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From
Pastor Bob ...
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
I hope you’ve safely weathered the holidays, enjoyed
time with family and friends. I also want to take this opportunity to point out
that, while the Christian world celebrate the birth of Christ, we have brothers
and sisters working here with us who are also Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and Baha’i.
If you’ve seen our logo, you can see that we are “Embracing Diversity;
Building Community.” We work together because we share a common purpose. Our
traditions share a common theme – live and share the love that’s been
shared with us.
Now, on a completely different note, I’m excited to
share three things with you:
- First English is teaching a seminary class! Can you
believe it? This January, in what the seminary calls “J-Term,” FELC will
be facilitating a week-long session on Urban Ministry. Dr. Langknecht’s
class from Trinity will join us for breakfast and worship on Sunday, Jan. 8,
and then they’ll be with us Monday, January 9 – Friday, January 13. And
what a week we have planned! We’ve planned a session on, The Hidden Rules
of Class; Poverty – What It Is and What Means For Us; Asset-Based
Community Development. The class will hear from a panel of our neighborhood
members as well as from our congregational partners. Through this process,
the students will receive a sampling of urban life, and a view of the gifts
and graces necessary for urban ministry – something many of you already
know and are living every day. We look forward to hosting this class and
hope that it’s the first of our expanding relationship with both Trinity
Lutheran Seminary and Capital University (which, by the way, I hope to give
you an update on our growing relationship with Capital in our next edition).
- A visit from ChurchWide! Owe are part of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Our Church-wide office is in
Chicago. Also coming in January is a visit from a church-wide video team.
They’re coming the weekend of the January 14-15. We were contacted, thanks
to Rev. Bill McKee in our synod office, as an example of ministry that
works. The video team will film us in action throughout the weekend. This
video will be circulated throughout our entire church. Many of our partners
are about to become stars! Seriously, if you’d prefer not to be in the
video, we’ll let the film team know. I do want the video team to see how
generous and committed our congregational partners are in this ministry.
- Strategic Planning! I know, that term strikes fear
in many of our hearts. How many times have we been part of our strategic
planning team or “visioning” team that met endlessly and seemed to
accomplish nothing? This might sound like a cliché, but this time it’s
different. We’ll be developing both a short-term and long-term plan for
both our congregation and our neighborhood. Our viability and sustainability
is intricately connected with our neighborhood. Until our neighborhood is a
place where families want to live, we will continually be on the edge. For
our neighborhood to change, we need a change of Spirit, a strong spiritual
catalyst and presence. This is a vital role FELC can play. We’ll be
looking at strategies to help this change take place. And we’ll be asking
other partners to join us in this process.
That’s it for now…
~ Peace,
Pastor Bob
Please reply directly to Bob Ward, rward@wowway.com
203-9904
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“Jesus
looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all
things are possible’"
Matthew
19:26 NIV
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"First
Green Seeds"
Project:
First English Lutheran Church |
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| 2011 was a very good year for First
English Lutheran Church from many vantage points.
We would like to highlight one in particular this month,
our Energy Steward’s Initiative. As
people of faith we know that we are called to do justice for all,
which includes that we be intentional in our care of our natural
world by striving to live sustainably and to be good stewards of
all the gifts which we gratefully receive.
How we use these gifts not only matters to our local
ministry but also to countless others around the globe, struggling
to survive in an ever more hostile climate.
It is incumbent upon us to do our part to reduce this
burden in every way possible and hopefully lead others to do
likewise, by example.
The First English Green Team, officially launched in 2010,
became very intentional about measuring our building energy use
and carbon footprint in 2011. We
had taken stock of our efforts and applied to become a Columbus,
Ohio “Green Spot”
in 2010 and by surprise we were honored to be selected as
the 2011 small commercial Green Spot award winner in February.
Soon after this happened we engaged the services of Foster
Energy Management to conduct an analysis of our energy use to
determine if opportunities still existed to reduce our costs.
This then lead to our decision to conduct a Level III full
building energy audit which was facilitated by a no interest loan
from Ohio Interfaith Power and Light www.ohipl.org
and Columbia Gas of
Ohio through their “Innovative Solutions” pilot project.
We had shivered through many cold worship services in our
nearly 100 year old Sanctuary during the 2010-2011 heating season,
and we were pretty sure we weren’t going to get another
“btu” out of that more than 50 year old furnace in 2011.
Taking a big leap of faith we applied for grants and funding to
replace the old system with a new high efficiency system.
On November 27th we “commissioned” our new
systems and held an “EarthKeeping Celebration” in gratitude
for the matching grant assistance we received from the ELCA
Mission Investment Fund of $25,000 and the assistance pledged from
Columbia Gas, of roughly $18,000.
And yes, we have HEAT!
Thanks to the able team of Favret Heating and Cooling and their
very competitive bid, First English has highly efficient natural
gas fired boiler HEATING in our
Sanctuary and a highly efficient gas furnace in the old Undercroft
for the Saturday Kids Camp! Our
total investment was less than 37% of total project cost and it
was worth every penny as we can now confidently fully utilize our
building for ministry throughout the heating season and continue
to be good stewards of our resources. The
icing on the cake came in late November when we learned that First
English Lutheran Church had been certified as the
first congregation in Ohio to be recognized as an “Energy
Star” congregation by U.S. EPA!
One
might think that given all these successes that it was time to sit
back and rest on our laurels. We
know better than to think that is the case.
As we begin 2012 we also begin a year- long Centennial
Celebration as our historic Sanctuary and Undercroft were
completed 100 years ago in 1912.
In honor of the faithful generations that have come before
us, we continue to strive to be better stewards of all the gifts
that we have been blessed to receive in our ministry here.
We are so grateful for the gifts of your time, talents and
resources, but especially the gifts of our amazing natural world.
You are invited to come and join us in 2012 to share these gifts
again, on our journey of sustainability! |
“Faith is the confidence that what
we hope for will actually happen;
it gives us assurance about things we cannot see”
Hebrews 11:1, NLT
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Our
New
Office Manager!
Hello
everyone. My name is Megan Flanagan. I am the new Office Manager
here at First English Lutheran Church. It truly is a blessing from
God that I am able to share my talents and lifelong experiences
with you all. I spent my most of my career in corporate marketing
and management. My faith in Christ has been a very important part
of my life. I ask God to make me a blessing to all I encounter
every day. My husband and I have been married for 20 years. We
have three wonderful children and 3 amazing grand children. I was
raise in New Jersey, but have lived in Ohio for over 25 years. I
look forward to meeting all of you soon. Please feel free to
contact me at anytime by phone at 614-252-3191 or by email at felcoffice@wowway.com.
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In
Church
& Neighborhood News ...
...
Martin
Luther King, Jr. This Sunday, January 15, at both our 8:30 and
10am services, we will include a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. We'll honor both his life and his work. Please join us for this
special worship.
...
Youth
Group Service Learning On
Saturday, Jan. 21, the youth group from All Shepherds Lutheran Church in
Lewis Center for an afternoon of service learning. The youth will work
with our youth at our Saturday Kids Camp and then Sara Neikirk will lead
them in a special experience focusing on faith and poverty.
...
Special Musical Guests Illuminati,
the sacred music ensemble of the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus, will be
joining us Sunday morning, January
29 at our 10am worship service.
Please join us as the Illuminati
share their gift
of music and we welcome, acknowledge and celebrate the gifts of all
God’s children.
Illuminati is directed by Michael Crandall. For more
information about Illuminati and the
Columbus
Gay Men’s Chorus, visit their website: www.CGMC.com
...
Celebration
2012 Update As the
Celebration 2012 campaign continues into the New Year, the campaign team
is pleased to announce that we have reached two thirds of our goal of
raising $190,000. We at FELC have been so blessed with the pledges of so
many members, friends, and partner churches in meeting our goal ( and in
turn can look forward to worshipping in a sanctuary that has heat!). Over
the next six months, members of the Celebration team will continue to meet
with additional members, friends, and partner churches to humbly and
prayerfully ask for their support to help us address much needed building
issues. We solicit your support as well, in both helping FELC continue its
essential mission to our neighborhood, and in funding repairs to our two
aging buildings.
...
PayPal Enabled.
For those who would like to support the First English ministry with a
financial contribution, you can now do so directly on our web site: www.ColumbusLutherans.org
(scroll down until you see the PayPal link)
...
Monthly
Healing Service:
First English has a monthly healing service to
address brokenness of the body, mind and/or spirit. After Communion anyone
seeking healing will have a chance to be prayed for and anointed with oil.
This special focus on healing will be a part of both worship services the
first Sunday of each month. If you have any questions please contact
either Pastor Bob or Intern Sally.
“Blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled”
Matthew 5:6, NIV
* * *
Ongoing
Community Events & Activities ...
...
1st Saturday of every Month ...
South of Main
Block Watch
10 am meeting at the 12th
Precinct Police Sub-Station, 950 E Main. For info: kathleendbailey@hotmail.com
...
2nd Monday of every Third Month ...
Fair Avenue
Block Watch
Our
block watch meets quarterly on the second Monday of
January, April, July, and October from 6:30-8pm.
We meet in The Word Church at 115 Wilson Avenue (on the corner of Fair & Wilson
Ave.)
For more info, contact Michele Santini at: micawal@aol.com
...
2nd Tuesday of every Month
... Ohio-Parsons Block
Watch
7pm meeting at the 12th Precinct Police Sub-Station, 950 E Main. For info:
katwebb@earthlink.net
...
2nd Wednesday of every Month
... OTENA General
Association Meeting
7pm meeting at the OTENA office Firehouse #12 (formerly
the Columbus Music Hall) located at 734 Oak Street, 43205.
For more information, visit our website at www.OldeTowneEast.org
* * *
Ongoing
Worship Opportunities ...
...
Sundays at
8:30
am
...
Breakfast Worship
A
free, home cooked breakfast is served with praise worship, a gospel
message, communion and fellowship.
ALL are welcome!
...
Sundays
at 10:00 am
... Traditional
Worship
In
the sanctuary, Lutheran liturgy with a gospel message, communion and
fellowship.
ALL are welcome!
* * *
Ongoing
Church Events & Activities ...
...
Thursdays
at
4:30 pm ... Bible
Study
In our community center, please
join us for an informal Bible Study and discussion. ALL are welcome!
...
Thursdays
at 6:00 pm ... Table of Grace
In our community center you’ll
find a free, family style dinner with fellowship and music. ALL are welcome!
...
Saturdays from 10:00 am - 1:30 pm ... Kids Camp
In our community center, games,
snacks, homework time, stories and more for all school age children,
* * *
“...The Lord does not look at the
things man looks at.
Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart”
1 Samuel 16:7, NIV
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