For the Week Beginning January 7, 2022
Baptism of Our Lord
THE WEEK AT REFORMATION
Sunday: 9:30 a.m. Service of Holy Communion
Sunday: 9:30 a.m. Facebook Live Service of the Word
Wednesday: 10 a.m. Morning Eucharist followed by Prayer Ministry
Wednesday: 7 p.m. Evening Prayer service on Facebook live followed by a study
Adult Bible Study
Our Adult Bible study class will resume 1/9.
SUNDAY CHURCH SCHOOL
In person SCS will resume on 1/9!!!
Pray with the whole church each day at noon!
www.njsynod.org/virtual-church-resources
Edward Bale, Margaret Dix, Rosemary Howell, Royce Howell, Jonathan, Michael, Rose, Lisa & family, Trina, Heather Lombardo, Dan Nilsson, Beth Nilsson, Jeff Reis, Peter Repak, Penny Shermer, Diane Smith
PRAYER LIST UPDATE: If you have someone in need of prayers, please let us know via either Pastor Matt or the church office and we will be sure to add them to our list above. If you have good news to share on recovery of anyone on our prayer list, please let the office or Pastor Matt know. We’ll gladly share the good news!!
PICTURES THIS WEEK
In case you missed the announcement on Sunday, great news was shared! A gift from the Buergin family in Memory of Christa and Allen Buergin allowed us to make the final payment to pay off our mortgage. All of your hard work these past two years and this gift made our dream to pay off the mortgage a reality even earlier than we had hoped for. Thank you everyone for all your generosity to make this possible!!
Ethan and Oliver at their Blessing and Enrollment
Join us for their Baptism this Sunday, 1/9
FELLOWSHIP
The Fellowship Committee is actively looking for a chairperson to head up the team. Your job would be to plan and coordinate the food portion of all events at the church. Edie Jansen and Deb Keszler will gladly provide assistance in the transition. Please reach out to Debbie or Edie for more information
Baptism of our Lord – Baptismal Recognition
At our morning service on January 9th, The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord, we will invite for a time of blessing and recognition, those who have been baptized in the previous year.
We will also offer an opportunity for all those gathered on that day to affirm the covenant God made with us all in Holy Baptism.
Come and celebrate the gift of Baptism and God’s great love poured out over us as God names us and claims us as children of God!
ANNUAL REPORTS
ATTENTION ALL COMMITTEE CHAIRS: All committee reports were due in the office this week. For those of you who may be new committee chairs this past year, a summary of your committee’s activities is required every January to be included in the Annual Report. The Annual Report is reviewed and submitted at the Annual Congregational Meeting in January. Copies of last year’s report are available through the church office. If you didn’t get your report in yet, please, please get it in to the office as soon as possible and absolutely no later than this coming week!
Website update
We would like to update our website. All committee chairs should review the summary of their committee and send updates to the office by early January. Go to www.reformationwlb.org and click on the drop down menus across the top of the home page to find your committee.
Altar Flowers lend beauty to our worship experience and are a loving way to remember or honor a loved one or mark a special occasion. Please consider sponsoring an arrangement, or two, of flowers to celebrate a special occasion or remember a loved one. You may also sponsor the bulletin in honor or in memory of a special occasion or loved one. The Altar flower and bulletin sponsor chart is now posted on the board heading into the Narthex from the gathering area.
The cost for flowers is $30.00; bulletin sponsorship is $30.00. Don’t forget to take your flowers home with you after the worship service on Sunday. Thank you
THRIVENT CHOICE DOLLARS
Did you know Thrivent also has a program called Choice Dollars? Another way Thrivent gives back is based on your product with them where you can earn “Choice Dollars”. These dollars can then be donated to the charity of your choice (i.e. Reformation!). Your account is credited with these “Choice Dollars” every quarter and they need to be donated by March of the following year. You can go in and donate the dollars quarterly or once a year but please donate them!! If you don’t donate them, they will go away. Thrivent will donate them to a charity on their list. They must donate a percentage of their profit to the community to maintain their non-profit status. Need help? Ask Debbie Keszler or Sue Homza!!
THRIVENT ACTION TEAMS
Let’s start 2022 planning how we can make full use of all that Thrivent has to offer us!! For those of you who have a product through Thrivent Financial (life insurance, investments, long term care insurance, etc.) you have two (yes 2) Thrivent Action Team events you can take advantage of. Exactly what does that mean? It means Thrivent will GIVE you two $250 gift cards to kick start two projects (yes 2 –that’s $500). If you don’t have a product and might be interested, John Seifert is our Thrivent representative and the office can put you in touch with him.
The projects can vary – education, fundraising, or service to the community. Right now Judy Mischler is kicking off a fundraising appeal to get a new Christmas tree for the Narthex. That tree is probably 40+ years old and in sad shape. With your help, Judy is going to help us get a new tree!!
Thrivent Action Teams were used to purchase supplies to refurbish the pews, to cover costs of the dinner dance to begin the new flooring fundraiser, to cover costs for paint for the great room and kitchen, food drives for the pantry, racks and hangers for the clothes closet, support for our VBS program, to help our SCS program especially when we had to go virtual, our Advent wreath making events, our virtual cookie making last year, our “souper” bowl of caring event, our bread baking event, Advent devotionals, Lenten devotionals, and so much more………
So what projects do you want to see accomplished in 2022? Perhaps painting the choir room, new window treatments in fellowship hall, new grocery carts for the pantry, our souper bowl of caring event to support hunger ministries, a fundraiser to finally be able to replace the windows in the SCS wing. Just put your thinking caps on and look around the church building (inside and out) for ways we can make use of our available Thrivent Action Team Community Impact Cards!! If we all work together, we have the potential to access $12,500 via Thrivent Action Teams (and that’s only a best guess, it could be more)!! That’s amazing – let’s see how close we can come!! If you have questions, reach out to Deb Keszler or Sue Homza.
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