Elim Extra for December 10, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

At worship this Sunday, we will be talking about how God provides what we need when we follow our vocation to “be the church.” Last Sunday, Joan shared that our church furnace is getting old and dysfunctional, and there is a bid on the table to replace it with a new furnace which would last us many years. Members, please come to church on December 17th to cast your vote for this major expenditure. Your earmarked financial contributions toward this purpose are also most welcome! 

Big thanks to Steve Munson and the church council for all their research during this process.  How fortunate we are to have a Restoration Fund to provide for our church and ensure warmth in our sacred space. From revelation to invitation, from provision to proclamation, God acts in the world to warm our hearts during Advent. I look forward to sharing a cozy candlelit Christmas Eve with you on December 24th at 5 PM!

with love, Pastor Chelsea

Christmas Eve services this year will be at 10 AM and 5 PM.

Caroling Update: We are going to be delivering Christmas cookies to some of our homebound members who are living in group residences. Baskets will be assembled on Saturday morning, December 16th at church. Please join us in a car caravan after worship on Sunday December 17th to make the deliveries! People who like to sing are encouraged to join in. Thanks to Deanna for coordinating!

Big thanks to the folks contributing to Elim’s meal for Family Promise in December: Kay, Gloria, Joan D, Peggy, Lucille, Joan T, and also thanks to all who have supported this ministry (Pam, Jennifer, Leslie and Cindy, Bonnie, Rosemary, and others). Please check out the link to learn more about this great program in Ogden:

https://familypromiseofogden.org.

A new Bible Study on First Corinthians has begun at Elim on Tuesdays at 6 PM in the Fishbowl room, led by Pastor Steve and Lynn Tharpe of First Baptist Church. All are welcome!

Giving Tree: Please bring new winter clothes for clients of the Rescue Mission and Lantern House. Gifts will be delivered in January!

 All are welcome on Sundays at 9 AM for Bible study. This week’s book study assignment: read chapter 4 and 5 of Leading Faithful Innovation.

Elim Extra for December 3, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

I am very grateful to Pr. Rick for leading worship while I was sick. Advent may be all about waiting, but I was NOT happy to have to wait another week to enjoy our gorgeously decorated Christmas sanctuary with all you beautiful souls! Hopefully you got up to some “holy mischief” without me. Likewise this Advent, we are looking for signs that God might be “up to something.”

Our Scripture readings last Sunday gave us some “Holy Spirit Hints” that God is indeed active in our world. Isaiah said to God, “you are the potter, we are the clay.” If you have ever gone through an experience that changed your way of seeing the world, this is a hint that God is still working in our world by shaping you. Likewise, the gospel of Mark talked about the fig tree putting out tender green shoots that indicate summer is near. The Holy Spirit gives us a sense for what fills us with life and energy instead of depleting it. God is still working in our world by cultivating relationships that are life-giving. Finally, a third type of Holy Spirit hint is insomnia – staying awake simply because we can’t rest. What keeps you up at night? What keeps your neighbors up at night? The truth is, our souls are troubled by what is not right with the world. God is stirring us up to make us long for something better.

These metaphors would fit well into an ancient First Aid kit: clay, leaves, and insomnia tablets! Let us look around us for clues that God is transforming people, giving them energy, and filling them with longing for things to be better. That is how we know God is still about the business of healing in our world.

Love, Pastor Chelsea

Announcements:

This Sunday we will hear about the church’s need for a new furnace, with a congregational vote on the leading bid scheduled for December 17th during worship.

A new Bible Study on First Corinthians will begin next week on Tuesdays at 6 PM in the Fishbowl room, led by Pastor Steve and Lynn Tharpe of First Baptist Church. All are welcome!

Christmas Eve services this year will be at 10 AM and 5 PM.

Giving Tree: Bring new winter clothes for clients of the Rescue Mission and Lantern House.

A member of the Elim family is in need of a place to live. A room, apartment, or house to rent. Can pay up to $2000 per month. Please contact Peggy if you have any leads. Thank you!

Bible study assignment for 12/3 and 12/6: Read chapter 4 of Leading Faithful Innovation (Online group: Page 22)

Elim Extra for November 26, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

Jesus said the kingdom comes like a thief in the night when you least expect it….so if you feel like Advent is sneaking up on you early this year, you are right! This Sunday we are combining Reign of Christ Sunday with Advent 1, so we can finish before Christmas Eve. Our Advent theme is looking for God’s action in the world. In our Bible study we learned a practice called “Dwelling in the Wor-L-d” – looking over our encounters with people during the past week and wondering how God was present and what God was wanting to do with us or through us. If Jesus really was the Word who came to DWELL with us, as we say on Christmas, then we must learn how to “read” our lives as well as Scripture.

Looking back over our wonderful fall dinner last week, I feel I missed an opportunity that God gave me to share recognition with my spouse. As I was being interviewed by reporter Dave Thomas of “KELM radio,” Dave asked me how long worship preparation takes me, and I shared that I generally spend two hours on sermon research and two hours on writing. However, I see now that God was giving me an opportunity to show gratitude to my spouse. Most people don’t realize that Pegasus reads my sermon each and every week and gives me helpful critique. God has given me a partner in discipleship, and our picture of ministry would not be complete without recognizing the behind-the-scenes contributions of “the pastor’s spouse.”

Who might God be asking you to give thanks for this week?

Wishing you a peaceful holiday.

love, Pastor Chelsea

p.s. We collected nearly 200 pounds of food for Catholic Community Services! Wow! Thanks to all who gave and Gloria for taking the food in.

Check out our new Giving Tree at church on Sunday, collecting winter clothes for the Rescue Mission and Lantern House. This Sunday is also the last day for Sub for Santa! Please contact Dave Thomas to contribute.

A member of the Elim family is in need of a place to live. A room, apartment, or house to rent. Can pay up to $2000 per month. Please contact Peggy if you have any leads. Thank you!

Bible study assignment for 11/26 and 11/29: Read chapter 3 of Leading Faithful Innovation (Online group: Page 22)

Advent starts next week at Elim

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We are starting Advent one Sunday early, on Christ the King Sunday. Thanks to all who decorated the church for Christmas – it looks beautiful!

In November we did “tens” in the Bible….first the parable of the ten bridesmaids; then the ten followers of Jesus who stayed with him at the cross; and the ten lepers who Jesus heals. We have been talking about why different people make different decisions in the same circumstances: the five bridesmaids who left versus the five who went to meet the bridegroom; the ten followers who stayed, versus the ten apostles who deserted Jesus on the cross; and the one leper who comes back after being healed to thank Jesus, versus the nine who continue on their way. 

I think it’s important to recognize that in each of these stories, while one group shows up late to discipleship, everyone eventually does make it. Some of us here have always had faith; some came to faith later in life; and quite honestly some of us are still coming to faith! As we have been considering in our Bible study how to reach out beyond our doors, we are puzzling over the large number of people who have fallen away from religion in the United States. How might we leave the door open for them to make their way to faith in their own time? Or maybe I should say, in God’s time.

love, Pastor Chelsea

Elim Extra for Sunday, November 19, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

With our wonderful fall dinner this week, and Thanksgiving Sunday coming up in worship this Sunday, not to mention Advent coming up next week (we’re starting one week early, on Christ the King Sunday, so we have enough Sundays to light all four Advent candles before Christmas Eve, which falls on a Sunday this year)…. well, it definitely feels like the holidays are upon us. For some, this time of year is anticipated with excitement, but for others this time of year is anticipated with dread because of loss and grief. In Thanksgiving worship we will find that God is big enough to hold both experiences.
As you plan how you will embrace or get through this season, I would like to offer two online events – flyers are posted on our church Facebook page. Grief and the Holidays: How the Light Comes is being offered by the University of Utah TONIGHT (November 14) at 7 PM; and A Night to Illuminate Grief: Love in Grief Held Together (LIGHT) is being offered by First Plymouth Congregational Church in Colorado (UCC) on December 21 at 7 PM. Understanding our grief can help us get through the holidays and know we are not alone.
Please plan to stay after church this Sunday to decorate the sanctuary! We will also be collecting non-perishable foods at the altar to contribute to a local food pantry’s Thanksgiving collection. Plan to grab extra of something on your grocery run this week…. for this is how we show our thanks.
love, Pastor Chelsea

Elim Extra for Sunday, November 12, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection
Please invite your friends who are veterans to our Sunday worship in honor of Veteran’s Day. Peggy is setting up a Missing Man table to remember our POW/MIA countrymen, and Lucille is bringing poppies to wear, to mark the Armistice Day traditions of the Northern hemisphere. November brings about the dying of the landscape in this part of the world, which is why in worship we turn our focus to all who have died in Christ. As we recognize the efforts of the military veterans in our midst, let us turn to scripture to hear that the promises of God will be fulfilled and all tears wiped away in the new Jerusalem (Revelation 7:17). Thanks to Dave, Leslie, Peggy, Craig, Pam, Lucille, Steve, Pastor Steve Tharp and others for advising me on this service, and Leslie for contributing the flag decorations. It is my first Veteran’s Day, and any gaps that may remain after taking their advice are solely my own rookie errors. I look forward to sharing this important occasion with you.

with love, Pastor Chelsea

Prayer needs:  Please pray for Matt Johnson, Mary Mills, & Kathy Mozer. God in your mercy, hear our prayer. 

*New Bible study every Sunday @ 9:00 – with Pr. Chelsea  

On Zoom Wed. 3:00pm 

Nov. 12 Honoring the Veterans during worship 

Nov. 15 Meet the Pastor @ 6:00 Elim Lutheran Church 

5:30 set-up Soup supper signup sheet in hallway 

Nov. 19 – Please bring canned goods for Thanksgiving service 

                         Decorate the Church after worship 

     Church becoming meeting after decorating 

Nov. 23, Thanksgiving Day! 

Nov. 26 – “Christ the King Sunday” and Advent begins 

Nov. 28, Mary’s Circle – ladies luncheon @ Hug Hess (Noon) 

HO, HO, HO! Sub for Santa – Boy scouts donation needed. 

Place in offering labeled Sub for Santa or give to Dave Thomas. 

Elim Extra for Sunday November 5, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

 All Saints Day is a difficult celebration for me. I grew up Catholic wanting to be a saint but never thinking I was good enough. What a relief it was to join a Reformed tradition that labels us all “saints” just for being believers.

We will be praying for the saints of our church who died in the last year, so please come to worship ready to lift up their names during our prayer time. I also invite you to think about who has died in your own life in this past year. We will remember them with love and honor.

Indeed, November is the season for “outdoing one another in showing honor,” as St. Paul said. Please invite the veterans in your life to our Veterans Day worship service on Sunday November 12th. And on November 18th, we will celebrate Thanksgiving in worship, so please bring canned goods to donate and stay afterwards to decorate the church for Advent.

How honored I am to be just one among the many wonderful sinners and saints at Elim Lutheran Church.

Love, Pastor Chelsea

Elim Extra for October 29, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

Happy Reformation Sunday! By the late 1600s, many Lutheran churches had begun commemorating Martin Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses, calling out abuses he saw in the church. At the heart of the reform movement was the gospel, the good news that by grace through faith we are forgiven and freed. Historians claim that it was on October 31 that Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door. So, Reformation Day is the Sunday closest to that event.

Now, last week I told you that we would be finishing our mission statement study with the word faith – as in, we seek to be a healing, equipping, and serving community of faith. But actually I lied, because there’s a whole first part of our mission statement that I completely looked over. It actually says through the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to be a healing, equipping, and serving community of faith. At first I glossed over that as generic church language, but this month I have become convinced that the Holy Spirit is actually the key to our whole mission! As we begin our book study next month on “Church Becoming,” let us not forget that the Holy Spirit empowers us every step of the way.

with love, Pastor Chelsea

Wear red this Sunday

Book study beginning November 5th

Potluck November 15th

Elim Extra for Sunday, October 22, 2023

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Pastor’s Reflection

This Sunday we will be wrapping up our mission statement study with the word “community,” looking forward to Reformation Sunday on October 29th when we will be putting it all together. As a reformed people we are called by God on mission! Speaking of reformation, this Sunday after church the new worship team will be meeting. Elim has represented itself to me as a church that is flexible about trying new things in worship. If true this is a very rare and difficult quality to have, as worship is so sacred to all of us. I suspect that our worship team may channel an attitude of “holy mischief” as we find some little tweaks to try out in our worship service. We will be very open to your feedback!

As you know we will be calling a new bishop in our Synod next year.  As part of that process, we will have conversations as a Conference centered on “Who Are We” as the RMS, and “The Bishop We Seek”, at our fall gathering at Mount Tabor in Salt Lake City (175 S 700 E Salt Lake City 84106) from 9:30am to noon on Saturday October 21.

with love, Pastor Chelsea

New Book Study on “Church Becoming”

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Beginning Nov. 5th, please join Pastor Chelsea for a conversation and dialogue series!
We will have two groups: Sundays at 9 AM in the fishbowl room, and Wednesdays at 3 PM on Zoom, beginning in November. You will need to order two books for this study (they are both about $20):
Please email Pastor Chelsea or Peggy in the church office, with your answers to the following questions:

Which statement do you resonate with more:

I’m not ready for our church to change.

I want our church to change but I don’t know how.

Will you plan to attend most sessions or sporadically?

Will you attend in person or on Zoom?

Would you like help paying for the books, or figuring out how to order them from Amazon?

Thank you for participating!