Resurrection Bell Ringer

In Our Prayers

Hospitalized: Jená Hartman, Doug Arthur, Rita Matthews

Recovering from Surgery: Lyle White, Pat Hamby, Joyce Tucker, Florence Peterson, Cheryl Locke

Prayers for healing: Joyce Schmelzer

In Celebration: Jay & Heather Dile, for the birth of their son Andrew; Kathy & Aaron French for the birth of their son, Nolan Andrew

In Sympathy: Dale Hartman, for the death of his sister, Mary Ann McMew; Marie Pfau , for the death of her brother.

Friends of the Congregation in need of God’s presence and comfort: Glenna Nolle, Susan Gephart

Many Thanks . . . .

Thank you to all who helped make Rally Day 2003 a huge success! Special appreciation to the High School youth, the Dibble, Huber, Haman, Anderson, McDougal, Ropp, Deitz, and Wolff Families for going the extra mile. It is truly a blessing to be in a congregation which shows such love and support for it’s children. -- Chris LeBouef

Mark Your Calendars Ahead . . . . VBS 2004 will be held June 14-18!

Choirs to begin September 3^rd

All are welcome

All Choirs (Handbell, Children’s, Cherub, and Senior) are scheduled to begin rehearsing on the evening of Wednesday, September 3.

Grace Notes (Handbell Choir) - 6:00pm

Children’s Choir - 6:15pm (3rd-6th grade)

Cherub Choir - 6:30pm (those who turned four by 7/1/03 thru 2^nd grade)

Senior Choir - 7:00pm (high school thru adult)

Important information inside:

. . . . Spirtual Gifts Classes . . . .

. . . . Olivet Retreat . . . .

. . . . Golf Outing . . . .

. . . . RLC Web Site . . . .

. . . . “Out of the Darkness” . . . .

From the Staff . . .

Dear Resurrection people,

A year ago, I found myself filled with both excitement and trepidation as I entered my first program year as one of the pastors of Resurrection Lutheran Church. I was excited because there was great stuff going on. I was filled with trepidation because there were so many new people to try to get to know, new traditions/practices to learn, and a new role to both create and learn as this was the first time Resurrection had a second pastor and it was the first time I would be serving on a staff team with another pastor.

Excitement and Trepidation

Now, a year later, I find myself filled with both excitement and trepidation as I enter my second program year as one of the pastors of Resurrection Lutheran Church. The trepidation is certainly less than a year ago. The past year feels like a whirlwind and our family is very thankful for the welcome we have received at Resurrection. Building a new house for the first time was an intriguing experience, but moving into it at the beginning of June has allowed us to feel like we really live here now. We feel much more settled - at least until we see again the boxes which yet remain to be unpacked.

This year the trepidation and excitement tends to flow from the same source. There is going to be a lot of new and exciting stuff going on around Resurrection this coming year. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. My trepidation is not because I fear we cannot accomplish what is before us. Rather, my trepidation comes from my desire to faithfully serve this congregation. I want to help nurture and equip people for ministry - my fear is that I would somehow stand in the way of people living out God’s call in their lives. Having said that, please allow me to share with you some of the things that are generating the excitement I feel.

Saturday Evening Worship

We begin a new era in Resurrection’s worship life this month as we add a Saturday evening worship service. Our crowded quarters on Sunday morning demanded that we do something - otherwise, we were going to have to hang out a “No Room in the Inn” sign. The Saturday evening service will follow the same liturgical structure as our Sunday services, but it will allow us to try some different things. And simply by being on Saturday, it will have a totally different atmosphere to it. We are committed to making sure that every worship service here at Resurrection - whether it be on Saturday, Sunday, or any other day - be a celebration of the love and grace and presence of God in our midst.

Spiritual Gifts Discovery &

40 Days of Spiritual Renewal

I expect that this coming year will be one of significant spiritual growth in our congregation. There are two things that will serve as the primary catalyst for this. One is the beginning of the spiritual gifts discovery course, Discovering God’s Vision for Your Life: You and Your Spiritual Gifts. Participation in this course will help people recognize how God has uniquely gifted them for ministry. Our hope is that everyone connected with the ministry of Resurrection will participate in this course.

The second catalyst will be a special congregation-wide renewal emphasis that will take place during Lent next year - it is called “40 Days of Purpose.” We will share more specifics in the coming months, but it will be a time of focused prayer and study for the whole congregation. Many congregations have already participated in the “40 Days of Purpose” and they share inspiring stories of how it has touched the lives of individuals and families, and has renewed the entire congregation.

Growing in Discipleship

The sole reason for our desire to ignite these catalysts at Resurrection is so that we may grow as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. We spent the first part of this year pursuing clarity on our Vision, Mission, and Values. Now we want to take those statements off of the paper and ingrain them in every aspect of our ministry - get them into our DNA. That should not be too difficult since those statements flowed out from the people of Resurrection in the first place. We spoke often during the past year about living the marks of discipleship - that PoWeR SuRGe that comes through Prayer, Worship, Reading the Bible, Serving, being in Relationships that foster spiritual growth, and Giving. We will continue to talk about these things, for that is why we are here - to grow in discipleship.

Of course, there will be loads of other stuff going on this year: all of our great education programs; Operation Bootstrap Africa; planning for facilities and staffing; youth mission trip to Puerto Rico next summer; examining our ministry structure; and so on. But what I have written about above are - for me - the “biggies” for the coming year, the sources of both my excitement and trepidation. I am confident that God will help us deal with the trepidation part. I certainly hope that you share my excitement.

Saturday Evening

Worship Service Begins

September 6 at 5:30pm

Discovering God’s Vision

for Your Life:

You and Your Spiritual Gifts

Registration is currently underway for the first offerings of this spiritual gifts discovery course. The course is comprised of eight modules which include a variety of activities: lecture, discussion, experiential activities, and practical application. We will study the purpose, source, and definition of spiritual gifts; identify clues to our gifts through various means; take a spiritual gifts inventory; explore what the Bible says about each gift; discuss practical applications of spiritual gifts theology in our congregation; and much more!!

The course is being offered as a series of four evenings (two modules each evening) or on two consecutive Saturdays (four modules each day). The current offerings are as follows:

Mondays, 7:00-9:15pm Tuesdays, 7:00-9:15pm Saturday, 9:00-3:00pm

September 8, 15, 22, 29 September 9, 16, 23, 30 September 13 & 20

OR October 11 & 18

Current plans are for the course offerings to be repeated in November and then again in January/February. We are also exploring offering the course in a retreat format. It is our hope that the majority of the congregation will take part in this course at some point during this coming program year.

There is an information table with brochures and registration forms in the narthex. You may also contact one of the people below with any questions.

The Spiritual Gifts Lead Team

Pastor Mitch, Team Leader

Townsend Schnabel, Assistant Team Leader and Record keeping Coordinator

Pat Hamby, Course Leader Coordinator

Ann Buie, Ministry Advisor Coordinator

Tim Ropp, Ministry Description Coordinator

Stacie Fruth, Public Relations Coordinator

New E-mail & Website Addresses . . .

Resurrection has a new domain name for our website -- and therefore also new e-mail addresses for our church staff. Please be sure to change the bookmarks in your web browser. You can now find our website at:

www.RLCIndy.org

The new e-mail addresses simply substitute the new domain name for the old one:

Pastor Dave Schreiber PrDave@RLCIndy.org

Pastor Mitch Phillips PrMitch@RLCIndy.org

Scott Mikkelson Scott@RLCIndy.org

Susan Garten Susan@RLCIndy.org

Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Rich Hoffmann, our website is undergoing constant updates and improvements. On the “public” portion of the website, you can find information about our congregation, staff links, photos, sign-ups for various events, and directions to the church. However, the real utility of the website is found on the “private” side, which is password protected. Rich has developed a database that serves as a membership directory as well as providing a place for all of the schedules for worship assistants, nursery, meetings, and so on. The database is being configured to provide automatic reminders to people on the various schedules, as well as allowing meeting conveners to send a group e-mail to the participants in the meeting. If you have not logged onto the private side of the website to verify your directory information and provide an e-mail address for the automatic reminders and group communication, you can contact Rich at webmaster@RLCIndy.org to get a temporary logon ID and password.

Our Sunday School Teachers are Great. . . .

Superintendents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Martha Andersen, Kathi Haman

Music. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Karen Mikkelson

Nursery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Margie McCoy, Jennifer Barrett

Pre-K / Kindergarten. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kathi Haman, Charisse Phillips, & Aaron French

1^st Grade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kim Elsner, Joyce Hardwick

2^nd Grade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stephanie Dietz, Kathy Hardey

3^rd / 4^th Grades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kathy Fandrei, Brad & Jenny Condon

5^th Grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Scott Deitch; Tim Ropp

6^th / 7^th / 8^th Grades. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eddie Dietz, Mike McCoy

Senior High. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Leslie McDougal

Golf Outing . . . .

This is a reminder that the third annual Steve Westling Memorial Golf Scramble will be held Saturday, September 13^th at Valle Vista Golf Club. Registration will begin at 1pm with the shotgun start at 1:40. There will be dinner and door prizes following completion of golf. The golf will include hole in one contest, closest to the pin contests, and a longest driving competition. Cost of the event is $85 to play and $150 to sponsor a hole. Net profits will be split between the Cody Lisby Fund, the Curry Family and the Resurrection Emergency Relief Fund.

Registration forms are available in the Narthex, at the church web site (www.rlcindy.org) or by contacting the church at 881-7854, or any of the committee members: Dale Duckworth, Ron Tatum, Scott Buie, Mike McCarty, Chuck Matsumoto, Dick Benjamin, Greg Crow, or Jim Locke. You may register alone and be placed in a foursome or pick your closest friends and create your own foursome.

Out of the Darkness . . . .

with Tim Glendenning

October 11, 7:00pm

This program of personal story and inspirational song shares Tim Glendenning’s journey through the darkness of depression. Tim now travels the country in a ministry of witness to the light of Christ. You will be touched deeply by this program whether you . . . have struggled with depression yourself or know someone who has . . . would like to better understand the dynamics of depression . . . or would like to hear someone share the story of how God has been active in his life.

“Luther” . . . .

“Luther,” a sweeping motion picture about the turbulent life and times of Martin Luther, will be released nationwide in U.S. theaters on Sept. 26, 2003. The film stars an international ensemble case led by Joseph Fiennes (“Shakespeare in Love,” “Enemy at the Gates”), Alfred Molina (“Frida,” “Chocolat”) and two-time Oscar-winner Peter Ustinov (“Spartacus,” “Topkapi”). Minneapolis-based Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Neue Film Production of Berlin, Germany, co-produced the movie, which will open on more than 300 screens in 45 major markets in the U.S.

The movie was shot on over 100 sets in 20 locations throughout Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic and features the extraordinary work of celebrated cinematographer Robert Fraisse (“Seven Years in Tibet”) and Academy Award winning set designer Rolf Zehetbauer (“Cabaret”).

Information about “Luther” is posted at www.lutherthemovie.com.

Olivet Retreat . . . .

Mark your calendars for a wonderful RLC family retreat at Camp Olivet in Greene County September 20 and 21. This is a wonderful and relaxing family experience in a beautiful setting. We will have both planned activities, relaxing time, outdoor worship service, fellowship around the campfire, great food, and a great time. The cost is $12 per adult and $10 per child, with a $40 maximum per family. Cabin space is limited, so sign-up early. Reservation can be made with the bulletin response form or call the church office, 881-7854.

This is one of a continuing series of monthly articles based

upon our stewardship theme for this year.

Go and Do

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” Luke 10:37

The United States is so wealthy. Even those who live in poverty seem to have more than most people in developing nations. Not that it’s okay for anyone to live a substandard lifestyle. At the heart of it, we need to feel that we’re holding our own. But such feelings are only a matter of perspective. We dangerously compare ourselves to those around us and feel lacking. But if we take a more global perspective and look at poverty-stricken countries around the world, we feel blessed.

In the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus asks which of the travelers was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers. As with any story, we tend to try on the different roles…the one who was damaged by others…the ones who walked by…the one who showed kindness. No one ever wants to be the robber.

It’s important that we try on all the characters and feel the fit. In what way may I (we) be robbing others of their right to food, shelter, safety, medical attention, human kindness? In what ways have I (we) walked by those lying damaged on life’s highway? The good Samaritan wasn’t wealthy. He had a donkey and a few coins. He used what he had to buy someone back their dignity and return them to health. Jesus seemed to think that was a good thing to do.

The story of the good Samaritan challenges all of us as congregation, synod, and church body to be a faithful “neighbor” at home and abroad. “Go in peace. Serve the Lord” is not a simple postscript to worship. It signals the beginning of another week of “Samaritan” living. We all know the question, “Who was the neighbor?” May we have grace enough to hear and to live the answer.