FIRST LUTHERAN CHURC H 408 Ninth Street NW Mandan, ND 58554 Phone: 701-663-3594 Fax: 701-663-6217 E-mail: jackie@firstlutheranofmandan.org First Lutheran Church January Newsletter Building Faith and Transforming Lives in Christ. January 2015 First Lutheran Staff A Happy and Blessed New Year to all! Old habits die hard goes the old saying. How true that is! Perhaps that is why our New Year s resolutions tend to get recycled every year. The old is comfortable and familiar...the new untried and foreign. We come to a new year wanting people, things, life in general to be better and then find we brought all the old baggage of life past along with us. www.firstlutheranofmandan.org We re on the web! The staff at First Lutheran Church would like to wish you and your family a Happy New Year! Administrative Pastor Rev. Lee Herberg 663-3594 Associate Pastor Rev. Christina Martin 663-3594 Administrative Assistant & Coordinator of Lay Ministries Jackie Schulz 663-3594 (o) 663-3082 (h) Custodians Ron & Mavis Watson Financial Administration Jennifer Scheet First Lutheran Is A Mission Partner with Camp of the Cross Ministries For centuries people believed that Aristotle was right when he said that the heavier an object, the faster it would fall to the earth. Aristotle was regarded as the greatest thinker of all time, and surely he would not be wrong. Anyone, of course, could have taken two objects, one heavy and one light, and dropped them from a great height to see whether or not the heavier object landed first. But no one did until nearly 2,000 years after Aristotle s death. In 1589, Galileo summoned learned professors to the base of the leaning tower of Pisa. Then he went to the top and pushed off a ten pound weight and a one pound weight at the same time. Both hit the ground below at the same instant. The power of past belief was so strong, however, that the professors denied their own eyesight. The continued to say that Aristotle was right. The learned professors missed the new truth and clung on to the old error. Old habits die hard. In 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright sent a telegram from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina where they were carrying on their flight experiments, to their sister in Dayton, Ohio. The telegram said First sustained flight today, fifty-nine seconds. Home for Christmas. Their sister took the message to the Dayton newspaper, and the next morning a brief news item appeared under the headline, Popular local bicycle merchants will be home for the holidays. The newspaper missed the point. They failed to see that the Wright brothers were doing a new thing. You and I have been to the manger again. We have seen the Christ child. In Christ, God was coming to dwell with us in a very new way. The gift of Christ is to be a gift of newness. The birth of Christ is to bring new meaning to life, new meaning to each day, new meaning to how we relate to one another in this old world. We will soon be in the season of Epiphany on our church calendar. Epiphany begins on January 6th, following the twelve day season of Christmas which begins December 25th and will last until Ash Wednesday on February 18th, 2015. Besides its central meaning commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles from the adoration of the Magi, or wise men, epiphany can also mean a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. In other words, an epiphany is an aha moment. As we begin this new year of living together in God s grace in this place, may we have some aha moments. May we find newness of life, newness of purpose, newness in our faith walk as we follow this child, born in a manger for you and for me. Until next time, Pastor Lee
PAGE 2 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH January 2015 What: First Lutheran Church Annual Meeting When: Sunday, January 25 th Please join us as we discuss our ministries of the past year and plans for the coming year. Lunch At First (LAF) is a ministry of this congregation. Every Thursday from October through May, we provide a free lunch for students from Mandan High School. We serve a rotating menu of Sloppy Joes, Sandwiches, Hot Dogs, and Nachos. We are serving about 450 kids each week! We have volunteers who help to cook and serve the meals and clean up each week. Why do we do this? Because we love these young people and want them to know it! We want them to come in our doors and see that this is a safe, inviting place. We do it because God s love has no requirements. We are blessed weekly by their Thank you s, laughter and smiles. We are also blessed by the company of the many volunteers each week as we work together. There are many ways that you can help! We always need people to help serve the meals on Thursdays from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. If you are interested, please contact Pastor Lee. We can also use financial donations to help the church with the cost. Stop by some Thursday and see the young people who join us each week and also see God s work among us!
PAGE 10 FI R S T LU T H E R A N C HU R C H Thank you to everyone who took an angel tree name. We had over 150 kids names from Mandan Public Schools and all of the names were spoken for! Your thoughtfulness helped a family in need. Also, thank you to everyone who helped prepare and decorate the church for the Christmas season! J A NU A R Y 2 0 1 5 Mark Your Calendar Upcoming Events Caramel Roll Sale The youth will be selling homemade caramel rolls on Sunday, February 8th for coffee hour and also to go! We are taking preorders, starting January 11th. For PRESELL we will be selling dozen for $20.00. 7th: No Confirmation 8th: No LAF 14th: 7pm - Confirmation Large Group 15th: LAF - Sandwiches 21st: No Confirmation 22nd: LAF - Nachos 28th: 7pm - Confirmation Large Group 29th: LAF - Hot Dogs The day of February 8th, we will be selling a dozen for $25.00, 2 for $5.00 or 1 for $3.00. There is a sign up sheet in the narthex for the presell. Please include your name, phone number & the amount you will want to buy. (we will call you the morning of Saturday, February 7th to pick up your preorders) Make sure to pick up some extra ones and take them home to share with family and friends! All proceeds will go to Youth attending the National Youth Gathering in Detroit, MI!! All 6th 12th graders you are invited to attend W.I.N.G.S.!!! What is W.I.N.G.S? Is the coming together of four local Lutheran churches and our youth for a night of fun and fellowship along the lines of traditional youth group. This month W.I.N.G.S will be meeting on January 11th from 5:30 P.M. to 8:30 P.M. For our activity we will be going on a scavenger hunt in the Kirkwood Mall!! Please bring money for food. If you would like to come please contact Pastor Chris. Rev Christina Martin 701-663-3594 Cell: 219-512-5517 christina@firstluthearnofmandan.org
JANUARY 2015 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH PAGE 4 PAGE 9 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH JANUARY 2015 Pastoral Acts Baptisms: December 26 Weddings: December 20 Funerals: December 6 Ava Marie Odom Lorne Silbernagel & Miranda Leining Kathlyn Mott Memorial Fund In memory of Mabel Ferguson given by Dave & Eunice Wolf, Dennis & Bernice Meyer, Ralph & Naida Feland. In memory of Donald Bentz given by Paulette Bentz & family. Deadline for articles for the February Newsletter will be January 16 th. January ~ Mission of the Month Special Thanks Aid Inc. Items needed are non-perishable food items, paper products, etc. Please put the items in the boxes in the Narthex. Thank you. Thank you to all the greeters, ushers, communion servers, readers, communion set-up, coffee hour workers, and to all who have supplied goodies for the last month. Your help is greatly appreciated! Worship Schedule Sunday ~ 8:30 am ~ Traditional 10:45 am ~ Contemporary 9:30 am ~ Coffee 9:30 am ~ Church School Wednesday ~ 6:00 pm ~ Transitional 6:00 pm ~ Church School 7:00 pm ~ Confirmation
PAGE 8 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH JANUARY 2015 JANUARY 2015 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH PAGE 5 First Lutheran Church Council Minutes Thursday, November 20, 2014 7:00PM Present: Pastor Christina Martin, President Tammy Lapp-Harris, Vice-President Brock Schmeling, Secretary Jill Miller, John Pake, Den Na Lee Fewson, Terryl Gaebe and Dot Frank. Absent: Pastor Lee Herberg, Janet Reineke and Kris Elijah. Devotions: President Tammy Lapp-Harris called the meeting to order. Pastor Chris led devotions. Approval of Agenda: Add committee budgets to Unfinished Business. Moved by Dot, seconded by Den Na Lee to approve the agenda as amended. Motion passed. Secretary s Report/Review and Approval of the minutes: Moved by John, seconded by Dot to approve the October minutes. Motion passed. Financial Report/Review: October income was over the expenses by $9,412.01. Unfinished Business: Moving forward in faith: Nothing to report at this time. Policy and Procedure Manual: Council should review and check for errors and be ready at the next council meeting with any changes. Camp of the Cross Capital Campaign: Leader. Pastor Lee is still trying to find a Campaign Budget: Stewardship, Worship, Facility & Grounds Committees stated that their budgets can remain the same for 2015. Terryl asked about a Calling & Caring budget. There is a line item for calling & caring that the church no longer uses. Leingang Home Center has been at the church to estimate the cost of replacing 8 doors in the Education Wing and get them up to code and also for safety reasons. After some discussion, it was decided to get two more bids. Dot will check into getting grant money. NEW BUSINESS: New Year s Eve falls on Wednesday this year. Discussion was held to decide if there will still be a church service. If service is held, Jackie will need to call for a communion set up worker, communion servers, ushers and someone will need to play music. There may be more people involved in the setting up and facilitating of worship than worshipers. Moved by Brock to keep New Year s Eve service, seconded by Den Na Lee. Motion passed 6-1 with John opposing the motion. Pastor Christina said she can lead worship, but may modify the service to a prayer service if there is low attendance.
PAGE 6 FIRST LUTHERAN CHURCH JANUARY 2015 REPORTS: Pastor Lee s report 4 baptisms, 1 funeral. Pastor Chris s report 1 baptism, 2 funerals, Nursing Home visits, and traveled to Detroit for Synod training. Special Events The Annual Lutefisk and Lefse dinner was held October 18, 2014 and about 500 were served. Stewardship No report. Worship No report. Parish Education/Youth Pastor Chris attended training in Detroit, talked about the Christmas program for Wednesday and Sunday. It will be a Living Tableau format this year. Wednesday will be held December 17 and Sunday will be held December 21. Reminders will be sent out for the spring semester of Wednesday school. Evangelism and Outreach Trunk-or-Treat had 19 cars participate with a steady stream of about 200 kids between 5 8. It seemed to be a success and looks like next year it will be held again. A freezer meal night may be held again in January. Property and Management No report. CORRESPONDENCE: Camp of the Cross: Thank you for the gift of $1,007.95 (Jul-Sept donations) Golden Age Services: Thank you for the $110.94 donation for Home Delivered Meals program. Lutheran Social Services of ND: Thank you for past support, with expansions of programs, they are asking for a 4% increase for the 2015 year. (No amount was given, just a percentage increase for the next year.) Motion to Adjourn/Lord s Prayer: Moved by Brock, seconded by Dot to adjourn the council meeting. Motion passed. meeting closed with the Lord s Prayer. The Submitted by: Jill Miller