Because your love is better than life; my lips will glorify you. Psalm 63:3
Dear friend,
I pray you, your friends, and your family were blessed this Thanksgiving. I love the opportunity Thanksgiving give us to both feel grateful and to express gratitude.
Consider using your sense and expression of gratitude as a thermometer for your spiritual health. Time for a check up and a warm up? Join us for services and studies.
Sunday at 9:00 or 10:45, Wednesday at 6:30.
We had about 35 in the 9:00 am service and about 20 in the 10:45 last week.
If you have any symptoms, please stay home.
If you have been within 6’ of someone with COVID for 15 minutes, please stay home.
Please respect others on-site. Keep your distance.
The elderly and at risk should especially consider staying home.
Please wear a mask.
Whether you join me online, on site, or contact me (269-694-6104) for personal devotion and communion, do not give up God’s Word and Sacraments. I especially encourage those of you who have understandably stayed home for months, please get ahold of me to have God’s Word applied to you personally and get the Lord’s Supper.
Sincerely,
Pastor Timmermann
Advent 2020
I invite you to engage in some healthy practices of rest and restoration this pre-Christmas season.
Advent means “coming”; it also means "expectation". It helps us develop a joyful expectation of Christ’s return. This Advent as you meditate on God’s Word, may he match the expectations of your heart to his own so that his return is nothing but the greatest bliss, joy, pleasure, and satisfaction for you.
There are also some great Advent devotions
Martin Luther College (the WELS college of ministry) has prepared Advent devotions on a Jesse tree. There are some copies available at church. (You can even subscribe via email))
Bread for Beggars has a beautiful couples devotion for Advent
Hymns and music for Advent https://lutheransynodpublishing.com/diy-advent-song-of-songs/
Concordia Publishing Counting to Christmas - Advent resource for children and families https://www.cph.org/p-31030-Counting-to-Christmas-Family-Advent-Devotions-and-Calendar.aspx
Advent music playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2M0SnW9zXQ5UCzZbmOhRky
If you don’t have an Advent wreath, get one this year. Church will be glad to help you get a beautiful, simple Advent wreath for only $15. Email church@peaceotsego.org or call 269-694-6104
Christmas 2020
On Christmas we gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Let’s join in the celebration - on-site or online.
KIDS CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 20TH @ 9:00 A.M.
CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE DECEMBER 24TH @ 4:30 AND 6:30 P.M.
CHRISTMAS DAY @ 10:00 A.M.
*Because of COVID-19, events and activities may be changed
Christmas flowers
We don’t have a coordinator for Christmas flowers. Please speak with pastor.
Nominations
November/December is an important time at Peace to select future leaders. The nominating committee, council, and elders are all working to make sure the people God has equipped with gifts are serving in places and ways that will further the mission of God.
Paul and Barnabas did this work as they traveled around according to Acts 14:23, “Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” Paul told Titus to do this in Crete when he worked there. “The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.” (Titus 1:5) From the Bible, we learn a number of things about local leaders:
Elders, deacons, and other ministry workers should come from the local group. Every church should have people who can use God’s Word in people’s lives, whether they help students, young adults, or seniors. God’s people work together.
People mature in the Word should select the next generation. Many people should have involvement. Still, we have good reasons to let our current leaders narrow the list of future leaders.
Selecting leaders happens alongside spiritual practices - prayer, fasting, careful assessment of what is undone, and discipline
We have proposed some new bylaws to go into effect February 2021. We recognize some of the current positions may change in the new year. However, every role will still be part of the Peace, even if it changes.
Please feel free to make suggestions for nominations to pastor or any of our council/elders over the next two months (Charlie Kling, Ron Miller, Terry Brower, Jon Ott, Shawn Gavan, Josh Gower). You may offer yourself if you would like.
We will look for people who show signs of gifts and developing spiritual maturity to lead God’s people. The use of individual gifts is more important than simply filling a role. As God blesses us, we hope to fill some of the following roles: elders, financial secretary, recording secretary, music coordinator, evangelism/outreach team, and education.
One person provided some wise advice for selecting leaders: “Most churches make the mistake of electing the competent, the confident, and the successful; whereas what you really need is a man who has been broken by the knowledge of his own sin, and restored by an even greater knowledge of grace. That kind of elder (or other leader) can lead the congregation in being the chief repenter: repenting more quickly, more publically, more often and more deeply.” Please pray for all the current and future servant-leaders of Peace.
Prayers (full prayer list)
a meaningful Thanksgiving remembrance for us all after the difficulty of the last year
Other notes
November Christian Neighbors items are assorted fruits and juices (box for food in the family center)
The WELS C20 campaign has lots of helpful resources and encouragements
The lawn needs another mowing to mulch leaves and catch the last grass. Please speak with pastor or Jon Ott.
We recently had a free energy audit done and received new thermostats, among other things
Bylaws - Don’t forget the last 2 Q & A sessions are this week. For all other updates…click here.
Altar flowers can still be given at church. Just let pastor know since the calendar is out of date.
I’m studying and you could try
George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Proclamation”
“How The Pilgrims Planted The Seeds For America’s Constitutional Rights And Liberties”
Church should form, not affirm us
Upcoming events (full calendar)
December 1st 6:30 pm Bylaws Q&A
December 6th 12:00 pm Bylaws Q&A
December 6th 12:00 pm Christmas decorating
December 13th 5:00 pm 131 Youth Crew - online game night
Weekly news from Peace Lutheran Church, Otsego MI
805 S Wilmott St
Otsego, MI 49078
269-694-6104
church@peaceotsego.org
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