The Messenger

The Newsletter of Christ Lutheran ChurchWoodcliff Lake, New Jersey

The Church: Proudly Proclaiming Christ since A.D. 33

March 2014

Published byChrist Lutheran Church RETURN32 Pascack Road SERVICEWoodcliff Lake, NJ 07677 REQUESTED

Dated Material – Please Deliver Promptly

Ministers: the people of God at Christ Lutheran ChurchDirector of Music: Argine Safari

Director of Youth Choirs: David ScanceMusician: Fred Messner

Administrative Assistant: Doris Crousewww.clc4u.com – 201-391-4224 – clc4u2@verizon.net

DEADLINE FOR THE APRIL 2014 MESSENGER IS MARCH 10TH.

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDParamus, NJ

Permit No. 596

The Pastoral Call ProcessA question was asked during one of our Congregational Survey meetings regarding the process that we must go through to find a new Pastor. The purpose of this article is to list the steps involved in the process. An expanded version of this article will be available in the Narthex. The complete document (26 pages) is titled “The Pastoral Call Process.” It comes from the Office of the Bishop. The process begins when the Pastor resigns.

Step1- Pastor ResignsPastor Pat announced her resignation on October 16, 2013.

Step 2- Initial Meeting with the Congregational CouncilBishop Bartholomew met with your Church Council on October 17th.

Step 3- Mission Exploration ProcessCongregational Survey meetings (completed January 31st) conducted and Ministry Site Profile is prepared.

Step 4-Establishing the Pastoral Call Committee Step 5-Meeting with the Bishop’s Representative

Council and Call Committee meet with the Bishop’s representative to discuss Ministry Site Profile so that Bishop can identify a candidate.

Step 6- Pastoral Call Committee PreparationPastoral Call Committee prepares for candidate interviews.

Step 7- Pastoral Call Committee ActivityThe bishop will submit the name of one candidate at a time for consideration. Call Committee conducts interviews. This is one of the more difficult stages of the call process.

Step 8- Joint Meeting of the Candidate, Council and Call CommitteeDiscussion and vote by Council. If Council votes in favor, Special Meeting of Congregation called.

Step 9- Special Congregational MeetingCongregation meets candidate. Discussion and vote by Congregation.

Step 10- Congregational Council Issues the Letter of CallIf Congregation votes in favor of the candidate, Council issues the Letter of Call.

Don Rudie

The Care CommitteeHunger -- Bills due – Mortgage payments due -- No Job – No Paycheck. This is a scenario that many families are facing.

What can you do? What will you do? The Prophet, Isaiah, writes in Isaiah 58:10: If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

Our Lenten Hunger Appeal this year begins March 9 th. It may seem a bit premature, but you could start now to take advantage of the food sales in our local supermarkets.

Please purchase one or more of the following food items suggested by the Center for Food Action and drop them in the narthex between March 9 th and April 13th. Supermarket gift cards are always welcome, as well as checks made payable to the CFA designated for the Lenten Hunger Appeal. One item a week per family will add up to quite a number of food items over a 6 week period. Why not begin this week?

Supermarket Gift Cards/Checks Dry milk (e.g., boxed ParmalatCanned meat, tuna, chicken, etc. Canned FruitCanned hearty soup Instant PotatoesCanned vegetables 100% JuiceMacaroni and cheese Baby Formula Peanut butter and jelly Baby Diapers, sizes 4, 5 and 6Cereal (low sugar kids’ cereal welcome) Soap

Dental Hygiene Products Mae Hulburt

Christ Lutheran Church WomenAttention all members!!

Start saving for Trash & Treasure NowThe sale is on Saturday, May 3rd, 2014

Just a reminder to start setting aside your treasures and cleaning out your closets in anticipation of the Annual Trash & Treasure Sale that will be held on Saturday, May 3 rd .

Clothing collection begins on Monday, April 7th in Mitchell Commons and Treasure collection (meaning anything not in the clothing category) begins on April 21st – the day AFTER Easter. Please don't bring anything to Opsal area until after Easter Sunday. More details will follow in future Messenger articles and Sunday bulletins.

If you are interested in helping, please give Ann Christensen a call, 666-5078. New helpers (of any age) are always welcome . . . no experience necessary . . . it’s a lot of fun and a chance to make new friends. We'll feed you well and you'll feel better knowing that you've helped our church raise funds for improvements here and for many deserving charities.

Carla Hoenigmann

Assembling Health KitsWhen natural disasters strike or political conflicts occur, families often have little time to gather their belongings before fleeing. When they arrive at a safe place they are often frightened, disoriented and dirty. The simple items in the Kits wash away the dirt and remind them that someone cares.

This year we need the following items:

Light-weight bath sized towelsMetal Nail clippersIndividually wrapped bars of soap – 4 to 5 oz.

Please put your donated items into the basket in the narthex. Thank you for your kindness.

JoAnn SalloIt’s Not Too Late to Sign Up For a Great Weekend!We have once again put the Koinonia Congregational retreat on the schedule for 2014. We have secured rooms in the Conference Center for the weekend of March 21 to 23. The Camp is doing very well under the leadership of new directors who have come to Koinonia with skills, energy and a fresh vision of what Koinonia can offer. The Conference Center looks great and the food has never been better. Are you ready to join us? A $50.00 deposit will secure you a room for the weekend. Please make the check payable to Koinonia. We need to have a good understanding of how many rooms to book, so please see Tom Kearns, Craig Post or Crystal Ramhorst soon. We’ll try to answer any questions you may have. Thanks and hope you will join us for a great weekend. For more information go to http://www.koinoniany.org/about.htm on the web.

Tom, Craig and Crystal

Still Time to Get in on the Fun “Koinonia” Night at Christ Lutheran

Saturday, March 8 7:00 to 10:00 pm

Do you remember Saturday nights at Koinonia? The food, the puzzle table, the games, the kids playing with Brio trains and Legos, and of course singing along with David Scance on guitar. If you do (or even if you don’t) remember you have the opportunity this year to experience it twice. Yes, twice! First, Christ Lutheran will be having a “Koinonia Night in the Opsa.l” Bring some snacks, games for the kids, come with your slippers, and your singing voice—good or bad. A great time to reconnect and also meet some new friends. Then on March 22 you can do it all again but really at Camp Koinonia this time as our congregation has their annual Koinonia weekend March 21-23. See details in another article in this newsletter. For any questions please contact Christine Badame, Doris Crouse, David Scance or Crystal Ramhorst.

Why Go to Church?A church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them.

So, I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting heirs by giving sermons at all.”

This started real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!” When you are DOWN to nothing . . . God us UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

“When Stan is knocking at your door, simply say, “Jesus, could you get that for me?”

Worship With Us This MonthThis year we will have a Pastor for Ash Wednesday and the services of Holy Week, but for the other Wednesday evenings in Lent the Worship Committee would like to try something new for these days. We will have a simple soup and bread meal followed by Bible study. To do this, we need help making soup, leading the Bible study, setup, cleanup and publicity.

If you can help with any of these tasks, please let Doris know as soon as possible, so the Committee will know if this is feasible. Other area churches have had this format for some time with good participation.

Dot Dohrmann,Worship Chair

From the Church Library232Slo Slayon – why Jesus died As we enter the season of Lent, if we are asked why Jesus died, the automatic answer is: He died to save me.

There is much more to Jesus’ death than that, and this book explores some aspects we may not realize. This and other books on Jesus’ life and death are on display in the library.

Dot Dohrmann, Librarian

We Get Letters—My parents, Ralph and Jinny Salvesen were charter members of Christ Lutheran. Mom passed away on Friday Jan 17, 2014, peacefully in her sleep. I’m not sure she notified you at the time but dad passed in

2010.She always enjoyed reading the newsletter and keeping up with the happenings at Christ. My mailing address is 11 Banor Dr Hillsborough NJ 08844 should anyone look for contact information. Also we are requesting any memorials go to the ELCA Hunger Appeal.

Lynn Salvesen Wirth

There’s Always GraceThere have been times in my life where I felt I needed to stand in front of a room with rows of strangers sitting in folding chairs, and nervously confess, “Hello, my name is Linda, and I am a Sugar-a-holic”. I’m serious. I need a 12 step program for my sugar addiction. And I am not being flippant. I share so many of the traits that other addicts have, including self-loathing, guilt, and compensating for feeling week and out of control. I wake up each morning and promise myself that “Today, I’m going to be good.” By noon I have a nagging sense of deprivation, and shortly after that I convince myself that I should have “a little something” just to satisfy the urge. But I am never satisfied really. A cookie or piece of chocolate never “hits the spot”. The spot only gets bigger and harder and harder to fill. And before I know it, I’m stuffing things in my mouth that I can’t even taste or don’t even especially like. But now I have to punish myself for being bad, so I eat some more. Of course, I recognize that my consequences are negligible compared to that of an alcoholic or drug addict. If I binge on my “drug”, I won’t wake up on a park bench one morning or lose my job or spouse, or even worse, my life. No, my biggest penalty for falling off the wagon is I go up a few dress sizes. So, yeah I get it. My addiction is benign in comparison. But I believe it is a real addiction. I am not capable of eating sugar in moderation. So I stay off it…when I can. But like most addicts, it is what I want to turn to when life goes wrong.

Last year at this time, life had gone very, very wrong and my binging was on full throttle. My brother, Bob had been diagnosed a few months earlier with a Glioblastoma, a very aggressive, cancerous, deadly brain tumor. Having a brain tumor wasn’t new to him. He had been diagnosed with one 17 years before, bravely had surgery, lived another 10 years until returned, and then bravely had surgery again which was followed with radiation. Though the treatments “got rid of it” the doctors warned it was still there on a cellular level, and it was only a matter of time that it reared its ugly head again. Well, now it was back. But what was originally called a “low grade tumor” had progressed to Stage 4. As my brother put it, he was like a plane that had run out of runway. And I was spinning out of control. I’m usually a procrastinator, but for whatever reason I got a jump

start on my grief and fell deep in it. Maybe it’s because I’m a nurse, and I understood the diagnosis and the suffering that comes with it, maybe because I have lived through the devastation of losing a sister who died way too young, maybe because I couldn’t bear watching my parents lose another child, or maybe I just knew losing my brother would leave a whole in my life that could never be filled… whatever the reason, I sank in deep despair. For months, I couldn’t get through the day without collapsing into tears multiple times, and couldn’t get through the night with any meaningful sleep. Without any sleep, there was no energy to exercise, which is usually my healthy way of dealing with problems. Thankfully, I had my crutch, my reliable rock. That is, sugar. I know what you’re thinking. I’m a Christian. Wasn’t I supposed to rely on Christ and prayer to get me through? Oh, I prayed. Believe me, I prayed. I prayed for a miracle, I prayed for healing, I prayed for improvement of any kind. And so did you by the way. You prayed for my brother every Sunday as his name, Bob Gerboth, was read from the altar. But the prayers didn’t comfort me much. And while in retrospect, the sugar never really did either, I somehow always believed it would.

Bob was diagnosed in October, and by February I had already grown out of the “fat clothes” I bought. But something else was happening too. In January, I started my New Year’s Resolution to read the Bible in its entirety by the end of the year. This was about the twelfth time I made this resolution. The previous eleven or so times I abandoned the effort and even the inclination by the middle of January. This time was different. This time I had support. My husband John made the same resolution, and we were in it together. And so by the time Ash Wednesday was almost upon us, I was the furthest I had ever gotten in the Bible, I was deep in Leviticus. Leviticus is filled with rules and laws and sacrifices. The early Jews were to offer sacrifices for forgiveness, sacrifices for thanksgiving, sacrifices for this and for that. It was rough reading at times. But one theme seemed to stick out at me, which is the idea of the PERFECT sacrifice. God always asked for the perfect animal, be it lamb, goat or calf. He didn’t want the runt of the litter or the weak or lame. He wanted the best. As I read it, I always thought this was a bit odd. Couldn’t He give them a break? Why did He require the healthiest and the best? I mean, God didn’t NEED it. But they surely did, often to

survive. Why make it so difficult? It was around this time I was trying to figure out what to give up for Lent. I wanted it to be meaningful, yet attainable. I couldn’t figure anything out, nothing seemed right. Each day I would pray something like this, “Lord, please guide me. Help me to give up something (except sugar) that’s meaningful (except sugar) and heartfelt (except sugar) and something that I can succeed in giving up for the whole time (definitely not sugar).” I didn’t want to fail at this. I wanted to get it right. So, no. Definitely not sugar. I couldn’t get through breakfast without it lately. It had to be something else….TV? Computer? Alcohol? All of the above? Too easy! Maybe I could volunteer for something instead? Donate more money? On the morning of Ash Wednesday, as I was reading Leviticus, a mental light bulb finally went on in my head. God wanted the perfect sacrifice not because He needed it. He wanted what was most meaningful. He didn’t want what was left over. He wanted what was most important. Not because he needed it, but because by offering the most valuable, the Jews were putting Him first in their lives. He wasn’t an afterthought. He was the main event. And then, it hit me. He wanted my sugar, my addiction. He wanted me to replace my crutch with Him. I burst out in tears. I‘m not even trying to be dramatic here, I swear. I was literally sitting at my kitchen table sobbing, “No, God, please don’t ask me to give up sugar!! I can’t do it right now! I swear I can’t, and I really want to do this right.” But the more I protested, the more obvious it was to me that I had to. Finally, I said, “Okay God, but what if I try and fail? What then?” With that, the phone rang. It was Doris from the Church office. She had some business to discuss, so I snapped out of my hysteria and brought myself back into the real world momentarily. What was I crying about anyway? Lent? Seriously, I was questioning my own sanity. Doris and I discussed some church stuff and then I innocently asked her when the deadline was for the Messenger again. She told me the date, and then paused and quietly added, “But….there’s always Grace.” There it was. There was the gentle reminder that I need to hear, only, not about the Messenger, but about what happens when you try to please God, but fail. I’m pretty sure Doris went on for another minute explaining this and that, but my mind was back on Lent, back in prayer. And right then and there I committed to

God that I would give up sugar for Lent. Or at least try. And I prayed He would help me, one minute at a time.

About 5 hours went by, and I found myself in an Evangelism Committee meeting, and the person next to me, our Pastor at the time, was slowly peeling off the paper wrapper to a miniature cupcake, loaded with white icing. As she popped it in her mouth, she unwittingly offered, “Want one?” And pushed a plate of Heroin, I mean, chocolate chip cookies closer to me. “No thanks.” I replied. “I gave sugar up for Lent.” “Oh, I never give anything up for Lent,” she told me as she covered her mouth to prevent the moist crumbs from falling out. “I DO things for Lent.” God and I shared a chuckle. “Really, God?” I silently teased, “This is your idea of helping me?” But as the moment passed, so did the temptation. That night I slept peacefully and uninterrupted for the first time in months. And the next day I noticed something extraordinary. God had given me something I hadn’t even thought to ask for. My grief had lifted. Don’t get me wrong, I still prayed for my brother, and he was, and still is on the forefront of my mind, but I felt like a tremendous burden was off of me. I knew God was telling me that when I put my trust in Him, He would take care of me. And giving up sugar? It ended up being the easiest thing I ever did for Lent. I swear!! It was so easy I almost felt guilty for not giving up more! I didn’t slip up even once. Go figure.

A full year has gone by, and in case you’re wondering, Bob is doing fairly well. His tumor has shrunk to the point where it is almost impossible to see on MRI. He has some struggles though, including pain, muscle weakness, and sometimes seizures. And we hold our breath every time he goes in for his bimonthly MRI. But he remains upbeat, positive, and lately, even spiritual, which is something I have never seen in him before. The last time we talked, it was about Philippians 4:6-7. I could tell you what it says, but I suggest you look it up and read it for yourself. As for reading the Bible in one year, I did eventually finish it, though it took me a couple of weeks longer than I hoped. (John finished on time). I’m so glad I did it (although believe it or not, I want to read it again….Maybe for my next New Year’s Resolution!) I have such a deeper understanding of our faith, and Christianity. It is so obvious to me that Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, the perfect lamb, slaughtered for our sins. So that we can all say with full assurance, “There’s always Grace.”

Linda Osolin

God’s NOT Dead (The Movie)I recently went to a screening of the soon to be released movie, “God’s Not Dead.” It is a story of a college freshman who takes a course in Philosophy. On the first day of class the professor declares that everyone in the class must sign a paper that states “God is Dead”, so that they can put aside the silliness of God and get down to the real truth of science based philosophy. When this one college freshman refuses to sign the paper because he is a Christian, the professor strikes a bargain with him: He must defend his position that “God is alive” in a series of debates with him in order the stay in the class, and if he loses the debate, he fails the class.

The movie will be released March 21st in limited theatres. Look up GodsNotDeadtheMovie.com to find where and when the movie is playing. You can also see a trailer of the movie to get a better idea of what it is about. It is a low budget movie, so you won’t see it advertised anywhere and it is counting on word of mouth to keep it playing in theaters.

While this movie is perfect for High School aged teens, it is would be worth it for adults to see it as well, if for no other reason, just to see what our youth is up against in our culture.

Linda Osolin