​All are welcome

Directions

All 2019 Holy Week Activities are at the Brick Church:
Maundy Thursday Worship w/HC – April 18 – 6:30 PM
Good Friday Service – April 19 – 1:30 PM
Easter Sunday – April 21
Sunrise Service – 7:00 AM | Breakfast – 8:00 AM-9:30 AM
Festival Worship – 10:00 AM (with a baptism & new member welcome)
Pastor Kathryn Ingbritsen will lead worship with Holy Communion
Focus: Festival of the Resurrection: New Life in Christ

It’s spring again at North Beaver Creek…and there’s lots going on!
 
Week of April 22-28
 
Saturday-April 27 –
Weather permitting, grounds clean-up will begin at 9:00 AM. Looking for volunteers.
Note: Since the weather is iffy for Saturday, if anyone can work on this earlier in the week, please call Steve Vehrenkamp at 608-864-0090 (Cell) or
​608-525-5999 (Home) to schedule.
 
Sunday-April 28 –
During worship, we will have blessing of fields and gardens and spring and summer construction workers. Please wear your outdoor work attire (hats included) for service.
 
A candidate for the pastoral call will preach and meet people.
 
There will be a fellowship time after worship, with an offering going to ELCA World Hunger.
 

Reflections
​by Pastor Kathy Ingbritsen

The time between called/settled pastors holds many challenges and opportunities.  So we covenant with God and with one another to continue to be a searching, sharing, and serving community of Christians.  The interim time can be a time of uncertainty and anxiety.  I will seek to hear your concerns and walk with you through this time. The interim time can be one of possibility and renewal. I will seek to learn from your story as a congregation and as individuals, to ask questions that can help to deepen faith, and to point to the resources of Scripture, tradition, and experience for guidance on this journey.  The interim time is also a time to prepare for new leadership.  We will install and pray for the new and continuing North Beaver Creek congregational leaders today, and make a continuing commitment to pray for the pastor God is already preparing for this congregation.
​
Let us pray.  Almighty God, you call your people to service and give them varied responsibilities in your church.  As your people gather into congregations, you raise up leaders for them to share in ministry.  Grant me grace and strength, that I may proclaim the Word diligently and that your people receive it willingly, as I fulfill the appointment of interim pastor. Guide this congregation by your Spirit, that we may accomplish your will in this place. Keep us in the same mind in Christ, and help us to be faithful in this ministry of this place.  We pray in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jan. 20 -- Sunday School Sings

​"This Little Light of Mine" by Harry Dixon Loes, 1920s -- and they truly did shine! See Sunday School event schedule, thru summer break.

2019 Sunday School Event Schedule
Resume on January 13th
Jan 20th – Sing
Feb 17th – Sing
March 17th -- Sing
April – Sing on Easter (no SS that day)
May 5th -- Pie auction Tentative
May 12th – Sing  
May 19th – Last day
Vacation Bible School – Tentatively week of July 2
(Sunday School is held every Sunday during this period, unless noted.)

Luther and Lutheranism
​from the ELCA Website

Martin Luther (1483-1546)

Martin Luther was eight years old when Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe and landed in the Western Hemisphere.  Luther was a young monk and priest when Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  A few years later, he was a junior faculty member at a new university in small-town Germany, intently studying the Scriptures, “captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans.” 

In these days Luther was tormented by the demand for righteousness before God. “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God.” Then, in the midst of that struggle with God, the message of the Scriptures became clear, like a long-shut door opening wide. When he realized that a “merciful God justifies us by faith … I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” 

What Luther discovered is the freedom of Christians trusting God’s mercy in Christ. As he later wrote, “Faith is God’s work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God. This faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times.” 

This discovery set Luther’s life on a new course — both his own life and his public service as a preacher and teacher. When a church-endorsed sales team came to the Wittenberg area in October, 1517, Luther was concerned that the promotion and sale of indulgences undermined the promise of God’s unreserved mercy in Jesus and the faith that trusts that promise. His 95 Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences became the first of a life-long stream of books, sermons, letters, essays, even hymns in which he expressed his confidence in this life-giving promise from God, the Gospel, and its liberating implications for all of life in church and society.

What more is out there on the ELCA website? Here a link to their page. (There's lots of good stuff.)

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Thoughts along the way...

And our children prayed for the people in all these countries...our points of light.

​Looking to find out more about North Beaver Creek? Just click the button below to get to our Archives tab.

​And being Lutheran is What?

Global Church
We are a church that believes God is calling us into the world — together...from the ELCA website

Seventy million Lutherans do make a difference! As a member of The Lutheran World Federation, the ELCA is one of 142 member churches in 79 countries all over the world. We are called to walk alongside our Lutheran brothers and sisters to grow the church and to do God’s work of restoring and reconciling communities everywhere. 

The ELCA has deep, longstanding relationships with Lutheran churches and other partners around the world. We respond to our companions and help support the growth of their work — new congregations, urban and youth outreach, theological education, pursuit of justice and peace and leadership training just to name a few. As we work together with our partners and participate in God’s work in the world, we all grow in faith and benefit — we grow stronger as a global church. 

The ways in which we live and serve as a global church are as diverse as the people, communities, churches and countries that we work alongside and support. The ELCA is hard at work with its partners:

• Building up the church in countries around the world.
• Creating meaningful service opportunities for young adults and adults.
• Supporting the work of over 240 ELCA missionaries in more than 40 countries.
• Nurturing Companion Synod relationships with global church partners.
• Providing scholarships, theological education and training for international leaders.
• Pursuing support for crucial and innovative approaches to participating in God’s mission in the world.

This is how we go about working together as a global church to build up Christ’s church throughout the world.

Walk, Love, Do
by Bishop Jim Arends

From the March 2019 Coulee Courier
​
Then what does the Lord require of you but to
do justice, love kindness
and walk humbly with our God. Micah 6:8

It’s a beloved passage. Many of us can quote it by heart. We like the idea of justice, kindness, and humility. We do get a bit uncomfortable, however, when we hear it is addressed to us – personally. God expects the people of God to be humble about justice and kindness. We are the people of God. You are a child of God. I am a child of God.
There’s a cartoon that portrays a very traditional looking Jesus sitting on a park bench with a very contemporary person. The person is saying, “I don’t get it, Jesus. Why do you allow all the hatred, injustice, hunger, pain, war and suffering in the world? Why don’t you do something about it?” Jesus replies, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Injustice is all around us. During the deep cold of this winter, there were barely enough open beds and blankets to provide warmth for the homeless within our synod. There are homeless within our synod. Our “kind” communities contain folks that paint racist slurs on a local Muslim business. Most of us have some inner racist things skewing our thinking. People are bullied in the efforts of some to make our nation great. And we find the bully within ourselves as we hurt with those who hurt.

Why don’t we, you and I, do something. The 2018 La Crosse Area Synod Assembly challenged us to take risks, to dare holy experiments, that would bring us closer to God and push us out in the world to make a difference.

The 2019 Assembly this June, themed Walk. Love. Do. , will make it even more personal. We’ll be reminded of the humility we are all called to live – in the reality that without the breath of the living God we are but ashes and earth. We’ll be asked to open our eyes, ears and hearts to recognize the love of God around and within us, leaving us with only one response – kindness. And we will be challenged to humbly and kindly work God’s justice in our world.

And we pray:

We thank you, loving God, that in Jesus you save us free of charge.
We believe we are thankful that you challenge us to respond to your grace in service.
​
Empower each of us, to a person, to follow humbly, to love kindness, and to work your justice. Amen.

Bishop Jim
Click the button below for more of this quarter's Coulee Courier and other Synod News.

Synod News

Feb. 3 -- 2019 Annual Meeting

The North Beaver Creek Lutheran Church Annual Meeting was held in the brick church on February 3 after service. The minutes and treasurer’s report were read and approved. The proposed budget for 2019 was presented and approved.
 
Officers and delegates were elected for the upcoming year as follows: 

​President –          Steve Vehrenkamp
Secretary –          Megan Hovre
Treasurer –          Judi Tranberg
Deacon –             Nathan Instenes
Deacon –             Roxie Thompson
Deacon –             Patti Juszczak
Trustee –              Marlys Leque
Trustee –              Darwin Peters
Trustee –              Randy Tollefson
2019 Synod Assembly Delegates --  Scott Vehrenkamp and Brent Sweno
2019 Synod Assembly Alternates -- Steve Vehrenkamp and Joe Vehrenkamp
2019 Sugar Creek Delegates --        Rachel Woyczik and Brent Sweno
2019 Nominating Committee --       Tammy Vehrenkamp, Cheri                                                                                  Omernick and Jay Vehrenkamp

Council President Steve Vehrenkamp also took the opportunity to thank the following for their invaluable contributions:
 
Pastor Kathy Ingbritsen, our interim pastor, 
Rachel Woyczik, Crystal Sweno and Nicole Borreson, our Sunday School Superintendents ,
Patti Juszczak and Linda Heimdahl, our Confirmation leaders, 
Judi Tranberg, as our treasurer – and for keeping the council on the right track by providing agendas for every meeting. 
Ann Ekern for providing worship leadership when no pastor was available.
Sue Woyicki for providing sermons for worship. 
​
Thank you, Lord, for our people and for this place that has come to mean so much to each of us.

From "Living Lutheran" Magazine

--When “Father” Adam Keefer Set Out on Foot: Four Hundred Years of Lutherans in North America – The 19th –century Canadian lay leader walked more than 500 miles (round trip) twice to find a pastor for his congregation.
--Welcoming Those in Need - “’Jesus told us to help,’ said Rose Mary Sanchez-Guzman, whose welcoming congregation, Cristo Rey in El Paso, Texas, is near the U.S.-Mexico border. ‘He didn’t say just help people with documents. He just says feed the hungry and clothe the naked.’”
--Lectionary Blog: Fishing for Humans - “The job of Jesus’ disciples would be similar to their job as fishermen—they needed only us their words and excited exhortations to help drive people toward the kingdom.”
--God Out Loud: Grounded in Grace – January 2019 - “Sometimes I wonder why God isn’t more obvious. Wouldn’t more people believe and take God seriously if the Almighty spoke out loud like at Jesus’ baptism?”

Jan. 13, 2019 --
​Sharing Baptism Memories

​Jan. 6, 2019 --
NBC Welcomes Paityn Marie Ekern 

Paityn is the daughter of Joel Ekern and Tiffany Knight. She is pictured below with her parents,  sponsors and Pastor Kathy Ingbritsen.

Jon and Janessa Sedelbauer (sponsors), Joel Ekern, Paityn Marie Ekern, Tiffany Knight, Brianna Bishop and Joel Hanson (sponsors)

Paityn, welcome...

Paityn with Pastor Kathy, Joel and Tiffany.

Archives

Publicly Engaged Church
...from the ELCA website
​

We are a publicly engaged church that rolls up our sleeves and gets to work. We do God’s work in the world,  the work of restoring and reconciling communities. We pursue justice and seek peace no matter how long the journey or wide the chasm. Because we are grounded in God’s love and forgiveness, we are well equipped to live and serve here and now, in the world, with all its complexities, tensions and ambiguities. 

There is no aspect of life in which God is not active, no place where God is not present. And this is exactly where we are called to participate in God’s work, in the thick of life, embracing individuals, families and communities that are hungry for hope and healing, justice and peace, advocates and partners. 

Our faith and our call to boldly serve and love our neighbor take us into some interesting and challenging aspects of life: advocacy, corporate social responsibility, racial justice, science and ethics, peacemaking, justice for women, social issues, and community organizing. We are drawn into every corner of life, society and its institutions to bring the good news of Jesus Christ and to work for lasting, positive change that upholds human dignity. You have a place in the ELCA and an important role in God’s work in the world — find ways here to get connected to a community of faith and the work of our publicly engaged church. 

NBC at Work and Play