Evangelical Lutheran Worship Books Installed
Grace has officially moved on from the Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW, green books), published in 1978, to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW, red or cranberry books) as of last Sunday. Orders for new ELW's were taken earlier in the year, with members purchasing 240 hymnals. Most had bookplates installed on the inside front cover noting those who are remembered or honored by the sponsoring members. The new hymnals were supplemented with hymnals from congregations in several locations that had closed, and donated to Grace. The new and donated hymnals were available in the sanctuary after worship, and many members stayed after worship to complete the switch from the green to the red. Thanks to all who sponsored new hymnals, and all who helped with this project!
ELW's To Be Dedicated This Weekend
Our new placed ELW's will be dedicated with a brief prayer of dedication at the beginning of worship this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Some differences to note: Psalms are included in the front of ELW, as they are in LBW, but ELW numbers the Psalms as hymns. So the first numbered hymn in ELW is 151 (after 150 Psalm "hymns." ELW has ten settings, LWB has three. ELW settings 3 and 4 are the same as LBW settings 1 and 2. That provides continuity and familiarity between the two books. ELW includes Martin Luther's Small Catechism, beginning on page 1160 at the back of the book.
Ushers Needed for Christmas Eve
Volunteers for Christmas Eve worship were recruited through several weeks of bulletin inserts. The inserts generated sufficient volunteers except for ushers. We have no ushers scheduled for either the 5pm or 9pm service. If you'd be willing to help out, let me know with a text at 419-239-8444 or an email at mark@bogen.org.
Care Center Visits Made
This past week I have tried to get up to date with visits to Grace members in Fremont care centers, including Bethesda, Valley View, Elmwood, and Courtyard. Still to get to: Alpine House and Trustwell at Clyde Gardens - hope to get there on Sunday afternoon -- have some time between morning worship and 5pm Christmas Eve.
External and Internal Locks To Be Updated
This week, a new lock was installed in the Clover Street Office outside door, along with the new double doors on Baker Street. This will create the need for only one key to open all the doors facing Clover and Baker. These doors will be re-keyed next week, so if you have a current key for Baker Street and Clover double doors, you will need to get the new key from the church office. We will let you know when the new key becomes operational. Also, indoor locks to the church office will be changed.
Our Learning Track for Stewardship for All Seasons: Please Read and Respond!
This is a repeat from last week!
Our participation in Stewardship for All Seasons gives us access to a learning track which can increase our effectiveness as a congregation. Registration open to anyone in the congregation. The Stewardship Team has chosen
Option 2: Volunteer Recruitment and Retention - Best Practices
Congregations have long battled the 80/20 rule: that 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. Now it is even harder, as many congregations report that 80/20 rule is becoming a 90/10 rule.
In this volunteer track for SAS, we will focus on the recruitment, retention and stewardship of church volunteers, as well as growing leaders in your congregation and identifying successful stewardship team members.
All tracks will be on Thursday at noon. The session dates and content are as follows:
- Jan 25: Overview--how do we recruit volunteers? We will consider the process of determining our volunteer needs, preparing recruitment materials, identifying prospective volunteers and how ministry team leaders go about inviting their service.
- Feb 22: Writing job or service descriptions. You will bring a list of volunteer opportunities at your ministry to this meeting and we will walk through how we write a job or service description together.
- March 28: How to retain volunteers. In this meeting we will talk about how to make your volunteers’ experiences worthwhile and fulfilling. We will review check ins, conflict resolution, continuing education and gratitude gatherings.
- April 25: How to grow volunteer leadership in your congregation. One of our goals in refining our volunteer program is to raise up new leaders and maintain a leadership pipeline. We will discuss how to identify potential leaders, give them varied experiences throughout your ministry, and invite them into leadership roles.
To register for this track, click HERE and scroll down to Option 2, and enter your name and email address. You will receive an email confirming your registration, and an email reminder with the Zoom link within 24 hours of each session of the Track. Then enter the dates and time (12:00 noon) on your calendar.
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