April 2018 Newsletter Western Edge Parish (Peace Lutheran, Dickinson & St. John's Lutheran, Richardton)

Serving the community in partnership.

“Imagination: Open Eyes...Burning Hearts...” is the theme for the Western North

Dakota Synod Assembly on June 1-2. At this assembly, it will be an honor for me

to serve as chaplain, which includes leading prayers and participating in worship.

(Also, I think I wear my collar, so I don’t need to dwell on what to wear.)

If you are newer to the Lutheran church, the word synod should puzzle you.

“Synod” derives from the two Greek words for “together” and “way”. The West-

ern North Dakota Synod includes 182 ELCA congregations from the Montana bor-

der as far east as Bottineau, Harvey, Steele, and Ashley. We are many congrega-

tions moving together in the same way. Another definition of “synod” is “walking together”.

If you like to learn about organizations, you may be interested to know the ELCA is an abbreviation of Evan-

gelical Lutheran Church in America. The ELCA is one body organized in three expressions: congregations,

synods, and the churchwide organization. Churchwide functions with the 65 synods across the country and

is guided, in part, by a presiding bishop.

I am very excited one of the leaders of our synod assembly this year is Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton. She

will serve as the churchwide representative and she alone is an influential reason to attend the upcoming

assembly. She was elected presiding bishop in 2013 and ever since, she has filled the ELCA with imagination.

The tough truth is that Mainline Protestant churches are not known everywhere for imagination. We are

better with words like traditional, committees, predictable, and unfortunately, declining. That’s another

tough truth. Mainline Protestant churches have been on the decline for as many as 40 years, depending on

whose research you read.

I have a hunch that is why our own synodical bishop, Bishop Mark Narum, is getting us together to think

about “Imagination: Open Eyes...Burning Hearts...” based on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24:13-35.

The church that began after Jesus died and rose again looked much different than it does today. Have we

mistaken regression for progress? Can we imagine a way to more faithfully walk beside Jesus with open

eyes and burning hearts in 2018 and in the years to come?

I sure hope so. I love the church, and not only because it is my “job” to love it. I love the church because the

people in it help me to be my better self. The songs we sing and prayers we speak are not our own, but the

Spirit’s. We have so much good to do in Jesus’ name in this dreary world by moving together in the same

way (synod). I hope you will come to the assembly and help imagine God’s dream for the Christian Church

and Peace’s part in it.

By, Pastor Lisa Lewton (serving as your vice pastor)

Work Day Calling all painters and those who just want to help out. April 28th we will be having a

work day. We will be painting the sanctuary, fellowship area and the hallway. The more help we have the faster it will go. Please bring paint pans, brushes and rollers. Don’t paint – no problem – we have a few other items that need to be taken care of

too. Please make plans to help for any amount of time. We will start at 8:30 am.

Youth Group

Pancake fundraiser will be after service on April 8th. Freewill offering with all proceeds going to the Houston trip in July.

Located outside the office doors you will see a wonderful display of envelopes decorated by the Peace Lutheran Youth Group. Stop by and grab an envelope. Put the dollar amount inside that is written on the outside. Then, you can drop it in the offering plate or bring it to Cora in the office.

Thank you for supporting our youth ministry!!

Dear Followers of Christ,

It has been a busy March with Lenten Services and getting ready for Holy Week. Please join us Maundy Thursday at 6 pm for our last soup supper, service begins at 7 with Holy Communion. Good Friday services will be at 4 pm in Rich-ardton at St. John’s and at 7 pm at Peace Lutheran.

We have several exciting projects coming up. We are in the process of getting pricing for new carpeting and flooring op-tions. Before laying new carpeting, we need to paint – keep April 28th open to help out. Wouldn’t it be awesome to match our anonymous gift? Or even half of it? We have done it before – lets challenge ourselves to do it again.

April 11 we will start up our WNW (Wednesday Night Wor-ship) with a short service at 7 pm with KOOL Gang and Con-firmation youth meeting afterwards. Its hard to believe our school year is almost at an end!!

Our call committee has met and started on our ministry profile, they will be meeting with Bishop Narum to ask questions and review what they have done so far. Having met with rep-resentatives from St John’s Episcopal Church, they are very interested in continuing our part-nership. We will explore this more in the future.

We have many challenges ahead of us but we are not alone.

“When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.“ Isaiah 43:2

Serving Together in God’s Grace,

Bev Holdahl, President

Peace Lutheran Church

2018 COMMUNITY GARDEN

Anybody at Peace who is interested in helping us make

plans for a Community Garden this Spring contact Cora in

the office. It is almost time to start registering for plots. If

you can help in anyway please call or email.

Phone:483-1550 Email: peacelutheran@ndsupernet.com

PEACE LUTHERAN CHURCH

Eric Halverson (Hip surgery)

Audrey Praus, daughter of Cheryl Tibor

Thanksgiving with Chelsee & Shawn Skogen at the

birth of Johnah

Tammy Sem & family

Eden Karpyak & family

Julie Anderson (Cancer) Friend of Tim & Bev Holdahl

Betty Brandt (Kim J. mom)

Deidra Shannon (Terry H. cousin)

COMMUNITY PRAYERS:

All those serving in the military & their families. Our partner congregation, St. John’s Lutheran in Rich-

ardton, Lutheran Social Services, Badlands Ministries, the Ministries in the Central African Republic.

ST. JOHN’S IN RICHARDTON

Harrison Job Magstadt & his parents Haley & Nathan Magstadt. Harrison born at 24 weeks 1# 8oz (relative

of Armin-Lorraine Treiber)

Darlene Zentner (Ralph’s sister)

Kristin Johnson

Rachel Axtmann

Gary Goetz

Shawn Hauck (Treiber’s nephew)

Harry Oster (Vernon’s brother)

Duane Treiber (Armin’s brother)

Pam Pullen (Mark’s sister)

Alan Chmielewski (Verns nephew) James Hauter (Lynn Johnson’s Father)

Wellde Heinle (Tom Kitzan’s cousin) Recurrence of cancer

PRAYERS FOR HEALING,

STRENGTH & GOOD HEALTH:

We are looking for someone to serve on

Peace’s Council in 2018. We have been

meeting on the 3rd Monday of each month

for our regular meetings that start at 7:00.

If you are interested, please talk with

President Bev Holdahl or any other Council

member.

Peace Lutheran Church Council Minutes 19 March 2018. Present: Bev Holdahl, Cora Tormaschy, Jeff Anderson, Eric Halverson, Pastor Lisa Lawton, Naomi Thorson, Tammy Sa-dowsky, Travis Kupper, Marilyn Huschka Absent: Shane Schmidt,

Call to order by Bev Holdahl. Devotions by Pastor Lisa — Ecclesiastes— We give thanks for all seasons. MSC Jeff/Marilyn to accept the minutes from the February meeting as corrected (under V b We need one more

council member. Under VI f add cart). MSC Eric/Jeff to approve the Agenda as presented Leadership reports

Pastor Lisa and Bev met about worship plans. We still need another member for council.

Stewardship Financial — A payment is due for the youth trip. We need to have someone explain the envelop board. MSC Eric/ Marilyn to approve the payment for the youth trip ($1590). Thrivent donation — We will use the funds for a hymnal cart. Lenten offering will go to Lutheran World Hunger. Bev suggested that we might encourage members to match funds. Jeff suggested that we need to get bids

so that people will know what they’re giving to. Then we can determine what kind of match to look for. We discussed the two projects that seem to be most in need — carpet and parking lot. We also dis-cussed the need to paint before putting in carpet.

Transition The call committee (plus St. John Richardton and St. John Episcopal Church)will be meeting with Bishop

Narum on March 28. Worship leaders for Sundays and Wednesdays are filled out through the beginning of May. The music committee has been finding musicians. Council members signed up for Sundays and Wednesdays.

Faith Formation Wednesday nights — Eric and Rena and Ryan will be working on Confirmation. Bette will help with the les-

son plan. Breanna and Sheila will work with younger kids. The following kids are due to be confirmed:Taylor F., Trenton B., Ethan J. In July the youth will be going to Houston. Day camp will be July 30- August 2. Badlands would like us to pay $55 per camper. We will discuss this

more. Brent Seaks will be leading worship the last Sunday in April. Community Partnership

Community garden — Cora scheduled a meeting but no one else showed up. Jeff has more compost and free hauling. We need people to work on raking, etc. Cora has a person who will till it. The well situa-tion needs to be worked on. We discussed having a sign to recognize contributions.

AMEN Food pantry — Cora has new dates. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2-4 p.m. Scout food drive is Sat-urday.

Preschool is having a program on April 14. They will work with the AA group that meets here. Camp Sunday is April 29. March 23-25 GAC has an event here. They did not contact us. We need to work on contracts with our various partners.

Building and Property Thank you to Shane for the painting and TV mount. Work Day — When? April 28 we will work on painting. Cora will select paint. We need to reorganize the furnace space. The parking lot potholes need repair. The carbon monoxide detector doesn’t have to be hard-wired in. Cora will get one. Carpeting — Jeff showed us carpet samples. He and Peg have been working on this project. They will get

estimates. We have a doorbell on the outside doors. It works. We got a notice of a zoning meeting.

Worship Bev and Greg Johnson have worked on the worship schedule. We will have Communion when Pastor Joel

and Tim Holdahl lead worship. Wednesday night worship will begin April 11.

April Newsletter — Any news or announcements should be sent to Cora or Bev. Personnel Committee

Sheila has been working out well. We are happy with her work. The next meeting is April 16. We ended with The Lord’s Prayer. The meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Naomi Thorson

Gospel Seeds - April 201 A Monthly Update from Western ND Synod Staff

Resurrection People…

We are people of The Story, the Jesus story. How God reached right through the tomb of death and brought Jesus fully to life. This is a story of hope, new life and promises being fulfilled – these themes are explored in the Old and New Testaments.

As we celebrate Easter we are reminded that in baptism we were joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection. We became part of God’s story in the splashing of those waters.

Those cleansing waters are a gift. What is amazing about this gift, is the water never runs out. It is an ever flowing fountain ready to rush over others so they too can become part of the Story.

You and I are resurrection people. May we have the compassion, strength and tenacity to share this Story with others.

ELCA Mission Builders Returning…

For the eighth year in a row ELCA Mission Builders will have a crew working in the Western North Dakota Synod. This year’s project will be an expansion at Bread of Life Lutheran Church in Minot. Steve Schenk will be Project Manager and Jim Carey will be crew leader on the job.

These projects rely on volunteers to help with construction. Plan to spend a day or two this summer in Minot helping this growing church meet its future needs.

Pre-Assembly Workshop…

Where is our church headed? Would you like a chance to think creatively about the future of our church, your synod and the con-gregation you belong to? Then plan to attend the Pre-Assembly Workshop on Thursday, May 31st at the Ramkota in Bismarck. Pre-siding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton will be our keynote speaker. She will share her vision while at the same time engaging participants in conversation.

The event begins at 10:00AM (Registration will open at 9:30AM). Lunch will be provided and the afternoon will have a number of learning sessions you can engage. Registration for the event opens in mid-April.

Next GIFTS event – Dr. Eric Barretto –

“A People for God’s Name: Believing and Belonging in Luke-Acts”

Christ Lutheran Church, Minot Apr 21 @ 8:30 am – 3:00 pm

Boundaries Workshop…

Leaders within God’s church are called to a special trust, how they carry out their work matters. Every two years all rostered lead-ers and Synodically Authorized Ministers are to attend a healthy boundaries workshop. This year we are opening the event to all church leaders.

The workshops will be held in two locations, Christ Lutheran, Minot on April 12th and First Lutheran, Mandan on April 13th. Both workshops begin at 9:00AM (Registration opens at 8:45) and will conclude by 3:00. The cost is $30 which includes lunch and snacks.

Please register by going to the Synod Website at wndsynod.org .

For Rostered Leaders who are unable to attend one of these events it is expected that you attend an event hosted in another synod.

Assignment Process…

This spring two first call candidates were assigned to the Western North Dakota Synod. Each of these candidates have had a chance to review the paperwork for congregations and are in the process of preparing for interviews. We are thankful for each of these candidates, each will be a gift wherever they are called.

At the same time, we could have used several more candidates. Currently we have about a dozen openings. I would ask that you would keep these congregations, their councils and their call committees in prayer that God would be at work raising up the next leader.

Rev. Mark Narum

Serving as Bishop of the Western North Dakota Synod

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HOLY WEEK & EASTER SCHEDULE MAUNDY THURSDAY, March 29

7:00 pm -Peace (Supper at 6:00)

GOOD FRIDAY, March 30 4:00 pm St. John’s in Richardton

7:00 pm Peace

EASTER SUNDAY, April 1 8:00 am St. John’s in Richardton

9:30 am Peace

Peace Lutheran Church

1550 21st Street W

Dickinson, ND 58601

Phone: (701)483-1550

Website: peacelutherandickinson.com

Address Service Requested

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Dickinson, ND 58601

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