p. 1 “From Pastor Melinda”

Dates at a glance

Office/Pastoral hours

Worship times

p. 2 “About Faith Lutheran”

Homebound members

Message from Treasurer

p. 3 Important dates

Up coming events

p. 4 Other announcements

There will be no Council Minutes in this Pathfinder as the council does not meet in

December to approve previous months minutes.

Dates at a Glance

Jan. 1, 2019

New Year’s Day

Jan. 6, 2019

Epiphany of Our Lord Jan. 12, 2019

Baptism of Our Lord

Jan. 20, 2019

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Sunday school 9:30am

Sunday Worship 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday Worship 6:00 p.m.

Office hours for

Faith Lutheran Church:

Monday through Friday

9AM—2PM

Pastor’s hours:

Pastor VanderSys will be

in the office Wednesdays

from 2-7pm

Incase of Pastoral emer-

gencies she can be

reached at

(906) 291-0897

INSIDE From Pastor Melinda

The Ascension of Jesus “ Then he (Jesus) led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.” Luke 24:50-53

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

In last month’s Pathfinder, I invited you to share in an Advent practice by reading one chapter of the Book of Luke each day beginning Decem-ber 1st. As there are twenty-four chapters, you would have finished the Book of Luke on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who read the Book of Luke, here are some questions for you to think about:

1) What surprises did you find in these chapters that you may not have known about or had forgotten were in Luke (and possibly not found in the other gospels)?

2) What parts of Luke are you so familiar with that you could most likely repeat from memory? (For me, I think it would be the story of Jesus’ birth as found in Luke 2, using the King James Version. It’s also the version Linus recites in A Charlie Brown Christmas, ending with “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” J A favorite of mine.)

3) What overall theme did to Luke’s account of Jesus’ life and minis-try?

4) Was it difficult to find time each day to read a chapter? 5) Would you be inclined to read another book of the Bible for a de-

votion?

Though the final chapter of Luke on Christmas Eve was the Ascension of Jesus, I have to confess that I was anxious to read Luke 2 again at Worship that evening. What a beautiful story that is so important to us as Christians!

As we continue through the Christmas and Epiphany season, may we feel the blessedness of Christ upon us!

Peace╬ Pastor Melinda

Page 1

Faith Lutheran Church is a member congregation of the

Northern Great Lakes Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Synod website: nglsynod.org Denomination website: elca.org

At Home:

Beverly Tankersley- 2621 Lake Blvd.

SSM, MI 49783 (906)632-3888

Alice Isaacson- Avery Center, Apt. 302

SSM, MI 49783 (906)259-0402

Copper Garrett- 5036 W. Five Mile Rd.

SSM, MI 49783 (906)632-8727

Linda Doran- 590 Three 1/2 Mile Rd.

SSM, MI 49783 (906)632-6483

Eva Mohr– E 5040 State Highway M35

Escanaba 49829 (906)789-0423

At Freighterview:

605 W. Portage Ave.

SSM, MI 49783

Ruth Ronquist- (906)253-2331

Walter Pell- (906) 635-6002

At McKinley Manor:

2023 W 4th Ave. SSM, MI 49783

Diane Borrousch- (906) 632 7250

Our homebound and nursing home members are often so isolated that your phone call, visit, even a card can mean the difference between

lonely existence and continued life in our faith community. What can you do? Please reach out to those who have been such a vital part of our congregation and give back.

The Pathfinder is the monthly

newsletter of the

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

community at :

Faith Lutheran Church, 1600 Park Street,

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. (906) 632-7246

The deadline for the Pathfinder is

the 15th of each month.

Please send articles, comments, news items

c/o Pathfinder Editor, 1600 Park St. Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783 or e-mail to faithlc1966@att.net

Interim Pastor: Rev. Melinda VanderSys

Church Office Administrator/Editor: Sean Uhrig

Congregation Council: Will Karr,

Dennis Brindley, Dan Kinnear, Sandy Lawson,

Vicki Luoma, Wayne Olsen, Stephanie Miller,

and Ese Osumili

FROM THE TREASURER

The Treasury would like to remind anyone

who made any Pledges, to please fulfill that

obligation as soon as they can. If you have

any questions, please contact Wayne Olsen

at (989) 430-5678

Attention!

Are you interested in becoming a Member of Faith Lutheran Church? Do you know of

someone interested? Or maybe you would

like to know about becoming an Associate Member? A New Members class will begin soon. Time and date will be determined by those inter-ested.

Please contact the Church Office at 632-7246 or Pastor Melinda at (906) 291-0897 for more information.

Page 2

We are updating our active members list in our church database and in doing so, some people

who have not attended in a while will not be present on lists gathered for birthdays or anniver-saries. Also with something like this there are bound to be a few mistakes or errors. So if you no-

tice someone’s name was not on one of these lists and you would like to have them added, please contact Sean in the church office weekdays 9am-2pm or by telephone at (906) 632-7246

Page 3

4th Katherine Kagarise 5th Bill Robinson 8th Erin Lake 11th Alec Cook 12th Peggy Suriano 15th Garrett Peterman 21st Westin Bailey 21st Darryl East 25th Logan Cook 29th Nancy Bolio

News From the Call Committee!

The Call Committee of Faith will be meeting with Bishop Katherine Finegan on Monday, January 6th, to discuss a candidate interested in serving at Faith! Bishop Katherine will present the Rostered Leader Profile and discuss a compensation package with the Call Committee. If the Call Committee feels the candidate would be a good fit, the Call Committee will contact the candidate to arrange for a time to interview.

The interview would occur on a Friday followed by a meet-and-greet with the congregation on Saturday. The candidate would preach and preside on Sunday. The Call Committee would ask the Church Council to then call a Special Congregational Meeting for the sole purpose of discussing the candidate and vot-ing to extend a Call.

Here is what I can share based on what I know: the candidate completed seminary at Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago and currently resides in Chica-go. She is a widow with a teenage son. She was born and raised in New Delhi, India. Bishop Kathe-rine will have many more details to share when she meets with the Call Committee.

This is an exciting time for Faith! We pray…

♥ for the candidate and her family,

♥ for Bishop Katherine who works tirelessly (with the Holy Spirit!) to encourage pastors to serve in the Upper Peninsula,

♥ for the Call Committee of Faith who now have the task of determining if the ministry skills of the candidate will be a blessing to the people of Faith,

♥ for you – the people of Faith – who have in-creased your individual role in the church to continue the work of Jesus Christ inside and outside of these walls!

Blessings to you,

Pastor Melinda

Administrative Interim Pastor

The Annual Meeting will be held immediately follow-

ing worship on Sunday, February 9, 2020. There will

be 2 seats to be filled on the council this year. If you

are interested please get your information in to the

office or to Will Karr or Sandy Lawson.

ANNUAL REPORT TIME

If you are responsible for a committee which is included in the Annual Report, please get it in to the office as soon as possible when 2019 ends.

The deadline is January 31st.

Reports can preferably be emailed

to faithlc1966@att.net with the subject “Annual Report” any ques-tions, please contact Sean in the office.

“Committees”

Did you know…

There are currently fourteen different committees at Faith?

The Constitution calls for eleven of these committees?

The Constitution actually calls for five additional committees? (Mutual Ministry, Youth, Call Committee (as needed), Nominating Committee (when needed) and Audit Committee?

That is over and above Church Council. And that is a LOT of committees for one congregation! Though the Constitution of Faith Lutheran Church calls for all of these committees, it seems there must be a better way to utilize member’s participation and time, especially since many members participate on more than one commit-tee! That leads to an abundance of meetings one person may have to attend each month. Some of these commit-tees have only one to three members.

You most likely have seen the three signup sheets in the narthex with the headings “Love One Another Commit-tees”, “Love God Committees”, and “Love Neighbor Committees”. On each of these three signup sheets listed most of the current committees at Faith:

Love One Another Committees: Endowment, Fellowship, Finance, Membership, Memorial, Property, Safety, Staff Support, Stewardship

Love God Committees: Christian Education, Worship & Music

Love Neighbor Committees: Campus Ministry, Come to the Table, Outreach, WELCA

If the committees were combined, a meeting of the Love One Another Committees (for instance, Endowment, Fi-nance, Memorial, etc.) would discuss the internal financial business of the church.

Campus Ministry, Come to the Table, Outreach, and WELCA all are involved in reaching out to others through-out the community. I believe it would be beneficial for these committees to work together to promote the Good News beyond the walls of Faith.

By grouping the committees together, this would also increase the number of members participating. And while yes, the meeting may go a bit longer in order to cover all of these sub-committees, the number of days/evenings members would have to be away from their families should decrease. What a great way to be able to spend more time with your family!

I would also like to make another suggestion. Instead of calling them “committees”, why not call them “ministries”? Each of these are an important ministry that the church serves. And while it may only be a play on semantics, I would much rather serve on a ministry than on a committee! Christian Education Ministry (rather than committee). Fellowship Ministry (rather than committee). That’s just my suggestion!

I will ask the Church Council to add the item of “Combining Committees” to the agenda for the semi-annual meeting on February 9th. I will preach and preside at Faith that day and be present with you during the meeting for discussion.

Please prayerfully consider if this may be a way to work closer together to strengthen the body of Christ at Faith Lutheran Church.

Peace+

Pastor Melinda Page 4

Thank you to everyone who purchased a wreath this year. We man-aged to raise almost $200 for our youth here at Faith. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas!!

From our sister church in Tanzania In case you missed it, this is a picture of the gift that Faith Lutheran received from our sister church: Tandika Lu-theran Church in Tanzania. It really is a beauty and a work of art! The next page has a couple pictures from a flash drive that was also sent along to us.

Page 5

Giving tree – Faith partnered with the Sault Area Mid-dle School to provide clothes for children in need. The Outreach committee greatly appreciates the kindness and generosity of the Faith Lutheran Congregation.

JAN. 20th

2020

Page 6

“BRINGING GREETINGS FROM FAITH”

“WAVING TO PEOPLE AT FAITH”

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FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH

1600 PARK STREET

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI 49783

PATHFINDER

FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH*

YEAR OF MATTHEW

JANUARY 2020

EPIPHANY