Sisters & Brothers in Christ:

In my Pentecost Sunday Sermon, I surveyed many of the recent blessings we have enjoyed at Immanuel Lutheran Church & School:

• Immanuel Lutheran School continues to thrive and will begin its 25th year of service to the congregation and community in the Fall of this year. ï‚·
• We have celebrated many Baptisms, New Members and Confirmands in recent weeks. ï‚·
• All the while, the Quilters keep quilting and the Braille Workers keep working and the Bible Studiers keep studying and the Family Fun Night crew is helping forge family connections.

There are other signs of life and growth:

• Sunday morning attendance is blossoming: from an average of 72 people per Sunday in 2013, to 77 in 2014, 89 in 2015, 101 in 2016, 113 last year, and over 130 so far in 2018. ï‚·
• Your giving has been very generous: Not only did we pay off and burn the remaining mortgage last year, but we are now contributing to a monthly budget line item called Future Expansion and at the end of the year will also deposit any budgetary surplus into that fund. ï‚·
• Our recent Youth Movement is creating a need to have more Busy Bags available and think about expanding again the Family Section in the back of the Sanctuary. (On a recent Sunday, a visiting family with several young children sat in the front row because that was the only space available for a family their size. As it turns out, they were visiting from a local LCMS church and were OK with being in the spotlight up front.)

I also mentioned on Pentecost Sunday that things have been so busy lately that I completely overlooked the opportunity to highlight the 30th Anniversary of Immanuel becoming a member congregation of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (we were welcomed into the LCMS on April 29, 1988).

I could go on. I won’t. These are just some of the blessings God has been sending our way lately. And this abundance of blessings is leading your congregational leadership to ask good questions about our future.

What needs do we now have? In what ways do the changes in our church neighborhood affect us? What do we see Immanuel’s future mission and ministry looking like in terms of:

• Spiritual growth? ï‚·
• Immanuel Lutheran School? ï‚·
• Facilities? ï‚·
• Staffing? ï‚·
• Care for our members? ï‚·
• Stewardship? ï‚·
• Outreach and service to the Five Forks community?

In May, your Church Council welcomed Rev. Billy Brath, a consultant with Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF), who gave a presentation about Ministry Clarity. Ministry Clarity is a planning process offered by LCEF to help congregations like ours develop a plan for congregational ministry today and into the future.

After the presentation, the Council moved to recommend to the June Voters’ Assembly that Immanuel utilize this process to help guide our future and come together as faithful stewards to live out our purpose in God’s Kingdom in this place. If adopted, this planning process would begin in the Fall of this year.

Please save the date of June 24 and plan to attend that Sunday’s Voters’ meeting to hear about this process and lend your voice to the conversation about Immanuel’s future!

The peace of the Lord be with you always.

Pastor VanOsdol