Eric Schaefer, Intern
Robert McConnell, Music Director and Organist
Janis B. Wendel, Administrative Assistant
Efren Frausto, Custodian / 1235 Wilmette Avenue
Wilmette, Illinois 60091
phone 847 251 1730
fax 847 251 5336
web stjohnswilmette.com
Facebook St. John’s Lutheran Church Wilmette, IL
AUGUST, 2016
PEACE IN BLACK AND WHITE
Our annual get together with our sisters and brothers from Shekinah Chapel is always special, but this year it’s even more. Given all the hostility we have been witnessing in recent months between black and white, it’s more important than ever, that our two churches come together as a testimony to the peace we share in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In past years, we’ve just done it. We’ve come together for worship, food and fellowship, just because we enjoy each other’s company. We haven’t made much of the fact that we are two very different churches ministering in two very different communities. But now, it’s time we did.
In light of all that’s happened and is still happening now, Pr. Curry and I strongly believe that it’s time for our two churches to stand together and bear witness to the peace and unity we share as children of God.
This year we want to tell others about the partnership we share as an example of what’s possible when brothers and sisters come together in unity around a common faith and mission. We want to stand together as a living example of what we already know to be true. That, “There is no longer Jew or Greek. There is no longer slave or free. There is no longer male and female. For all are one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28) This is the statement that we feel we must make, and we are inviting you to help us make it.
At 5 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, our two churches are coming together at St. John’s for a special service of peace and unity, and we want you to be part of it. With God’s help the church will be filled with friends and families to stand together with us. Please join us for this special celebration of peace and unity.
Pastor Joe
WELCOME, PASTOR ERIC!
We welcome Eric Schaefer to our pastoral staff. Eric is in his third-year of pastoral formation at the Lutheran School of Theology Chicago. He will be learning and serving with us until July 31, 2017. He has a passion for youth ministry and lots of experience with contemporary worship. Eric has a lovely wife, Sarah, and two wonderful children, Joshua 7 and Alayna 3. Their home is in Round Lake.
For the next twelve months, Pr. Eric and I will be working closely together. We will be taking a team approach to all the duties of a parish pastor. It is our goal as a congregation to give Pr. Eric and his family as complete and as well-rounded an experience as possible.
Pr. Eric and I will also be communicating with each other closely. As your pastors, we will keep your confidences, but we will not keep them from each other. The relationship between us will be open and transparent. You may assume that what you say to one of us, you say to both of us. We are both very excited and look forward to serving with you in the year ahead.
Pr. Eric’s first Sunday is Aug. 7. Make a point to be here to welcome him and his lovely family.
In the name of Christ,
Pastor Joe
FUNDAY SCHOOL
Well, I don’t think I could pick just one flavor of ice cream to describe the Funday School ministry. There are times when “rocky road” could best describe us, and with the one year anniversary of Funday School approaching we could say “birthday cake” might best describe us as well. But if I had to choose one flavor it would have to be “vanilla.” Now that might seem boring, but our ministry is anything but boring. When working with children you are reminded of the simplicity of God’s love.
We will be working on our calendar for the first half of Funday School this month. Rally Day will be September 11th. We will also have one more summer session of Funday School on August 14th.
The Lord be with you,
Laura Witt
A BIG BANANA SPLIT
Before I sink my spoon into the sweet and delicious ice cream treat that I feel best describes my ministry, I want you to know how much I have appreciated and enjoyed our summer Eagle article themes. In addition to injecting a little humor into the process, they have inspired me to think more creatively about the mission we share. So, thank you, Jan, for helping me, and all of our ministry leaders, to do some thinking outside the usual box, or in this case, the cone or the dish, with or without sprinkles!
I chose a big banana split as the ice cream treat that best describes my ministry, because it has a lot of everything in it. I know this well, because I ordered one on the Fourth of July. It was my way of celebrating our nation’s independence and liberty, as well as my own, or so I told myself to justify ordering something with so many calories. It came in a boat filled with three big scoops of ice cream- one vanilla, one chocolate, and one strawberry, with three different toppings- butterscotch, strawberry, and of course, hot fudge, and smothered under of mountain of creamy white whipped topping, a handful of crushed nuts, and a big red maraschino cherry on top. And underneath it all was one great big banana, split right down the middle.
My ministry with you is big too. It includes lots of everything and its’ all good. It never leaves me with a sugar high or a belly ache, but with a better high and an ache for better for those who share in it with me.
So, my hope and prayer is that you will indeed share it with me. It’s a big banana split, so, grab a spoon and dig in. There is plenty for everyone. We can worry about the calories later.
Summer blessings and summer fun,
Pastor Joe
ICE CREAM SOCIAL!
Join us on the church’s side yard for the annual St. John’s Ice Cream Social. Bring your friends. Burgers, dogs, & more will available for purchase.
When: Sunday, August 21st 5:00 pm – 8:00pm
Cost: $3 for all you can eat ice cream sundaes!
FROM OUR INTERN, PASTOR ERIC
Summer is upon us. We find ourselves outside enjoying the weather, visiting with family, vacationing, finding time for hobbies or projects around the house, or weeding and watering the garden. We seem to be more social over summer and find time to catch up with others who we couldn’t get together with over winter. We also find summer to be a time to relax. Many of us find summer to be a time to take our own break from the busy year and relax. God encourages us to incorporate this break or Sabbath into our lives. If we are constantly busy and do not take time for ourselves, we are stressed out. This can lead to problems personally and often with friends/family/coworkers. We cannot provide the love and support for anyone in need if we do not take care of ourselves as well. This is the one mission which Christ calls us all to and a major function of the church as a whole.
Looking ahead, I am excited to join St. John’s in this mission to care for those in the church and community. I look forward to getting to know each of you and partnering with you in this mission. It will take me a while to get to know each of you personally so please remind me of your name. I have been excited to hear all St. John’s has been doing for the church and community and I look forward to seeing where God will continue to lead us.
Paul reminds us in several of his letters that as members of the body of Christ, we are called to act as a group in a united mission. Pastor Joe and I have met and have discussed this and we wanted to let you know that we intend to act together, united in care for those in this church community. This means that we will be sharing our thoughts and goals for the church and sharing the concerns of the community with each other. This means that any concerns or needs raised from the community that are shared with one of us, will be passed on to the other so that Pastor Joe and I can best minister to both the individual as well as the community. We hope you will feel comfortable approaching either of us.
I pray that you find some time to relax and take a personal Sabbath and recharge this summer, enjoying the wonders of God’s canvas called Earth, wherever that may be. May we all take time to feel God’s presence on our journeys and during our Sabbath. I look forward to meeting you in August!
God’s Peace,
Eric Schaefer
A Message from the Council President
Neapolitan ice cream is my least favorite choice of ice cream. Having three flavors at once mashed together, each kind of changing the flavor of the other, just doesn’t taste that great. Strawberry with melted chocolate and vanilla mixed on top tastes like weird soup. When we decided to hold three fundraisers this month, I was a little worried about the same thing happening. Would they overlap? Would they change the level of energy and participation and impact all three?
We have a wonderful group of people organizing and staffing all these fundraisers and it takes just that little bit of inspiration to bring it all together. Sincerely thank Jan Wendel, Peter Hauser, and Chad Johnson the next time you see them. Look for pictures of all these events on the website. They were great and each stood alone – even though some of their ice cream melted in the hot sun. I particularly enjoyed seeing some new faces selling corn at Summerfest and spending some quality time with my girls and their friends.
These fundraisers are as much about fellowship and fun as about raising money.
Happy last days of summer!
Kristen Danielsen
Council President
Building Project Update
Do you remember those orange push-up pops? When I was a kid, I’d always be so excited to have one of those for a treat in the summer. Every now and again though, I’d get one that would get a little stuck and I couldn’t quite get it started. I’d have to go get my parents (often times it was just extra frozen, and a little warm water would get it going), but the whole time I’d think how I couldn’t wait for that sweet treat!
Our building project isn’t too different from that. I think we can feel the excitement, even though we haven’t seen more than a peek of that “orange push-up pop.” Luckily, God has been gracing us with “warm water” and great stewards to make sure things are moving along. Shales McNutt, our General Contractor, has reviewed the preliminary plans from Groth to provide a cost estimate of completing the project, and have walked through the building with some prospective sub-contractors to begin bidding for parts of the work needed. All of this will be used to establish a detailed estimate, which will ensure we are staying on track. From the financial corner, we are in great shape and have collected $450,000 towards the project as of July 10th.
So while we can’t “taste” the final product of the building project just yet, I think we can all imagine how sweet it will be. Our thanks to all of you for your ongoing patience, and support!
Luke Rasmussen
Communications and Outreach Committee
WORSHIP & MUSIC
As you know, the job of the Worship & Music Committee is to provide a meaningful worship experience for all who come through our doors. This reminds me of a dish of rainbow sherbet, one of my favorites – an assortment of flavors – something for everyone. This takes careful planning. Now that we are ready to begin our building project, the committee is now looking at better ways we can serve our members and the community through our worship services. This has involved looking at our worship times and worship formats to see what might work the best for members and the community. It was decided that a survey would be in order.
Our Music Director, Robert McConnell drafted a survey that was sent to St. John’s members and friends, and asking questions about preferred worship times and styles. We had great feedback on this survey, with 66 total respondents. The data from this survey suggested that a greater contemporary presence is generally welcome, especially among some families, but traditional worship is still highly valued by all. Also, families with children tend to prefer an early service.
Robert then recommended that a second survey be sent to families with Sunday School age children. This is the target group we want to reach. This survey asked families to rank in order of convenience four different Sunday worship times and to rank preferred worship styles. They were also asked if there were any worship styles they would avoid and worship times they could not attend. The final question was regarding what the family would do if Sunday School were offered at a time or with a worship style that they did not prefer. 15 families were surveyed and we received 14 responses. Results showed that there is a strong preference for a 9:00 or 10:00 service, and Christian education is important. Alternating contemporary with traditional is the preferred worship style. High church liturgy would be reserved for special times like Reformation, All Saints, Christmas and Easter.
Based on the results of these two surveys and the committee’s discussion, the Worship and Music Committee is recommending to the Council that we continue Worship, from the Heart as it currently is on Saturday evening and move to one service with blended music on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m., with Sunday School running concurrently with this service. Ideally, we would just continue with the 9:30 a.m. service into the fall. More planning is still needed to determine when other programs would run.
Thank you for your participation in these surveys. Please check your e-mail and bulletin announcements for further information.
Jan Wendel
Worship & Music Committee
FAMILY PROMISE IS COMING!
Our next host week is Sept. 4-11. Happy Labor Day!
We will be hosting up to 14 parents and children, who are in need of a warm, safe place to stay.
Can you help us make the church such a place for them?
They will need a hot, nutritious meal each night.
Can you, or you and a friend, sign up to provide one?
Could you also be so kind as to stay and enjoy it with them?
The children need you too.
They may need someone to help them with their homework or just someone to play with them.
Can you give an hour or so of your evening time?
Our guess need someone to be there should they require assistance during the night.
Can you, or you and a friend, volunteer to spend a night in our overnight host room?
Our families also need breakfast and lunch food, as well as a few healthy snacks.
Can you provide some?
Finally, we need volunteers to help set up rooms for our guests before the week begins.
Set up will take place after the service on Sept. 4.
The guest rooms have to be taken down on Sept. 11 and the
FundaySchool room set up before the service.
Can you lend a hand?
If you would like to help our guest families in any of these ways, please contact the church office at or 847 251-1730. For more information about the program, please visit the network web site at
Cold Caffeination
Those of you who follow my Eagle articles closely will remember from last month that I am no fan of sweets, but a big fan of savories (I’d to offer here a special shout out to Dick Rusz who shares my love of Goldfish crackers!) My dislike of sweets includes ice cream as well, but there is one kind of ice cream I do love and can’t get enough of: COFFEE. Bring me a pint of Häagen-Dasz coffee ice cream, and I’ll have it polished off faster than it takes to Google which letter A in Häagen-Dasz the funny accent goes over (incidentally, I performed this very action for the writing of this article and it takes approximately 5 seconds). Since I eat only one kind of ice cream, it’s pretty easy to decide which flavor best describes my ministry, but justifying this will require some verbal (and biblical) legerdemain. Here it goes.
God’s Word, as it comes to us in worship, is as sweet as coffee ice cream:
But he would feed youwiththe finest of the wheat, and withhoney [or coffee ice cream?] from the rock I would satisfy you. (Psalm 81:16)
Howsweetare your words to my taste, sweeter than honey [or coffee ice cream?] to my mouth! (Psalm 119:103)
Worship has a way of cooling us off and slowing us down:
Bestill, andknowthatIamGod. (Psalm 46:10)
TheLordisinhisholytemple; let all the earth keep silence before him. (Habakkuk 2:20)
Worship gives us a jolt of “soul caffeine:”
He puta new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. (Psalm 40:3)
I willpraise the name of God with a song; I willmagnify him withthanksgiving…Whenthe humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God,let your hearts revive. (Psalm 69:30, 32)