LIFT Epiphany Service on Saturday
Grace will host a service sponsored by LIFT at 4:00 pm celebrating the Epiphany of Our Lord. This will replace the weekend liturgy for The Baptism of Our Lord, which we will observe at the Sunday service. Pastor Paul will be the preacher for this service.
Sympathy to Family of Lee Koenig
We received word on Wednesday that Grace member Lee Koenig died. He and Caryl had recently returned to Fremont from Florida. Lee was the former owner of Crown Battery, having taken over the family business from his father, and developed it into a "a leading North American manufacturer with over 270 employees selling batteries in the United States and 16 foreign countries." The funeral will be next Thursday, 11:00 am at Wonderly Horvath, with visitation from 4:00 - 8:00 pm on Wednesday and an hour before the service on Thursday. You can read the full obituary HERE.
LIFT Lessons and Carols Service, December 30, 31
The LIFT Lessons and Carols service at Emmanuel was attended by about 75 persons from Emmanuel, St. Mark, St. John's and Grace. Total attendance from Grace including me was 10. The attendance at the Saturday service was about 30, with a few from Grace that normally attend Sunday. I arrived at the Grace parking lot at 8:30 am Sunday, and sat in my car to direct any members that had forgotten or were otherwise unaware that there was no service at Grace on Sunday. There were a total of four cars that drove into the parking lot or walked up to the Baker Street door. I reminded them of the change in schedule and of the service at Emmanuel at 10:00. None of those who came to Grace ended up coming to Emmanuel for the service.
Stewardship Team Meeting
The Stewardship Team met for their monthly meeting on Tuesday. We reflected on the recently completed appeal, noting that we grew our intents returned from 81 to 83. We did show an increase of about $2,800 increase from those 83 intents over last year. The average annual intent was $2,872, for a total of $238, 435, as compared to $335,455 from 81 intent returned last year. We also spent some time reflecting on the fact that our ingathering may have suffered from staff transition - our Ingathering Sunday was the same day as Tom's last Sunday.
Organist/Choir Director Search Continues
It took a bit longer than expected, but our ad listing our music leadership openings was posted on the American Guild of Organists website. Maureen has posted an invitation to consider joining our music team on the Grace Facebook page. If you know anyone who might be interested, feel free to share these links or otherwise share the information.
Interim Pastor Zoom
Every first Thursday at noon, an ELCA interim ministry colleague hosts Zoom meeting to discuss any issues that any of us are facing in our respective interim assignments. It's been a couple of months since I joined this meeting, so it was good to see some of the regulars again, including Randy, who was my roommate in Colorado Continuing Education in 2019.
Worship Planner Moved to Google Blog Format
With so many options that are now available for a worship service, it takes some organization for Tricia to know what to put in the weekend bulletin. We normally accomplish this task through a "Worship Planner" which is a chart with all the various elements of the service in rows of a table, and four or five columns for a month of Sundays. I have recently converted the format for completing and sharing the planner to a Google Blog post, the same service that I used to post these Grace Notes. So now, all that is needed to share the planner is a web address, which is graceworshipplanners.blogspot.com/. You can view the January planner HERE, and the February planner HERE.
Retirement Announced to Bishop Daniel in Recent Email
My plans to retire in 2024 have been known generally by Bishop Daniel and the synod staff, but it was necessary for me to inform them formally in an email with the specific dates, which I did today. That will provide them the time they need to make the necessary arrangements for the person or persons who would succeed me at Grace if a pastor has not yet been called.
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