From Pastor Brad...
New Things!
The writer of Lamentations (probably the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah) penned these words from the Holy Spirit,
The Lord’s compassions never fail.
They are new every morning...
(Lamentations 3:22-23)
My dictionarydefines “compassion” as, “The deep feeling of sharing the suffering of another that leads to an act of mercy.” The good news for us is that, not only is the Lord capable of sharing our feelings of suffering, but His feeling led Him to act on our behalf – one look at the cross shows us this! And, as Lamentations tells us, His actions of compassion “never fail” and, they are “new every morning!” What a good, faithful, and renewing God we have!
At Grace, we are entering into the “morning” of a new church year – the new beginning of another year of church activities ranging from Sunday School and Confirmationto community dinners and concerts, from Advent and Christmas to Lent and Easter. As we enter into this new beginning, we can begin to see some of God’s new compassions dawning on us.
One of these new compassions just recently becamevisible on August 25th, when after 50 hours of training; we commissioned our first five Stephen Ministers for service within our congregation and community. Pictured below (from left to right) are: Hans & Rachel Ronnevik, Pat Teberg, John & Linda Wright.
The motto of StephenMinistry is “Christ caring for people through people,” and it well summarizes the distinctively Christian care these care givers will provide for their care receivers as they listen, pray, and encourage them in faith.
Another of God’s new things is the addition of Aimee Nordlund as our part-time Director of Christian Education and Worship. Aimee has worked professionally as a pianist, vocalist, musical director, church worship director, and private piano instructor. She graduated with a BFA in music from EastStrousdburgUniversity in Pennsylvania and studied theology for a year at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, MN. She recently played the role of Rona Perretti in the musical comedy, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” at the FergusFallsCenter for the Arts.
Aimee will teach and give oversight for our Sunday School and its musical programs, provide music for our Wednesday contemporary worship, provide special music for Sunday worship, and join our youth ministry team.
Something else to look forward to is our Grace Women hosting a district LCMC “Women of the Word” conference on October 26 featuring Rebecca Meidinger.
Rebecca is director of “Far Above Rubies” ministry and will be speaking on “Women of Worth.” It’s all about women finding their identity in Christ rather than looking for it from culture. Bring yourself, your daughters, and your grand daughters; you won’t want to missthis one! Contact Karen Rossum or the church for more details.