Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 07, 2010
Isaiah 6: 1-8 Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 14:12b-20 Luke 5:1-11

The Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 14, 2010
Deuteronomy 34:1-12 Psalm 99
Hebrews 3:1-6 Luke 9:28-36

First Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2010
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 Psalm 91: 1-13
Romans 10:8b-13 Luke 4:1-13

Second Sunday in Lent
February 28, 2010
Jeremiah 26:8-15 Psalm 4
Philippians 3:17-4:1 Luke 13:31-35

Corey W., Jay M.,

Jason B., Michael B.

"Restore the Roar!"

The Theme for our Lenten Midweek Services

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver speak about Aslan who is the Lord as a Lion in C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: "Is – is he a man?" asked Lucy. "Aslan a man?" said Mr. Beaver sternly. … "Aslan is a lion – the Lion, the great Lion." "Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there’s any who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than most or else just silly." "Then he isn’t safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good."

Yahweh is not safe, but he is good, very good. He is no "Captain Kangaroo" or "Mr. Rogers." Yes, there are biblical images that say he is a caring Shepherd (Ps. 23), a nursing mother (Ps. 131), a mighty redeemer (Job 19:25). But these images do not justify removing the claws or the fangs from the Lion. This God sends fires and earthquakes. His wrath and anger are real. What could have unleashed such fury against a people whom he calls "my people" (7:15; 8:2)? This is the burden of the book of Amos.

The season of Lent begins February 17^th. We will again be having a pulpit rotation with some of the other Pastors in the area. The schedule is found below. The theme for our Lenten series will be taken from the Book of Amos, "Restore the Roar". Materials will be taken from Dr. Reed Lessing, Seminary professor at Saint Louis and the commentary he authored on the book of Amos. Christ’s Words have teeth and His voice is like a roar.

Ash Wed. Feb. 17 "Rescued from the Rubble" (Amos 1:1-2)

Pastor Hennig

Feb. 24 "Locusts Here, Locusts There, Locusts Are Everywhere" (Amos 7:1-6)

Pastor Debowey (from Immanuel in Springfield, IL)

Mar. 3 "Grieving for Joseph" (Amos: 6:1-7)

Pastor Jensen (from Holy Trinity northeast Springfield, IL)

Mar. 10 "This is the Night the lord has Made!" (Amos 5:18-20)

Pastor Hennig

Mar. 17 "The Four R’s of Election" (Amos 3:1-8)

Pastor Janssen (from Good Shepherd in Rochester, IL)

Mar. 24 "Lion Alert!" (Amos 7:10-17)

Pastor Koschmann

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ"

Romans 10:17 (ESV)

The youth group would like to thank all the participants who attended our Extreme Team Challenge! – It was a great success! A BIG thank you is given to the PTL for letting us use their concession stand and to all the great adult volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without you!

The youth are still selling the Springfield Area Coupon Books for $30.

We will be hosting the Lenten Dinner on Wednesday February 24^th Donations will be accepted. (the Youth are raising funds for this summer’s National youth gathering in New Orleans.) We appreciate all your support!

To my Church family:

So, what is it that pastors do? There are a lot of people that are under the idea that all pastors do is preach on Sundays with an occasion wedding or funeral. Wow, is that far off from the truth. While attending the doxology, we studied what a pastor does and what they go thru on a regular basis. I think that working at the church I had even more insight than most of the other lay people into what that Doxology class actually was meaning.

To start, there is so much more that goes into planning a sermon than you may think. The pastors here at our church meet with other local pastors in our area once a week to have a pastor’s meeting. In that meeting they can discuss issues they are having at their churches and have a chance to help each other by using each of their own distinct experiences. They also discuss and study the readings for the week. From those readings, they have to formulate a sermon to help their congregations to understand those readings as well.

Those pastoral meetings are very beneficial to our pastors. It is also very beneficial for them to attend classes such as the Doxology in order for them to better help us as a congregation. We as a congregation expect our pastors to have all of the answers relating to the Bible. But, who do they get a chance to pose their questions to? Looking to each other helps them have their own pastor to look to. A question that was posed at the Doxology was: How can a pastor be expected to feed his flock, if he is not also being fed?

The list of things that a pastor does in an average week is endless. Our pastor not only attends meetings, school sporting events, church and school events, confirmation classes, counseling sessions, prepare for and attend all Bible studies and all church services, but he also has to have time to study the Word for himself and be a husband and father to his family as well.

Our pastor is very good about dropping what he is doing to stop and help someone who has come in to speak with him or answer a question they may have about our church, their faith or something of a way more personal matter. When someone calls to tell our pastors that a loved one is in the hospital or may be dying, they will drop what they are doing to go and speak with both the patient and their family. You may think, well that is their job, and it is. However, that does not mean that it does not take a toll on them, because it does, especially when we have a week full of funerals such as the week before Christmas.

So why am I telling you all of this? To just make our pastors look good? Well, I think it does. I think that we have two of the most dedicated pastors I have ever seen. And it is that dedication that I wanted you to see, I wanted you to see the dedication that they put into this church and our congregation, and hopefully, it will inspire you as well to do what you can to show your dedication to our church family as well.

Yours in Christ,

Lora Beavers

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Anyone who may be interested, we now have the ability to do direct deposit transfers. We advertised at the beginning of the school year that if it would be of any help to you, we can set up your tuition payments to be directly transferred from your account to save you the time of writing out those pesky checks. In addition, we can now also do direct transfers for Church contributions as well. If anyone is interested call the church office. It is very easy to set up. All we need is the date you would like funds to transfer, the dollar amount you wish to transfer and a copy of a check or a voided check. You can stop the transfers just as easily, if it turns out that this program is not working for you. If you are intersted in this or have any questions, please call the office.

Discipleship Report for January 2009

Date Worship Gen. Fund Receipts

January 10^th 43 + 129 = 172 $ 11,511.80

(The weekly budget need is $ 11,516.84)

I Remember? – I was attending Concordia Lutheran School and a new teacher was hired…Pam Billotte. I remember talking to her during recess time; she was always so kind and caring. The school did not have a gymnasium. P.E. and recess were played in the basement during "bad" weather. Any sport practice was held outside, weather permitting.

(submitted by Ann S.)

February Chapel Offerings

This month Chapel Offerings will be for our Bethesda Buddies. Save your extra Valentine cards to put in their Valentine boxes.

Super Bowl Party! - Sunday, February 7, 2010

Our Saviors Valentines Day Dance