St. Philip Lutheran ChurchOctober 8 (10-10:45am), ALL ages will gather between worship services for a short bible story followed by a service project. Just for 45 minutes, 10-10:45am. Just once per month.
In October, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi Day, we will make goodies for local pet shelters. I encourage everyone to be part of these gatherings! If you’d like to help with these in any way, please speak with Pastor Kelly.
[Jesus] called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18.2-4)
Children’s Faith Formation happens in the worship service – where kids participate in the central communal act of god’s people, worshipping together! Jesus invites us all to have the faith of a child. Let’s learn from the children of St. Philip about how to live like that!
Check out the Kid Central table in the narthex with each week’s Children’s Bulletin, story books, Spark Family booklets, Bible story books, and the kids Busy Bags with crayons, activities, etc. The table is low so kids can get to the materials.
Let the little children come!
Sunday, October 22, 4-6pm
For St. Philip families, especially those with children age birth – 5th grade.
What will we do at Family Faith Formation?
Play games!
Learn a bible story!
So kids and families can get to know each other better
And so families can practice sharing bible stories and fun together
Led by one of the pastors
Dinner for all at 5:30pm, provided for you by a St. Philipian
The hope of this gathering is to provide regular time for families to gather in faith, fun and fellowship, much like the youth groups currently gather. There will not be childcare because kids of all ages are part of this gathering! Hope everyone can join in the fun! Questions? Want to help serve a meal for families? Talk to Pastor Kelly.
Faith in Real Life (Sundays, 10am, in the library) Jesus said: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)
But how do we do that, exactly? How do we live our faith in daily life? How do we understand the intersection of our faith with our social, political, and religious views? These are the sorts of questions that are central to Faith in Real Life!
All are invited for an open and positive format on Sunday morning as we work to build the bonds of fellowship and connect our faith with the events of everyday life. Please grab a cup of coffee in café and join the discussion.
Monday Morning Bible Study: Monday mornings 9:30am-10:30am. Study of scriptures that follow the Narrative Lectionary readings on Sunday morning. This is a great way for you to come to Sunday morning worship ready to be engaged with the word as the story is told. If you have not been a part of the Bible study crew now is the time to try it out. The crew meets in the church library.
(More details are available in your email and texts)
Youth Group: Both Middle School and High School Groups meet on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month, 4-6pm, with dinner for all at 5:30pm. Come join the fun!!
October:
1st – Middle School and High School Youth Groups
15th – Middle School and High School Youth Groups
25th (Wed.; 6:30-9pm) – Flashlight Maze at Layman Farms
November:
6th – Rake leaves for members of the congregation
12th – Youth-led Worship Service: both services!!
17th – 19th (Fri-Sat) – Lost & Found: Youth Retreat for 7th & 8th graders
20th – Middle School and High School Youth Groups
19th (7pm) – Hollins Community Thanksgiving Worship
Youth Faith Formation:
Middle School and High School Faith Formation is part of Sunday Youth Group. We use lots of different materials: re:form Bible study, videos, conversation, and “burning Jesus questions” (but PK, why would we want to burn Jesus?!).
We are blessed at St. Philip with great resources! One of which is an Endowment Fund and other investments that allows our congregation to expand ministry in many exciting ways. However, Church Council also wants to thank you for your generosity to ensure that the infrastructure and core ministry of the congregation continues to happen.
Endowment income and investments are not used for the day to day ministry of St. Philip. We continue to need to watch very closely our expenditures as they relate to daily operation. To date, our expenditures for daily ministry outspend the offerings received from the congregation. That deficit will not be offset by investment income, per our investment policies. St. Philip Council asks that you faithfully give and consider increasing your offering so that we finish the year in a strong financial position.
In 2016, the St. Philip Endowment generated $15,000 for ministry initiatives through St. Philip. Church Council has approved the following ministries which, again, are made possible by the Endowment Fund:
$5000 grant to St. Philip Youth for ELCA Youth Gathering
$2000 Seminarian Support – to support our student Matt Leonard
$1500 grant to Camp Caroline Furnace – Virginia’s Outdoor Lutheran Camp
$6500 media upgrade throughout the building
Church Council also approved several upgrades which were made possible by funds from St. Philip’s additional investments. These included:
$6,250 Color Pinter/Copier
$3,390 Automatic Door – to allow easier access for folks with mobility challenges
Judy Burnette
It is an exciting time with our choir. We have a couple of changes taking place with our schedule, as well as, the beginning of Christmas Eve preparations.
First of all, our 8:30 a.m. and 11:00a.m. choirs will sing together for two services a month. This will give the congregation more opportunities to enjoy their music, as well as, give the choir more time to sing as one choir.
Here is how it will work. On the second Sunday of the month, the combined choir will sing at the 8:30 a.m. service. Then on the 4th Sunday, they will sing together at the 11:00 a.m. service. The rest of the Sundays will have the same schedule that we have had in the past.
Second, we will begin preparing our Christmas Eve music on Wednesday, October 11 at 7:00 p.m. in the choir room. We will spend the first 40 minutes of each choir rehearsal learning the music. As always, we would love for you to be a part of the fun…even if it is just for these few weeks before Christmas. Hope to see you there!
The right to food is a basic human right. Investing in sustainable food systems and rural development means addressing some of the major global challenges – from feeding the world’s growing population to protecting the global climate, and tackling some of the root causes of migration and displacement.
Currently, St. Philip supports 3 Feeding Centers in Mponela Parish in Malawi. The feeding centers serve nutritional meals to 150 orphans and vulnerable children each week during the rainy season (27 weeks). They also provide a mobile health clinic for families. $3 feeds one child for one week. Each center requires $450 each week to feed all 150 children. For the full 27 weeks, Mponela Parish needs $12,150! St. Philip’s noisy offerings have raised $1161 in 2017 – enough to feed all 150 kids for about 2 ½ weeks.
Elijah’s Backpack currently serves 43 kids in north Roanoke County – and more will join the program in the next few weeks. In 2016-2017, Elijah’s Backpack packed over 1700 bags of food. More than 50 volunteers logged nearly 5000 hours of service to kids in our community. Elijah’s Backpack has also added a new school this year: the Minnick School. We join others across Virginia in a goal to have no child hungry on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, October 31, 2017.
Church council met on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at 7 p.m. in the church library. Church finances were discussed extensively as council prepares to submit a 2018 spending plan for congregational approval in December and as expenses continue to outpace giving this year.
While giving is up from last year, expenses are exceeding receipts by about $55,500 so far this year as insurance, utilities and other costs continue to rise. It is likely the church will end the year in the red for the third year in a row, which is a troubling trend.
Thanks to the Kinder Bequest and other substantial gifts over the years, St.. Philip has a sizeable endowment and long-term investment fund for capital projects, but council has tried to keep routine spending in line with annual giving.
Council discussed how best to communicate the situation with the congregation, and whether there are ways of responsibly tapping some of the church’s investment funds or income to cover ongoing expenses.
This will continue to be discussed next month.
Council voted on a new motion for the 2016 endowment disbursement. The motion presented last month contained an error. According to congregational policy, a portion of investment earnings from the endowment fund is disbursed every year to further the mission of St. Philip.
The disbursement will be as follows: $5,000 for the upcoming National Youth Gathering, $6,500 for media upgrades for the church (video conferencing for the library, televisions and monitors for the youth rooms and fellowship hall and improved wi-fi throughout the building), $2,000 to support Matt Leonard’s seminary studies and $1,500 for Caroline Furnace..
Council discussed the rollout of the new logo and tagline for the church and received an update about progress on a new website, which should be ready to be unveiled at the end of October.
Sarah Parker will attend a training session in September to serve as head of the congregational Forwarding Faith campaign, St. Philip’s contribution to the effort to raise at least $2.5 million over the next five years to provide an endowment for faith formation activities in the Virginia Synod.
The next council meeting will be Monday, October 16, at 7 p.m. in the church library. Anyone is welcome to attend.
Thank you to all of you for the many ways you serve God’s church through the ministry of St. Philip. Truly our calling is about God’s work and our hands. If you have been thinking about ways to connect to the ministry at St. Philip and have not been quite sure how to start please consider serving by:
Offering Counter Coordinator
Each Sunday we are blessed by the generosity of the people of St. Philip and each week some quiet servants make sure that financial offerings are counted and recorded before being deposited in the bank. We need someone to help train and coordinate this group of quiet servants. Speak with Pastor David if you might help with this ministry.
Recycler
We are looking for someone who would twice a month empty our recycling containers and take recyclable materials to the recycling center at Hollins University. Speak with Pastor David if you might want to help care for God’s creation this way.
Photographers
This is for everyone. Please, please take pictures of ways mission and ministry is happening through the community of St.. Philip. Then share them with Laura our office administrator to be celebrated on our St. Philip website and social media.
Worship Assistants
Ushers, acolytes, power point clickers, sound system operators, readers, communion assistants.. This is absolutely a great way to live out your faith on Sunday morning. Speak with Carol Dillman at 8:330am worship and Mary Jo Sahm at 11am worship.