Annual Congregation Meeting
Sunday, January 24
10:00 a.m.
(immediately following worship)
At this meeting, the congregation will:
· elect Council members ( 3 new members will be elected to three-year terms)
· elect Endowment Committee members (2 new persons will be elected)
· approve congregation budget for 2010
· other business brought forward
There will be important changes in the proposed budget(s) this year. The Council will be proposing that several thousand dollars of farm account money be made available for general operating expenses. For at least 8 years, farm account funds have been used to pay the general operating expense of LP gas. In recent years, more of these funds have used each year to pay general operating expenses. The budget will include both the general operating budget and the farm account budget and plans for intermeshing.
If you have business to come before the congregation, talk to a Council member or Pastor Larson for inclusion on the agenda.
All reports need to be submitted to the office by January 6.
Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Will there be worship or not? When the weather is questionable, early on Sunday mornings, Pastor wakes up, looks out the window and if necessary gets in his car and drives down the road – if possible – and prayerfully ponders whether or not there should be worship. When he gets home, he calls the congregation presidents and together they decide.
If there is not going to be worship, Pastor will call KMAQ (1320 AM, 95.1 FM) in Maquoketa and they will announce it. Also a telephone chain will begin that will notify Council members, people involved in worship, people involved in Sunday school, fellowship servers and the like. Also if you have shared an email address with pastor, or are a Facebook “friend” with him, there will be e-mails and Facebook statuses posted. If you get a phone call or an electronic message let your friends, relatives and neighbors know. If in doubt, call the church before you start out. While worship is an important part of the week for all of us, do not endanger your health of safety.
A Look at the Lectionary through the Eyes of the Hebrew Bible
In our worship life together each week, we hear the story of God’s redemptive work throughout all of human history, culminating in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. While most of our focus in preaching is, rightly so, on the gospel lesson for each week, have you ever found yourself wondering: “Hey, what about that Old Testament lesson?
The Old Testament, more accurately called the “Hebrew Bible,” is a collection of writings that tells of the history of a people and the promise given by God to this people. It is filled with amazing, action-packed stories, endless “rules and regulations,” prophetic warnings of judgment, and descriptions of a people in dire straits. But it is also filled with promise: a promise that God has not and will not forsake God’s people, and that God alone is the one to whom we can look in all the joys and struggles of life. But how do these stories relate to us in this time and this place? What do they have to do with God’s work for the whole of creation in Jesus Christ? These are the questions that we will ponder together as the study unfolds!
This Bible study will begin on Monday January 18 at 6:30 pm in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church conference room, and will continue each Monday following. Come with Bibles in hand, and come ready to ponder the great mystery that is God! If you have any questions, feel free to call (678-2301, 563-663-6674), write intern@bethlehem.my-
lutheran.org, or catch Intern Matt at church.
Epiphany Worship – New This Year!
Wednesday, January 6
7:00 p.m.
The Christmas Season formally concludes on Epiphany Day, January 6. Epiphany has been a major festival in Christendom and in some parts of Christianity still is the main festival of the Christmas Season. We will gather with one another on this important Christian Day and hear the other Christmas story – the one from Matthew’s Gospel, about the magi or wisemen who followed the star. Confirmation class will begin at 6:00 p.m. on January 6.
More Worship in January
The green, ordinary season known simply as the Season after the Epiphany begins with the festival of the Baptism of Jesus. The theme of this season between Advent/ Christmas and Lent/ Easter is how God’s love is made known or manifest in Jesus. The principal symbols of this season are lights and the star.
Holy Communion will be celebrated on January 3 (1st Sunday), January 10 (the Baptism of Jesus festival and January 24 (note this is the 4th of 5 Sundays and not the 3rd Sunday – to space out the celebration of Communion a little more).
Worship/Environment Task Force for Lent/ Easter
Proclamation of the Word of God is the central event in our worship life together. But, proclamation is not limited to just preaching!
Our liturgy, music, movement, art, and worship space arrangement and environment are also central to how it is that we proclaim the Word of God and God’s redemptive Word in Jesus Christ.
Are you someone who has creative juices just waiting to be released? Are you someone who is interested in worship, music, art, decorating, etc.? Are you someone who is looking for a way to become involved in the worship life of our church? Then this task force may be for you!
If you are interested, call (678-2301, 563-663-6674), write intern@bethlehem.mylutheran.org, or talk to Intern Matt!
Council News
Bethlehem Congregation Council met for its regular business meeting on December 15. In business the Council:
· approved the purchase of a vacuum cleaner to replace one that doesn’t work;
· voted to continue with Simply Giving, an electronic funds transfer program offered by Thrivent, formerly at no cost, but now at a discounted cost;
· appointed an audit committee;
· approved a proposed spending plan to be voted on at the congregation meeting;
· heard the following Treasurer’s report:
General Fund Farm Acct
Balance 10/31/09 ($ 1228.42) $ 20,068.76
Oct Income $ 7227.84 -
Oct Expenses $ 7547.62 $ 1000.00
Balance 11/30/09 ($ 1548.20) $ 19,068.76
Worship Assistants
Greeters: Scott Doll, Al Small
Ushers: Dale Rickels, Ellen Pithan
Lectors:
3- Connie Kleppe
10- Emma Thiede
17- Lynda Humphreys
24- Jessica Ihns
31- Clay Ketchum
Communion Servers:
3- Deanne Bennett
10- Tim Thiede, Jill Suthers
24- Ginger A-L, Tom Gerdes
Acolytes:
3- Ben Geerts
10- Jenna Holtz
17- Hallie Gruenwald
24- Hannah Gruenwald
31- Mari Merrick
Altar Care: Deanne Bennett, Lorraine Wulf
Bread Maker: Meganne Masko
Children’s Story Tellers:
3- Dawn Suthers
10- Connie Kleppe
17- Cassie Suthers
24- Jone Paarmann
31- Deanne Bennett
Tellers: Jone Paarmann, Bill Pithan
Fellowship Servers:
3- Joyce Feuss, Kathy Duffey, Donna Dosland
10- Diana Ihns, Becky Petersen, Marcia K.
17- Connie Kleppe, Joan Kleppe, Lynda H.
24- Jone P., Dawn Suthers, Melissa Mc.
31- Evelyn Petersen, Kindy Nissen, Deanne B.
BWELCA Hilites
Quilting begins on Monday, Jan. 4 from 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Bring your favorite dish and share in the noon potluck. Come for a few hours or spend the day.
Layettes: The confirmation class will be helping us pack layettes again this year. In January, we will be gathering the following items to complete the kits: cloth diapers, diaper pins, washcloths and bar soap. Your help with this project is greatly appreciated!!
Thank you to all those brave souls who helped in anyway to make the “chrismons” and decorations for our Christmas tree.
We thank the family of Colleen Smith for the gift in her memory which made it possible to purchase supplies for making the chrismons and the decorative balls for the tree.
Board Meeting: Tuesday, January 5, at
6 p.m.
Up Coming Events: Cheer Brunch, Saturday, February 2 from 9:00 – 11:00.
To God’s Beloved: Paul’s Letter to the Romans
Nothing Can Separate Us
This month at BWELCA Jan. Circle Meetings
Bethlehem – Sat. Jan. 9, 9:00 AM Hostess/
Leader: Connie Kleppe in conference room.
Rebecca – Wed., Jan.13 , 1:30 PM at Lucile
Schurbon’s Leader: Lorraine Wulf
Eve – Thurs., Jan. 14 , 7:00 PM at Rochelle
Busch’s Leader: Deanne Bennett
All women are invited!
Notes from Niamey, Niger
Kirk Betts, chair of the Lutheran World Relief board of directors, traveled to Niger in West Africa earlier this year to witness the distribution LWR quilts and kits. His experience moved him to offer these words of thanks to Lutheran quilters and kit-makers who support LWR ministry of comfort and care.
Let me share with you what Niger looks like in February during the dry season. The predominant colors are hues of brown-the parched soil, the mud brick buildings, even the trees coated in dust.
I went to a clinic to distribute quilts. As we arrived, a cloud of dust began to move toward us. As it neared, we saw that the cloud covered a hundred people, most crippled or deformed from polio, blind from river blindness, or both. Their clothing was drab, and hung loosely on their thin bodies.
As l removed the wrapping from the bales of quilts it was as if they came to life. Tears come as I recall placing two beautiful quilts into the hands of a family whose children guided that blind parents. The parents' eyes lit up as they received the quilts -as though they saw and felt the brilliant colors in the sunshine – and felt the joy of knowing a stranger had offered themselves out of pure love.
With each quilt, I offered a prayer of gratitude for you and this powerful eloquent witness to the love of Christ. Your hands and hearts met theirs, bringing color and some thing greater into their lives, like the watery that bring life to the land and to us in baptism. I hope you feel their hands, too, and that you know with each stitch, you bring the world closer together.
God bless your hearts and hands!
Reprinted from Faith in Action, A Newsletter Especially for LWR Quilters and Kit Makers, September 2009.
Annual Giving Statements
Annual giving statements from Bethlehem’s Financial Secretary are included in this month’s Star. These might be important tax documents for some members. Be sure to treat them appropriately.
From AIM, Barb
It won’t be long before we have to take down all the Christmas decorations. It feels so dreary in the house in those first days after the decorations are put away. On the shortest day of the year it occurred to me that one of the reasons I enjoy all the Christmas lights is because nature affords us so much darkness this time of year.
I do leave my nativity set up until after January 6, the Day of the Epiphany. We mark that day as the day the Wisemen reached Bethlehem, after following the star, which led them there. Matthew tells the story of the Wisemen. King Herod noted the star that had risen, marking the birth of the promised Messiah. He called for the Wisemen to identify the location that the star marked and sent the three Wisemen to find the baby so that he could pay homage (kill Jesus). The Wisemen arrived at the stable; fell on their knees in reverence; and presented gifts befitting the Messiah.
The Wisemen are my favorites of those who gathered at the stable. If I had lived 2,000 years ago, I would like to have been a Wiseman. They are the colorful fellows of the nativity scene. In art, they are usually presented as three kings, dressed in robes, wearing crowns, carrying treasurers. There are varying theories as to the real identity of the Wisemen. Because they were called to identify a star, I grew up thinking they were the early astronomers of our world, discerning the meaning of life through the heavens. The Wisemen have also been presented as charlatans, more street-wise than book-wise. I have seen them presented as street performers or hustlers conning people out of their money in various ways. Some say that the Wisemen roamed the countryside as thieves, camel pirates, if you will, contending that perhaps the gold, frankincense, and myrrh that they presented to the baby Jesus was stolen from caravans, which moved goods from city to city. As ancient scientists, they thought that they could be alchemists, spending time and talents trying to alter chemically various elements into gold.
The true identity of the Wisemen matters little. What matters is that God chose them to have a part in salvation history. Guiding them by the heavens, God led them to the place where the baby was; and in that place, God revealed to them that this baby was, indeed, the promised Messiah. Through a dream God, then, warned them not to return to Herod, and the Wisemen went home via another route. In all likelihood, Herod would have had the Wisemen killed so they could not tell others. I like to think that the Wisemen were early evangelists who were awe-struck and told anyone and everyone that they met about the Messiah.
As it turns out, the Wisemen were truly wise because they understood and acted upon God at work within them. The fact that the Wisemen weren’t necessarily Nobel-worthy scientists only emphasizes the fact that God works through all manner of people, just as God is working through you and I, now. Hopefully, we will be as wise as they were, open and receptive to God at work within us.
January Birthdays
4 Lynnette Pithan
6 Dennis Hute
8 Alex Suthers
15 Tom Mullins
15 Raymond Dosland
16 Josh Holtz, Hallie Gruenwald
17 Hannah Gruenwald
19 Mari Merrick
22 Vivian Mowry, Trisha Feuss
23 Katie Fields
January Anniversaries
9 Earletta and Tom Mullins
22 Herold and Betty Rehmke
Bethlehem Says Thanks!
We all at Bethlehem say special thanks to Bobby and Amber Suthers and family for volunteering to do snow removal at the church all winter. Let them know we appreciate this valuable gift.
Christmas Greetings from Synod Bishop Michael Burk
Dear Friends in Christ,
The entrance to Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity is notably small. At the place traditionally associated with Jesus' birth, a person of average height or taller must stoop down, bend low in order to enter. It is a humbling posture that is not natural for most of us.
After my recent visit to Israel and the West Bank, and following several conversations and exchanges with ecumenical and global partners, including people I have been working with on issues related to hunger and poverty, I am reminded of how others view us. That is, I have recently been exposed to a healthy dose of people thanking me for what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America stands for.
You see, from the outside looking in, ours is a church that stands for
- Fighting hunger, especially hunger among children,
- Accompanying global partners,
- Working for peace, locally and globally,
- Sharing the Good News, especially among new communities of immigrants,
- Supporting social service agencies like Lutheran Services in Iowa,
- Raising up leaders for vocations in Christ's church; and...perhaps most, for
- Worshiping. Regularly gathering around the means of God's grace.
Sometimes, from the inside, we act as if we stand for other things. As if resolving current disagreements is more important that marshalling our resources to proclaim the hope that Jesus brings to the whole world.
This week of Christmas coincides with some difficult work involving budget projections. And I am aware of individuals and congregations who wish to express their frustration regarding 2009 Churchwide Assembly decisions by diminishing their mission support.
I pray daily, persistently that the opposite will occur.
I pray that people throughout the ELCA, and especially in the Southeastern Iowa Synod, will be more generous. That we will risk rediscovering and affirming what others know about us. That ours is a church that stands for reaching out to help people in need. That our life together is not about punishing or withholding. Rather, that God calls us together for a purpose - for God's own mission. And God will not abandon us as we work through our faith-informed differences.
The entrance to that Bethlehem church requires a change in our physical posture. A humbling reminder of precisely what God does for us in Jesus Christ. Our God stoops down, bends low, and with a love that throws caution to the wind, pursues us. Reaches us. Embraces us,...so that together, we might do the same. So that we might in all humility stand for and with those whose lives are made better by our standing with one another.
May we approach the days ahead as though we are about to enter the Church of the Nativity. Bending low. Humbly praying. Praying for peace. Peace among us and peace in all the world.
Merry Christmas,
Rev. Michael L. Burk
Bishop
Epiphany Day Worship
Wednesday, January 6
7:00 p.m.
January 2010
Pastor Keith Larson
Office Phone 678-2301
Home Phone 678-2303
Emergency 563-447-0652
pastor@bethlehem.mylutheran.org
Pastoral Associate Barb Tobiason
Office Phone 826-2761
Home Phone 563-487-2116
AIM@bethlehem.mylutheran.org
Intern Matt Masko
Office Phone 678-2301
Home Phone 563-663-6674
Intern@bethlehem.mylutheran.org
Office Secretary Deanne Bennett
Church Phone 678-2301
secretary@bethlehem.mylutheran.org
Parish Nurse Carm Schneider
Office Hours 9:00 a.m. -10:30 a.m. Tues
Phone 678-2302
Sunday Schedule
Worship 9:00 a.m.
Sunday School and Fellowship 10:00 a.m..
Office Hours
Pastor Keith is in the office most mornings
Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. – Noon
and Saturday 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Intern Matt is in the office most mornings
Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m. – Noon
If you need to enter the church and do not have a key, always call ahead to be certain he or someone is here.
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