In this issue:
- A Message from Pastor Jeff
- German Vespers for New Year’s Day
- Committee/Interest Group Chairs
- Process Thought Forum
- Memorial Service
- Evening Prayer
- Holoholo Pick-Up
- Epiphany Tea
- Godly Plays
- Writers’ Workshop
- Exploring Boundaries…and Beyond
- Food for Thought
- A Message from Pastor Angela
- A Special Thank You
- What’s New on the LCH Website?
- Heart Beat Deadline
- Attendance and Offerings for December
- Prayer Requests
- January Birthdays
- LCH Worship Participants (8:00 am)
- LCH Worship Participants (10:30 am)
- Calendar: January 2014
A Message from Pastor Jeff
Happy New Year! In with Old, In with the New!
Most of us are accustomed to the saying, “out with old and in with the new.” This year, we are trying something different. On January 25th the LCH community will be asked to take the bold step and affirm our October decision to call pastor Angela as a tenured pastor of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. Up to now we have had the safety net of a two-year term call. Now we move past the unknown and make the spiritual, prayerful, financial, and organizational commitment to move forward in mission in this way. I know many of us are a bit nervous about taking this step given the number of families that have moved away this year and the continuing financial crunch in the larger economy. At the same time, many of us also see a wonderful opportunity to come even more alive as a congregation and a ministry. These are exciting times indeed and I can’t wait to see what God is up to. There will be challenges along the way but also huge opportunities for greater outreach in our community and a chance to help you live out your calling and vocation as Christian people in a fuller and more complete way.
As the call to Pastor Angela unfolds, you will notice that she will no longer be “associate pastor.” Her call will be as co-pastor of the congregation. Pastor Angela and I will share full responsibility for the life and ministry of the congregation with each taking primary responsibility for certain areas. I will work with her on children and youth, and she will work with me in the area of evangelism and administration. This will be a bit uncomfortable for some folks who want to know “who is in charge?” In the end, God is in charge, and we are both listening. In matters small and large we will consult with each other and, most importantly, lay leadership before moving forward. It is how we work now, but in this new call, it will have a name.
Research clearly shows that not every pastoral team can or should adopt this model of congregational leadership. However, Pastor Angela and I have a deep respect for one another, can disagree without being disagreeable, and have different but complimentary skill sets. One long-time co-pastor wrote in her blog about co-pastoring that they have been successful as a team because they have developed a deep friendship and a mutual respect, and they are clear that together they serve the congregation and the Gospel. They do not move forward on any project unless they agree about it. Secondly, they feel free to be honest in their praise and criticism, and they practice listening to one another in full awareness that their differing perspectives lead them to a more complete vision of each situation. Lastly, they over-communicate. In other words, they make sure that each is fully aware of what is happening in each other’s sphere of responsibility and verbalize it.
I am confident that your co-pastors—with your prayers, support, and love—can walk with you faithfully on a journey to an even more amazing ministry. In this new year, we are in with the old (me) and in with new (Pastor Angela).
May God Bless and Keep you
Pastor Jeff
German Vespers for New Year’s Day
Wednesday, January 1, 4:00 pm at LCH
German Vespers is an annual event, a festival service welcoming the New Year and featuring the joyous music of J.S. Bach. The Choir of the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, soloists, and the Bach Chamber Orchestra join forces to present Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Part III, BWV 248/3, and the Magnificat in D, BWV 243, all under the direction of Dr. Miguel Felipe. Many other parts of the service, including the homily, are also in German with translations provided. Free parking and the cost is freewill offering. For more information call 941-2566, or email <lch@lchwelcome.org>.
Committee/Interest Group Chairs
| Committee/Group | Leader |
|---|---|
| Audit: | Randy Castello |
| Concert: | Miguel Felipe |
| Communications: | Carol Langner |
| Council: | Michael Formby |
| Exploring Boundaries: | Carol Langner |
| Fellowship: | Jeanne Castello & Mary-Jo Estes |
| Finance: | Fred Benco |
| Food for Thought: | Kathryn Klingebiel |
| In Stitches: | Linda Miller |
| Learning Ministry: | Fred Benco |
| Mary Magdalene Society: | Robert Zimmer & Francisco Barajas |
| Ministry Plan Task Force: | Olivia Castro |
| Mutual Ministry: | Mike Formby |
| Pau Hana: | Pastor Jeff Lilley |
| Process Theology: | The Rev. Fritz Fritschel |
| Property: | Jean-Paul Klingebiel & November Smith |
| Scholarship: | Fred Benco |
| Social Ministry: | Jean Lilley |
| Stewardship: | Pam Buckley |
| Sunday School: | Laurie Leach |
| Worship & Music: | Linda Miller |
| Writers’ Workshop: | Kathryn Klingebiel |
| Youth: | Pr. Angela Freeman |
Process Thought Forum
Saturday, January 4, 9:30–11:00 am at LCH
Many of you know the wide-ranging interest of the Process Thought view, and the selection for January illustrates that scope. The article from the “Jesus, Jazz and Buddhism,” called “Animals Have Consciousness: The Theology and Science of Animal Consciousness,” is available at <www.jesusjazzbuddhism.org/animals-have-consciousness.html>.
Now who didn’t know that animals have consciousness? But is there a theology connected with this? Join us for our inevitably-stimulating discussion.
Memorial Service
Sunday, January 5, 5:00 pm at LCH
Sue Anderson, one of our cherished members, recently passed away. You are invited to her funeral service. There will be a catered meal to follow the service. No altar flowers, please; however, memorial gifts can be made to Hawai‘i Meals on Wheels and/or Doctors Without Boarders.
Evening Prayer
January 5 & 19, 7:30 pm
Join us on the first and third Sundays for Evening Prayer. This is a peaceful experience of rejuvenation and prayer.
Holoholo Pick-Up
Thursday, January 9 & 23, 2:00–4:00 pm
The Holoholo General Store is a Community Supported Agriculture organization, or csa, that works with the Lutheran Church to bring you fresh produce from multiple, local farms. For more information visit <www.holoholostore.com>.
Epiphany Tea
Sunday, January 12, 5:00 pm at LCH
You are cordially invited to a New Year’s tea honoring our kūpuna (elders) and girls held in Isenberg Hall at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. A variety of teas, entertainment, and light repast will be available for your enjoyment.
Guests are requested to bring their favorite teacup and a story to share about their cup. Gloves and hats are encouraged but not required. Please reply to your hosts, Pastor Jeff Lilley and Mrs. Jean Lilley at <lilley.j@ gmail.com>.
Godly Play
Sunday, January 12
Come see a demonstration of a lesson from Godly Play, a Sunday school curriculum we are thinking of starting at LCH next year. It will be right after the 10:30 service on January 12.
Writers’ Workshop
Monday, January 13, 7:00-8:30 pm
Writers’ Workshop will have its first get-together of 2014 on Monday, January 13, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at LCH. Further meetings are planned for February 10, March 10, April 7, and May 5.
For information, please contact Kathryn Klingebiel through the church office (941-2566).
Exploring Boundaries…and Beyond
Sunday, January 19, 6:00 pm
At the January session of Exploring Boundaries…and Beyond, Steve Miller will lead a discussion on the topic, “Charitable giving: Why give? What cause? Which organization? How much?” Come see what other people do, discuss, and make your own choices. Whether you come or not, please watch this short Stephen Colbert interview at <www.thelifeyoucansave.org>. Click on the Colbert interview at the bottom. For a more complete TED talk by Peter Singer watch <www.youtube.com/watch?v=Diuv3XZQXyc>. You who know Steve’s gift of analyzing and examining issues can expect a lively discussion.
EBB meets regularly on the third Sunday of the month at 6:00 pm, preceding Evening Prayer on that day. The January session will be held in Isenberg Hall at LCH.
Food for Thought
Saturday, January 25 , 6:30 pm • at the home of Irmgard Hörmann
This will be a potluck supper, video, and discussion. All are welcome. For information, please contact Kathryn Klingebiel through the church office (941-2566).
A Message from Pastor Angela
Present in the moment and looking forward…
Are you a resolutions maker or a one who reflects on the past year? I’ve never even enjoyed the thought of making a new year’s resolution simply for the fact that it adds pressure and stress to my life. Most often, I reflect on the previous year.
I often have done a little survey of my life’s happenings: pondering how I spent my time and with whom I spent it, thinking back on the things that I accomplished, and noticing if there were any disappointments. Well, after spending the last many years looking back and reviewing each previous year and wishing so much more for the coming year, I have decided this year to spend my time in gratitude for the present and look forward with hope.
The key for me this year is gratitude. Two Thanksgivings ago I offered a homily during the Eve service about gratitude, and my sermon prop was a handmade and framed calligraphy sign I received as a wedding gift that says, “Gratitude is the beginning of the journey.” My sermon was about how even in difficult moments, gratitude was the place I always tried to base my feelings, thoughts and attitudes on.
That wedding gift has continued to be a lesson for me, even now as my marriage is over and my life has changed so much. There is always the option just to dwell in darkness, sadness, and even despair. That, though, is not the life God desires for me or any of us. Even in the most difficult times of the marriage, my previous ministry call, and life transitions in general, gratitude was the place I always tried to come back to.
Again, this Christmas we celebrated—as we do year after year—Christ coming into our world, God taking on flesh and bone. God, who so loves each of us and all of creation that God came to experience our darkest, deepest places of struggle and lift us from our gloom. This is where that source of gratitude stems: the Source, the Life, the Way.
This New Year’s, I’m living in the moment with gratitude and feeling deep down to the core. I am looking ahead to 2014 and delighting in the gift of new life in many ways and forms for myself and for us as a church family.
As a congregation together, we are stepping out in faith with God, taking risks, and I hope, resting in gratitude. We will be having our congregational meeting to pray over and vote on extending me a tenured not term-limited call to LCH. As we prepare ourselves for that time together, I hope that we will live in the moment with gratitude for all God has offered us together. Life at LCH is abundant, and God is generous with rich gifts of talented faithful people.
May you find the place of gratitude in God even in the middle of difficult and painful situations. May you look forward to the year ahead and be filled with hope and peace in believing God Emmanuel is with us. And may we as a congregation step out in faith, always celebrating and proclaiming the goodness of our great God!
Happy New Year,
Pastor Angela
A Special Thank You
Lunches lined up and ready for IHSLCH would like to thank all the volunteers, committees, and council members that have helped us through 2013, especially during this past holiday season.
A special thank you to Uncle Jimmy and the Book of Faith Bible Study group for making sandwiches and assembling food bags for the IHS holiday meal.
Another special thank you to Mary-Jo and all who helped assemble Christmas worship service booklets and to Linda Miller, the Altar Guild, and other volunteers for decorating the nave for the holidays.
The Nave decorated for ChristmasWhat’s New on the LCH Website?
Bill Potter, webmaster
By now, I’m sure you’ve all visited “version 3.0” of our LCH website. There are probably not too many who remember version 1.0, with just a few pages and a very unsophisticated layout, that served the congregation in the early years of the century, but I know most members of the
congregation were quite familiar with version 2.0 with more than 1000 pages, lots of text, and documentation of the life of our congregation over more than seven years.
Version 3.0 takes a new approach because it is built using WordPress, a very popular CMS (content management system) that supports a wide variety of blogs (including Kathy Crosier’s Another Year of Insanity) and other web sites. The main reason for using a CMS is to allow people to create web pages without having to learn html, the language used for writing web pages, so those of you who lead groups and ministries at LCH can expect training so that you can take care of your own portion of our site.
Of course, any change has both costs as well as benefits. From my point of view, the main cost in this change is that making it possible for anyone to create a page requires the html code underlying each page to be hidden away, so it is harder to make little tweaks to the formatting. However, I have begun to figure out how it can be done, and I will probably describe some of that process in greater detail in future months.
One of the guiding principles for version 3.0 is to have pages with less text. We have made some progress on this (for example, on the visitor information and worship services pages), but this is still a work in progress. You can expect much of it to get done between Christmas and New Year’s, but the revisions will continue over the next few months.
Some of you have asked, “Where is The HeartBeat?” or “Where is the music list?” Partly because of the formatting issues I mentioned above, and partly for consistency, I decided to finish out 2013 with the 2.0 formatting, but beginning with January 2014, pages like these should be available on the new version. Links to audio for sermons and children’s conversations switched over with the first Sunday of Advent.
Others have asked about the content created under version 2.0. Don’t worry; those page will all remain available. All you have to do is go to the “legacy site” using the link under “About Us” in the top menus.
HeartBeat Deadline
Next HeartBeat Deadline is Tuesday, January 21!
| Carl | Karen | Stephen |
| Gene | Marvin | Trinity |
| Jeff | Paul | Yoland |
| Day | Date | Event and Time |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | January 1 | Church Office Closed—New Year’s Day 4:00 pm, German Vespers for the New Year |
| Thursday | January 2 | 10:00 am, Book of Faith Bible Study 3:00 pm, Weekly Staff Meeting 7:00 pm, LCH Choir Rehearsal |
| Saturday | January 4 | 9:30 am, Process Thought Forum |
| Sunday | January 5 | Angel Network In-Gathering 8:00 am, Holy Communion 9:20 am, Christian Education 10:30 am, Choral Eucharist 5:00 pm, Memorial Service for Sue Anderson 5:30 pm, Oahu Youth Gathering @ Christ Lutheran, Mililani 7:30 pm, Evening Prayer |
| Monday | January 6 | 6:30 pm, Mutual Ministry Meeting |
| Wednesday | January 8 | 12:30 pm, Finance Committee Meeting |
| Thursday | January 9 | Staff Retreat 10:00 am, Book of Faith Bible Study 2:00 pm, Holoholo Pickup |
| Sunday | January 12 | 8:00 am, Holy Communion 9:20 am, Christian Education 10:30 am, Choral Eucharist 11:30 am, Sunday School Teacher Meeting 5:00 pm, Epiphany Tea |
| Monday | January 13 | 10:00 am, WAD Meeting 5:00 pm, All Staff Meeting 6:30 pm, Worship & Music Meeting |
| Tuesday | January 14 | 9:30 am, Hukilau Pastors’ Meeting |
| Thursday | January 16 | 10:00 am, Book of Faith Bible Study 3:00 pm, Weekly Staff Meeting |
| Friday | January 17 | 1:00 pm, IHS Meals Prepared 5:30 pm, IHS Meals Served |
| Saturday | January 18 | 4:00 pm, Mary Magdaline Small Group |
| Sunday | January 19 | 8:00 am, Holy Communion 9:20 am, Christian Education 10:30 am, Choral Eucharist 6:00 pm, Exploring Boundaries & Beyond 7:30 pm, Evening Prayer |
| Tuesday | January 21 | Heartbeat Deadline! 6:00 pm, Executive Council Meeting 6:30 pm, Council Meeting |
| Thursday | January 23 | 10:00 am, Book of Faith Bible Study 2:00 pm, Holoholo Pickup 3:00 pm, Weekly Staff Meeting |
| Saturday | January 25 | 10:00 am, One Pot One Hope 5:00 pm, 2nd Half Annual Meeting – Potluck |
| Sunday | January 26 | Welcoming Sunday 8:00 am, Holy Communion 9:20 am, Christian Education 10:30 am, Choral Eucharist 4:00 pm, Abendmusiken Concert: The Stark Duo |
| Thursday | January 30 | 10:00 am, Book of Faith Bible Study 3:00 pm, Weekly Staff Meeting 7:00 pm, LCH Choir Rehearsal |