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February2017

This month at a glance:

Senior Support DinnerThursday, Feb. 2, 5:00 p.m.

Women of MessiahFeb. 11, 1:00 p.m. at Susie Anderson’s home

Church CouncilMeeting Wednesday, Feb. 8, 5:30 p.m.

Transition TeamMeeting Wednesdays, Feb. 1 & 15, 5:30 p.m.

League of HopeFeb. 16, 6:00 p.m. at Susie Anderson’s

Study GroupTuesdays at 10 a.m. in the library

MusiciansPractice Wednesdays. Bell Choir at 5:45 p.m.; Choir at 7:00 p.m.

“What does God require of you but to do justice and to love kindnessand to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:8

Continued on page 2...

From Rev. Bev

Flower Chart Changes for 2017

A new flower chart for 2017 is posted on the bulletin board in the entry way. Each week there will be one arrangement instead of two. The cost will remain the same at $20.

The Heart of GodValentine’s Day is coming in two weeks, our culture’s celebration of matters of the heart. For some it is all about fancy dinners, candlelight, gifts, candy and flowers, all heart-stirring. For others it is heart-breaking, a day when loneliness is profound and the deep wounds of broken relationships ache.

Valentine’s Day is a good day to look at the different ways that we experience love, both in giving and receiving. This is one of those times when Greek helps us distinguish the differences encompassed by our single word: Love.

Philios. Philios is the love that the city of Philadelphia was named after…brotherly love. This is the love of friends for one another. This type of love can also exist among family members but it is most frequently associated with a deep, abiding friendship.

Eros. Eros is the Greek god that we associate with cupid – the little angel with a bow and arrow ready to shoot “love” or at least desire into an intended partner. You will recognize eros as the root of erotic. Eros love is about sexual desire and connection.

Agape. This is the Greek word for love at its ultimate. Agape love is not like brotherly/sisterly/friendship love or love between part-ners. This is the love that God has for God’s creation. It is selfless, unconditional love. It is God’s love. Rarely is it manifested in human relationships, but it is what we strive for as Christian community – to love each other as God loves us. It is interesting to note that this word was hardly ever used in Greek-speaking societies but occurs in the New Testament 320 times. That contrast alone shows how impor-tant agape love is.

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...Pastor Bev continued from page 1

The Concordia Choir in DenverTwo concerts

Sunday, Feb. 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Augustana Lutheran Church, 5000 E. Alameda Ave. Monday, Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 E. Hampden Ave.

Tickets available at ConcordiaTickets.com, 800-838-3000 or at the door.

Join the Messiah Choir Eric is calling all artists to join the Messiah Musicians at a community event in May. Meeting date in February to be announced.

It seems that love by any name is in short supply these days among our fellow citizens. That presents an urgent call to us to demonstrate the love of God in every way we can. Here are some ways to act in love in trying times.

Listen. Listen before you speak. It is hard to listen when opinions and feelings are strong however listen-ing is an act of love, not agreement.

Act. Act from a place of peace and calm, not anger or vengence. Consider God’s love for all people and all creation as you choose to act or advocate on behalf of another.

Reconile. Take the first step to mend a broken bridge or broken relationship.

Pray. Open your heart to love and be loved. Place yourself within the unconditional, grace-filled love of God for that is the very heart of God.

In the end, on Valentine’s Day and every other day, it is God’s love that is the source of all other love. For that we should give thanks every day.

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three. And the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13

Stepping Into the Heart of God: A Lenten Journey

For the six weeks of Lent you are invited to join a small group for weekly reflection on the Heart of God. This is Bible Study that will engage you and your heart with the Gospel message of Jesus. Sign ups will begin on February 5. Groups will meet on Sundays from 11:00 to 12:00 (March 5, 12, 19, 26, April 2 and 9). You will be asked to commit to every week as one week will build on the last. Speak with Pastor Bev for more information.

Special Worship Services in FebruaryGlobal Church: February 12 will focus on the global church with music from around the world. Guest Pas-tor will be Greg Mileski.

Taize Worship: February 26 will close the Season of Epiphany

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Congratulations!

Mira and Duane Larson celebrated their 60th Wedding Anniversary at Messiah, where they were married.

Messiah WomenSusie Anderson

Messiah Women’s January meeting will be Saturday, February 11th at 1:00 p.m. (Susie’s house). We will continue our project with bagging cookies for the “Give a Jam” project, so we need as many people as possible to bring 4 dozen cookies.

The “Study Group” meets Tuesday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in the library. Please come join us.

Faith Advocacy DayColorado Faith Advocacy Day will be Saturday, Feb. 11. Join other advocates for an illuminating day of learning and action!

“Luther at 500: Reclaiming Protest For Today’s Public Church” We’ll focus on the future of the church’s public witness and reclaiming Martin Luther’s legacy of activism and protest on the cusp of the Reformation’s 500th anniversary. What does it mean for us to be a “Protest”-ant church today?

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m.Bethany Lutheran Church, 4500 E Hampden Ave, Denver$25 regular, $10 student/reduced rateBreakfast, lunch, and all materials included. Register at:www.rmselca.org/colorado-faith-advocacy-day-2017

All God’s Children Love To ScrubIt’s time to clean the kitchen

Come join us on Monday morning, February 13 at 8:00 a.m. to give Messiah’s kitchen a good, deep cleaning. It would be helpful if you would bring your own scrub bucket and rags (but it’s not required). If there are enough of us, our work might expand to the library. Any questions, give me a call. Thanks! Sue Edwards 303-753-9407

Lost at church A chenille black head-band. If anyone knows anything about it, I would appreciate getting it back again. Thank you.Bonnie Short

What Can We Do?

The Social Action Ministry Team will meet on Ministry Sunday, February 12 after the service. ALL are encouraged to attend. Bring your coffee, ideas and concerns to the library – just to talk.

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Sunday School Newsby Leah Peden

Children aged 2 through those in 6th grade meet for Sunday school three Sundays a month. On the first Sunday of each month they worship with their families for the entire service. On the days when they have Sunday School, they return to the service for Communion.

This year we are using Seasons of the Spirit’s Encore curriculum, written for a one-room Sunday School. Our sessions begin each Sunday with an opening where the children share their “good news” for the week and hear the Bible story. Because our curriculum is lectionary based, we hear and explore the same story the congregation does. And because we are all focusing on the same scripture passages, follow-up conversations in the car or at home are natural and easy. Recently we created the sea of Galilee on the floor, complete with seashells, fishing nets and boats (tables turned upside down) and enacted the story of Jesus inviting Andrew, Peter, James and John to become fishers of people. You will find the mural the students created after their Beatitudes lesson hanging in the parlor, along with their Welcome Chain of Hearts from an earlier lesson. As the children learn Biblical stories they are building relationships with God and one another, and learning the lessons of Jesus.

Thanks from League of Hope

It was exciting news to hear 2 women in Nicaragua would like to join our Women of Hope group. We are looking for more members to partner with these women.

Please join us at our next meeting on Feb. 16, and learn more about our partners. If you can’t attend, we would still appreciate your involvement.

Thanks to all who gave to the children of Nicaragua through our Angel Tree. Because of you, 30 elementary-aged children will attend school for an entire year beginning in February.

SUPER BOWL CHALLENGE Here’s my challenge to you for this SuperBowl Sunday. Match whatever you spend on celebrating that day (travel, snacks, entertainment) with a donation to the hungry. Here are some suggestions for your donation: Park Hill Food Pantry, Senior Support Services, ELCA Hunger Appeal.

Pastor Bev

Support the MCC Budget – Use Reloadable King Soopers Gift Cards

Please remember to use your King Soopers card when buying gas, groceries and prescriptions. We received a rebate check for $324.75 for December purchases but our January statement fell short of the $5000 minimum. It will be added to the February reloads. If you need a card you can purchase them on Sundays after church from Susie Anderson or the coffee table if she is not there. It’s easy to use and can really make a difference in our monthly offerings.

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Here are some of the highlights of the annual Congre-gational meeting held on the 29th of January, 2017. Four council members were re-elected to another term. Those were Richard Chuvarsky, Jim Bonham, Craig Fischbach and Julie Chickillo. Council officers, President, VP, Finance and Secretary, will be elected by the council at their February meeting. Budget was approved for 2017 with a pro-jected deficit of just over $75,000. Some funds from the sale of the parking lot were allocated to cover the deficit this year UP TO the deficit amount and if, for some reason, the congregation exceeds even this amount, no additional funds from the parking lot sale will be used. The congregation will be asked to make up that difference. Of course, if donations exceed the budgeted projections and the deficit is less, than less of those funds will be needed. A presentation about the future of the colum-barium was led by Roger Miller, the task force leader. The columbarium issues are leaking water into the area as well as the future of the columbarium. Some ideas presented were to remedy the environmental is-sues in the ground, move the urns to an above ground location at the church, either inside or outside, and to possibly relocate all of them to another location away from the church, such as another Lutheran church in Denver or to a cemetery in metro Denver. All ideas are still on the table and being researched. The Transition Team, headed by Ryan Adams, presented a short verbal report on their activities and he answered questions from the congregation, mostly dealing with the time frame for their team’s recom-mendations to Council. It is hoped that they will have sufficient information and plans by Easter. Lastly, the ELCA announced some constitu-tional changes that will impact all ELCA churches’ constitutions but no the individual church’s by-laws. The congregation voted to accept these minor changes into our constitution. Mostly, these dealt with the staff rostered position names in a church and did not impact our operations locally. Thanks for all members that were part of this process and the continuance of Messiah Church’s min-istries.Respectfully,Roger Miller

In an effort to keep the congregation appraised of the financial status of the congregation, here are the 2016 final figures.

Do you wonder where the money comes from to make up the deficit each month? The parking lot sale monies are used to meet the deficit.The MMRC deficit is made up by the Bock family bequest.

End-of-Year 2016Church General Fund Income Year EndOfferings $138,342.66KingSoopers $1,987.10Rentalandbuildinguse $23,198.00Other $383.10TotalIncome $163,910.86 TotalExpenses $245,440.80Net -$81,529.94

Messiah MountainIncome $12,381.92Expenses $20,237.72Net $-7,855.80

Sue Edwards 11Araceli Adams 12Suzanne Miller 18Riley Cain 24Rosemarie Koplin 24Lorin Leslie 24Susan Wainess 25Glenn Johnson 26Marvin Daniel 27

Messiah Birthdays in FebruaryPlease inform the office if you are not listed

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Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains Affected by Executive Order on Immigration

The signing of the Executive Order will greatly impact our organization and the people we serve. We hope to release a more detailed statement in the next couple of days of what these changes mean for LFS. As of right now, we have had many people contact us over interested in getting involved- which is AWESOME. However, with a 120-day pause to the resettlement program and a large decrease in refugees who will be resettled, our funding will change how we can use volunteers. The most practical way to help us right now is to donate. The money will be used to help cover cost of these changes. Please call us before bringing in household donations as we obviously will not have any refugees arriving for a while. We also want people to be active by encouraging their local policymakers to welcome refugees, to stand by our national values of freedom and justice.

Ways to donateVisit our website for an online donation https://lfsrm.worldsecuresystems.com/about/DonateBuy a shirt:https://www.bonfire.com/refugee-resettlement-humanity/https://www.bonfire.com/lfs-refugee-resettlement-asylum/https://www.bonfire.com/lfs-refugee-resettlement-liberty/

PLEASE stay committed and involved through email, social media, and advocacy. We will keep you posted as we figure out what the new future looks like and how to use your enthusiasm to keep welcoming refugees! Thank you again for all of your support - it helps us to keep going!

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Messiah Calendar for February

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Church StaffInterim Pastor + Rev. Beverly Piro

Director of Music + Eric FrenchOperations Manager + Jim Krebs

Volunteer Coordinator + Leah PedenWeb site

www.messiahdenver.orgE-mail

info@messiahdenver.orgPhone

303-355-4471fax: 303-355-4472

After hours pastoral emergency 206-300-1947Sunday Worship

and Sunday School9:30 a.m.

Messiah Community ChurchEvangelical Lutheran Church in America

1750 Colorado Blvd.Denver, CO 80220

Contact Information E-MailPastor (Interim) Pr. Beverly Piro revbev@messiahdenver.orgPresident & Property Dick Chuvarsky DickChuvarsky@messiahdenver.orgVice President & Worship & Music Craig Fischbach CraigFischbach@messiahdenver.orgTreasurer & Learning Julie Chickillo JulieChickillo@messiahdenver.orgSecretary & Messiah Mtn. RC Roger Miller rogermiller69@gmail.comGreen Team Karen Schimke telephone onlyCommunity Outreach Carolyn Smith carolyncolorado@gmail.comSocial Action Lora Covrett lcovrett@yahoo.comStewardship James Bonham JamesBonham@messiahdenver.orgHospitality Laurel Karabatsos laurel.karabatsos@state.co.usVolunteer Coordinator Leah Peden Leah@messiahdenver.orgMusic Director Eric French Eric@messiahdenver.orgMessiah Mountain 303-697-8717 RetreatCenter@messiahdenver.org

Happy HourNew venue!

Happy hour will be at 4Gs, a Mexican restaurant at 9th Ave and Jersey St., 6 pm Friday, February 17th.