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Communicator Receiving Christ’s mercy for us . . . Sharing Christ’s mercy with others.

The COMMUNICATOR

September 2015 Christ Lutheran Church, Rochester, MN Volume XII, Issue 8

WHAT WE DID THIS SUMMER September 13 is the day when Sunday School and the Sunday Bible Class resume. These opportu-nities to receive the Lord’s Word begin at 8:45am. During the Bible Class, youth and I will present “What We Did This Summer.” The youth will dis-cuss the July Higher Things conference they attended in Las Vegas. I will discuss the August “Finding Our Voice” conference I attended in St. Louis. That conference addressed sexuality and marriage issues and was sponsored by “DOXOLOGY: The Lutheran Center for Spiritual Care and Counsel.” Bible Study topics for future months include “Noah: The Man, the Ark, the Flood” (a four-part vid-eo series produced by Lutheran Hour Ministries), “The Lutheran Dif-ference: Marriage and Family” (a five-week look at this important top-ic), an in-depth winter study of Ezra and Nehemiah, and a spring study “Growing in Christ” which parallels the Sunday School lessons featured each Sunday. The Sunday Bible Study provides an opportunity to hear, receive, and discuss God’s Word and is an excellent way for post-confirmation youth and adults to stay connected with God’s Word. I look forward to resuming our weekly studies. I invite you to join us! In Christ,

FALL SCHEDULE RESUMES Please remember: the time for the Sunday service changes to 10am on September 13 (the Sunday Ser-vice begins at 9am on September 6). Also, the final Thursday even-ing service for the season is Sep-tember 3.

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SUNDAY BIBLE CLASS A five centuries-old man building a huge boat on the startling news of coming floodwaters - sounds like the makings of one remarkable story. It is. Jump in and get your feet wet with Noah: The Man, The Ark, The Flood, the latest Bible study from Lutheran Hour Ministries. Hosted by Rev. Kurt Klaus and filmed on location at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, this four-part Bible study looks at the biblical character of Noah, his life and times, and the remarkable ves-sel he built to escape the waters of the flood. Along the way, commentary from numerous specialists considers the issue of extreme human age, how building such a watercraft was possible, the extent of the flood’s reach, how a single vessel could hold such a multitude of animals, and the phenomena of far-flung flood stories in other cultures. The Genesis account of a cataclysmic flood in chap-ters six through nine is one of the Old Testament’s more timeless sagas. It chronicles Noah and his de-vout righteousness, contrasting his blameless fideli-ty to God with the wanton corruption and violence God saw at work in the world around Noah. Along with his immediate family, Noah is singled out for God;s blessing-and salvation-from the waters of a flood let loose to wipe out every living thing-except the people and creatures aboard the ark. The story is an extraordinary one to be sure and ends with God blessing Noah and his family for their obedient faithfulness, making a cove-nant with them to never again destroy the earth by a flood. Interestingly, Noah makes an appearance in the New Testament too. This time it’s in the words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 23. Here the Messiah cites the flood narra-tive as a powerful object lesson, reminding His listeners that as in “the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” The watchword here - “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

CHURCH CLEANING FOR THE MONTH Aug 30-Sep 12 Wayne Frahm; Darryl Thompson Sep 13-26 Ken & Lu Hintermeister Sep 27-Oct 10 Dorothy Spencer; Rita Lutz

Please be sure to clean the church and facility once each week during your scheduled time. Cleaning instructions are posted both in the furnace room and on the kitch-en door. If you are unable to clean during your scheduled 2-week time, please find someone to re-

place you and then inform the

church office. Thanks so much for your help in making our facility look nice.

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ATTENTION THRIVENT MEMBERS! Thrivent members have the opportunity to direct money to Christ Lutheran through the Thrivent Choice pro-gram. Money (a.k.a. Thrivent Choice Dollars) is awarded to Thrivent members based on Insurance premiums, Contract values, and Thrivent Financial volunteer lead-ership. To designate Christ Lutheran as the recipient of your Choice Dollars, call 800-THRIVENT (800-847-4836) or go to https://www.thrivent.com/thriventchoice/ and state “Thrivent Choice.” Thrivent members who have designated Christ Lutheran Church for their Thrivent Choice dollars have given $289.00 to date. Any ques-tions please ask Bob Meyer or Mary Erdmann. There is a total of $1,130.49 in the fund currently.

NEW SEMINARY STUDENT Shortly after the August newsletter was published, Concordia Theologi-cal Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana, notified us of the seminary student assigned to us for the new academic year. Seminarian Thomas Batchel-der will be our “adopt-a-seminarian” student. Born on January 26, 1992, Seminarian Batchelder’s hometown is Prior Lake, MN, and is a member at Holy Cross Lu-theran in Prior Lake. Married to Hannah last year, Seminarian Batchelder is a second-year stu-dent, eagerly awaiting his vicarage assignment next year. In a “thank-you” letter, he wrote of how our congregation’s generosity helped cover the cost of one of his summer classes. In thanking us for our gift, he added his “sincere gratitude and thankfulness to God for His continual providing for His Church.”

YOUTH TO MEET On September 11, youth in grades 6-12 are invited to come to the Fellowship Hall for dessert, Bible Study, and a brief meeting to plan future activities. Bring your favorite card or board game as well! Our goal is to host a youth ac-tivity the second Friday of each month. Gather at 6:30pm; the evening will conclude at 8:30pm. Talk to Eric Adams or Pastor Schilbe for more information.

PLANNING FOR THE LWML SPRING RALLY The next LWML Rally will be held in the Spring of 2016 here at our church. Each of the churches in the zone takes turns at hosting either the Fall or Spring Rally, and it is Christ Lutheran’s turn this coming spring. So, in the months ahead, Ruth Circle will be busy getting ide-as together and we would appreciate extra help from the women in our congregation. Our next Ruth Circle meeting is September 21, so please know that all women of the congre-gation are welcome to join us at that time. Watch for further updates in the months ahead. Any questions? Contact Karen Meyer @ 282-7079.

NEW CANDLE LIGHTERS The new candle lighters are in and ready to use. Do not move the wicks - just a tiny bit of the wick needs to stick out. Dean set them both in place. The new light-ers burn the oil, not the wick – that’s why not much of the wick needs to stick out. There’s no adjustment needed on the wick. Just keep some oil in the little cylinder.

LOOKING AHEAD The Mission Committee will be hosting the fundraiser of the year on January 24: Mission Luncheon with Rev. Larry Wright, from Concordia Theological Seminary, talking about the Adopt-a-Seminary Student program. This will be our big event of the year!

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Happy Birthday to: Emily Geise 9/2 Bernice McIntosh 9/2 Lu Hintermeister 9/5 Dean Erdmann 9/13 Andrew Kuhlmann 9/14 Autumn Reilly 9/15 Diane Grieve 9/16 Violet Engebretson 9/17 Lucas Kuhlmann 9/18 Carol Lynch 9/22 Eric Pearson 9/23 Aiden Ackerman 9/24 Kiara Burroughs 9/24 Natalie Wiederhoeft 9/24 Sara Adams 9/30 Timothy Schilbe 9/30

Happy Anniversary to: Wayne & Mary Frahm 9/7 Eric & Susan Adams 9/9 Scott & Deb Pearson 9/9 Kevin & Karen Buchs 9/15 Shawn & Deb McCarron 9/25

If you are celebrating a special landmark birthday or anniversary, we’d like to celebrate with you. Please

contact the church office to include your special event in the newsletter.

Congratulations! Should your information be listed incorrectly or your name omitted from this list, please contact the Church Office at your earliest convenience.

Violet Engebretson, daughter of Miranda

Schmidt, celebrating her 1st

birthday!

Special

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CRADLE ROLL COORDINATOR WANTED! We are looking for someone to coordinate our Cradle Roll, a position most re-cently held by Gordon Krueger, and Margaret King, prior to her move. This is a program where the church sends Christian materials to families with a new baby. Materials are sent prior to the child’s birth, at their birth, at their bap-tism, and then various mailings until the child turns 3 years old. All materials are supplied and most everything is already set up. As we only have 2-3 chil-dren on the Cradle Roll at this time, this should only take a few minutes each month. Contact the Church Office or Pastor Schilbe if you might be interested.

3 IN 1: DISCOVERING OUR TRIUNE GOD This fall, our Sunday School students will explore 3 in 1: Discovering Our Tri-

une God. Each of the weekly Bible stories helps students discover something about our triune God.

September 13 Fall Sunday School begins this week with “God Made Us: God Creates the World.” Students will learn how God the Father is the maker of heaven and

earth. He made them and all creatures. Parents might ask, “How are we dif-ferent from the rest of God’s creation?”

September 20 Today in Sunday School, students will learn about how God sent an angel to help Peter in “God Made the Angels: An Angel Rescues Peter.” As a family, you might discuss, “How do God's angels also help you?”

September 27 The dramatic account, “God Cares for Us: Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath,” serves as this week’s Sunday School lesson. Students will learn how God cared for Elijah through the widow

and for the widow through Elijah. Parents could ask, “Who does God use to care for you?”

Mark your calendars for Rally Day September 13th!

Sunday School and Bible Class will begin at 8:45am. We'll also have a Church Picnic fol-lowing the 10am Worship Service. Meat, des-sert and beverages will be provided. Please bring a side dish to pass. Watch for a sign-up sheet in the Narthex in the next few weeks. We hope to see everyone there!

FROM THE BOARD OF EDUCATION Sunday School students will be enjoying a new way of lessons and music which will include all youth. We are looking forward to a great musi-cal presentation year ahead. The Sunday School Advent worship service will take place in early December on Sunday morning and be followed by our annual Christmas Luncheon! The Board of Education is putting together a new policy covering child protection in our congregation. You will be hearing more on this in the near future. We now have an office area for our Sunday School and Youth ministries. These two groups will be sharing a desk and supply area for their activities and records. What a great thing to have available for these groups!

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Receiving Christ’s mercy for us . . . Sharing Christ’s mercy with others.

Receiving Christ’s mercy for us . . . Sharing Christ’s mercy with others.

Address Service Requested

Receiving Christ’s mercy for us . . . Sharing Christ’s mercy with others.

2015

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christrochesterlcms.

CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH 2904 20th Street SE Rochester, MN 55904

Phone: (507) 289-0271

E-mail

secretary@christrochester.org

Newsletter Submission

secretary@christrochester.org

Website www.christrochester.org

Service Times Thursday, 7pm, through Sept. 3

Sunday, 9am, through Sept. 6 Sunday, 10am, beginning Sept. 13

Bible Study/Sunday School

8:45am beginning Sept. 13

Church Office Hours M & F 8am-2pm

Mrs. Barbara Pentico, Secretary

Rev. Scott Schilbe, Pastor Parsonage: (507) 252-5511

pastor@christrochester.org