Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Atonement Lutheran Church - Dedication DVD Keepsake
Commemorative DVD Keepsake
Suggested
Good-Will Offering $10.00
100% of proceeds designated to Church Landscaping!!
Contents include:
~ Dedication Service – May 27th, 2007
~ God's Hope ~ Our Journey - Year in Review – Construction Start to Finish
~ Original GHOJ Capital Campaign Video
Order your copy Today! Here's how:
1. Send e-mail to mike_skaff@msn.com with Subject 'Atonement DVD Order'. Please include your name, address, Phone Number and e-mail address
or
2. Sign-up Sheet located in the Narthex.
On Pentecost Sunday, May 27, 2007 PM we dedicated our New Sanctuary
Pentecost Sunday will be a new birth of the Atonement Family! It seems every day there are surprises and difficulties, but we made it. Each day was a new challenge and you have hung in there together to keep each other strong. It has been a long time coming and has been a great accomplishment for the Atonement Family and the community. The dream three years ago with the capital campaign is a reality. The experience of worshipping in this new space will be astounding and surprising. I pray that you will allow yourselves to become aware of the different worship experience that this new sanctuary will provide us.
Dedication involved thanking those who have been a part of this project: architect Bob Saas; the contractor, Anthony D. Miller; John Quade, AD Miller’s superintendent; Ron Lorenz and the Building Ministry Team. Bishop Alan Bjornberg, of the Rocky Mountain Synod, ELCA presented. The choir and praise team helped us worship and the Church School students sang. We remember the first Pentecost Sunday when the disciples were filled with the power of the spirit. We too will be filled with joy and courage to continue to become what our Lord has called us to be in this community.
Now is time that we eagerly look forward to welcoming visitors! We pray that many new people will want to come and see who we are in this new worship space. Please be aware of those who ‘”come and see” and let’s make certain that we show them who God has called us to be in this place! Every Sunday is OPEN HOUSE! Every Sunday is EASTER!
(At the time of this writing, we finally have a temporary occupancy certificate!!). A huge hurdle is the landscaping. The city is requiring us to start immediately. We have no funds for this project and to complete it will cost approximately $40,000 dollars. We have spent our landscaping funds for ‘life saving’ changes within the building and many other unexpected changes. We have learned that the two year extension was never an option. There was a misunderstanding. Apologies and finger pointing is useless at this point, we just need to comply as best we can in order to use our new worship space. Please help in any way that is possible.
We will also be closing the loan with Mission Investment Funds of the ELCA in Chicago as soon as possible. That means we will be challenged to make approximately $11,000 each month as payments for our loan. We can do this, but it will take all of us helping the best we can. At this writing, we will be approximately $15,000 over our budget for this project. This figure doesn’t include the landscaping cost.
Pray that we will not lose sight of our Mission of “Living in God’s Love and Reaching Out with Hope!” We are being called to bring Christ’s love and compassion to those who haven’t come yet. Pray that we use God’s gifts to bring love and joy to each other and those who come to wonder about us.God’s Peace!
Pastor Del
Dreams into Reality
Needed in Church: Not Volunteers, but Participants!
Since my wife and I both work in full time ministry in two different parishes, we have lots of conversations about church life. Lucky us! In one of our recent conversations, we both agreed that one of the things we’d love to change is the language we use in our churches about “volunteers”. If a congregation is one expression of the larger Body of Christ, then giving time to the life of your congregation is not about volunteering – it’s about participating.This difference may seem subtle, but it’s incredibly significant. Think about it. One definition of “volunteer” in the dictionary is as “one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest.” One usually volunteers for an organization. While you may believe in the organization’s goals or cause, there’s still some distance between you and the organization. You can easily volunteer for an organization without having a vested interest, without really being part of it, without really belonging.
Too often we think of the church as an organization, and on one level, it is. However, at its core, the church is not an organization – it’s a community. Better said, the church is a family. One does not volunteer for one’s family –one participates in it!
We have entered into our new worship space. We’ll do so not as an organization, but as a family. As family, there will be plenty of opportunities – new and old – to help out, especially as our new space continues to deepen and broaden our vision for mission and ministry together. What we need in this new chapter of our life together is not more volunteers – we need participants! As participants, we have a vested interest in our life together because we realize we belong here. In this family, everyone’s gifts are valued and necessary!
The next time you see a need expressed in our church, I hope you’ll consider not volunteering, but participating. You can be sure the rest of the family will appreciate you sharing your gifts!
God's Peace!
Pastor Jim
