L rosswords - WordPress.com · 3/2/2020  · 3/1 Grief Group 6pm 3/12 RRR Readers 1pm 3/14 L Rummage Sale 3/15 St. Patrick's Day Dance 2pm 3/18 Education ake Sale 3/22 Education reakfast

LCC Crosswords

March 2020

3/1 Grief Group 6pm 3/12 RRR Readers 1pm 3/14 LCC Rummage Sale 3/15 St. Patrick's Day Dance 2pm 3/18 Education Bake Sale 3/22 Education Breakfast 3/24 Novel Ideas 7pm 3/25 New Member Orientation 6pm 3/27 LCC Community Potluck/Game Night 3/28 Middle School Mystery Event 3/29 New Member Orientation 10am

Weekly Activities Sundays: Church School 9am and 10:10am, Worship 9am and 11am, Fellowship 9:45am-11:00am

Mondays: Bell Choir Rehearsal 6pm, Choir Rehearsal 7:15pm

Tuesdays: Men’s Bible Study 6:30am, Yoga with Jessica 6:30pm

Wednesdays: Wednesday Meal 5:15pm-6:45pm, Church School 5:45pm and 6:45pm, Worship 5:45pm and 6:45pm, Confirmation 7:30pm

Thursdays: Women’s Bible Study 12:00pm and 6:00pm

March

New Member Orientation Interested in becoming a member of LCC? Please join us Wednesday, March 25th at 6:00pm or Sunday, March 29th at 10:00am in the Hospitality Room for our New Member Orientation! Email [email protected] to RSVP

Sisters and Brothers in Christ, we now journey back down the mountain where Jesus’ face shone like the sun and a cloud enveloped the disciples in a haze of brilliancy during the Transfiguration of our Lord. We now travel together as fol-lowers of Jesus through these 40 days of Lent. I wonder, what will we see, what will we hear and what will we feel as individuals and collectively as the body of Christ throughout these 40 days of Lent?

Will we experience sacred renewal when we fall back into familiar patterns of prayer, fasting and/or worship that only happen during Lent? Will we fall into new habits of contemplation, Scripture reading and/or service this particular Lenten season? Will the overwhelming love Jesus shows us through these next 40 days-from life through death on the cross for the sake of the world- fall on our hearts and melt away bitterness and heal the broken pieces? We will fall in love again or for the first time in the days and weeks to come? Will we experience a falling out with a friend, a co-worker or a member of our own family? Will we fall for the devil’s game of pointing accusing fingers and hateful stares towards our neighbors instead of extending words of mercy and acts of love to those in our community, country and world? Will we let go, will we let fall away that which keeps us from living and lov-ing like Jesus these next 40 days together on the road to Calvary? Will we feel ourselves in free fall due to circumstances outside of our control like job loss, illness, a terminal diagnosis, an unexpected death, snow storms or spring floods? Will we feel the love of a beloved church community there to pick us up when we fall down this Lent? Will we trust God’s grace when we fall short?

I for one look forward to the journey we will walk together over the next 40 days as we trust God’s promises, wrestle with our doubts, seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and learn from and with one another what to let fall away and who to cling to with all our might. Together, we will bring to the cross of Christ our fears of falling, our reluctance to let go and our deep, deep scars of past falls in life. Together we will also fall into joy, fall into laughter and fall more closely connected over this Lenten season through caring conversations, loving prayer, shared meals and shared tears, dancing, playing, reading God’s Holy Word, listening, singing, and gathering at the Lord’s Table and the baptismal font week after week.

I invite each and every one of you to join us for Lenten worship, for bible studies, for family nights and par-ents’ nights. I invite each of you to join P Joel every week for his Lenten book study exploring: Falling Upward by Richard Rohr. I invite you to let go of ‘stuff’ that you don’t need and support our amazing young people through the proceeds of the LCC Rummage Sale. I invite you to check your email, check out the LCC website-www.lcc-wf.com and look for opportunities to journey with us here at LCC this Lenten season.

Grace and Peace,

Tifani Luschen

LCC Intern Pastor

Pastor’s Message

A huge thank you to everyone who has made a financial commitment to the Give & Love

like Jesus Campaign! We’re off to a great start with 125 households pledging $781,500.

More than $180,000 has already been received. It’s never too late to make a pledge. See

below for the amazing steps that have already been taken to accomplish the ministry initia-

tives of the campaign.

Belong & Serve:

Conversations have progressed with the Interim Bishop of our Synod to allow for Intern Pastor Tifani to transition from “intern” to “associate pastor” at LCC. LCC is planning to vote to extend to Tifani a part-time call to serve our congregation upon her successful graduation from seminary and approval for ordination. Keep up the great work, Tifani!

Worship Beauty Initiative:

A tentative schedule for the restoration and re-leading of our 100+ year old stained glass windows has been set. We expect the windows to be moved from LCC’s sanctuary and taken to a studio for this work in May. The process should take about 3 months.

New components to our audio system in the sanctuary have been ordered. We expect this upgrade to significantly increase the audio quality of our incredible musicians and singers!

Care for the LCC Home:

Continued collaboration is underway with our architect at Zerr Berg (ZBA). We are now in the “design development” phase where our plans transform from concepts into specific plans. Along with the ar-chitect, mechanical engineers, electricians, and interior designers are all contributing toward the up-coming renovations. We have a very tentative start date for the work as the last week of May.

The master concept plans that were introduced to the congregation in the fall have been separated into phases. Rather than postponing much needed interior renovations given our current pledge to-tal, the Church Council separated out the new entrances into a future phase. This allows us to get started inside the building right away.

The Finance Board has been working toward getting financing for the construction in place. We are negotiating terms for a loan what will allow us to get started on renovations before all the pledges come in. We’re also planning to refinance our new special assessments in this loan.

Love Our Neighbors:

We’ve committed 2.5% of our pledges to each of our mission partners, the YWCA (Grace Garden) and Lantern Hill.

We’ll soon begin formal conversations about the necessary planning for the food bank.

Give & Love Like Jesus Campaign: Update

Finance Report

General Funds

Jan Actual Jan Budget YTD Actual YTD Budget

Worship Offering $44,573 $53,790 $44,573 $53,790

Other Income $1,718 $1,718

Operation Ex-penses $58,099 $60,849 $58,099 $60,849

Cash Flow -$11,808 -$11,807

Designated Funds

Jan Income Jan Expense YTD Income YTD Expenses

Mission $ 137 $ 561 $ 137 $ 561

Activities $ 2,705 $ 2,834 $ 2,705 $ 2,834

Coffee Bar $ 399 $ 174 $ 399 $ 174

Facility $ - $ - $ - $ -

Foundation $ - $ - $ - $ -

Give & Love Campaign $ 15,466 $ - $ 15,466 $ -

Greetings from the new treasurer and thank you to all for the dedicated financial commitment you have made to LCC. This can be a financially difficult time of year for the church with taxes and many bills due at the same time. Please consider these factors when offering so we can continue to focus on our goal of living and loving like Jesus. Have a great day! Dan Christians

Education Bake Sale & Breakfast

We will be having a Bake Sale (Wednesday,

March 18th) and Breakfast (Sunday, March

22nd) to raise funds for Education Ministries. If

you would like to help bring treats to either, head

to the sign-up.

To help bring treats for the Wednesday Bake

Sale, sign-up here: https://signup.com/go/

iDXjOhJ

To help bring items to the Sunday Breakfast, sign-

up here: https://signup.com/go/MPmDJOT

Bring your Bibles!

All 3rd, 4th, & 5th Graders are encouraged to

bring their Bibles to Church School! Bibles are

used each week to read the lesson.

Singing in Worship!

The Church School kids will be singing on…

Wednesday, March 18th (5:45 & 6:45pm)

Sunday, April 5th (9 & 11am, Palm Sunday)

Sunday, May 3rd at 10:00am

NO Church School

There will be NO CHURCH SCHOOL on…

Wednesday, April 8th (Holy Week) and

Sunday, April 12th (Easter)

Church School & Family Events Communion Education

March 22nd, 29th and

April 5th from 2:00-4:00pm

We invite our 2nd Grade stu-

dents and any interested in Communion to

these class times! Information was mailed in

February. Please RSVP to Chelsi.

2020 VBS & 2020-21 Church School

Registration

Watch your mail and email at the end of

March for registration information for 2020 VBS

and next year’s Church School!

SAVE THE DATE!

Vacation Bible School

June 1st-4th | 9:00am-12:00pm

Theme & Registration: Coming Soon!

Looking Ahead…

March 18th Wednesday Kids Sing in Worship

Spring Education Bake Sale

March 22nd Spring Education Breakfast 10-11am

Communion Workshop #1, 2-4pm

March 29th Communion Workshop #2, 2-4pm

April 1st Palm/Passion Wednesday Worship

April 5th Sunday Kids Sing in Worship

(Communion) Seder Meal, 2-4pm

April 8th No Wed. Activities & Worship (Holy Week)

April 9th Maundy Thursday, 5:30 & 7:00pm

April 10th Good Friday, 5:30 & 7:00pm

April 12th Easter Sunday (No Church School)

6th & 7th Grade Confirmation …

Don’t forget to grab your Bible BEFORE you come to large group each Wednesday.

6th-7th Grade Service Learning: During Lent (March 4th-April 1st) Confirmation Students will be par-ticipating in intentional Service Learning. They will be preparing to serve, serving others, and reflecting. On March 18th they will be going out into the community to serve in various ways—watch for emails about ser-vice night!

7th Grade Worship Debrief: Wednesday, April 15th during Confirmation. 7th Grade Students will gather together to talk about their various Worship experienc-es. Please bring your Confirmation packet!

7th Grade Small Group Worship Assistants

March 4th & 11th: Kary/Harvey’s Small Group

March 18th & 25th: Suzanne Haugen’s Small Group

April 1st: Carrie Warren’s Small Group

April 8th: No Wednesday Worship (Holy Week)

April 15th: Carrie Warren’s Small Group

Wednesday Meal Servers

Please be here by 5:00pm to set-up and serve. Meal is served from 5:15-6:45pm.

March 4th: McKenna G, Reese L, Landon T, & Brady W.

March 11th: Brierre F, Megan O, & Olivia W.

March 18th: Caden G, Ethan L, Brady P, & Ethan R.

March 25th: Reed K, Dale M, Eli S, Nolan S, & Soren R.

April 1st: Lily H, Lauren H, Cole D, & Cole M.

April 8th: No Meal (Holy Week)

Confirmation News 8th Grade Confirmation…

Prayer Leaders

March 4th: Jamison Barth

March 11th: Carter Mastrud

March 18th: Tony Leal

March 25th: Kaitlin Langstaff

April 1st: Brady Wohl

April 8th: No Wednesday Worship (Holy Week)

Upcoming Service Opportunities

Worship Assistants: With Ash Wednesday and Holy Week coming, we are in need of extra Ushers and Communion Assistants. Call the Office 701.282.0514 to volunteer.

VBS Leaders: June 1st-4th from 9:00am-12:00pm. VBS will need Small Group Leaders, Station Leaders, and other needs. Let Chelsi know if you’re interested!

Confirmation Expectation Reminder…

All 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Graders are to attend and complete Lenten Worship Notes for the services. Palm/

Passion Service (April 1st or 5th), Maundy Thursday (April 9th), Good Friday (April 10th), and Easter (April

12th) Services.

If you have any questions on this, please let Chelsi or Pastor Megan know.

Youth Ministry News Rummage Sale

Mark your calendars! The LCC 2020 Rummage Sale is happening on March 14th

from 8:00am to 12:30pm. This is a great opportunity to help fundraise for

the youth attending both the middle and high school mission trips this sum-

mer. If you have “too much stuff and not enough space” consider donating it

and bringing it to the church! Youth will be here and happy to help unload on

the following dates:

Donated items only accepted during specific drop off times.

Sunday, March 1st from 10am to 12:30pm

Thursday, March 5th from 4pm to 6pm

Sunday, March 8th from 10am to 12:30pm

Tuesday, March 10th from 2 to 6pm

Please let Youth Director Halie know if your drop off will need special accom-

modations.

Middle School Mystery Event Night

Middle Schoolers!! Who do you think did it? Pastor Joel? Pastor Megan or Tif-

fani? Chelsi? Join for a night of fun, food, mystery and fellowship! On March

28th, 2020 from 6 to 10pm, all 6th through 8th graders are invited to try to

figure out who did it (and an escape room). RVSP through email to Youth Direc-

tor Halie by March 18th. Questions? Contact Halie at [email protected]

Middle School & High School Mission Trips

It is not too late! We still have spots available on both of our trips!! Middle

schoolers are headed to Minneapolis, MN June 14th to 17th and High Schoolers

(Current 9 through 12) are off to Chicago July 26th to Aug 1st. Let Youth Direc-

tor Halie or Pastor Megan know you are interested, and we can provide more

information!

Youth Group

Attention High Schoolers! Youth Group with Halie meets every Wednesday

from 7:40 to 8:15 in the youth room. Check the youth ministry board in the

Crossway Center for more details on upcoming events. From music, art, prayer,

sushi and more, there is something for everyone! Bring your friends, all are

welcome!

Our Upper Elementary Church School kids spent January prepar-

ing and advertising for the 2020 Souper Bowl of Caring event!

They asked LCC to bring food items and monetary donations to

support local food pantries and organizations. LCC responded

loudly and boldly! We collected noisy offering at 4 worship ser-

vices and collected $1005.72. Along with the offerings, we gath-

ered 62 pounds of canned and non-perishable food items for lo-

cal food pantries. WOW! THANK YOU!

Life Together:

LCC Grief Group Sunday, March 1, 2020

6-7:30pm– Hospitality Room

This is a time of fellowship, prayer, and support for

anyone experiencing grief and loss of any kind.

Whether your grief is recent or from years past, you

are welcome to attend!

Please contact Intern Pastor Tifani for more

information: [email protected] or 701-282-0514

Sunday, March 15 2-5pm

Lutheran Church of the Cross, West Fargo

ALL ARE WELCOME! Click up your leprechaun

heels and dance! Enjoy live music! Bring your family!

Invite your friends and neighbors!

Questions? Contact Tifani: [email protected] & 701-282-0514

St. Patrick’s Day

Dance! Free Will Donation

& Light Snacks

for Sale

All proceeds support Education Ministries! If you would like to bring

items to share, let Chelsi know. ([email protected])

LCC Education

Breakfast Sunday, March 22nd

10:00-11:00am

LCC Education

Bake Sale

March 18th | 5:30-6:45pm

All proceeds support Education Ministries! If you would like to bring

Women’s

March Bible

Study For the month of March, Women’s Bible Study will be study-

ing Rob Bells’ fascinating book, “Love Wins.” The title says it

all— it’s “a book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every

person who ever lived. “

If you’ve wondered about these big questions, this book is for you. Even if you haven't’ joined

the Bible Study thus far, feel free to join at any point along the journey!

We can’t promise we’ll answer every question, but the discussion promises to be deeply

worthwhile.

Reading Schedule:

Thurs. March 5th: Chapter 4 “Does God Get What God Wants?” Thurs. March 12th: Chapter 5 “Dying to Live” Thurs. March 19th: Chapter 6 “There are Rocks Everywhere” Thurs. March 26th: Chapter 7 “The Good News Is Better Than That” Thurs. April 2nd: Chapter 8 “The End is Here” Thurs. April 9th: Maundy Thursday/Holy Week; no Bible Studies

Location:

The Thursday, noon, Bible Study meets in Classroom 7—and lasts exactly 1 hour to give folks time to get back to work after lunch. The evening Bible Study, 6pm-7pm , meets in the Hospitality Room. Questions? Or curious about other Women’s Ministry events? Email Pastor Megan to be added to the Women’s Ministry Email List. [email protected]

Maundy Thursday

(April 9th)

5:30 & 7:00pm

Good Friday (April 10th)

5:30pm: A hands on exploration of

the Good Friday story for our busy worship-

pers in the Fellowship Hall.

7:00pm: Prayer Around the Cross: a

reflective time of prayer, music, and

gathering in the Sanctuary.

Easter Sunday Worship

(April 12th)

6:30am | 8:00am

9:30am | 11:00am

Easter Breakfast

7:30-9:30am

Sunday, April 12 th

7:30-9:30am Fel lowship Hal l

P lease watch fo r opportun i t ies to donate food

and vo lunteer se rv ing.

Any quest ions p lease contact Che l s i Mar t ian

che l s i@ lcc-wf .com or 701 .282 .0514.

Family Fare Receipts We continue to collect Family Fare receipts. Our goal is $150,000 in receipts; in return, we receive $1000 that is used for youth programming at LCC. Our current total is $80,419. Please drop off your receipts in the collection box located in the Cross Way Cen-ter. Thanks for your support on this project!

PieceMaker Quilting Group

The PieceMaker quilt group will be meeting March 3rd at 6:30pm & March 12th and 26th at 9:30am. We are currently making quilts for the Red River Children's Advocacy Program. Any questions, please email [email protected]. All are wel-come.

Attention Amazon Shoppers! Support Lutheran Church of the Cross by shopping with Amazon Smile! Just enter "Lutheran Church of the Cross" in West Fargo as your charity prior to shopping. (Must check out through Amazon Smile) After that, Amazon donates 0.5% of all el-igible purchases to the church! Click the link below to get connected. https://smile.amazon.com/ch/45-0360370

The next meeting of Novel Ideas will be Tuesday, March 24 in the church library at 7pm.

March 24 Tara Westover Educated

April 28 Jamie Ford Love and Other Consolation Prizes

May 26 Kristen Hannah The Nightingale

June 23 Sally Field In Pieces

July 28 Stephanie Dray & Laura Kaye My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton

August 25 John Hart The King of Lies

September 22 Lynda Cohen-Loigman The Two-Family House: A Novel

Anyone is welcome to attend; even if you just want to come once in a while to enjoy the dis-cussion of the book-of-the-month if that's what interests you.

RRR BOOK CLUB RRR Book Club meets on the second Thursday of the month at 1pm in the LCC Library. We dis-cuss a variety of books. All are welcome! If you have any questions, feel free to contact Max-ine Beseler at 701-400–7760 or [email protected]. Upcoming reads are : March – No Biking in the House without a Helmut – Mellissa Fay Greene (Erlene has) April – Olive Kitteridge– Elizabeth Strout (Erlene has) May – Defending Jacob– William Landay (Erlene has) June – Dodgers– Bill Beverly (Erlene has)

NOVEL IDEAS

Lutheran Church of the Cross 1402 16th St E ~ West Fargo, ND 58078

(701) 282-0514

www.lcc-wf.com

Contact Us:

Pastor Joel Baranko: [email protected]

Pastor Megan Casper: [email protected]

Intern Pastor Tifani Luschen: [email protected]

Kylee Lisburg, Office Administrator: [email protected]

Chelsi Martian, Education Director: [email protected]

Halie Van Vleet, Youth Ministry: [email protected]

Chad Svenby, Dir. of Music & Arts Ministry: [email protected]

Maxine Beseler, Choir Director: [email protected]

Sean Rebischke, Bell Choir Director: [email protected]

Jakub Pasierb, Worship Accompanist