November 2020 Council Corner
As many of you already know, the days of Hope Lutheran resorting to the pulpit supply or lay ministry for our services are over. The council would like to extend its warmest welcome to our new interim pastor, Brian Birk. While not his first stint at our church, we are excited to have Pastor Birk back in the fold. His first Sunday sermon will take place on November 15. It sure will be nice to have some stability in the position once again. I want to thank Pastor Birk for his patience throughout the negotiation process that started way back in late January, was interrupted by COVID-19 for six months, and restarted approximately two months ago. Welcome aboard, Pastor Birk!
HLC is presently looking for people willing to serve on our snowplowing crew for the 2020-21 winter. We will pay you $30 each time you plow. If interested, please contact Stan at the church, and he will place your name on the list. Once the list is complete, we will contact those who stepped forward and have them work out a schedule together on an as-needed basis. Thank you to those who have already volunteered their time and to those who do so in the coming weeks.
On a more somber note, Hope Lutheran did have its first COVID-19 case amongst our congregation. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the person affected for a speedy and safe recovery. For the rest of our congregants, I want to urge all of you to please be safe. Social distance. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. We want to see all you back at church safe and sound once this terrible ordeal is over.
The council continues to look at the possibility of instituting an automatic giving program for those who may be interested. We have studied a program offered by Thrivent called “Simply Giving.” No decision has been made as of yet. In fact, there is a pretty good chance that we will stay with our current system of traditional giving. However, we did not think it would hurt to take a look at a program that would help those members on a tight budget simplify their level of giving.
Finally, as winter transitions into an early winter, I would like to thank all of the congregation members of Hope Lutheran. With a six month break between services, people would generally think that our level of giving would take a serious dip. On the contrary, it has increased. In fact, our church has been able to place a nice chunk of change into our savings accounts over the past several months. After years of transferring money from savings into checking in order to pay our bills, it is sure nice to build up our savings accounts once again. Nice job, Hope Lutheran!
May God grant you peace until we meet again next month…….
In God’s Name,
Lance Kupka
Council President
Hope Lutheran Church of Embarrass