Funeral Scheduled for Paige Russell
The funeral for Paige has been scheduled for next Tuesday, January 10, at 11:00 am. There will be an hour of visitation before the service. Visitation at the Herman Funeral Home will be Monday from 2-4 and 5-7 pm. I met today (Friday) with the principal and two staff counselors of St. Joseph Central Catholic where Paige has attended since preschool. They will be bringing their entire junior and senior class members, and several classmates of Paige's sister Pamela will also be attending, along with a number of staff, totaling nearly a hundred. They will be seated in the first 10-12 rows of the sanctuary on the lectern side. This has certainly been a very difficult time for the family, and for all whose lives were touched by Paige. Keep them in your prayers. You can read the obituary for Paige HERE.
Stewardship Team Met Wednesday
The Stewardship Team met on Wednesday. There was additional follow-up from our fall stewardship campaign. Linda provided a handout with some final numbers, but I left it behind in my office. But one takeaway is that we had a few more complete intent cards, and our total pledged amount is about $40,000 more than last year. So that's good news. What we don't know is how much the non-pledgers will give, which makes it a bit of a challenge to estimate offering income for 2023.
On other topics, we will be looking for people to interview for our Grace Stories program. If you know any possibilities, let us know and we'll contact them and find our if they'd be willing to tell us their story. We're good through about the middle of February.
Another topic of conversation, one we have discussed in previous meetings, is participation in the program Stewardship for All Seasons. Enrolling in this program in 2023 will ensure that our congregational stewardship will stay strong through this year and 2024. There is a cost for this program, some of which is already covered with designated funds. Executive will give this more consideration at Monday's meeting.
Worship Committee Met Wednesday
First Wednesday is always busy, as Stewardship meets at 11, and Worship at 1. We reviewed our worship plans for January and February. We're going to do a small change with the noisy offering - we're going to try doing the offering first, and do other announcements while noisy offering is being received.
Confirmation Youth Will Be on Retreat Next Weekend
We are registered to attend a Confirmation retreat next weekend, January 13-15 at Hopewood Pines, formerly Lutheran Memorial Camp. Heather and I will be attending, and so far we have three youth from Grace, and possibly one or more from St. John's.
No End In Sight for Offering Envelope Delay
So far, we have not received our order for offering envelopes, and the way it looks, we're not alone. I was reviewing posts in my ELCA Clergy Facebook Group, and learning that many other congregations are having similar problems. Then this comment from our own trusty church publishing house:
Hello All, Your friendly, Augsburg Fortress Marketer is chiming in here. What has been said is very accurate, there are significant paper shortages all over the industry right now. Our envelope provider has managed to weather most of the storm. We are hearing that places that used to produce paper used for books and envelopes are switching to producing corrugated cardboard because they can make a quick profit from it with increased demand for shipping boxes and they don't have to be as exact in production. This means that costs are climbing for publishing paper and shortages are occurring all over the industry. That being said, if you need generic envelopes to provide some cushion before your provider can fulfill their order we currently have one style in stock that is pre-printed and one that is blank. You can find them here: (then he provides links)
For now, looks like we'll have to keep using pew envelopes that we have, and order more if/when we need 'em.
Epiphany Service Held Friday Night
The LIFT Sponsored Epiphany Service of Readings and Carols was held Friday evening at 6:00 pm. It was a nice service - lots of good organ, piano, and choir music with the hymns and traditional scripture readings. We had 23 in attendance.
Bishop Daniel's January 5th Email
Bishop Daniel introduces the synod theme for 2023: The Year of Story. I encourage you to read the message HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment