Dear friends of Jesus connected through Peace,

Are you okay? The storm was pretty bad in some places last night. As best I know, our people are okay. I praise God that he protected us.

Thanks mom for your service. God be with you in your work.

PS: Ascension service on May 29th at 6:30 pm https://peaceotsego.org/peacenews/ascension2025

PPS: Friendship Sunday August 3rd - how are your friendships? https://peaceotsego.org/peacenews/friendship2025

Student Recognition this week!

Our PreK to 5th grade students will wrap up their Sunday morning classes on Sunday May 18th. They’ll take a break for the summer and have a kids lesson with pastor each week.

On May 18th, we’ll have a recognition during service and a lunch/celebration to follow.

  • Peace will provide hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, and root beer floats.

  • Someone is bringing veggies to share.

  • For fun we are …

    • Flying kites!

    • Roasting peeps!

    • And playing kickball if we want

Please encourage the students this Sunday. Hope to see you!

The resurrection of Jesus gives us a good reason to trust God. In the weeks after Easter, we’ve been practicing explaining and defending our faith with the resurrection.

We need to answer a number of questions:

Let’s gather Sunday at 9:30 to answer these questions!

Question for you: Who are you preparing to answer? What questions are they asking?

Christian Theology

Jesus is the most divisive character in history. Christians have been very careful to explain who he is and what he has done.

Join me May 17th at 9:30 for our next talk in our Christian Theology series.

What do you think about Jesus?

Congregational Forum and Voters’ Meeting

Two key events coming up:

June 8th 10:45 there will be a congregational forum.

  • All are welcome to attend

  • Pastor and council will share an update on the “Three Paths Forward” in 2025

  • Update on the financial status

  • Discussion on facility sharing

June 29th 10:45 there will be a voters’ meeting (Business meeting)


  • Vote on facility sharing

As you can see, the big question we want to discuss is facility sharing.

We mentioned back on April 11th that some people at Peace have suggested we consider sharing the facility with another group or organization. https://peaceotsego.org/peacenews/20250411

The council considered this idea and weighed some options. As we did so, we ran into another local organization that was looking to share a facility - a church.

Facility sharing is different from facility use. Currently, people and organizations use Peace’s facility for lots of activities outside of Peace’s gospel ministry. A piano recital. A baby shower. A family reunion. These are occasional events connected to an individual or organization to use the facility. Facility sharing is regular use by an organization. It brings with it a whole host of questions - who will use it? When? What will the legal arrangement be? How much money is involved? Insurance? Facility maintenance? And lots more.

One organization that WELS congregations have relied on in the past is “SpaceTogether”. They equip congregations to share space. You might find some of their information useful. https://www.spacetogether.com/. If you’d like to learn more about the concept of facility sharing, you could listen to this podcast. https://churchanswers.com/podcasts/rainer-on-leadership/should-churches-share-their-campuses-with-other-non-profits/

We are looking to have the congregation address the general question: Should we share our facility with another organization?

  • We plan to publicize a statement on facility sharing for approval or rejection

  • We will release a facility sharing agreement for approval or rejection

What do you think about facility sharing? Do you think Peace could share our space with another organization?

Ladies Lunch Outing

All ladies are welcome to a summer lunch on June 11th at 1:00 at the Lynx (outside Otsego).

All ladies will receive an invite in the coming weeks.

Question: Will you please join us? Please RSVP to Jane Holewa (269-680-9060).

Calling all Gardeners

We are not planning to mow the field this summer. We’d like to save the time and gas. We’d like to see what the field might become.

We know we can’t just let the field go wild. Unproductive and destructive plants will likely grow right alongside good and productive plants.

In order to see what the field could become, we’re creating a test wildlife area between the barn and the pavilion. This small area will include various natural plants that might fill the field one day.

  • First, please don’t mow or run them over :-)

  • Second, we could use a few gardeners to help get it going. Would you help with some planting? Please get ahold of pastor/the office.

Privacy and Security at Peace - Security Cameras

At Peace, we don’t feel the need to watch and video tape what people do on campus. We want to protect your privacy.

Nevertheless, we’ve got a couple of places we’d like to watch at times. We’d like to see packages and visitors at the front doors during off hours (since we don’t staff the office) and pastor would like to be able to check on the parsonage.

The council is looking into a few security cameras.

What do you think of security cameras?

Calendar

May 16th 6:30 pm Bunco

May 17th 9:30 am Christian Theology (Jesus the Messiah)

May 18th 9:30 am End of Year Student Recognition service

May 29th 6:30 pm Ascension service

June 8th 10:45 am Congregational Update/Forum

June 11th 2:00 pm Ladies Lunch Out at Lynx

June 29th 10:45 am Voters’ meeting

August 3rd 9:30 Friendship Sunday





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Peace Lutheran Church 805 S Wilmott St Otsego, MI 49078

269-694-6104 https://peaceotsego.org