Our Savior E-news: Jan. 30

This is really a special time of the year with so many of our winter residents back, and all kinds of things happening at Our Savior and in our community. 

And what better place to be than gathered with fellow Lutherans and people of faith, around the Word and Sacraments, fellowship, special ministries and learning opportunities, as we deal with all the challenges of living in today’s world. 

 

Here are just a few things coming up as ways of connecting with God’s people:  Wednesday evening, Feb. 1, begins with supper in the Fellowship Hall at 6pm.  Menu this week is: shrimp/steak/and chicken kabobs; wild rice pilaf; steamed carrots and homemade cheesecake.  (wow!)  Following the supper is our weekly Youth Group gathering (Youth Room, 6:30); a meeting of the newly formed Architectural Review Team (room 4, 6:30) to look at another Eagle Scout project proposal and suggestions for furnishing and decorating our new Quiet Room, Narthex and Lobby; a Beth Moore Bible Study (Quiet Room, 6:30); and choir practice (Choir room, 7pm).   

 

PLEASE NOTE:  The Lutheran Men in Mission, originally scheduled for this Wednesday, Feb. 1, will meet instead next Wednesday, Feb. 8 at 6:30pm in room 4!

 

This coming Saturday, Feb. 4 at 11am a Memorial Service will be held at Our Savior for Harry Olmstead, much loved member of Our Savior for over 20 years.  Harry passed peacefully on Sunday morning at 6:42 at the Hospice House here in Vero Beach. 

 

Looking ahead:  the annual Haiti Partners Dinner will be on Friday Feb. 10 beginning at 6pm at The Community Church.  Tickets are $30 each and available after worship or call 772-539-8521 by Feb. 3, or go to www.haitipartners.org. 

 

Looking a little farther down the road, the first weekend in March, (4^th-5^th) will be our 2^nd annual “Seminary Weekend” here at Our Savior.  Rev. Dr. Shauna Hannan from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia S.C. will be our guest that weekend.  If you would like to help sponsor this weekend, please contact one of the pastors.  This is a wonderful way to be connected with one of our seminaries and the greater church. 

 

These are just some of the highlights of life at and around Our Savior.   Please check our website (www.oursaviorelca.com) for more information.

 

Finally, here is something one of our members saw on a church sign this past week, which tied in with our Gospel reading about Jesus casting out the unclean spirit from the man in the synagogue, “Don’t tell God how big your problems are; tell your problems how big your God is!”   Think about that one for a while! 

 

Have a blessed week.         Pastor A.C. ‘Jack’ Diehl III +          

 

 

Week of Epiphany 3

Sounded pretty crazy didn’t it!   Leave your boats, leave what’s familiar, go off in a new direction, follow Jesus?  Since the first disciples, that has been the story of God’s people.  Following Jesus often means going to places where we’re not as comfortable, where we are learning, growing, stretching.  We talked a little about that at our Men’s breakfast this morning.   A number of us remembered how racist some of our forefathers were, and how, thankfully, we have made some good progress in moving away from that (although there’s still a good ways to go around).  But we learn, we grow.   In following Jesus, our hearts and minds are opened to seeing each other, and especially others different from us, in new ways.  Such is what the season of Epiphany is about…revealing, making manifest, letting God’s Light shine into the darkness, into our darkness.  What a crazy journey this is.  We just need to hang on for the ride, to each other and to Jesus. 

 

As members together on this journey, here are a few things coming up: 

 

This coming Sunday, Jan. 29, our Annual Congregational meeting will be held at 9:45am in the sanctuary.   We’ll have our 2012 budget to vote on, a report on our director of music/organist position, and more.  Please join us.

 

Looking ahead, the Spring Youth Retreat will be coming up the weekend of March 30-April 1.   This will be for all Youth in grades 6-12.  See Jimmy Smith, our Youth Director for more information. 

 

New Team on board!  With the addition of our new narthex, “Quiet Room”, lobby and more, comes ideas about how to furnish and decorate these and other spaces on our campus.  For that reason we have formed an “Architectural Review Team”.    If you have any ideas, suggestions, recommendations for our new space or anything else related to our facilities, please pass them along to this group via this email, or through a phone call to the office, a note in the offering plate, or whatever other way you’d like to share your ideas.  Thanks!

 

Finally, from our parish health ministry team, blood pressures will be taken this coming weekend before the 8:30 service and after the 6pm and 11am services in our new Quiet Room off of the narthex. (An adult Sunday School class normally meets there between the services, so that room isn’t available after the 8:30 service).  Also,  a bottle of nitro pills was turned in yesterday.  If it’s yours, it’s here in the office. 

 

For other information about the life and ministry of Our Savior, please visit our website at: www.oursaviorelca.com. 

 

God’s work; our hands.      See you in church!      Pastor Jack Diehl +

 

 

O.S.E-news: Jan 16

 

 

What a great week we had with our students from the Youth Ministry Certification School!   Students (mostly in their 20s and 30s, including 2 young pastors) from S.C., FL., S.D., MN and WI worked, played, studied and learned how to better serve the church and especially our young people.  Having them around certainly was a pleasure and for me, gave me a renewed sense of hope for the future of our church.  To see the future of the church in the hands of those 2 young pastors and youth workers was so encouraging.  Many thanks to all who hosted them in your homes: the Silkworths, the Goldens, Pam Meredith, the Kriegers, Lu Owens, Debbie Borfitz, the Ballersteins, the Wolls, the Berniers, and Barb Russell.  And thanks to everyone who made them feel welcome here at church, especially at our Wednesday night supper.  What a great experience all the way around!   Lots of “grace” moments.  J

 

Coming up, more “grace” moments:

 

Our 2 new adult Sunday School classes continue, “Duty and Delight” (5 more weeks) in the new “Quiet Room” off the narthex and “Treasures: Discovering God’s Riches” (4 more weeks) in room 4.  Even if you can’t make every one of these or missed the first two, you can come when you can, and still gain from them. 

 

Sunday, January 29 at 9:45 our annual congregational meeting.  Come and hear the latest “wrap up” on our building program and about our new organist/director of music!

 

Looking a bit farther ahead, the weekend of March 3-4 will be our second “Seminary Weekend” as the Rev. Dr. Shauna Hannan, assistant professor of homiletics at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary comes to visit us that weekend.  Even though that is a ways off, I’m mentioning it here because she is featured in the January 2012 issue of “The Lutheran” which many of you receive in your homes.  You might want to check out the article “Salvation: A conversation between—and for--Lutherans” under “Deeper Understandings” beginning on page 18.  And be sure to mark your calendars for that weekend.  Dr. Hannan will be preaching at all 3 services and leading a Sunday School class, with lots of time for questions/answers/dialog. 

 

As this week unfolds, and as some of you may have a holiday today, Jan. 16, remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., may you be “graced” and see “grace moments” all around you.   

 

See you in church!     Pastor A.C. ‘Jack’ Diehl III +     www.oursaviorelca.com

 

 

 

A BIG Thank You!

 

For over 25 years, as many of you may know, Pastor Jack's license plate has read:  GRACED.  That is not just a reflection of how he feels about his life, but a reminder that all of our lives are "graced" in many and different ways.   

 

This past Christmas Eve Adam Bolinger, on behalf of the congregation, presented to each of us (Pastor Jack and Pastor Shelly) a very generous Christmas gift gathered from so many of you leading up to Christmas.  We certainly both feel very much GRACED and humbled by your generosity and kindness, both for those gifts, but also for your ongoing love, support and other touching cards and gifts received from so many of you during this past Christmas season. 

 

We are very grateful to be here and be able to serve together as pastors of Our Savior.  May God bless you, and us all, as together we enter another year of being "graced" together.       Pastor Jack and Pastor Shelly

 

OSE-news: Jan. 9

 

This past weekend in worship we were surrounded by water!  We had 6 fountains throughout the church, in the lobby, narthex and sanctuary with the sound of running water. How cool was that!?!  Many thanks to all who brought in their fountains! (You can come by anytime this week, or next time you’re at church and pick them up.)  Along with those reminders of our Baptism, we have the Baptismal Font (in it's new prominent place in the narthex, reminding us that it is through Baptism that we enter the church), the "Fountain/Water Glass" in our new main entrance door windows and water symbols in at least two of our faceted glass windows (the Baptism window up front and the northern facing window up top).  And on top of that we got to celebrate a Baptism at the 11am service, and our organist Ray Adams played a beautiful impromptu, improvisation of “Wade in the Water” during Communion at all of our services.  Awesome.

 

What great reminders of our Baptism, where God calls and claims us as His people, His children!  That's what Dr. Paul Hill reminded us of in his sermon; how at creation God said, "This is my cosmos!", at Jesus’ Baptism God said, "This is my Son!",  as the early church sprouted up, God said, "This is my people!", and in our Baptism, God says, "You are my child!"   

 

There's a Word we can take with us into the week, a Word that helps us see our place in the cosmos, and a Word that can both see us through life's challenges and shape who we are and what we do.  

 

Speaking of taking us into the week...and beyond.   This week we are hosting a Youth Ministry Certification School.   11 people from Wisconsin, South Dakota, Minnesota, South Carolina and Florida will be here for the week: working, playing, learning about how better to do Youth Ministry in their congregations. Along with that they bring a great spirit to Our Savior.  It’s good to have them here.  Many thanks to our host families who are providing a place for these folks to sleep and too all who are making them feel welcome.  

 

On Wednesday you can meet some of these folks at our Wednesday night supper.  Supper is at 6pm.  Menu includes pork, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, something else and dessert.  

 

On Thursday evening this week, our Eagle Scout candidate, Michael Reed, begins his Eagle Scout project, which will be putting pavers in the walkway in our Memorial Garden.   If you’d like to volunteer to help with the project or donate toward it, call Michael at 516-312-8734.

 

Looking ahead, our annual congregational meeting will be held Sunday January 29 at 9:45am in the main sanctuary.  Please plan on joining us as we give an update on our new building, our financing of it, what lies ahead this summer re: the building project, and also a report from our "Search Team" on our new director of music who will begin around June 1!  

 

With our 50th Anniversary behind us and our building project complete, we stand at the beginning of another new chapter in the life and ministry of Our Savior.  With all of the good music and talent surfacing, even before our new director of music arrives later this year, and with the continued growth of our educational ministry, with such quality adult classes such as "Duty and Delight" and “Treasures: Discovering God’s Riches” having just begun, we have so much to be thankful for and much to look forward to as we begin our next 50 years! 

 

For more details and up to date information on the life and ministry of Our Savior, see our website at: www.oursaviorelca.com.

 

 

See you in church!     Pastor  A. C. "Jack" Diehl III  +  

 

 

home hosts needed

 

On Sunday evening, Jan. 8, eleven members of this year’s Youth Ministry Certification School (mostly from up north somewhere) will be arriving in Vero Beach for a week of Youth Ministry training.  Once again Our Savior will be the host site for this event, as we’ve done several times in the past.  Due to some unexpected events, a couple of our home host families are not able to provide housing this year.  All that is needed is a place for these students to sleep.  No meals or transportation will be required.  The classes will take place during the day, and sometimes into the evening.  The students just need a place to sleep.  They will be here beginning Sunday night and through the week.   If you have an extra bed in your home for one of these students, that would be much appreciated.  You can reply to this email or call the church office at 567-2253.   Thanks very much.  Happy 11^th Day of Christmas!  

Unusual request

 

Dear People of Our Savior,  This is kind of an unusual request and might only apply to a handful of you who live nearby…but here goes.   We would like to have some “fountains” in church this coming weekend (Jan.7-8).  I’m thinking of the kind of small, portable fountains that are in homes.   The readings this coming Sunday are around the Baptism of our Lord.  As we gather to worship around the theme of Baptism, we’d like to have a number of small fountains in our lobby, narthex and in church as reminders of the Living Water of Baptism!  The more the merrier!   If you have such a “fountain” or know of one that we could borrow just for the weekend, please reply to this email or call the church office:  772-567-2253.   Thanks very much!   

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, and Happy 8^th of the 12 Days of Christmas!   What a great way to start the New Year this past weekend, at church, around Word and Sacrament, being reminded of who we are and whose we are, and welcoming back some of our winter residents!   

 

As this New Year begins, it is especially nice having our new lobby and narthex for us to gather in before and after worship.  For those of you who might have been waiting for a special time to invite that friend, co-worker or neighbor to church, this might be that time…come and see our renovated space and experience what is happening around Our Savior. 

 

Speaking of our new space, the leaves on our “Tree of Life” continue to sprout.  If you’ve given a leaf and it isn’t up there yet, they are still in the process.  They should all be there before too long.  Also, if you’d like to give a leaf but haven’t yet, it’s never too late.  This will be an ongoing “growing” tree. 

 

Speaking of what’s happening…our Wednesday suppers resume this week (Wed. Jan. 4).  Menu includes ham, pineapple casserole, “Lutheran green beans”, parsley potatoes and desert. Supper begins at 6pm.  A donation is accepted to help cover the cost.  Also, helpers (set up, serve, clean up) are always welcome!

 

“Dancing with the Lutherans” begins Thursday evening in the Fellowship Hall.  Call Betty Lou Hamilton, 569-4117, for more info.  Sounds like fun!

 

Looking ahead to the weekend, Sunday School resumes with classes for all ages.  Please note, there are two great adult classes starting up: “Treasures: Discovering God’s Riches”, a 6 week series in room 4 facilitated by Kelly Elsebough, Mike and Lana Heinze;  and “Duty and Delight”, a new Dr. Mark Allen Powell 7 week video series, facilitated by Linda Aiken and Kent Annan, meeting in the new room off of the new narthex!  No more having to hunt around for where the adult Sunday School class is going to meet each week! 

 

Finally, by Sunday evening, 11 members of this year’s “Youth Ministry Certification School” will be arriving (mostly from up north somewhere) for a week of Youth Ministry training, here at Our Savior.  We will be contacting our host families this week who will be providing a place to sleep for these students.  You’ll be hearing more about this during worship these next couple of weekends. 

 

As the 12 days of Christmas come to a close this week, and as this New Year begins to unfold, may the peace, hope and joy of the Christmas message, that God is with us and that God’s Light permeates the darkness, go with us and fill our lives.   

 

See you in church!    Pastor Andrew C. “Jack” Diehl III  +     www.oursaviorelca.com