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Dear St. Paul Family,

God’s purpose for our church is uniting together to

explore our faith and share God’s love with every-

one.

When I was on an on-line clergy site last week, there was a discussion about church news-letters. One pastor commented that he felt newsletters had out lived their purpose since (in his opinion) all newsletters do is create an unrealistic portrayal of making the congregation seem more healthy and vital than it actually is. This was his argu-ment for doing away with church newsletters. This is I think an example of how some view things like newsletters as one of the oldest forms of social media and of course on all forms of social media – Facebook, Twit-ter, LinkedIn, etc. everyone

seems to have a way of putting their best foot forward portray-ing themselves or their families in the best possible light. If newslet-ters contain in-formation that is twisted or ex-aggerated to portray an unreal-istic picture then I would agree the newsletter needs to either be revamped or let go. I can say that here at St. Paul, Morgan and I do our best to edit and make sure everything published in St. Paul Partners is accurate, to the point and correct. I think most people who are active in a church are pretty much aware of what the short-comings and challenges of the church are and in fact we could spend all day and all night talk-ing about what is wrong with the

SEPTEMBER 2019 VOLUME 33 • NUMBER 2

VISIT US ONLINE StPaulStartown.org

Mission and Purpose

St. Paul Partners

SEPTEMBER 2019 volume 33 • number 2

A PUBLICATION OF ST. PAUL LUTHERAN CHURCH

INSIDE this issue

Pastor’s Article .................................1

Member News ..................................2

Birthdays & Anniversaries ................2

Make Music ......................................3

Recycle Report .................................3

WELCA .............................................3

Fall Activities ....................................4

Sept. Worship Assistants .................4

Sept. Calendar .................................6

Cookie Ministry Deadline .................8

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church. For me, a newsletter is a way to highlight what is going well, what we can focus on re-garding serving God and ways we can and are putting our Purpose and Mission Statements into practice. Some newsletters con-tain mostly news of what has al-ready happened in the past, which means that for some churches the newsletter be-comes nothing more than a his-torical document. It is important to me that the majority of our news in the bulletins and the newsletters contain information that is happening in the future, of what ministry opportunities are upcoming to which we can look forward. A church (or any organization for that matter) that does not have a purpose or mission will just flounder without any direc-tion or goals. The above Purpose Statement has been crafted by your Seed Sower of St. Paul Planting Hope Team through much prayer, discernment and input from the congregation, in-cluding Church Council. The Seed Sower Team will be meeting in the Fellowship Hall on Saturday

September 7th to meet with other Planting Hope Teams and repre-sentatives from the synod to fur-ther discern how we can put this Purpose Statement into practice. Please keep us in your prayers during this time. In recent months we have been publishing this statement in our weekly bul-letins and from time to time we recite it at the beginning of wor-ship. The Seed Sowers and Church Council have also been continuing to look over the Mis-sion Statement with what I call the four W’s and thus far it has been determined that this con-tinues to be relevant for us. As you look at this newsletter, you will continue to find oppor-tunities for us to come together Uniting, Exploring and Sharing God’s love. Within that I look for-ward to being with you as we put our mission into practice to Wit-ness, Welcome, Worship and Work in the name of our Lord. Yours in Christ,

Sept 1 Elsie Sanders

Sept 5 Evie Warlick

Sept 10 Luke Warren

Sept 11 Blanche Lowman

Sept 13 Steven Blackburn

Sept 15 Alexis Helton

Sept 17 Becky McNeil

Sept 18 Pam Jarrett

Sept 19 Kathy Frye

Sept 24 Chantae Lail

Sept 27 Joey Potter J.D. Scott

Pastor Ralph

None Listed

Did We Miss Your Birthday or Anniversary?

If so, please accept our apologies! Let us know so we can make it right by calling (828) 464-3853 or email

morgan@stpaulstartown.org

Dear Church Family, Thank you. I appreciate your continued prayers, kindnesses and cards. You have all been such a blessing and I’m glad to call each of you a friend. I love you and am looking forward to getting back to church. God is Love, Ann Walker

Seed Sowers to Gather at St. Paul The Catawba County ELCA Planting Hope Teams will gather for meeting and eating at St. Paul on September 7, 2019. They will continue their efforts to discern God’s plan for us as culture and changes evolve. The St. Paul WELCA women will help with providing salad and desserts for the inspired members who will be attending.

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Recycle Report Thank you to everyone who is “pitching in” with our recycling effort here at St. Paul! Another very full container of paper and recyclable plastics was picked up by Republic Services. Every bit of repurposed material helps preserve our wonderful, God –created Earth. And each of us is hopefully continuing the same effort in our own home. Remember, before you toss something out, ask yourself if it can be reused or recycled. God has richly blessed us with such great bounty – let’s not waste anything He has given us!

PSALM 98:4 Yeah, go ahead and look it up (if you don’t know it already). Hint: it has to do with the St. Paul Music Ministry. Our Hand Bell Team and the Adult Choir will resume practice and rehearsals on September 4th. The bell ringers will practice at 6:00 PM and the Choir will start at 6:45 PM on Wednesdays. Come and share your talents, even if it is just humming! You can see we have plenty of empty chairs and we would be SO happy to have you claim one of those chairs. And the Handbell Choir has already begun learning a very special Christmas song! Come join us and live out Psalm 98:4!

The St. Paul Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (WELCA) are rolling out the red carpet for new members. Our one-hour monthly meetings are spirit-led and spirited! We share our gifts, determine how we can serve our neighbors and support one another. We sin-cerely pray you will come and be part of this group at our next meeting on September 9th at

6:00 PM in the Conference Room. Judy Hoke will be leading our time of devotional intro-spection. Our visitation ministry has grown and we are now cre-ating 2 groups of women to visit our homebound or ill members.

We will also be creating a “Welcome Basket” for our new neighbor across the street, Fresenius Kidney Care. Each

member is asked to bring a mag-azine or a puzzle book, like word search or Sudoku or an adult col-oring book and a pack of colored pencils to the meeting. See you there!

WELCA Welcomes You

Kairos Cookies Kairos Cookies are better than Keebler’s or Nabisco’s or even Pepperidge Farm cookies! No, you won’t find them in any grocery store. The special ingredient in Kairos Cookies is that they are all made with love, your love! Your cookies, baked with love and caring for a stranger, are the very best. So, what are we saying? Bake a lot of cookies for the Kairos Prison Cookie Ministry. Helen Bowman’s son, Brent, and his fellow lay leaders will be sharing the Word and cookies at the Alexander County Federal Correction Facility for 4 days beginning September 19, 2019. A few years ago we were happy to contribute 87 dozen. Over the en-suing years the dozen numbers grew to 125, then 165 and in February of 2019 we baked a record 191 doz-en sweet treats. We have a shorter time to try to beat that record, but with the Lord’s help all things are possible, right? As in the past, the cookies should be bulk bagged. And if you make any sugar-free or glu-ten-free, please mark the bag as such. If you are not able to deliver them to the Church by September 18th, please contact the Church Office, Pastor Ralph or Gail Bowman to arrange for your personal St. Paul taxi service. “Man does not live by bread (or cookies, sic) alone” (Matthew 4:4) so let’s support this vital minis-try to those who need to see, hear and taste God’s love for them.

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SEPTEMBER WORSHIP ASSISTANTS Liturgy…The Work of the People Offered Unto God

MONTHLY DUTIES

USHERS Roger Frye Sharon Frye

ALTAR GUILD Judy Hoke Betsy Lindler

MONEY COUNTER (TELLER) Roger Frye Sharon Frye

SUNDAY SCHOOL TELLER Richard Blackburn

COMMUNION (1ST, 3RD, 5TH) Dewey Jones Joyce Herman

COMMUNION (2ND, 4TH) Betsy Lindler Barbara Reed

WEEKLY DUTIES Sept 1 Sept 8 Sept 15 Sept 22 Sept 29

LAY READER Kathy Frye Judy Hoke Jonathan Jarrett Mary Kraft Tim Lail

PRAYER LEADER Wanda Helton Richard Helton Libby Wells Mary Kraft Kathy Frye

ACOLYTE Wanda Helton Natalie Lail Kathy Frye Savannah Lail Gail Bowman

CRUCIFER Richard Helton Dylan Lail Donna Miller Natalie Lail Kathy Frye

SENDER Barbara Reed Anna Schneider Ann Walker Dick Walker Deborah Guthrie

GOOD NEWS MOMENT Kathy Frye Gail Bowman Pastor Ralph Barbara Sloop Richard Helton

Looking Ahead It’s not too early to reserve some dates for special events in October. The St. Paul Annual Homecoming is scheduled for Sunday, October 27th. And, coincidentally, the 27th is also Reformation Sunday. Don’t forget to pull out your red tie (or suspenders), gentlemen and, ladies, get that red dress or jacket dry-cleaned. And then, only 4 days later, we can wear any crazy get-up for our Trunk-or-Treat event. We have had some wild and wacky costumes including, monks, devils, scarecrows, witches and nuns – and that’s just the St. Paul ADULTS!!!. Save October 31st for an early evening of fun. More details will be in the October Newsletter.

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SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8:30am Java with Jesus

9:00am Sunday School

10:00am Worship 11:30am Worship & Music Team

6:00pm Cub Scouts 7:00pm Boy Scouts

6:00pm Handbells 6:45pm Choir

8:00pm A.A.

9:30am Planting Hope Teams (FH)

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

8:30am Java with Jesus

9:00am Sunday School

10:00am Worship 11:30am Church Council 2:00pm Confirmation Class

9:00am Crochet Cronies 6:00pm WELCA 6:00pm Cub Scouts 7:00pm Boy Scouts

6:00pm Handbells 6:45pm Choir

8:00pm A.A.

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

8:30am Java with Jesus

9:00am Sunday School

10:00am Worship

6:00pm Cub Scouts 7:00pm Boy Scouts

Prison Ministry Cookies Due 6:00pm Handbells 6:45pm Choir

8:00pm A.A.

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

8:30am Java with Jesus

9:00am Sunday School

10:00am Worship

9:00am Crochet Cronies 6:00pm Cub Scouts 7:00pm Boy Scouts

6:00pm Handbells 6:45pm Choir

8:00pm A.A.

29 30

8:30am Java with Jesus

9:00am Sunday School

10:00am Worship

6:00pm Cub Scouts 7:00pm Boy Scouts

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STAMP

HERE

St. Paul Lutheran Church 3761 Startown Rd Newton, NC 28658 Phone: (828) 464-3853 www.StPaulStartown.org

<<Address Here>>

We the people of St. Paul are called and empowered by God- To Witness through Christ;

To Welcome everyone through the Holy Spirit; To Worship with joy; and To Work with God to meet

the needs of our community.

Prison Ministry Cookies Due Wednesday, September 18th

See page 3 for more details.