F A I T H L U T H E R A N C H U R C H O C T O B E R, 2 0 1 6 For More Discover the many things God is doing at FLC on our website at: www.faithsd.net Subscribe to our free weekly E-pistle Ezine, and be a part of our PrayerNet by sending your email address to flc@faithsd.ne. Get details from our FLC This Week printed announcements at worship services. S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F I N T E R E S T : Faith Lutheran Church has a median age in the high 30 s. We encourage the presence of children at worship. We also provide free professional child care. Our new worship and ministry building is designed in a California Craftsman style. W E S T E R N D A Y S S U N D A Y FESTIVE WORSHIP Come and celebrate San Dimas Western Days on Sunday, October 2nd. We ll have special music by Bill McClellen and his Country/Bluegrass Band. Pastor Berkedal will arrive for worship at both our 8:30 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. services dressed as a frontier preacher and wearing his "Bible-belt". or desserts to share. You may sign-up on the announcement wall to let us know what is coming, or just come. We ll be showing old Westerns in the Parish Hall. Contact Nancy Brewster at 626 484-5894 for lunch information. Yee-haa! F A M I L Y H A R V E S T F E S T I V A L Our 6th Annual Family Harvest Festival takes place on Sunday, October 30th from 3:00-6:00 p.m. as a gift to the Western outfits are welcome at worship, but optional. LUNCH! We ll enjoy a Spaghetti Western lunch at 11:15 a.m. ish. Bring your homemade spaghetti sauce, side-dishes, salads children of our community. We will have a petting zoo, pony rides, 6 games with prizes, a bounce house, two costume parades with candy stations, face painting, food, crafts, and more! Sign-up at the announcement wall at church to help. We need 36 volunteers to make it happen. Come and help us reach families with a positive, Halloween-alternative message for Jesus this fall. We are receiving a special offering for this event. Please mark your check Harvest Festival for this community ministry. Contact Doug Halvorsen at (626) 532-0576 or at dhalhusky@aol.com to help.
Page 2 FLC WIFI FLC has its own WiFi, with a church office module as well as a membership module, password welivebyfaith1 (the last element is the number 1). We have also provided a module for our local sheriff s dept. as a gift to our community. B R I N G Y O U R F A I T H I N T O F O C U S ALTAR GUILD BAKE SALE OCT. 23RD Our FLC Altar Guild will hold a bake sale on Sunday, October 23rd after both worship services, to raise funds for their work. Please support their provision for the physical needs of our worship services by providing and/or buying baked goods. INTRODUCTION TO FAITH AT FLC Want more? Would you like to know about how you can find a place of worship, growth and service at Faith Lutheran Church? Sign-up on the announcement wall or contact Pastor Berkedal at 909 599-3978 or at dberkedal@faithsd.net for information on our next series of three classes coming in Oct./Nov. C E L E B R A T I N G R E F O R M A T I O N 5 0 0 What is a Lutheran? We will soon have one year to tell our story. The world will be taking note of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation starting Sunday, October 30th and extending for a full year. Watch for a year of personal devotions, a Lenten season of reflection, creative use of social media, film festival, Lutheran/Catholic dialogue, a book and media festival, synod events, and much more. We will celebrate together the story of why the Lutheran church becoming necessary and share the grace of God in Jesus Christ that made it happen. We ll start by celebrating the day of October 31st, 1517 when Martin Luther, nailed a list of 95 statements for debate to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany. Come and worship on October 30th at 8:30 a.m. or 10:00 a.m. Afterward, we will enjoy a cake decorated with Luther s Seal, a symbol of a basic Lutheran belief: it is Christ in my heart, that is, faith in Christ alone that saves me. W O M E N O F F A I T H The Women of Faith will gather for planning and study on October 1st at 10:00 a.m. in the Parish Hall. The will continue a study of Katherine Von Bora, Martin Luther s wife. They are collecting coats and sweatshirts in the box at church until October 29th. Contact Nancy Brewster at 626 484-5894 for more info. M E N O F F A I T H The Men of Faith gather the second Saturday (Oct. 8th) of each month at 8:00 a.m. in the church parking lot. They go out for breakfast together and return to do work projects. This month, they will also gather at 9:00 a.m. October 29th to set-up for the Harvest Festival. Come and enjoy the fellowship and the work. Contact Jerry Bain at 626 810-2733 for info on the Men of Faith.
I N T R O D U C I N G P E O P L E T O N E W L I F E I N J E S U S C H R I S T... Page 3 L I F T LIFT is a group for post-confirmation through high school youth. They host movie nights, community service projects, Bible study, and more. They will be organizing and supervising the games at our Family Harvest Festival with the CIA group. Contact Candace Martinez at martinez. candace000@gmail.com or at 909 234-1555 for other activities. Find them on Facebook at LIFT (Living in Faith Together). C I A Our Christians in Action (C.I.A.) group is for young adults (from approximately 20 35 years of age). All young adults are welcome. They gather for Bible Study, brunch, community service projects, beach trips and more. They are planning a book drive for the Prison Library Project. They will be organizing and supervising the games at our Family Harvest Festival with the LIFT group. Contact James Berkedal (jberkedal @ gmail.com) with questions. Check the group s Facebook page, Christians in Action, for more info. U R T H E C H U R C H M I N I S T R Y O P P O R T U N I T I E S FLC LANYARDS FOR NAME TAGS FLC lanyards are provided on the Name Tag Table for those who would rather not clip their tag to their clothes. The lanyards are ALSO available for purchase on the table with other FLC logo goods, with or without their own clips for $1.50. BIBLE CLASS FOR 3RD GRADERS We are providing 3 classes for parents & children in 3rd grade or above who will receive their first Bible from the church. The classes take place Oct. 12, 19, and 26 in our Conference Room. Contact Pastor Berkedal at 909 599-3978 or dberkedal@faithsd.net. RETREAT DEPOSITS DUE FOR OVER- NIGHTERS Final payments for those coming the night before the February 4th Malibu retreat is due October 2nd. Please make checks out to FLC with Retreat Balance on the memo line. Contact Rev. Sally Welch at 909 599-3978 with any questions. C R O S S B E I N G R E B U I L T The cross in our Prayer Garden toppled September 25th, injuring no one, after 18 years of service. A new cross is being fabricated of pre -stressed lumber. When it is built, we will provide an opportunity for the congregation to write our names on the cross as a reminder that we are all sinners, but with our savior Jesus Christ who died on the cross to remove our sin s consequences. It will be dedicated on Reformation Sunday, October 30th. Come and hear the children of our Faith Pre -school and Day Care bring an offering of song in October. The Ladybug and Honey Bee classes and their families will be with us on October 16th. The Butterfly class and their families will be with us on October 23rd. B U G S S I N G
Page 4 S U N D A Y S C H O O L 2 0 1 6 / 1 7 F I T N E S S F E S T T H A N K S Sunday School has begun a new year! Children in pre-school through 6th grades, all their friends, and guests are all welcome. They will leave worship after the Children s Sermon at our 10:00 a.m. worship service. We are using a new curriculum and social media this year! Speak with director Katie Gyore at 909 59-3978 for information about Sunday School! Our thanks to all who staffed our booth at the San Dimas Fitness Festival in September We met people from the community face-toface and provided information about our church, including fitness and wellness oriented activities. We also gave away items like bottled water and small items with church information on them and invited people to share in our common mission for Jesus Christ. We hope to provide a presence at similar community events this year. T H R E E M O R E T H I N G S 1.) NARRATIVE LITURGY IN NOV. Why do we stand up and shake hands? Why do we say catholic in our creed? These and other questions will be answered on Sunday, November 2nd when both of our services will be narrated to describe why we do the things we do in worship! 2.) PIZZA THANKS Twenty people came and joined Pastor and Rev. Sally for pizza one evening in September, including visitors, choir members, and pre-school parents. We had a wonderful time of informal conversation and questions about what God is doing at FLC. 3.) CHILD CARE PROVIDED Free professional child care is provided at our worship services on Sundays at 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We also provide a glassfronted Cry Room in the worship space, a Children s sermon, and activity B Y T H E N U M B E R S People received as members in 2016: 19 Worship attendance at this point in 2016 compared to 2015: -4% Giving to our General Ministry Fund at this point in 2016 compared to 2015: -17% (+2.5% needed for Budget) Giving to our Mortgage Fund this year: $94,072 (97.52% of need at 75.00% of year) (including gifts of $10,000 and $20,000 by two generous households) Emergency Food Pantry giving in 2016: 3,921 lbs. (50.27 of our 7,800 goal at 75.00% of the year.) Students enrolled in our pre-school: 79 (+10). Faith Lutheran Church Fan Page likes on Facebook: 786 (+10) Average daily faithsd.net web site visits in past 30 days: 23
... T H A T G R O W S I N T O E N T H U S I A T I C C H R I S T I A N L I V I N G. Page 5 S O C I A L M E D I A C O N N E C T I O N S You can connect to all our social media on the Media tab at www.faithsd.net. Check out our page at Faith Lutheran Church San Dimas on Facebook. Click on like to become a fan. And, you can friend Pastor Berkedal on Facebook by doing a search for David Berkedal. Follow us on Twitter by going to twitter.com, from our Media tab and signing-in, Pastor Berkedal s Blog posts short articles periodically. Check it out through our web site Media tab. Check out our YouTube channel at www.youtube/flc505 and get your free subscription to FLC videos. Find pictures of our events on our Faith Lutheran Church Fan Page on Facebook and in Shutterfly albums (password faithsd). Skype Pastor Berkedal at david.berkedal. Username on Instagram: flcsd. #FLCpens Review us on Yelp.com on your phone Find special opportunities for giving at www.faithsd.net. Come in and get connected. G R O W T H I N G I V I N G We have some financial challenges at FLC (see lower left), but they are nothing that God can t handle through you. First fruits (the first check you write after income), proportional (based on a percentage of that income) growth giving (leading to 10% (a tithe) and beyond) is the Biblical standard. It may also be beneficial to donate appreciated stocks. Consult your financial advisor for others. Please prayerfully consider what God is calling you to do. R A L L Y D A Y T H A N K S Our thanks to all who helped begin a new program year at FLC with festive worship followed by a wonderful potluck lunch, and games two pinatas, and a bounce house for children! A Ministry Fair featured exhibits from the many ministries through which God is working at FLC today. The picnic, included the music of the Gem City Jazz Cats big band, with FLC member Dwain Dobbe on trumpet. They generously invited Pastor Berkedal, a former jazz drummer, to sit in on drums. Thank you to all! A N O T E F R O M T H E P A S T OR One of our younger members asked me why we never talk about Martin Luther. He said that he had been taking a music appreciation class. His professor spoke about what a great man Martin Luther was and how much he had changed church music, emphasized congregational singing, composed hymns, and used the language of the people. I explained that we, as Luther desired, preach Jesus, and not Luther. Luther had, in fact, directed all of his writings to be burned upon his death. He wanted people to read the Bible, not Luther. This coming year leading to the 500 anniversary of Luther s Reformation we will be putting great deal of emphasis on Martin Luther, and his recovery of the Gospel!. Many (most?) people benefit from the work of Martin Luther without knowing the source. This year, we will tell them. Find an expanded version of this story and comment on it at http://pastorberkedalsblog.blogspot.com/
F A I T H L U T H E R A N C H U R C H THE VISION CORNER www.faithsd.net F A I T H L U T H E R A N C H U R C H 505 East Bonita Avenue San Dimas, California 91773 P 909 599-3978 F 909 599-3324 E flc@faithsd.net W www.faithsd.net David Berkedal, Pastor E dberkedal@faithsd.net October Connect to WiFi at FLC. Password: welivebyfaith1 (all lower case, ending with the # 1. Discover more news, photos and info at our web site: faithsd.net. What if we provided the funds to pay our mortgage, support all our existing ministries, and call an associate pastor and a minister of music? What gifts and strengths would we want those persons to have? What new ministries is God calling us to do? Who could we reach toward realizing our mission to introduce people to new life in Jesus Christ that grows into enthusiastic living? Send your thoughts to flc@faithsd.net or call them in to the church at 909 599-3978, or speak with Pastor Berkedal or a member of our Church Council about them. Pray about how you can help realize our mission. I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : R E F O R- M A T I O N 5 0 0 2 I N T R O D U C I N G P E O P L E T O N E W L I F E I N J E S U S C H R I S T T H A T G R O W S I N T O E N T H U S I A S T I C C H R I S T I A N L I V I N G. P H O T O O F T H E M O N T H C R O S S B E- I N G R E B U I L T S U N D A Y S C H O O L F I T N E S S F E S T T H A N K S R A L L Y D A Y T H A N K S C A L E N D A R A N D F Y I 3 3 4 5 I N- SE RT FLC members, friends, and guests enjoyed the food, the fun, and the music of a new program year on Rally Day 2016 (story on page 5)