From the President: Garry Laaker

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1 2 From the President: Garry Laaker From the Pastor: Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing." NIV The primary emphasis of David is an invitation to come and discover God s goodness. What an awesome truth to place at the center of knowing God. Taste of Him and you will see that He is good!!!!!! David extols the benefits of trying out God. Taste of Him and you will know His goodness, take refuge in Him and you will find true happiness, fear Him and you will lack nothing! David is certain of God s response. At first we open our hearts to the idea of experimental tasting of that which is new. Consider the learning experiences of an infant or toddler as they taste, experience each spoonful. A friend prods us along and says to us, you have to try this! They offer us something new and we are curious. Imagine David, He knows well the wonderful experience of taking in the Lord s goodness and His eternal pleasures he now persuades others to have a taste. Come on, try it! We have all experienced this kind of persuasion and here is the psalmist of Israel crying out to the generations in the same way saying, I know that you are going to like it. Just give it a try! Indeed, one taste, is all that it takes to be captured by the goodness and mercy of His presence. It is then that we quickly move to the second kind of tasting. Once we have discovered just how good it is to know the Lord we then begin to pursue Him out of pleasure. Who has not experienced trying that wonderful dessert or incredible main dish in a small portion only to realize its goodness and hold out their plate to the cook with an impish smile while saying sweetly, May I have some more, pleeeaaasssseee! David is certain that having tasted the Lord s goodness and seen His mercy, we begin to crave the goodness of the Lord in His mercy! What we would give in order to receive it. Welcome to the first issue of the Messenger of Peace for the New Year, As president, I look forward to working with you and the Church Council. If you have any questions or concerns regarding Peace, please feel free to ask me, the Pastor or any member of Council. (See page 2 for current list of Council members.) During 2015 we gained 5 baptized members, 4 confirmed members and 1 transfer. We lost 4 members by death and we released 17 others. Our membership consistes of 169 baptized members and 139 communicants. Please remember that you are all welcome to join our Voter s Assembly (you need to be at least 18 years old) and you are also invited to attend our council meetings. The Voter s meeting are the 2 nd Sunday of March, June, September and December and the council meets on the 2 nd Monday of the months when there is no Voter s meeting. The next council meeting will be Jan. 12. Please continue to keep Peace and our members in your prayers. We are called to the table of God s presence today to savor His love and His goodness. Our cry comes each day, each week, each and every passing moment, I want more. I want more. I want more. "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing." Peace Lutheran Church 1451 Ebenezer Road Cincinnati, OH Pastor Larry J. Rodencal Sunday Morning Schedule Christian Education Hour 9:15 AM Worship Service 10:30 AM

2 2015 Elected Officers of Peace Lutheran Church President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Stewardship/Finance Board of Elders Board of Fellowship Board of Community Relations Board of Trustees Garry Laaker Scott Somers Lois Lade Eric Ringshauser Pat Laaker Chuck Ausman Ken Selmeyer Tom Booher Mary Senger Dave Ringshauser Dick Keller Other Positions of Peace Lutheran Church Organist Reporter: Cincinnati Lutheran Editor: Messenger of Peace Judy Brown Berdie Marsh Sandie Rodencal.FINANCIAL SUMMARY FOR 2014 (Amounts are not finalized these are approximate) December offerings received - $24,000 $10,600 over expenditure for December This leaves us with a deficit spending of $3,800 for the year. While the bottom line shows that we ended with a deficit, I thank each of you for contributing above and beyond the normal giving in order that the our deficit is not as great as was our fears. Each of you are commended, but in humble recognition that what we have given has been given to God s glory and mission.

3 Wednesday Jan 21st 1:00-3:00 Bible Study Room F e l l o w s h i p Committee will meet during Fellowship Hour on January 25. Please come join us with any suggestions you may have for events for 2015!! All are welcome!! JANUARY BIRTHDAYS 1 Bobby Selmeyer 2 Miriam Sheline 6 Brad Hill 8 Steven Lipez 14 Shawn Somers 15 Mary Beth Hunter 16 Harry Ringshauser 22 Jacob Meinecke 25 Claire Kessler 26 Molly Guenther 27 Jack Craven 28 Marcus Lade 28 Charles Lipez 28 Deborah Sprague 28 Lauren Sprague 30 LaVerne Juengling 31 Bob Miller January: Campus Meals January: 4 Hunter 11 Sam 18 Hunter 25 Sam Fred Leberecht Tom Seibert Shawn Somers Gary Sprague Head Elder: Chuck Ausman Jamie has just 3 Friday dates left that need filling. Jan 23rd, Feb 6th and Feb 27th. These campus meals are greatly appreciated and if 2 people work together it is easily done. It can be a casserole, or soup or something like Sloppy Joes. They also like some bread, salad, and dessert. Normally this is for people. Jamie will even come to you to pick it up. If you can help her at: Jamie.noyd@gmail.com or call JANUARY ANNIVERSARIES 31 Doug & Lori Keller Next Newsletter deadline: Jan 29th

4 Community Relations: Dave Ringshauser Last month, a Christmas Angel Christmas ornament was given to each of the Preschool and Sunday school children. Also last month, an ad was placed in the Community Press newspapers (Delhi/Price Hill and Western Hills). This ad appeared at the bottom of page B1 in the Delhi Press and page A2 in the Western Hills Press in the form of a banner stretching across the whole page width. The ad was placed in the Wednesday, December 17 issue, and contained a schedule of our Christmas services as well as well as the Bible passage from Luke 2:11. This ad reached approximately 30,000 homes. Our first outreach project of the new year will be a Valentines gift for each of the Preschool children. The Care and Share program will continue this year. Canned goods and non-perishables may be brought in on any Sunday of the month to help support our local food banks. Thanks again to Scott Stout for serving as the coordinator for this program. I would also like to thank current Community Relations board members Dick Keller, Mike and Donna Seibert, and Miriam Sheline for their service on the board this past year. If anyone is interested in volunteering to join the board to help Peace Lutheran Church reach out to the surrounding community, please contact me at dkringshauser@zoomtown.com or Feb 1st Following church in the Fellowship Hall. Soup and goodies for sale. Monies go to support the various projects of the PLW. Watch for sign up sheet if you would like to cook soup or bake goodies to donate. Every Sunday morning 9:15 Box Tops for Education Help support one of our local elementary schools. C. O. Harrison is collecting Box Tops for Education. The school receives $.10 for each box top collected. These can be found on many Big G cereals, Betty Crocker baking items, Bisquick, Yoplait, Ziploc and many more products. You will find a collection box in the kitchen. Thanks for your help.

5 Stewardship: Pat Laaker Stewardship doesn t have to be difficult. We often make it more difficult than it need be. The fundamentals of stewardship come from answering these basic questions: Who are you? To whom do I give? And how much? It s that simple. So who are you? Look at the Table of Duties in the Small Catechism. Are you a hearer of God s Word? Are you a citizen of society? Are you a member of a family? Stewardship covers these three estates: church, society, family. We don t particularly struggle to give to society or family. Our struggles, our difficulties and questions, arise in giving to the church. So what are our stewardship duties as members of the church? The Table of Duties gives us a guide. If you are a hearer, a member of the church who receives instruction, St. Paul taught: Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor (Gal 6:6). This means that the local congregation is primary. The primary recipient of stewardship resides here.. Your pastor is the one called to preach the Gospel to you and administer the Lord s blessed sacraments to you. Your congregation is the place where those things are given out. Therefore, we give to the local congregation to ensure that this continues. We don t vote with our giving. We don t let the pastor or the congregation know we are unhappy by how we give: because we are supposed to see our giving as giving to our Lord! Thus, when God calls us to give to the church, He has His work in mind especially right where we live. For the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel (1 Cor 9:14). Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows (Gal 6:7). How much do we give to the local congregation? Our only instructions are these: to give regularly (1 Cor 6:1 2), proportionally (1 Cor 16:1 2; 2 Cor 8:12), and generously (2 Cor 8:20) of our first fruits (Gen 4:4; Prov 3:9; Lev 27:30) with a spirit of eagerness (2 Cor 9:2), earnestness (2 Cor 8:7), cheerfulness (2 Cor 9:7), and love (2 Cor 8:23). In other words, giving to the church is not to be an afterthought, given after everything else is spent. In this way, it is deliberate. We set it aside beforehand, before anything else is spent. From those first fruits, we set aside a proportionate and generous amount. Ten percent was the standard for the Israelites. This was a command for them. We re not bound to that command in the same way as they were. Just like we are not bound to all the regulations of the Sabbath day (no physical labor, no hot meals, etc.). But the pattern remains: Christians still gather for worship once a week, for how could we do less than the Israelites did? Likewise, does it seem right that we would support the New Testament ministry at a rate less than the Israelites supported the Old Testament ministry? And how are we to give it? We give it with eagerness and earnestness. We give it cheerfully and with love, not out of compulsion. For through the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments, God has made us His children, forgiven us all our sins, given us grace upon grace, promised us life everlasting with Him in His kingdom, and filled us with His own Spirit, the Holy Spirit. This makes giving a joy. For it is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). It s that easy. And it is joyful. For in stewardship, our gracious and giving Lord invites us to take part in the work that He accomplishes here on earth, providing for the ongoing preaching of the Gospel as well as those who are in need. Taking part in that, makes all our work holy work, work that is done in service to the Lord as priestly members of His kingdom.

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8 Peace Lutheran Church 1451 Ebenezer Road Cincinnati, OH Larry J. Rodencal, Pastor Church Phone: (513)