Hutchinson, MN
Many say that once they have experienced Holy Week from beginning to end, they never missed it again. We invite you to experience Holy Week — Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday — and Easter Sunday this year.
Holy Week & Easter Sunday Schedule 2012:
Click to enlarge.
Check back to this page throughout Holy Week for highlights.
We are happy to welcome 17 new members to our family of Faith. New members were recognized on Sunday, March 25 at the 10:30 a.m. service. Names and pictures of all the families will be on the TV screens at the front of the sanctuary on Sunday, April 1 before each worship service (8, 9:15 and 10:30 a.m.). Some of the new members are pictured below.
New members were asked to attend four classes before New Member Sunday, instead of one class as we’ve done in the past. These classes focused on Lutheran basics and Faith Lutheran orientation and were offered at 9:15 on Sunday mornings. Current members of Faith Lutheran were also invited to attend to brush up on Lutheran basics.
If you are interested in becoming a member of Faith Lutheran Church, contact Marsha Schmit at 320-234-8400.
The Greenhouse/Faith on Grove Sunday night worship service has been a vital and successful worship offering of Faith Lutheran Church for over ten years, serving as an entry point for many into this congregation and a home for many others, while providing a casual, contemporary worship experience.
Lately, the Greenhouse service has struggled to establish a unique identity and to find musicians available to lead the worship. For this reason, and after much consideration, it has been decided to put the Greenhouse service on a hiatus, in a sense, closing for “reconstruction.”
The hope is that by closing the service, it will allow some time to evaluate what the needs are of those who attend (and those who don’t) and how to best use our resources to meet those needs. During this hiatus time, please give any feedback you might have about the future of Greenhouse.
In the meantime, please join us in the pre-hiatus Greenhouse worship on Sunday, April 1.
Faith Lutheran’s Pastor Paul Knudson supplied us with this month’s Pastor’s Page article about his upcoming travel to Ethiopia:
“Come over to Ethiopia and help us.” This call to us from the General Secretary of a vibrant, fast growing, 5.8 million member Ethiopian church was in some ways an unusual call. Indeed this national church body, Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), filled with the Spirit, centered in Jesus Christ and anchored in God’s Word, is a People of God we need to ask to come and help us. The EECMY has added a half million members in the last two years alone. I know of no church body in any nation that has accomplished this! We need their help to bring a passion for Christ-centered and Spirit-empowered evangelical outreach back to Western Churches. The days of one way assistance are past. Nevertheless, this body of fellow believers is asking for our help.
This being said, representatives from Ethiopia, Tanzania, Cameroon, the USA, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Finland, Denmark and other nations are coming together for mutual encouragement in an International Mission and Theological Conference from April 21-26 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
I am thrilled with the opportunity to join with Christian leaders from all these nations to explore the partnership God has in store for us as we walk together and seek to respond to this Macedonian call. I will be traveling to Ethiopia with representatives of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). We leave on April 18 and return April 30.
The EECMY, having severed ties with the ELCA, is looking to the international Lutheran community for help in preparing their pastors and evangelists for the many challenges they are facing in their fast-changing world. They recognize their need for being grounded in sound doctrine, Biblical knowledge and other leadership tools. Worshipping, learning together and simply spending time in substantive conversations over these days will prepare us all for effective responsiveness to their call for leadership development.
We in the Augustana District and our Board of World Missions in particular are playing a specific role leading up to this conference. For us to learn of the needs it will be important to have many pastors and evangelists from the EECMY to be able to come. To this end we are inviting anyone interested and able to respond to send one of these leaders to the conference. Your gift of $60 will send one of these indigenous leaders. To date we have received gifts enabling over 50 to attend.
I would covet your prayers for this event and that I might learn much. I look forward to reporting back to you upon returning.
In Christ,
Pastor Paul Knudson
The Augustana District Convention, “That You May Proclaim,” will be Saturday, April 28, 2012 at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Hutchinson. The convention will go from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Contact Christ the King at320-587-2766 for more information.
Click here for the registration information packet on the Augustana District Website.
The Augustana District is a non-geographic district of Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC) centered in the upper Midwest. Click here to learn more about the district. Faith Lutheran and Christ the King are active member churches of the Augustana District.
The Joyful Noise Chime Choir played at the Lenten service last Wednesday. This was their first performance for our congregation, and they did a great job! Watch the video below!
Food collections around the county are down considerably from this time last year. To date, only 9000 pounds of food from around the county has been donated towards the food drive. This is equivalent to a one week supply of food for the food shelf. It’s going out as fast as it comes in.
Photo by Messiah Lutheran, Mecanicsville, VA, under Creative Commons
Last year this program raised over 100,000 pounds of food, cleaning supplies and personal hygiene items for the McLeod Emergency Food Shelf. Unfortunately, the need in McLeod County continues to grow. Last year, the McLeod Emergency Food Shelf distributed 386,345 lbs. of food and supplies throughout McLeod County. That amount is up 42% from 2010. Our local Hutchinson Food Shelf served over 2,700 households in 2011 and they continue to see more families come in for assistance.
Donate to the 2012 Food Drive this week! Minnesota Food Share will match any donation, but that only includes food donated in March. You can donate directly at the McLeod Emergency Food Shelf here in Hutchinson at 105 2nd Ave. SW Monday through Friday 9:00 am – Noon or at any of the businesses listed below.
• Buffalo Wild Wings ~ 1040 Hwy 15 S
• Citizens Bank & Trust Co~ 102 Main St S
• Crow River Wellness~ 35 Main St N
• Econo Foods~ 205 Washington
• Ecumen Oaks & Pines ~ 945 Century Ave SW Ave E
• Edina Realty ~ 904 Hwy 15 S
• Edward Jones – Pat Chapman ~ 205 Jefferson St SE
• Edward Jones – Dean Winter ~ 904 Hwy 15 S
• Edward Jones – Kim Winter ~ 1020 Hwy 7 W
• Hager Jewelry~ 138 Main St S
• Health Source Chiropractic~ 1060 Hwy 15 S / Hutchinson Mall
• Home State Bank~ Cash Wise Location
• Home State Bank~ 745 Hwy 7 W
• Hutchinson Area Chamber of Commerce, CVB~ 2 Main St S
• Hutchinson Leader Office~ 170 Shady Ridge Rd NW
• Kids Inc. ~ 566 Bluff St
• Liberty Tax ~ 1310 Hwy 15 S
• Mediacom ~ 902 Hwy 15 S
• MidCountry Bank – Downtown Office ~ 201 Main St S
• MidCountry Bank – South Office ~ 905 Hwy 15 S
• MN Workforce Center ~ 2 Century Ave SE
• NU-Telecom – Hutchinson Office ~ 235 Franklin St W
• Plumbing & Heating by Craig ~ 680 Hwy 7 E
• SNAP Fitness ~ 114 Main St N, Ste 201
• Southwest Initiative Foundation ~ 15 3rd Ave NW
• Stewart Title ~ 75 Hassan St SE
The sounds of games and laughter could be heard in the Youth Gathering Space at Faith Lutheran as some Hutchinson students spent part of their Spring Break at the church’s KidPower on Main program. They played games, did art projects, watched movies and learned about Jesus during their week off from school.
KidPower on Main is a program run by volunteers of Faith Lutheran on days off from school from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is the program’s second year.
The kids were eager to jump in front of the camera to show off their wooden bird artwork on Thursday afternoon. Check out the pictures below.
Many thanks are due to Shelly Grorud, Dick & Dorothy Desens, Pat Krueger, Alice Poshek, Sheri Brigden, Kacie Lange, Kirsten Grorud and Elaine Blade (if I missed anyone, please let me know by commenting on this post) for helping with KidPower during Spring Break. It’s a lot of work, a lot of fun… and so appreciated!
Paul is one of the most significant New Testament witnesses to the early church and to early proclamations of Jesus. He is also one of the most controversial. In this course, Professor Kyle Fever will introduce participants to the first of Paul’s life letters in the New Testament. This live online course is available to Faith members Mondays, March 12-April 23, 7 to 8 p.m. Please contact Marsha Schmit at 234-8400 to sign up or for more information.
The well known author, Pastor Frederick Buechner, once called the Lord’s Prayer a “dangerous prayer” to pray. How can a prayer we so easily say Sunday after Sunday be all that? Radical? Dangerous? Countercultural? A prayer against ourselves? Adult Forums during Lent will wrestle with this dangerous prayer. 
Sundays during Lent, 9:15 a.m. in the Faith Center:
March 4: “Have I Reached the Party to Whom I Am Speaking?”
March 11: “Losers, Keepers”
March 18: “We Tremble Not with Fear”
March 25: “Forgiven Sinners, Forgive Sinners”
April 1: “I am weak, but You Are Strong”