpool (pjoannd@aol.com / ). There is a tradition that if you arenʹt wearing green on St. Patrickʹs Day, leprechauns will pinch you. Those green hats are WELCA s pinch insurance. Lutheran Church 8200 McClure Circle Charlotte, NC Page 6