Announcements for June 2021
Congratulations to our 2021 seniors: LilyAnn Hunt-North Linn High School, Terra Fink-Center Point-Urbana High school, and Ryah Bergeron-Center Point-Urbana High School. God bless you in your future endeavors!
Matins will be prayed at 9:30am on June 22nd. Many pastors will be attending this service for a monthly Lutheran Confessions study. The congregation is welcome to attend this service.
Divine Service for the Commemoration of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession is on Friday, June 25, 2021 at 5:30pm. The congregation is encouraged to attend. Cookout to follow on the church lawn.
Altar Guild schedule/guidelines are available on the Resource Table. Due to a retirement, we are looking for someone to fill the month of June. If you are interested in serving on the Altar Guild, please contact Pam Swales.
Altar Flower Chart is available on the bulletin board in the entry way. You can sign up by the date to donate flowers for an anniversary, birthday, or any special occasion. For more information, see Marilyn Nielsen. If you would like this special occasion listed in the bulletin, please contact Pam Swales.
RAGBRAI is riding through downtown Center Point, Thursday, July 29th. The official route goes up Vine Street and turns at Main Street. St. John will have a food stand on the corner of Vine & Main serving pie, drinks, and bananas. Many volunteers will be needed. Sign-up sheets for volunteers will soon be available in the narthex. This is a great opportunity for the congregation of St. John Lutheran Church to help with this project. Sign up for your choice of times. Any questions, contact Pastor Van Hemert, Dorothea Wood, Pat Akers, or Justine Beaver.
Thursday Evening Divine Service is held at 7:00 p.m. for those who cannot attend Sunday Divine Service during the summer.
Pastor’s Student Loans The congregation voted to assist in paying Pastor’s student loans through Thrivent Choice Dollars and donations from the congregation. Please write on your offering envelope the amount and “Student Loan” if you would like to donate to this fund.
“God’s Wonder Lab” is the theme for this year’s VBS. Please plan to attend, invite neighbors and friends. The date has been set for August 2-6, 2021. Peanut butter jar lids, approximately 3-4 inches in diameter are needed for a craft project. A box is provided in the narthex for the lids.
Bible Study is held each Sunday following fellowship time. Wednesday morning Bible Class will resume in September.
Altar Guild serving for the month of June is Sara Voss.
June Elders: Tony Stadheim and Wayne Buelow.
Elders’ Meeting Monday, June 14th at 7:00 p.m.
June Plate Offering is designated for Lutherans for Life.
An Invitation to our June 25th Divine Service:
“Falsely are our (Lutheran) churches accused of abolishing the Mass (The Holy Communion Service); for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved.”
These two sentences make up part of Article XXIV of the Augsburg Confession. The Augsburg Confession is the first document in The Book of Concord. To accept and subscribe to this document, as well as the entire Book of Concord, makes one Lutheran. In fact, the constitution of St. John Lutheran Church rightly lays out an acceptance and subscription to these documents. Under Article II, The Purpose of the Confessional Standard, Section 2, our constitution states, “As a true and faithful exhibition of the Holy Scriptures this corporation receives all the confessional books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church: The Apostolic, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds; The Unaltered Augsburg Confession and the Apology of the same; The Smalcald Articles; The Large and Small Catechism of Martin Luther; The Formula of Concord. By these standards, all questions and religious disputes are to be decided.”
The Augsburg Confession is a theological treatise, prepared primarily by Luther’s right hand man, Philip Melanchthon, with the help of Martin Luther himself. Melanchthon presented this treatise in the midst of hostility at a meeting in the town of Augsburg on June 25, 1530. At this meeting, Melanchthon presented the pure and true doctrine of the Christian Church in the presence of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Roman Catholic Church. Melanchthon, nor Luther knew what would happen to them as a result. Because they rejected many abusive teachings of the Roman Church, there was certainly the threat of punishment and death. But the Lutheran theologians and princes held fast to their confession and would rather have suffered death than fall away from the faith or teach falsely. Thus, we receive the Augsburg Confession with great joy and gladness. Again, to accept and subscribe to the Augsburg Confession and the rest of The Book of Concord is to be Lutheran.
Since the Augsburg Confession was presented on June 25th in the year 1530, the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod has designated June 25th as The Commemoration of the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. To celebrate this important event in the history of our Church, we will be hosting a circuit Divine Service on Friday, June 25th. In an effort to add more ceremony to this important celebratory day, I will be assisted by a few other pastors who have graciously volunteered to help out. Pastor Michael Knox of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Cedar Falls will preach. Pastor Sean Hansen of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Mount Vernon will serve as what is called the “Liturgical Deacon.” Pastor Jeff Pautz of Our Savior Lutheran Church in Muscatine will serve as what is called the “Liturgical Subdeacon.” Pastor Nathan Wille of Trinity Lutheran Church in Clinton Iowa will serve as organist.
This will be a special Divine Service, during which, we pull out all the stops. For “Falsely are our (Lutheran) Churches accused of abolishing the Mass (The Holy Communion Service); for the Mass is retained among us, and celebrated with the highest reverence. Nearly all the usual ceremonies are also preserved.”
One aspect of the service that will be different is that all the participating pastors will be wearing specific vestments that were worn at the time of the Reformation. Martin Luther would be very familiar with these vestments. So come and attend this wonderful moment in our history on June 25th and come learn more about our Lutheran heritage and what it means to be Lutheran!
The Divine Service will begin at 5:30 pm. Of course, we must do the correct “Lutheran” thing and have a grill out after the service on the church grounds. All are invited and all are encouraged to attend!
