Click Here for This Month's Newsletter

(You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)

 

Holy Week, 2010

Palm/Passion Weekend

Saturday, March 27, 5:30 PM

Sunday, March 28, 8:00, 9:15 & 10:30 AM

Seder Meal

Wednesday, March 31, 6:00 PM (reservations required)

Maundy Thursday services of Holy Communion

Thursday, April 1—1:30 & 7:15 PM

Good Friday Tenebrae Service

Friday, April 2—7:15 PM

Easter Sunday Worship

Sunday, April 4—

6:15 sunrise service,

8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 AM

(no Sunday School or Saturday worship)

Easter Breakfast served 7:00—11:00 AM

Free Will Offering, proceeds will go toward summer youth events!

 

What’s Coming Up

Lent 2010: Into the Wilderness

The Lenten image of the biblical wilderness has particular resonance for our congregation this year. Not only has the Great Recession brought suffering and austerity to many, upending settled patterns of life and prosperity, but we are also wrestling with powerful currents of change sweeping through society and the wider church. This has brought conflict, displacement, and loss. Underneath it all is a deep and disquieting question: who are we in this strange new landscape? This is the question of the biblical wilderness and a key question to ask ourselves as the church in Lent.

Biblically, the wilderness (or desert) represents a between-space, a space of testing, trial, learning, discovery, and transformation outside of the established rhythms and norms of community life. God knows it is not an easy place to be. The wilderness is where comforts are stripped away. It is where God's people come face to face with who they are and have become—and in the process, come to know God in deeper and surprising ways.

This Weekend

• Wilderness Return: This week Isaiah writes to a people to are about to return from the wilderness of exile.  The question remaining for them is how will they return?  Will it be a simple repeating of what has gone before—a recovery of the “good old days?”  Or will their experience in the wilderness change their priorities?  What are we returning to during these days of Lent?

• Connection Sunday Returns: Be sure to participate in Connection Sunday on March 7 and 14! Folks will be available before and after worship to provide information about ways you can get engaged with the life at Bethlehem. Looking for opportunities to serve? Looking to get to know other disciples? Looking for ways to get involved? Or just want to enjoy some fellowship? Stop by the Welcome Center for all of this and more, refreshments and raffles included. For more information contact Kelly Collins

• Youth Ministry Summit: As we begin a search for a new Director of Youth Ministries, we want to hear from the congregation ideas about the future of this ministry as well as qualities of the person we want to find to lead it. There will be two open forums led by Pastor Larson for all interested persons: Thursday, March 4 at 7 PM and Sunday, March 7 at 11:45 AM. Both sessions will be held in the Overflow room, or in the Sanctuary if there is a large turnout.

• Cate-Clarification (or “A Little Bit of Luther”): Early in its history the Lenten season was a time of education in the basics of the Christian faith for new converts preparing for baptism. Martin Luther encouraged preaching of the catechisms, these basic foundations of our faith, especially during Lent.This year we are taking his advice.Each week we will focus on one section of Luther’s Small Catechism to remind ourselves what we believe to be “most certainly true.”And who better than our Confirmation students to help us learn? Join us Wednesdays during Lent at 7:15 PM, beginning Ash Wednesday, February 17, featuring Marty Haugen’s Holden Evening Prayer.

 

Coming Soon

• Come on Thursday Morning to Study the Psalms: In season and out of season, generation after generation, faithful women and men turn to the Psalms as a most helpful resource for conversation with God about things that matter most. Join us as we explore the wide-ranging emotions expressed in these ancient songs, ranging from deepest depth of need to the highest heights of celebration. We meet at 10 AM each Thursday in the Church library and all are welcome!
  

• Join Pastor Mark for a book discussion of Timothy Wengert’s Martin Luther’s Catechisms: Forming the Faith and go a little deeper in exploring how Luther’s catechisms can foster a dynamic faith today.We will meet each Wednesday during Lent at 6 p.m. in the Overflow Room (you can bring your dinner from Fellowship Hall).Copies of the book are available from Pastor Mark for $15. Please read Chapters 1 & 6 for our meeting on the 17.

• From Hunger to Hope: Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is having its 2nd Annual Chicagoland Gala and Silent Auction on Friday, March 12, from 6—10 PM at Drury Lane Oakbrook Terrace. Tickets are $100 each, with all proceeds to benefit FMSC's response to January's earthquake in Haiti. Please contact Leigh Gunther by March 5 if you are interested in learning more.

• The Preschool's Annual Spaghetti Dinner is Friday, March 19 from 4:30-7:30 PM. Plan on attending this fun event! We are looking for donations of services or items to be placed in our raffle and silent auction sections. Please contact the Preschool if you have a donation.
  

• Easter Egg-stravaganza Sunday, March 28, 2010, 12 noon – 2 PM  We will hunt for eggs in Fellowship Hall, then go downstairs for lunch and crafts. Each family is asked to bring a bag of wrapped candy (no nuts), $2 per person, and a salad or desert to pass. Please drop off candy in the Welcome Center by March 24. If you plan to attend, please sign up on the registration slip or e-mail Leslie. Sign ups will be limited to 140 people, drop-ins will be limited by the space available.

• Breathe the Lovely You are invited to a concert to benefit Steve Heronemus on Saturday, April 10 at 7:30 PM, featuring Dori Erwin Collins singing Art Song, Musical Theater and Opera with William Buhr, painist and performing Jazz with The Tim Wilsey Trio. Actor, Dale Morgan, will be reading from the poetry of Steve Heronemus. A gourmet dessert bar will be offered at Intermission. T ickets are $75 and 100% of the receipts go to benefit the needs of Steve Heronemus. The event will take place at the Congregational Church of Batavia ( 21 South Batavia Ave). For more information or tickets please contact Anne Lee.

• Bethlehem continues to Support The Tri-City Unemployment Group The Tri-City Unemployment Group (TUG) was organized in October 2001 to address the needs of the unemployed in our community. TUG was organized by several concerned community leaders and several St. Charles churches as an ecumenical and grass roots effort to help. The mission of the Tri-City Unemployment Group is to provide an opportunity to network, offer presentations on the job search process, to develop skills, and provide resource materials. The Tri City Unemployment Group (TUG) meets on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month at Bethlehem, from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The first part of each gathering is a general presentation on a topic related to unemployment, such as dealing with personal and family stress, resume-writing, interviewing skills, financial management, career skills assessment, networking, and automating the search process. The second part of the program provides an opportunity for direct networking and interpersonal support. Job notices are posted for sharing; individual assistance and guidance is provided, one-on-one, by steering team members and other vocational experts.  Over 400 residents have sought out TUG services at least once, depending on their specific needs and current place in the job-search process. Services provided are free to all those who attend. Please consider yourself welcome and join us. For further information Click Here.

Opportunities To Serve and Give

• Our Special Lenten Offering will go to support Shelter Assistance here in the Fox River Valley. The St. Charles Ministerial Association established the Shelter Assistance
  Committee in 1985 to aide in the prevention of homelessness. The mission of SAC is to help prevent homelessness by bringing hope and financial aid to people temporarily in need of assistance with their rent or mortgage payments.

• Easter Decorating Please help in making Bethlehem come alive for Easter. We will start placing lilies and decorating Saturday April 3 at 9:15 AM. All are welcome! There will also be a sign up in the Sunday bulletin insert later this month. If you need more information please contact Mim Zeddies.

• April Foods Month: Shelves at the local Salvation Army Food Pantry have been cleared of many food items over the long, winter weeks, but we have an opportunity to replenish them during the entire month of April, as we celebrate our ability to share non-perishable foodstuffs, baby, paper and cleaning products and hygiene items. Let's look local hunger in the face and play a trick on it by sharing generously what we have stored in our family pantries. Especially needed are the following items: canned tuna and meats, spaghetti sauces and pastas, peanut butter, cereals, canned and packaged soups, baby food and diapers. We give thanks to so many members who contribute food to our local pantry every weekend. Together, we can make a difference!

• Serve Our Saints Maundy Thursday Our Maundy Thursday Luncheon on April 1 is a wonderful way for us to serve and honor the senior members (75+) of our congregation. We serve a luncheon at 12:00 noon, which is followed by worship at 1:30. A team of people will get a head start on preparations on Tuesday evening, March 30. In addition to the luncheon, extra food is made to provide meals for our soup/casserole ministry. Watch for bulletin sign-ups for more information. If you like to be in the kitchen, and have a heart for our senior saints, this is the ministry for you! A special invitation is extended to all our high school and middle school students who are home for spring break….Come be involved in our Maundy Thursday luncheon. Help serve coffee, work in the kitchen, visit with our incredible senior saints! Sign up in the bulletin or contact Kelly Collins.

• Holy Communion is celebrated at all worship services each Sunday. 21 servers are needed to assist the pastors. Please consider volunteering for this special opportunity. What a privilege we have been given to serve each other in Christ’s name! Sign the chart in the Copy Room #312 or sign the weekend registration form. For additional information, please contact Marcia Nelson or one of the pastors.

• Bibles in Worship: Bethlehem will purchase Bibles to be placed in our Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall. You may help by donating one or more. Our goal is to provide 300 Bibles. To give a Bible to Bethlehem, place $15 in a pew envelope with your name and mark it “Bibles”. You may designate your gift by signing up on the weekly registration form. Put your envelope in the offering plate or in Donna Blomquist’s mailbox in the copy room. Thank You!

• Help with our Homeless Ministries: Each month Bethlehem helps staff the Homeless Shelter at Lazarus House in St. Charles, and every other month, Hesed House in Aurora.  You too can be part of these important ministries of compassion and hope by donating food and or time.  Our next service date for Lazarus House is March 13 and Hesed House is February 26. Click Here to email the office and let us know where, when and how you’d like to serve, or simply if you would like to be contacted to get more information.  Please see the weekly registration slip for all opportunities.

• Knitting Ministry Join our knitting team meetings on the third Thursday of each month, 6:30 - 8:00 PM in the Fireside Lounge for knitting, fellowship and sharing. Newcomers are welcome to join us in knitting prayer shawls and baby blankets to bless others in our congregation. Mark these upcoming dates: March 18, April 15, May 20. Interested in learning to knit? Have a story to share? We'd love to hear how this ministry has touched your life. For more information, contact Judith Burgeson or Marlys Anderson.

ELCA Link of the Week

 

Special World Hunger Calendar for Lent

Any calendar helps you mark your days on Earth, comparing them to each other, making sense out of each one. This calendar is about hunger that God wants us to abbreviate, alleviate, eliminate. The calendar is also about how you can live a joyous and abundant life, filled with generosity towards others. A life modeled on Jesus’ own. A life that’s lived simply so that others can simply live. To download the calendar to use with your family this lent, Click Here.

The 40-day calendar is a simple way to:

• Take stock of your life;
• Simplify how you spend your time;
• Move God’s version of the good life into your life;
• Help change the lives of people whose personal “calendars” hold unending hunger, bone-crushing poverty and insulting injustice every day;
• Find hope for your life and the lives of others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Daily prayerWeekly prayerSunday prayers