PDF Jan. 2012 SLC Newsletter

8/3/2019 PDF Jan. 2012 SLC Newsletter

1/12

SOMETHING NEW IN THE WORKS

God is always up to something new. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a

new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (KJV) This New Year, 2012 brings

new beginnings for Sierra Lutheran Church as I announced my retirement date of January 8. Im looking

forward to spending more time with Debby and my family. They have been patient and supportive throughout

my 30 years of ordained ministry. They have stood by my side during the ups and downs of ministry. I thank

God that He has allowed me to be a vessel for proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, to see transformed

lives through the power of the Holy Spirit, and to make friends for eternity in the churches I have served. I have

made many friends at Sierra Lutheran and will treasure our friendship as I go into retirement.

Sierra Lutheran

Church

Newsletter

January 2012


2/12

Continued from Pg. 1

Ive always felt that you can be a Lutheran Christian and be spirit-filled at the same time. The Lutheran brand

of Christianity began as a result of a renewed discovery of the WORD OF GOD its life-giving power, and the

emphasis on GRACEthe freedom to be what God has intended us to be. Its a joy-filled life embracing the

gifts of the Spirit and building up the Body of Christ in unity that gives itself away in mission to a hurting world -thats the healthy church I pray will come forth during the days and years ahead.

Know that our love and prayers go with you in this new season at Sierra Lutheran Church. God is up to

something, and that something is very good, something new! The final book in the Bible, Revelation 21:5-6

says, . . . Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And

he said unto me, It is done. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is

athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (KJV) God is not finished with us yet. May God bring a freshwind and a fresh fire to this special church called Sierra Lutheran Church!

Lets stay in touch were not far away. Our address in Kingsburg is 1700 Hemma Street. We would love a

visit. God bless all you good friends. Thanks again for your faithfulness during this season of Gods calling.

Pastor John

UPCOMING SUNDAY SCHEDULE

January 1 Michael Kingsley to preach. We have been supporting Michael for three years. He is a Ugandan

missionary to the U.S. and has preached here a number of times. His special emphasis is uniting our country in

prayer and bringing renewal to our churches. This will be a SINGLE SERVICE SUNDAY at 9:00 a.m.

January 8

Pastor Johns retirement Sunday. This will be also a SINGLE SERVICE SUNDAY at 9:00 a.m. HolyCommunion will be served. A potluck will follow.

J 15 F i t i t f Si L th P t C l B t ill b l it t W ill


3/12

PRESIDENTS REPORT

A THOUSANDS POINTS OF LIGHT

I have been very impressed with the generosity of people this past holiday season. The evening TV news

shows and our local newspapers have extolled the donations by so many people who have paid off lay-away

Christmas purchases for strangers and provided thousands of dollars to people for medications andfood. Our Sierra Lutheran congregation has been equally blessed with similar gifts.

Our Samaritan fund has been receiving generous donations from our congregants. As you may know, the

Lutheran insurance company Thrivent is matching our individual gifts, dollar for dollar, through the end of

January. We are doing Christs work by following his instructions by caring for the needy.

As many of you know, one of our own is in need of similar assistance. Mike Jolley is facing surgery in the verynear future. Mike and his family have been Sierra Lutherans strongest supporters over many years. If there

was a task too great for we mere mortals to do, Mike and Cathy would step up and accomplish the job in

spades. Within this past year, Mike raised enough money on his own to travel to Indonesia on a mission trip

to help build a classroom for a Christian school. And most recently, Mike initiated and successfully managed

the First Annual Chili Cook-off. Through this Christmas season Mike has been working through severe pain to

help those he considers less fortunate than he.

Mike would not approve of me reaching out to all of you to help him through this difficult time. But our

Brother needs our help. Many of us have already reached out and provided for his family through the

Samaritan Fund. But Mike needs more. He has recently found a surgery center near Washington DC to do

his operation at a very reasonable cost. But he and Cathy need to fly to Washington and back, and stay in

the DC area for several nights. Fran (my super wife) has contacted our bank regarding donating travel miles

for part of their trip that we have accumulated through a credit card. I know that there are other members

of our congregation who will happily donate some of their miles toward this trip.

Fran has also located a very reasonable flight from Fresno to Washington DC for less than $300 round trip. I

am not certain how to combine travel miles from several individuals, but I know there must be a way. Please

b il f i k@ l if ld lik i i i hi h d d
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


4/12

A message from the Transition Team (formerly the Nominating Committee)

As you might suspect, things might be a little different in 2012. Since the adoption of our new constitution lastmonth, our council no longer exists as we have known it for so long. We will be changing over from an eight

person Congregational Council to an Administrative Board and an Elder Board - one meeting the business needsof the congregation and the other the spiritual. For this first election process with the new constitution, ourNominating Committee, now referred to as the Transition Team, will be spending much time in prayer, bothindividually as well as corporately to hear Gods direction for the future leadership of this body. Per the oldconstitution, the normal election would have taken place at the November annual meeting. Since we did nothave the new approved constitution to work with yet, council opted to postpone the election to be able to beginour new year working within the new constitutions leadership guidelines.

Our Transition Team has made every effort to allow Gods direction as we move forward. We have prayed with

expectation that God will be speaking confirmations to us as a group as we move through this process. He hasalready spoken scripture to each of us, and although we have not each received the same verses, they can bewoven together to help us to understand Gods nature and the nature of those He is preparing to serve in theneeded leadership roles.

The verses we have received so far are Matthew 13:23; Galatians 5:16-26: Ephesians 5:25-33; 1 Thessalonians5:16-24; and Psalm 139:23-24 Please take the time to look them up and pray for Gods discernment among usas a team as well as those in the congregation that He is calling to fulfill his purposes.

We have chosen 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 as our key verses, Now may the God of peace make you holy in everyway, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful. Our hope is that you will spend time in the Word andlisten for Gods direction for you. Is He calling you to step out of your comfort zone? Know that if He does, He isfaithful to bless you as you obey!

Those on the Transition Team are: Sallie Karp, Bev McCann, Robert DuPree, Christine OKelley and Lori Pape.Feel free to pray for this team; talk to any of us regarding questions you may have about the process; or let us

know if God is calling you to serve. The positions we will be seeking to fill are:

Election of the Administrative Board President, Secretary, and Treasurer; and appointment of VicePresident, Trustee and Church Administrator.


5/12

Health Matters: Concussions

In the past several months, the word concussion has been used to describe head injuries to football

players, soccer players, motor vehicle accidents, bicycle injuries, etc. I thought you might want to knowmore about this term. By the way, a concussion is a traumatic brain injury.

WebMD explains this most clearly. The word concussion is from the Latin and means to shakeviolently. This happens when the soft tissue of the brain sloshes around in your skull. This can damagethe brain by injuring nerves, blood vessels and the brain tissue. This can cause loss of consciousness,visual problems, dizziness, headaches and confusion. You can simulate by making a batch of pudding,cooling it down in a covered dish, and then shaking the bowl a bit. The pudding breaks up!

Children grow quickly and many havent learned good balance or developed good coordination. They trybalancing on beams, jumping from playground equipment, stunts on bikes and other things. They dontknow how to tell adults how they feel if they are injured. One would think that adults have learned certainskills but they, too, get injured playing sports or other activities. Many try to shake it off and continuingplaying which may cause further injury to their bodies and the brain.

Some common symptoms after a concussion are (again WebMD): confusion or feeling dazed,clumsiness, slurred speech, nausea or vomiting, headache, balance problems or dizziness, blurred

vision, sensitivity to light or noise, sluggishness, ringing in ears, behavior or personality changes,concentration difficulties, memory loss.

Concussions are graded as mild (grade 1) and symptoms last less than 15 minutes with no loss of


6/12

Blessed New Year's Greetings from the Outreach Team!

I am so filled with gratitude reflecting back upon all the generosity our church family poured out to thiscommunity during the Christmas season. This outpouring of love actually happens each and every

day, but seeing all the extra "love" during this past month touched me very deeply.

Our church family is truly amazing. We really need to take time to pat each other on the back. Ioriginally had planned to list people who specifically "went the extra mile" this past month, but whenthinking of all that happened and all who helped, I would be listing our entire congregation!!! I am "inawe" of each and every one of you, so a GIANT pat on the back to ALL of you!

The Wish i Ah tree was another HUGE success. We acted as Santa to 30 patients! I had the

privilege of gathering up all the gifts and with the help of our exchange student, Emma, from Sweden,took them over to Wish i Ah. Seeing the looks on the staff as we brought in the arm loads of gifts wasa special "gift" in itself. One of the management people from southern California was visiting at Wish iAh and he could not believe that our church so lovingly did this for such a large number of theirclientele. He gave me a big hug and told me to relay his heartfelt appreciation to the wholecongregation.

Our Christmas caroling was another great success this year. The number of people singing

increased over last year so that made it even more fun. I want to give out a BIG thank you to AllanGallegos and his daughter, Jessica, who were our leaders. Alan provided the sheet music for all of usand led us by playing his guitar. Seeing the smiles on many of the patients' faces and hearing them

join in, helped those of us who went realize even more the true meaning of Christmas. I am hoping tomake Wish i Ah one of our 2012 Outreach projects, so look for more information. They really needhelp year round and we have the talents to help meet more of their needs. Let us be like Christ andvisit the lonely and the often forgotten people who are right in our "back yard."

We did not stop caroling when we left Wish i Ah; those who could still stay, carpooled over to theJumps' house and indoor caroled there too. What fun to sing to and with Paul and Arlene. Arlene ismaking progress each day and I know both Paul and Arlene are always eager to have visitors orphone calls Give them a call and as always I encourage every one of you to call or reach out to as


7/12

Notes from the Praise Team!!!!

Gods Timing.it never ceases to amaze me how God puts people in certain places, at certain times, in order to

orchestrate his perfect plan. Sometimes we fail to see the overall picture, as Gods plan isnt always what we

really want to see, at particular times in our lives.

In our Church Family, I see the Praise Team as playing a role similar to that of cheerleaders for a football team.

When that team is down 21-3, late in the third quarter, the cheerleaders are still going strong. (sorry Den, John,

Mike and Joe; I dont guess you really want to be depicted as sporting a tight sweater saying go team). But

really - when our church is up; our job is to be up, and bring the congregation into a place of worship. And when

our church is down; our job is to be up, and bring the congregation into a place of worship (dj vu anyone?).

Recently, our Praise Team got together for a potluck. Things had been a little tense for some of us, and quitefrankly, a few of us were tired and burned out. We just needed to hang out, eat good food, and love on each

other. We came away from that night revitalized; we tossed around some new ideas and regained our spirit. We

remembered once again why it is we do what we do, and why we love it so much.

And the following day, we learned our Pastor was retiring. Is this Gods Timing?? Here we are, all pumped up

and ready to go; and now we have a church with conflicted emotions, some happy, some sad, some

disappointed, and some flat out mad. I say yes, this is God at work. He brought Pastor John to us, and now hehas another pastor in mind for us. We no doubt have some trying times ahead of us. Weve been down this

road before, and some are hesitant about heading there again; here we go again how long will we be without

a pastor this time who will choose him what will he be like he needs to be traditional he needs to be

contemporary. Do you think were facing conflict???

The Praise Team had a great time teaming up with the Choir and many others, to bring a little different Christmas

Eve Service to SLC. Im not sure if we received more from the blessing of the service, or the blessing of working

together to create the service. I do know that God put us in a place that we could work together towards onecommon goal, and it couldnt have gone more smoothly. What timing. Once again, we are invigorated.

So if you see the Praise Team high in spirits over the next few weeks, please know it isnt because our Pastor is


8/12

Kitchen Corner

Happy New Year everyone!

As we enter into a new year we also

enter into a new season, (well maybe

not so new to some of us) one

without a pastor. We have to say

good-bye to Pastor John. There will

be a pot luck after the One service

Sunday January 8. Dessert will be

provided.

Just a reminder we no longer have a

janitor on staff. So Please remember

to clean up after yourselves.

I pray we stay united. Trusting in God

with all our hearts, that His will

should be ours and that His will

SHALL be done.

Gods Blessings, Mike Jolley

Hope and Joy

Join the ladies of Hope and Joy for a potluck lunch and biblestudy, Saturday January 14th at noon..... at the home ofJoyce Velasquez (NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION)Please call and let Joyce know if you will attend...855-3149.Bible study will be Sarah and Hagar...Genesis 16; 18: 1-15.

Outreach for January is a baby shower for Pregnancy

Care. Bring unwrapped gifts please..


9/12

Journey To JesusIn 2012 we will be adding worship music to your childrens ministry

activities. God has placed it on the hearts of Mary Ann Price and DeanieFlanagan to share some of their favorite songs. What a blessing this will be!What we have planned is in the beginning of our Sunday school hours will weall (K 6th Grade) meet in Room 2 together after our music time the older 3 rd6th will go with their Sunday school teachers to start their Sunday school

lesson.

Planting seeds of Faith in our Children with Gods Word and Song!

2012 we will also have to say good bye to Pastor John and his family.I want to thank Pastor John for his support with the childrens ministry here

at SLC. I pray that with the New Year you have Joy and may your retirementbring lots of Gods Blessings to you and your family!

In Gods Grace,

Cathy


10/12

Worship Coordinator / Worship Assistants

Thank you for signing up for a new season of Worship Assistants and if you have

not, you can always let me know or fill out the forms kept in Narthex.

During January I will be contacting or making announcements for all of you, toexplain or refresh people on the duties, and start in February for our new additions.

For the January schedule, at time of newsletter printing I had not been able toconfirm our Communion Schedule for 2nd half of month, so I will contact people for

any changes.

h k


11/12

pg. 11

January 2012 Worship Assistants

Jan. 1 Jan. 8 Jan. 15 Jan. 22 Jan. 29One Service One Service One Service

9:00am 9:00am 9:00am

Altar Guild Shelley Shelley/Susan Shelley Shelley/Susan Shelley

Greeters 8:30am Pam & Joyce R. Rod & Marcia Alan & Sue Gloria & Chris Jerry & Fran

11:00am no service no service Stan T. George no service

Ushers 8:30am John & Joyce Becki & David Chris & Bob Dave & Joni Dave & Bev& & & & &Fern Jerry Mike Joyce R

11:00 am -- -- Stan T. George --

Readers 8:30am Alan Lynda Q Nordine Chris Shelley11:00 am -- -- David B. David J. --

Gods Word 8:30am

Computer 8:30am Sam Sam Sam Sam Sam11:00am Shelley Shelley

Communion 8:30am John & Lori Mike & Joyce R Assistants & Debby & Fern

11:00 am -- -- Fran

Prayer 8:30am Yes YesStations

If you are unable to serve when scheduled please ask one of the other assistants to trade dates or provide a substitution for you,and notify Worship Coordinator Shelley Telles (855-5703) of the change.


12/12

pg. 12

~ January 2012 ~

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

19:00 am - One Service SundayMichael KingsleySunday School After Childrensmessage10:00 am Life GroupVelasquez-Library

Birthday - Valerie Johnson

23:15 7:30 pm Free Falling(Middle & Senior High Ministry)7:00 pm AA Meeting Room 2

312:30 pmWomens Group Library5:16 pm Co.D.A. Library7:00 pm Life GroupBookwalter Home

Birthday Phyllis Lehr

412:00 noonMens PrayerMeetingBig Ds7:00 pm Life GroupPape Home7-8:00 pm Beginning Guitar T.George

56:30 pm Praise TeamSanctuary7:00 pm Kitchen Meeting7:00 pm AA Meeting Room 27:00 pm Everhart Home

Birthday Darrel Telles

6 7

89:00 am One Service SundayPastor Johns retirement SundaySunday School After ChildrensmessagePot luck following service.



1112:00 noonMens PrayerMeetingBig Ds7:00 pm Life GroupPape Home

126:30 pm Praise TeamSanctuary7:00 pm AA Meeting Room 27:00 pm Life Group EverhartHome

Birthday Joni Bunnell

13 149:00 am Joseph Store House9:00 am Clothes Closet12:00 noon Hope & JoyCall Doreen Pickering for Locationof Meeting

158:30 am Celebration ServicePastor Carl Bengtson10:00 am Sunday School10:00 am Life GroupVelasquez-Library11:00 am Heritage Service

Birthday Debi Gallegos


Birthday Kirk Flores


Birthday Terah Flores

1812:00 noonMens PrayerMeetingBig Ds7:00 pm Life GroupPape Home7-8:00 pm Beginning Guitar T.George


Anniversary Mike & CathyJolley

20 21

Birthday Bob Actis

228:30 am Celebration Service10:00 am Sunday School10:00 am Life GroupVelasquez-Library11:00 am Heritage Service



259:00 am Food Bank9:00 am Clothes Closet12:00 noonMens PrayerMeetingBig Ds7:00 pm Life GroupPape Home

Birthday Rusty CoburnCurtis Lane


27 28

Birthday Sue Neri

299:00 am One Service SundaySunday School After Childrensmessage10:00 am Life GroupVelasquez-Library

Birthday Nancy Flores



Notes:Sunday College Group (every other Sunday 5:30 pm

PDF Jan. 2012 SLC Newsletter

Documents

Transcript of PDF Jan. 2012 SLC Newsletter