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Grace Lutheran Church Newsletter.

www.gracelutheranedson.blogspot.com

March 2010

BeThe

Church!!!

Catch the Vision... Grace is on aMission... April 10th we meet.

WHY VISION AND MISSION?

PART OF THE AGM MANDATE TO THIS YEARS

COUNCIL WAS TO TAKE A GOOD HARD LOOK AT

WHERE GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH IS GOING, AND

WHAT WE CAN BE DOING. IN TERMS OF VISION,

FRED TYRRELL REMINDED ME OF THIS QUOTE

FROM ALICE IN WONDERLAND:

ONE DAY ALICE CAME TO A FORK IN THE ROAD AND

SAW A CHESHIRE CAT IN A TREE.

WHICH ROAD DO I TAKE? SHE ASKED.

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO? WAS HIS

RESPONSE.

I DON'T KNOW... ALICE ANSWERED.

THEN, SAID THE CAT, IT DOESN'T MATTER.

Just like Alice in wonderland, we are GraceLutheran Church in Edson(land)... so what

should we do? Which road should we take? It

really doesnt matter if we dont know wherewe are trying to go.

Now hold on one second... this sounds like

one of those weekend visioning sessions where

we all sit down and work for 8 hours, say a

bunch of things about the church and where

we are going, (Continued on Page 3.)

Meet the Council!

Council position -- Name -- Committee rep.

Chairperson - Sheryl Dubois -Worship

Vice-Chair - Laura Roome -Worship

Secretary - Vivian Siever

Treasurer - Dawn Mitchell - Property

Member - Tien Young - Hospitality/Outreach

Member - Helen Grennesmen - Hospitality/Outreach

Member - Gordon Booth - Education

Member - Carol Dobbie

Member - Lisa Bush

Member -Wally McMorran - Property


GRACE LUTHERAN CHURCH

EdsonAB

4407 - 6thAve EdsonAB

T7E 1M5TELEPHONE

(780)723-4366 PASTORSEANBELL
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I find much wisdom (as well as a

little humor) in the story of Jesus

visit with Mary and Martha in

Bethany (see Luke 10). You know

the story: Mary and Martha are

preparing for their friend Jesus to be

a guest in their home. All is fineuntil Jesus actually arrives. Then

Mary sits at Jesus feet, content in his

presence, while Martha runs around

the house making her last minute

preparations, and getting upset with

Mary in the process. Martha is so

upset that she takes it to Jesus

Lord, dont you care that my sister

has abandoned me with the work?To which Jesus replies: Martha,

Martha, you are worried and

distracted by many things one

thing is needful. Mary has chosen

the better part. Anxious, troubled,

worried and distracted by many

things. More often than not, those

words are descriptive of our life

together as the Evangelical LutheranChurch in Canada: anxious about

declining membership, troubled

about dwindling budgets, worried

about how much diversity our unity

can endure, distracted by the latest

social issues. As we scurry around to

tend to these things, a pessimist

would say that we are following the

old dictum: when you dont

know what to do, just keep

busy. Its akin to re-

arranging the deck furnitureon the Titanic. As a

Church we are too easily

bumped off course, tilting at

windmills, heading off on

tangents. Jesus would say to

us (as he said to Martha):

You are worried and distracted by

many things one thing is needful.

What is that one needful thing?...the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and our

proclaiming of it. In the seasons of

Lent and Easter we are driven back

to the Main Thing the core and

centre of what we believe. My

friends, thats Jesus: born of the

Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius

Pilate, was crucified, died and was

buried. On the third day he roseagain. Over these weeks, as we hear

the heart of the Gospel proclaimed

to us once more, let us not be

tempted to veer off course. Rather

may we each and all keep the Main

Thing the main thing. In

Jesus presence may we

meet and rest.

+Ronald B. Mayan,

Bishop

Synod of Alberta and theTerritories

Evangelical LutheranChurch in Canada

From the Bishops office:

Bisho Ron Ma an
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I promise... this time will be different.

I travelled with Dawn Mitchell to

Red Deer to attend the Synod

workshop focused on developing skills

on how to be a good Church council.

One of the session I attended was

Visioning and Mission and I asked

that very same question right off the

top.

How is this going to be

different? Do we really need to

have a mission and vision when

these usually end up as nice

sentiments in a binder or on the

wall?

And it was Fred Tyrell who gave

me the quote from the Cheshire Cat.

And that makes sense... if we dont

know where we are going... how will we

know what to do? How will we know

how much to do? How will we know

when we have arrived?

Fred Tyrell works as a Community

Development officer for the Yellowhead

Region. His job is to help community

groups organize and set goals. This

gives two advantages.

1: Hes a professional and hes paid

by the government so its not going to

cost us anything and its top notch

advice.2: Hes a Christian who attends a

Emmanual Rosenthal Lutheran

Church outside of Stony Plain. The

process that he can start us on will be

tailored to church use, and not simply a

tool used by every other community

group. Fred writes:

My normal process is to set a common

understanding of the how's and why's of

strategic planning, in this case reflecting on the

nature of a Lutheran congregation. We then

move to identify what the organization has

brought to the present moment, identifying both

strengths and weaknesses as well as existingnorms and practices.

We basically lay out the history of who

did what for what purpose to what end.

We then look outside the congregation at

forces in the community that either are or can

work for or against us, and seek to also identify

trends and current issues and concerns.

After throwing all of this into the mixing

bowl, we talk about what we want to have

accomplished by twenty years into the future,

and seek to define "success" as is appropriateto the organization.

Then we have fun comparing that picture

to the present picture and identify what needs to

start, stay, or stop in order to move from today

to the desired future.

Typically the leadership have enough

knowledge to be able to handle the first part,

with us working to guide the process. From

then on it is a matter of using the collective

wisdom of the group to answer the questions

that we ask. At some point during all of this

the group normally takes some time to talkabout how to build the plan, how to take it to

the membership for first input and then

approval, and the logistics of doing all of this.

It may be that further information is

identified as being needed during the first stage

of meeting. I like to set up things so that

there is an expectation right from

the start that this will take some

time and several meetings!

So... there it is... Fred will be

coming to work with the council and

then with the larger community. We

will be setting some long term goals

and visions soon!

Not all churches can be all things

to all people. This process will help us

pick the things that we are going to do

well because of the gifts and strengths

that we possess.

Stay tuned for more information

on the ongoing process that having a

vision is... this isn't something we do

once and put behind us. If this is goingto work, it has to become part of our

churches culture. We must become a

people that are always assessing and

processing our surroundings and

adjusting our mission and long term

goals and missions accordingly.

I think this is going to be a fun way

to be church. No longer wondering

what we should do, but boldly

experimenting and concretely picking

some things (daring things?) and doingthem and the looking for more to do.

So pray for our council, and Fred,

and all those who are going to inspire

and lead us to catch onto Gods mission

in this community.

Where are we going?CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE.
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4/6


WEEK OF THE PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY

AND THE WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

Both of these events went really well and

were well attended. The week of prayer

for Christian Unity was on January 22nd

at the CRC and the the World Day of

Prayer was on March 5th at the Catholic

church.

Its important for us to all gettogether when possible as Christians. As

Rev. Paul reminded us in his message

during the Week of Prayer for Christian

Unity, it is one body, one faith, one

church, one baptism, one God. That is

the reality that God speaks. Sure we do a

good job of dividing ourselves up, and we

do have to cling to those parts of our faith

tradition that make sense, but the

underlying real i ty that we must

acknowledge is that the one God of the

universe craves the day when all will be

made compete and whole again. For now,

let us trust that in the unity of the Holy

Spirit there is a bond that holds us

together.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY BUILD.

Ive got the forms for anyone who wants

to volunteer for Habitat. They need

workers at all levels of skill so dont

hesitate to find out more. Call Mike

Lambregts at 780-723-7942.

For our corporate part, our church

has been invited to provide a meal for the

workers on one day in May. Keep

listening for the announcement of that

day when we as Grace Lutheran church

will get the chance to serve the 100 or so

volunteers that make up this habitat build.

Keep a sharp eye on your

wallets! Several of our members

are going to be participating in a

walk-a-thon and are looking for

sponsors. :)

THE SYNOD CONVENTION ISCOMING!

And we have some great

delegates to send. Sheryl Dubois

w i l l b e g o i n g a s o u r

congregational delegate, and

Kristen Tarves will be going as our youth

delegate.

At the last synod convention it was

decided that one small way to get youth

involved in the church was to give them

more than just a voice at synod

convention, but to also give them a vote.

The convention will be providing a leader

for the youth so it should be a great event

for all.

Special thanks to both of our

delegates for volunteering to serve us in

this way.

GRACE GUARDIAN SEEKS CONTRIBUTIONS

Lastly, I would encourage anyone

who wants to put anything into the

newsletter to contact the church office

with your submission. Even if the story is

in your head you could call me and Ill

type it out for you.

Have a great Easter!

Please use thechurch web page for

up to the secondinformation:

www.gracelutheranedson

.blogspot.com

And now the rest of the storiesin this newsletter.
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5/6


Upcoming events at GraceGET OUT YOUR CALENDARS OR CHECK ON THE WEBPAGEWWW.GRACELUTHERANEDSON.BLOGSPOT.COM

The Lutheran Course. A fun and interactive way to begin to think about how our Lutheran theology interplays in

our lives today.

We already covered the basics in Lutheran Course I. And now the education committee is proud to bring you:

Based on The Lutheran Handbook II, The Lutheran Course II relates 16th century theological concepts to21st century life with even morewit and wisdom.

Each session features a DVD presentation, followed by a discussion that works through the ideas with depth and

humor.

But wait... there is more! We also eat together!

Food, DVD, discussion. A perfect evening of fellowship and fun.

TIME: 6pm Supper. 7pm Video and discussion.Here are the Dates (Hint... they are all Thursdays):

1: April 8

2: April 15

3: April 22

4: April 29

Week off

5: May 13

6: May 20

7: May 27
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Upcoming events at GraceGET OUT YOUR CALENDARS OR CHECK ON THE WEBPAGEWWW.GRACELUTHERANEDSON.BLOGSPOT.COM

Congregational Retreat

May 28-30

Cost: Based on numbers. Estimate $70/person.Where: Mulhurst Lutheran Church Camp (Pigeon Lake)

Please let the office know if you are or are not coming so we can let the cook know about food for the weekend.

You can learn more about Mulhurst at

http://www.mulhurstlutherancamp.ca/

Its a pretty awesome place.

Why go on retreat?

From early days of the Church people have drawn

apart to spend time with God and each other. In fact,

there is an ancient Jewish festival called the festival of

booths (Not Gordon Booth... this is a Jewish festival.)

At the festival of booths, people would essentially go

camping and sing and pray and be together in the

wilderness in order to remind themselves of where

they had come from. So... in one way we have to go

because God says so.

In the end though... I think that the best reason to go is because its awesome... andits not going to be over-programmed and youre going to get a chance to sit by a lake, and sit by a fire,

and go in the sauna with the view of the sunset over the lake, and sit with some friends and together we

will grow as a community and, with any luck, come to understand ourselves, each other and God a little

better.

To register (or tell us you arent coming), contact Pastor Sean. Web, email, or phone!
http://www.mulhu/http://www.mulhu/http://www.mulhu/http://www.mulhu/http://www.mulhu/http://www.mulhu/http://www.gracelutheranedson.blogspot.com/http://www.gracelutheranedson.blogspot.com/http://www.gracelutheranedson.blogspot.com/

newsletter 10 03

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