Interim Grace Notes for November 12, 2021

Have You Completed Your Intent Card?

Our LIve Generously Stewardship Campaign comes to it apex this weekend as we will be receiving Statement of Intent cards for giving for the coming year. Have you completed yours yet? If not, plan to do it soon, and be ready for worship this weekend. We will be receiving the Intent Cards in a special offering at the beginning of the service during announcements, as we do with the Noisy Offering. Remember that there's also the online option, which will submit your Intent Card directly to the church office. You can find that link HERE. If you submit on line, and want to participate in the Ingathering of the Cards, just grab a card from the table, and write "Submitted online." That way you won't feel left out!

The Stewardship Team met on Tuesday for the 5th of six Zoom meetings with our GSB Fundraising associate Jennie Wolf Smith. We talked about the follow up we need to do after the first weekend of receiving Intent cards, including reporting results the following weekends, sending thank you letters to responders, and reminder notes to those who may need it. This is usually the toughest part of a campaign, one that is easy to go easy on. But still very important. I'm hoping for 100% participation from Grace leaders.

Ministry Site Profile Submitted!

The Ministrly Site Profile for Grace Lutheran Church has been completed and submitted electronically. Many thanks to Beth Muffler for her hard work (with lots of help from Ed and the rest of the Transition Team!)

The first person to view/review the profile will be Mary Satterfield, Grace's Call Process Facilitator (CPF). She may ask the Transition Team to edit or clarify elements of the profile. Once the MSP is cleared by the CFP, it goes to Bishop Beaudoin for his approval. When a required written reference is received (Pr. Matt at St. John’s will be doing this for Grace), the profile then goes “Live” on the ELCA website. It is important to note that only a 75-100 word description of the Ministry Site is viewable by those browsing the Openings.

An ELCA pastor looking for a new call can go to the Current Openings page on the ELCA website, which can be found HERE and enter search criteria. In the section “Geographical Preference,” selecting 6D Northwestern Ohio Synod and then clicking the "Search" button will reveal 11 congregations in our synod whose profiles are listed. Once Grace’s profile is added there will be 12. There are an additional 13 congregations in our synod that are in the Transition phase as Grace has been until now, and will also be seeking to call a pastor.

Last Weekend for Call Committee Nominations

We have been receiving nominations for the Call Commmittee for the past two weekends, and will keep that open for this coming weekend, asking that any nomination forms be returned by Monday, November 15. I had published a link for an online nomination form, and realized that a setting I forgot to change resulted in a "Permission Needed" to continue message. I have fixed that setting, and you should now be able to make your nominations online HERE if you haven't already. So far, about 35 persons have been suggested/nominated. The Call Committee will be appointed by Council at their December 13 meeting, choosing from the many excellent suggestions that have been received. Please continue to surround the Call Process with your prayers.

LIFT 2022 Budget

On Tuesday evening I attended a Zoom meeting at which the 2022 LIFT Budget was presented by board chair Steve Hottinger. There are two major divisions in the budget, one for Bridge of Hope, for which $12,370 has been budgeted, and LIFT, for which $128,179 has been budgeted, for a total of $140,549. The Board is expecting/hoping that all 2021 income streams will continue for 2022 to meet this budget. Grace's pledge for 2021 has been $38,000, the largest single income stream for LIFT. Other significant income streams for LIFT include St. Marks at $28,500, St. John's at $28,000, and Trinity at $21,000.

Worship Committee

Worship Committee met on Tuesday afternoon. Topics of discussion/decision included:

• Advent Worship will be in the Dining Room as a part of our Dinner Church program. A resource from ELCA World Hunger will provide the focus for those three services on December 1, 8 and 15
• Reaffirmed Christmas Eve worship services at 6:00 and 9:00pm
• There will be no Saturday service on Christmas Day and New Years Day.
• Families/Individuals will be recruited to help with the lighting of the Advent Candles
• Beginning with the First Sunday of Advent, we will use the Marty Haugen liturgy "Now the Feast and Celebration" for the Hymn of Praise and Alleluia verse befor the Gospel. Also, will switch from "Make Me an Offering" to "Let the Vineyards" as the offering response
• Hymns and Carols will be used as the service for the First Sunday of Christmas on December 26.
• Preschool will sing at the 10:00 service on December 12
• Heather is planning the Children's Christmas Program. Currently this will be pre-recorded and go LIVE on Facebook Dec. 19th. We are considering the possibility of showing this during worship on December 19.
• We reviewed prompts in the bulletin for standing and sitting at various times during the service
• We will return to First Tuesday at 11:00 am for our meetings beginning December 7

Offering Counters Wait for Final Hymn?

This also came up at worship committtee. I am wondering if the Council Offering Counters could wait until the Closing Hymn to walk forward take the offering to the office for counting. Maureen pointed out that previous pastors have also asked this question.

Why They're Not Coming Back to Church

(And What To Do With Who's Left) Carey Nieuwhof is a well-known internet based resource person and writer on ministry and church life. He tries to answer the question posed above in an article that you can read HERE. Worth reading.

Latest Osterholm Podcast

Dr. Michael Osterholm, founder and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, continues to deliver solid scientific analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic in his weekly podcasts. In this episode, posted on November 11 and entitled "A Booster Dose of Humility," Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the surge of cases in Europe and what it could mean for the rest of the world, the importance of vaccinations and booster doses, COVID-19 cases in deer, and making Thanksgiving plans while remaining COVID-conscious. You can listen to or download this episode HERE.