January 2019 Newsletter
Grace, mercy, and peace are yours this 2019 in our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!Dear Family of God at Grace,
A happy and blessed New Year to all of you! I hope you enjoyed the Christmas season as much as I did. We had 501in Christmas Eve worship. How wonderful to see the church full to celebrate the birth of our King! What a great picture one of our members took while singing the Christmas Carols.
Let me touch on a few highlights for January and then I'll give a short
synopsis of 2019. We are still in the Christmas season until Sunday the 6th which is Epiphany and 12th day of Christmas. Monday the 7th the Christmas decorations will be taken down and put away for another year, but the light of Christmas will shine all year long!
This month we will have a few visitors at Grace. On Sunday the 20th we have Rev. Reuben Schmitz coming to talk to us about Bethesda Lutheran Communities, which is an organization that supports people with disabilities. You can read about Bethesda at www.bethesdalc.org. The 20th is also LMWL Sunday. Our other visitor is Rev. Jonathan Fisk. He will be here on Saturday and Sunday the 26/27. Rev Fisk's title is: Parenting Christian Children in an Age of Progressive Paganism. It starts at 10 am and goes to 2 pm. Lunch will be provided. Tell your friends!
Looking forward to the year of our Lord 2019 there are several things that we will need to accomplish. First, we have 20 youth and adults going to the National Youth Gathering this July in Minneapolis. After the Gathering we have the 67th Convention of the LCMS in Tampa FL. While the convention will not take a lot of time on our part as a congregation, the Synod's leadership has asked Grace to be the host congregation. This is mean that we will be involved with the opening Divine Service. I get the honor of being the Liturgist. I am not sure how or what they will be asking Grace to be involved as the host but I'm sure I will be finding out soon and I'll pass along that info.
It is our hope in 2019 that we will be approving the major changes that have been made to our constitution. We received the good news that the Constitutional Review Committee at the District has approved our changes, now it's up to you! We will make copies of the changes available to you prior to any vote. It is our hope that you will have plenty of time for review and questions before we put the new constitution up for a vote. Thank you to Brian Heidel, Steve and Nancy Beights, Lisa Perri, Paul Koch, Gwyn Powers and everyone who worked to bring this time consuming and challenging task to an almost completion. The finish line is in sight.
Another big topic for 2019 is introduction of the practice of early Communion. Toward the end of this month we will take a few young people and those in our Confirmation Class and their parents through preparation and instruction for reception of the Lord's Supper on Easter Sunday.
I understand that early reception of the Lord's Supper may be a concern to some of you. You may think that the children of a younger age may not be ready to receive the Lord's Supper, because they are not able to understand what they are getting; or that they are too young to examine
themselves; or that they will not go to Confirmation Classes because they are already receiving the Lord's Supper. While no practice is perfect, some may not fully understand, or examine themselves the way you do, and some may even try to skip the instruction of Confirmation yet connecting our young children to the means of grace in the Lord's Supper cannot be a wrong action on our part. We are uniting them to Jesus' forgiveness, life and salvation, to Jesus Himself. This is for their good. Will some take advantage and abuse the gift? Possible, but that's not a reason to deny others the blessed Sacrament. Statistically, 50% of the youth in the LCMS never go through Confirmation. Of the ones that go through Confirmation only 50% stay in the LCMS. These statistics are poor not because we are giving the Lord's Supper to children at a younger age. Many churches in the LCMS over the years have moved Confirmation to an older age because they think they will understand things better and it will sink in but what is happening is they are getting them to late and less is being believed and ingrained. We at Grace, Kami and I, want to go younger so that we build a foundation that we pray will be lifelong! We want to instruct the youth in the faith before they are clouded with all kinds of instruction that is contrary to the faith. Please keep our young people in your prayers! If you have questions or concerns please talk to your Elder or to me or Kami.
I'm sure 2019 will bring other surprises that we haven't prepared for but fear not the Lord Jesus is with us and this is His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against His church! God bless you all this 2019!
In His Service,Pastor Lingsch
UPCOMING EVENTS
Usher TrainingSunday, January 13th
9:30 am Sanctuary
A Night in Czech - National Youth Gathering FundraiserSunday, January 13th5:30 pmFellowship Hall
Grief Share BeginsThursday, January 17th1:00 pmFellowship Hall
Rev. Jonathan Fisk, SpeakerSaturday, January 26th10:00 am - 2:00 pmFellowship Hall
National Youth Gathering DinnerSunday, February 17thMore information to followFellowship Hall
Ft. Wayne Seminary KantoreiSunday, February 24th8:00 am & 10:30 amSanctuary
WEEKLY EVENTS
Youth NewsKami Jo Mogelvang
A Night in Czech - Traditional Czech Dinner and Dance January 13th at 5:30 pm - Fellowship Hall
Youth Night January 20th at 5:00 pm - Fellowship Hall
Speaker Rev. Jonathan Fisk on "Parenting Christian Children in an Age of Progressive Paganism" January 26th at 10:00 am - 2:00 pm - Fellowship Hall
Women's Bible StudyThursday's 10:00 amOffice Workroom Wednesday Afternoon/EveningPrograms 3:45 pm Cherubs Choir4:00 pm Kids Club4:15 pm Choristers5:15 pm Dinner6:00 pm Confirmation Class6:30 pm Evening Worship7:00 pm Grace Chorale
Handbell Choir6:00 pm Thursday
Do you need someone to talk to? To walk with you through a difficult time? Deaconess Linda Nobili will be available for Spiritual counseling again beginning Oct 15th. Please feel free to contact her anytime at (248) 892-7405 or by email at [email protected].
Did You Know We Have a Facebook Page?Please 'Like' us on Facebook! Grace of Naples Lutheran Church and Preschool.
ELDERS REPORT Paul Koch
The Elders hope that all Grace Members and their families had a Blessed Christmas and a Joyous New Year. We had excellent attendance at our Christmas Services totaling 583 on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Thank you to all who served and attended. We have not had a formal meeting since November, and we are all looking forward to an exciting and fruitful 2019. We appreciate the continued support of all members in ensuring a rewarding worship experience for all of our members and our guests, and we encourage any comments and feedback for us to consider. In this regard, we would like to encourage any and all members to consider adding their names to the list of those who have volunteered to serve as Ushers for our services. We require 3 or 4 ushers for each service, and the duties are very straightforward but are very important for the efficient execution of service activities. We plan to have a training session between services one Sunday in January both for those currently serving and for any other members willing to volunteer to serve. An announcement will be made as to the specific date. If you have any questions, please contact any Elder for further information. Discussions in the February Newsletter. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 8, and we will provide information on our discussions in the February Newsletter.
The Pelican Lutheran ChurchRev. Mark EisoldJanuary 2019
Happy New Year!!!
We welcomed the New Year at The Pelican with a mission team from Redeemer Lutheran Church in Peoria, IL. This congregation has been supporting the mission of Christ with the Eisold family since 2010 when we were preparing to go to Perú. They were the first full team on the scene after Hurricane Irma last November, and bring many blessings with them every time they visit!This year's purpose was to support and grow this mission through hosting an English Camp, repairing any lingering damage to homes from Irma, and give us a boost with our maintenance of the back 2 acres. Every day started and ended with devotions in the sanctuary.The "Peoria Team" consisted of 7 young ladies from high school/college and 3 adults. They joined the GRACE Youth for a special Youth Night at GRACE on December 30th; rang in the New Year with the Eisolds and friends; enjoyed home-cooked dinners from Brazil and Cuba; had opportunities to go out & explore Naples a couple of nights; and accomplished GREAT THINGS for the mission of Christ here in Naples.Through this 4-day camp, we had FIVE first time adult students. On Sunday, one of those students, Vilma brought her husband to worship, and told us that The Pelican is the church that they had been looking for - where they can know Jesus better from His word.On Sunday December 23rd, we celebrated Christmas with 80 people in worship in the Spanish service and another 18 in the Haitian service! Christmas Eve in Latin America is the night of a major cultural event: the community party. We wisely put our focus on the 23rd. On Christmas Eve we had 16 people in worship. In Latin America, the 25th is "the day after Christmas", and is a day of rest after the all-night festival with family and friends.So, after our events at The Pelican on the 24th, the Eisold family enjoyed the 11:00 p.m. service on Christmas Eve and the Christmas Day service at GRACE.The attached photos tell the rest of the story. We have BIG PLANS for the New Year, some of which have already begun!On Friday January 4th Pastor Saint Luc Charelus met with Maximo & me to assess the past month, celebrate Christ's provision & blessings, and plan specifics through Easter Sunday. Also, on Saturday January 5th, we met with our English Class volunteers, and formalized changes based on recommendations for our current English program in order to raise the standard for everyone. In addition, Pastor Eisold and Maximo will be less involved in order to prepare new
leaders and expand our church ministries to the community.Look forward to news of an additional worship service time, the start of new Hispanic Ministries starting at local LCMS congregations by invitation, and plans to start an official Language Academy/Institute on our premises after June.Thank you for your strong & loving prayers and support! Praise be to our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ, for His great work here and through each of us, in such amazing ways, according to HIS incredible design and timing!!!
The Lord's Supper at Grace at midnight on Christmas Eve.
A group of members & guests at our Christmas Celebration
on December 23rd
Navigating _the jungle_ behind The Pelican for removal of overgrown
Brazilian Pepper bushes.
Pastor Karl Glander and the Team Leasers: Rebecca
Lindholm, Jason Bye, & Jeff Schoumaker
The Team from Peoria with Pastor Eisold upon arrival.Teachers & students: Sarah &
Vilma; Fanny & Allison
One of the classrooms with students and teachers.
Children's Christmas Program
Caroling
Grace Lutheran Church, 860 Banyan Blvd, Naples, FL 34102
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