Author: Alice Lebow

Feast at Philip’s is On!

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date November 4, 2020

On November 28, St. Philip will again host the Feast at Philips event to love, feed, and serve the Roanoke community in the holiday season. As with many things, the Feast will look different to ensure we are serving safely, but we are grateful for the opportunity to serve. This year, the congregation will be serving to-go meals only. All meals will be packaged at St. Philip and then distributed throughout the community – first responders, assisted living centers, apartment communities and other members of the community.

Additionally this year, St. Philip will be partnering with Trinity Lutheran on Williamson Road to distribute meals to community members from their location. To accomplish this, the Feast team will certainly need your help! Information will be sent out soon on how to help, but go ahead and mark the date on your calendar.

Cooked hams, turkeys, food packagers, trucks for delivering food, food deliverers, and financial donations will all be needed. You may volunteer to help or make financial contribution at this electronic sign up form and as always offering, including ones designated for Feast at Philips, can be made using the the Give Now link. Thank you in advance for the awesome ways you support this important community ministry.

Council Notes

Announcing Congregational Meeting – September 27

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date September 15, 2020

Dear Fellow St. Philippians:

This letter is to inform you of a Congregational Meeting, which Council has schedule for Sunday, September 27, after the 9:30AM “parking lot” worship service.

The meeting will take place in the parking lot.

The purpose of this meeting is to vote on Council’s recommendation for changes to the St. Philips Constitution. This will be the sole item on the agenda, and approval of the recommendation will require a majority of the voters present at this meeting.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that we have a quorum present for this meeting, so PLEASE make every effort to attend.

The changes being proposed are mostly to align our Constitution with the Congregational Constitution currently in effect in the Virginia Synod of the ELCA. The Virginia Synod Constitution has had seven (7) updates since St. Philip last updated its Constitution in April 2013, so we need to get current. The most important provision in the update to us right now would allow St. Philip to conduct Congregational Voter meetings digitally, without having an “in person” gathering. The lack of this provision in our Constitution is beginning to hamper Council’s ability to effectively manage the affairs of our congregation.

It is NOT Council’s intent to adopt digital voter’s meetings as a preferred practice. I think most would agree that in-person gatherings remain the preferred practice because it allows effective communication and important exchanges of ideas and viewpoints in a meeting. However, we have learned that the ability to conduct a digital voter’s meeting is indeed an important option to insure effective management of congregational business in extreme circumstances.

A copy of the recommended updates can be found below. Please review prior to our meeting on the 27.

God’s Peace to all of you,
Gary Sahm, Council President

Proposed-Changes-to-Congregation-Constitution-1 Download

Blood Drive

Fall Blood Drive

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date August 21, 2020

St. Philip will host its annual Blood Drive on October 12 from 10am-4:00pm and October 13 from 1:00pm to 7:00pm. These dates are to accommodate the large number of donors the St. Philip drive serves while maintaining social distancing practices.

Please note that because of COVID-19 NO WALK-INS WILL BE ACCEPTED. All donors must make appointments. To schedule an appointment, you may go to redcrossblood.org and search for blood drives in 24019 zip code or contact Debbie Kanode at dwkanode@comcast.net. We are excited for this opportunity to serve our community!

“It feels good to save a life.”

Newsletter

New Membership Database is a “Breeze”

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date July 30, 2020

In January, the staff and church council began exploring new options for managing St. Philip’s membership roll, the church directory, email lists, and contribution records. Since 2016 the church office has used a church management system called PowerChurch, which while robust in it’s own right, had limitations for multiple users. Pastor Laura introduced a newer church management system called Breeze.

One of the highlights of Breeze is that more than one person can use parts of the system at a time, which means regardless of where a staff member or volunteer is working – home, office, or on the road – the information in the database can be accessed. Another exciting feature of Breeze is that congregation members can also create an account and access a church directory straight from their phones or computers.

What can congregation members do with Breeze?

Access church directory information on a computer at https://stphiliplutheran.breezechms.com or download an app for Android and iPhone by searching “Breeze CHMS.” (The icon looks like a sailboat).
Update their own information as soon as it changes.
Search for contact information for other active congregation members.

How does it work?

Once you access Breeze either by computer or by app, create an account. The church’s id is stphiliplutheran. If there is a profile in Breeze that matches your name and email address, Breeze will sent you an email with an invite link. (If you do not receive your invite link and have more than one email address, please check with Laura Latham in the church office to be sure we have your preferred email address on file.)
Go to “People” and search for your name.
Once there, edit your information (if needed) by mousing over or placing your finger on the grey box that says “Main” and “Contact.”
Upload a photo of yourself and a photo of your family!
- For individual photos, click on the profile image, select the photo you’d like to use from your device, adjust the photo as needed, click “set as profile picture.”
- For family photos, mouse over the grey box that says “Family”” and click to edit section. Upload photo as above.
- (Please only upload photo of you and/or your family. These images will be seen by other members who may need help connecting faces and names.)
Search for other active congregation members by going to “People” and searching their name.

If you have any questions or need help navigating this new service for the church, please contact Laura Latham at officeadmin@stphiliplutheran.net or 540-929-1804 (personal cell while telecommuting). If there is information in your profile you can’t edit and would like to have changed, please contact Laura about that as well.

News

Drive Up Worship for July 12

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date July 9, 2020

Dear St. Philippians,

We miss you all! While we give thanks for the gifts of technology that have allowed us to gather virtually every Sunday during this Pandemic, we lament not being able to connect in our traditional ways. This time certainly has not been easy for any of us. Once a month on the second Sunday, rain or shine, you are invited to drive to the church parking lot where we will worship together and share in the sacrament of communion. The next drive up worship is July 12 at 11:00am. Please note that Open Doors online worship will continue to be offered at every Sunday, including the drive-in Sundays. The drive-up service will be an abbreviated version of that Sunday’s Open Doors worship.

Please note while we are looking forward to this worship opportunity, social distancing will still be observed. Below are some guidelines for the service.

Parking attendants will help direct worshippers to a parking spot. Please park in a way that allows you to see the font entrance of the church. This is where the worship leaders will stand.
Worshippers may attend the worship service while seated in their cars. All cars may roll down their right-side windows. This will allow for cars to have fresh air, but maintain distance between one another’s open vehicles.
Worship will be streamed on the frequency 92.9FM using an FM transmitter so that all worshippers will be able to tune into the service audio from their cars.
A worship bulletin will be emailed to the congregation the Thursday prior to worship that they are invited to print at home and bring to worship. For those unable to access email, bulletins will be provided at the church.
During the passing of the peace, worshippers who are wearing masks are invited to exit their vehicles and stand by them to wave a greeting of peace to the community. Social distancing is to be maintained during the passing of the peace. Worshippers not wearing masks should not exit their vehicles.
Communion will be celebrated at the drive in worship service. Worshippers are asked to bring their own communion elements with them to worship. Worship elements include bread or gluten free bread or cracker and either wine or grape juice.
The pastors will lead the service and walk by cars to greet worshippers. The pastors will practice social distancing while leading and interacting with worshippers.
Parking attendants will guide cars in exiting the parking lot after the service.
The church building will be open for emergency bathroom visits. You may enter the building, masked, one person at a time, through the side entrance and follow the cleaning protocols listed in each restroom. (For bathroom protocols, please see here.)

We are looking forward to celebrating this service together. To experience the joy of seeing one another’s faces and to give thanks to God for abiding with us in this difficult season. If you have questions about this service, please contact one of the pastors.

Peace,
Pastor David and Pastor Laura

07.12.20 Pentecost6 Drive Up Worship Download

News

21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge Challenge

Post author By Alice Lebow
Post date July 2, 2020

Starting July 1st you are invited to join Pastor Laura and Pastor David in doing the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge Challenge. This challenge is particularly designed for white people to consider issues of race and racism in a purposeful way. After 21 days, we would love to unpack that experience with those who participated. For people of faith who value all of God’s creation, the systemic presence of racism painfully contradicts God’s kingdom promises. This challenge is one way we might be a part of healing for our hurting world.