Volume 54, Issue 8 AUGUST 2016 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Summerfest ......................... 1 I Believe................................ 2 August Lectionary.............. 2 About Our People ............. 3 August Birthdays ................ 3 August Anniversaries ........ 3 Prayer Chain ....................... 3 Council Changes ................ 3 More on Summerfest ...... 4 I Believe (cont..) ................. 4 Global Missions Event ....... 5 Missionary Circle ............... 5 Community Meal ............... 5 Thank You! .......................... 5 CAN ..................................... 6 CYF ....................................... 6 Connections........................ 6 Choir .................................... 7 Council Highlights.............. 7 Churchwide Assembly ...... 7 The Messenger SATURDAY Live Music Outdoors (Bring a lawn chair!!!...and a food shelf donation) 2:00 pm Charlie Roth (Americana, Folk, Blues, Country, Celtic) 5:00 pm Brian Art Peterson (Urban Folk, Americana Roots, Jazz) 7:00 pm Open Stage Games Open Volleyball (all day) + Open Beach + Bean Bag Tournament + Badminton + Scavenger Hunt + Bonfire + Boaters Welcome! Food Brats + Tacos + Ice Cream + Pop + Watermelon SUNDAY Pancake Breakfast 8 am till noon Worship Outdoors at 10:00 a.m. Overnight accommodations available. Place reservations with the church office by August 17, 612-827-4406. www.chirhocenter.org or Facebook ChiRhoCenter FUNDRAISER FOR CHO IMPROVEMENTS/DONATIONS APPRECIATED SATURDAY AUGUST 20th 10 am—11 pm St. John’s Chi Rho Center A Ministry of St. John’s Lutheran on Lake Sylvia 5750 Porter Avenue NW Annandale, MN SUNDAY AUGUST 21st 8 am—
Transcript
Volume 54, Issue 8 AUGUST 2016
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Summerfest ......................... 1
I Believe ................................ 2
August Lectionary .............. 2
About Our People ............. 3
August Birthdays ................ 3
August Anniversaries ........ 3
Prayer Chain ....................... 3
Council Changes ................ 3
More on Summerfest ...... 4
I Believe (cont..) ................. 4
Global Missions Event ....... 5
Missionary Circle ............... 5
Community Meal ............... 5
Thank You! .......................... 5
CAN ..................................... 6
CYF ....................................... 6
Connections ........................ 6
Choir .................................... 7
Council Highlights .............. 7
Churchwide Assembly ...... 7
The Messenger
SATURDAY
Live Music Outdoors
(Bring a lawn chair!!!...and a food shelf donation)
2:00 pm Charlie Roth (Americana, Folk, Blues, Country, Celtic)
5:00 pm Brian Art Peterson (Urban Folk, Americana Roots, Jazz)
7:00 pm Open Stage
Games Open Volleyball (all day) + Open Beach + Bean Bag Tournament +
Overnight accommodations available. Place reservations with the church office
by August 17, 612-827-4406.
www.chirhocenter.org or Facebook ChiRhoCenter
FUNDRAISER FOR CHO IMPROVEMENTS/DONATIONS APPRECIATED
SATURDAY
AUGUST
20th
10 am—11 pm
St. John’s Chi Rho Center
A Ministry of St. John’s Lutheran
on Lake Sylvia
5750 Porter Avenue NW
Annandale, MN
SUNDAY
AUGUST
21st
8 am—
THE MESSENGER “Bui ld ing and Nurtur ing a Fai th Communi ty” PAGE 2
DURING THE PAST CALENDER YEAR, I was asked a couple of times about the readings for Sunday morning. Though I did mention it at Council and at my Bible Studies, I am sorry that I did not do more work upfront to get the word out on the changes I
was making. Some of you were keenly aware that St. John’s has a beautiful, long-standing tradition of using the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) during worship. What is that? It is a three-year cycle of Bible readings for each Sunday morn-ing and lesser festivals throughout the church year. There are several wonderful things about using the RCL, including the idea that nearly every kind of Christian church is reading the exact same readings on Sunday morning at the exact same time. For some, this participation in the RCL feels like unity. It is a marvelous and exceptionally rare moment when all the divisions are set aside, when factions/sects/denominations of Christ are finally united in one singular purpose. In church-speak, it feels like a moment of the catholicity of the church preserved, and despite our fragmen-tation of the body of Christ on earth, at least in worship the universality of the Church is celebrated. That is indeed worthy of participation! But, as with anything, the RCL is not perfect. The Vanderbilt Divinity Library’s website refers to the book, An Intro-duction to the Homily by Robert P. Waznak, pg. 75, which says, the RCL “[Sundays and Special Days, not Daily] contains approximately 13 percent of the Bible -- 6 percent of the Old Testament (not counting the Psalms) and 41 percent of the New [Testament]." Almost all the Psalms have some portion included.” By reading only the RCL in worship each week, we end up missing important content and entire sections of the Bible. What’s more, several denominations even use altered versions of the RCL. So, perhaps the unity of the church is found in the hope that all Christian churches are preaching from the same Bible, rather than the same parts of the Bible? Perhaps the preaching of Christ crucified and risen for you and me is actually the one and only thing that holds us together? As we wonder if unity will ever be known or seen, I find immense solace and grace in what Samuel Stone penned in his hymn, “The Church’s One Foundation”: ‘Yet she on earth has union with God, the Three in One, and mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won….’ And if unity is not our responsibility to create but our responsibility to live, then maybe we have liberty to recognize that we are already one in Christ and explore other parts of our holy book in worship? So, taking a chance last August (and intentionally waiting until after we hired and discussed the idea with our new Director for Worship and Music), I recommended to the Church Council that we try the journey of the Narrative Lectionary (NL) developed by a few of the faculty of Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Here is a description of the NL from Luther Seminary’s own preaching resource page called www.WorkingPreacher.org: “The Narrative Lectionary is a four-year cycle of readings. On the Sundays from September through May each year the texts follow the sweep of the biblical story, from Creation through the early Christian church. … The texts show the breadth and variety of voices within Scripture. They invite people to hear the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and the prophets, Jesus, and Paul. Listening to the many different voices within Scripture enriches preaching and the life of faith.” A year ago, on Rally Day in September, our journey through the scriptures began when we read the creation story in Genesis. Each week we progressed through the Bible so that by the end of May we were reading from the Book of Acts and the Day of Pentecost. Ann Paulson and other volunteers marked the pages of our pew Bibles, and what fun it was to watch those ribbons march their way through the Bible. (continued on page 4)
August 7 - 12th Sunday after Pentecost - Psalm 33:12-22; Luke 12:32-40
August 14 - 13th Sunday after Pentecost - Psalm 82; Luke 12:49-56
August 21 - 14th Sunday after Pentecost - Psalm 103:1-8; Luke 13:10-17
August 28 - 15th Sunday after Pentecost - Psalm 112; Luke 14:1, 7-14
In the eight years since the Prayer Chain has been reinstated at
St. John’s, 263 people have been prayed for by its members.
The links are fewer now - about 10 - and more are needed. We
are all called to pray for one another. If you want to learn more
about or join in this intentional ministry of St. John’s, please get
in touch with Betty Shannon or Betty Johnson.
Council Leadership Change
Four new Congregation Council members have been elected and are ready to serve on St. John’s Council: Jennifer Belz, Oly Stromberg, Sarah Tellijohn and Eric Willette.
Council installation will be during worship on Sunday, August 7. The Council officers elected for the 2016-2017 term are:
Steve Dosdall, President Jennifer Belz, Vice President
THE MESSENGER “Bui ld ing and Nurtur ing a Fai th Communi ty” PAGE 4
Or...in St. John’s sanctuary at
10:00 a.m. with Pastor Loren
Teig of Green Lake Lutheran
Ministries, Spicer, MN, fol-
lowed by fellowship over
coffee & doughnuts.
Sunday Morning
August 21
Pancake Breakfast
Worship
At Chi Rho Retreat Center at
10:00 a.m. with Pastor Mark
Tiede….enjoy Pancake Break-
fast served from 8:00 a.m. until
noon.
All Day
Saturday
August 20
Music
Games
Food
Fun by the Lake Lake Sylvia, Annandale
I BELIEVE continued:
Along the way, a few of you told me how much you have come to enjoy the change to the NL. A few of you came to tell me how much you absolutely hated it. And the vast majority of you seemed to have no opinion at all. In fact, some people told me they hadn’t really noticed a difference. :-) I think I have heard you. To be sure I asked Sam and Peder what they have heard, and the Worship Committee also listened for your feedback. The Worship committee then made the recommendation that we could do either the RCL or NL, but if we were to do the next year of the NL we should include the Psalms. So that’s what we’ll do. Starting again this September we will do Year 3 (September through May) of the Narrative Lectionary and include a Psalm each Sunday. This decision to journey together through the Scriptures is intentional on my part; that as we step into a year of emphasizing the congregational value of Growing, I am hopeful that the Narrative Lectionary will help us to Grow in familiarity with the scriptures as we are Growing deeper in our faith, relationships and community. Gratefully, Pastor Mark
Musician, Charlie Roth
“a little Irish!”
More about Summerfest...
THE MESSENGER “Bui ld ing and Nurtur ing a Fai th Communi ty” PAGE 5
ELCA Global Missions: South Sudan
In 1988 the American Lutheran Church (ALC), the Lutheran Church in
America (LCA), and the American Evangelical
Lutheran Church (AELC) merged into what was at the time the world’s
largest Lutheran denomination of Christianity: the Evangelical Lutheran
Church of America (ELCA). Since that time, we of the ELCA have
done an amazing job at tending the hundreds of Mission sites estab-
lished by our predecessor church bodies throughout the world. But now
God is doing something new. For the first time in the ELCA’s history
we are starting a brand new Mission site and it will be located in the
newest country of the world: The Republic of South Sudan.
The first ELCA Missionary to South Sudan is Rev. Mawien Ariik. He will
be giving a presentation at St. John’s on Wednesday, August 17 at 7:00
PM. I hope you are able to come and hear the miraculous, heart -wrenching
story of what God is accomplishing through our church and this remarkable
leader.
This event is open to the public and the leadership of several other congregations have been invited to also
attend. Please call the church office today with your RSVP so that we can plan accordingly.
-Pastor Mark
MISSIONARY CIRCLE
Missionary Circle will meet for a potluck lunch at noon on
Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at Nokomis Square where Marj
Sethna will be the hostess. The address is 5015 35th Avenue South
in Minneapolis. Please bring a dish to share and ideas for speakers
to invite or organizations to visit in the upcoming months. Even if
you have never come to Missionary Circle before, you are wel-
come! If you need more information please contact Marj or Elaine
Taylor.
Next Community Meal: August 27 Sign up now!
St. John’s hosts a Community Meal on the fourth Saturday of each month at noon.
Volunteers welcome guests, help to prepare food and beverages, bus and wash dish-
es, and clean up. The time commitment is about two hours. If you are interested,
please sign up on the poster outside Fellowship Hall or contact the church office.
A huge THANK YOU goes to all the volunteers at Loaves & Fishes the last Monday in
July! Turned out to be a real adventure in improvisation when an ordering glitch result-
ed in the food not showing up! Nancy Biele, TRUST director (just back from vacation
that day), had quite an adventure of her own as she traveled around the city gathering
what was needed to serve the 150+ guests. Meanwhile the volunteers created big bowls
of salad from vegetables that the St. Stephen’s School (site of Loaves & Fishes) had on
hand. Quite a day. Thanks, everyone.
THE MESSENGER “Bui ld ing and Nurtur ing a Fai th Communi ty” PAGE 6
Community and Neighborhood UPDATE ON SUPPORT TO SCHOOL FAMILIES
Thank you for the generous gifts of food that you have provided. Families are very grateful! We will resume collecting and storing food in earnest in August. School starts on August 29, and the first backpack drop-off at Ramsey for the 2016-17 school year will be Wednesday, September 21. The food shelf at Ramsey will continue in September as St. John’s shelves fill up.
In addition, for the first 3 weeks in August, there will be a BOX at church entrances labeled "Supply Minne-apolis" where you can donate any of the supplies on the list below. Once donations are collected on August 21st, the supplies will be organized into complete packs and donated to Washburn so that high school stu-dents from low-income families can have brand new supplies. Please keep in mind that the recipients of these supply packs are high school students. Some recommendations are: backpacks, mechanical pencils, college-ruled notebooks, folders, binders/dividers, composition notebooks, highlighters, pencil cases, calculators, graph paper, and loose leaf paper. If you would prefer to donate a gift card/cash or would like more information, please contact Samantha Wheeler at [email protected]. She is a senior at Washburn working on this special project to help homeless/highly mobile students at Washburn High School start their year with the school supplies they need.
Children, Youth, and Family
Sunday school resumes on Sunday, Sept. 11 on Rally Day!
The Children, Youth, and Family Committee is looking forward to sharing the Spark Whirl curriculum with the young members of our congregation. All children are welcome! Pastor Mark has kindly offered to lead the teaching of Sunday School for the fall semester and volunteer helpers are requested to assist. If you are interested in being part of the Sunday School adult helper rotation please contact Jesse Fanciulli at [email protected].
MEMBERSHIP Connection Events…. Here are some upcoming events being planned:
September 17— Progressive Dinner at members’ homes
October— Octoberfest (date TBD)
November— Learn to make lefse (date TBD)
December 18— Christmas cookie baking
December 21— Christmas caroling
If you have any ideas for our committee to consider, or would like to join a future meeting, please let Jen-
THE MESSENGER “Bui ld ing and Nurtur ing a Fai th Communi ty” PAGE 7
Sam says….
St. John’s Choir weekly rehearsals will resume on Wednesday,
September 7 at 7:30 p.m. Coming soon is a master calendar for
the year that includes bell and brass rehearsals, too.
St. John’s Congregational Council PICNIC Meeting Highlights
July 6, 2016
Nineteen council and family members attended the Council picnic held at Ercolani’s. Everyone enjoyed the potluck supper. Many thanks were expressed for current and retiring council members as well as thanks to the new council members. President Steve Dosdall and Treasurer Mark Nervig both agreed they are willing to continue as officers. A motion was made and seconded and approved to make it so. A vice president and secretary were not elected, because not all members of council were present. Filling these rolls will be a priority at the next council meeting. Each council member was asked to write down three committees that they would most like to represent. The results will be tallied before the next council meeting on Thursday, August 18. Respectfully submitted by Vicky Ercolani
THE ELCA CHURCHWIDE ASSEMBLY will convene
August 8-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana to discuss, discern and
make decisions about how to go about God’s work as a church.
Andy Dosdall of St. John’s will be among the voting members at-
tending. This Assembly will observe the 500th anniversary of the
Reformation under the theme “Freed and Renewed in Christ.” As
part of the observance non-voting members are invited to attend
the Grace Gathering, August 10-13. (More information at
ELCA.org/gracegathering.) One consideration for action before this assembly will be the recommenda-
tion of the ELCA Church Council, following review of the report and recommendation of the Word and
Service Task Force, to unify the three existing rosters of laypersons (Associates in Ministry, Deacon-
esses of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Diaconal Ministers) into one roster of Minis-
try of Word and Service. Bishop Elizabeth Eaton writes, “When members of the assembly participate in
and make decisions about the mission and ministry of the ELCA: We are church. We are Lutheran. We
are church together. We are church for the sake of the world.”
For more information and to follow the Assembly, see http://www.elca.org/ChurchwideAssembly.
Information Church Office ................ 612-827-4406
