My brothers and sisters in Christ,
Are we blessed or what? Last week, we had the choir singing their Advent Cantata. This past weekend, we had our children perform their Christmas program. What a great two-week period of word and music. Many times I wish you could be where I am. I get to say goodbye to everyone who is walking out. I’m not sure if I have ever seen more smiles on faces, and it wasn’t just from proud parents and grandparents. I saw many smiles on members who had no children in the program. Thank you, children, for sharing your Christmas program with us.
Jan Hauger was front and center. Make sure you thank her next time you see her. However, so many adults played a role in the program. Some were entertaining the children in the Narthex before they went on. Others were making sure angels, shepherds, and magi came in at the right time. It took many, and I thank you for your help.
However, some of them just didn’t participate in the program. Many of them played a part in the worship service also. Those who had already received their First Communion were designated as communion assistants. Others read and did the offering. For some, it was the first time in front of a group of people. I told them if you make a mistake, do it with confidence. I think I made more mistakes than they did. They really did a great job.
Don’t forget our Christmas Eve service. It will start at a new time, at 3:00 p.m. Would love to see a whole bunch of families there. Some told me that they were not going to be here because they were going to be somewhere else with family. Family is definitely one important part of Christmas. Personally, just worship somewhere.
Liturgically, the Christmas season is not done yet. We will continue to celebrate the Christmas season on December 27 and 28. Usually, we have two weeks after Christmas, but this year we only have one, and then we go into the season of Epiphany.
If you have the ELW Red Hymnal and you look at pages 92 & 93, you will see the order of worship. You will also see items in bold print. These items in bold are called the Essentials. What that means is if you are going to have a worship service, you should have these items. The last weekend of December, we will have an Essentials worship service.
Since we only have 1 week of the Christmas season, I decided to load up on Christmas music during this service. If you enjoy singing Christmas music, I hope you will enjoy this service.
One last item of business. Two years ago, we updated our Constitution to bring it current. It was ratified by the church body at that time, and we have been governing the church using this Constitution. The Northern IL Synod updated the Constitution again in 2025. It was mostly formatting and grammar. The one major change is that instead of a number of members for a quorum, they want a percentage instead. Currently, we have 318 voting members in our church. Keeping the number of 25 voting members, doing some fancy math (25/318 = # x 100), it comes out to be 7.9%. If we make our quorum 26 voting members, it becomes 8.2%. Our updated Constitution now says 8% or greater.
So why am I explaining this to you now? We aim to have this new Constitution ratified during our Annual Meeting, scheduled for Sunday, January 25. Our Constitution states that our Annual Meeting must be on the fourth Sunday of January (barring weather). It also says we need to get the changes made to the congregation so they can view it, 30 days before the Annual Meeting. It puts the church on a deadline to get this information to you. Copies of the Constitution and the changes made are now available in the Narthex.
December Schedule
Christmas Eve Service – 3:00 p.m. (New time)
December 27 & 28 – Worship Service
Don’t forget our new time for our Christmas Eve service. It will start at 3:00 p.m.
Okay, all that is over with, this is what I really wanted to do:
Merry Christmas to all
from Pastor Tom & Patty
Crossed marked and spirit sealed,
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
Readings for Christmas Eve Service– December 24
Luke 2:1-20
Readings for first Week of Christmas – December 27 & 28
Isaiah 63:7-9 Psalm 148 Hebrews 2:10-18 Matthew 2:13-23