The celebration started with dinner and many outside activities: 

• Shovel Check provided for those that brought their own shovels
• Decorating Hard Hats - Markers and stickers were available to make personalized hats.
• Photos as Construction workers (face cutouts) - Pictures taken.
• Buried Treasures - Kids shoveled in the huge sandpiles to find the buried treasures.  There were two gold coins buried and the finders were the children representatives during the groundbreaking ceremony.
• Prayer Rocks - Rocks were decorated and included Faith members names on them.  They were then placed on a large cross which will be buried during construction.
• Construction Equipment - Hjerpe Contracting brought several construction vehicles to Faith’s parking lot for the kids to climb on. 
• Scroll Signing - The scroll will be placed in the time capsule.

Worship Service

• Gathering Music - Lara Liepold 
• Welcome & Message - Pastor Scott
• Hymn “The Church’s One Foundation” - Shirley Holtz

After the indoor worship service, Mona Hjerpe and Kacie Lange led the kids and congregation outside singing “We Are Marching to the Light of God”.  The Ringers of Faith stood on the sidewalk in two lines with random ringing while the kids and congregation processed outside.  The kids gathered in front of the stage and sang “Lord I Lift your Name on High”, led by Mona Hjerpe and Pastor Randy.

Groundbreaking Ceremony

• Welcome and Devotions - Pastor Randy
• Puppet Show - Dave Wollan & Brad Burch
• Messages regarding youth ministries - Dave Wollan & Kacie Lange
• Special Music - “I Will Rise” - Marc Vaillancourt
• Brian Berg - Architect
• Marlin Torgerson - Building Construction Team
• Official Groundbreaking with Ceremonial Shovels - Pastor Randy 
• Music - “How Great is Our Got” and “How Great Thou Art”
• Everyone invited to dig
• Closing Prayer - Pastor Scott
• Closing Song - “Go Now in Peace” - Faith Singers

What Happens Next ?

March 31 Construction Loan Closing with Thrivent Bank

April 3 & 4 Staff offices move to FLC North

April 6 Asbestos Abatement begins (estimated to last 3 weeks)

April 27 North end of existing structure removed, soil stabilization and excavation begin

Other things to watch for:

*  Opportunity to buy an existing brick to create a memory wall in the new building.

*  Watch progress on faithlc.com and photo boards at church.

*  “Scrolls” to sign for Time Capsule.

* Commitment Sunday, April 26.

*  Last day of Sunday School Celebration - May 17.

The critical need, however, is that a major loan of approximately $83,000 has a balloon payment due before year’s end. Currently interest on this debt is $750.00 per month. By eliminating this debt, or greatly reducing it, this vital ministry will become much more effective and be an even better steward of our ongoing support.

If you can help with this effort, you are asked to give whatever you can well before year’s end so that our collective efforts can be sent in time to retire, or greatly reduce, this indebtedness. Make any checks payable to “New Hope Mission Society” and send or return them to the church office. Working with our other partners, we can do what needs to be done.

We are looking forward to a visit from Rev. K.K. Alavi later this fall to give us, and others, an update on the ministry he leads on our behalf.

At approximately 6:45 p.m. the children will be invited to the Fellowship
Halls to watch movies, have popcorn and enjoy children’s activities.

Building Project Update Agenda
-Timeline
-Reality Check
-What are we able to build based on existing funds raised pledged?
-Building Design Update
- If we only build a portion of the building project now, what are future implications?
-Financial Status of Building Project

In February 2009, we will vote on a building project proposal. Contingent on congregational approval, we will break ground in May 2009. We urge you to attend on Wednesday, October 22 for this Reality check on our Building Project.

If you want future Blog Post updates on the Building Projects and other news at Faith Lutheran, be sure to subscribe to our feed by clicking the icon in the sidebar that looks like this: and enter your email address. It’s that simple!

Astonishingly, many Lutheran and other Christian theologians today believe that God exists only as a human concept. They maintain that God has no reality apart from human awareness, perception and language about Him, and you may be surprised to find how easy it is for them to make that argument! However, these claims have a profound effect on our most basic Christian beliefs and understanding. Find out how much is at stake in what may sound like an obvious question—”Is God real?”

ILT Lay Course, Sunday mornings November 30, December 7, 14 and 21 at 9:45 a.m. led by Dr. Dennis Bielfeldt. This course will be held during the Our next Missions in Action (MIA) adult forum time at Faith Lutheran.

The Crow River Area WordAlone Chapter is starting up again!

The next meeting will be held on Saturday, November 8, 10:00 a.m. at Faith Lutheran. The speaker will be the director of the WordAlone Network, Pastor Mark Chavez. He will bring us up-to-date on what’s happening in this vital renewal movement. Also, Pastor Scott Grorud will share what lies ahead in WordAlone. He will be attending a WordAlone board meeting shortly before November 8, and can share new goals, actions and visions for the network. In addition, we want to consider what plans and visions we should project for our chapter, and will need your input.

Be thinking! Mark your calendar.

Most Lutherans, perhaps even most Christians, are familiar with that much of the story. But when it comes to what the Reformation was all about, what Luther did or tried to accomplish, I think people are not quite as sure.

If someone asked you that question, what would you say? I can imagine some of you would say that he fought against indulgences—certificates people purchased in place of doing penance for their sin. Some might say that he broke away from the Roman Catholic Church—although the break wasn’t his doing. He was excommunicated (kicked out) in January 1521 at the age of 38, against his will. Some might say that he recovered the good news that we are saved by God’s grace and not by any good works we do—which is at the heart of the Gospel. There are many other possible answers, too, because Martin Luther was a brilliant, obsessively hard working, inspired scholar, musician and pastor.

At the heart of it, however, the Reformation revolved around just one issue: the authority of the Bible. Luther believed that the Bible was the inspired Word of God, and therefore it had more authority in matters of faith and life than any other, be it tradition, the institutional Church or church leaders. This was the really radical part of Luther’s teaching, the one that drove all of his other convictions and the one that drove the Christian leaders of his day to distraction. By insisting on the authority of the Bible above all, he undercut the entire system and structure of the Roman Catholic Church and restored the Biblical foundation that had prevailed in the early church.

The real gift of the Lutheran Reformation to Christianity was returning the Bible to its proper place as the “only rule and norm according to which all doctrines and teachers alike must be appraised and judged.” As your pastors, we are committed to keeping the Bible at the center of everything we do, from preaching to pastoral care, to worship to administering the sacraments.

Sadly, however, in the larger Lutheran and Christian family today, this central Reformation issue is starting to slip away or is even outright attacked. Faith Lutheran Church is involved in movements like the WordAlone Network and Lutheran CORE (COalition of REform) because the Bible is being ignored, argued away, diminished or dismissed in favor of lesser authorities, and it is leading to false teaching and unfaithful decisions in our denomination and churches.

Reformation Day and the events it recalls are not just a matter of history or tradition. We are fighting very similar battles today. We have reached another Reformation moment in the history of the Christian Church and, as we thank God for inspiring Martin Luther with such insight and courage in his day, we pray that God will raise up new Luthers to lead the way in preserving and restoring the faith today.

Many observers, some leaders and even official task forces acknowledge that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a deeply divided denomination. There are divisions over particular
matters like full communion agreements, sexuality and interpretation of the Bible. Though serious divisions, they are on the surface. Beneath them lies a much deeper division - the proclamation of a gospel other than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

WordAlone’s 2008 fall theological conference will examine in depth the different gospel being
proclaimed in the ELCA and other denominations and contrast it with the true Gospel. The different gospel sounds nice and is cloaked in biblical language - “God is love.” However, it denies the basic truth claims in the Bible and in the ecumenical creeds.

The corrosive impact of the different gospel on the ministry, mission and vitality of ELCA churches and members will be addressed in the conference. The potential for rupturing ecumenical relationships and relationships with other Lutheran churches in
the world will also be addressed.