February 2015 Bellringer - St. Matthew`s Lutheran Church

A GOOD AND FAITHFUL LIFE
“Well done, my good and faithful servant?” I’ve often heard individuals say that they long
to hear God speak these words.
2015 Council
Eric Ramsey-President
Louise Rutledge-VP
Ralph Weiser-Secretary
Ed Mourar-Treasurer
Ministry Team Leaders
Nancy CooperCommunity Life
Sue HummerstonCongregational Cares
Jenny Sbei-Faith Formation
James Davis-Property
Anita Uhl-Outreach
Church Office
David Mackie-Music Director
Sandy Elkins-School Director
Audrey Subhan-Church Adm.
Corky Knapp-Sexton
Harry & Elizabeth PettyjohnYouth Directors
Kristin Ditillo-Children’s Choir
Director
Newsletter
February 16, 2015
In Christ God’s forgiveness, love and salvation have been poured out on us. God’s
abundant grace has set us free from sin and death and all that binds us. So the question
becomes now that we are free how shall we live our lives? Because of Christ we have
been set free to serve. Set free to live as good and faithful servants. So what does a
good and faithful life look like? In 2015 we are going to explore this question. We will do
this in our teaching and preaching. You will also be invited to participate in a related spiritual discipline and outreach project.
BELLRINGER
We begin 2015 exploring The Joy of Giving Thanks and The Joy of Giving It Up.
Through Easter and the summer we will explore The Joy of Sharing of our Time, Talents
and Treasure and The Joy of Sharing the Good News. Through the fall and we will
explore The Joy of Caring for Creation and The Joy of Caring for our Neighbor.
Pastor Thadd’s Installation
Sunday, February 22 at 4:00pm
The Joy of Giving Thanks
Reception Following
During the season of Epiphany and through Lent we are exploring the Joy of Giving
Thanks. A good and faithful life starts with the realization that everything we have is a
gift from God. So a good and faithful life is a life of gratitude. You are invited to practice
gratitude by adding your prayers of thanksgiving to Our Giving Thanks quilt. The quilt is
hanging in the hall of the CLC. There are note cards in both the pews and on the counter near the quilt. Write a thank you note to God. Write more than one – try for one a
day or one a week and add them to the quilt. Our Giving Thanks outreach projects are
focused on our local food pantries. We celebrated Souper Bowl Sunday and we are initiating a Food Pantry store.
Easter Worship Services 7:30, 9, 10:30
The Joy of Giving It Up
Easter Breakfast 8:30 to 10:30
Our Lenten theme is the Joy of Giving It Up. Each of us has habits, attitudes or personality traits that get in the way of our relationships with God and family and friends. Perhaps
yours Is a know-it-all attitude, the need to be right, the need to be in control, complaining
and whining, being critical, negativity, anger, resentment, indifference or something else?
These things are like stones that we use to build walls between our neighbors and God
and ourselves. These stones weigh us down and rob us of the joy of Kingdom life.
So we are asking you to choose one habit, attitude or personality trait and give it up to
God for Lent. This will not be like giving up chocolate or Facebook or sweets. This will be
very difficult. You won’t be able to do it alone. You will need the help of family and
friends.
There will be a cross in the Christian Life Center Lobby with a basket of stones. We invite
you to select a stone and write your burden on the back of the stone, give it up to God
and place it at the foot of the cross. Throughout Lent you will have the opportunity to confess the times you’d fallen back into your old patterns. There will be water droplet cutouts near the cross. Writing your confession on the water droplet and placing it on the
cross is like returning to your baptism for forgiveness and new life.
You might also place a jar or bank on your kitchen table and add a dollar to the jar every
time you slip up. This can be you complaining jar or your know-it-all jar or your negativity
jar or your anger jar, you get the gist. There will be a large container in the CLC near the
cross. You can add the contents from your jar to this container. The money collected will
be donated to Natalie David’s outreach project to purchase a special wheelchair for a
severely handicapped young woman who lives at the St. Matthew's orphanage in Tanzania.
A good and faithful life begins with gratitude and leads us to the joy of life lived in the
Kingdom of God. Join us in our 2015 journey as we practice living a good and faithful
life.
Holy Week Worship Services
Maundy Thursday 7:00 pm
Good Friday 7:00 pm
BELLRINGER 2.0
We live in a world where we are overwhelmed with communication. We get hundreds of e-mails a day, have instant updates on
Twitter and Facebook, and are able to find out any sort of information by going to Google. At St. Matthew’s we continue to look
for ways to communicate more effectively. To that end, we are
putting out newsletter less frequently with more content. There
will be five newsletters a year that will be spaced by the church
year. We will have one for Advent through Epiphany, Lent, Easter,
summer, and one for Rally Day/Fall. We hope to put information
that is both informative and important in each newsletter. If you
have ideas about things you think would work well in the newsletter or would like to write the “my church, my faith” please let us
know. Any other feedback about the newsletter would be greatly
appreciated as well. Thanks for reading!
“ENGAGED IN JOYFUL SERVICE
IN GOD’S WORLD THROUGH
FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST”
St. Matthew’s
Lutheran Church
2440 Conestoga Rd.
Chester Springs, PA 19425
Phone-610-458-5675
Fax-610-458-2473
www.stmatthews-church.org
Pastor Tina Mackie
Pastor Thaddeus Book
VISION 2020 UPDATE
Vision 2020 Update
Now that we are fully staffed we hope to move forward with planning and implementation of our
Vision for 2020. Council has established goals for 2015 that will move us toward the realization of this vision.
Mission Statement
God calls St. Matthew’s congregation and community to be “engaged in joyful service in God’s world through faith in Jesus
Christ”.
2020 Vision Statement
We will commit ourselves through our time, talents and financial support to put God’s Word into action.
We hope to realize this through our 2015 Theme:
A Good and Faithful Life and council’s 2015 Goals
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Re-vision and revitalize our youth program
LENTEN MEAL AT ST. MATTHEW’S
Our very own member Bob Czajkowski is a chef and he is planning to prepare a meal
(with some assistance) before each Lenten Wednesday night worship service. This will be a
full meal that will include a salad bar. The meal will last from 5:45-6:45 and you are
welcome to come at any point during that time to receive this wonderful meal. This will be
a great opportunity to meet other people at St. Matthew’s and enjoy some wonderful food.
Please feel free to invite friends and family members who are not yet connected with
St. Matthew’s. We hope you make it part of your Lenten discipline to join us for a meal at
5:45 and then worship which will begin at 7 pm. Our first meal will take place on February
18th, Ash Wednesday. If you are interested in helping out with this meal in any way, please
send an email to Pastor Thadd (tbook@stmatthews-church.org).
Develop and nurture our finance and stewardship teams and strategies
Explore and implement an evening program event possibly centered around worship
Allow the time and space for council and the ministry teams to come together and mature in their areas of ministry
Foster communication, in order to inform and connect people to ministry.
We will implement our communication’s plan and clarify the use of the Bellringer / ATC.
Express God’s love and fulfill God’s mission by generously serving one another locally & globally.
LENTEN
2014 was a fruitful year. May we in 2015 continue to move toward our vision for 2020.
MY CHURCH, MY FAITH 02/05/2015
Joyful Service in God’s World
My subject line stems from our Visioning project in 2013. The first word is one that I will focus on: Joy. It has been a central
theme for us at St Matthews and it has a special meaning to me.
The joy of getting married here. Joining you in service here at St Matthews has been a humbling journey. It started with attending new member orientation and worship with my wife-to-be Dale in 1997. What an exciting time it was! Getting married and for
me this was the first real church home-home since leaving Germany in 1989.
The joy of our children getting baptized here. It is humbling to see them grow up such a caring environment. Life here has impacted them. Katie draws from the stories she learned in confirmation class. Max would love going to summer retreats indefinitely.
The joy of learning about all our 15+ ministries here at St Matthews. Yes, you read this correctly. We have found so many ways
serving our Lord and others. Check it out here: http://stmatthews-church.org/ministries/ . There are even a few more. For instance the most recent being Pastor Thadd leading our “Pub Theology” ministry.
The joy of joining you in servitude with such a diverse congregation. We are blessed to have such a broad range of age, cultural,
and also economical backgrounds.
They joy to be surrounded by so many helpful and talented folks. All it takes is for you to be joyful enough to open up and not
being shy approaching others, or letting other congregation members approach you. Meeting your fellow Christian at eye and
heart level is key for letting God into your life.
The joy of having two caring pastors and congregation members who are called helping lead us through great and also tough
times.
Finally, there is the joy of hearing the voice of God more clearly than ever. Who I am and what I do is in harmony with what I am
supposed to do – and BE. There is an insane sense of joy that flows through me in those special moments where a sermon let’s
me make it through another tough day, when we pray for others in need, when the laughter of all our children and members
having fun makes my day, when I am blessed helping someone with a kind word and also deed, when others do the same for me.
That is when I truly think to myself how God’s touch and presence is omni-present here at St Matthews.
Blessed beyond measure,
Ralf Weiser
LENTEN
WEDNESDAY NIGHT SERVICE
I often have a difficult time figuring out what to give up
during Lent. The idea is to give something up so that I may
grow closer in my relationship to God. But giving up
chocolate, candy, or my favorite restaurant during Lent
doesn’t seem to do much for me but cause agony. But there
are some ideas, behaviors, or ways of being we can give up
that will enhance our relationship with God. So during
Wednesday nights in Lent we are going to wrestle with
some of these and see where we end up. So join us for the
meal from 5:45-6:45 and then come to a beautiful evening
worship service at 7 pm and together see how we can grow
in our relationships during Lent.
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