Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church 2515 Madison Ave.

Burlington, Iowa

Phone: (319) 752-3621

www.bethanyburlington.org

Pastor’s Cell: (360) 623-2184

Bethany Lutheran Church Mission Statement

Reaching out in Worship, Fellowship, Learning, and Love - We Are God’s People.

Our Staff

Rev. Paul Hermansen, Pastor Cory Byrne, Choir Director/Organist

Amanda Stevenson-Cosgrove, Dir. of Youth & Family

Sue Hermansen, Admin. Asst. Dennis Wohlers, Financial Sec’y

Mike & Tammy Morris, Custodians

Volume 57 Issue 4 April, 2017

The resurrection of Christ has been celebrated in many ways. One

of the most important understandings that I have of Easter is that it is the

gift of a new beginning. How many times in our lives have we needed a

new start? A little over a year ago, when Sue and I learned that you and

God called us to come to Bethany, we were swept away by a joy that

words could not convey! A year later we continue to be lifted up and are

looking forward to God doing even greater and more wonderful new

things.

At this point in our lives our eyes could be focused on things wind-

ing down. But that is not at all where we are looking. Following Christ’s

resurrection, God’s spirit continued to burst into the lives of His believers

with life-giving Easters of all types and expressions. When God raised His

Son from the dead, He announced to the world that, no matter how things

might seem, there is always a new unleashing of God’s power everywhere.

The grip of death has been broken! The Lord is risen, He is risen indeed!

Risen forever, well into eternity!

HOMEBOUND CARD

MINISTRY Please help remember Bethany’s mem-

bers who are in nursing homes or home-

bound by sending them a card. A birth-

day or a “thinking of you” card is a spe-

cial way of showing God’s love. During

the summer months, take a minute to

send a card with a short note - these

folks would love to hear from you.

Names and addresses are available on

the table in the fellowship hall. Please

remember to mark the spreadsheet if

you send a card.

Our kitchen is need of some supplies and we are reaching out to the congregation for dona-tions of the following

items:

1. Powdered coffee creamers--plain and fla-vored

2. Paper towels

3. Napkins

4. Dishwasher soap (powder)

5. Plastic wrap

6. Storage bags--quart and gallon

7. Small paper plates

Thanks for anything you can donate to the kitchen. CONFIRMATION

The confirmation program during Lent focused on confirmands and their families attending and partici-pating in worship. Our regular Wednesday night resumes on April 26 at 7:00 p.m.

CHOIR

At our recent Worship and Music meeting we confirmed that we will be having our choir sing in worship again. Our next presentation will be on Easter Sunday. Cory

Byrne has graciously ac-cepted the choir director po-sition and will schedule practices to be held on Sun-days at 8:00 a.m. It would be wonderful to have our faith-ful singers, as well as new voices, gather as one to make a joyful sound to the Lord.

APRIL ACTIVITIES The Retired Nurses will be here on Friday, April 7, at

9:00 a.m. They gather in the fellowship hall.

Also, Boy Scout Troop #25 has their regular weekly

meetings on Tuesdays.

WELCA

The WELCA Spring Cluster and Gathering will be held at

Swedesburg Ev. Lutheran Church on Wednesday, April 19, 2017.

Anyone wishing to attend please let Mary Honsey know by Fri-

day, April 14. Details can be found on the bulletin board.

CHURCH LEAGUE SOFTBALL

The League will be playing on Tuesday evenings starting in April. The schedule will be out soon.

For information contact Cory Smith (call or text at (319) 750-7967 or email cory@corysmith.net) or

Dennis Wohlers at (319) 754-7591. This year’s team t-shirts have a winking Martin Luther on the

front and “Lutheran “Lumber” on the back.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER SCHEDULE

All the times and locations are set for Holy Week and Easter. The Maundy Thursday ser-

vice will be at 6:00 p.m. at Bethany. The service will include Holy Communion. On Good

Friday we will have a three church Tenebrae service at Faith Lutheran on Sunnyside at 6:00

p.m. Pastor Ryan will lead the service and I will preach.

Our Easter Sunday service will be at the regular time of 9:00 a.m. Our recently resurrected

choir will share a special Easter anthem. Following worship our youth will serve our tradi-

tional Easter breakfast. This would be the best service of the year to invite someone to

Bethany.

The Fellowship Committee is accepting donations for their annual

rummage sale to be held June 9 and 10. Please drop off all your

usable items at the church. Please, no clothing.

CHURCH KEYS

At the beginning of the year we have people who are newly elected to the

Council who need church keys for their ministries. We also have members

who have successfully completed their Council service who may no longer

need their church keys for various functions. If you happen to have a set of

church keys but no longer need them, it would be much appreciated to have

them turned into the church office. Thank you!

MEET OUR NEW FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATOR

Last fall Bethany hired a new person to administer the financial responsibilities of our

church. His name is Dennis Wohlers. In terms of actually making the change official, Mi-

chelle, our former secretary, stayed on to help out with transitioning our new secretary and

orienting Dennis on the various duties he would embrace. Following the successful com-

pletion of these areas we have experienced a smooth hand-off to our new staff.

On a personal note, Dennis’ wife, Kathleen, is the pastor of our sister congregation, Peace

Lutheran. Dennis is also a licensed certified lay minister and has led worship at several Lu-

theran churches. Please give a warm Bethany welcome to Dennis.

APRIL 5 - FINAL WEDNESDAY NIGHT LENTEN GATHERING

Our three church Wednesday night fellowship has been such a blessing I hate to see it end.

The Council is in charge of our April 5 supper. The turnouts have been incredible and the

fellowship Christ-centered.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER BANQUET

The Mother-Daughter Banquet will be held on Tuesday, May 2, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

The price of tickets will be $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for children 10 years and

younger. Watch the upcoming bulletins for further information.

HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE THE CHURCH?

If you were asked to define or describe the church, what would you say? Would you talk about the structure of the physical building? Would you mention the pretty red carpet, the stained glass windows, our address, or our Lutheran denomination? Would you talk about the people here who are our members? Would you talk about what we believe?

The Greek word for church is ecclesia. According to this word, the church is the people who are called out by God to do God’s work. And what did the church do following the death and resur-rection of Christ? They went out and told people about Jesus. When you think about the church, do you see yourself as being the church? The church is a people called into being by God in Christ. God creates the church. From there God is at work in the Holy Spirit who is active in us to do King-dom ministry.

Again, the first thing the church (people of God) did in functioning as the church was to go out and share the Good News that Christ had been raised from the dead and was alive in their lives. This is what we, the church, do in being the church.

So how do we get excited enough to want to go out and tell people about Jesus and invite folks to Bethany? There are at least two motivations. The most genuine inspiration we can have is in knowing Jesus personally. When we really know Jesus in our mind and heart we enthusiastically tell people about Him. A second motivation for sharing Jesus with others is if we have a really good feeling about Bethany. If what God is doing in and at Bethany is a blessing to us, we want to tell others about Bethany.

I am very grateful to have learned that one of our younger members did invite one of their friends to attend Bethany. That friend came with his family and has been coming to Bethany ever since. What if all of us did this?

God has been nudging me to invite people to church ever since January, 1972. I do it because I want to and because God wants me to. God wants a relationship with everyone. When we are in-strumental in bring people to God it makes God happy. And God being happy is a good thing!

This spring we celebrate Easter Sunday on April 16. While many people may not be as familiar with the church as we are, I believe just about everyone in America has a grasp of Easter. Easter Sunday would be a great opportunity to reach out to someone and invite them to Bethany. While anytime is a good time to invite someone to our church, Easter may be the best time of all. You can even tell them our youth are sponsoring a delicious breakfast after church.

Let’s be the church! May God send us out to invite people to Bethany. Those people will be glad we did. In Christ, Pastor Paul

“. . . . they departed quickly . . . with great joy, and ran to tell His disciples.”

Matthew 28:8

1 - Jeffery Brockett 2 - Kamryn Sherwood 3 - Carlene Woodside 5 - David Milton 6 - Michael Kastner; Denise Kaup; Wyatt Lineberry 7 - Marshal Peterson 8 - Jennifer Riley 9 - Elizabeth Lacy; Courtney Quam; Arnhild Zaiser 10 - Jeremy DeHague; Erica House 11 - Arianna Whetstone 13 - Thomas Holtz; James Morris 15 - Adam Roy 17 - Anthony Hand; Sheryl Lee; Jeffrey Williams 18 - Ross Stottmeister 19 - Julie Coleman; Elliott Wallace 20 - Diana Walker 21 - Andrew Sladky 22 - Beverly Koch; Jillian LeKander; Barbara Miller; Jill Whitmore 23 - Bailey Brockman 24 - Cody Clark; Sue Herman-sen 27 - Kelsey Guile; Elisabeth Riley; Kathrine Riley 29 - Hunter Adam; Teresa Engler; Daniel Mc Cabe; Steven Rogers 30 - Vivienne Mafra; Kyden Schreuers

April

Birthdays

Head Usher: Spencer Honsey

April Team Captain: Todd Chelf

Ushers

2 - Laurie & Lucas Chelf

9 - The Chelf Family 16 - The Chelf Family 23 - TBA

30 -The Chelf Family

Communion Assistants 2 - Mark Rosenberg; Dan

Harken; Amy Unglaub 9 - Rachel Lindeen; Jim

Martindale; Shelley Wallace 16 - Dan Harken; Jeff & Kim Engle

23 - Bill Mundt; Mike Mor-ris; Joe Gerdes 30 -Steve & Sue Rogers;

Theresa Morehead

Fellowship 2 - 9 -

16 - Youth Easter Breakfast 23 -

30 -

Missionary Support 2 - 9 -

16 - Todd & Laurie Chelf 23 - Bob Sogard 30 -Dan & Ruth Harken

Acolytes 2 - 9 -

16 - 23 - 30 -

Lector 2 - Bill Mundt 9 - Carlene Woodside 16 - Elberta Quam

23 - Dee Dee Walker 30 - Jeff Engle

Greeters 2 - Sharon Martindale

9 - Lynda Johnson; Elberta Quam 16 - Bill Mundt

23 - Bob Sogard; Arnild Zaiser 30 -Mark & Bonnie

Rosenberg

Flowers 2 - 9 -

16 - Lilies 23 - Pastor Paul

30 -

Altar Guild Mary Honsey; Sharon Mar-tindale; Eleonore Benning-

hoven; Lynda Johnson; Dee Dee Walker

April 2017 Lay Leaders

L.I.F.T. Living In Faith Together

L.I.F.T. gathers on April 9 at Trinity Lutheran

Church. We start at 5:00 and are done about

6:45 p.m. This is a gathering for kids, ages 4 -

5th grade and this year our theme is Fruits of

the Spirit. We have a bible story, do a craft,

sing some fun songs… ALL AFTER WE EAT!!!

☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺

CONFIRMATION April 26 6:00 p.m.

Questions? See Amanda or Pastor Paul

☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺

SUNDAY SCHOOL

Remember we have Sunday School every Sun-

day at 10:30 following our worship service.

All children ages K through 6th grade are in-

vited to attend.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR VBS!

It seems so far off, but VBS will be here before

you know it. It will be held at Bethany, June 19-

23, with staff from Camp EWALU leading our ac-

tivities. We are very excited to add this element

to our program and look forward to our joint minis-

try outreach as we work alongside our Lutheran

brothers and sisters from Trinity, Faith, and Mes-

siah. See Carlene Woodside or Amanda for volun-

teer opportunities.

YOUTH EASTER BREAKFAST

Our youth will be sponsoring a delicious break-

fast following the Easter worship on April 16.

A love offering will be received for youth min-

istry. Please be sure to stay after worship for

a terrific breakfast and good fellowship.

If you change your mailing

address, please let the office know ASAP.

For every returned piece of mail we get for

an incorrect address, we are charged 75

cents.

The meetings for April that have been scheduled as of the publishing of this newsletter are listed below. Watch the bulletins for any date and time changes or additional meetings scheduled. Altar Guild TBA Men’s Breakfast Saturday, April 15, 8:00 a.m. Evangelism Stewardship Comm. TBA Church Council Sunday, April 23, 10:15 a.m. Property Committee Monday, April 17, 6:30 p.m. Worship and Music Committee Sunday, April 9, 10:15 a.m.

Finance Committee TBA Fellowship Committee TBA

FINANCIAL

UPDATE

MARCH ATTENDANCE

Ash Wednesday 63 March 5 101 March 12 95 March 19 102 March 25 15 March 26 98

MARCH GIVING

March 5 $3,116.25 March 12 3,065.80 March 19 2,814.60 March 25, 26 2,912.50 Total $11,909.15

WOW! PRAISE GOD!

Thank you for your generosity and

faithful trust in God to provide your

needs! God believes in you and has a

great future planned for Bethany.

PLEASE NOTE The deadline to submit information for the monthly Chimes is the 25th of the month.

You’re welcome to email your submissions, leave a note on the desk in the office, or call

the church office.

ALSO! Because of Federal Privacy laws, if you or a

member of your family are hospitalized and

would like the Pastor to visit, you must con-

tact the church and let us know.