ANNUAL MEETING

NOVEMBER 10, 2024

Our congregation will meet Sunday November 10, 2024 at 9:20am in the Sanctuary for our Annual Meeting, gathering for prayer, conversation, and discussion.  Join us as we hear stories of the impact of our year in ministry, thank our Council leadership, and elect our leaders for the coming year.

In addition, this year we will consider our Endowment Fund, which has grown to the point we are able to start investing it!  Our Endowment Committee will bring a resolution to open an account with the ELCA Foundation's Ministry Growth Fund as one of our investment instruments.  Our Council is also presenting a revision to the Endowment Committee bylaws to clarify language and the structure of the Committee.

We also will consider two youth-related Constitution amendments:

• At our April meeting, we approved an amendment to the language regarding our Youth Representative to Council; now we need to ratify that decision, unchanged, for it to take effect.
• Once that change is ratified, our Youth Board is proposing a related bylaw change to allow a Youth Representative to serve up to three terms.

Finally, please note that we will meet in May 2025 to approve our Ministry Plan for August, 2025 through July, 2026.

Copies of our Annual Report and proposed amendments to the Constitution will be available soon in the Gathering Space.

• For comparison, our current Constitution (rev. 2023).
• Proposed amendments to the Endowment Fund Committee bylaws, and a comparison document (insertions are underlined, deletions are struckthrough).
• Proposed Youth Representative-related Constitution revisions

Questions can be directed to Kurt Stefans, Council President, or Pastor Tim.  

See you November 10!

ALL SAINTS DAY

We will be celebrating All Saints Day on Sunday, November 3.  We will honor those who have entered into eternal life and have their names listed in the bulletin.  If you have any loved one, family or friend, that you would like listed on the insert, please fill out a form located in the Gathering Area.

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF Truck packing day is 

Saturday, October 19 from 2 - 5pm.  The semi-trailer will be arriving around 2pm.  Whether you are able to assist with paperwork of ready to move boxes, we could use your assistance that afternoon.  Baked goods to share with our guests that will be bringing their boxes would be appreciated.  Sign up sheets are in the gathering area.  If you have any questions, please reach out to Becky Fry 219.241.6854.

October Altar Gifts

Holy Communion          Given to the Glory of God   

Altar Candles               Vickie & Gregg Copeland ~ In Celebration of our                                                                                                                            Grandchildren            

Eternal Lamp                 Marilyn McGawn ~ In Memory of Malcolm

Grief Support Group 

(Next meetings are October 23)

This support group is for those that have suffered a loss, and is open to anyone in the community. The group meets every other Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. in the conference room (room 209) and is facilitated by Pastor Jane Aicher. If you or someone you know is interested in this group but are unavailable at this time, please contact the church office. 

Social Ministry Monthly Emphasis

October 2024        

As you do it for the least of these, you do it for Christ.  (Matthew 25:40)

Social Ministry Emphasis for October.  The focus this month is to provide volunteer time and monetary support for Lutheran World Relief  www.lwr.org and ELCA World Hunger/Disaster Response www.elca.org/hunger and www.elca.org/disaster

Lutheran World Relief is affirming God’s love for all people, working with Lutherans and partners around the world to end poverty, injustice, and human suffering.  LWR vision is to be empowered by God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ, envisioning a world in which each person, every community and all generations live in justice, dignity, and peace.  Also, here is a volunteer opportunity in October: helping with the annual northern Indiana Lutheran congregations in-gathering collection day at CLC (Sat. afternoon Oct. 19) - loading a semi-truckload of items to be delivered to LWR for shipment overseas.  Many items come from CLC:  quilts and baby/fabric/personal/school kits.  If you would like to volunteer to help, please contact Becky Fry or call the church office.

ELCA World Hunger/Disaster Response two hunger/disaster response programs (plus Lutheran World Relief) work closely together on world humanitarian issues, providing relief and hunger assistance, as well as providing opportunities for hunger education and advocacy activities.  79% of funds are used around the world, 12% in the U.S., and 9% for education and advocacy. 

Help achieve our goal of $2500 in October (over and above giving combined with CLC’s $1200 budgeted amount).  By achieving our goal CLC will help Luth. World Relief and ELCA Hunger/Disaster Relief continue mutual support and service activities that are crucial to effective ministry.  Use your weekly worship giving mailed in check to CLC and indicate “LWR/ELCA Hunger” or contribute through Subsplash on the CLC website clcvalpo.org via the “Give” button and choose Monthly Social Ministry Emphasis.  Thank you to members for supporting monthly social ministry emphases.