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Can you feel that? That wind that's been blowing through here over the last week and is forecasted to continue through this week. To some it might just be the arrival of fall, but for us at Christ the King...it sure feels a lot like the Holy Spirit. Recently we've had two BIG Holy Spirit nudges come through here.... First-- Back in August, we had submitted an application for a program offered by the Churchwide expression of the ELCA called Congregations Lead. Here's how the initiative is described on the ELCA website: The Congregations Lead Initiative is a new, two-year program that will gather a cohort of 50 congregations from across the ELCA to unleash and harness their collective genius and discover new and useful ministry innovations. If you’re excited about more new, young, diverse people knowing a life in Christ, then your congregation might be a great candidate to apply for this initiative. The ELCA seeks to activate each of us so that more people might know the way of Jesus and discover community, justice, and love. Now...the application for this program was no small task. It included a written reflection, submission of names for our congregation's innovation team, and a video portion that showed off the creativity of our congregation. Honestly, I was pretty proud of the collaborative nature of the whole application process...it truly was a team effort that was fully inspired by the Holy Spirit. Here's the video part to give you an idea of what we submitted: After the application process, we waited for what felt like FOREVER to hear if we were accepted into the initiative. And finally, last Friday we heard that we were one of the 50 congregations selected to be part of the cohort! This is just the first step in the journey of innovation for us, but we have SO much to be excited about with our acceptance. Above all, we are giving thanks to our partners in ministry who have said YES to being on our Innovation/Congregations Lead team. Those partners are: Denise Barnaal, Kelly Vils, and Emilie Haessler. Please keep theses partners in your prayers as together we'll be participating in trainings and listening to how the Holy Spirit is leading us to innovate to meet new folks in our community. Peace be the journey, Pastor Dara
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Start Me Up!“Start Me Up” is a play on the first words from one of the Rolling Stones most popular songs that is played at many sporting events and was featured in the first Microsoft TV ad to launch Windows 95. The Windows ’95 operating system which has a “Start” button on the main screen and “Start Me Up” was one of the first hit songs used in a major marketing campaign and a great way to get started.
Slightly different from rock ‘n’ roll and Microsoft, “Start Me Up” comes to my mind as the revving up of a new learning year! This Sunday is the beginning of Sunday school. Monday is the beginning of Chris Ed. Wednesday is the beginning of Confirmation. There are a host of other “start me up’s” happening at church as we get revved up for learning more about Jesus! If you haven’t already signed your child/ren up, please do that today to get them involved in their faith formation at CtK. “Start Me Up” also reminds me that we are near the time of our fall appeal. Your church leadership and staff have been working for weeks and months to prepare each one of us to evaluate our discipleship and involvement of our faith in everyday life. The theme for this year is “Think Outside.” A mailing has been sent to inform you and a second mailing will be coming next week to understand how you have been ‘blessed to be a blessing’ to God and others (Genesis 12:2). “Start Me Up” is a way of being fired up for Jesus! Consider the ways you can fire up your faith by giving back to others in service. “Start Me Up” leads to the many walks happening this fall. There is the ALS walk for individuals and families who live with Lou Gehrig’s disease. NAMI has their walk for supporting and raising awareness for people who live with mental illness and for our community to better understand. Another walk is the CROP Walk of the Fox Cities – “We walk because they walk.” CROP Walk has existed a long time (40+ years) and is supported by many churches, including CtK. This year we are asking individuals to walk on their own, any distance or number of days to create awareness that there of people who walk a long way, every day for clean water, to get food, or for education. For years you have supported, fed, and given to CROP for those who do not have the basics of life that we have, but spend the majority of their day walking for them. On Sunday, October 10 after worship we will do a short walk and share in mindful meditation to create awareness about people in this situation. Come on CtK! – let’s get “Started Up” to be the body of Christ each day of our lives and to be a ministry where God’s love comes to life! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate With the recent shift in my position to look specifically at high school ministry and innovation, I have begun some continuing education in design thinking, which is a process for innovation that is widely used in the business world. My first online course I'm taking is centered on bringing out the creativity of teams, and the homework has included exercises to attempt with our respective teams. One of the big lessons of this week was: sometimes, in order to get to one really good idea, we need to free our minds of the really bad ones. This creates space for the good ideas, AND sometimes the the bad ideas just need a little tweaking to become good ideas. So...to practice this and test this out, the assigned exercise for this week was a "bad idea brainstorm." As a staff we identified something that's been a challenge, and from there we each spent 5 minutes coming up with really bad ideas that would solve that challenge. The challenge: Only two families have registered for Sunday school so far. We KNOW there are far more than 2 families with Sunday school aged kids in our church, and we have been trying to figure out ways to activate families toward registration and partnership with us in their child's faith formation. 5 minutes turned out quit the collection of BAD ideas! Here's a glimpse at a few....
After we each came up with as many bad ideas as we could, we took time to talk them over, to laugh, and to process. And you know what? Amazingly just the processing of the bad ideas led to a few good ones! All our staff needed was a little bit of time, some reminders to laugh, and some joyful nudges from the Holy Spirit.
Over the next months and years at Christ the King you can look forward to innovation and new ways of doing things. A bad ideas brainstorm is just the beginning, but it is one small step toward helping us recognize the abundance of gifts and skills we have in our congregation. There's a place and a use for all God's gifts, and we can't wait to see how the Holy Spirit leads us to utilize the gifts of our congregation for the sake of the world. Peace be the journey, Pastor Dara  We all know the line for Capital One credit card “What’s in your wallet?” Well, I though I would take off from there, to ask, “What’s in your backpack?”
As you know students in Wisconsin are back to school this week. If you have a child in school you know they are given a school supply list. In fact that list is way more than one backpack can handle. Why? Because the items are bulky like boxes of Kleenex and schools are really good at anticipating the supplies a student will need for the year. In addition, schools also know that if students are worried or do not have what they need for the classroom, they are more likely to be stressed about school and not perform as best of their ability. Another issue is that it costs more to be ready for school than some families can afford. Thankfully, the people of CtK are generous and willing to respond to the needs of our community by supplying backpacks, folders, paper, pencils and much, much, more. We partnered with African Heritage Inc. and supplied them well. That is outstanding, but there is more. The week after the supplies were handed out, there was a family who called the church in need of school supplies. We were able to locate more supplies and provide for this family, even after the weekend of passing out the backpacks was over. Wait, there’s still more! Another local family came into the church seeking school supplies for the beginning of the new year. After meeting with them, we discovered the student needed more than supplies. We sent out a Facebook message and you responded with love and generosity! This student didn’t have the proper footware and clothing. You saw to it and that this student is prepared not only with classroom supplies, but they are able to have clothing and a water bottle to be more than ready! Thank you CtK! What’s in our student’s backpacks? God’s Love. What’s in your wallet? Generosity! Thank you for being a place in this world where God’s love comes to life! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate This past Wednesday evening we gave an update on all the great things happening at Christ the King and all the ways God's love is coming to life. Check out that video for an update on all things CtK!  We have had some “good” problems at church lately. You know that kind that you can rejoice about. Some time ago, we thought we had ordered enough baptismal Bibles. Well, we have had so many baptisms in the last year and half we have run out of Bibles sooner than we thought we would. We also thought we have made enough fleece blankets that our confirmation youth prayed over and made. We only have two left! Again, great problems to have. I give thanks for the many families who have had children over the pandemic. They have waited for in person baptisms or who have felt it important to gather with people in their bubble and have a baptism in the home! I appreciate the many people who have worked so well with the safety measures we have in place when we gather outside or in worship. I give thanks for your understanding and for the joy we can have as we welcome these new lives into the world and the Church! Keep these baptismal families in your thoughts and prayers as they find it important and meaningful to baptize and raise their children in the Christian faith.
On another note, have you ever thought or been interested in learning more about your faith? Lay school of theology may be just for you. https://ecswlayschool.org/ People from other local ELCA congregations gather once a month throughout the school year on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings to learn about the Bible and Lutheran theology. One person who has attended said, “I really didn’t know how much I didn’t know about my faith until I attended Lay School. I have grown and learned so much, even after all these years!” Lay School is a funny name. But the term "lay" stands for laity from the Greek word for "people." Not everyone is called to pastoral leadership. But pastoral leadership is not the only kind of leadership that exists in the church. Through the baptized, the Holy Spirit is at work feeding, healing, teaching, restoring, and loving. That's what Christ's mission is all about. The Holy Spirit equips and calls people to lead church councils, bible studies, Sunday school, and youth meetings. Some are called to serve on teams that plan for new pastors, engaging people in worship, sharing the mission of Jesus in community. Maybe God is calling you to deepen your sense of what faith is all about. If that's the case, lay school is for you. If you’re interested in attending, Pastor Dara & I are happy to help you along the way and the church would be willing to help with the cost. I give thanks for the ministry we share through baptisms and learning. Let us all continue to strive in sharing ministry where “God’s love comes to life”! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate  Isn’t it great when you see GOD’s hand at work? Our church has been providing the meal & servers for the Pillars Adult & Family Shelter on 400 North Division Street on the second Tuesday every other month. Through a quirk in getting donations, we had much more than we needed… Ironically, that day the shelter had two families of seven arrive … and we had enough for all!! Talk about a Loaves & Fishes moment!!
Donations are dropped off at church prior to our Tuesday serving date. Then our 5-7 servers arrive at 4:00pm to make lunches for those that work during the day. Then we prepare the spaghetti, sauce & meatballs, garlic bread, green beans (with a little onion & bacon) and desserts. At 5:30 the women & families arrive for dinner & at 6:00 we serve the men. Cleanup is normally done by 7:00pm. We normally serve 35 individuals, though that night it was closer to 50!! Thank you to all who helped by donating food & serving through the pandemic. It’s a great opportunity for families to volunteer together. The mask mandate has recently changed to: mandate facemasks at all times for staff, clients, and visitors at either of our shelter. HOWEVER, if all members of a Dinner Group have been vaccinated (using the honor system) then no masks are required while preparing and cleaning up dinner. The only time dinner groups should wear a mask is when they are physically serving dinner to clients. I invite you to join us through baking a dessert, shopping for food or serving. Please let Judy Ruhl know your donation or interest. Our future dates the 2nd Tuesday in even months; Right now that is
I’ll also pass along the gratitude from Pillars: Thank you for continuing to serve at Pillars. You have no idea how nice it is to have groups continue on as supporters within the organization. ESPECIALLY as volunteers. -- Tony Schneider, Volunteer Manager, Pillars In HIS Service, Judy Ruhl  Christ the King has committed to paint the Faith Build House for our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. We as a congregation are supporting this build financially and now we will provide labor for painting. The site is on 6th Street in Menasha and we will be painting on Saturday September 11th. The house will be plastered but have no trim, doors or cabinets installed so it will be the least complicated painting possible. We will prime ceilings and walls in the morning, enjoy a provided lunch and then paint the finish coat in the afternoon. Everything is the same color so it goes very quickly. All tools and equipment are provided by the affiliate. You will need to have close toed shoes and will be required to wear safety glasses (bring your own if you have them or the job trailer on site has some available).
The following information describes how we can sign up. I’ve reserved spots for Christ the King volunteers for Saturday, September 11. This day is one one very few Saturday workdays on the house so we were fortunate to get this opportunity to serve. This link with your volunteers. https://foxcitieshabitat.volunteerhub.com/lp/christtheking/ Everyone should use this link to sign up. Each volunteer must register themselves as they electronically sign our waiver. Simply click on the link to sign up. If new to our system, please create an account. If you've volunteered before and have an account on Volunteer Hub, simply click sign up. Once registered, you will receive 3 emails in total.
Thanks, Jim Weyers  I LOVE watching the Olympics! These days, it seems to be a real conversation starter with most people. I simply ask, “What they have been watching?” and I get a list of their favorite athletes or something about the fascinating play that went on between two teams/people. Literally, the Olympics has something for everyone. Even if you’re not a sports person. There are fascinating stories about athletes and their families or learning about the culture of the host country or even the impact of the games and competition has on one another. For me, I am inspired by the grace displayed, the nods of congratulations to an opponent and the commitment to excellence. It is not only about becoming the best at their event but the commitment to hours of practice, training, and diet! Mind, body, spirit all being aligned. Maybe, I’m connecting to the more active years of my life when I played competitive sports? Whatever the reason is, I can’t get enough hours in the day to watch. We are so fortunate today to have hours of coverage, on multiple stations and platforms. Another reason I like the Olympics so much, is that it reminds me of the letter written to the Hebrews about running the race. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Jesus who endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider, Jesus who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3 Ah, that’s it! Jesus understood life. He let nothing get in the way of his commitment to fulfilling scripture and loving God. I pray today that none who read this will be deterred from living a life that reflects the ability to fix our eyes on Jesus and soak up the joy of Jesus life, death, and resurrection for our eternal salvation. Christ the King and all who read this - may you strive for the kingdom of God and bring God’s love to life! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate
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