WWW.STMARKSTJOE.COM
St. Mark
Evangelical Church in Saint Joe now has its own website!
The new
address is owned by the church. It
will appear on all business cards, letterheads, bulletins,
newsletters and the sign out front.
Merle R. Holden,
Minister, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Saint Joe, In.
Merle R. Holden, Pastor
Member of
Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ
ST MARK, JANUARY 2012
NEWSLETTER
ANNUAL
MEETING JANUARY 29!
Our
annual congregational business meeting will be January 29 following
worship.
We will
vote on a new 2012 church budget and may well vote on a
recommendation from the church council for a new roof for the church
this coming summer!
A
carry-in dinner will follow with the church furnishing the meat
dish, table service and drink.
NEW CHURCH PICTURE DIRECTORY COMING SOON!
The
pictures have all been taken and we should have our new directory
around January 20!
A big
thank-you to everyone who took the time to come in and have your
picture taken!
Also a
big thank-you to Tammy Miller for all her work on this project!
Be
sure to check our church web site regularly for updates! In recent
weeks we have added a bunch of pictures and the sermon from each
Sunday is posted no later than the Tuesday after!
So if you
miss a Sunday service you can still get the sermon!
FOUR FRIENDS TO SING JANUARY 15!
They
sang for us before and if you like Gospel singing you will really
love this group!
The group
includes the daughter of Gaynelle Lake, Karen Trenary and the
brother of Janice Hancock, Walter Treesh.
ANOTHER
FIRST COMMUNION COMING!
January 15
Jensen Snyder, daughter of Troy and Michelle Snyder and
granddaughter of Mary Lu and Rex Snyder will acolyte and take her
first communion.
From then on Jensen
will be on the regular rotation for being an acolyte.
How we rejoice and
praise God for this fine young lady as she continues to grow in
the faith!
Jensen received
instruction from Pastor Merle and the Pastor was confident Jensen
knew the meaning of communion..
CONGREGATIONAL BUSINESS
MEETING ON DECEMBER 4!
There was a very
important congregational business meeting following worship on
December 4.
Three members were
elected to the church council-Todd Haase for a 2nd 3 year
term and Lynette Schlemmer and Jackie Griffin for first time 3 year
terms.
How we rejoice that
these 3 are willing to serve in this most important roll!
Also it was agreed
by all that we would purchase a new 10 foot by 16 foot storage
building with vinyl siding, garage door and treated floor.
Kim Krafft is
preparing a limestone foundation for the building and using paving
stones for a walk way to it.
It will be placed
just west of the old outhouse and is badly needed.
Now we need
donations to the BUILDING FUND above and beyond your regular
offerings!
We will need a new
roof on the church this coming summer and we need new carpet in the
basement and entry way to the church.
So we need to step
up and make some extra offerings to the BUILDING FUND over the next
few months!
JANUARY
BIRTHDAYS
2 - MIRANDA
HINCHMAN
5 - DEB
KRAFFT
9 - MADILYNN
SNYDER
10 - DELORES
EMENHISER, KYLER SNYDER
18 - KIM WOEBBEKING
20 - JOHN MASON
22 - PATTY SNYDER
30 - REX SNYDER
ANNIVERSARIES
No one
married in January!
Are we missing your birthday or wedding
anniversary?
Just let Judith Holden know and we will
put you on the list!
On the Sunday prior to your birthday the
entire church will sing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!
THE LUTHERAN FOUNDATION MEETING
Pastor
Merle and Judith had lunch with the two top leaders of The Lutheran
Foundation on Thursday, December 8 at noon at the Trolley Bar on
Dupont Road in Ft. Wayne.
Marcia
Haaff, Executive Director, and Yohannes Mengsteab, Director of
Ministry Programs, represented the Lutheran Foundation.
Representatives were also present from 3 Missouri Synod
churches-Promise, Prince of Peace and Ascension plus one ELCA
church-Holy Trinity at Harlan.
The
largest of the 5 churches represented was Ascension which has about
330 at worship weekly.
All 5 are
roughly in the same geographic area.
Following
a delicious meal and a time of fellowship the LF people asked each
church for what were there challenges and what have been their
success stories.
Marcia
asked Pastor Holden to tell about the success of our church with
Vacation Bible School and our advertising campaign.
Everyone
found the meeting to be most beneficial.
In the
next stage of things, Reverend Dr. Mengsteab will be coming out to
the churches to talk to the pastors on site.
Our church
receives $10,000 each year for outreach and these funds have paid
for the newspaper advertising and VBS.
Once again
this year there are some changes in the grant guidelines but nothing
so far that would appear to change our grant.
Now there
are only two deadlines, December 1 and if you miss that one, May 1
so it becomes even more critical to meet the first grant deadline!
Our
application is already in the mail for 2012!
The
Lutheran Foundation also paid for half of the cost of our 2007
addition to the church.
CHURCH COUNCIL CONSIDERING SOME PROJECTS!
Your
church council is in the process of discussing some projects to
better our church.
Maintenance is something that we must always keep up on and we have
a severe shortage of storage space.
One
thing to help with storage is to place wire shelving above the
kitchen counter. This has been done and really helps keep things
organized and uses space much better!
New
Carpet in Basement-Our present carpet is starting to really show
wear and more people see it then see the worship center carpet
because of outreach dinners and the mother-daughter banquet.
We have
been told we must have a new roof over the church next year!
We
certainly got our monies worth out of the present roof as it was put
on in the late 1980’s!
Estimated cost is $11,976.60 if we remove old shingles and $8979.20
if we put the new shingles on top of the old ones..
If we
went with a metal roof, which would last indefinitely, the cost is
$21,976.00.
The
final project is more long term but it involves preserving the bell
tower.
We had a
temporary repair done several years ago but now we want to get it
fixed correctly and more lasting and this will take some money!
David
Snyder and Laune Mason are contractors and will provide some much
needed guidance on this project.
The
Snyders are looking into possible grants to help with this project
and as you know, when dealing with grants, it can take a long time!
But in
the meantime contributions to THE BUILDING FUND will really help!
While we
were paying off our loan for the addition to the church we were
taking in over $12,000 per year into the Building Fund!
But what
will not help is cutting back on your budget offering and putting
that into the Building Fund!
Building
Fund offerings should be above and beyond your regular offering as
God has blessed you!
I have
no doubt we can raise the funds to keep the church facility in top
notch condition!
We have
been tested before and we passed the test, now lets do it again!
WORSHIP ASSISTANTS FOR JANUARY, 2012
ST. MARK LUTHERAN CHURCH
JANUARY 1
ACOLYTE: ZACHARY HART
GREETERS:JANICE HANCOCK, TAMMY MILLER
USHERS: REMINGTON CLINE, CALEB KEEN
READER: DEB MASON
COMMUNION ASSISTANT-LYNETTE SCHLEMMER
REFRESHMENTS: TAMMY MILLER
JANUARY 8
ACOLYTE-MADILYNN SNYDER
GREETERS: , DEB AND LAUNE MASON
USHERS: ALYSON BOGER, LINDSEY BOGER
READER: MARILYN SNYDER
COMMUNION ASSISTANT-JACKIE GRIFFIN
REFRESHMENTS-LOLA CLINE
JANUARY 15
ACOLYTE –JENSEN SNYDER
GREETERS: BETTY AND NELSON HEISLER
USHERS: NIC SHEWMAN, CALEB KEEN
READER: GARY WOEBBEKING
COMMUNION ASSISTANT-LOLA CLINE
REFRESHMENTS-KELBY AND ZONDA MUSSELMAN
JANUARY 22
ACOLYTE-CHLOE GARRISON
GREETERS: MARY LU AND REX SNYDER
USHERS: LINDSEY BOGER, ALYSON BOGER
READER: LYNETTE SCHLEMMER
COMMUNION ASSISTANT: DEB MASON
REFRESHMENTS: TODD AND LORIE HAASE
JANUARY 29
ACOLYTE: ALEX HOLDEN
GREETERS: TAMMY MILLER, ZACHARY HART
USHERS: AUSTIN REYNOLDS, RICK HOLDEN
READER –PATTY SNYDER
COMMUNION ASSISTANT-TROY SNYDER
REFRESHMENTS-CARRY-IN
WOMEN OF THE WORD!
Fifteen Christmas
baskets were prepared by the women on Thursday, December 8th. The
baskets were full , and there was even some food left over. Thanks
to all who helped by bringing in food for the Christmas baskets!
After this, those helping shared a carry-in lunch.
The WOW booklets for 2012 were distributed in December. They
contain lists of all who signed up to serve by cleaning the church,
helping with the altar, and dedicating flowers for this coming
year. If your family did not receive a booklet, please let Merle or
one of our officers know. Booklets are available in the Pastor’s
office.
January 12th is our next scheduled meeting. We will return to
our study of Bad Girls of the Bible with Mary Lu leading the lesson
on Rahab who was Bad for a Season, but not Forever. Judith H. and
Shirley Mc. Are the hostesses. Meet at 1:00 p.m. in the church
basement.
Those serving in
January are:
Altar: Mary Lu Snyder & Nikki Garrison
Cleaning:Mary Lu Snyder and Nikki Garrison
Flower dedication:
Jan. 1: Kim and Deb Krafft
Jan. 8: Lynn & Susie Witt
in memory of Esther Coburn
Jan. 15: Janice Hancock
in memory of Walt & Mary M. Treesh
Jan. 22: Gary & Kim Woebbeking
Jan. 29: Gary & Kim Woebbeking
in memory of Sherilyn Greenfield.
JANUARY HYMNS
January 1-1st SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS
BLESSED ASSURANCE-638
I’LL FLY AWAY
WHAT A FELLOWSHIP, WHAT A JOY DEVINE-774
January 8-BAPTISM OF OUR LORD
423-SHALL WE GATHER AT THE RIVER
SWEET BY AND BY
PRECIOUS LORD TAKE MY HAND-773
January 15-2ND EPIPHANY
FOUR FRIENDS MUSICAL GROUP
AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND-779
January 22-, 3RD EPIPHANY
JESUS CALLS US, OVER THE TUMULT, 696
I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY-661
JUST AS I AM WITHOUT ONE PLEA-592
January 29-4th EPIPHANY
(Remington Cline will play the piano for
the entire service)
JESUS LOVES ME-595
WHEN PEACE LIKE A RIVER-785
AMAZING GRACE, HOW SWEET THE SOUND-779
CHILI COOK-OFF FEBRUARY 17!
Its coming again!
Another Chili Cook-off!
Friday, February 17,2012 from 5 to 7pm!
Bring a pot of your favorite chili and we
will vote for a winner!
The winner will receive either a Martin
Luther Bobble Head doll or a Katharine Luther Bobble Head doll!
In addition to chili we will have nachos
and cheese and hot dogs!
Lynn and Susie Witt are in charge!
A free will offering will be taken and all
proceeds will go the BUILDING FUND!
LENTEN MEALS COMING!!!
Ash Wednesday is February 22!
So starting on February 22 we will have a
complete meal at 6:15 pm each Wednesday and worship will follow.
Some weeks we will have a sermon and some
weeks a musical group but we will always have Confession and
Forgiveness and Holy Communion!
So far the following have been lined up for
singing:
February 29-Gracie Parks
March 7-Carmen Vasquez, March 14-Emily
Bowles, March 21-Carmen Vasquez and March 28-Conner Mullet.
A free will offering will be taken for each
group. The offering plate for the groups will be in the back of the
worship center in the middle aisle.
Those preparing the Lenten meals are:
February 22-Susie and Lynn Witt, Betty and
Nelson Heisler
February 29-Lorie and Todd Haase
March 7-Mary Lu and Rex Snyder, Claudia
Winn
March 14-Kim and Gary Woebbeking
March 21-Deb and Kim Krafft, Lola Cline
March 28-Michelle and Troy Snyder
Thursday, April 5-Deb and Laune Mason
There will be a 7pm worship service on Good
Friday, April 6 but no meal.
The annual Pancake, Sausage and Ham
breakfast will be Saturday, April 7 from 8-10 am.
CONFIRMATION CLASS STARTING AGAIN!
We will be holding confirmation classes for
30 minutes on selected Sundays, starting after a short period for
fellowship time.
The dates for the classes are: February 26,
March 25, April 22, May 6 and May 20.
Second year students are Remington Cline,
Caleb Keen and Nic Shewman.
First year students are Zach Hart, Chloe
Garrison and Joe Stewart.
These final classes will concentrate on the
Old Testament primarily but also a review of the New Testament.
The tentative date for confirmation for the
second year students is June 3.
BAD WEATHER POLICY!
In the
event of bad weather we will try to cancel the worship service prior
to 8:30 am when Pastor Merle and Judith leave home.
So if the roads around Saint Joe are bad
please call 574-215-4288 before 8:30 am.
If we do have to cancel a Sunday worship
service we will try to worship at 7pm the next day, Monday!
SHORT NOTES FROM THE PASTOR
LCMC,
our church wide body, now has 670 congregations in the US, 738 world
wide from 10 countries including 42 states and 2 US territories!
Two years
ago we were the 100th congregation to join LCMC!
The North
American Lutheran Church now has 297 member churches.
LCMC has
10 churches in Indiana and NALC has 9 officially with at least one
and perhaps two more to be added any day now.
Did you
know that our December worship numbers are running around 20 more
people per Sunday in 2011 than in 2010? RRAISE THE LORD!
While
from time to time it might seem like perhaps too much is going on in
the church, we need to remember unless the church is moving ahead,
it is falling behind!
You can
never run in neutral!
So we
must be about our mission of winning and nourishing souls for our
Lord’s eternal kingdom!
When
things are moving well in the church we have outreach meals, first
communions, baptisms, confirmations, Jr. Church, social outings.
The word
of God is being read and preached!
That is
why I am so thrilled that we have only one open date for fellowship
time refreshments during the first six months of 2012!
I am
thrilled all of our Lenten meals are signed up for someone to
prepare them and we have all our musical groups for Lent in place!
The new
storage building will be in place any day now and the new
televisions will be on shelves very soon as well!
Next up
is our new roof and we all need to be giving regularly to the
BUILDING FUND, above and beyond our regular offerings so we can get
this new roof installed by June!
Then
continue our offerings to the Building Fund so we can get the badly
needed new carpet in the entry way and basement!
Judith
and I wish to thank everyone for the restaurant cards, gas cards,
cards, cookies and bread we have received!
You are
truly a very special congregation and we hold each one of you dear
to us!
May each
one of you have a very blessed 2012!
ST
MARK’S LUTHERAN CHURCH
www.stmarkstjoe.com
Member of Lutheran Congregations in Mission
for Christ
P.O. Box
345
302
W. Washington St.
Saint
Joe, In, 46785
