June 2010

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From the Desk of Pastor Matt

“Owe nobody anything—except the duty of mutual love…Loves never wrongs a neighbor, and so love has fully satisfied the Law.”  (Romans 13:8-10)

            Owe nobody anything. Some people consider that the basis of all sound financial management. Stay free of debt and owe nothing to anyone.  Some people never buy anything on credit. They pay cash or they do without. That style of financial management has its limitations, but there is some wisdom in it. If nothing else, you save a lot on interest. But there is also safety in not owing anyone. If you owe somebody and things go bad, they could foreclose on your property. If your loans run high, then you might end up stuck in a miserable job trying to pay them off. On that level, the apostle Paul telling the Romans to owe no one anything sounds like good advice, or at least a worthy goal.

            Others take ‘owe no one anything’ as good advice for relationships.  And the apostle Paul said, "Owe no one anything except…to love one another." Free yourself of every obligation--except love, which, of course, is the greatest commitment of all.

            Love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. All the commandments are wrapped up in that one instruction. Jesus threw in "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," as an equivalent, but the apostle Paul is willing to say it just one way: Love your neighbor as yourself.

            The funny thing is, though, the more we do that, the more we allow our lives to be shaped by the love of God so that we love one another, the more our lives start to look like the Ten Commandments. You shall not steal. Of course, if I love my neighbor, I'm not going to steal from them. Likewise, each of the commandments is fulfilled by those who love their neighbors as themselves. There is a sense in which those who truly act out of love do not need the commandments because love leads them to do all the right things anyway. The apostle Paul says to make no provision for the flesh, for selfishness. Only act out of love. That's all you need. It's that simple.

            And it is that simple, but it's never that easy. Loving one another is hard. Selfishness comes easy. Sometimes it's even tough to tell the difference. We say a lot of romantic things about love in marriage, but even there we marry for selfish reasons--we want a wife or a husband, we want companionship, someone to come home to. Sometimes we're good to other people because we care about our reputations or because we're too embarrassed to say what we really think of them. Simply saying we're going to love our neighbors as ourselves doesn't make it happen.

            But faith calls us onward. We are thrust into the Christian life, ready or not. And, you know, we're not going to do everything right. We're not going to love our neighbors as ourselves all the time. We'll be doing well to care about most of them some of the time. And for all those times when we fail to love truly or well or wisely, we will have to rely on the grace and forgiveness of God. But part of the good news of Jesus Christ is that now we can dare to risk, care and love. A God who has the heart to forgive us for killing his Son and who has the power to raise him from the dead will have the heart to forgive us all our failures and the raise us up to a new life, even here on earth. There is a safety in the grace of God for all who follow Jesus. We may try a lot of things to ensure our safety and freedom--staying debt-free, avoiding marriage, not making too many commitments on our time, but true safety and true freedom come only from God. In Jesus' death and resurrection, God has shown us that our relationship with our heavenly Father is safe. With God, we have the freedom to laugh and live and love…and fail—and laugh again and love again and even live again.

God’s Peace!

Pastor Matt

               Father’s Day
         Sunday June 20^th

Car Wash & Brat Fry

Mark your calendars for June 19^th to visit Piggly Wiggly on Hwy P and support the St. Olaf Brat Fry and car wash between 10:00 and 2:00 p.m.  Proceeds will benefit the youth going on the mission trip to South Dakota this summer as well as other youth programming.  See related article on the Youth Ministry page.

Firefighters Coming Soon! 
Mark your calendars for this year’s Firefighters VBS-Sun-Thurs., Aug. 1-5 from 6:15- 8:30 p.m.  We welcome all children who will be 4 years old by 9/1/2010 up to those who have completed 5^th grade to participate.  This program is open to the community, so we encourage you to invite classmates, friends and neighbors to share in the fun and learning.   Any older children are invited to volunteer to help.

 This year we are offering something new prior to the start of VBS each evening.  It’s hard to get your family fed and then to church, so we are offering kid-friendly meals to your entire family.  There is a $5 charge for each person to eat the whole week.  What a deal!  We’ll start serving meals at 5:30 each day.  Then we will begin at 6:15 p.m. each evening and close at 8:30 p.m.  Children do need to be supervised until VBS begins at 6:15.  We then invite everyone to stay for the opening worship and fun skits.  Please fill out the registration form and return it to the fire truck at church by July 18. 

This year we do have a registration fee of $5, which will include a shirt.  We also are in need of additional donations to help us cover the cost of VBS, which is about $20 a student.  Any amount you are able to donate will be greatly appreciated.

If you have any questions or would like to help, please contact co-chairs Tiffany Brewer or Laura Lee.  

Blood Drive: Monday, July 12^th

Please save the date and signup to save a life. Appointment signups will be available in June.  

Birthdays and Anniversaries     

4     Richard and Janet Jahnke
5     George and Elaine Monis                              
9     Michael and Janet Reitz                                
13   Bruce and Donna Schell                                
21   Jeffrey and Mary Millikin                              
22   Carmen and Dean DeBack                           
23   John and Sherri Krueger                               
23   Allen and Patricia Warnecke
24   Daniel and Sandra Gannon                            
25   Donald and Sandra Henninger                       
25   Bernard and Deborah Krahn                         
29   Michael and Cindy Stuettgen
 

1      Alek Anderson, Scarlett Kluewer
4      June Sumnicht
6      Lorraine Christenson, Walter Friedl
6      Bernard Krahn
7      Todd Birkel
8      Lauren Hautala
9      John Krueger
11     Ann Marie Kraemer, Bernice Wiser
13     Duane Schuett
15     Mark Christenson, Lori Dauss, Dick Feutz
16     Noah Christel
17     Savage Millikin, Codey Stephan
18     Jerrold Green, Kaitlyn St.George
19     Adelaide Krasemann, Nicholas Reitz
20     Lucy Braunschweig, Richard Jahnke
21     June Wolf
22     Carlie DeBack, James Monnahan
22     Sherry Pietila
23     Matthew Cadena, Joshua Homulos
24     Elaine Mason
25     Mary Davy, Elaine Monis
28     Andrew Christenson
29     Madeline Millikin
30     Mark Cadena, Rebecca Christenson

One Day VBS

Zion in Ashippun will be hosting a one day VBS, Son Harvest on Saturday June 26^th from 8:30 – 4:00.  Registration at 8:00 a.m. with light continental breakfast. VBS is open to the community for children 4 years old through 6^th grade.  4 & 5 year olds is from 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.  Call Zion at 920-474-7234 to register by June 1^st.

Adult Education News

The Adult Education Committee is offering a great opportunity to participate in a Bible study during the month of June. Pastor Matt and Cindy Schlieve will co-lead a study on the book of Hebrews. The study will be held Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 on June 3, 10, 17, and 24. Please contact Cindy Schlieve, 920-474-7134, if you plan to attend or if you have any questions about the study.  St. Olaf members as well as non-members are welcome to participate.

Vacation Bible School

2010 Theme: Fire Fighters

Hey Kids and Families,

You're invited to a fun firehouse adventure at Vacation Bible School August 1st-8th!  This summer come on over to Fire Station 316 and learn how to fight fires of evil and to “fireproof” yourself through Jesus Christ.  Packed with fun skits, Music, Crafts, games, and more.  “Fire Fighters” is a vacation Bible School Adventure you won't want to miss!  To make this adventure come to life the following items are needed in the craft area:

60 shoe boxes with lid- any size
6 cans of red spray paint
9x12 construction paper one pack of each color:  light blue, black
9x12 construction paper white- 2packs
12x18 red construction paper- 2 packs
100 yellow pipe cleaners
100 small white craft pom pons
100 small red craft pom pons
200 sheets 8 ½ in. x 11 red craft foam sheets
80 12”x5/16 wooden dowels
 
 

Any questions please contact:
Kathy Monis- Preschool craft coordinator (262-670-0731)
Ann Hautala- 1st- 3^rd grade craft coordinator
Mary Millikin- 4^th and 5^th grade craft coordinator

Contemporary Worship

Our Praise worship services will continue with the first Sunday of each month at 10:30 a.m.  Get the word out, pray for us, and join us! 

Altar Guild Looking for New Members

The responsibilities of the Altar Guild are to prepare the trays of wine and sacraments and also do the clean-up following communion.  Call Liz Laack at 262-707-4424 if interested.

Caring for Community at St. Ben’s

On Tuesday, June 15, we will be going to St. Ben's in Milwaukee to serve a meal of stew.  We need people to help serve--we'll leave St. Olaf at 3:15 and return around 8 p.m.  We need people to help make the stew on Tuesday morning at 9:15, and we need others to prepare vegetables on Monday afternoon at 4. We also need a lot of food to be able to make the stew, so please see the sign-up sheet on the kiosk and help us to get all the ingredients!  If you have any questions, talk to Laura Lee.

Kitchen Cleaning Scheduled 

The kitchen at church gets a lot of use, and then it gets pretty dirty.  So we need help to do a big clean-up.  Join us on Saturday, June 19^th at 9 a.m.  The more people there, the more fun it is and the quicker it goes.  If you have some favorite cleaning supplies, bring them!  

For Sale- Pool Table

$350  OBO; (includes delivery)

All proceeds will go towards the debt reduction of the building fund.  Even if you do not need or want a pool table, please consider passing this information along to others who may.  If interested, contact Connie Kreuser @ 262-224-0830.

Our Newest Members
The following people were welcomed into the St. Olaf family in May: 
Mark Cameron, Lisa Iaquinta, Aian & Samantha Cameron
Anne, Colin & Lauren Hautala
Rena Kowalski
Mark & Kathy Larson
Wendy Mesner, Keya, Kali & Keiana Schmitt

Hanging Basket Fundraiser

Thanks to all those that ordered hanging baskets to support our youth fundraiser for the mission trip to Pine Ridge, South Dakota and other youth ministry.   There were 51 baskets ordered with a profit of approximately $500.00. 

Taking Faith Home

Perfect!
By Marilyn Sharpe (TYFI.org)

 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

 It has taken me a lifetime to understand what Jesus was saying here. I cannot be perfect, and it is only in accepting my imperfection that I experience God’s grace, the love of God we know in Jesus Christ. It declares us God’s perfectly loved creation, righteous by what Christ did for us.

 As a child, I thought that the goal was perfection. I was the weenie little kid who, at the end of first grade, said to my mother, "I hope I fail first grade!" Now, there were many gifts I did not possess, but I was smart, a gift from God. "Why?" my mom inquired, incredulously. "Because then next year, I would get all 100's!" I rejoined.

But, there is an enormous price to be paid for aspiring to be perfect under our own steam:

• We don’t risk, so

• We don’t grow.

• We shrink small enough to achieve very limited perfection.

• We don’t learn from our mistakes, viewing them as a character flaw.

• We don’t accept God’s grace.

• We really don’t need a savior, if we can do it on our own.

 Even if others label us “perfect,” we feel like we are living a lie, so we can’t let anyone get too close, to know us as we really are. At the very least, it creates distance and resentment from others.

 How can we avoid the “perfection trap” for the children we love?

• Encourage kids to try a wide variety of opportunities, not just the things at which they are likely to excel.

• Affirm all they learn from those experiences.

• Celebrate effort and improvement, not just perfection.

• Catch yourself not being perfect … and model being okay with it.

• Decide when “good enough” is good enough.

• Celebrate the time you have for important things, when you let go of perfection.

Actually, it has been Lutheran theology that has taught me to elude the perfection trap. I hear, as God claims me in baptism, that I am beloved and forgiven, not beloved and perfect. What a sweet gift of grace that is.

 Two weeks ago at a Sunday night family dinner, our grandson Hayden, age 5 1/2, finished early and nested in his father's arms. He looked adoringly up at our son Jonathan. Jon gazed down at Hayden, a twinkle in his eye, and said, "Do you know how lucky you are to have a perfect dad? If you don’t believe me, just ask your mom." Tammie, sweet and wondrous woman, mom of Hayden, wife of Jon, just grinned and rolled her eyes.

 Hayden, with such a serious expression, replied, "Dad, you know that there was only one perfect person ever. And he came so that you wouldn't have to be one. He loves you just the way you are." Oh, I love that little five-year old theologian!

 Embrace your identity as beloved and forgiven … and pass it on.

 FAMILY ACTIVITIES

1. Catch your kids building new skills, taking a risk, and improving. Affirm effort, not always the results.
2. When things don’t go well, do an “autopsy without blame,” focused on what can be learned from the experience. What went well? What didn’t? What will we do differently next time?
3. Learn to laugh, instead of anguish or rant, when things don’t go well.
4. Regard mistakes, not as a character flaw, but as a learning experience.
5. Listen, listen, listen when your child tells you about an experience of “not perfect.” Validate the feelings, then reassure.
6. Remind your children daily that they are beloved and forgiven.

June Lay Ministry Schedule

June Altar Guild: Liz Laack
June Counters: Mark & Linda Fredrick and Al & Pat Davies