Center Bowl Corner of Minnesota & Spenard

Bowling is free includes shoes & balls

Cash Snack Bar Open (no outside food brought in)

Donations accepted to defray cost of larger venue

RSVP to Kathy Callies, 345-8029 or

kathycallies@gci.net. We want to assign lanes ahead of time so you can start bowling and

having fun as soon as you arrive.

Newsletter March 2015

Lutheran Social Services

of Alaska Alan Budahl, Executive Director Now that we are in the Lenten season, Easter will soon be upon us. Beginning on March 10, we will begin distributing Easter baskets to the children who come through our food pantry. While the food pantry feeds them, items like Easter baskets and Christmas stockings help make these childrens lives a bit brighter. So we invite you to be a part of this effort by donating Easter Baskets that includes a story or activity book about Jesus resurrection. Thanks to all who participated by walking or running in the Walk for Warmth on February 21st. This walk/run hosted by the United Way of Anchorage raises funds for homeless prevention/placement. We especially want to thank all who donated as we raised over $45,000. LSSA is the agency that distribute these funds to our neighbors in need. Are you a Thrivent Member or a Thrivent Associate? Thrivent is offering their members or associates an opportunity to write a min-grant for $250.00 to help strengthen our community. Need more information? Check out 101 ways to spark action in your community on the Thrivent Financial website www.thrivent.com/making-a-difference/living-generously/thrivent-action-teams Thanks to everyone who has contributed to LSSA through the Pick, Click, and Give campaign on the Alaska PFD application. If you havent completed your 2015 PFD application, please consider a donation to LSSA. Get your sneakers and join us for the Anchorage Convention and Visitors Bureau Charity Walk on May8th. All LSSA supporters, families and friends are welcome to join the team and raise money for our ministry. More information will be available soon.

LWML Joanne Fritz, Womens Guild President The March and April meetings have changed dates. The March meeting will be Saturday, March 14 at 11 a.m. in the church fellowship hall, and the April meeting will be on April 11. Each meeting will be followed by a light lunch. At the meeting on March 14, we will prepare Easter baskets for the children of clients of Lutheran Social Services. You can help!

Donations are needed: Middle size baskets or containers Easter candy Plastic eggs Small toys markers, crayons, color books, etc.

The Guild is supplying an Easter story book for each basket. There will be a tub or basket in the narthex at church, and your donations for Easter baskets may be put in there.

Pastoring in the New Parish Jon Huckins, The Global Immersion Project The longer we live in our neighborhood and enter into deeper relationships with a handful of the 13,000 people who live within the 10 X 7 blocks of Golden Hill, the more we become aware of the importance of the faithfulness of our little faith community in this place. We are discovering that

the majority of our neighbors would never consider attending a traditional church (for a variety of reasons) and many others who have attended churches in the past have been deeply hurt, disillusioned or disconnected from the church communities of their past. So is that it? Game over? No, far from it. As we find ourselves invited (and inviting) deeper into the lives of our neighbors we are discovering it is just the beginning. Whether walking with women through pregnancy and supporting them in the intimacy of child birth or officiating weddings of those who wouldnt otherwise have a pastor in their life or sitting on our patio with the war veteran enduring PTSD or checking in on the elderly man next door or sharing a meal with a friend in the park who doesnt have a home or simply offering a warm greeting to those on our sidewalks, we are embracing the fact that our neighborhood is our parish and we are its pastors.

So, if we believe Jesus is the hope of the world and that the Church plays a role in Gods mission of reconciliation, then how might the Church express itself in a neighborhood like ours? There must be a movement of us that rise up not to impose our beliefs on our neighbors, but to simply walk with them, care for them, encourage them in the realities of everyday life and empower them to live more fully into who they were created to be. Doubts. Loss. Career transition. Children. Marriage. Play.

Those who embrace this pastorate cant reduce our congregants to those who come in our buildings once or twice a week. No, our congregants are the people we share life with everyday. There is a building movement of those who are retracing our pastoral roles back to the ancient idea of parish. The neighborhood (the physical place where we live, work and play) is the new parish and we are its pastors. We have meals in our homes. We take care of each others children. We offer marriage support and counseling when theyre in need. When our neighbors are the most vulnerable, we hold space for them to experience the gift of simply being present. In those spaces, both the presence of Jesus and the presence of the Jesus Community is made real. Further, in this pastorate of everyday relationship, we open ourselves up to be pastored by our neighbors. Genuine relationship doesnt run one direction, it is an act of mutual submission that frees us to fully share and receive loveeven if from the most unexpected people and places. This isnt a walking away from formal leadership in the Church, its our faithful act to fully embrace the pastoral vocation we have been called to live out each and everyday. Its hard. Its ambiguous. The metrics are difficult to calculate at times. The pain often outweighs the hope. We dont get a platform or a microphone. Instead, we are given the gift of genuine relationship. Relationship where we are as formed as those we form. In this pastorate, there will be no title that assumes leadership or authority. No, our only authority comes when we have fully submitted ourselves to our neighborhoods and lead with tangible acts of humble presence and long-term commitment. Im not saying the role of pastor in a traditional sense is bad or wrong or unnecessary. It is surely needed! What I am saying is that its time we expand our definition of pastor and begin to create tangible pathways for those of us called to this form of pastoring to be mobilized, equipped and sent to participate with God in the people and places far off the beaten path of most churches influence.

Dear Fellow Disciples of ALC, God is working really hard to change me. I am going through a transformation with respect to my knowledge and attitude toward the homeless. When I think of homeless people I usually think of those people standing on street corners panhandling for money or people hanging out on the streets around Beans Caf and Brother Francis Shelter. It appeared to me that most were drinking or drunk and many were involved in crime. Ive tried to help them in the past by giving them money. On two occasions the fellow that I gave money to beat me to the liquor store spending the money that I gave him on alcohol and cigarettes. I did not want my generosity being spent in this way. So I thought about giving them food to eat. As I was sitting in line at the drive through to Arbys one day I saw a homeless man on the corner. So I bought an extra meal and drove over to hand him the food. He turned his back on me and refused the food. He wanted money instead. Money to buy booze and cigarettes, I judged. I soon grew very cynical and judgmental. I felt like I was being taken advantage of when all I wanted to do was to help. There has got to be a better way to help these people I thought. So I decided to donate money to LSSA and let them deal with the people. I had a conversation with Carol Warren, Pastor Bills wife and then the Executive Director of LSSA. She had had the exact same thoughts and feelings that I had. She told me that she was in the middle of working through those thoughts and feelings and it was necessary if she was going to be a help to people and after all we all know that God wants us to help ALL people in need. She also told me that if I was being judgmental and had strings attached to my giving (the money I donated needed to be spent on food not booze and cigarettes), then my giving was not truly giving from the heart. I should simply give and let God be the judge. From there I donated my time to helping others. I worked at the LSSA food bank and the mobile food distribution sight. I helped clean up the LSSA mens transitional living facility. I handed out food to the hungry at the LSSA Thanksgiving Dinner food distribution. As a spiritual mentor to my grandson when he went through confirmation, I worked with him on servant events. We frequently had Sandwich Assembly Lines where the confirmation

kids and their mentors made and wrapped sandwiches that would be handed out to the homeless and hungry people that wanted food. We also went to Brother Francis Shelter and dished up food and handed out new pairs of socks and gloves and stocking caps to those who wanted them. Believe me, everyone wanted these gifts of love. These experiences allowed me to have direct contact with the homeless/hungry people of our community. So many of the people expressed their thanks and gratitude to us/me through their words and smiles and many said to us God bless you. I truly felt that God was using me to be a blessing to these people as He has called me to do. Now I am going through the next phase of my transformation. Pastor Andy and Pastor Harrison want to make a difference in peoples lives, not only our own disciples at ALC but by helping other people who have great needs. Many people have told them they feel the same way. One such way to help people in our community that want to be helped is through a transitional living facility. This would mean working with people who need and want help in all areas of their life so that they can turn their lives around over a period of time and eventually become self-sufficient. We dont know what this means or what we can do to help others, but a MAT (Mission Action Team), headed by Pastor Harrison, has been formed to gather information, ask questions, and get answers. Here is some of the information that I have learned lately: 1. Homelessness in Anchorage is a growing problem and currently receiving a lot of attention on TV and in the papers. Outlying towns within Alaska are not dealing with the homeless issue in their communities so those people are migrating to Anchorage. 2. An addition to the problem in Anchorage is that agencies in the Lower 48 are giving some of their homeless people one way tickets to Anchorage telling them that their lives will get better because Alaska will give them a PFD. They dont realize that they are not helping these people because they dont have a permanent residence in Alaska and once that is established it takes a year before they can apply for a PFD. 3. Only a small portion of the homeless have alcohol and drug problems. Addictions to these substances as well as nicotine makes people so

dependent on these substances that they would rather satisfy their addiction than have food to nourish their body. Working with these people is very complex and is best done by government and professional agencies. 4. Many of the homeless people would love to have a break or get some help in turning their lives around, including people who are getting one-way tickets from the Lower 48 to Alaska. 5. There are many resources in Anchorage available to help these people, but there is a huge, huge shortage of case workers and resources. 6. LSSA held a housing summit for some members of the faith-based community to get together with representatives from state, local, federal and professional agencies to talk about the issues. Some churches are already doing little things. Others, like us are looking for ways to make a difference. There may be an effort to organize the faith-based community to work together on these issues. 7. As Pastor Andy indicated in his State of the Church presentation on March 1st, ALC has made no decisions or commitments but we are gathering information, asking questions and looking for answers about what we can do. 8. What can YOU do? a. Pray and ask for Gods guidance and be open-minded about making a difference in peoples lives. b. Talk to Pastor Andy and Pastor Harrison about your thoughts. c. Make every attempt to attend adult Bible Class on Sunday mornings beginning March 8th. We will be going through the study When Helping Hurts. It was highly recommended at the LSSA housing summit that churches go through this study. We are ahead of other churches as we have been planning this for some time. I apologize for this being so long. There is much, much more that I could have written. Thanks for taking the time to read this. God continues to bless us so that we can be a blessing to others.

Blessings!!! Terry Callies

Licensed Deacon and President of Anchorage Lutheran

Selling Things in Church

Terry Callies, Anchorage Lutheran Church President A few years ago the MMC adopted a policy prohibiting the sale and distribution in the church of girl scout cookies, boy scout popcorn and other items for fund raising projects. Also prohibited is asking for donations for kids school projects and trips or tickets to kids various activities. These solicitations have interfered with some peoples ability to prepare for or focus on worship. It also makes guests and visitors feel uncomfortable as they have been preyed upon in the past. Most people have been respectful of this policy and have refrained from these activities at church. A few still violate this policy and we ask that you please be respectful and refrain from these activities. By the way, we do allow ministry partners (not individuals) to engage in these activities within reason. These partners are Anchor Lutheran School, Alaska Mission for Christ, LSSA, Nunapitchuk, Concordia University, etc.

Pastoring in the New Parish