September 2014

Mission Statement of this Church

Ebenezer United Church of Christ is a vibrant faith community that strives to…

Serve the spiritual needs of our neighbors.

Transform by walking in Jesus’ footsteps.

Openly reach out for opportunities to share God’s word at home and abroad.

Nurture our relationships with God and each other.

Empower and embrace faith, hope, and love in God!

Pastor’s Corner

A while ago my wife Sue was scheduled to officiate at a funeral for a man who had grown up locally but had moved to Tennessee several years ago. After agreeing to serve the family, Sue was called away to a family function. She asked me if I would be a sweetie and perform the funeral. Of course I said, yes.

The man had an extensive collection of Elvis Presley records and CDs. The music was so important to him that his family said the only music played before the service would be Elvis songs. The funeral director told me this and then paused waiting for my reaction. I said this would be fine to honor his memory by playing songs from his collection. When I arrived at the funeral home I was greeted with Elvis’ music.

The final two songs played before the service began (I was told later these songs were not arranged in any particular order) were “All Shook Up” and “Love Me Tender.” As I looked at the family I said that these two titles, taken together and in the order they were played, really summed up the entire service.

Cont. on pg. 2

Ebenezer

United Church of Christ

44 W. Washington Street

Chilton WI 53014

(920) 849-4331

Website:

www.ebenezerchilton

.org

Rev. Pastor Mike

Safford-Kennedy

Email: pastormike79@

hotmail.com

Office Email:

ebenezeroffice@

yahoo.com

“Ebenezer UCC Chilton”

&

“Ebenezer United Church

of Christ Chilton”

The

Eagle

Page 2

Cont. from pg. 1

When a loved one dies, regardless if the death had been expected or was unexpected, we are “All Shook Up.” Many of us believe that anticipatory grief, what we do when we know someone we love is going to die so we try to prepare ourselves for the feelings of loss, anger, abandonment, shock, etc., will help us get through those early stages of grief when death comes. It doesn’t. When death comes it is still a shock. We live all of those feelings that we thought we had worked through or prepared ourselves to experience. Grief is never tidy. Hearts still ache. Our minds still race through years of memories. Our emotions still overwhelm us. We still wonder “Why? What is God’s role in all of this?”

“Love Me Tender” is what all of us want God to do. In the midst of death, fear, uncertainty, we want to be assured that God is going to love us no matter what. We turn to God in prayer and ask for safety, healing, comfort for ourselves and for our families. We want to know that all is going to be well, that we will be safe.

I stood before the families and said to them that most of life had just been given to them through those two song titles; you are all shook up and yes, God will love each of you tenderly.

Where do you see or hear God’s promises in your life? Are you good at hearing the crash of thunder and the roaring of an earthquake but can’t quite hear the whisper of God’s voice? Practice opening your ears and eyes and a new world will slowly emerge. A world filled with God’s presence.

Peace and grace,

Pastor Mike

From the Council President

This has been an interesting, exciting and challenging year to date. It is not over yet, so hang on to

your hats! In January, the furnace malfunctioned, causing the pipes to freeze in the parsonage.

After many phone calls, quick thinking, cooperation from a variety of folks, and a lot of prayers, we

are pretty much done with this project. A special thanks to Ken and all the others who worked so

diligently through this time.

Right now, Frank and Karen Cmejla are renting the parsonage, fine tuning the last minute

projects. They are hosting an open house during the coffee hour after service on September 14th.

Please join us to see our new parsonage. If you have any question, please call Ken Lisowe.

Other projects completed so far in 2014:

Cleaned out the West closet. Installed adjustable shelving in it to now store Church records,

among other things.

Starting of Wish List:

A new digital camera for taking stills.

A handy cam for videos.

An automatic door opener for the East door to assist the disabled and elderly. (To be installed

soon.)

Priorities:

The Search committee working on finding a settled Pastor.

An updated Constitution/By-laws. The rough draft has been completed. The goal is to have a

completed version by the Annual meeting in January 2015.

If you have any suggestions of comments, please talk to a Council member. Remember too,

the congregation is invited and urged to attend the Council meetings which are the third Sunday of

the month in the lounge.

Pastor Mike is “ours” until at least January 2015 and hopefully longer. He has brought

laughter, joy, love and hope to Ebenezer and we thank him for that. He and Heather work as a great

team keeping our office running as smoothly as possible in the time they have been there. But, with

everything in life, there are curves and bumps along the way. As Christians, we face these

challenges with patience, kindness, and understanding.

Thank you to the Church Council, Pastor Mike, and all of you for making this a great year so far with

hopes and prayers for many more,

Don Waldvogel

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Ice Cream Social

The ice cream social this year was a great success! The total raised was $1659.17. That is a couple hundred

dollars more than last year! The rise in the amount made has been attributed to the menu change. Grilled chicken

breasts and Hot Tamales replaced the normal hamburgers and brats. They seemed to be a great success as the

chicken breasts sold out and more had to be purchased and cooked! The Women’s Guild plans to use the money to

help with the parsonage repairs, OCWM, among other

projects.

Thank you to everyone for all of your help and donations. It could not have happened without

you!

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Council Meeting Minutes- May 18, 2014

Meeting called to order at 10:40. Members present: Don Waldvogel, Andrea Cmejla, Steve Stenz, Jane

Schreoder, and Stephanie Adamietz. John Schoeder was a guest. Members not present: Janene

VanHoorn, Tiffany Knoespel, Karen Cmejla, and Pastor Mike. Jane made a motion to approve the April

minutes as well as the agenda for today. Stephanie seconded. Motion carried.

Finances Report

Our April revenue is $11,239.

Our April expenditures are $14,020.

Our general fund balanced as of April 30, 2014 is $19,585.

Our current balance is $68,300.

Stephanie made a motion to accept the financial reports. Steve seconded. Motion carried.

Stephanie made a motion of approval for the bills, including payroll. Steve seconded. Motion

carried.

Pastoral Reports

Pastor shared a written summary of our average attendance and giving. The Spanish ministry has

meet a couple times this past month and are very grateful for allowing them to use our church.

Committee Reports

Christian Ed/Music- No new news.

Evangelism- Committee will be meeting this week.

Mission- A spaghetti supper will take place sometime this fall.

Women’s Guild- No new news.

Men’s Breakfast- No new news.

Property- Parsonage is going to be rented to the Cmejlas on a month-to-month basis. Cabinets will

be done this week. Plumbing and electrical will be finishing up next week. The congregation will

be invited to look at the parsonage after they have moved in a little.

Old Business:

Ken Lisowe purchased 2 windows and will install these in the doors in the office.

A video camera was donated to the church by an anonymous donor. Thank you to our donor!

David Meyers from United Community came and shared information with the council about how

United Community works, how to inform our congregation more about it, and how it can

GREATLY help Ebenezer purchase things at no cost to them!

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New Business

Two delegates are needed to attend the Wisconsin Conference Annual Meeting at Green lake

Conference Center Friday, June 6- Sunday, June 8.

A substitute will be present for Sunday, June 8th due to

Pastor Mike’s contract was discussed about renewal.

Next council meeting will be Sunday, June 22nd, following the church service. Stephanie made a motion

to adjourn the meeting. Steve seconded. Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at 11:45.

Council Secretary,

Andrea Cmejla

Council Meeting Minutes- June 22, 2014

Meeting called to order at 10:40. Members present: Don Waldvogel, Andrea Cmejla, Jane Schroeder,

and Steve Stenz. Members not present: Karen Cmejla, Stephanie Adamietz, Janene VanHoorn, Tiffany

Knoespel, and Pastor Mike. and. Steve made a motion to approve the agenda for today. Jane seconded.

Motion carried.

Finances Report

Our May revenue is $8,720.

Our May expenditures are $8,408.

Our general fund balanced as of May 31st is $19,372.

Our current balance is $68,300.

Andrea made a motion to accept the financial reports and approve the bills for payment in the

amount of $8,408. Steve seconded. Motion carried.

Pastoral Reports

Pastor Mike shared with us a written synopsis of what he has done from mid-May through mid-

June, including funerals, visitations, counseling, and Sunday School/ confirmation.

Committee Reports

Christian Ed/Music- No new news.

Evangelism- Andrea and Geri Van Oss will be working together to have pictures done professionally

for our church directory. This may be taking place in late fall. More information to come.

Mission- The ice cream social will be on July 9th. Volunteers and donations for pies, desserts, and

time are welcome.

Property- It was brought to the council’s attention that the dishwasher does not work due to a leak.

This may be a result of the flood. Karen will be contacting Ken Lisowe and he is going to

Page 6

look into insurance covering it.

Old Business:

Frank and Karen Cmejla are renting out the parsonage on a month-to-month lease. Twoig is

creating a lease contract to be signed, free of charge.

Tiffany and Shirley Lisowe are working together on updating our membership list. This will help

Andrea and

Geri with the photo directory. Thanks for your help ladies!

We are looking into cost for putting in door assistances. The money raised from United Community

will be used to purchase these. Steve will have more of an update on costs and how/where to

install on the doors. Once this is discussed at the July council meeting, Andrea will give the

church members an oral update in church as well as sending out an email to all our members.

Steve and Don will be working on the Constitution and Bylaws this month and next.

New Business

Our priorities list (wish list) for the church include door assistances, oil filled candles for in the

sanctuary, a sign for the front of church is still wanted, and updating our AV system in the

church. We are looking at purchasing these with the funds raised from United Community. So,

hopefully, more members can sign up and contribute in a way that is completely free for them!

Pastor Mike is looking into possibly having Bible Study. If anyone is interested, please contact the

church office or talk with Pastor Mike about this.

Heather received a phone call from an unknown company claiming owe $584.95 for “internet yellow

page listing” from the period of April 1, 2012-April 30, 2014. We have no records of a contract

signed and have told them several times that we are not paying. They are not backing down. If

this company does not back down, we will turn it over to

our attorneys.

Other Business

Don Pingel and Pastor Mike’s salary were briefly discussed.

Don and Karen are going to look further into this.

Next council meeting will be Sunday, July 13, following the

church service. Steve made a motion to adjourn the meeting.

Jane seconded. Motion carried. Meeting was adjourned at

11:20.

Council Secretary,

Andrea Cmejla

Page 7

Thanks to the

professional knowledge

of Aaron Lisowe and the

drive and determination of

Ruth Aebischer, Ebenezer

now has a brand new

website. While it is fully

functional at this time, it

will need to be constantly

updated in order to stay

current. I'm learning to

do this as I go, but it's

sometimes slow going.

(Old dog, new tricks—you

understand) Check it out. The site name is

www.ebenezerchilton.org . If you see things that need

correcting, please let me know and if you'd like to see

things included that are not currently on the site, let

me know as well. ~Shirley Come and be our friend on Facebook! Just search for

“Ebenezer UCC Chilton”. We also have a new

Facebook location page. To find it, search for “Ebenezer United Church of Christ Chilton” and “Like” us! The friend page is to keep everyone updated on what we are doing here and is an extension of our community. The location page is so new people can find us!

Page 8

Countdown to Sunday School We're not quite sure where summer went, but we are resigned to the fact that it's gone and we're now ready to look forward to a new year with our kids. Sunday School will begin on September 7 at 8:30 with a rally—a gathering of all students and their parents to get reacquainted with each other. Registration forms will be filled out, songs will be sung, stories will be told and games will be played. The students will meet their teachers and I know Pastor Mike will get a very warm welcome from the kids. We are excited to be working with a brand new curriculum this year entitled Seasons of the Spirit thanks to the very generous gift from the Pagel family in memory of Herman.

Our teachers will be Kristi Schnell (grades 4-6), Shirley Lisowe (grades 1-3) and Tiffany Knoespel (grades 4-K and kindergarten). They each have many years of teaching under their belts. We'll just call them “experienced”. There will not be any confirmation students this year.

You may recall our M&M mission project last year. We were able to forward a check of over $1,900.00 to Feed My Starving Children. We have selected a very different kind of project for this year, but we will again be asking the help of the congregation in order to reach our goal. More about this shortly.

We will continue to mark the second Sunday of each month as “Children's Worship Sunday.” You will see our kids taking part in the worship service and Pastor Mike has promised to gear his sermons toward them on those weeks.

It should be an exciting year. Please encourage these children and let them know that they are a valuable part of Ebenezer.

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Page 10

Over the course of the past several months people have asked about meeting dates or church availability. Instead of memorizing dates and times we re-

introduce Heather’s wall calendar.

Yes, the wall calendar has finally arrived and is hanging in the church office behind the door. If you have a meeting, even if it is a recurring meeting, please jot down the date and time for your meeting. This will help ensure meetings make it

into the Eagle and the weekly bulletins.

Remember, we’d rather hear about a meeting or event 50 times than for 50 people to assume someone else has told us

about the event.

Newsletter

Articles Please get your articles to Heather by the

3rd Tuesday of the month so she can get the Eagle published before the start of the next month. That means the deadline for the October 2014 Eagle is Tuesday,

September 16. Weekly bulletin announcements are due each Tuesday morning.

USHERS

September 7 Church Council

September 14 Vern & Edith Knoespel,

Kristi & Ryan Schnell

September 21 Ken & Shirley Lisowe,

Kelly Braun Family

September 28 Kristi & Ryan Schnell, Kari See,

Tiffany Knoespel

.THANK YOU!

To Dean and Ellie Papendieck for fixing Pastor’s office chair. Now he can have meetings with more than one

person!

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September Birthdays Alice McNeely 01

Wayne Pagel 03

Ken Dietz 03

Shirley Lisowe 04

Kayla Lisowe 06

William Elliott 08

Brett Popp 11

Jodie Ausloos 13

Kathryn Larson 15

Emily Roehrig 23

Alice Kinley 24

Cory Pingel 25

Casey Sattler 27

Elizabeth Van Oss 27

Gerri Van Oss 27

If you have an September birthday, and

it was missed, please let the

office know so we can get it right

next time.

We have had great participation with our SCRIP program so far this year. Since January 1, we have earned over $670 for the church. We have been able to do

that with less than 15 families participating. Just think of the possibilities if we all would use scrip for our groceries, gas, gifts and dining out. Stop by the office or check out www.glscrip.com to see how you can help support our church. Once you get started, you will see how easy it

really is.

We are trying to complete the 2014-2015 ushering schedule. Anyone wishing to join, or to have their

names taken off the list, please contact the Church office or talk to Edie Knoespel.

Offering Envelopes

You may have noticed a small change to your newest set of offering envelopes. When you receive your new packet of offering envelopes you will notice the red sticker that says

you are almost out of envelopes has been moved to the week before you use your final envelope. This small change will allow Heather to get your new packet out to the table

before you use your last envelope.

This change helps in a couple of ways. First, the office will have two weeks to get the new envelopes to you. Second, you will always have an envelope at the ready for your

offering, no more arriving at church and hoping you have new envelopes for that Sunday.

Thanks for the suggestions that have helped us make improvements to an already

good system!

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NOTES FROM THE MUSIC CORNER…

You may have questioned why we sometimes sing a hymn to a different tune during worship. Pastor chooses hymns for the text to coincide with the scripture and topic for the day but occasionally the tune is more difficult and tends to hinder the meaning of the words. Frequently there are alternate tunes suggested in the lower right hand corner below the hymn or we check the ‘meter’ index in the back. The purpose is to absorb the true meaning and spirit of the hymn. Ebenezer Brass handbell choir will begin rehearsals on Wednesday, Sept. 3. It took considerable deliberation to find a night that was doable for all the returning ringers. We hope this will be convenient so there can be as regular attendance as possible. New ringers are always welcome , just come to try it out, no music background is necessary. See Elaine for questions or comments. As per the August Eagle, there is the Gospel Workshop from 9 AM – 3 PM on Saturday, September 20 at the First

Congregational UCC in Appleton. This will be followed by an evening concert at 7 PM. A poster and brochures with further details can be found in the narthex. This sounds like a real exhilarating opportunity led by the “Pavarotti of Gospel” - Robert Robinson. Either contact Heather or Elaine if interested in carpooling to the concert.

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Children’s Sundays

The school year has snuck up on us again! We have arrived at September and kids, teachers, and parents are excited about the beginning of school. All those same feelings happen for Sunday School! Or teachers are excited. Our kids are waiting to see their friends and teachers. Everyone wants to see what God has in store for them this year.

This year, as in years before, the second Sunday of each month will be Children’s Sunday. The youth will help with all the activities in the church. This year we are adding a new part to the service. I will be doing a youth sermon designed especially for the kids. We’ll still have the Children’s Time and now we’ll add a sermon for the kids.

A regular sermon usually has words the kids don’t know and covers topics the kids have only limited interested in. A youth sermon will be about kids issues and universal issues, e.g. love, trust, violence, fairness, etc. I’ll use youth words and stories to help them understand the world in which they live.

I am looking forward to the first sermon which will be October 12 and then will be the second Sunday of each month. I hope to see all the youth on the 12th!

Pastor Mike

Eva Rod Joyce Jane Louise Dennis Barb Charlaine Sharon David Betty

Sheri Mark Steve

Due to privacy laws, we can no longer list last names of members of our congregation on the prayer list above because our Eagle goes on the church website which can be viewed by anyone on

the internet. Thank you.

Scrip

Please keep in mind to buy scrip if you plan on making a shopping trip, gassing the car, or having dinner out!! It helps our church meet our goals!

United Community

We have partnered with United Community to help

raise funds needed to help our church. We are using

the funds towards our OCWM contributions and the

General Fund. Many of you have been using your

United Community Card at the partnered businesses

and we thank you for doing that. If you do not have

a United Community card and would like more

information on how to obtain one, please contact

the church office at 849-4331.

THE PURPOSE STATEMENT OF THIS CHURCH

Loving, living, and serving faithfully – uniting God

and our neighbors.

Page 14

And what you have all been waiting to see! Pastor Mike in

the dunk tank at the annual Eagle’s Club Corn Roast/Friends of the Public Library’s Family Fest. It was a great event and Pastor Mike raised some good money for the

Library. Thank you to him for being such a great sport and to everyone who came out to support him! (For more pics,

see the Church bulletin board.) ~Heather Hall

(Ebenezer’s secretary and the Board member of the Friends of the Library)

Page 15

September Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1

Labor Day

2

Church office

open 9-5

First Day of

school

3

Church office

open 9-5

4 5 6

Kloppenberg &

Knoespel

Wedding

7

9:30 am

Worship

(Communion)

Rally Day

8

9

Church office

open 9-5

10

Church office

open 9-5

11

8:30 am

Men’s Brkfst

@ 7 Angels

12

13

14

9:30 am

Worship

Open House @

Parsonage after

service

Sunday School

8:30 AM

15

Pastor’s

Vacation

16

Church office

open 9-5

17

Church office

open 9-5

18

1:00 pm

Women’s

Guild @

7 Angels

19

20

21

9:30 am

Worship

Council Meeting

Sunday School

8:30 AM

22

23

Church office

open 9-5

Eagle Articles

Due

24

Church office

open 9-5

25

26

27

28

9:30 am

Worship

Sunday School

8:30 AM

29

30

Church office

open 9-5