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Special points of interest:
Communion at Christ the King
Installation for Pastor Tim
Updated Finance Numbers
CTK Kids & Youth Pages
Looking for a wedding coordinator
Get to Know Pastor Rick 2
New Fall Wednesday Schedule 2
Music Ministry Rehearsals 3
Ruth Circle 3
Connections Crawl Event 4
Prayer Article 5
Inside this issue:
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Volume 55 Issue 9
September, 2019
Join us on Wednesday, September 18th at 5:00pm to kick off the new season of worship & education at Christ the King! We'll get the year started right with an outdoor BBQ, music, & fun before 6:15pm worship. Council/commission members will be serving up hot dogs, burgers, sloppy joes, chips, potato salad, and lemonade for Community Supper while the Worship Band plays. All are welcome!
New Bible Study Session Begins September 1st! Join us on Sunday mornings at 10:30am in the Conference Room for this quarter's study entitled Responding to God’s Grace. Weekly sessions explore the meaning of biblical texts for the original writer and audience and how they apply to today. No preparation is required. Can't be there every Sunday? No problem. Each session stands alone and you can jump in at any time. Don't have a Bible? We have one that you can borrow - and the key texts are part of your free study booklet! Think the Bible doesn't have much to say to us in 2019? Join us - you might be surprised!
Our Summer Weekend Worship Schedule Concludes Labor Day Weekend
We Begin Our Fall Schedule September 7 & 8… Saturdays: 5:30pm; Sundays: 8:15 & 9:30am
SIGN UP AT CTKMANKATO.ORG
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By Pastor Rick
Christ the King is excited to welcome Pastor Richard White to serve as our Interim Senior Pastor. Pastor Rick is a trained Interim Pastor with experience in larger church settings. He will be joining Christ the King on September 3rd.
Pastor Rick is widowed and has two adult children: Jason, who is a paramedic in Grand Marais, MN and Christine, who is her second year of doctoral studies in psychology at
St. Mary’s University in the Twin Cities. He resides in Shoreview, MN and will be travelling between home and Mankato on a weekly basis.
When you meet Pastor Rick, you will also likely meet his faithful companion, Finnegan. Together they make up a Therapy Dog team that serve together in various facilities throughout the Twin Cities.
Pastor Rick’s stated goal is to help us to discern God’s mission and purpose for Christ
the King as we prepare to issue a call to our next Senior Pastor. Please watch for
opportunities to meet Pastor Rick in the upcoming weeks!
September Wednesday Schedule:
Wednesday, September 4th: Final Outdoor Worship at 6:00pm—Bring Lawn Chairs!
Wednesday, September 11th: Community Supper Resumes at 5:00pm, Worship at 6:15pm
Wednesday, September 18th: Outdoor BBQ with Music at 5:00pm, Worship at 6:15pm
Wednesday, September 25th: Community Supper at 5:00pm, Worship at 6:15pm,
Christian Education Resumes
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The time has come for me to say good-bye to you again. These past 9+ months have been filled with great joy. It has been a privilege to have served as your associate pastor and fill in as your temporary senior interim pastor for a few weeks. You have let me minister to you and I have grown as a person and pastor. Thank you for allowing me into your lives.
Christ the King is a wonderful place where good ministry is happening in the church and the larger community. This past year and the coming year is one of change and transition. However, there is one thing that does not change. That one thing is Jesus who is the head of the church. God is working. The congregation must ask and discern what God is doing here. The Holy Spirit is bringing something new.
Sometimes change can be hard, but life is full of changes. One must respond and adapt to the changes to survive and thrive. God is with you. He will lead you into a deeper and fuller life with him and Christ the King. We are called to trust him and pray during these changes. He will provide. God is good all the time! All the time God is good! Again, many thanks to you all. Peace, Pastor Cheryl
Our Christ the King Music Ensembles resume rehearsals on Wednesday, September 4th.
Hand Bells will rehearse at 5:20pm in Room 7. If you are interested in ringing bells, please contact Garrett Steinberg.
Worship Choir will resume rehearsing at 7:00pm in the Music Room under the direction of Robin Hughes. We welcome all who wish to come sing and praise God with their voices, high school age and up! We have exciting new songs we’ll be singing this season. Any questions, please contact our Music Director, Garrett Steinberg.
Wedding Coordinator We are looking for a person who would like to be the wedding coordinator at Christ the King. You would work with couples who are going to be married at CTK; which involves meeting with them, showing them the church, working with the pastor who is presiding at the wedding and being at the wedding. CTK has about 10-12 weddings a year. See if God is calling you to do this wonderful ministry! Contact Amy Olsen if you are interested.
CTK Ruth Circle 2019-2020 The Ruth Circle meets the 3rd Tuesday of each month. Time to mark your calendar for first meeting... Tuesday September 17th (1:00pm) in Room 7. The new study topic for this year will be “Women of GOD” - with focus on how to develop the traits of a godly woman: how to be strong, trustworthy, wise, resourceful, forgiving, beautiful, content, confident--and how to claim God's grace when we fall short. All are welcome to join the study – if interested contact Diane Brekke or Ann Stewart.
From the Library Just a reminder that the church library is open when the building is open. There are new books on parenting and grand-parenting. Come in and see what is there! Some titles are... How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk Grandparenting How to Raise Kind Kids Raising an Original
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Looking Ahead at the Lessons September 8th—Pastor Tim Deuteronomy 20:15-20 / Philemon 1-21 / Luke 14:25-33 September 15th—Pastor Rick Exodus 32:7-14 / I Timothy 1:12-17 / Luke 15:1-10
September 22nd—Pastor Rick & Synod Representative Amos 8:4-7 / I Timothy 2:1-7 / Luke 16:1-13 September 29th—Pastor Rick Amos 6:1a, 4-7 / I Timothy 6:6-19 / Luke 16:19-31
July, 2019 Month Actual Month Budget $ Over Budget
Income $67,010.90 $71,605.00 $(4,594.10)
Expenses $64,183.41 $70,146.09 $(5,962.68)
Net Income ($2,827.49) ($1,458.91) ($1,368.58)
Sign up Online!
A new women’s Bible study begins every 2nd Monday of the month starting in September, meeting from 6:30-7:30pm in the Fireside Room. This year we’ll be studying “Angels”. Books for the study cost $8/each. Contact Amy Olsen if you’d like to sign up. If you signed up, books are now available in the church office so you can come prepared to our first meeting on September 9th.
The Annual Handbell Concert “AMERICAN SONGBOOK” for RIVER BEND BELLS COMMUNITY ENSEMBLE is coming soon at Christ the King Lutheran Church on Sunday September 29th (3:00pm). The concert theme is to share a variety of music from Jazz, Blues, Dance, Broadway to Ragtime. The handbell ringers along with Garrett Steinberg & band (plus special guest clarinetist) promise a most lively concert! Pastor John Petersen will again add his special touch as our program narrator! We hope you will come join us for this great musical experience.
An after-hours event of shopping, food, beverage sampling, and silent auction.
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Parish News Christian Love and Sympathy to Paul & Phyllis Olson upon the sudden death of their son, Troy, who passed away on July 31st. John Johnson and family upon the death of his wife, Cathryn, who passed away on August 6th. Baptized in August... Emmett Gregory Bode, son of Jeremy and Kalyn Bode was baptized on August 3rd. Merryck Elise Mensing, daughter of Garrett Mensing and Kirsten Amberg was baptized on August 31st.
Sept. 11 Chicken Rotini Alfredo
Sept. 18
Outdoor BBQ
Sept. 25 Taco Salad Bar
Prayer Article Series submitted by Pastor Donohue Sarff With Christ in The School of Prayer – Sixth Lesson – by Andrew Murray “How Much More” or “The Infinite Fatherliness of God” “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in
heaven give good things to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:9-11
In these words our Lord proceeds further to confirm what He had said of the certainty of an answer to prayer. To remove all doubt and show us on what sure ground His promise rests, He appeals to what everyone has seen and experienced here on earth. We are all children and know what we expect from our parents. As much greater as God is than humans, so much surer is it that prayer will be heard with the Father in heaven than with a parent on earth. As simple and intelligible as this parable is, so deep and spiritual is the teaching it contains. The Lord would remind us that the prayer of a child owes its influence entirely to the relation in which he stands to the parent. The prayer can exert that influence only when the child is really living in that relationship, in the house, in the love, in the service of the Father. The power of the promise,
“Ask, and it shall be given you.” lies in the loving relationship between us as children and the Father in heaven; when we live and walk in that relationship, the prayer of faith and its answer will be the natural result. And so the lesson we have today in the school of prayer is this: Live as a child of God, then you will be able to pray as a child, and as a child you will most assuredly be heard.
?Exploring Religious Questions Series?—Fall 2019
Close Reading of the book of Isaiah: Poetry, Justice, and Inspiration for Today is the topic for the Fall 2019 mini-course series at Gustavus Adolphus College. Meeting dates are Mondays, October 7, 14, 21, and 28th from 7-9:00pm. Registration deadline is Friday, September 27th. Cost is $35/person. For more information, contact the office of Church Relations at GAC: 507-333-7001.
Don’t Forget to Sign Up for Our Women’s Fall Retreat the weekend of September 27-29 at Shalom Hill Farm
in Windom, MN
$100/Double Occupancy
$125/Single Occupancy
Register HERE
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Visit us online!
www.ctkmankato.org
Contact the Staff Christ the King’s Phone Number: 507-345-5056
Pastor Rick White: ext. 23 / [email protected]
Pastor Timothy Bowman: ext. 26 / [email protected]
Pastor John Petersen: ext. 24 / [email protected]
Billie Jo Wicks, Deacon of Faith Formation : ext. 19 / [email protected]
Accounting Office: ext. 22 / [email protected]
Al Lee, Technology Arts Director: ext. 36 / [email protected]
Amy Olsen, Communications Director: ext. 21 / [email protected]
Chuck Hoogland, Organist: ext. 25 / [email protected]
Garrett Steinberg, Director of Creative Arts: ext. 37 [email protected]
Justine Carlson, Opportunity Coordinator: ext. 38 / [email protected]
Rick Weber, Property Manager: ext. 11 [email protected]
Robin Hughes, Choir Director: [email protected]
Wendy Paulson, Director of Children’s Ministries: ext. 20 / [email protected]
222 Pfau Street Mankato, MN 56001
Deadline for Newsletter Articles Next Month: Monday, September 23rd
Phone: 507-345-5056 Fax: 507-345-6115
CTK Lutheran Church is a caring community committed to empower all people
to know Christ and to make Christ known.
Weekly Worship Schedule
Wednesdays
6:00pm Outdoors (9/4)
6:15pm (beginning 9/11)
Saturdays
5:30pm
Sundays 8:15am (beginning 9/8)
9:30am
*Communion on 1st, 3rd and 5th weekend
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Worship services are broadcast on
Charter channel 181 and
Consolidated Communications
channel 7 Church Office Hours Monday-Thursday ~ 8:00am-4:00pm
Friday ~ 8:00am-2:00pm Saturday-Sunday ~ By Appointment
Join us for the Installation of Pastor Timothy Bowman
Sunday, Sept. 22 at the 9:30am worship service
Communion Practices at Christ the King
At a recent Word and Sacrament Commission meeting, discussion was had about Christ the King’s current policies regarding communion and children. Through our discussion, they asked if I would share more broadly on the topic. Below I have written many of the common comments I have heard in regards to children and communion and a response to each.
I didn’t communion until I was… It was Maundy Thursday and I was a fifth grader. I was fingering my new cross necklace as I waited for my turn at the communion railing and hoping I wouldn’t make a face when I tasted the wine. Your first communion may be memorable for you too, but did you know that this is actually relatively new in the history of the church? The practice of infant communion dates back to ancient Christian tradition and is still practiced in some traditions. In the 11th and 12th centuries, an infants need to receive communion, but an inability to swallow the host, led to wine alone became the practice. In the 13th century, wine was withheld from laity and so children communing with wine only were excluded from communion. Eventually communion, was linked to a certain age and confession, rather than baptismal rite. In 1969 the Lutheran Church in America published a report that led most congregations to separate communion from confirmation which resulted in the fifth grade becoming the standard age. In 1997, the ELCA document, The Use of Means of Grace: A statement on the Practice of Word and Sacraments stated no age for children to receive communion, but it leaves it up to child, pastor, and parents. It also states, “Infants and children may be communed for the first time during the service in which they are baptized.”
In her award winning research paper titled, Trusting God’s Promise: Unspoken Messages in First Communion Practices, Megan Floyd writes, “We have an ancient Christian tradition of communing infants and very young children which fell out of practice after ten centuries, and remained out of practice for almost as long. We have since come full-circle and now have a church doctrine that allows for infant communion.” It is easy to narrow in on the picture of what WE know and have done, but when we are able to take a step back and look more broadly at history our minds can be opened up to consider other possibilities. Communing children, even infants, isn’t a new practice, but a renewal of an old practice.
They aren’t going to remember the occasion. Let me paint two pictures from my own children’s experiences regarding first communion. In one, a mother comforts a child after being turned away and told, “No, this isn’t for you.” In the other, a child joyfully skips back from the communion because he “is full with Jesus”. These are experiences that two of my own children had.
While it is possible that a child may not recall his or her first time communing, we also know an infant isn’t going to recall his/her baptism. That is why parents and the entire faith community need to keep reminding one another of our beautiful encounters with Christ and the Eucharist. Would we rather have a child grow up recalling feeling part of a fully embracing and inclusive faith community than a child who has a vivid memory of being told “No, this isn’t for you”? Either way, the way we have made them feel in and around Communion, is something they will remember.
They don’t have full understanding. If full understanding has become the requirement for receiving communion, our communion line would be short because no human can say they fully understand the sacred mystery of communion! This is written in The Use of Means of Grace, “The ‘how’ of Christ’s presence remains as inexplicable in the sacrament as elsewhere.” Sacraments aren’t about us or what we do, but about God and what God continues to do and a concrete way for us to experience grace. Additionally, faith is a life-long journey through which we are always growing, learning, and coming to new understandings. One and done communion instruction doesn’t readily reflect this journey. This does not mean we won’t continue offering communion instruction for elementary aged children: we will! We encourage ALL families to participate whether it is in preparation for your child’s first communion or 100th! Our faith formation staff is also exploring ways we might expand our offerings so we can encourage deeper understandings for all.
So now what? That’s up to you! As a church, we will support and encourage all members and families in whatever way we can along their faith journeys. If a child reaches for communion, we will look to the parent for the lead. We will continue offering communion instruction for children as we have and encourage families to sign up for a communion faith lab (geared to grades 3-5) as you feel it is appropriate for your child and family. If you would like your child to wait until a particular age, participate in the instruction and then receive communion, we support that! If you decide your child can have communion sooner, we support that too! We do ask that all families be talking with their children about what communion is and participate in communion instruction to deepen understandings. If we can equip you in any way in this regard, please let us know, because as always, it is our joy and privilege to be on this faith journey with you!
Walking with you, Deacon Billie Jo
From the Desk of Opportunity Coordinator Justine Carlson [email protected] / 345-5056 ext. 38
Serving Christ’s Church in September
Greeters: 8:15 & 9:30 8 Chad & Robin Courrier 15 Dick & Kris Norland 22 Don & Duff Schuldt 29 Chuck & Linda Eisenbeis
Lectors: Listed as 5:30 / 8:15 & 9:30 / 6:15 7/8/11 Jennifer Olseth/Brad Walker & Doug Cramblit/Julie Rudolf
14/15/18 Jeri Retzlaff/Jackson Stensrud & Emma Norland/Scott Peters
21/22/25 Dick Bautch/Donohue Sarff & Jim Armbruster/Heather Krause
28/29/October 2 Larry Schnoor/Duane Olson & Jess Smasal/Anna Toth
PRAYER CHAPEL: 8:15/9:30 8 June Borseth/Linda Eisenbeis 15 Paul & Phyllis Olson/MaryLou Haldorson 22 Marlin & Phyllis Spangrud/Wally Peterson 29 Margo Brudwick/Joann Nessler
Communion Servers 14/15 & 28/29 Bonnie Olson, Shawna Kopp & Kenny Kopp
USHERS 5:30 L’Myra Hoogland 8:15 Wayne McGuire & Dick Norland 9:30 Byron Tungsvik/Clayton Tiede/ Jason Beal/Dave Haugh 6:15 Jason Fette & Jessica Joyal ** We are in need of more people to usher at any of the services...if interested please contact Justine
COMMUNITY SUPPER SERVERS 11th CTK Staff Members 18th CTK Council/Commission Members 25th Tiffany’s Group: Breanna, Ella, Ellie, Estelle, Gabrielle, Kendahl, Rachel Rachel/Tia’s Group: Chloe, Josephine, Liliana, Lily, Madison, Olivia, Tori
SCHOOL SUPPLIES
It’s not too late to donate
school supplies. Help us
provide backpacks for as
many children as we can, and come
pack the backpacks on Wednesday,
September 11th, 5-6pm.
Rainbow Room, JAM, Kids Klub and
CLUB registration for the 2019/20 year
is now open. It’s never too early...
please register soon!
2019/20 Children’s Ministry Schedule
Sunday
Worship: 9:30-10:30am
Rainbow Rm and JAM Grades 1-6: 9:30-10:30am
(Children begin in Worship and leave for JAM after King’s Kids)
Parents may pick up children at 10:30.
Wednesday
6:00pm: Rainbow Rm and Kids Klub Grades 1-4
(Children begin at Kids Klub and join parents in Worship after King’s Kids)
Worship 6:15-7pm
7-7:30pm: Kids Klub Grades 5 & 6
A wonderful way to kick off the new ministry year is to provide service to others.
Bring the family to either or both Sunday, September 8 and Wednesday,
September 11 for two service opportunities. Sunday, we head out into the
Mankato community to sing at a care facility, to Crossroads Campus Ministry, to
sort lights for Kiwanis lights, and Highway Clean-up. Wednesday we’ll pack backpacks, pack blizzard bags,
and prepare cards for CTK college students. Please join us!
Choose for yourselves right now whom you will serve...But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord ~ Joshua 24:15
Sunday, September 8: Backpack Blessing @ 9:30 and God ’s Work, Our Hands following
worship
Sunday September 15: Rainbow Room Round-up @ 9-9:30 and 3rd Grade Bible Faith
Lab/Treasure Hunt
Wednesday, September 11: Community Supper begins @ 5pm; God ’s Work, Our Hands @ 5pm;
Backpack Blessing at worship.
Wednesday, September 18: BBQ Cook -out @ 5-6pm in Pfau Street parking lot
If you are a new family to the Rainbow Rm, or just want to come for a refresher, join us for the Round-up...Yee Ha! It
begins in the Rainbow Room at 9am. We will also have a special litany in worship for Rainbow Room families, so please plan to stay for 9:30 worship!
3rd Grade Bible Faith Lab—
Sunday, Sept 15
Bibles will be presented during 9:30
worship followed by the Faith Lab.
A Bible Treasure Hunt (all are welcome) follows
worship.
CTK YOUTHS E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9
Some Highlights for Youth Grades 6-12
10-31 NO CLUB
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A P R I L 2 0 1 9
C L U B
2 0 1 9 - 2 0 2 0M a r k Y o u r C a l e n d a r
Sept 11-CLUB parentmeetingSept 18-CTK block partySept 25-CLUB sessionsbegin
East or West; doesn't matter! You don't even have to be afootball fan to join us for this funevent! ALL youth grades 7-12 areinvited Friday, September 13, 9PM - midnight at CTK. Friendsfrom other ELCA churches will bejoining us! ALL ARE WELCOME
