CALVARY LUTHERAN

TIDINGS 2016

WHATS HAPPENING AT CALVARY!

Annual Meeting & Budget Forum The Annual Meeting for Calvary Lutheran Church is scheduled for Sunday, January 31, 2016 following our 10:00am Worship service. Business to be con ducted at this meeting shall be the election of new council members, approval of the 2016 Budget and receiving of reports from the Boards and Committees of the church. Only voting members present may vote at the congregational meeting. A voting member is defined in the constitution of Calvary as a confirmed member who has communed in this congregation and made a contribution of record to this church in the current or preced-ing calendar year.

In preparation for the Annual Meeting, the council has scheduled a Budget Forum for Sunday, January 24th at 9 a.m. All members of Calvary are invited to come and review the proposed budget and ask questions at this time. A copy of the Budget and the full Annual Report will be available outside the church office for you to pick up by Friday, January 22nd.

Year-End Contributions Please remember that if you are planning to make a year-end contribution to Calvary, the IRS requires that we must receive it in the office by December 31st, or it must be postmarked on or before December 31st, in order for our Treasurer to be able to in-clude it on your 2015 year-end giving statement. The office will be open until 12:00pm

on December 31st for your convenience. A sincere “Thank You” to everyone who contributed to the mission and ministry of Calvary Lutheran in 2015. We couldn’t have done it without you!!!

Would you like to Simplify Your Giving? Simply Giving” is an easier, simpler way to make your offerings to Calvary through automated giving. The “Simply Giving” program is designed to help you convenient-ly, consistently and joyfully give financial gifts to Calvary’s ministry. When you partic-ipate, you can use electronic funds transfer to give your weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly offerings. For those who travel a lot or for those who dislike writing out checks, this is a very helpful way of keeping up with your offerings. To learn more or to sign up, please sign up in the narthex or your may call and/or email the church office.

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They called him “Janus”, the two-faced god. He wasn’t duplicitous of mind, just literally ‘two-faced’. If you know your Roman mythology, you know I am talking about one of the mythological gods of the Romans. He was said to be able to see the past and the future at the same time. This accorded Janus a special recognition of wisdom from the gods of the Roman pantheon.

In recognition of that place as well, when the 12 month calendar was established by the Roman Emperor, the first month of the year was named after Janus, a name that has stuck with us to the present day, January. Often we use the first month as a time of reflection on the past and look-ing to the future as well. It seems a wise and sensible thing to do. That is really what the whole ‘New Year’s resolution’ thing is all about isn’t it? We look to the past and think, “Whoa, I put on a few pounds last year, better do something about that….” And then we plan for the future, “I resolve to hit the gym twice a week,” or, “I’m going to walk 3 miles a week.” Of course we know all to well where this usually ends up, another couple pounds heavier the following year.

Why? I think it’s because we think January is the only time for looking back and forward. Instead of taking a cue from the god it was named after. Janus never stopped looking back and forward.

While we don’t worship a ‘two-faced god’ or believe in Roman mythology, our God does call us to both look to the past and to the present. I believe that is an important part of our worship. We begin with confession, reflecting back over the past week and noting, in particular our sins, our shortcomings. We hear of God’s word of grace and mercy that frees us from being stuck there and encourages us to look to the coming week with hope and a plan for living. Especially, when we celebrate communion we look forward, celebrating the foretaste of the feast di-vine. So every week can be for us a ‘January’.

So, what resolutions are you going to make this year? I’ve got a plan that will help you follow through: See you in worship! Pastor Chris

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HOSPITALIZED? PLEASE LET US KNOW If you are hospitalized, please contact (or have a friend or family member contact) the church office and let us know so that we can visit and pray with you. Providing pastoral care is an important part of our ministry, however, we cannot visit if we don’t know, so please don’t hesitate to call or email the church office, so that we can be there for you. Thanks!

Pastors Sheryl and Chris

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COUNCIL MINUTES SUMMARY December 14, 2015

Financial Report: We are cur rent with all obligations but look to be about $5000 short to end year in the black. Grant will give a Temple Talk at worship on Dec. 20th informing congregation of our financial situation and asking for end of year gifts to meet our year end obligations. Committee & Board Reports Scholarship: Awarded 2 scholarships for 2nd semester to Jackson Hinze and Jane Voss of $650 each. Worship & Music: Chr istmas Eve services at 5 & 7 p.m. No service on Saturday, Dec. 26th. Stewards: Finalized proposed 2016 budget. Budget forum is scheduled for Jan. 24th during Sunday School hour. Time & Talent sheets were distributed. Gail has retired from calling people for Worship Assistants, so will have Noni assign people as part of her responsibilities. Communications: Placed Chr istmas Ad in the Star Herald and Ger ing Cour ier . Parish Ed/Youth: S.S. Program went well. Jennifer Sibal did a great job coordinating this. Stable Gather ing is this coming Sunday at Spomer’s. Looking at revamping Sunday School. Social Ministry: All names were taken from the Angel Tree. Salvation Army Bell Ringing was Saturday. Several members attended the Habitat for Humanity House Dedication and presented the new homeowner with a house-warming basket of household items. SOEC: Worked on 2016 budget. Continue to operate in the black and have cash flow reserves where they needed to be to avoid having to borrow funds in the future. Neal presented an update to our Paid Time Off Benefit guidelines. Will discuss again next month after Elders have a chance to discuss the proposed guidelines. Trustees: Painting classrooms in the Day Care Area. Still need to paint hallway, entryway and Sunday School office. Waiting for contractor to lay new carpet in Day Care area. Day Care bathrooms will also be retiled. Had someone fall in the parking lot before church yesterday. Need to be more aware of putting ice melt down, especially on the north side which doesn’t get as much sun. Need to replace one of the air conditioners for the Fellowship Hall this spring. Endowment Fund. Accepting grant applications till Dec. 22nd. Elders: Will meet to discuss the Paid Time Off Benefit guidelines in the new year . Nominating: Larry J . and Joan Smith are working on filling the slate for the upcoming elections. Old Business: Loan Repayment Challenge: The stewards asked each council member to anonymously submit on a blank sheet of paper what they feel they could put towards paying off our loan in 2016. Present loan is at $25,000. The amount pledged by the council would then be presented at the annual meeting as a challenge to the congregation to help us pay off our loan in the coming year. The amount pledged towards loan repayment by the council members in attendance was $10,5000! 2016 Proposed Budget was presented, discussed and approved for the Annual Meeting Proposed By-Law & Continuing Resolution changes. Each member is asked to look over the proposed changes and bring recommendations back to the January council meeting. New Business: Annual Meeting Agenda was presented and approved. Set Feb. 7th as date for Installation of Council. Council Appreciation Dinner scheduled for Jan. 21st at 6 p.m. Spouses are invited. Bill S. will coordinate the place and details.

Volunteer Opportunity

The Altar Guild is looking for a couple of new members to be a part of its

team. Responsibilities include setup and clean up of Holy Communion

and working with Worship Committee as needed to get the sanctuary

ready for worship. If interested in this opportunity to serve or if you have

questions, talk to Barb Gorr or Barb Jensen.

The WELCA mission project for January is to continue to help fight malaria with the ELCA. Malaria is preventable and teatable. Cash donations may be made out to Wom-en of the ELCA and placed in the tan “Designated Giving: envelopes in the pews. Please mark Women of the ELCA-Malaria on the envelopes. Thank you for your sup-port.

January Mission Project

Iin January, we begin our 4 session winter Bible study that explores the book of Philippians. Session 1 is titled “Confidence in God’s Beginnings and endings (Phil. 1:1-26). Meeting times are:

Ruth Study Group—Tuesday, Jan. 5th @ 9:00 a.m.in Fellowship Hall

Priscilla Study Group—Tuesday, Jan. 5th @ 7:30 p.m.- Angie Hinze’s home 615 Valley View Dr. Scottsbluff

Hannah Study Group—Monday, Jan. 11th @ 7:00 p.m.– Syl Holdt’s home 1109 Meadowlark Drive, Scottsbluff Esther Study Group—Tuesday, Jan. 12th @ 9:00 a.m.- Ruth Harris’ home 9 Brentwood Ct. Scottsbluff

ANOTHER BIBLE STUDY OPPORTUNITY

Each Tuesday at noon a group of women meet at the church to study scripture together. Each study may run anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks, depending on the study. Please consider joining us for a study and some great conversations..

All ladies are invited to join any of these groups.

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TUESDAY EVENING BIBLE STUDY The Tuesday evening Bible Study will resume January 5

th at 7 p.m.

“Renew Your Life: Discovering the Wellspring of God’s Energy” will be our topic. A copy of the study book is available on the counter in the narthex for you to look at. Any questions, please talk to Pastor Sheryl or sign up on the sheet in the narthex, if interested.

ALL CHURCH WORK WEEKENDS – We are planning to work each Saturday

from 9-12 and 1-4 until we get our jobs done or the weather curtails our plans.

Please join us when you can. If you plan to work on a Saturday, please let the

office or Bill Steele know so we can be sure we have materials available. If you

would like to work during the week you can check the list in the church office of

projects to be completed.

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SAVE YOUR PANHANDLE CO-OP RECEIPTS—Looking for an easy way to support

Calvary Lutheran’s School of Early Childhood (SOEC)? Simply save your receipts from

the Co-Op and drop them in the box in the narthex. For every $100,000 worth of re-

ceipts we turn in, the Co-Op will give the SOEC $1000.

2016 TIME AND TALENT SHEETS If you have not already done so, it’s still not too late to turn in your Time and Tal-ent Sheets The Stewardship Committee and Council invites everyone to share their gifts of time and talent to God through the work and ministry of Calvary Lutheran Church. Time & Talent sheets are available at church If you have not filled out one of these sheets out, please do so and return it to the church office as soon as possible. Thanks!

Starting this month worship assistants you will notice a difference in how the assistants are scheduled. Noni, our office manager, will be taking over this task, but instead of calling everyone, she will simply assign those people who have expressed willingness in the past (or who express interest on the 2016 Time and Talent Sheets) to read lessons, be a communion assistant or usher, etc. If you have a preference for Sundays you would like to be scheduled (for example, you prefer to read the lessons

on a Sunday the choir sings or assist with communion the same day that your child acolytes, etc.), then please be sure to let Noni know that so she can schedule you accordingly. Once the schedule is sent out, if you have a conflict with the date assigned, we would ask that you try to switch with someone else already scheduled and if unsuccessful contact the church office for assistance. Also, we ask for your pa-tience and understanding as we seek to transition to a new way of scheduling worship assistants. Thanks!

OWLS (Older,Wiser Lu- theran’s) LUNCHEON

Join us the first Wednesday of every month at noon for lunch,

fun and an informative program.

On January 6, Mike Moravec will present

“Staying Safe During Winter. No prior reservations are needed!

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THANK YOU to all the volunteers who helped make the wom-en’s Christmas Candlelight dinner a great success. From the board members who helped the idea of a Prairie Christmas come to frui-tion, to those who attended (we had a full house-it was great), to those who graciously volunteered as table servers (family style was a new idea for us), to those who pitched in to do the dishes and clean up. I want to say a special thanks to Joan smith for not only cooking, but helping with ideas and decoration. Thanks to Becky Martin and Carolyn Jensen for providing the food with me, and to Pastor Sheryl for reading the Christmas story for us. A wonderful time was had by all. THANK YOU to all individuals and families who donated gifts for the Angel Tree this year both for CAPWN and the Lutheran Lakota Center. At the Lakota Center, all kids got gifts, and the gifts

were received with big smiles, much happiness, and lots of fun. And thank you Calvary for your support to Lakota Lutheran over the past year. We wish you all Christmas joy and many blessings in the new year. Winnie Voss

THANK YOU to everyone who gave toys and other needed items to

our School of Early Childhood this Christmas season. Thanks as well to all those saving Coop receipts for us and those who have given of their time the last couple of months to help repaint our classrooms. Your gifts to the SOEC are truly appreciated.

Merry Christmas! Becky Jo Wylie & the SOEC staff

THANK YOU to all who donated items/money to the “College Finals Care Packages” that we sent to our Epic college students. I received messages of thanks from the kids. They were very appreciative! THANK YOU also to all who made donations to our treat bags for the Sunday School Christmas program. The bags were full of all sorts of goodies! A very special thank you to Shirley Schuldies, Gail Bruflat, LuVerne Knoedler, Carolyn Jensen, and Elnora Sell for assembling the treat bags! The children were thrilled! Angie and EPIC and JaM

THANK YOU very much to Larry and Linda Spomer and Bill and Becky Michael for hosting the JaM/EPIC “A Stable Gathering.” The live nativity, reading of the Christmas story, message by Pastor Spomer, carol singing, and fellowship with Runza chili, s’mores

and Christmas treats was enjoyed by many. A very special thank you to Neal and Lora Blomenkamp for the donation of the delicious Runza chili! We all certainly enjoyed celebrating Christ’s birth with the donkeys, goats, dogs and cats! Angie and EPIC and JaM

We ENCOURAGE every family of Calvary to participate and support our Food Pantry. The pantries provide important services to those in need and can really help aid those families who are less fortunate. This month the Food Pantry item:

CEREAL

This month’s Backpack Program item: PEANUT BUTTER 16 OZ JARS

FEBRUARY items will be:

CANNED MEATS GRANOLA BARS

“NEW YEARS DAY PRAYER

Pastoral Care/Prayer Requests

Continued prayer for healing and a return to good health:

Greg Sell, Molly Peterson (Wes and Elnora’s grand-

daughter), Sheila Miller, Tammy Lutz’s mother-Judy Lutz,

Kent Zweifel, Mary Collins, Chris Bartow, Ophelia Pe-

ters, Harvey Bartel, Jaci Dite (Linda Wollesen ’s cousin),

Nancy Fuhrman, Lillian Blehm, Mark Chasek, Joe Keefe.

Our military: pray for those serving in areas of terror

and violence and for those waiting for them at home.

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JANUARY

If you have Prayer Requests, please contact Nancy Steele

through her e-mail—nancylsteele@embarqmail.com

or phone her at 632-7558.

Kathrine Fulk 1/1 Makenzie Todd 1/4

Geraldine Bartel 1/11 Kayla DeBlieck 1/17

Barb Jensen 1/18 Barbara Dalgarn 1/18

Duane Aschenbrenner 1/19 Penny Stevens 1/19

Owen Palm 1/20 Rick Margheim 1/23

Mary Collins 1/25 Kaetlyn Todd 1/27

Abby Meads 1/27 Christa Fulk 1/29

Alice Johnson 1/29 Jayson Gregory 1/31

SUNDAY ADULT EDUCATION Starting in January, the Adult Education class will focus on the gospel readings for the given Sunday. Come get a deeper look at the Gospel lesson. This will be an op-portunity to ask questions about the reading for the day, explore possible themes for where a sermon might follow and, if the sermon for that day is on the gospel, prepare yourself for what will be proclaimed. This series will run

through Epiphany and Lent. We meet during the Sunday School hour at 9 AM in the fellowship hall. Come join us.

CALVARY YOUTH NEWS - JANUARY

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JANUARY 6 JANUARY 13

Epiphany Party - Taco Salad Zacchaeus—Brats and Beans

JANUARY 20 JANUARY 27

Bible Pictionary Movie Night

- Chicken Noodle Soup - PBJ’s/chips

EPIC

JANUARY 10

Movie and Pizza Night

CONGRAULATIONS! These EPIC kids were recently inducted into the inaugural

National Junior Honor Society at Bluff’s Middle School:

Jensen Bedlan, Sydney Hinze, Brock Nikont,

Regan Bartow, Emma Foote, Gracee Michael

JANUARY 31

Service Project

Serve meal for annual dinner

Freewill offering to donate locally

JAM Wednesdays-6 p. m. (4 yrs-6th grade)

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“God’s Resolutions”

Are you thinking about your New Year’s resolutions yet? If you make them, how many do you actually keep as the year progresses? Each one was a sincere and solemn promise,

but maybe lacked the power, energy, or motivation to carry them through. What contrast to the resolutions God makes—promises he gives to us. Psalm 110:4 contains this starting phrase: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.” Some other promises are: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew. 11:28) “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” (Hebrews. 13:5) Where we are frail and weak, God is strong. God’s resolutions are sure. Remember God’s eternal promises and say a quick prayer thanking God for all he has done and for all he will do in the coming year and forever more. BOOK RECOMMENDATION: God’s Precious Love by Joni Eareckson Tada, who reminds us that God’s love is active even in our pain and brokenness.

If you would like a Stephen Minister to talk to in the coming year, contact Marsha Bueide (635-1469) or Nancy Steele (632-7558) to connect you with an available Stephen Minister from Calvary. If you are interested in becoming a Stephen Minister contact Marsha or Nancy. You can also go to www.stephenministries.org/stories to hear people share their stories about what it has meant to receive care from a Stephen Minister.

Calvary’s Church Office Phone number: (308) 632-8023 or 632-8024

Contact the Office by E-mail at: Office@CalvaryELCA.org

Send physical mail / offerings to: 17 E. 27th Street, Scottsbluff, NE 69361.

Pastor Chris:Kester Beyer (402) 694-9189 pastorchriskb@gmail.com

Pastor Sheryl:Kester Beyer (402) 694-9182 pastorsherylkb@gmail.com

Pastors’ home phone: (308) 631-7656

Youth & Family Ministry/ Dir. Angie Hinze contact info: 631-2768 or at the Church office. Angie@CalvaryELCA.org Nancy Steele, PMA: 632-7558 nancylsteele@embarqmail.com

Deadline for weekly announcements is Wed. at 5 PM.

Find us on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/calvarylutheranscottsbluff

NEW WEBSITE

www.calvarylutheranscottsbluff.org

WHEN YOU MISS WORSHIP: Its all online!

The worship bulletin, announcements as well as the ‘Taking Faith Home” inserts are all avail-able on our website. Worship podcasts from sermons by Pastors Sheryl and Chris are also available to listen to.

Just go to www.calvarylutheranscottsbluff.org and click on the worship tab.

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