June 2013

St. Paul’s Lutheran MESSENGER

Congratulations

Graduates!

Kristen Campbell Lindsey Powers Nick Powers

Phone: 952-938-4683 Email: stpauls@saintpaulslutheran.org Fax: 952-938-1141 Website: www.saintpaulslutheran.org

Our mission is to be “an open and inviting church spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

WHO WE ARE A Reconciling in Christ (RIC) congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Minneapolis Area Synod, Western Parks and Lakes Conference.

MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to be an open and inviting church spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ. WORSHIP TIMES You are invited to join us regularly on Sunday mornings for 9:30 AM worship followed by refreshments and Christian education. Please check our calendar for days and times of activities and events.

CALENDAR An interactive calendar is available on our website: www.saintpaulslutheran.org. Just click the “Calendar” button at the top of the web page and click on any time or event for details and often a map. CONTACT INFORMATION The office is lightly staffed. Regular office hours are 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. Please call before coming in case of unexpected closure. Phone: 952-938-4683 Fax: 952-938-1141 email: StPauls@saintpaulslutheran.org,

MAILING LIST Please provide the church office with your email address to be included in electronic delivery of the newsletter.

The community of St. Paul’s is pleased to send you this newsletter. However, if you prefer not to receive it, please call the church office or e-mail us to remove your address from our list.

CONGREGATION RELATIONSHIPS

Partners Igelsia Vida Abundante en Cristo, (Abundant Life in Christ), provides a worship service in Spanish at St. Paul’s on Sunday, 1:00 – 3:00 PM Bet Shalom Reform Congregation, Interfaith Thanksgiving service Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Lent & Holy Week services Mizpah United Church of Christ, Interfaith Thanksgiving service

Mission Augustana Chapel View Care Center in Hopkins Augustana Emerald Crest Feed My Starving Children ELCA World Hunger Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Intercongregation Communities Association (ICA) Lutherans Concerned/North America (LC/NA), (RIC) Lutheran Social Services (LSS) Lutheran World Relief (LWR) Meals on Wheels Minnesotans United for All Families Our Saviour’s Housing ResourceWest of Hopkins Synod Disaster Relief Teens Alone Thrivent Financial for Lutherans

ARTICLE SUBMISSION Please submit articles as Word documents with your clip art and/or photos to stpauls@saintpauls lutheran.org and include your contact information. For informational emails and pre-printed fliers or brochures, provide your condensed version that can be directly inserted into the newsletter. Submission deadline is the fifteenth of each month. All submissions are subject to editing for space and content. All rights reserved by St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.

ST. PAUL’S CHURCH COUNCIL & ASSISTING ADMINISTRATORS

Officers

President – Pat Tollefson Vice President – Erik Kemnitz

Secretary – Kathy Powers Treasurer – Mark Kokesh

Council Members At-Large

Aly Bonner Sheri Brenden Darcie Rodman Heidi Schmitz Haily Schmitz

Pastor

Rev. Louise Mollick

Staff Administrative Assistant,

Newsletter Editor Linda Dundas

Music Director Rick Latterell

Facility Use Coordinator

Mary Hromatka

Financial Secretary Mary Kay Peterson

Webmaster

Vince Jacobson

AUXILIARY BUILDING USE St. Paul’s encourages use of its facility by groups that will support our mission statement. Examples are 12 Step recovery programs, local neighborhood organizations, and congregations seeking meeting space. Please contact us for more details. PUBLICATION The Messenger is published monthly by St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church ELCA, 13207 Lake St. Extension., Minnetonka, MN 55305.

Spreading the Good News through worship and witness in the image of a generous God. As written in last month’s message, Church Council members are reading and working through a book titled Unbinding the Gospel authored by Martha Grace Resse. These newsletter articles are a way to bring you along on our journey as we learn about witnessing in today’s world. I hope some of you have taken up the invitation to read the book yourself. Our plan is to work through the book in four months using some council meeting time for discussion and prayer, and we are now in month two of the process. We have agreed to spend these months praying together without making any decisions. With our prayer buddies, we pray for the church, for all the people of St. Paul’s, and for the opportunity to witness to those outside our congregation. I know it sounds a bit crazy, but I haven’t remembered a time when we have had such a concerted effort around prayer and witnessing. It seems to be exactly the right thing to be doing now! Please do the same. Council members threw out words that for them were associated with prayer: conversation with God, forgiveness, reflection, direction, closeness, necessary, confusing, love, praise, thanksgiving, guidance, quietness, empowerment, presence, cry-out, waiting, meals, and bedtime. We also discussed if there was a “correct way” to pray. Of course, the group did not believe that we had to be perfect in our praying in order to be heard by God. We did discuss the different circumstances surrounding prayer. For example, some prayer can be structured and more formal, such as when we pray the Lord’s Prayer or Creed. Prayer can be casual, such as in the car or as you lay before going to sleep – more conversational with God. We felt that the most important thing was to pray – individually and with others as we do in worship. Perhaps it’s good to remember Romans 8:26: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. Part two of the book is centered on the trinity of relationships, a metaphor built on the Triune God. First and foremost is our personal relationship with God – the foundation stone of who we are. We need to pray deeply as the book states: “prayer is the way to stay in love with God”. We need to quiet our minds to listen to God, receive from God, grow and become vivid, and have the inspiration of the Spirit. The second relationship is among the people. Congregations that are doing great faith teaching/faith sharing over the long haul are healthy from the inside out. If we put a long-term focus on helping people be in primary contact with God, then healthy relationships have a much better chance of developing. We were challenged with “do we tell people in our church what’s really going on in our lives”? The third part of the “relationships” trinity is people outside the church. Vibrant congregations contain people who are attending to spiritual disciplines and alive in Christ. Church isn’t the place you go weekly for a “little encouragement to get you through the rest of the week”, but rather the church is an igniter of faith, an instigator of growth that affects our whole lives. The larger purpose of the church is to take the Gospel out beyond the walls. We talked about the unique way St. Paul’s is trying to serve the LGBT community and how we worked for human rights by opposing the Marriage Amendment, and just recently, celebrated the passing of the Minnesota marriage equality bill. The council also discussed another question the book posed: How’s it going under your own steam? In other words, we are reminded that we need to hand our church to God and let God work through us. Blessings, Pat

A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESIDENT Pat Tollefson

We celebrate with those who are remembering their baptism this month:

Carol Hoyhtya

15 Riley Schmitz

19 Katherine Brenk

23 Lisa Foss

23 Ryan Foss

26 Aly Bonner

9 Connie Hessevick

11 Kim Streater

12 Steve Nelson

12 Shelly Schweiger

16 Virginia Rustad

20 Ray Olson

20 Matt Schmitz

21 Alex Nelson

22 Kris Moe

23 Regina Johnson

25 Alyssa Bonner

28 Sawyer Foss

26 Grace Falk

27 Peter Rudolph

29 Marla Bonner

30 Marshall Carpenter

30 Rey Lindquist

Blessings on your Anniversary 16 Erik & Katie Elleraas

24 Eric & Pr. Diane Reishus

26 Pr. Howard & Lillian Rand

CONFIRMATION Congratulations to Clint Hoyhtya who publicly affirmed his baptism on Sunday, May 19.

Congratulations Graduates! We would like to

recognize and congratulate graduating students and their families from the community of St. Paul’s on Sunday, June 16. Kristen Campbell who graduated June 2 with a BA in Mathematics from Gustavus Adolphus College and will be working in the Twin Cities. Nicholas Powers who graduated May 10 with a BA in education from Winona State University and hopes to be teaching this fall. Lindsay Powers who graduated May 18 with an MD from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and will begin her residency this fall in Omaha, Nebraska.

Celebrating Baptism

June 2 – 2nd Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 8:22 - 23, 41 - 43

Psalm 96:1 - 9 Galatians 1:1 - 12 Luke 7:1 - 10 June 9 – 3rd Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 17:17 - 24 Psalm 30 Galatians 1:11 - 24 Luke 7:11 - 17 June 16 – 4th Sunday after Pentecost 2 Samuel 11:26 - 12:10, 13 - 15 Psalm 32 Galatians 2:15 - 21 Luke 7:36 - 8.3 June 23 – 5th Sunday after Pentecost Isaiah 65:1 - 9 Psalm 22:19 - 28 Galatians 3:23 - 29 Luke 8:26 - 39 June 30 – 6th Sunday after Pentecost 1 Kings 19:15 - 16, 19 - 21 Psalm 16 Galatians 5:1, 13 - 25 Luke 9:51 - 62

We are pleased to announce the joining by marriage of

the new Koch family: Megan Nordstrom, Trevor Koch, and daughter Marinus Nordstrom

on Saturday, May 18, 2013, with Pr. Louise Mollick presiding.

Congratulations and many blessings!

The Art of Christian Relationships

1. You can’t be a Christian alone.

2. Build relationships through communication.

3. Let’s get personal.

4. You must risk and trust.

5. Pay attention to what they’re saying.

6. Try harder to get the real meaning.

7. Deal with one another in love.

8. Remember who you are.

Pat Tollefson’s discussion in this month's article, "A Message from our President", correlates so appropriately with the beautiful poster of a "scroll" that has been hung in St. Paul’s library. Howard Rand shared the words with the Aha Moments group and Troy Maben, a participant, created and produced the words onto the scroll for display. Be sure to visit the library to view it.

Lively conversation and light

refreshments provided

Reading Schedule

JUNE The Grandmothers Council of the World by Carol Schaefer. Thirteen indigenous grandmothers offer their vision of our planet because of their concern with the unprecedented destruction of our Mother Earth. JULY – AUGUST: summer break September Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg. This month’s meeting is on Thursday, June 27 at 7:00 PM in St. Paul’s library. Please join us even if you haven’t read the book of the month.

Sunday Bible Readings

St. Paul’s Book Club invites you to join them.

SECOND SUNDAY ALL CONGREGATION EVENTS Come celebrate the Spirit in the Labyrinth on the Second Sunday in June. The Second Sunday event team invites you after morning fellowship to a celebration of the Holy Spirit at work in our Labyrinth on June 9th. The Labyrinth was added to the churchyard at St Paul’s in August of 2010. Since then, congregants and members of the community alike have been welcome to walk the Labyrinth as part of their own meditation or spiritual journeys. If you would like the opportunity to learn more about or to experience the Labyrinth in fellowship, please join us. You will learn about the making of our Labyrinth and of the spiritual history of labyrinths in general. If the weather cooperates, we will each walk the Labyrinth and share our experiences from this or from previous walks. In case of inclement weather, we will meet downstairs in the peace/meditation room (room 2). Please join us, Pr. Louise, Deloris, Sheri and Connie Note: The Second Sunday event team is a fluid and easy going group. Feel free to share your topic ideas with one of us or to join us in presenting a future event.

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(View pictures in color online at www.SaintPaulsLutheran.org and click on newsletter tab. __________________________________________________________________________

The second Sunday in April we learned how to make origami butterflies.

(l-r) Vince Jacobson, Deloris Majersky, Rick Latterell, Carolyn Carpenter, Jess Harris, Pr. Louise

(l-r) Rick Latterell, Pr. Louise, Kris Jacobson, Linda McGee

The second Sunday in May we celebrated Mother’s Day and Mother Earth

(l-r) Connie Hessevick, Regina Johnson

(l-r) Dean Bonner, Jess Harris

Dear Friends, We are so glad that you will have the opportunity to plant and grow in one of the garden boxes that surround our beautiful Labyrinth! To ensure a good season and to create an environment of respect for God’s good earth and each other, we have developed the following guidelines for you to follow.

1. Each gardener must register with the church office. We require your name, phone # and email address ( if you have one).

2. Please plant and harvest the garden box that has been registered to you.

3. Each gardener is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of their own garden box. Watering, weeding, harvesting and any other garden related maintenance are all the responsibility of the gardener, including arranging for other gardeners to tend their plots if/when they are unable to do so during the growing season. A compost container for organic waste is available by the south woods.

4. Garden boxes should be cared for at least once a week and ripe produce harvested by Sunday night. Every Monday morning non-harvested ripe produce will be picked and delivered to ICA.

5. Any garden that has remained neglected for more than three weeks will have the entire harvest donated to ICA, our local food shelf.

6. Please conserve water and remember to rewind the hose when done.

7. The application of herbicides (weed killers) and pesticides is strictly prohibited.

8. Children are welcome in the garden; however, we require that they be supervised by an adult at all times.

9. At the end of the season each gardener is responsible for cleaning out their own bed, leaving it as you received it in the spring.

Have a wonderful summer enjoying the nourishment of the produce and the beauty of the plants you have nurtured this year! Peace

WELCOME TO ST. PAUL’S

COMMUNITY GARDENS

CHURCH DIRECTORY There have been several updates to St. Paul’s January 2013 Church Directory. Please contact the church office (952-938-4683) or stop in for a copy of the revised edition.

CHURCH STORAGE LOCATIONS Busy hands worked hard on “Building Clean-out Day” in January to sort, clean out, reorganize and reassign storage space in our building. To preserve this work, an inventory of storage locations has now been posted on the inside door of most storage closets and room 3. If something is used, please make every effort to return it to its designated area. Comments and updates are most welcome. Please contact Linda in the church office.

LUTHERAN DISASTER RESPONSE Donate NOW to help those affected by the tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma last month. Your gifts through Lutheran Disaster Response designated to “U.S. Tornadoes” will be used entirely (100%) to help survivors of tornadoes rebuild their lives and livelihoods. Find more resources and information on how to give at www.ELCA.org/disaster.

SAVORY SPRING FARMS Sunday, June 16, Liz Talley will be available following our worship service to discuss Savory Spring Farms membership opportunities.

PRIDE FESTIVAL Anyone interested in participating in this year’s Twin Cities Pride Festival (June 29 – 30), please contact Aly Bonner or Pr. Louise ASAP.

HOPKINS RASPBERRY FESTIVAL Saturday, July 20 is the Marketplace Arts & Crafts Fair of the festival when St. Paul’s sponsors a booth on the Mainstreet mall for outreach and visibility. Volunteers are needed in two hour intervals to work in the booth and hand out literature. Please contact Rey Lindquist if you can help.

Pastor’s Schedule:

Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly, Prior Lake Friday, May 31 – Saturday, June 1 Pr. Louise and Council President, Pat Tollefson will be attending.

Vacation Saturday, June 22 through Saturday, June 29.

Weekly Day off Every Monday. Emails and phone messages will be responded to on Tuesday.

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you! (Phil. 1:3)

Indeed, thank you all for your love, your support, your prayers and the cards to cheer me during my recent hospitalization. Your wishes for a speedy recovery have made it so! With renewed energy and good health, I am so glad to be back with all of you

again. Pr. Louise.

Thanks to Rick and Jeanne Moe, two rain barrels have been delivered for water conservation. It is hoped they will be installed shortly and ready for use for our gardens.

Thanks to Randy Mohrmann (building cleaner) for the lovely umbrella stand that enhances our patio entrance.

Thanks to Jan Guetschow and Rachel Larson for orchestrating the Annual Rummage Sale. Proceeds exceeded $1,000 and everything was cleaned up by 3:00 PM. Job well done ladies.

Thanks to Deloris Majersky for the delivery of aluminum cans to Express Metals all winter. April and May’s donations totaled $20.52!

Many thanks to St. Paul’s congregation for all you have done for the same-sex marriage law passage. The use of the facility for Sunday evening phone banks; the contacts many of you made to your legislators. You cared; you made

a difference. Jan Guetschow

What’s up?

Continued from previous page. Dear Pastor Mollick,

I should have sent this in November, but better late than never...especially when saying thank you. A little background: I am gay and have been partnered for 11 years now and my partner and I are on an adoption waiting list through LSS. I teach at a Catholic school not far from your church. I grew up attending Lutheran churches and colleges and then Spirit of the Lakes UCC when I first moved to the Twin Cities, but have drifted away from the church as the political roilings about GLBT issues came up in the Lutheran Church and SOTL underwent some of its own turmoil. (However, I celebrated my own quiet little Reformation Day at work every year...my Catholic colleagues just roll their eyes and mumble something about purgatory.) During the anti-marriage amendment campaign this past fall, I would often drive by St. Paul's on my way to work, buoyed by the fact that your church had rainbow colors outside, messages of support for GLBT folks, and the tranquil labyrinth - all in relatively conservative Minnetonka. About 2 weeks before November 6, I pulled into work past several "Vote Yes" signs posted on the church/school property. I've never really understood what "spiritual pain" was...the concept always seemed pretty out there to me...but I had a visceral and spiritual reaction to those signs. I knew the Archbishop had taken a very active role, but my school had been pretty out of the loop on this issue - I was in shock. I so wanted to turn around and drive home, calling in that I was sick. I decided that I had to walk past those signs and claim my place in my own workplace. After the vote was tallied, I drove by your church with a sense that it's organizations like yours that really made the difference in the outcome. This morning, after the momentous vote yesterday in the senate, I again drove by your church. The signs weren't out front, but your presence again brought peace...and a big smile on my face before I walked into my workplace. (In some ways, this new status raises many questions about how my soon-to-be married status will impact my employment at the Catholic school. What a great problem to have...I think?!) I really wanted you to know that your efforts as a church and your individual effort as a pastoral leader created ripples that helped the folks in your congregation and in the state. I realize that they may have caused some conflict among your congregants and their families. But they also helped out a guy driving to work who was starting to feel like Minnetonka was becoming a hostile place. Thank you for St. Paul's beacon of hope and light! Sincerely, MW

St. Paul's Lutheran Church

13207 Lake Street Extension Minnetonka, MN 55305

God’s work. Our hands.

WELCOME STATEMENT

We at St. Paul’s are committed to welcoming you . . .

If you are lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersexual, transgendered or straight.

If you are seven, seventeen, forty-seven or one hundred and seven.

If you are broken, healed or in recovery.

If you are rich, poor, or somewhere in between.

If you are able-bodied, disabled or differently-abled.

If you have a strong faith, have doubts about your faith or aren’t sure you have any faith at all.

If you have accepted Christ’s love, question Christ’s love or don’t know if you are loved.

If you are looking for a church home, have never had a church home or need a place to find peace.

We are committed to welcoming everyone, living as a reconciling people

in our life together and in our outreach to the community.