Dear Brothers and Sisters at Messiah,
Moving from July into August, we hope this round-up of opportunities for worship, devotion and fellowship (including highlighted new events) will be helpful as you look ahead!
SUMMER WORSHIP AND CLASS SCHEDULE:
Through Sunday, September 4th (Labor Day weekend), one service will be held at 10:00 am each Sunday. Bible Class will be held beforehand at 9:00 am. Summer Sunday services will be livestreamed at:
Our website www.messiahgr.org
Our Facebook page www.facebook.com/messiahgr.
Bible Class will also be livestreamed at www.messiahgr.org/adult-bible-class.
A study of Luther's Large Catechism will follow services at about 11:15 am.
Sunday School is in recess for the summer.
Monday night summer services continue on Mondays at 7:00 pm through Monday, August 29th. Note that there will be no Monday night service on September 5th (Labor Day weekend).
(Our fall schedule will resume on Sunday, September 11th: the Divine Service will be held at 8:30 and 11 am on Sundays, with Sunday School and Bible Class at 9:45 am.)
IMPORTANT ALTAR FLOWERS UPDATE:
Please disregard the previous flower announcements because we have received an offer from one of our members to make the arrangements each Sunday. Effective August 1st, the cost will be only $25.00 to cover cost of the flowers and supplies for doing this wonderful service for our Sunday worship. She wants to give this a try for a month just to see if she can continue into the winter. We send Barbara Wilson a huge THANK YOU for this generous offer of her time and talent in service to our Lord.
WHAT'S UP, WHAT'S COMING (Details in our weekly announcements):
Community Picnic sponsored by the Board of Outreach, after the service on Sunday, August 28th. Thanks to those of you who have already volunteered; more volunteers are welcome! Please sign up at the Welcome Center or in Bible Class to:
distribute flyers in the neighborhood during August
set up and/or clean up for the event
bring food (side dishes, desserts, fruit salads)
help with games for all ages (ball toss, cornhole, disc golf)
NEW! Lutherans in Fellowship Together meeting Sunday, August 7th at 11:15 am.
NEW! Crafting Get-Together Tuesday, August 16th at 4:00 pm.
Garage Sale on Friday, September 9th and Saturday, September 10th. (Please note the corrected dates.)
Cookie and Craft Bazaar sponsored by the Parish Services Guild on Saturday, December 3rd.
NEW! A planning meeting for this event is set for Thursday, August 11th at 10:30 am.
AUGUST NEWSLETTER:
Our August newsletter is now available online! Click here to preview or download it in its entirety. A reminder that:
Paper copies of the newsletter are available for members and guests at the Welcome Center. We also continue to mail the newsletter to homebound members. If you want to continue receiving the newsletter, please contact the church office to make arrangements.
We also post the newsletter and monthly calendars online at www.messiahgr.org/news.
LOOKING AHEAD:
From Pastor Twietmeyer's August newsletter message:
“[O]n every Sunday and on festivals (such as Christmas, Easter, Ascension, etc.) the first Lutherans continued to do what the church had been doing since the start: they worshipped and offered communion."
"So, we must ask ourselves, why do we not do this? . . . In North America, there were relatively few Lutherans to begin with . . . there were even fewer Lutheran pastors. It became a common practice, therefore, for a Lutheran pastor to travel from place to place and serve multiple congregations. What this meant was that most congregations only would gather with a called and ordained pastor once a month or even less frequently. So it was that communion would only be celebrated when the pastor was in town. This practice remained common in much of the country even until the late 19th century."
"Since that time though, Lutheran churches with a pastor in the chancel every Sunday have begun to return to our Biblical heritage by celebrating the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day. Weekly Communion, as it is sometimes referred to, is now a much more common practice in the LCMS. More importantly though, it is a Biblical practice. The Lord’s Supper is the pinnacle of the Divine Service, for it is then that we have a personal encounter with the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil . . ."
"The Board of Elders and I have been spending time studying this topic in the Scriptures and learning about our heritage. Because of this, we are all in agreement that this would be a great thing to bring to Messiah. So, in September, we will begin having the Lord’s Supper every Lord’s Day. It will be a wonderful joy to receive Jesus’ body and blood with you every week and I pray that it is a joy for you as well."
Yours in Him,
Rick Krueger, Parish Assistant
