Vol. XXXX No. 8 August 2019 The Mission of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church is… Making Christ known through worship, education, and witness, we invite and serve the community and beyond. NEWS FROM THE HILL AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST: Sharing the Story, Living the Faith Virginia Synod ELCA
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AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST: Sharing the Story, …16 Tess Kimmel 17 Ruby Lyons Andy Priestley 22 David Stratton 26 Lynda Lyons AUGUST ANNIVERSARIES 2 Mr. & Mrs. Bill Rorer 25 Mr. & Mrs.
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Vol. XXXX No. 8 August 2019
The Mission of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church is…
Making Christ known through worship, education,
and witness, we invite and serve the community and
beyond.
NEWS FROM THE HILL AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST:
Sharing the Story,
Living the Faith
Virginia Synod
ELCA
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Thoughts from Pastor Alex…
Last month, we held a leadership retreat with Council and Committee chairs, led by the
Rev. John Wertz, an assistant to the Bishop and a Director of Evangelical Mission. At the retreat, we focused on the strengths of Our Saviour’s and discussed how we can build
upon those strengths, using the Twelve Keys for Effective Ministry. For the sake of this newsletter, I’d like to pass along some of my notes from the retreat that may be helpful
to all of us as a whole:
Average worship attendance (AWA) of a Virginia Synod congregation is around 60. And
AWA may not be the most helpful metric. "Back in the day,” there was an expectation to be in church every/ most Sundays. So with an AWA of around 100, you may have
something like 110/120 participating in the life of the church. Today, people consider themselves active if they show up once per month, so with an AWA of 100, you might
have 150/ 160 people actively participating in the life of the church. Small churches often feel like they're smaller than everyone else, but we're average. Additionally, even
if our AWA is smaller than in the past, we may have just as many (if not more) people
actively participating in the life of the congregation.
In most churches, we talk about 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. We had 20
people at our leadership retreat. And so many more of you are active in your own ways - through committees, through worship, through helping with outreach, etc. We are a
congregation that is more active than the average congregation.
Strong/ Healthy Congregations: (1) Live in the Grace and Hope of God --> We Are an
Easter People, (2) Build on Strengths, (3) Discover motivational matches (Do we talk about issues in ways that match people’s motivations?), (4) Have "excellent sprinter
possibilities" (short term or one time opportunities for people to get involved) (5) Act swiftly by spending more time doing and less time talking about doing.
We live as a movement (grounded in the Grace and Hope of God) not as an institution
We claim the strengths that God has given us ~ We need to know who we are
~ We need to know our limits/ know our strengths (we can’t be everything to everyone) ~ When we know and claim our strengths, we claim the gifts that God has given us
Our strengths are worth celebrating. And we get to tell our story. Who are we called to be in Norge and the greater Williamsburg area at this point in
time? ~ When we do better what we do best, we are in a stronger place to add new strengths.
Thank you to all of you - for all you do and for who you are. Together, we are the body of Christ in this place. We have gifts worth celebrating. We have a ministry worth
celebrating. Thank you.
Peace, Pastor Alex
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AUGUST BIRTHDAYS
2 Jennie Miller
3 Terry Zimmerman 4 Cheri Lyons
5 Taylor Lyons 9 Ken Gustafson
16 Tess Kimmel 17 Ruby Lyons
Andy Priestley 22 David Stratton
26 Lynda Lyons
AUGUST
ANNIVERSARIES
2 Mr. & Mrs. Bill Rorer 25 Mr. & Mrs. Rob Schafer
Lifting in Prayer
Church family: Phyllis Cody, Katherine Ford, Jeanne Fullman,
Ann Gautreaux, John Held, Thelma Lee, Janice Leonard,
Liesa McGhee, Teena Opheim, Bill Rorer, William Rorer, III, and Lynn Starling.
Family and Friends: Gladys Allen, Sheila
Arpei, Lois Barber, Joan Beck, Donna Benson, Raymond & Catherine Bowles, Forrest
Braukhoff, Zadie Brown, Jeffrey Browner, Bill Carpenter, Ellen Cobb, Nancy Curtis, Sean
Dalton, Larry Felts, Carl Gaulkie, Kelly Gray, Kenny Gulden, Matthew Hafer, Bunny