Pastor’s Word Merry Lent! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God is indeed everywhere. He’s in the sky. He’s in the good day. He’s in space. He’s even in bad places, too. He’s in the best place you can think of and the most awful place. He’s in the church when you sing your favorite hymn tomorrow. He’s in the tornado that takes out the church. He’s in the dark place you go when you do that awful sin that denies His existence. He’s not just watching, He’s there. He’s everywhere. God is not everywhere for you. In those good and bad places, God may be there but He’s not delivering His salvation to you. In fact, from the outside, God seems indifferent and His being everywhere doesn’t help you at all. It doesn’t show that He loves or cares. Jesus earned salvation for you this week. He rides into Jerusalem tomorrow to suffer and die for your sins and the sins of the whole world. He will be beaten, bruised, crushed, mocked, stripped naked, shamed, and cursed in your place. He will accomplish your salvation in His Passion, death, and resurrection. Holy Week does you no good unless it is delivered to you. Your salvation is earned on the Cross, but it’s not delivered there. You can’t travel back through time in a DeLorean time machine and go back to the foot of the Cross. Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter do you no good unless God makes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter for you. Jesus delivers the forgiveness of sins to you in His Supper. God didn’t just achieve your salvation, He delivers it to you! He comes to you, not riding the royal donkey, but in His gifts. He takes all that Jesus did for you this week and makes it yours in the Word, Holy Baptism, and the Lord’s Supper. He won salvation for you. Faith receives what Jesus did for you by grace alone. Faith saves you because it lays hold of all that the Lord did for you, delivered in His gifts. Faith says, “Amen!” Gift received! You are saved. Merry Lent! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Immanuel’s Word Volume 52 Issue 4

April 2020

Regarding COVID-19 and the Immanuel Community

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. First, I want to say that I’m very pleased with how we as a congregation have weathered this virus scare. Your faith in Jesus and love for each other in this time is uplifting and a great witness for your pastor. The last two weekends, we have had service. We have also privately communed many families outside of the service. Those who have been at risk have contacted me and stayed home. Praise God for that! Everyone is trying as best as they can to weather this virus as best as they can. With the Governor’s order for residents of Louisiana to remain in their homes for all things except for essentials, I have talked with our congregation president and our head elders, and we have to move to the second phase of our COVID19 plan at Immanuel. Services: At this time, services for the foreseeable future will be not open for the public. My hope and prayer is that this situation will improve by Maundy Thursday. Everything is changing day to day, so it’s impossible to make long term plans. Keep checking your email. So in the meantime: We will stream one service on Sunday morning at 9:00 AM and one Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM. Adult Bible Class will follow at 10 AM. We are aware that there were bandwidth problems that are affecting some of our members and we are furiously working to solve those issues in the next few days. I would also expect that we will be streaming to Facebook and YouTube Live. I also will be looking into have a watch party on our services and Bible Class that will allow some interaction between us. Stay tuned for details on that.

“Drop-In” Holy Communion: In order to obey the spirit of the Governor’s order and still allow for the practice of our Faith, I am offering communion in the sanctuary in groups of up to 9 people on Friday and Saturday this week. Register here or call the church office to schedule time for your family. Non-confirmed members will receive a blessing. If all the slots fill up, we will add more next week. Your time will be confirmed after you successfully submit your responses. Shut-ins and Hospital Visits I am not able to visit most of our shut-ins nor our hospitalized members due to the restrictions of the hospitals and nursing homes. Please call and check on our shut-ins. Please be praying for them. Holy Absolution: Private Confession and Absolution is still available upon request. Simply make an appointment with Pastor Borghardt. Funerals and Weddings All funerals and weddings for the next few weeks are cancelled. Bible Class and Daily Devotions We are kept in the Faith by the Lord’s Words and promises. If we must endure this, it is a gift that this is occurring in the Lenten Season. Please read the daily Lenten Reflections that you receive through email. I will contact you again in the next few days to alert you to daily devotions that I will be streaming online for you and your family. I am also exploring possibly doing online interactive Bible Studies to allow families to gather around the Lord’s Words with me during this quarantine.

Sunday School Many of you already received the craft from last Sunday’s Sunday school. We will be sending an email out soon concerning how we will go about having distance Sunday school for our children. Stay Tuned!

Offerings and Building Fund Immanuel needs your offerings!!! With the cancellation of public services, Immanuel’s ability to raise money for her programs is severely hampered. Please give on-line or please send your check to the office (2565 Airline Drive, Bossier City, LA 71111). Or you can do as I do and have your bank send a check every month for your offering, just as you would paying an on-line bill.

In order to meet the needs of our build, which sprung a leak this morning, I reopened the Building Fund two weeks ago and many have already begun to give to the Building Fund again. Please consider this in addition to your offering.

Members In Need If you have been hit hard during this event, or know of a member in need, please contact the church office.

Conclusion

The Lord keep you in this time. It will end soon. We will all be together for one big service to rejoice in the gifts together. I, personally, can’t wait. See you soon!

In Christ,

Rev. George F. Borghardt

Regarding COVID-19 and the Southern District, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Dear Brothers: Fear not, depending on your chosen translation, is spoken in Scripture over 300 times. As we continue to enter uncharted territory with this Coronavirus crisis, I wanted to offer you some resources to help you minister to your people. The situation is fluid and the restrictions on gatherings is changing daily, so some of this info is bound to change. Take what you can use, apply the principles outlined, and make the best decisions for your congregation you can based on factual and current information. In this email I will cover

• Information from President Harrison • Encouragement in Your Vocation as Pastor • Stopping Worship Services • Resources to consider for: streaming live video of worship and Bible study,

along with resources that you could use for online giving • Pastoral Care • Holy Communion • Common Cup

President Harrison: I just got off a conference call with the Council of Presidents and President Harrison and wanted to pass on some info from that call and some suggestions as you work to handle this growing crisis and the accompanying fear.

President Harrison is encouraging all pastors to be calm and thoughtful in their response. To be charitable with each other and allow each other to minister and work through how each individual parish will carry on ministry without vitriol and attack from fellow brothers in the Office. Further, President Harrison said this time we are in isn't the first time the church has faced such issues. He referred to Luther's encouragement in the face of the Black Plague of his time. Synod legal has said that currently the restrictions, as they read them, from the CDC for gathering restrictions do not apply to churches. HOWEVER, Synod is encouraging you to check your local health department and obey the civil authorities. The restriction mentioned by the POTUS is not currently the position of the CDC, but a suggestion by his office. Any restrictions currently on church attendance are not persecution of the church, but are for the protection of people to help stop the spread of this viral threat. Encouragement: The Lord IS with you! Pastor your people. Witness the hope we have in Christ to

your community. Do the work of a pastor. I have written to you already about not giving in to fear, about having faith in Christ, about how we have already died with Christ and are risen with Him through Holy Baptism. Be encouraged in these things and help encourage your people with these things as they grow in faith and understanding of the sure and certain hope we have in Christ Jesus! Each parish has its own particular set of circumstances and will respond in ways different from other parishes. Cut each other some slack, follow the 8th Commandment admonition of Luther in our Catechism, and be gracious, charitable, and full of mercy with each other as we each try to make Godly, good, right and salutary decisions during this once in a lifetime disruption. Stopping Worship Services: I have been asked repeatedly to advise pastors on when they should stop providing worship services. Only you and your leadership can answer that question. Do your best to continue to provide opportunity for God's people to gather together for Word and Sacrament ministry.

• Perhaps consider adding more worship times on Sunday so you can accommodate fewer people gathered at one time in more but smaller services.

• Maybe you could group your members together by last name and suggest that last names beginning A-D attend at 8:00 a.m., E-H attend at 9:15, etc...

• Encourage your people to be flexible and caring for one another as you adjust to this temporary crisis.

• Look at the resources below that can help you broadcast your service to the homes of your people.

• There are many and varied ways to work around restrictions so that Word and Sacrament ministry can continue. Work with your leaders, come up with ideas that will work for your particular setting and try.

Resources: We can anticipate that gatherings will continue to shrink in size as the civil authorities attempt to clamp down on the spread of this virus. You would be wise, if you don't already have the capability, to add Facebook Live as a way to broadcast your worship service to congregants who, for a variety of reasons during this crisis, cannot join together in community to receive Word and Sacrament ministry from you. In addition to FB Live, you may want to break your congregation up into home units overseen by an Elder where 10 or fewer could gather together to view broadcast services, and enjoy the mutual fellowship of gathering together. In these cases, if you created smaller home groups, the pastor(s) could be circuit riders to visit each home gathering to give members Holy Communion and briefly minister to those gathered before moving on to the next home gathering. There are tutorials online to teach you how to do FB Live. It is really very easy; you can do it from any smart phone and it does not require any extra equipment or technical know-how to do a simple FB Live broadcast of your service or Bible study. The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Facebook Live Handbook is an excellent resource. Concordia Publishing House has published specific resources that apply to uncertain times. They are grouped according to worship, study, and home use. This series is called, "Be Still and Know." Giving: One of the biggest issues you will face if your people cannot gather on Sundays for corporate worship is that your giving will suffer. For smaller congregations on the edge, a drastic drop in giving could signal the end of the life of that congregation. I strongly encourage you to communicate clearly with your people that while services may not be available, or they may not be able to attend, that they continue to financially support their congregation. You can word such communication however you like, but I would be clear that the continuation of their congregation's ministry, the continuation of them having a pastor, depends upon the members being generous with their giving at this time. If you don't already

have online giving you can easily set that up. The following are great resources for online giving; they are not the only resources, but are the resources we at the Southern District office have vetted.

• Joyful Response (LCEF) • Pushpay • Stripe • Planning Center • RebelGive • Vanco • GivePlus (Vanco mobile app) • Kindred • Tithe.ly • EasyTithe • Givelify • PayPal

If your people are not online, I would encourage you to send them self addressed stamped envelopes to facilitate them sending in their offering check to your church office. Pastoral Care: As this situation changes, you will be called upon to change your routine and work in different ways to connect with your people.

• Call your shut-ins regularly. Offer to come by and visit with Holy Communion if they like. Many people at this time don't want visitors because of fear of the virus and, for elderly or those with compromised immune systems, this fear may be properly founded.

• Consider keeping your church building open for anyone who wants to come in and pray.

• Possibly offer Holy Communion throughout the day once or twice a week for those who want to receive Christ's Body and Blood from your their pastors hand but cannot commune at other times.

Holy Communion: President Harrison mentioned that for a significant part of the history of Lutheranism we did not offer Holy Communion every Sunday and that it is not a sin not to receive the Lord's Body and Blood in Holy Communion every Sunday. Offer Holy Communion as often and however possible to your people, but do not burden consciences if they are not able to partake. Then as soon as this crisis is past, joyfully celebrate the Eucharist with your people. Common Cup: Synod recommends using a purificator soaked in Everclear to ensure the highest form of hygiene in taking the common cup.

These are highly unusual and trying times. You as Pastor perform a very important role in the lives of your congregation and of the community. Treating people with compassion, mercy and grace is important. Treating brother Pastors with compassion, mercy and grace is also important. This time will pass. For now we have to be flexible and look for good, right, and salutary ways to minister to our people, and our community with the sure and certain hope of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Do the best you can do to do the right thing, and things will turn out all right. Y'all are in my prayers constantly during this difficult time of crisis in our communities.

Your Servant in Christ's Mission, Rev. Eric Johnson President, LCMS Southern District

"Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell." C.T. Studd

Financial Report For End of February 2020

Budget status as of 29 February 2020—

2020 Budget $524,691

Actual Income $87,014

Budgeted Income $87,449

Under budget by $435

Actual Expenditures $90,304

Budgeted Expenditures $87,449

Over budget by $2,855

Net Income (Actual Income minus Actual Expenditures) ($3,290)

2020 Church Operating Budget- Our church is very blessed by your continued cooperation and participation with the budget process. We are in the first quarter of the fiscal year, and not doing as well as we budgeted for the year. So, we must maintain vigilant as we have church maintenance issues looming and a possible call process for an associate pastor. The sanctuary lighting project should be happening by the time this letter is published. Other issues are parking lot concrete repair, Airline Drive sign replacement, and other minor issues. Other ongoing issues will be stacked according to need and finances. A committee should be formed soon to rack and stack issues that need attention and research the financing issues. If you would like to serve on that committee, please see the congregational president, Mark Stevens. A monthly update of how we are doing on the current year budget is always posted on the kitchen bulletin board. The 2020 budget was set at the December Voter’s Meeting of $524,691. Other issues that were discussed are church staffing needs, school funding and staffing issues, and church maintenance and modernization.

Treasurer Position- Again, I am still very happy to report that Tammy Szekacs is now training with me to become your Treasurer in the future. A great big THANK YOU Tammy. She has seized the job and is a very valuable asset to the position. Pray for congregational solidarity, our pastor and all church workers, for the missions of the church, world peace, government agreement, for those involved with finding a cure for the Corona Virus, other world disasters, and for those in need.

◄ March April 2020 May ►

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 On-line

Advent Services7:00 PM

2

3

4

5 On-line Divine Service 8:00 AM Bible Study 9:15 AM Sunday School 9:15 AM Divine Service 10:30 AM

6 On-Line Holy Week Services 7:00 PM

7 On-Line Holy Week Services 7:00 PM

8 On-Line Holy Week Services 7:00 PM

9 On-Line Maundy Thursday Service 7:00 PM

10 On-Line Good Friday Service 7:00 PM

11 On-Line Easter Vigil Service 6:00 PM

12 Bible Study 9:15 AM Divine Service 10:30 AM

13 NEWSLETTER DEADLINE

14 Preschool Board 4:30 PM Board of Finance 5:00 PM Board of Stewardship 5:30 PM Board of Evangelism 5:30 PM

15 Midweek Prayer 7:00 PM

16 Board of Elders 6:00 PM

17

18

19 Bible Study 9:15 AM Sunday School 9:15 AM Divine Service 10:30 AM

20 Bell Choir 6:30 PM

21 Church Council 6:00 PM

22 Midweek Prayer 7:00 PM A

23

24

25

26 Bible Study 9:15 AM Sunday School 9:15 AM Divine Service 10:30 AM

27

28

29 Divine Service 7:00 PM

30

SHARE YOUR TALENTS

Would you like to help someone in our congregation with your talent of baking or cooking? Our members sometimes need some assistance with meals to help them through a difficult or joyful time. Currently there is one family who enjoys our help on a long term basis. The Board of Congregational Concerns has enrolled in a program called “Take Them a Meal”. To access this program go online to – takethemameal.com and click on it. The site will ask for a recipient’s name and password. Our member is Lewiston and the password in 3081. You can see what has been brought and what dates are available. If your schedule does not allow you to take meals on the suggested dates just change the date to suit your time schedule. In the future other names will be posted and the congregation will be alerted to this ministry. This is a wonderful example of helping your neighbor, just like the Good Samaritan. Contact Gail Pearce with questions.

LWML NEWS The April 4 Northern Zone Spring Rally scheduled for April 4 at Faith Lutheran in Shreveport has been cancelled. The April 24-26 District Convention Scheduled for the Eagle Ridge Conference Center near Jackson, MS has also been cancelled.

Homeless bags are available in the old fellowship area. They can be distributed by members of our congregation as needed. Please feel free to grab a bag or two to keep in your car. Also note that there are food items included.

Board of Evangelism

April Birthdays

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1

2 Braxton Whitaker

3

4

5 Michael Jones Pat Stevenson

6 Yesenia Alford Bill Quinn Sharon Taylor

7 John Rutten

8 Diane Ford

9 Stephanie Burlison

10 Amelia Froehlich

11 Tod Dickson Larry Lewiston

12 Sarah Milan

13 Barbara Russell

14 Mark Rath

15 Pat Edmundson Dana Smelser

16

17 Tim Schrader

18 Nicholas Jones

19 Jonothan Voigt

20 Willard Fongemie

21 Roger Davis Ethan Simantel

22 Jim Owens

23

24 Margaret Carroll

25

26 Earl Kroll

27 Jeffrey Robinson

28 Jennifer Hutchison

29 Chuck Szekacs

30 Kaleb Castanes

April Anniversaries

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1

2

3

4

5 Vickey & Mark Rath

6

7

8

9 Pat & Bill Edumundson

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20 Beth & Jim Swim

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30 Teri & Al Johnson