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Weather
Cancellation Information
Social Ministries Committee - News
Stewardship
Mission Endowment
CLC 2011 Goals
Small Group Gatherings
Women's Fellowship
An AED for CLC
The Trustees of the Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation have reviewed the grant proposal for the funding of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) which was submitted in September. They have voted to award to Community Lutheran Church the full amount of our request namely, $2,500.00
We will purchase the ZOLL Plus and look forward to your interest in becoming trained and certified in its use. Having an AED available at Community Lutheran Church will be a great resource not only for our congregation, but also for all the members of the community who participate in the Mascoma Cooperative Pre-School and other ongoing programs, meetings and activities held at our Church location.
In late spring of this year the Council approved a Marked Fund to be set up to enable us to fundraise for the purchase of the AED. This was prior to our decision to seek a grant from The Mascoma Savings Bank Foundation. The monies currently in this AED Fund and future monies that will be contributed to it will go toward the purchase of needed supplies and maintenance of the AED, and ongoing training for American Heart Association Certification. There will be a "Sign Up Sheet" in the narthex to identify congregation members who currently hold an active certification from the AHA. In the New Year we will have a training provided by Life Support Systems which is part of the AED package that was purchased. Please consider this opportunity (no fee) so that we can have as many members as possible trained in both CPR and the use of the AED. We are truly blessed to have the equipment available to try to save a life if needed. Thanks to all for your donations to the AED Fund.
( Rosemary Affeldt)
Editor’s note: the AED was received and installed on December 19th just inside the front entrance of the addition.
Weather cancellation Information
What happens if there is bad weather? How do I find out if something at church has been cancelled?
We do not cancel worship or church activities without a great deal of thought and prayer. In particular, a decision to cancel worship is made by Pastor Pat in consultation with members of the Council Executive Board. In making this decision, in addition to prayer, we rely on local knowledge of the conditions, as well as forecasts from the National Weather Service, and we consider the time of day at which the service would be held. I realize that people look forward to worship and depend on it as a grounding point in their lives. However, there are a very few times when travel is dangerous enough that holding worship, which might encourage someone to risk travel, would be foolish.
Information about cancellations is communicated in several ways. In the event of a cancellation of worship or a churchwide activity, an announcement will be put on the church phone. If you call 603-632-5812, the phone greeting will announce the cancellation. We also utilize WMUR’s cancellation service. WMUR TV has a cancellation link on their website http://www.wmur.com, which directs you an alphabetized link of closings and delays. These cancellations also usually scroll on the bottom of the WMUR TV broadcast. Whenever possible, we also try to put a message on our own website (http://clcenfield.org). If the weather is very inclement, check the church phone or WMUR’s service before leaving your own house for worship or a churchwide activity.
If you are concerned about whether a committee meeting or Small Group gathering will be held, please contact the committee chair or host of the event.
Holiday Gift Baskets
Apparently it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in meteorology to be able to forecast the weather. Will we have an early spring or an extended winter? Just ask any groundhog. Or, at least, ask a famous groundhog.
Groundhog Day is celebrated on February 2nd in the United States, but it is certainly does not appear to be in the same league as celebrating Christmas or Easter. The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, PA. The celebrations began in the 18th century as a Pennsylvania German custom that had its origins in ancient European weather lore. Groundhog Day bears similarities to the Pagan festival of Imbolc - the seasonal turning point of the calendar - which may be why we are reluctant to “celebrate” the day.
February 2nd is also celebrated as Candlemas Day by the Eastern Orthodox Church and some Eastern Catholic Churches as one on the twelve Great Feasts. Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem forty days after his birth to complete Mary’s purification after childbirth (Luke 2:21-24) and to perform the redemption of the firstborn, in obedience to the Law of Moses (Exodus 13:12-15). This event takes place forty days after the birth of a male child – so, for Jesus, it is celebrated forty days after Christmas on February 2nd.
During the presentation of the baby at the Temple, the parents were expected to offer a sacrifice of a lamb. But it they could not afford a lamb, poor people could sacrifice a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons (Leviticus 12: 1-8).
Giving should be proportionate to one’s income and circumstances, as each is expected to contribute according to his or her means (2 Corinthians 8: 11-13). This applies to our time, talent and treasure. But you should not give just because you think the church needs your money to pay the bills. No one likes to sit in a dark cold church on Sunday mornings in February so it’s natural to feel an obligation to contribute to the operating budget. But, there is even a better reason to give. Give because your heart is filled with faith, hope and love of God.
When we give out of obligation, we give according to the Law. When we give out of gratitude for God’s grace, we live the Gospel. Our giving should reflect both of those reasons. We should give our “fair” share to meet the basic expenses of the church such as paying the electric and heating bills, and we should give beyond our “fair” share as a renunciation of treasure that is given purely out of gratitude for everything that God has given us.
There is a big difference between a “fair” share and an “equal” share. Neither God, nor anyone else, expects someone with an income of $25,000 to give the same amount as someone who earns $100,000, just as Joseph and Mary were not expected to sacrifice a lamb when they presented Jesus at the Temple.
If your income is 1% for the combined income of all the members of CLC, then your “fair” share of the operating expenses is 1% of the CLC operating budget. Sacrificial giving beyond that (2 Corinthians 8: 3) is much more difficult to determine, but with guidance from the Holy Spirit you can decide whether that means a lamb or two young pigeons.
We may not be able to predict the weather – even with the help of a talented groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil – but we can predict with complete certainty God’s love for us. And, hopefully, we can determine our level of giving as both a duty and a delight.
Mission Endowment Fund
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
We inherit eternal life through Jesus. We don’t have anything that we can give away that can compare with sharing in the eternal glory of God. But, the closest we can come to giving away something that will last forever is through an endowment fund. The CLC Mission Endowment Fund was established in recognition that Christian stewardship requires the faithful management of all the gifts that God has given us.
The goal of this, or any, endowment fund is to finish every year with a larger fund value than the year before and to disburse more funds than the year before. In order to do this we need an 8% annual increase in the value of the fund through capital gains and contributions. Our By-Laws require that we give away 5% of the value of the Fund every year. If we increase the value of the Fund by 5% and then give away 5%, the fund will lose buying power due to the effects of inflation. The average long term inflation rate is 3%. So, we must increase the value of the Fund by 8% per year so that we can give away 5% in inflation protected dollars. This is not an easy task.
People will contribute to an endowment fund if all three of the following conditions are met: (1) They believe in the purpose of the fund. (2) They believe the fund will remain in existence forever. (3) They believe in the leadership running the fund.
The CLC Endowment Fund supports four mission areas: ELCA church-wide ministries, special projects within the New England Synod, special projects within the local area, and extraordinary programs/ministry initiatives within CLC.
How well is the CLC Endowment Fund doing? Since investing the money in the Fund with Vanguard in the five funds selected by the Mission Endowment Committee in 2006, our CLC Mission Endowment Fund has beaten the stock market as measured by the S&P 500 index.
S&P 500 +2.5% gain vs. CLC +18.5% gain
$7,600 has been disbursed by the Fund during 2007-2011
These results were achieved during the Sub-Prime Meltdown which the media has described as the worst recession since the Great Depression. Hopefully, this gives you confidence in the CLC Mission Endowment Fund as one that can endure for a long time.
Please prayerfully consider making a contribution to CLC’s Mission Endowment Fund. You can make a contribution at any time. You don’t have to wait to make the contribution as part of your will, but you can do that if you wish. When you update your will, you don’t have to choose between your family and CLC’s Mission Endowment Fund. You can include both. If you have been giving 10% of your income every month to the CLC operating budget, then please consider giving 10% of your estate to the CLC Endowment Fund. If you have been giving 5% to the operating budget, then please consider giving 5% of your estate.
Give a gift that keeps on giving!
CLC 2011 Goals
CLC Specific Goals For 2011
At the April council meeting specific goals for 2011 were approved by council. They indicate the areas in which the church council would like to see the congregation and committees concentrate their efforts and energy. In developing these goals the outreach and mission discussions results were taken into consideration. Goal 1 is continued from 2010.
Goal 1: Outreach. Recognizing that to thrive for the long term, Community Lutheran Church must continuously attract new people, build on the work of the Outreach Task Force to plan, develop, and implement new ways to reach out to the community and communicate information about worship, activities and service. A particular target of this outreach is families and young people.
Goal 2: Hunger. Actively support the ministry of the community dinners, promote the collection of food for the local food pantry, and support of the perishable food vouchers, while discerning possible new areas of engagement.
Goal 3: Youth. Encourage and promote the CLC youth trip to the New Orleans National Youth Gathering and to actively support our Vacation Bible School program as a vehicle for community outreach.
The Natural Church Development Process Will Be Completed Soon
The Natural Church Development Process, begun in 2009, will be completed by:
· scheduling a date for the final survey
· recruiting 30 members to take the survey
· getting the results and sharing them with the Congregation.
The 2008 Congregational Meeting approved participating in the NCD Process, and paying the fee, which included the final survey. We began planning the process for CLC in 2009, and the first survey was done in the summer of 2010. The NCD Process has been used in over 40,000 churches worldwide. It is based on the belief that churches want to grow, and if they aren't, something is holding them back. The Process measures eight characteristics, and assumes that the lowest characteristic is the one that sets the level of a church's performance.
Our results identified "passionate spirituality" as our lowest characteristic. The NCD Committee got ideas from the Congregation on what passionate spirituality is, and what things might be done to improve it, and passed these ideas on to the regular Church Committees for action. The Process then called for waiting for a time for actions to take hold, then performing the final survey to measure how the Church has done.
Small Group Gatherings
Small groups continue to meet in the
Enfield—Canaan area and in the Lake Sunapee area for fellowship and an
opportunity to study God’s Word. The materials used for Bible study are from
the Lutheran Church’s Book of Faith initiative, which is designed to
familiarize more people with the Bible.
(Submitted by Pastor Pat)
Women's Fellowship
The Women's Fellowship met Oct 8.
A total of $760.00 will be given to:
· CLC for AED $160,
· The Haven for flood victims $200,
· Ingathering Turkey fund (In Memory of Barbara McKinley) $150,
· Enfield food pantry for non food items $100,
· Postage and cards $50.
· WELCA $100.
New board positions:
· Secretary- Mariann Shaffer volunteered to fill the 2 year position.
· New President- Susan Van Abs.
The Fall Fundraiser is the Holiday Sale of Crafts, Jams etc. at the Village School in Enfield on Nov 19 with Barbara Dow and Susan Cronenwett chairing this event.
Our Christmas dinner will be held on Dec. 10 at the Millstone Restaurant in New London at 5:30. Please see menu and sign up at the WF bulletin board.
Many thanks to Nancy Michaels and Susan Cronenwett for their service as Co-Presidents this past year.