Bethany Lutheran Church Mission Statement Reaching out in Worship, Fellowship, Learning, and Love - We Are God s People.

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1 Volume 57 Issue 4 April, 2017 Bethany Lutheran Church Mission Statement Reaching out in Worship, Fellowship, Learning, and Love - We Are God s People. The resurrection of Christ has been celebrated in many ways. One of the most important understandings that I have of Easter is that it is the gift of a new beginning. How many times in our lives have we needed a new start? A little over a year ago, when Sue and I learned that you and God called us to come to Bethany, we were swept away by a joy that words could not convey! A year later we continue to be lifted up and are looking forward to God doing even greater and more wonderful new things. At this point in our lives our eyes could be focused on things winding down. But that is not at all where we are looking. Following Christ s resurrection, God s spirit continued to burst into the lives of His believers with life-giving Easters of all types and expressions. When God raised His Son from the dead, He announced to the world that, no matter how things might seem, there is always a new unleashing of God s power everywhere. The grip of death has been broken! The Lord is risen, He is risen indeed! Risen forever, well into eternity! Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church 2515 Madison Ave. Burlington, Iowa Phone: (319) Pastor s Cell: (360) Our Staff Rev. Paul Hermansen, Pastor Cory Byrne, Choir Director/Organist Amanda Stevenson-Cosgrove, Dir. of Youth & Family Sue Hermansen, Admin. Asst. Dennis Wohlers, Financial Sec y Mike & Tammy Morris, Custodians

2 items: Our kitchen is need of some supplies and we are reaching out to the congregation for donations of the following 1. Powdered coffee creamers--plain and flavored 2. Paper towels 3. Napkins 4. Dishwasher soap (powder) 5. Plastic wrap 6. Storage bags--quart and gallon 7. Small paper plates Thanks for anything you can donate to the kitchen. HOMEBOUND CARD MINISTRY Please help remember Bethany s members who are in nursing homes or homebound by sending them a card. A birthday or a thinking of you card is a special way of showing God s love. During the summer months, take a minute to send a card with a short note - these folks would love to hear from you. Names and addresses are available on the table in the fellowship hall. Please remember to mark the spreadsheet if you send a card. CONFIRMATION CHOIR At our recent Worship and Music meeting we confirmed that we will be having our choir sing in worship again. Our next presentation will be on Easter Sunday. Cory Byrne has graciously accepted the choir director position and will schedule practices to be held on Sundays at 8:00 a.m. It would be wonderful to have our faithful singers, as well as new voices, gather as one to make a joyful sound to the Lord. The confirmation program during Lent focused on confirmands and their families attending and participating in worship. Our regular Wednesday night resumes on April 26 at 7:00 p.m. WELCA The WELCA Spring Cluster and Gathering will be held at Swedesburg Ev. Lutheran Church on Wednesday, April 19, Anyone wishing to attend please let Mary Honsey know by Friday, April 14. Details can be found on the bulletin board. APRIL ACTIVITIES The Retired Nurses will be here on Friday, April 7, at 9:00 a.m. They gather in the fellowship hall. Also, Boy Scout Troop #25 has their regular weekly meetings on Tuesdays. CHURCH LEAGUE SOFLL The League will be playing on Tuesday evenings starting in April. The schedule will be out soon. For information contact Cory Smith (call or text at (319) or cory@corysmith.net) or Dennis Wohlers at (319) This year s team t-shirts have a winking Martin Luther on the front and Lutheran Lumber on the back.

3 HOLY WEEK AND EASTER SCHEDULE All the times and locations are set for Holy Week and Easter. The Maundy Thursday service will be at 6:00 p.m. at Bethany. The service will include Holy Communion. On Good Friday we will have a three church Tenebrae service at Faith Lutheran on Sunnyside at 6:00 p.m. Pastor Ryan will lead the service and I will preach. Our Easter Sunday service will be at the regular time of 9:00 a.m. Our recently resurrected choir will share a special Easter anthem. Following worship our youth will serve our traditional Easter breakfast. This would be the best service of the year to invite someone to Bethany. APRIL 5 - FINAL WEDNESDAY NIGHT LENTEN GATHERING Our three church Wednesday night fellowship has been such a blessing I hate to see it end. The Council is in charge of our April 5 supper. The turnouts have been incredible and the fellowship Christ-centered. The Fellowship Committee is accepting donations for their annual rummage sale to be held June 9 and 10. Please drop off all your usable items at the church. Please, no clothing. MOTHER-DAUGHTER BANQUET The Mother-Daughter Banquet will be held on Tuesday, May 2, beginning at 6:00 p.m. The price of tickets will be $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for children 10 years and younger. Watch the upcoming bulletins for further information. MEET OUR NEW FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR Last fall Bethany hired a new person to administer the financial responsibilities of our church. His name is Dennis Wohlers. In terms of actually making the change official, Michelle, our former secretary, stayed on to help out with transitioning our new secretary and orienting Dennis on the various duties he would embrace. Following the successful completion of these areas we have experienced a smooth hand-off to our new staff. On a personal note, Dennis wife, Kathleen, is the pastor of our sister congregation, Peace Lutheran. Dennis is also a licensed certified lay minister and has led worship at several Lutheran churches. Please give a warm Bethany welcome to Dennis. CHURCH KEYS At the beginning of the year we have people who are newly elected to the Council who need church keys for their ministries. We also have members who have successfully completed their Council service who may no longer need their church keys for various functions. If you happen to have a set of church keys but no longer need them, it would be much appreciated to have them turned into the church office. Thank you!

4 .... they departed quickly... with great joy, and ran to tell His disciples. Matthew 28:8 HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE THE CHURCH? If you were asked to define or describe the church, what would you say? Would you talk about the structure of the physical building? Would you mention the pretty red carpet, the stained glass windows, our address, or our Lutheran denomination? Would you talk about the people here who are our members? Would you talk about what we believe? The Greek word for church is ecclesia. According to this word, the church is the people who are called out by God to do God s work. And what did the church do following the death and resurrection of Christ? They went out and told people about Jesus. When you think about the church, do you see yourself as being the church? The church is a people called into being by God in Christ. God creates the church. From there God is at work in the Holy Spirit who is active in us to do Kingdom ministry. Again, the first thing the church (people of God) did in functioning as the church was to go out and share the Good News that Christ had been raised from the dead and was alive in their lives. This is what we, the church, do in being the church. So how do we get excited enough to want to go out and tell people about Jesus and invite folks to Bethany? There are at least two motivations. The most genuine inspiration we can have is in knowing Jesus personally. When we really know Jesus in our mind and heart we enthusiastically tell people about Him. A second motivation for sharing Jesus with others is if we have a really good feeling about Bethany. If what God is doing in and at Bethany is a blessing to us, we want to tell others about Bethany. I am very grateful to have learned that one of our younger members did invite one of their friends to attend Bethany. That friend came with his family and has been coming to Bethany ever since. What if all of us did this? God has been nudging me to invite people to church ever since January, I do it because I want to and because God wants me to. God wants a relationship with everyone. When we are instrumental in bring people to God it makes God happy. And God being happy is a good thing! This spring we celebrate Easter Sunday on April 16. While many people may not be as familiar with the church as we are, I believe just about everyone in America has a grasp of Easter. Easter Sunday would be a great opportunity to reach out to someone and invite them to Bethany. While anytime is a good time to invite someone to our church, Easter may be the best time of all. You can even tell them our youth are sponsoring a delicious breakfast after church. Let s be the church! May God send us out to invite people to Bethany. Those people will be glad we did. In Christ, Pastor Paul

5 April 2017 Lay Leaders Head Usher: Spencer Honsey April Team Captain: Todd Chelf Ushers Laurie & Lucas Chelf The Chelf Family 16 - The Chelf Family The Chelf Family Communion Assistants Mark Rosenberg; Dan Harken; Amy Unglaub Rachel Lindeen; Jim Martindale; Shelley Wallace 16 - Dan Harken; Jeff & Kim Engle 23 - Bill Mundt; Mike Morris; Joe Gerdes 30 -Steve & Sue Rogers; Theresa Morehead Fellowship 16 - Youth Easter Breakfast Missionary Support 16 - Todd & Laurie Chelf 23 - Bob Sogard 30 -Dan & Ruth Harken Acolytes Lector Bill Mundt Carlene Woodside 16 - Elberta Quam 23 - Dee Dee Walker 30 - Jeff Engle Greeters Sharon Martindale Lynda Johnson; Elberta Quam 16 - Bill Mundt 23 - Bob Sogard; Arnild Zaiser 30 -Mark & Bonnie Rosenberg Flowers 16 - Lilies 23 - Pastor Paul 30 - Altar Guild Mary Honsey; Sharon Martindale; Eleonore Benninghoven; Lynda Johnson; Dee Dee Walker April Birthdays 1 - Jeffery Brockett Kamryn Sherwood 3 - Carlene Woodside 5 - David Milton 6 - Michael Kastner; Denise Kaup; Wyatt Lineberry 7 - Marshal Peterson 8 - Jennifer Riley Elizabeth Lacy; Courtney Quam; Arnhild Zaiser 10 - Jeremy DeHague; Erica House 11 - Arianna Whetstone 13 - Thomas Holtz; James Morris 15 - Adam Roy 17 - Anthony Hand; Sheryl Lee; Jeffrey Williams 18 - Ross Stottmeister 1 Julie Coleman; Elliott Wallace 20 - Diana Walker 21 - Andrew Sladky 2 Beverly Koch; Jillian LeKander; Barbara Miller; Jill Whitmore 23 - Bailey Brockman 24 - Cody Clark; Sue Hermansen 27 - Kelsey Guile; Elisabeth Riley; Kathrine Riley 2 Hunter Adam; Teresa Engler; Daniel Mc Cabe; Steven Rogers 30 - Vivienne Mafra; Kyden Schreuers

6 L.I.F.T. Living In Faith Together L.I.F.T. gathers on April 9 at Trinity Lutheran Church. We start at 5:00 and are done about 6:45 p.m. This is a gathering for kids, ages 4-5th grade and this year our theme is Fruits of the Spirit. We have a bible story, do a craft, sing some fun songs ALL AFTER WE EAT!!! CONFIRMATION April 26 6:00 p.m. Questions? See Amanda or Pastor Paul VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR VBS! It seems so far off, but VBS will be here before you know it. It will be held at Bethany, June 19-23, with staff from Camp EWALU leading our activities. We are very excited to add this element to our program and look forward to our joint ministry outreach as we work alongside our Lutheran brothers and sisters from Trinity, Faith, and Messiah. See Carlene Woodside or Amanda for volunteer opportunities. YOUTH EASTER BREAKFAST Our youth will be sponsoring a delicious breakfast following the Easter worship on April 16. A love offering will be received for youth ministry. Please be sure to stay after worship for a terrific breakfast and good fellowship. SUNDAY SCHOOL Remember we have Sunday School every Sunday at 10:30 following our worship service. All children ages K through 6th grade are invited to attend.

7 The meetings for April that have been scheduled as of the publishing of this newsletter are listed below. Watch the bulletins for any date and time changes or additional meetings scheduled. Altar Guild Men s Breakfast Saturday, April 15, 8:00 a.m. Evangelism Stewardship Comm. Church Council Sunday, April 23, 10:15 a.m. Property Committee Monday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. Worship and Music Committee Sunday, April 9, 10:15 a.m. Finance Committee Fellowship Committee FINANCIAL UPDATE MARCH ATTENDANCE Ash Wednesday 63 March March March March March MARCH GIVING March 5 $3, March 12 3, March 19 2, March 25, 26 2, Total $11, WOW! PRAISE GOD! If you change your mailing address, please let the office know ASAP. For every returned piece of mail we get for an incorrect address, we are charged 75 cents. PLEASE NOTE The deadline to submit information for the monthly Chimes is the 25th of the month. You re welcome to your submissions, leave a note on the desk in the office, or call the church office. Thank you for your generosity and faithful trust in God to provide your needs! God believes in you and has a great future planned for Bethany. ALSO! Because of Federal Privacy laws, if you or a member of your family are hospitalized and would like the Pastor to visit, you must contact the church and let us know.