February 2018 Newsletter St. Paul Lutheran

From the Heart of Your Shepherd “Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor.” Exodus 28:2 N4118 Cty Rd AB Luxemburg, WI 54217 The way you dress says something. Things in America today are more casual than in other periods of our history. Nonetheless, we still pay attention to how we should dress in various situations. Many people Church Office: still have “dress codes” for where they work. Various professions still have required uniforms. Schools P: 920-845-2095 still have guidelines for how students dress. When people are invited to various events, they inquire as to F: 920-845-9075 how they should dress. Why? Well, we understand that the way you dress says something about you. It also says something about the way that you view what you are doing. If you show up to a formal dinner www.stpaullux.org wearing jeans and a t-shirt, you are making a statement about your attitude toward what is taking place.

We see in Exodus 28 that was assigning a dress code for the . When Aaron and

his sons would be working in the temple, God wanted them to wear special clothes. These were clothes that were different from what they would wear in their everyday lives. God also gives the reason why the Old Testament priests were to wear special : “…to give him dignity and honor.” The clothes that Aaron wore would make a statement about what he was doing when the was serving at the tabernacle and eventually the temple. It made a statement about the importance of what was taking place and indicate that this was different from the ordinary.

Mission Statement The New Testament church was influenced by this and eventually developed what we call , that is special garments worn by the during the service. The vestments that the pastor wears say something about the importance of what he is doing: he is going about the work of distributing God’s "Proclaiming gifts through Word and Sacrament. This work is of the greatest importance; therefore, the pastor should the saving dress and conduct himself accordingly.

grace of in the Lutheran Church have always worn vestments. They indicate that the pastor has been called Christ by God to do certain things. The pastor has been called to publicly proclaim the message of salvation to all." through in Jesus and administer the sacraments. It is a visible indication that the pastor is going about something out of the ordinary. Because of their symbolism and meaning, these vestments contribute to the joy and instruction of the Christian worshipper.

It has been my observation that pastoral dress can go wrong in a couple of different directions. We see pastors who dress in such a way that they give the impression that there is nothing out of the ordinary or special going on in the Divine Service. We see others who dress so elaborately that the focus can become the pastor rather than Christ.

Back in October, the congregation purchased new vestments for me. People have commented on my “new look.” Many people in LCMS churches today are only familiar with seeing the pastor wear the white (). Some still remember seeing the pastor wearing a black robe (Geneva gown or ). Others are familiar with the pastor wearing the cassock and (the white garment worn over the black cassock and symbolizes joy and purity). Interestingly enough, the alb became popular in the LCMS in the 1970s as a result of the influence of Vatican II (a Roman Catholic council). A Catechism of Christian Worship was published by Concordia Publishing House in 1961 and states, “The cassock, surplice, and are being used in place of the black robe by a growing number of Lutheran pastors. So, what you see me wearing in worship now is actually a throwback to an older Lutheran tradition.

Space constraints don’t allow me to go any deeper into the specific meaning of the various vestments. However, there are certain basic things that are being communicated. The vestments cover up the pastor and take the attention off of him. They give “dignity and honor” to the office that the pastor is carrying out. They make a statement about the importance of the work that the pastor is undertaking.

In His service, Pastor Olson

Sermon Text and Themes

We will observe Ash Wednesday on February 14. This marks the beginning of the Lenten Season. The Lenten Season is the forty day period from Ash Wednesday to Easter, excluding Sundays. It is a time for repentance and preparation for Easter. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the biblical practice of expressing grief over one’s sins by wearing sackcloth (rough scratchy clothing) and ashes. Ashes are a reminder of the blackness of sin. is a time for us to examine our spiritual life and growth. Therefore, in the Lutheran Church, we observe the practice of having special Lenten midweek services. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, we will have a special series during our midweek services. The title of our midweek sermon series will be “Lord, Teach Us to Pray.” These will go through the various articles of the Lord’s Prayer. It is a great opportunity to grow in our understanding of the prayer our Lord gave us.

February 1 & 4: Our text for Epiphany 5 will be Mark 1:29-39. The title of the sermon is “Jesus the Preacher.” People had many things that they wanted from Jesus. We see that Jesus makes it clear that He has come to preach good news. We rejoice that Jesus preaches to us.

February 8 & 11: Our text for the Transfiguration of our Lord is 2 Kings 2:1-12. The title of the sermon is “Never Alone!” We see that Elijah was about to be taken up into heaven in our Old Testament reading and Jesus is about to go to Jerusalem and die in our reading. God’s people are afraid that they are going to be left all alone. We see that God gives us the constant assurance of His presence with us.

February 18: Our text for the 1st Sunday in Lent is Mark 1:12-15. Our sermon title is “Lead me not into temptation.” We see that Jesus was tempted to avoid the way of the cross, the way of suffering. We rejoice that Jesus took up His cross and suffered for our sins. We take up our cross in this world and follow Jesus.

February 25: The text for Lent 2 is Mark 8:38. The sermon title will be “Ashamed of Jesus?” Are you ever ashamed of Jesus? Do you ever keep quiet about your faith in Him? We see that Jesus was willing to suffer the shame of the cross that we might have forgiveness and life in Him.

Lenten Midweek Services The chapel services on Wednesday mornings, at 8:30, will be another opportunity to take part in the midweek Lenten services.

“Lord, Teach Us to Pray” A sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer

Ash Wednesday, February 14: “Our Father” The Introduction

Lent 1 Midweek, February 21 & 22: “Hallowed Be Thy Name” The 1st Petition

Lent 2 Midweek, February 28 & March 1: “Thy Kingdom Come” The 2nd Petition

Lent 3 Midweek, March 7 & 8: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” The 3rd Petition

Lent 4 Midweek, March 14 & 15: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The 4th Petition

Lent 5 Midweek, March 21 & 22: “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” The 5th Petition

Maundy Thursday, March 29: “And lead us not into temptation” The 6th Petition

Good Friday, March 30: “But deliver us from evil” The 7th Petition

St. Paul Lutheran School News “Built on Christ” I Corinthians 3:11

Registration for the 2018-2019 School Year: Registration for the 2018-2019 school year is now open. Please contact the school office with any questions you may have.

4k Registration: We still have some openings in the 4k program for the 2018-2019 school year, but registrations are running well ahead of last year. Please contact the school office or Mrs. Cheslock if you have questions.

Voucher Enrollment: Enrollment for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP) opens February 1. St. Paul Lutheran School participates in this program. If a family qualifies, the voucher program would cover the cost of all education related expenses, including tuition and registration. Please pay attention to the income increases this year. Previously, the income limit for this program was set at 185% of the poverty level. This year that amount has been raised to 220% of poverty. This change will allow more families to participate in this program. There is a link on our website that will take you to the Department of Public Instruction website for the online application. It is important that families complete the information accurately. Please contact the school office with any questions that you might have on this program.

Annual Auction: The auction will be held on February 17 at Beverly Gardens in Denmark. You can purchase meal tickets in the school office or after church in the church narthex. The doors open at 4:00 pm. The dinner is at 5:30 pm and the live auction begins at 7:00 pm. This event raises a large amount of money for our school each year. Please come out and show your support for St. Paul school.

5k, 1st & 2nd Grade Preview Day on February 9: This is a great opportunity for families to check out St. Paul Lutheran School and all that it has to offer. Please call the school office in advance if you are planning to attend.

Midterm: Third quarter midterm is February 22.

Ash Wednesday: Ash Wednesday is February 14. Please make note that the chapel services will be moved back to 8:30 am. The school chapel services will also serve as another opportunity for our Lenten Midweek services. The chapel services during the Lenten Season will have the same sermon series on the Lord’s Prayer “Lord Teach us to Pray” as the evening services.

Thank you to the School Board for the Christmas gifts! The Sunday School students and staff thank you!

4K: We have been all about winter in 4K this month! We read all sorts of fun stories about snow, winter animals, snowmen, and more. We brought in some snow and explored how each snowflake is unique and talked about how God made us uniquely in His image! We also had fun traveling this month! We had great fun learning about Chile and Germany and their culture, language, food and more! In math we have been working hard on counting to 100, telling time, counting coins, and more! In we have been learning about Jesus’ ministry and the many miracles He performed. We learned how He loves us and how our Mighty God can do anything! We are ending this month celebrating Lutheran Education by dressing in fun ways, eating treats, and more! It was a month packed with fun and adventure!

5K: The 5K got right back into the swing of things after a wonderful Christmas break. We continued our celebration of Jesus birth by learning about Simeon and Anna, the Wisemen, Jesus as a boy at the Temple and Jesus choosing the disciples. Math this month was measuring, time, and counting dimes. We had many cold days so we made many snowmen and penguins. The end of January is always fun when we celebrate Lutheran Schools Week! We celebrated with many fun dress up days, breakfast with our grandparents and families, movies, and even an afternoon of bowling. We pray that God continues to bless St. Paul for many years. If there is anyone you know who might be interested in attending 5K, 1st, or 2nd grade next year, please let them know that there is a preview day coming up on Friday, February 9th, 8am-11:20am. If there are any questions, please call Sherry Byrne or Heidi Pahnke at 845- 2095.

1st and 2nd Grade: It never ceases to amaze me how God's blessings continue to flow month after month in our classroom, at our school, and in our congregation. We came back from Christmas Break ready to get back to work and have some fun. While we didn't have a lot of events this month we still kept quite busy in the classroom. We were able to read some great new stories, learn a lot of new math concepts, and start learning about types of matter. We had some awesome days playing in the fresh snow and even a bonus snow day. :) We ended the month celebrating the blessing of being a part of a Lutheran School! National Lutheran Schools Week is such a great way to bring to the forefront the importance of what we do each day at St. Paul and what a joy it is! NLSW was complete with open house, dress up days, social study fair, movies, and even bowling! As always, thank you for continuing to support and be a part of our amazing Lutheran School!

3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade: The month of January has been very busy. The crazy weather meant some time off of school. We ended the second quarter. And we began third quarter with lots of excitement celebrating Lutheran Schools Week. This is a special week to celebrate Jesus in our school. What a joy and privilege it is to be able to talk about, learn about, and share Jesus all day long at school! We had singing praises in church, a social studies fair, an open house, special dress days, invited family and friends to breakfast, and other different activities all week long! Then the week ended with bowling. It was a great time.

6th, 7th, and 8th Grade: Greetings from the 6-8th grade! It's incredible that as I am writing this we are now entering the third quarter of the school year. With a half a school year behind us the time has come upon us to start our annual standardized testing. While in previous years St. Paul used use the traditional paper-based Iowa test, new for the 2017-2018 school year we as a school have transitioned to a more modern method of assessment. MAP or Measures of Academic Progress is an electronic-based and individualized test that allows us a teachers to really hone in on each one of our student's strengths and weaknesses. We look forward to seeing how this new tool will help students grow academically and lead St. Paul more into the present age. Outside of testing, much of our time has been spent either preparing for the social studies fair (which this history teacher is extremely excited about) or for all the other events that make up Lutheran Schools week. The students have been hard at work in all of their courses, but specifically they have been taking a significant about of time preparing poster boards and speeches for this triennial event where they are to pick an important individual from history and using skills learned in school, research that person for fair. There is so much going on for Lutheran Schools Week, including the fair, that it is a wonderful cap on the whirlwind of fun and learning that has taken place already in 2018.

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LID'S FOR KID'S BY LIFTING UP OUR COMMUNITY COLLECTION WILL BE ENDING AT THE END OF FEBRUARY 2018. A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO DONATED.

Stewardship News & Views

Take stock of your current giving in light of the New Testament’s teaching on supporting the work of the Church. Are you giving of your first fruits, taking it out of your paycheck first, or does God get what is left over? Are you giving voluntarily and cheerfully? Are you giving proportionally and generously? The Old Testament required a tithe, ten percent. The New Testament gives freedom to be generous, to give more for the Church’s work. Are you relying on God’s promise to provide and increase what you need to do His work? If your answer is no to any of these, repent. If God gave you His only Son, will He not provide for you all things, even physical things? Trust Him, His word, and heed it.

So, don’t let your past define your future. Rather, commit for the year a generous portion of your income, which is God’s gift to you for this body and life.

Yours in Christ, Don Mullen, Cindy Doell and Linda Dahlke

Christian Service Guild News:

Christian Service Guild will be held on Wednesday, February 7 at 1pm in the church meeting room. Our bible study will be “Celebrating 75 Years of Commending Christ From One Generation to Another”. All ladies are welcome.

Stamps for Missions – Keep saving stamps, especially commemorative. We DO NOT Flag or Christmas stamps.

Our next Bethesda Volunteer day is February 8, 2018.

Quilting: Quilting will be February 5, 12, 19, and 26. We will work in the Church meeting room from 9:30am to 3:00pm. Bring your lunch along, coffee will be provided.

Thank You for the Donations and for Decorating Church this Christmas Season!

Many thanks are in order for the beautiful decorating both inside and outside of church this past Christmas season!

Thanks to the following who donated items to beautify our church for Christmas:  Brad and Jill Dahlke and Mike and Kathy Calewarts, Calewarts Tree Farm, for the two large Christmas trees next to the .  Roger and Candy Krohn for the two wreaths outside on the front of church given in memory of their daughter, Tiffany Krohn.

These donations made it possible to beautify the Lord’s house, inside and outside, for the Christmas season! Many thanks for the donations!

Thanks to the following people who helped to decorate inside the church for Christmas: Karen Bosdeck, Jean Doell, Beverly Graunke, Barney Janda, Mary Lou Karnopp, Dianne Kilgore, Gary Kratz, Jim Kratz, Kaye Kratz, Sue Kratz, and Heidi Pahnke.

Thanks to the following people that helped take down and pack away the Christmas decorations inside of church: Karen Bosdeck, Angie Doell, Jean Doell, Pat Doell, Beverly Graunke, Yvonne Janda, Mary Lou Karnopp, Dianne Kilgore, Jim Kratz, Kaye Kratz, Sue Kratz, Heidi Pahnke, Brian Patrycia, Lesley Patrycia, Hans Shin, and Kristen Zeitler.

Thank you to the following people that helped put up and take down the outside Nativity set in front of church:  Jim Kratz, John Kratz, and Sue Kratz

Thank you to all who helped in any way to beautify the church for the celebration of Christ’s birth!

Holy Humor

Faculty/Staff Contact

Pastor & Principal: Rev. Dr. Daniel Olson: [email protected] 4K Teacher: Beth Cheslock: [email protected] 5K Teacher: Sherry Byrne: sbyrne@stpaullux. org 1st & 2nd Grade: Heidi Pahnke: [email protected] 3rd, 4th & 5th Grade: Laura McClellan: [email protected] 6th, 7th, & 8th Grade: Tim Eigenfeld: [email protected] DCE Intern: John Ketterer: [email protected] Office Staff: Yvonne Janda: [email protected] Leanne Budworth: [email protected] Newsletter : Angie Peterson: [email protected] Funerals: Tina Peterson – 920-863-5137 Arlene Gruetzmacher –920-845-5048 Prayer Chain: ArleneInfo Gruetzmacher –920-845-5048 Day School Christmas Program

DVD’s are available of the church service. Call the church office at 920-845-2095 and one of our volunteers will deliver it to you.

Need a ride to church? Please notify the church office for a ride to and from church services.

Newsletter Deadline: the 21st of the month.

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