St. Mark Lutheran Church

3307 State Street

Eau Claire, WI 54701

November 2021

November worship opportunities...

Sundays @ 8:00 a.m. (Livestream via Fa-

cebook or at www.stmark-wels.org, under

“Watch Sermons Online.”)

Sundays @ 10:30 a.m.

Mondays @ 6:30 p.m.

(8:00 a.m. service is

livestreamed via Facebook or at

www.stmark-wels.org, under “Watch

Sermons Online”)

Thanksgiving Service, Thursday,

November 25th @9:00 am

Church Phone: 715-834-2595

• Pastor Naumann: 715-214-7880, joel@stmark-wels.org

• Pastor Hollmann: 715-523-3728, michael@stmark-wels.org

• Secretary Barb Krass: barb@stmark-wels.org

School Phone: 715-834-5782 | Fax: 715-834-7668

• Principal Micheel: 715-835-6015, peter@smwels.org

• Mr. Biebert: 715-456-9557, chris@smwels.org

• Mr. Sponholz: 715-835-0213, scott@smwels.org

• Mrs. Seipel: 651-210-5326, marie@smwels.org

• Mrs. Pitt: 715-577-6418, sharon@smwels.org

• Ms. Jackie Plant : 715-271-9021, jackie@smwels.org

• Mrs. Knickelbein: 715-834-0254, kristin@smwels.org

• Mrs. Smith: 701-541-3169, ksmith@smwels.org

November 2021

AT A GLANCE

2nd - Board Meetings

Morning Moms

9th Pastors Circuit

Meeting @Bloomer

- Council

- Women’s Bible Study

11th CLHS Committee

Meeting

12th - Power Hour

16th - Morning Moms

23rd—Women’s Bible

Study

25th - Thanksgiving

Service

30th - Morning Moms

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, … who has spoken through the prophets.

(The Nicene Creed: Third Article)

This devotion is part of a continuing series on the three ecumenical creeds.

How can you know the will of God for certain? Where can you look to hear his voice?

In Steven Spielberg’s epic 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, he introduces the archaeologist and

adventurer Indiana Jones as he races against the Nazis to find the lost ark of the covenant, an

artifact they believe will make their army invincible. Indiana finds himself in Cairo, Egypt dig-

ging for the supposed final resting place of the ark. Supporting the Nazi expedition is Indi-

ana’s rival, an unscrupulously clever and equally driven French archaeologist named Rene

Belloq. One tense scene depicts the two in a Cairo tavern as Belloq points out to Indy how they

are not so different from each other and how they would each go to great lengths to secure this

monumental artifact. What would it mean to discover the lost ark of the covenant? In Belloq’s

estimation the ark was “a radio for talking to God.”

Whether looking for religious relics, reading tea leaves, studying the position of the stars, look-

ing for omens, interpreting dreams, consulting with the spirit world through a medium or nec-

romancer, or following the voice in your head, people the world over have been obsessed with

finding a way to discern the will of God. Perhaps even we, at times, must admit to looking in

strange, uncertain places to try to figure out what God’s will is. “When [insert unusual event or

strong feeling] happened, I felt like God was trying to tell me something?” or, “How can I know

for sure what God wants me to do in [insert decisive situation]?” or, “I really feel like God is

leading me do this or that.” Do signs or emotions give us certainty from God in our lives? No-

where has he promised to speak to us in such places.

But God has given us a very definite place where he has promised that we can hear his voice

and know his will. “We believe in the Holy Spirit…who has spoken through the prophets.”

The distinct voice of God is heard not in vague omens or vivid dreams, not in occult rituals or

ancient relics, not in misleading emotions or pious opinions, but in the prophetic and apostolic

writings of the Bible. Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to his apostles on the night he was be-

trayed, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach

you all things and remind you of everything I told you” (John 14:26). continued on page 3…

Co

nta

ct

Us

I was glad when they said to me:

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.” — Psalm 122:1

St. Mark Ministry Highlights

Public Use of the Means of Grace:

Worship: We averaged 283 worshipers per weekend in Sep-

tember. The Lord’s Supper was administered to 358. Mem-

bership stands at 813 souls and 598 communicants.

Funerals: Kathy Boettcher

Randy Schalow

Baptisms: Onyx James Riebe

Other Official Acts:

Membership Actions: We release Matthew Gehler to his

own spiritual care. We transfer Andrew Christie to Cross of

Christ, Coon Rapids, MN

Voter’s Meeting

The Voter’s issued a Divine Call to Faith Scheer to teach 1st grade next year.

She currently teaches at Christ the Lord in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Please keep

Ms. Scheer in your prayers as she deliberates her calls.

Divine call

Pastor Naumann has received a divine call to serve as pastor at Shepherd of

the Valley Lutheran Church in West Fargo, ND. Please remember Pastor Nau-

mann and his family in your prayers as he deliberates between the call to serve

in West Fargo and the call to continue serving here at St. Mark.

NEW HYMNALS

We will begin using the new hymnals in worship at St. Mark beginning with

our All Saints services on November 7-8. A detailed plan was drawn up and

emailed to the congregation on October 22 and presented to the voters on Octo-

ber 24. The plan lays out a way to gradually introduce the hymnal and its new

service settings over the next six months in worship.

The Service, the primary order of service in the new Christian Worship hymnal,

appears with three settings that each include different musical settings for the

order of service. The musical settings of Setting 1 will be the familiar songs of

the ordinary you know from “The Common Service,” which we will use

through the season of Christmas. This will give the congregation time to become

familiar with the structure and layout of The Service and with new psalm

settings and hymns.

Along the way, the worship choir, children’s choirs, and cantors will help sup-

port the congregation in singing and introduce new and unfamiliar songs.

Please refer to the email that was sent out last week for additional infor-

mation.

The apostle Peter said , “We also have

the completely reliable prophetic word.

You do well to pay attention to it, as to a

lamp shining in a dark place, until the

day dawns and the Morning Star rises in

your hearts, since we know this above

all else: No prophecy of Scripture comes

about from someone’s own interpreta-

tion. In fact, no prophecy ever came by

the will of man, but men spoke from

God as they were being carried along by

the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:19-21). The

Scriptures, what the church has recog-

nized as the 66 inspired books that make

up the canon of the Bible, are the sure

voice of God the Holy Spirit spoken,

written, and recorded through the hu-

man writers.

This voice of God reveals his unchang-

ing, holy will and how we have violated

this law. Moreover, the Scriptures reveal

to us Jesus Christ as the Son of God and

only Savior from sin and death. Jesus

claimed himself as the center of all the

scriptural witness of the Holy Spirit:

“You search the Scriptures because you

think you have eternal life in them. They

testify about me!” (John 5:39). This di-

vine revelation of Jesus as the Son of

God in flesh gives faith unto eternal life,

as Paul writes to Timothy that “from

infancy you have known the Holy Scrip-

tures, which are able to make you wise

for salvation through faith in Christ Je-

sus. All Scripture is God breathed” (2

Timothy 3:15-16). This is the Holy

Spirit’s work. That is how it can contain

hundreds of accurate prophecies ful-

filled centuries afterward. This is how

the work of some forty human authors

over 1500 years stands free of contradic-

tion or broken promise. No need to dig

for ancient relics or discern deceptive

signs to hear the voice of God. The Bible

is he voice of God the Holy Spirit.

THANKSGIVING SERVICE

We will hold a Thanksgiving Service at 9:00 am on Thursday, November 25th. Please join us.

There will be no school November 24th through the 26th for Thanksgiving break.

ALL OCCASION CARDS are available for purchase in the bookshelf near the library. Check it out as we just got some

new cards in. Individual Thanksgiving cards are available now and boxes of Christmas cards along with the 2022 God’s

Creation Wall calendars will be available soon.

Chris Trociaski, grew up on a dairy farm in the Holmen area. He serves as a credit analyst

for Wisconsin Business Development. His free time is spent with Brazilian jiu jitsu, a martial

arts program. He also thrives on reading/studying the philosophy of Adam Smith found in

the book, Wealth of Nations. On a recent trip to Ireland, Chris was fascinated with the archi-

tecture and natural beauty of Ireland. God willing, his next trip will be to Scotland. His an-

cestors came from the Prussia area.

Chris transferred to St. Mark from Peace Lutheran in Sun Prairie. He worships either at ear-

ly or late service and attends Friday morning and Sunday morning Bible classes. Please wel-

come him to St. Mark.

A new member to St. Mark is Matthew Ross. He grew up in the Manitowoc area, and dur-

ing his high school years he started working part time at Menards there. Since 2008, he has

been living in Eau Claire working in Menards corporate office but put off transferring his

church membership from St. John in Manitowoc to St. Mark. The impetus to do the paper-

work was the baptism of his infant son, Finley.

Matthew enjoys outdoor activities, especially fishing.and considers himself a gen-

eral handyman. His wife, Katie,grew up on a farm in the loyal area. Living in the country-

side of Elk Mound, they are able to have horses and chickens. They also spend time camp-

ing. Katie is an athletic trainer at EC North through Marshfield Clinic. She is at the school in

the afternoons to prepare for the various athletic events.

Especially St. Mark members who work at Menards and young mothers are encouraged to

introduce themselves to the Ross family. They usually worship at the late service.

Meet Our Newest Members …