Sundays: 8:30 am Worship Service 10:00 am Children and Adult Sunday School 11:00 am Worship Service Wednesdays: 5:30 pm Homework Help Pastor Michael Millum 3305 Lawrenceville Highway Lawrenceville, GA 30044 770-381-1293 www.tisgrace.org October 2018 NEWSLETTER
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FIRST COMMUNION Amazing Grace is preparing to celebrate the First Holy Communion of four of our
children, as well as a baptism on Sunday, October 7 at the 11:00 a.m. service. First Holy
Communion is appropriately being celebrated this year on World Communion Sunday
which is always observed on the first Sunday in October. Savannah Calabrese, Ismael
Lopez, Gavin Marchman, and Christopher Palma attended classes led by Pastor Mike with
the assistance of Becky O’Brien in September. The photos included show some of the
active learning these children did in preparation for their First Holy Communion. Gavin
Marchman will also be baptized on October 7. These children are excited about this
special occasion, and we are blessed at Amazing Grace to be able to celebrate this day
with them. It is indeed a special occasion when we have the opportunity to help our
children grow in their faith, and welcome a newly baptized member into the life of our
congregation. Please come on Sunday, October 7 and celebrate with our children!
Children are preparing for
their First Communion!
SECOND ANNUAL FALL FESTIVAL In October of last year, not long after Pastor Mike and Deb Millum arrived at AGLC, the
planned and led the First Fall Festival for the elementary age children of the
congregation. The event included outdoor games, pumpkin carving and painting, as
well as contests and a raffle. This year the event will be sponsored by the Middle School
and High School Youth Group, as part of their service to the congregation. They will
plan this year’s activities and games and provide leadership for the event, as part of
their active service to AGLC.
The date of AGLC’s Second Annual Fall
Festival for children has been changed to
October 20 at 4:30 p.m. The event will
include relay games outdoors (weather
permitting of course). There will be food
and candy, pumpkin carving and/or
painting, and prizes. And of course there
will be lots of fun!!!!
The Fall Festival will last approximately
three hours and conclude no later than
7:30 p.m.
PASTOR LED BIBLE STUDY
The Bible Study led by Pastor Mike will not meet this Tuesday, October 9, due to the
monthly Congregation Council meeting. However, when it returns the following week,
on October 16 at 6:30 p.m., the group will be studying 1, 2 & 3 John. These are three
short New Testament letters. For anyone who has considered attending, but did not
want to commit to a lengthy study, this new study is ideal. We should be able to get
through the letters of John in four or five weeks, so it will be a short-term commitment.
We look forward to your participation and of course all are welcomed and encouraged!
The Magi Conference Men’s Retreat
Date: October 19-21, 2018
Place: Lutheranch: McKanna-Sandrock Retreat Center
Cost: $166 per person (double occupancy)
Includes 4 meals (3 Saturday & 1 Sunday)
Includes 2 nights stay
Theme: “Being Kind” (How to find hope and meaning in
a Spirit filled community.)
We all need a time set apart for renewal.
Join us at Lutheranch for a time of fellowship, Bible study,
meals together and free time. Some free time activities are
kayaking, hiking, fishing, exploring the local community or
napping.
Register and Pay on www.transformlives.org.
Amazing Grace Lutheran Church Council Minutes
September 11 2018 @ 7:00PM In Attendance: Lisa Larsen-Moss, Trish Ladd-Thomas, Liz Linke, Debbie Teal, Lee Bennett, Bob MacKinnon, Wayne Linke, Vickie Speddon, Pastor Mike Absent: Pam Rink, Bob Lee Guests: Parry Moss Opening devotional: Pastor Mike Spiritual Autobiography: Liz Linke Secretary’s Report: The August minutes were approved via email by consensus on August 27 2018.
Combined Treasurer and Financial Administrator’s Report for August August 2018 Regular Giving was $11,069.00, which is $3,831.00 under budget. Expenses were $17,507.42, which was $40.90 under budget. Hopefully, September will be a better month for Giving. August 2018 YTD Income was $8,682.52 less than August 2017 YTD Income. August 2018 YTD Expenses were $12,218.37 more than August 2017 YTD Expenses. 2018 Year to Date Giving/Income is $3096.02 over budget. 2018 Year to Date Expenses are $3,486.89 under budget. Dedicated Accounts – We have a balance of $34,527.10 in various accounts, which includes August 2018 receipts of $998.00 and expenses of $1,050.00. August 2018 cash on hand is $102,000.59 which includes $34,527.10 in Dedicated funds; therefore, not in reserve/not liquid for general expenses.
THE COMBINED REPORTS ARE APPROVED BY CONSENSUS VOTE
PASTOR’S REPORT FOR AUGUST 1. Hospital visits = 2 2. Home visits = 6 3. Stut-in/Homebound = 4 4. Office visits = 4 5. Church meetings = 6 6. Bible Studies = 3 7. Worship services/preaching=4 8. No funerals, weddings or baptisms in the last month. 9. Rally Day (September 16) has been preoccupying great deal of time in the planning. It is certainly a unique take on Rally Day for me. I have always tried to plan a service and a day that stressed celebration of congregational life and fun for kids as the church anticipates the return of Christian Education. However, I have never blatantly brought a American cultural experience, such as the beginning of a new football season into worship before. In fact, I’m quite certain that in my younger days I wouldn’t have done it. But in this congregation, and in the climate of the south, it seems a much more acceptable approach and in fact no one knowing the thematic approach for Rally Day has raised any objections…yet. We’ll see what happens following the service that day. But, I do want to get across the message that we have much to celebrate as a people of God. There are so many blessings we often fail to acknowledge, and even the hard work we are given to do on behalf of Jesus is a blessing because it is so meaningful and purposeful. My hope is that we can successfully build up enthusiasm, not only for Sunday school and established ministries at AGLC, but also for those we are hoping to launch, and get some momentum going for the work that lies ahead of us that we are hoping will result in some needed growth and revitalization. The tendency of so many Christians, especially Lutherans, to be so stodgy and stoic doesn’t serve us well. It is one of the reason we can’t keep young people involved in the church. They find it so boring and irrelevant. My hope is that we will have a truly exceptional celebration on Sunday! I am grateful to Judie
Lee who has volunteered to make some cheerleader blouses for kids to wear during the service, and of course to Lois who is handling the formation of a brass group to be the pep band for the service. 10.I have already had a great deal to say about the formation of our youth fellowship group. I talked about the kick-off retreat in my last report. Now that the retreat has happened I’m happy to report that I don’t see how it could have gone much better. The kids, six of whom were from families who are members of AGLC, four of whom are connected through Homework Help, jelled really well, though none of them go to school together. What I am learning about the youth here in this congregation, especially the Hispanic teenagers, is that they are more respectful of adults than I am accustomed to. They were very willing to do all the activities I had planned for them on the retreat. Nobody complained or rolled their eyes or said anything disrespectful on the retreat. If you read my newsletter article on the retreat you saw some of the great feedback we got from the youth. Now that we have made such a good beginning, we have to keep the momentum going, and we do have a number of other things planned for the fall through December. 11.God’s Work, Our Hands Sunday was a success from the standpoint that we had strong attendance at the service (though not necessarily for the projects we planned afterward), and because we were able to complete the exchange of members going to All Saints and AGLC to present ministries and needs to each congregation. So I believe this is a positive beginning to the shared ministry emphasis between the two congregations. We have had a member of All Saints who has come and helped as a tutor at homework help the last two Wednesdays. And Pastor Kim Stover has visited as well. I will certainly plan to visit Family Promise the next time All Saints hosts, and I believe my wife is also planning to get involved. Rock painting and the making of the snack bags was successful from the standpoint that we got all the rocks painted, and the adults and children who helped really enjoyed the project I think. Additionally about 100 snack bags were assembled. Thanks to everyone who led the activities and participated! 12.The office situation is still a work in progress, though I feel we have a direction at this point. Unfortunately for Thinh Tran, the job he had in the field he is preparing for didn’t work out because of conflicts with his class schedule. So for now AGLC is his sole employer, and he is able to have more of a presence in the office. He is currently coming in to the office, in the afternoons mostly Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thinh knows the publishing aspect of the job very well, without anyone needing to train him or show him anything additional. And of course we know how skilled he is with computers. We have been supplementing his efforts with volunteers, Sandee Page has given a considerable amount of volunteer time, and Nannette Stariha has also given some time, to answering phones, straightening out the sanctuary, and assisting with the weekly email and newsletter. Thus far I think we have covered most all of the bases. If we can make this set up work for the present it has the added benefit of getting us down to one office salary to take some stress of the budget. I regard this as temporary, because eventually Thinh is going to want to seek employment in his field once again. But my hope is that for the foreseeable future we can keep office staff to one paid staff member besides the pastor of course. 13.I have once again been participating in Homework Help as a volunteer tutor. 14.Confirmation is underway for the year again. We currently have 3 confirmands: Travis Connor has joined Johnny Palma and Sarah Calabrese in the class. The class will be back down to two when Sarah is confirmed on Reformation Sunday in October. Because Confirmation met rather inconsistently at the beginning of the Fall last year, there is still ground that must be made up for Sarah. So I will be trying to schedule a Saturday session of three hours or so to make up ground that was lost and get her ready to be confirmed. We are starting the year with a focus on the Reformation and the Small Catechism. 15.Once again it appears I will be teaming with Judie Lee to teach First Communion classes. The classes will probably meet the final two Sundays of September once the dust settles from Rally Day, with a view toward celebrating First Communion on the First Sunday in October which is World Communion Sunday. It is not clear how many children we will have. There are several homework help kids who might participate as well as one from a member family. Judie and I will be firming this up, and issue the invites! 16.There are potential new members who have been worshiping with us, and in families active in homework help. I will continue to try to ascertain interest level and availability, and hope to
be able to announce the formation of a membership class in the next month. COMMISSION REPORTS
Nurture – Vickie Speddon
This month Nurture is still moving forward with getting the different group ministries to communicate with me on their group activities and status updates. With Rally Day being next Sunday, I am trying to make sure that all ministries are represented and make themselves available to those who might have an interest in learning more about them and or joining in with those involved. Large group has Lud busy with Via De Cristo Ultreya group get together here at AGLC on Saturday, 9-15-18. Then he will help us kick off Rally Day as well on Sunday 9-16-18. There is much hope that people will set up and sign up and help out in this much needed group so that we can all continue to enjoy the events and potlucks we want to see going on here at AGLC. Our Visitation Ministers, with presently 11 members, are very much getting involved and enjoying their visits to the homebound. It is a great service that we are blessed to offer our AGLC members that can’t make it to our usual church services. They are so eager to be kept aware of all that is going on and this ministry is looking to fill that void for them. Getting them a copy of the church monthly newsletter and perhaps phones calls around the middle of the month are currently the 2 ways they are trying to accomplish this. Any other suggestions to help would be welcomed. They have been blessed with 2 more portable communion kits and so a big thank you goes out to the donor of those to the ministry as well as to Debi Linke for finding one she had at home and was able to return to the group. A big void is going to be felt with the card ministry that Linda MacKinnon had been doing for as far back as I can remember. If anyone would like to take over this ministry please let me know. There are presently no new members working on classes with Pastor but perhaps that will change in the future.
Discipleship – Bob MacKinnon
We have 7 teachers for children’s Sunday School, along with 2 substitutes! Thank you to everyone who volunteered to teach this year. We’ve purchased a new digital curriculum that all teachers can access through the website, using money in the Education dedicated fund. The teaching rotation has been sent to teachers and the office to be included in the back page of the bulletin, and so weekly reminder emails can be sent.
Outreach – Wayne Linke
• Amazing Grace is scheduled to serve dinner to the Campus Ministry at GT on October 23. Wayne
• As part of “God’s Work, Our Hands”, eleven AGLC members joined hands with 25-30 other volunteers on Saturday September 8th to work on 2 new Habitat homes along Old Norcross Rd. in Duluth. Our tasks included general site cleanup, cutting and nailing support blocks for cabinets and shelves, sealing/calking exterior siding and soffits, and installing support posts for the front porch overhang. It was hot, it was dirty, it was tiring, but it was fun - a day filled with laughter, fellowship, and good food. Thank you to the Amazing Grace volunteers that gave their time and their hands (…and backs and legs) so that God’s work could be done. David Berfield
• As one inside part of “God’s Work, Our Hands”, 100 snack bags were assembled including a handmade thank you card in each one. They were distributed to 4 local Gwinnett County Fire stations. Debbie Teal
• Another inside part of “God’s Work, Our Hands” was rocks being painted to be randomly distributed along walking paths in our community. Trish
• Pastor Bob Bear and Ginger Peterson presented a Temple Talk about the Guatemala Synod’s effort called the MILAGRO (miracle) Women’s Education Center, and what their needs are that we might help with. Jimmy Herchek
• Scheduled blood drives: Sunday Nov. 18, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM- suggest we do a low-country-boil for this one, Sunday Jan. 13, 9:00 AM-1:00 pm, Sunday March 10 9:00 AM-1:00 PM. Bob MacKinnon
• Last week our Facebook posts reached 444 people, 18 people visited our page, 14 people checked in at our church, and 65 people engaged our page. We have 293 people who are linked to our page. Wayne
Worship & Music – Debbie Teal
• Rally Day, Sunday, September 16 after the 10am service, will be a time of re-commitment and recruitment for Hospitality, Acolytes, Readers, Children Messengers, PowerPoint Operators, Worship Assistants, etc. These duties are scheduled for couple months at a time rather than month by month and the office and I are trying to coordinate not to overburden a person who volunteers to do multiple duties for the church.
• Attended Staff Meeting August 15 and Sept. 5 to discuss Worship and Music items.
• Next year we need to re-evaluate having 1 or 2 services during the summer months. We did miss seeing 3-4 of the normal 8:30am service family units by having one service at 10am.
• If we have one 10am service in the summer, we need some sun blocking materials on the upper windows to prevent sun on the left screens. The PowerPoint background is nearly white and the font is as big and dark as it can be. The members sitting on the right side haven’t mentioned any difficulty in seeing the written words on the screens. Therefore, the problem is the sunshine during the summer at the 10am services.
• Brainstormed ideas to shorten length of announcements. Implementation of a few ideas coming soon.
• May develop different hymns for 8:30 service when Celebration or Guitar service is conduct-ed at 11:00 service.
• There are more people desiring to re-focus on the reason for Passing of the Peace, which is Reconciliation, and keep it to members beside, in front, and behind you. One recommendation is to encourage socialization/conversations to take place before or after service (not during).
• Blessing of the Animals will likely happen one Sunday afternoon in October.
• First Communion will be taught by Judie Lee and Pastor Mike likely in September and then a Sunday will be picked.
• Advent services mid-week will very likely happen. We just have to figure out HH, Church service, and Choir scheduling.
• Choir rehearsals will restart Wednesday, September 5th at 7:15pm.
• Choir Cantata will be Sunday, December 16 at the 11am Service. I will talk with 8:30 attendees about possibly not having the 8:30 service that day.
• Children’s Christmas Program date to be finalized soon. Deb and Pastor Mike already have an idea, so looking forward to that program.
• Met on Sept. 5th with Connie, Judie and Pastor to discuss Altar Guild items, such as:
• Judie will continue to make Confirmation stoles – Confirmation will be Reformation Sunday, October 28th.
• Judie has agreed to make baptismal napkins, which is a fond keepsake to those who are baptized at AGLC, in memory of Linda MacKinnon’s dedicated service to this task.
• Pastor and Connie will discuss Advent imaginary.
• Christmas Decorating will likely happen on the morning of Saturday December 8th, which is before the 2nd Sunday of Advent. We will be requesting volunteers.
• Altar Guild’s Wishlist proposal being given to council for consideration.
• We still need one or two Sound System Volunteers. Please let Debbie or Lois know if you’re interested.
Property – Lee Bennett
• Repaired the picture frame in the Ladies bathroom. It was knocked off the wall, shattered and was left where it fell.
• Assisted Al Pichetto finish installing the network router for the fellowship hall and complete the setup for the Homework Help PC. Thank you Al.
• Set up the dehumidifier for the fellowship hall.
COMMISSION REPORTS ARE APPROVED BY CONSENSUS VOTE
Old Business
• Term Call Update
• Agenda for Special Meeting 9/16
• Compensation Package
• Employee Manual - after discussion on changes made to the employee manual, the council voted to approve the employee manual.
• Office Administrator Position - see item 12 in Pastor’s report for info regarding the state of the office
New Business
• Update alarm call list/alarm discussion
• 2/3 of the names on the list are individuals who don’t live close to the church, one of whom is no longer a member. Lee will contact the alarm company to update the list.
• Liz emailed Bob Lee with some questions about the cost/savings of the alarm.
• Bathroom Situation was discussed.
• Back wall screens - when we have musicians in the front of the sanctuary, they are not able to follow along with the screens during the service. They would like to install a screen on the back wall. Council requests that they send their request with details and cost, and what they need from the church or the council to be discussed at the October Council meeting.
• Lois would like to use the fellowship hall on Friday evening from 5:45-6:30 PM for piano lessons. She has 12 students in her class. APPROVED
• Lisa has requested from Rudy Beilfuss (chairman of the HOST committee) for a list of the hierarchy of Homework Help leaders as there are some situations that need to be addressed. Wayne & Pastor will handle addressing the situation.
Thank You’s
• Thank you to everyone who provided special music and special altar/sanctuary imagery during the summer months.
• Thank you to Bob and Judie Lee for the generous donation of a dehumidifier for the fellowship hall.
• Thank to the folks who brought in and donated home communion kits to the visitation ministry!
• Thank you to everyone who helped with Outreach functions in August. Spiritual Autobiography for next month: Lee Bennett Closing Prayer CONSENSUS TO ADJOURN Respectfully submitted by Liz Linke.