Partners Newsletter

PARTNERS NEWSLETTER June/July 2021 Dear Partner in the Gospel, I loved Summer as a child. Long days of absolute freedom with no scheduled activities. Simply lying in the grass and staring up at the sky. Hours of uninterrupted reading time. Swimming. Card playing. Picnics. Baseball. Fami- ly. This Summer I eagerly anticipate some time away from cell phones and computers and deadlines and all other activities that both keep me going and leave me exhausted. I will treasure some time for re-creation of my spirit, mind, and body. I also look forward to devoting more focused time on the strategic work that, by God’s grace and power, will forward the ministry Holy Cross at the beginning of our next 75 years. You can see an overview of my work and that of my Senior Leadership Team colleagues by going to page 5 of “Bold Steps Overview .” (That can be found by going to the internet link https://www.holycrossfw.org/welcome . then clicking on Strategic Plan . and then clicking on Bold Steps Overview.) I intend to focus on two particular items on my list: 1. A ministry innovation will be creating a worship service that employs more in-depth Biblical teaching. Greater emphasis will be placed upon participant interaction with the Biblical text and with each other. Think of it as a Bible study within a worship format. 2. A ministry expansion will be launching a capital campaign for school expansion, particularly in the area of our preschool. Our teachers provide outstanding learning in space originally intended for church offices. This also has implications for congregation amenities such as improved restrooms and meeting space. Fourteen months of COVID has disrupted our plans and delayed our schedule for implementation. However, the Lord is good and we have learned much during these challenging months. In my case, this has led me to a greater appreciation of the importance of my five focus areas. I have asked my SLT colleagues to comment on their areas of focus, including how they see these areas helping you to be “equipped and sent to make a Christ-like difference in the world.” Please read carefully what they write and how it can impact your God-given life and ministry. And, while you’re at it, take a few moments to lie down in the grass and look up at God’s great big beautiful sky! God’s continued and richest blessings be with you! Rev. Thomas R. Ahlersmeyer, Ph.D. Senior Pastor HOLY CROSS LUTHERAN CHURCH 3425 Crescent Ave, Fort Wayne, IN 46805 PH 260-483-3173 Website: www.holycrossfw.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/HolyCrossFW Worship Notes Pressing On Together Dr. Patricia Cotton, D.S.M. Minister of Worship & Music Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3: 13b-14 Through a tough year of pandemic with changes to our worship practices constantly, it has been a team effort to offer our various worship opportunities and the means of grace. I am so grateful to our phenomenal team that has included Usher Captain and Communion Assistants Director Jim Carl, Altar Guild Director Roxanne Kelker, Parking Lot Usher Extraordinaire Rick Neuhaus and Technical Team Assistant Andrew Horber! These four individuals have continued to ‘press on’ to serve our Lord amidst our changing circumstances and have organized many others to do so. In worship on Sunday, June 13 at 9:00 a.m., we will recognize these folks for their service and give them our thanks. We will also celebrate, at that time, Jim Carl’s retirement of faithful service after 15 years of Usher Captain and 9 years of Director of Communion Assistants. (He’s been an Usher since 1985! Praise the Lord!) In addition, we will lift up Rick Neuhaus who will assume these re- sponsibilities and who will restructure and reorganize our Ushering and Communion Teams coming out of pandemic. Lastly, we will also hold up Paula and Jeff Kanning and Artees Hart- ley who will assume shared Director Positions for our new Hospitality Team (formerly Greeting Ministry) and begin scheduling the numerous folks who have indicated a willingness Jim & Dawn Carl to help out on our new Bold Steps Hospitality Team. I sincerely hope you’ll join us in appreciating the leadership of these Holy Cross members and perhaps consider serving on one of these teams. Rejoicing with you in worship as we press on together. Congratulations We also celebrate Music Director Award Winner, Isabel Lugo (8th Grade Graduate) for her commitment to Choir and Band with 3 years of choir and 4 years of band at Holy Cross. In addition to her award, Isabel is the recipient of a $500.00 Scholarship from the Music Dept. which will be used towards her tuition for four weeks of Lutheran Summer Music camp at Val- paraiso University! Congratulations Isabel & keep pressing on! 2. Outreach Spotlight Comfort Dog Ministry Expanding Judy Kiess, Outreach Director Under “Bold Steps” which Pastor Ahlersmeyer referred to in his opening article is a chart titled “Ministry Improve- ments/Expansion Priorities” and in that chart is listed “expand Comfort Dog Ministry”. In this month’s article, Karen Albertin shares with us Jared’s trip to Indianapolis, the Spiritual First Aid training 8 members of the team took, and future plans for the Comfort Dog Ministry. In April, Jared , along with six other Comfort Dogs, was deployed to serve people affected by the FedEx mass shooting in Indianapolis. LCC received a request for Comfort Dogs to come share mercy, compassion, and presence with people who were experiencing a difficult time. The first few days, the dogs spent time at the hotel where the victims’ families stayed and brought comfort and presence to them as well as to the hotel staff. All seven dogs and handlers were privileged to attend the prayer vigil. Over the next several days requests came in for the dogs to visit others who had been affected by the shootings. Jared visited the 911 Call Center, Eskenazi Hospital, two fire stations, the Coroner’s Office, and the Indy Island Water Park. The people were able to have Jared on their laps, pet him, and talk about whatever was on their hearts and minds with the handlers. Statements heard were: “The dogs are wonder- ful”, “This really helps”, “We needed this”, and “Just looking at the dogs makes me feel better”. Our team is thankful we were able to help victims and workers in a time of need. Recently, 8 Team Jared members had the opportunity to take the Spiritual First Aid Training. They learned how to be good listeners when visiting with people who are in stressful situations and to ask questions in such a way to help people prioritize their most pressing need. How to share practical ways of helping was part of the training. Team Jared sees this training as one way to make our mission of bringing the mercy, compassion, proclamation and presence of Jesus Christ more effective for all the people we meet with Jared. For the future, Team Jared is working on a collaboration with PFW (Purdue Fort Wayne) for the Fall of 2021. Some seminarians are starting a Bible Study ministry and they would like Jared to be a part of that. We are looking forward to taking part in any event Jared can attend on a regular basis. 3. Cross†Gen Focus Enhanced ArticleCommunication Title Here Chad Van Meter, Minister of Community Engagement One of the Strategic Plan Bold Steps that fell into my area of focus was to improve communications and storytelling at Holy Cross. At a church and school ministry as large at Holy Cross this is no small job. Not to mention there are various generational communication preferences and constant technology changes. And with communication there is more than simply the details (who, what, when, where), there is the story, the why behind the things that are happening. Of course this all became more vivid during the onset of COVID and shutting down. We knew it couldn’t be business as usual. We would have to get very deliberate and innovative with how we shared important information with people. And wow, I am SO proud of our team! Mark Lange and Tamber Schorey do such an incredible job week in and week out getting communications out that cover enormous amounts of details. We have also been blessed to have Ethan Kesar (former Technology Teacher of the school, now full-time owner of Golden Toucan Video Productions) around. He is an integral part of how we have been able to keep our online presence over the last year. Kudos to him! We’ve been busy. Over the last couple years we have made the following improvements to Holy Cross’s communications infrastructure: 1. We transitioned to a new online member portal/database (through Church Community Builder). Not only is this a church management system but it also allows us to stay more engaged with our families and their needs. 2. We transitioned to a new online giving platform – Pushpay (also connected to CCB). We now have the ability to text-to-give and create one-time or recurring gifts quickly and safely. 3. We recently launched a new Holy Cross App (available on any app store). This will be a great tool to keep our Holy Cross community aware of news and information and even devotional materials as we move into the future.

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