Farewell to Diane Eidsmo

If you have spent any time around the church office over the past sixteen years you probably have met our Director of Communications, Diane Eidsmo. If you haven’t met her in person, you have met her through her Mount Calvary ministries of word and design – in our Caller newsletter, our Web site, emails, social media and many print materials.

Here in the office, we have all come to depend upon Diane’s thoughtful and valuable presence. She is one of those team members that you can always count on to get things done, and she gets things done without fuss or drama. She has a natural ability to discern what looks just right and a talent for cutting through surplus information to find the real story.

Diane first began her Mount Calvary journey in 2002. Her background in corporate communications and marketing gave her a particular insight and expertise in telling the stories of our faith community. Throughout her 16 years at Mount Calvary, she worked in almost every facet of office life – facilities, accounting, and communications, working for three Business Administrators. As Pastor Dave says, she has brought us through “generations of technology changes.” She has been part of creating two Web sites, through too many technology changes to count, and, most importantly, contributed to Mount Calvary’s success and growth.

“These are job related ‘rocks,’ but on a personal level I have made long lasting friendships and had the honor and joy of working with so many wonderful people within the Mount Calvary congregation,” she says. “This has been a job where I loved every part of what I did on a daily basis, and the relationships with staff, volunteers, and church members were the highlight of the past 16 years.”

We wish you all the best in your retirement, Diane. We hope to keep in touch, and we expect to see some great pictures of you and your grandchildren doing water ski tricks together! Thank you for your work and witness and may God bless and keep you in your new ventures.

Kara Paulson

A New September

There is so much hope and energy surrounding a new September. Children and youth returning to school in a new grade, college freshmen shaking off the shackles of adult oversight, beleaguered parents placing kids on the bus with feigned regret and then rushing off to celebrate their emancipation over coffee with their peers. There is a freshness and newness to September, as we begin our shift back from shorts to slacks, flip flops to flats, vacation to vocation and backyards to schoolyards.

Rally Weekend, September 8 and 9, our kids and guides return to Sunday School; then on Wednesday the 12th our Confirmands and guides gather for the first time this fall. Along with them, numerous other groups and studies reignite or launch with renewed spirits. Our worship theme this year is “All In God’s Grace.” Joyfully, we will worship, study and pray, seeking greater clarity and depth to our relationships with Jesus and each other. We will explore what it means to be “all in” in our discipleship and what it means to proclaim “all in” in our diverse and often exclusionary world. Confidently, we will explore the treasures that are ours in Christ, in relationships, in our community and in our world. On Tuesday nights in CrossPaths, I will lead a Bible study that was inspired by our national Bishop’s four emphases “We are Church” “We are Lutheran” “We are Church Together” and “We are Church for the Sake of the World”. I hope you will join me as we explore our identity as Lutheran followers of Jesus in this place.

What a treasure we have been given through God’s ongoing creation of our world and life, through Jesus’ transformation of the redundant life into the abundant life, and through the Blessed Spirit’s renewal of daily life. What a blessing, indeed, and what an amazing journey of discovery God has mapped out for our hearts to follow.

Come this fall to join us as we map our way to a deeper relationship with God, seeking clues for the direction God would have us go and keeping our eyes on the prize that is God’s love and favor. Joy, hope and purpose will surely abound!

Pastor Dave

HIS HOUSE THRIFT STORE…Gone But Not Forgotten

HIS HOUSE THRIFT STORE…Gone But Not Forgotten

In August the His House Thrift Store was torn down to make way for a Starbucks! We have had that store in Minnetonka for 10 years. Since then we have partnered with RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Resale Store and created a Regional Resource Center at 2460 Chaska Blvd in Chaska. The Resource Center includes a food recovery program with Carver County Public Health for people that have a barrier getting to the food shelf or need extra food. We also created a car repair program for people that cannot afford to repair their car, and we took all the wonderful donations from our His House Thrift Store to share with people graduating out of the Families Moving Forward homeless program. So, His House Thrift Store might be gone but the mission and ministry lives on. We will continue to focus on basic needs and homelessness in our community.

One weekend mid-August the His House team worked the Cub Brat Stand again. This is a great program. All proceeds from the brat stand go to the charity working the food cart. The wonderful volunteers from Mount Calvary came out to assist. When we were done serving on Saturday evening, the His House team took any leftover food to a homeless couple staying in a tent in the back of a local business. Yes, there are homeless people that are in the shadows of our community. Many live in cars, some in tents. One young man was sleeping at the Cub Store overnight in the deli. Homelessness is all around us even here in the suburbs.

Does His House need a building to continue in our missions of serving the marginalized…NO!
Thank you for the last 10 years….we look forward to the next 10 years.

Martha Brannon
His House

Linked in Prayer 9-18

Linked In Prayer – Gifts of prayer

For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also. Luke 12:34

I appreciate this passage because it reminds me that where I focus my time, my thoughts, my actions, shows what is in my heart.
That’s why I value setting aside daily time to pray.
+ It helps us put God’s love in the center of our life.
+ It can focus our attention on the gifts we receive from God and our gratitude.
+ It can increase our receptiveness of receiving God’s love for us and presence with us.
+ It can remind us that we are forgiven and can start anew this moment.

What reminds you of God’s love and presence within you throughout your day? Here are some suggestions: In prayer, while reading scripture or inspirational writing, when listening to another, when I notice my breath, when I hear joyful laughter, seeing something in nature – a flower, a tree, a sunset, a sunrise.

Let me know what reminds you of God’s presence throughout the day? When we share this wisdom with each other we learn and grow. Please feel free to email me your God reminders at: Laurieberickson@msn.com.

For where your treasure is, there your heart shall be also. Be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Luke 12:34-36

Laurie Erickson

State of the Church – Sept 2018

STATE OF THE CHURCH

This month I am sending out two invitations via this letter. Both are directly related to sharing information about our church, both involve your participation, and both are quite painless (you might even enjoy them!).

Invitation #1
Our Mount Calvary Annual Meeting is scheduled for October 7 at 11:45am and I would like to encourage everyone to attend. This is a great opportunity to get updated on the status of our church and to hear about some of our most recent activities. You will also get to meet your church council members, some of whom joined the council within the past year. If you use any of the church services or contribute in any way, you should plan to join us for this important meeting.

Invitation #2
Each month as I prepare to write my article about the state of the church, I think I should instead be asking the congregation how our church is doing. I never forget that this is your church, and the council and staff are working on your behalf. So, it really is important to ask you … how is the state of the church? Are we providing the programming that you want/need? Are we staffed appropriately to execute our programs? Are there any “gaps” that should be filled? Are we doing the right stuff?

I fully expect that there are not any glaring issues or shortfalls because we have not made any major or controversial changes that would lead to such a situation. But often there are ways we can improve which might not be obvious to those of us on the front lines. We fielded a survey to the entire congregation in 2016 and found that we were doing quite well in most areas, but as expected, we learned that we could do a few things differently and better. These are the “gems” that are so valuable in helping us to continually improve what we do. It might be time soon for another survey, but in the meantime I invite everyone to keep the council informed about the state of our church from your perspective as a member of the congregation. Please reach out to me at CouncilPresident@MountCalvary.org with any ideas, comments or suggestions that you would like to share.
Mike Kasprick
Council President