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Current News and Events at Hope Lutheran Church
Seasonal News Pastor Hills's "Vision of Hope" Xtra Years of Zest Anchor Nursery School News	Holy Week Schedule Concert & Fellowship Events Sunday School News Youth News

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HOLY WEEK AND SPRING DRAW NEAR

 On the final Sunday in the month of March, Holy Week will begin with a full schedule of activities for our members and others who share with us in worship.

Our Palm Sunday services will again feature the processions with palms that are a Palm Sunday tradition. Services begin outdoors, and the congregation enters the church together bearing palm braches commemorating the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into the Holy City of Jerusalem.

The last three days of Holy Week are called the “Triduum,” Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. A full schedule of the services can be found on page 5.

In addition to the Triduum, we will include final Lenten Services on Wednesday at noon and 7:30 p.m. At that evening service we will conclude the seven-part play, “Following God’s Pathway.”

For those who wish to see the play, there are videos posted on Youtube.com under the play’s title.

During the Easter season there will be several other important events here at Hope including a Children’s Easter Musical on Sunday, April 11. On Friday-Saturday, April 20-1 there will be a Teen Ministry retreat, and on Saturday evening April 21, at 5 p.m. we will have an evening concert by Bill Cooper.

The Easter Season will conclude with a very special event planned by the Stewardship Team called “Consecration Sunday.” More information is included on page 2 about this.

Although Spring is just coming later this month, plans will also begin for summer programs including VBS and Drama Camp. In addition, we will offer a weekly Summer Sunday School during the 9:30 service with the help of parent volunteers.

Read all about these in the pages that follow.

SNOW FUND NEEDS YOUR HELP

It is no understatement to say that since December we have accumulated a great amount of snow because of recurring snowstorms.

Unfortunately for us, these storms have had a great impact on the ordinary operation of our church, not only in terms of church activities but also in the amount needed to pay for the removal of the snow from our church parking lot.

Because we all share together in the use of the church building and parking lot, we are sending out with this newsletter self-addressed “Snow Fund” envelopes to every household with the hope that if we all send or bring in an additional offering using these envelopes we can lessen the negative impact of the snow on our church ‘s budget.

Please use the enclosed envelope to help pay for this seasonal expense. If many send in gifts of $20-$50, we will have enough money to cover these expenses. Please respond right away if possible.

 

Many of Hope’’s members may not be aware of the fact that my term as Dean of the Peconic Conference will end on Sunday, March 14th when our conference meets here at Hope and elects a new dean. But the day is coming when I will no longer hold that position, a post I have served in for the past eight years after a two-year hiatus following four years as dean. After 14 years of monthly meetings and annual 2-day Deans’ retreats, I’ll be “done.”

I’m not in a mood right now to try to evaluate my service as dean. I may never really be. But what matters to me right now is that I realize that I am coming to the point where I will be making a transition in the way I carry out my ministry, both at a synod level and here at Hope, and I’m wondering what it will be like when I am no longer a dean.

One thing that has become clearer to me is that I want to review the overall pattern of ministry I provide as pastor of Hope. Most of what I do will probably continue to be done exactly the same as before, but without the external outlet for my energy, I will look for new ways to invest myself in various aspects of our congregation’s work.

I share these thoughts with you because I trust that you will have thoughts to share with me about how I can strengthen and improve my service as pastor of Hope. In the past I have asked leaders to answer three simple questions for me:

1. What would you like me to do MORE of?

2. What would you like me to do LESS of?

3. What should I keep doing about the same?

    Although I’ve been pastor here for more than 27 years, many of you have not been around here that long. Many have joined over these years, and all of our members have gifts and needs that need to be shared. At the same time, all of our lives are constantly undergoing changes, so what we need today may be quite different from what we once needed.

    So, consider this an invitation to share your thoughts and suggestions with me. I want our church to be the very best church it can be for all our members, and I am willing to work at new challenges if you are. Because this is a time of transition for me personally, it may also become a time of transition for our whole church. What do you think?

       With Love,

       

       Pastor Hill

Xtra Years of Zest Fellowship Marks 12 Years of Activity

This is our 12th year of meeting. We are an active group of people who are long term members and who are active participants in the life of Hope. We enjoy each others company and support each other in joy and times of trial. We invite all of you youngsters over 50 years of age to join us.

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, March 10th. At 11 a.m. we will participate in the Lenten Study with Pastor Hill. At 12;30 we have lunch after the noontime service. Bring your own lunch from home. Coffee, tea and dessert will be provided. We also discuss future activities and plans. We will continue to attend the Lenten study and noontime service each Wednesday throughout Lent.

XYZ fellowship is also continuing to collect items for the Health Kits for Lutheran World Relief. Please remember the kits when you are shopping and bring the articles to church.

Please check the bulletin board in the narthex for upcoming events.

            Thank you

Stewardship Team Plans Consecration Sunday May 16

Hope’s Stewardship Team has been meeting regularly since last fall to discuss ways to help our members grow in their understanding of and commitment to biblical stewardship.

The team is focusing on an effective resource that has been used in many churches around our nation called “Consecration Sunday,” and they have chosen Sunday, May 16th as the date for this special emphasis.        

This approach to financing the operational ministries of a congregation teaches stewardship from a spiritual perspective rather than from a fund-raising perspective. Consecration Sunday is based on a biblical/spiritual theology of the need of the giver to give for his or her own spiritual benefit rather than on the need of the church to receive. Directed toward raising the level of stewardship rather than toward raising the church budget, its no-gimmick approach focuses on the question, "What is God calling me to do?" rather than on the question, "What does the church need in order to pay its bills?"

On May 16 we will being having only one service followed by a dinner for the whole congregation. The time has not been decided yet.

More details will be coming soon about the special activities and plans being made for this exciting program. For more information, or to offer your time to help with the work of the team, speck with Brian Steck or you can send an e-mail note to him at msteck@optonline.net.

WHEN THE PASTOR VISITS . . .

Beginning this month I will be adding a feature to the ANCHOR that will focus on the “lost art” of pastoral visitation. Please share your thoughts about the ideas expressed here.

“ROUTINE HOME VISITS”

I can recall from my early days as a pastor in Braintree, Massachusetts, that I was able to boast about knowing by memory not only every address of the families in the church, but even their phone numbers! That was true because there once was a time when pastors routinely visited members of their flock as an ordinary part of their pastoral ministry.

That was possible in those days for two reasons. First, we had a rather small congregation—maybe 50-60 families at most. But more importantly, in those days many families had only one full-time wage earner, and there usually were people around in the afternoon if I decided to drop in for a visit.

Times are different now, some thirty years later. I don’t make any ““routine” pastoral visits. In fact, I wouldn’t know where many of our members even lived without our church photo directories, and even they are somewhat outdated.

Add to that the fact that we have on our membership rolls over 400 families, some of which have perhaps moved away or started attending other churches without letting us know. Where would one start such a project these days?

Yet, having said that, I must confess that I think we have lost an important dimension of congregational life because I haven’t visited in many homes for quite some time, if at all.

Honestly, I probably don’t need to look for additional work for myself. I seem to have enough to do without trying to spend time visiting people just because they are there. But I think it would be helpful, at least in some cases, if we could figure out how to make time to get better acquainted on a more personal level.

Give this some thought. Have there been times when a visit from me as your pastor might have been helpful to you and your family? How might it have been helpful to you? Let me know what you think about this.

Pastor Hill

Next month:

“HOSPITAL VISITATION”

Lutheran Disaster Relief For Haiti and Chile

On Sunday, January 17th, our Congregation Council launched an effort to collect funds to be used to support the efforts of the ELCA Disaster Relief workers in Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

A total of $1,144 has already been collected and additional gifts will be added as they come in. We will send in the gifts we receive by February 1st.

Lutheran World Relief is the lead agency in coordinating the religious organizations in providing assistance in Haiti. Our regular offerings to the ELCA provide the administrative support for the ongoing work of LWF, so a full 100% of our relief offerings will be used for direct assistance for earthquake victims.

Concerts & Fellowship Events

Nightsong Music

Bill Cooper & Bette Kron

Concert—Saturday, April 17 5:00 pm

Pot luck supper after concert

 

Talent/Variety Show

Planned for Late Spring

All members and friends are invited to participate in this fun time of OUR talent
— whether in song, dance, musical instrument, comedy .

 

SOUP-ER BOWL SUNDAY

Soup is Good Food

Soup Drive a Big Success!!!

We collected 477 cans of soup!

 

Thank you all for your continued support and generous donations!! We well exceeded our goal of 250 cans of soup.

On Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 we begin outdoors with the blessing of the palms and procession into the church reminding us of Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem.