 National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) is April 16, always the day after Tax Day as there is nothing more certain in life than death
and taxes (Benjamin Franklin). NHDD is a national initiative to encourage people of all ages to share their personal wishes regarding their future medical care, and for healthcare teams and facilities to respect those wishes whatever they may be. Next week Fox Valley Advanced Care Planning Partnership (FVACPP) is sponsoring a series of conversations to share information pertaining to Healthcare decision making. They include presentations from a medical doctor, an attorney, and individuals with expertise in cancer and hospice care. Click on the link below where you can find out more information and how to register. https://www.fvacpp.org/national-healthcare-decisions-day Wisconsin, unlike many states, is not a "next of kin" or "family consent" state for adults - Wisconsin law does not authorize family members (except for hospice admissions) to make decisions for incapacitated adult family members. Visit Fox Valley Advance Care Planning Partnership at www.FVACPP.org for information on opportunities to fill out an Advance Care DIrective and resources to start these conversions with your family. For more information contact Julie Meitzen <julmeitzen@gmail.com>
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Welcome to Holy Week! The deepest, darkest days for Jesus. We find Jesus’ teaching lessons of servanthood while washing the disciple’s feet, breaking bread, and blessing wine for a new understanding of the Passover meal our holy communion, and sharing love, forgiveness, and grace for all to be welcomed. Three days after his death, the disciples and many followers of Jesus awoke with grief, confusion, fear, impatience, and many other emotions.
Is resurrection possible? How can a dead Savior live? Is resurrection possible? What is the new normal going look like? We know the rest of the story. Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed! It was hard to stay vigilant, faithful, or even believe. Thankfully, in the resurrection, Jesus shows up. Jesus is present. Jesus continues to walk and talk and share the glory of God’s Kingdom and encourage people to believe. Human life and history are changed forever! Easter 2021 – emotions are high, human life and history is changed forever by the Coronavirus pandemic! What will our new normal look like when we gather for activities and worship? How will faith be lived out and shared? What have we learned? How have we changed? How has God shown up and walked alongside to give us a new perspective? How do we care for and understand our neighbor? The sick? The vulnerable? As a congregation we have not taken life nor faith for granted. We prepare every day for the ‘New Normal’. Remain prayerful, steadfast, resilient. There will be a day we will move from virtual meeting and parking lot worship to in person gathering for worship. CtK’s Re-entry Team, a cross-section of people from the congregation, has worked hard to understand from a theological and from a safety perspective to prepare for in person gatherings and worship. A new perspective. We do understand we cannot flip a switch and suddenly open like the ‘old normal.’ It is out of concern for everyone that we have an updated the Plan of Re-entry. If you have not seen the prepared YouTube video or the documents that state this on our website, please take a few moments and review them on the links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6wZptFLgNo www.christ-the-king.org/re-entry.html Easter in Jesus day and Easter today bring about a ‘new normal’. Let us remain faithful and vigilant in the power of Jesus resurrection. When we do this, we see God’s love come to life and understand all are welcome. Let us prepare everyday like it is Easter! Happy Holy Week, Pastor Nate "RING THOSE BELLS!" we excitedly yelled. "ONE STEP CLOSER!" we called. These shouts were just a couple that were proclaimed over the last month and a half as the Christ the King Re-Entry Team met. This collection of faithful servants from our congregation teamed up to consider when and how we will gather together again in person. Each time the team completed work on each ministry area, they rang a cow bell, played handheld instruments, and did a cheer. This team is a way God's love has come to life at Christ the King recently. Through prayerful consideration, thorough analysis of data from Wisconsin Dept. of Health Services, and some tough conversations, this team has developed a plan for re-entering into in-person gathering. All of that was done with a love for our neighbors and care for our congregation in mind. I'll leave it to the team to share their exciting work in an announcement this Sunday as part of worship, so stay tuned to get their full update coming soon! Peace be the journey, Pastor Dara  Thank you, people of CtK for your faithful response! At Christ the King (CtK) we put benevolent giving first! “Taking care of others before ourselves," it just what we do shared one parishioner. The spiritual discipline of stewardship and caring for our neighbor is something we take seriously at CtK! Thank you for your commitment to the Ministry Spending Plan (MSP) and response to God’s blessings. I share this thank you because we recently received a thank you letter from the Executive Director of LEAVEN (Limited Emergency Assistance Valley Ecumenical Network), Mary Parsons. Here is what the letter said: Coretta Scott King said, “The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” Her words, while spoken years ago, aptly describe the Fox Valley area today. The outpouring of support during these unprecedented times has affirmed the strength and character of our community. Your gift of $1,105 is helping a growing number of people who need LEAVEN assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Your generosity is stabilizing individuals and families who were already struggling to make ends meet before the outbreak, as well as those seeking assistance for the very first time. Whether it’s an everyday crisis or a widespread disaster, LEAVEN is her to help. But we could not do it without donors lie you who rise to the occasion and give with your heart. As an organization, we are confident that we will look back at this difficult time with immense pride in how we individually and collectively responded. A penned note also said, “Thank you for your generous support. Your gift gives help and hope to our neighbors in need.” Thank you for your commitment of making a real difference in the lives of people, our neighbors, who are in need! Your faithful giving is one way the ministry of CtK is bringing God’s love to life! Happy Lent, Pastor Nate  Ugh, we have reached a year of pandemic! I hear lament around me.
Lament Psalms are the expression of pain, distress, and suffering. None of us is immune from encountering such experiences. We all can relate and lament of the tiresome, dragging on of the pandemic. Glimmers of hope seem illusive.
I don’t have the answers, at least, not with an exact date or time. However, I am hopeful! Because I see the numbers headed in the right direction. Vaccinations are becoming more available. There are better days ahead! Continue to let your resilience, patience and adaptability abound. The day is coming. Let us be ready. My dear friends in Christ, there is Good News! As we see declining numbers of new cases for COVID. Vaccinations are on the rise. A team of CtK lay people are making plans for in person gathering and for in person worship. That, of course, assumes the trend we are on continues to move in a positive direction. With prayer and planning, this team considers the path forward with everyone’s interest and safety at hand. A phased approach will be necessary to ease into worship life and communal living. We cannot expect to flip a switch, however we will slowly return. Remain faithful. Remain positive. Remain hopeful and remain accepting of the possibilities for what newness comes out of our experienced pandemic to face each day that is provided by God. Very soon the plan to return to in person worship and gathering with bee shared in our weekly Constant Contact e-newsletter and on our website. God’s love is coming to life! You can do this. We can do this together 😊 Christ’s Lenten Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate  Jesus loves me, Jesus loves everyone, even “the crabby people”, Jesus’ love is with me everywhere I go, communion is for everyone, there is a place for everyone at Jesus’ table. These are just some of the take-aways after this past Monday’s first night of communion instruction, for our fourth graders. Every year I am blown away at the depth of understanding our youth have of God’s grace and love. This year, first communion, will look quite a bit different than years passed. We will welcome the newest diners to The Lord’s Table on Palm Sunday. Each student’s family can choose which worship service, virtual or parking lot, works best for them. I hope that you will be able to join us, Palm Sunday, March 28th as we celebrate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and this important milestone of our 4th grade siblings in Christ.
Your Sibling in Christ, Susie Selle (she/her) It's an interesting time to be church. As awareness of social injustices grows throughout the country and the world, the same is happening within the church. As the Gospel shows us time and again, Jesus' favor, attention, and ministry was directed toward freeing and uplifting the poor and oppressed. However, the way ELCA churches have lived that out has been...well...not the best.
When I was going through the assignment and call process, I distinctly remember all of my seminary classmates and I being called to a meeting with our discernment person from the seminary and the Bishop of the Western North Dakota Synod. During that meeting, they laid out the process we were entering into. They told us what we needed to do to stand out to bishops and churches, what paperwork we needed to fill out, they gave us deadlines, and they let us know what we could expect in the process ahead. Then...they laid out some realities for us. They told us:
Why is this a reality? Well...because it turns out there are many churches who are simply not ready or willing to consider more diverse candidates. It's an injustice happening right inside our church body. When we embrace the full diversity of God's church and open ourselves up to leaders with voices different than our own, we are opening ourselves up to the Holy Spirit's work to take us to new places for the sake of the Gospel. To be fair, often times the first time a congregation is asked to consider looking at a female, person of color, or LGBTQIA+ candidate is when they have already entered into the call process. At that point they're grieving the loss of their pastor, and they have a short amount of time to make a decision to keep the process toward a new pastor rolling. Realistically, it's simply not the right time to enter into the many deep threads of conversation and dialogue that are needed to consider diverse candidates, and how to make the congregation a welcoming place for those candidates should they become the congregation's pastor. When congregations are unwilling to partner with diverse candidates, not only does the church miss out, but seminary students who invested at least 4 years of their lives and a lot of money into becoming a pastor are left to live in a constant waiting game. So how do we address this injustice? We start with conversation in our own congregations who already have called pastors and are not in the call process. But how do we get congregations to do that? Through a resolution! A resolution is an official statement that is lifted up, voted on, and adopted at our annual Synod Assembly. A well-written resolution will state a problem, then offer up a way of resolving that problem. In order for a resolution to be lifted up at Synod Assembly, it has to be endorsed by a congregation, a committee, or a minimum of 10 individuals. Luckily, the Christ the King Church Council has endorsed a resolution to address this very issue! Here is the resolution being lifted up: Resolution Title: Opening the Way for Women, People of Color, and LGBTQIA+ Candidates WHEREAS, the body of Christ is made of a collection of diverse images of God; and WHEREAS, God calls us to work for peace for all people through justice; and WHEREAS, women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ candidates wait longer for calls than their white, straight, male, cis-gendered colleagues; and WHEREAS, the ELCA is the the least racially diverse denomination in the US; and WHEREAS, representation in leadership matters; and WHEREAS, the covid-19 pandemic is leading to burnout of clergy and a push toward transitions of call; and WHEREAS, faithful discernment in the calling of pastoral candidates takes time and discussion facilitated by trusted leaders; and WHEREAS, the first time many congregations engage in conversation about calling women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ candidates is when they are just about to or have already entered the call process THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that congregations of the ECSW with a called pastor begin conversation and discernment on the future calling of women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ candidates; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that congregations in conversation also create action plans for making their congregation a more safe working, living, and ministry environment for women, people of color, and LGBTQIA+ pastors through a commitment to education, training, continued prayerful discernment, and systemic change. Let's be clear here: This resolution is not aiming to force any congregation to accept a female, person of color, or LGBTQIA+ candidate. That doesn't serve congregations or candidates well. What it IS doing however, is encouraging congregations to have discussion about accepting diverse candidates while they STILL have a trusted pastor who can lead and facilitate those conversations. Additionally, it is asking congregations to take an honest look at their practices and congregational culture to explore how they could move themselves toward being a more accepting or hospitable place for candidates to serve. The endorsement by the Church Council is representation of all of you! By endorsing this resolution, you all are taking an active role in addressing injustices that happen within the larger church -- this is work to celebrate! Thanks, Holy Spirit! Peace be the journey, Pastor Dara  Only in Wisconsin! What a great day for parking lot worship -5 degrees! Everyone was warm in their cars and I was warm in the porta-pulpit! In fact, the preacher was so full of hot air the window fogged up! God sure has a sense of humor!
It has been bitterly cold, but with Ash Wednesday beginning Lent last night, Spring will be in the air soon! Lent can be a good break from life which can feel overwhelming from - busyness, anxiety, responsibilities, alienation, or even the temptation to compare our lives to someone else. This world likes to push us around and tell us we are less than anything. Thankfully, Jesus has come for all of us to know a different way of living and seeing the world from God’s perspective. During the Wednesdays of Lent we will be focusing on the theme “Embodied.” A liberating way of integrating our thinking, actions, emotions, and spirituality to live for God. I hope you will plan to use the spiritual discipline of Lent to see how one’s mind, body, heart, and soul are called to be in-line with our daily thoughts and actions as Christians. Embodied for Lent will take on many ways to feel deeply and have a sense of wholeness. Beyond our weekly livestreamed worship on Wednesdays (6:30pm), we have daily devotionals, coloring pages, discussion after worship, and a host of other ways to connect. Contact the church office for details or pick up materials in the tote outside the office doors, next to the mailbox. Join in, be made whole, and beat the low temperatures. Together let us see God’s love come to life! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate Lent is a time for spiritual growth and stretching. In the middle of a LONG winter and a LONG pandemic, there's certainly space for us to grow, learn, and stretch our faith a bit. We have a WHOLE LOT of opportunities for growth coming up this Lent, but I wanted to feature one in particular this week, as I think it's a GREAT opportunity for anyone who is missing getting to interact with the friendly folks from church. Starting on February 23rd, we're excited to offer another round of the ALPHA series, which will be facilitated by two Christ the King partners in ministry. So...what's Alpha??? Alpha is an 11-week series that is designed to get people asking questions about faith TOGETHER. Each time the Alpha group gathers, they'll watch a video that introduces the question of the night, and they'll get to talk it out and explore from there. THAT'S IT! The bonus of joining an Alpha group is that you'll get to meet people from our community and get to form an authentic and meaningful relationship with them. So far, we have had a handful of cohorts who have done the Alpha series together, including our 9th grade confirmation students. All involved have reported how meaningful it was for them, and how they grew as the weeks went on. Check out the video below to learn a little bit more about it, and if you'd like to join the group starting on February 23rd, please email Denise Barnaal at buttongrl@new.rr.com . Christ the King stands with you Kimberly High School students and administration who immediately reported an Instagram message of racism. On the first day of Black History month, someone falsely used the KHS logo to promote “KHS White Club.” This is not a real club. See the KHS Special Announcement –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igcny-RczY&feature=youtu.be Racism is real. It is intended to hurt and keep others from being equal. Individually and collectively, we have work to do to understand and to combat attitudes, language, and institutional/systemic racism. As part of our seminary learning both Pastor Dara and I were required to take anti-racism classes. Both of us embrace and take seriously our call to serve you and the expectations entrusted to us by the ELCA:
Much like keeping up on boundary training, we have anti-racism training too. Recently, we attended a 6 hour anti-racism workshop. I was reminded of this quote from an anti-racism class I attended two years ago that spoke to me: “It has taken great effort to bring about racism in this country and it will take great effort and energy to reverse and eliminate the work of racism.” How will I use my energy? At CtK, our energy is around our core values that were worked on by the congregation. The first value reflects an anti-racist value as we welcome people: “Being Welcoming and Inclusive – we fearlessly extend Christ’s love and radical welcome all people and affirm their worth and dignity regardless of age, race, sexual orientation, gender, identity, ability or class.” This is where we start at CtK, and we continue to expand beyond this as the Spirit guides and directs. As you heard at the Annual Meeting on Sunday, we are working on setting up book studies and conversations around anti-racism after Easter and/or summertime. In the meantime, we are open to questions you may have for dialog. In the Church catholic (small “c” for catholic meaning - universal) already has diversity of cultures. It is important to remember we are church together and we are one in Christ. As the body of Christ, we are free to live out our connectedness with each other. Although racism affects each one of us differently, we must take responsibility for our participation, acknowledge our complicity, repent of our sin, and pray God will bring us to reconciliation. Racism, both blatant and subtle (and I would add even neutral or silent), continues to deny the reconciling work of the cross. God’s forgiveness frees us from the bonds of racism. For some, this may mean giving up power or privilege; for others, it may mean giving up anger or prejudice. May we know and share the energy of this reconciliation in our lives with others! Thank you, Kimberly High School students and administration for being anti-racist. We stand with you! Christ’s Blessings & Peace, Pastor Nate |
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