Remember when Jesus confronted Paul on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians? The Lord Jesus told Paul, “I … send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” (Acts 26: 17) Jesus Christ was directing Paul to go to people where they were. James said it like this. “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.” (James 2:1) Paul was always looking for opportunity, as he says, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” (Galatians 6:10)

     Many of you are aware of our Zion church council’s efforts to utilize our missions dollars for something that builds faith in a practical way. They have identified St. Paul’s Lutheran School in India for this purpose. Pastor Luther Dasari is so excited about what our few dollars from Zion can do for his little school! You see, few people in the world are concerned about his little corner of God’s kingdom. Here’s excerpts from his recent letter to us:

     ~Pastor Dave

     Pastor Luther Dasari

     On June 18, 2005, 34 members and friends of Zion enjoyed a cruise up the Delta at Blakeley State Park.  The weather was close to perfect and no one was bothered with pesky bugs!  The trip was well narrated with hands on samples of animal pelts and bones.

     Afterwards a picnic lunch was enjoyed and several people took the board walk along the edge of the water.

     After six decades of traveling the world to preach the Gospel, 86-year-old evangelist Billy Graham will conduct at least one more revival meeting — in New York City. The event is scheduled for this weekend at Flushing Meadows Corona Park to accommodate larger turnouts.

     Although Rev. Graham moves with a walker and struggles with various ailments, he expects to speak for about 35 minutes at each service. "When I stand up and touch that podium, the Holy Spirit comes, I believe, in power to help me. If it weren't for that, I would not have attempted to do these three nights," Graham said. "I'm just totally dependent on the Lord and the prayers of thousands of people." Billy's son Franklin, his successor as leader of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, will stand by as a substitute preacher in case of emergency.

     Using a simple but powerful message of salvation through Jesus Christ, Graham has preached the Gospel to over 210 million people in 185 countries. The evangelist takes special satisfaction in his 1957 New York City crusade and the 1954 campaign in London. "We stayed 12 weeks in London. They had hoped to have four or five weeks," he recalled. "In New York, we were amazed. We didn't have any empty seats except one or two nights for the whole 16 weeks." He said he's returning to New York this time because area Christian leaders told him that, since the terrorist attacks, "there was a new receptivity and quest for purpose and meaning in peoples' lives."

     The meeting was called to order by Pete Midgarden. Members present included Pete Midgarden, Charlie Canning, Ernie Burnett, Darlene Tasso, Vera Avera, Milt Luoma, Pastor Dave, and Linda Gibbs. The council welcomed our newest member, Milt Luoma. Pastor Dave opened with a brief devotion on Acts 1:15-16.

MINUTES

     Linda presented the minutes for the May 3, 2005 council meeting. A correction was made to reflect the amount collected for the parking lot was $2,890.00 Minutes were accepted as amended.

TREASURER'S REPORT

     Darlene presented the treasurer's report for May. The loan balance on our building was corrected to $47,658.67. Treasurer's report was accepted as amended.

PASTOR'S REPORT

     Website Report. In May we had 353 different website visitors making 453 visits averaging a little more than a minute a visit. 1079 pages were visited, about 2.38 pages per visit. Web search engines indexed us 14,464 times. We averaged 14.61 visits per day. 10 visitors came in through the AFLC website. Volume remains reduced from the first three months of 2005. "Lutheran" was searched for 53 times. Six searches looked for us by name, "Zion Lutheran."

Action Requested: None

     Summer Missions Program Rescheduled Again. Pastor Gerdeen had the opportunity to go to an academic conference which conflicted with July 23 and 24, and he asked if we could reschedule our missions conference. So, we have rescheduled Pastor Gerdeen's Mission Weekend for reschedule for July 13 and 14. We will do several "matching funds" promotions for the program and for Ugandan and Indian missions.

Action Requested: None at this time.

     Evangelism Grant for 2005. Still no word on when the dollars will come.

Action Requested: None until we have dollars in hand.

     One Hundred Year History. We have gotten all the pdf pages to Elroy Vestra who is putting the book together. Last minute revisions because of new data coming in has resulted in four different versions being sent to Elroy PLUS revisions of what he has. The latest--there is a text lining up problem which will add to the cost per the e-mail I sent you this afternoon. The cover will be blue, but the ink may be other than yellow gold because of the image on the cover probably not printing well with that color. Feedback from the Council was a toss-up when it came to the line drawing versus the photo of the church, so we will have the line drawing on the front cover and the photo on the back cover. I understood the Council wanted to order 60 copies; I ordered an additional 10 and will cover the cost for them. Debbie Owen has placed the history on our website and we have sent off a press release about its availability. Do we want to have a per book cost or ask for a free will offering when people take a book, advising people of the cost per book?

Action Requested: Council to determine how to recover costs of printing.

     New Mission Family. We still need to re-allocate mission funds. Do you want to commit them to the Indian School or Indian Church (see article in last Ambassador)? Uganda? Other? Has the Council reached consensus on this one?

Action Requested: Either appoint somebody to study the issue or make a decision now.

     Hosannah--Bible Listening Program. I asked Henrie to evaluate a Bible listening program for possible use at Zion. She is familiar with the needs of non-readers. The program is being marketed as a listening discipline for churches. She advised that the program was ill-suited for our needs. I advised Hosannah that we were not interested at this time.

Action Requested: None.

     Parking Lot. Ernie has constructed a fund thermometer for the new parking lot paving fund. It looks like we are about 40% there. Action Requested: Can we possibly come up with a time line for obtaining funds and get an idea about contracting for the job?

     Sunday School Materials. You will recall that Linda had requested teen-based Sunday School materials. Those came, and Linda and Austin and Nels began meeting April 24. There has been no activity in primary grades Sunday School.

Action Requested: None.

     Wedding of McKinnis-Wolf. Pete can update us on this. We both have been contacted about a possible wedding at Zion, both parties belonging to other churches, but interested in going through counseling and marriage here.

Action Requested: Provide closure so we can advise the couple of the church's position

     AFLC Annual Conference. Zion has received Annual Conference materials for the meeting later this month.

Action Requested: None.

     Photos by Philippe Oszuscik, PhD, University of South Alabama. Ernie Burnett was here last week and escorted Dr. Oszuscik through our historic church. He had seen the video produced by Channel 10 in conjunction with Silverhill Library fundraiser with the car show a week or so ago. and he was very interested in the Zion photo, coming to church and shooting many pictures. He is an associate professor in Art and Art History. Neither of his e-mail addresses were functional so we could not advise him of the blue prints of the church that reside with Peter Midgarden.

Action Requested: None.

     Men's 710. Attendance remains consistent at between 10 and 15. Peco Forsman will speak next week on his model of the 1910 Wright Brothers' Flyer. It continues to break even with Charlie Canning keeping a ledger of donations. Surplus funds have supplemented kitchen and bathroom needs.

Action Requested: None.

     Centennial Celebration. Ernie and I met. You have received our discussion summary last month. A copy with a slight revision is attached to tonight's report.

Action Requested: Feedback on an appropriate plan.

     Meals on Wheels. We received an inquiry this past week from a household with compromised vision and apparent fluctuating function generally. They really wanted to connect with Meals on Wheels, but there are just dead ends. I looked into this--there are services from Loxley and from Foley, but not much else. In talking to people, it takes a group to set up bookkeeping and coordinate a program.

Action Requested: Are we willing to sparkplug a project to get Meals on Wheels going into Silverhill, Robertsdale, and Summerdale?

Centennial Planning Report 050517 (Revised)

     Background. You will recall that we have been talking about getting planning underway for some time concerning our Centennial Celebration in October. Loreli had offered to help with the planning and came up with a number of documents from other congregations, but with the involvement with other issues in her life, she had been unable to work on the Celebration project. With her recent resignation from the Church Council, Ernie Burnett has stepped forward to assist in some tentative planning. Here's how we envision things based on our meeting on Tuesday, May 17.

     One Day Celebration Versus Two Days of Celebration. We discussed the efficacy of doing one day of celebration or two. Basically, we felt that if we limited things to just Reformation Sunday, we would reduce community involvement considerably because people do attend their own churches and would therefore "be busy" when our Sunday services and potluck were going on. However, if we schedule events for Saturday as well as Sunday, our attendance and celebration with our community is enhanced.

     What Events. If we structure things for two days, we end up having community-based events on Saturday and church-oriented events on Sunday. That makes things very do-able. In addition, it would be possible to have a "bridge event" on Saturday that would give some "taste" of worship at Zion Lutheran Church.

     Saturday Community Schedule.

• 12:00-1:30 ~ Concert Interspersed with Greetings from Churches and Civic Leaders.
• 1:30-3:30 ~ Formal Open House with sandwiches, Swedish meatballs, sweets, tea, coffee, soft drinks.
• 3:30-4:30 ~ Swedish Dancers or Folk Singers if Available.
• 6:00-7:15 ~ Festival Community Service using Our Present Hymnal Liturgy, first setting which is shorter. Instead of a sermon, we would have a 35 minute Martin Luther Drama (performed by a Presbyterian Pastor from Fairhope who reportedly is an excellent "Luther") followed by Pastor Lee's 10 minute Commentary on Luther. (Pastor Lee is an avid historian with many anecdotes on Luther. His secretary Charlotte has not discussed Saturday involvement with Pastor Lee, but thought he would be available to us.) There would be no offering with this Community Service, but a Door Offering would be an option.

     Sunday Schedule.

• 9:00-9:45 ~ Pastor Lee Lecture on the "Reformation for Today and the Next 100 Years".
• 10:00-11:15 ~ Sunday worship using the historical Julyana Liturgy from 1901 (English Version) for a Communion Service, Pastor Lee preaching. (I think we can start using that liturgy at the end of September so our congregation is comfortable with it for Reformation Sunday.)
• 11:30-1:15 ~ Celebration Potluck open to the community but focused on Zion. We will need a huge Centennial Cake with everything else we usually have.

     Who Do We Invite. We have begun to compile a list of people to invite. Please let us know who should be added: Mayor of Silverhill and Council Members; Chair of the County Commission and our Regional Representative. Governor and our State Legislators, Congressman Bonner; Our Two Alabama Senators; Swedish Trade Attache in Texas? Our list of pastors from previous invites: Moore, Hoefercamp, Jecklin, St. Pierre, Dittmann, Canning; People of St. Elmo's; People of St. Paul's; Other Lutheran Churches of Baldwin. Time Line. We need to get our invitation letters in the mail by June 15.

     Funding Needs. We probably will need to do an honorarium for Pastor Lee and the dramatist from Fairhope. Musicians--maybe we can have a church or school choir. For costs, we need to look to Mike for some guidance here, since he may have some ideas. The Saturday open house will require some groceries--any ideas?

     Suggestions. Please let us know your thinking. Talk to Ernie or me at your convenience or e-mail specifics. We are wide open to your input.

MUSEUM REPORT

     Ernie reported that a color print of a stained-glass Reformation Window published by Lutheran Brotherhood has been located and will be posted in the museum/library of the church.

CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION REPORT

     To be discussed under new business.

MAINTENANCE REPORT

     Pete reported that the bell tower is now in the dry. Installation of roll roofing is needed to complete the project.

THRIVENT REPORT

     Charlie reported that Thrivent has agreed to extend the deadline on the matching funds for our Mission Workshop, due to weather delays and scheduling issues.

     OLD BUSINESS

     MISSIONS. After much deliberation on supporting a mission, the council agreed on the Indian School through the AFLC. The motion was made and seconded that we send funds through the AFLC to support the school in India. Motion carried. Pastor Dave said he would email Pastor Dasari Sastry about our decision to support them.

     PARKING LOT PROJECT. Pastor Dave asked for a projected date on when funds may become available to begin the paving project. If donations received thus far are any indication of donations projected to be received in the future, it looked as though there would be adequate funds in the spring of 2006, provided costs remained the same.

     ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP. The council discussed the criteria to be considered for associate membership. The following motion was made and seconded to present to the congregation for a vote, a bylaw to our church constitution allowing for associate membership: "People who are members in good standing of another non-local congregation, may obtain status as an associate member, recognizing the word of God as the sole authority in all things temporal or spiritual, upon Pastor recommendation and council approval. Associate members will exercise all responsibilities and privileges of membership, but will have no vote in congregational meetings." Motion carried.

     NEW BUSINESS

     McKINNIS/WOLF WEDDING. A motion was made and seconded to grant the couple permission to be married by Pastor Dave in our church. Motion carried. Both parties are members of other churches, but were agreeable to premarital counseling by Pastor Dave.

     CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. Ernie and Pastor Dave presented a preliminary schedule of events to the council for review. The council believed there would be more community attendance if we could incorporate the activities and the service to Saturday afternoon, eliminating the travel required to come back to an evening service. Additional names were submitted to the list of invitees. Invitations would be mailed around June 15. Funding for the event was discussed. It was suggested that we allow for a door offering to help off-set expenses.

     AFLC YOUTH MINISTRIES. are needed to support a youth minister at the AFLC. The council agreed to inform the congregation of the need and post the information on the bulletin board for review.

     LENTEN OFFERING. The motion was made and seconded to disburse the offering that was collected during Lent to the following agencies: Boys Ranch--$200; Heart-to-Heart--$200; Foley Nursing Home-- purchase $100 of needed items now, an additional $100 near the end of the year. Motion carried.

     With no further business, the meeting was adjourned with The Lord's Prayer.

     Respectfully submitted by

     Linda Gibbs, Council Secretary