FROM THE PASTOR S DESK DEAR MEMBERS & FRIENDS, Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Our summer weather has turned noticeably hotter and somewhat more humid. It is not Arizona heat or down south humidity, but it has been somewhat hot and humid lately. Even some nights have not cooled off too much. I hesitate to complain too much. I know how quickly summer fades and how quickly we ll need to get ready for the snow to fly. Get out and enjoy the summer while you still can. The Wartburg Project is a group of about 100 pastors, professors and even some laymen from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod who are working on a new translation of the Bible called the Evangelical Heritage Version (EHV). Dr. John Brug, professor emeritus from the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary is serving as the general editor and the editor of the Old Testament. Rev Brian Keller is the editor for the New Testament. Seminary professor emeritus David Kuske is serving as a technical advisor in selecting the Greek manuscripts to translate from. Those involved in the project come from the ELS and from all 12 Districts of the WELS. It is a time consuming task to translate the Bible from the original languages of Hebrew and Greek into today s English. This is especially true for the Old Testament Hebrew. It is a collaborative effort. The translators will make use of other English translations to see how they might have handled a particular portion of Scripture, but the goal is to be faithful to the original Hebrew and Greek. The two English Bibles being consulted are the World English Bible (WEB), a direct descendant of the KJV, and the American Standard Version (ASV). The New Testament translation is complete, has been technically reviewed, and is ready for publication. Some books of the Old Testament are complete, some are in the technical review stage, and some still have yet to be translated. The Passion history has already been released and we used it the past couple of years for our reading of the Passion History during the season of Lent. The Passion History will be updated for Lent 2017 as the work was still ongoing when it was released in 2015. It is hard to say when the entire Bible will be completed; and they make no predictions as to when it will be. Right now the goal is to have the New Testament and Psalms printed by Northwestern Publishing House in New Testament and Psalms Special Edition by August of 2017, in time for the 500 th Anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. What a blessing it will be to have this new translation, especially since they are going back to the original language and not simply updating the English language. Jesus, when talking about the coming Judgment Day, said: I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away (Matthew 24:34-35). In Christ s service, Pastor Lloyd Schlomer
SUMMER BIBLE SCHOOL We began on Sunday, May 22 nd, after church during the Bible Class hour. We continued each summer month. We have one left and it will be on Sunday, August 14 th. Children ages 2 and up and encouraged to come. Our theme is Gone Fishing. There will be a lesson for all ages, crafts, music, and outdoor play as weather permits. We are also planning a potluck after each session. Everyone is welcome for the potluck, whether involved in the Summer Bible School or not. We will also need some volunteers to help with the various activities. Let Darlene know if you are able to help! JESUS CARES MINISTRY A Jesus Cares Ministry serves people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. We are hoping to get one started this fall. There is a lot of planning and legwork to do before we can start. We will also need several volunteers to help with this ministry. We met on Saturday, July 23 rd. Our next planning meeting is Thursday evening, August 18 th at 6:30 PM. We hope to have our Jesus Cares kickoff picnic on Tuesday, August 30 th from 6:00 to 7:30. Then we plan to meet the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. Anyone and everyone is welcome to join us at any time.
FOOD PANTRY The Moorhead food pantry on Main Avenue in Moorhead is in need of volunteers. This is especially true during the summer as they rely on college students during the school year. The college students are gone for the summer. Ascension has agreed to supply volunteers on the fourth Wednesday of the summer months of June, July and August. We have one date left and that is Wednesday evening, August 24 th, 6:20 to 7:45. We need about 8 to 10 volunteers and can have up to 15. Kids can help, but if they are not middle school or older they need to have a parent or guardian with them. If you have any questions, talk to Darlene Schlomer. PARKING LOT We engaged an engineering firm, Lightowler Johnson Associates, to design and plan a new hard-surfaced parking lot. The engineers had to do a lot of survey work to check elevations so that a new parking lot would properly drain. It also appears that, according to city code, in order to improve our parking we will also have to widen our approach onto 12 th Avenue. After paying the engineering firm, we will still have just over $50,000 in our parking lot fund. The current estimate is for a little over $100,000 to completely asphalt the parking lot. This is considerably cheaper than when we look into costs a few years ago. Using concrete would cost about $80,000 more than asphalt. We could do half the parking lot at a time, but that brings up other challenges. The voters assembly has determined that we will not incur any debt in doing the parking lot; so, for now, the parking lot is on hold. OUTDOOR LANDSCAPING We have some plans for the landscaping to the north and east of our new addition. We hope to put a concrete curb a few feet from the building to separate the landscaping from the new lawn to the north and east of the church. A concrete curb will also be put around the flower garden north of the church. We have an estimate from a landscaping business of between $4,000 and $5,000 for the project. We will take care of the west side grass planting and landscaping ourselves. A generous donor has agreed to pay for what is needed on the west side. Another generous donor has agreed to match dollar for dollar $2,500 for the landscaping project. Once this money is matched, we will have the $5,000 for the east and north landscaping. You can mark landscaping on an envelope for giving to this project. The voters determined that we will not proceed with the landscaping project until the SS building is removed. On June 19, 2017 retired WELS pastor James Humann will be hosting a twelve day tour to Germany in celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. Highlights include the famous Luther sites such as Wittenberg, Eisleben, Erfurt, Eisenach and the Wartburg Castle. What makes this tour so popular is that the tour also includes Prague in the Czech Republic, Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and other exciting German cities such as Berlin and Munich. Space is limited. One bus is already full and another about half full. To join in this celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, e-mail Pastor Humann at JHumann383@aol.com. He will send you a brochure with the daily itinerary, price and General Conditions. If you'd like a hard copy, please include your name and mailing address. In Christ, Pastor James Humann
Sunday Morning Bible Study Bible Class in August Sunday Morning: We going through a high-level study of Luther's Small Catechism. August 7 - Apostles Creed - Faith August 14 - Apostles Creed - Creation August 21 - Apostles Creed - Preservation August 28 - Apostles Creed - Protection Friday Morning: We will start our study on the book of James, actually, we are stepping through the epistles of the New Testament. August 5 - James 3:1-12 - Taming the tongue August 12 - James 3:13-18 - Two kinds of wisdom August 19 - James 4:1-10 - Be friends of God, not of the world August 26 - James 4:11-17 - Don t judge your brother; submit to God s will Come join us for any or all of these sessions. Also, look forward to a more Bible Study opportunities coming this fall. Surprises and Then Some In this two-part series, we will present 10 of the surprises our research uncovered about the unchurched. Now we understand that a surprise is only a surprise in the eyes of the beholders. But the information you are about to read defies the conventional wisdom about the unchurched. In many ways, it goes against the grain of some "truths" we have been told. Our research project involved 308 men and women in the United States and Canada. Every person interviewed was deemed to be both unchurched and non-christian. While we asked some pre-determined objective questions, we also let the unchurched person speak freely. Some of the best interviews we had went off our planned script. And it was in those contexts that we often discovered some surprises. Surprise No. 2 Most of the unchurched feel guilty about not attending church. Though we did not ask a specific question about their feelings about not attending church, the majority of the unchurched expressed guilt in different ways. These guilty feelings were especially prevalent among adults who had children living at home. "Every Sunday morning I wake up and feel terrible about not take Shanna and Tim to church.. Mike [her husband] feels the same way. It's tough to start a habit of doing something you've never done before." Mary G., Sarasota, Fla. So, if they feel guilty, why did the unchurched continue to avoid church? As strange as it may seem to a churchgoing Christian, the church intimidates the unchurched person. They do not think they can fit in a place
they have never attended. And they are uncertain about church protocol. They just fear that they will feel out of place. Is there anything that could get the unchurched to attend church? That answer let us to the next surprise. Surprise No. 3 Ninety-six percent of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if they are invited. Perhaps we need to pause on this response. Perhaps we need to restate it. More than nine out of 10 of the unchurched said they would come to church if they were invited. If you glean anything from this article, please remember this point. We estimate that 160 million people in the United States are unchurched if we define unchurched as attending church two or less times in a year. If our research is close to accurate, the implications are staggering, Over 153 million people would start attending church if they were invited! What constitutes an invitation? For many of the unchurched, it was a simple invitation to come to one's church. For others, it was an invitation that included an offer to meet someone at church to show them around or walk them in the building. In either case, the process was pretty basic. If we invite them, they will come. The next obvious question is: Are Christians inviting non-christians to church? The heartbreaking answer is "no." Only 21 percent of active churchgoers invite anyone to church in the course of a year. But only 2 percent of the church members invited an unchurched person to church. Perhaps the evangelistic apathy so evident in many of our churches can be explained by a simple laziness on the part of church members in inviting others to church. Walk with me through one more calculation. Let us suppose that, instead of 96 percent, only half of the unchurched in America would come to church if invited. That means, out of 160 million unchurched persons, 80 million would be willing to come to church. Can you imagine how many people would be reached for Christ if that happened? We who are leaders in the church must challenge the church members. When is the last time they invited an unchurched person to church? When is the last time they offered to meet someone and show him or her around the church? The answers they give could make the difference in the eternal destiny of a person. Perhaps it is time we sounded the clarion call to invite the church. It may be that simple, and it may be that profound. If there is any information that you would like included in the monthly newsletter, please either drop a note in Trisha Dominguez s mailbox or send an e-mail to: newsletter@ascensionmoorhead.org ***All information for the September newsletter is due by August 23 rd ***