2 Artist of the Year

2 Porte Cochere

Damaged

6 Taizé Worship October 6th

7 Book Club

The Servant’s Voice Welcoming Others to Experience God’s Grace

The newsletter of Christ the Servant Lutheran

October 2019

As our name implies, servanthood has always been a fundamental value in this congre-gation. As Empty Bowls celebrates its 20th annual Luncheon this year we are aware of a long-standing legacy of service to the community. As the new school year begins, we see our regular outreach come back to life. The quilters resume their stitching, meals are prepared for campus ministry, and the Apple Tree donations have been extended to needy students.

But the Outreach Team has been busy and a new fervor for service is growing. Last month our members rekindled its relationship with the Cumberland Children’s Home in Denton. On a Sunday afternoon, members of all ages gathered to rescue a central gard- en plot at the facility. The butterfly garden promises to bring a spark of joy to the adolescents who call the facility home. The congregation looks forward to future opportunities to serve the kids who live there.

In the coming month, the people of Christ the Servant have an opportunity to volunteer with Hearts for Homes, as the group works to help a mother with special needs children. Others will volunteer to help at the Empty Bowls Luncheon. No matter what your talent or availability, there is a place for you to be engaged in this vital part of ministry.

A New Generation of Service

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CTSLC Office #: 940-387-1984

CTSLC Office Hours Monday—Friday

9:00 a.m.—2:00 p.m.

Ministry Team

Staff Pastor ............................................ John Bell

Office Administrator ...... Cindy Bellefeuille Childcare ..................... Tracey Oberbacher Choir Director ................. Elizabeth Moose Organist ......................... Ruusamari Teppo

Council President .............................. Jean Schaake Vice President ..................... Harriet Powell Secretary ............................. Chris Clarkson Treasurer ................................. Lori Shelton Member ............................... Laurie Hensel Member ........................ John Rademacher

Coordinators (partial list) Altar Guild. ............................. Lori Shelton, & Deborah Dossett Childcare .............................................. TBA Christian Ed. ....................... Synette Payne, Heidi Thiele, & Hannah Tarver Communications Committee .. Greg Thiele Empty Bowls Ministry ........ Synette Payne Finance .................................... Lori Shelton Home Communion ...................... Lee Lacy Lutheran Campus Min. ......... Pr. Jim Rowe Memorial Committee .........Yvonne Poppe Men in Mission......................... Andy Waite Outreach Committee............. Jean Russell Property Committee .................................. Quilters Group ....................Yvonne Poppe Stewardship ........................ Chris Clarkson Worship & Music Committee ...... John Bell Worship Leaders ............. Beth Willoughby Writers Group ..................... Suzanne Terry

Our Mission

Saved by God’s grace, energized by the Holy Spirit,

and growing spiritually in Jesus Christ,

we welcome and serve all.

Council News:

Mistywood Entrance Now Open

Road construction is complete and the west drive is now open to traffic. This will allow our members to avoid University Drive. A traffic gate has been installed at the entrance, should we need to control un-authorized though traffic. For now, however the gate will remain open all week.

Finance Presents Budget Proposal

The Finance Team presented council with a first draft budget pro-posal for fiscal year 2020. The proposal seeks to increase the money set aside in the Maintenance Escrow Account and adds additional funding to Music and Outreach. The initial proposal will add a little over four percent to 2019 numbers. Council will present its final pro-posal in November.

Leadership Summit Focuses on

Building Relationships

On October 12th, ministry team leaders gathered with Council in re-sponse to the 2018 membership interviews. The summit is designed to foster communication and cooperation between ministry teams as well as assembling a plan of action for growth. The first summit spent time focusing on the four main needs of the congregation. These are: building relationships, financial stability, membership growth (Outreach) and improved facilities. After discussing the pro-gress already made in these areas, the group looked at specific strat-egies for building relationships among members. This will be a spe-cial area of consideration for ministry teams to consider as they meet during the next quarter.

Porte Cochere Damaged

A participant in one of our on-site activities accidently backed into one of the structural posts of the covered drop-off area at the main entrance. The driver was insured and a General Contractor has in-spected the damage and will be working up and estimate. Hopefully a temporary support can be placed so that the entrance can be used until permanent repairs are made. In the meantime, it is asked that people use the rear entrance to the building.

Organist Receives Honor

CTS Organist, Russamari Teppo, has been named artist of the year for the Finlandia Foundation National. This network of Finnish-American organizations is sponsoring concerts featuring Ms. Teppo over the course of the year. Though most concerts do not involve Sundays, occasionally she will be on the road. Congratulations Russa.

2121 E. University Dr., Denton, TX 76209 3

October

Celebrations

Tracey MacGowan ........... 3rd Carlton Wendel ................ 6th Mica ................................. 7th

Kathleen ........................... 8th Didi Wendel ..................... 10th Chris Hoskins................... 13th

Delores Jeske .................. 13th Russ Callahan .................. 19th Rosa Teppo ..................... 22nd

Susan Bilderback ............ 23rd Christen Cox .................... 27th Marlene Riela .................. 27th John Rademacher........... 29th Ingrid Scharnberg ............ 31st

Randy & Christen Cox ................................ 9th Carlton & Jeannine Wendel ........................ 12th

Chris & Barbara Hoskins ....................... 26th

Hearts for Homes

By Beth Willoughby

Hello all!

I organized with Hearts for Homes for our congregation to volunteer on Saturday October 12. The work day starts at 9 am and usually runs through about 1-3 pm depending on how much we get done.

Our project this time will be to help Ms. Lee Dollarhide to declutter and straighten up her home in preparation for some much needed repairs. She is raising 4 special needs children, one with severe autism and some behavioral issues when he was younger, and the house has suffered over the years. If a few people with handyman skills are able to come along, we might even be able to help get some of the repairs done also!

If you are interested and able to assist on this day:

1) shoot me an e-mail at ewillowb@hotmail.com so I can get a head-count (they provide lunch)

2) make sure you fill out Hearts for Homes' sign-up and waiver: http://h4h.secure.force.com/Team?t=0013600001thNB

3) If you do have any handywoman skills, let me know so I can give the project organizer a heads up to add the repairs to our project list for the day.

Fair Trade Update -

New Coffees and Chocolates

As you may have noticed, our fair trade display has grown. We now have a separate rack for teas so that you can see what is available bet-ter. We also have a separate rack for chocolate bars. The first ones we're trying are the milk chocolate and the Panama extra dark. We hope to order a wider variety as we have funds to do so. We have also introduced a different coffee variety. Equal Exchange's Columbian is from the ASPROCAFE co-op. When you taste it, you may notice subtle notes of fig and banana. Of course, we also still have our Ethiopian blend, which combines notes of blueberry and spice. We support fair trade through Equal Exchange to ensure that farmers are able to make a livable wage in the worker-owner co-ops that grow the products. Equal Exchange goes the extra mile to work directly with the farmers for mutual transparency and accountability. If you would like to try any of their products that we don't have in stock, please email Suzanne Terry at coffeesnob@gmail.com. We may not be able to honor all requests, but we'll do our best!

4

Denton Taizé Community Service

By Elizabeth Moose

The Denton Taizé community was formed in 2017. This ecumenical community holds one service each quarter at various partner churches throughout Denton. The services often include a labyrinth walk.

Taizé is a small village in the eastern part of France. The Taizé community was founded by Brother Roger Schütz, and has remained the home of an ecumenical community of brothers where prayer is the center of life. Taizé has become an important Christian pilgrimage site, where thousands of people journey each year. Taizé services are worshipful prayer experiences, that include sung prayer, silence, and liturgical readings during candlelight services. The sung prayers are short repetitive refrains or ostinatos. The rep-etition aims to aid meditation, prayer, and reflection. There are Taizé communities all over the world.

During this quarter A World Communion Service in the manner of Taizé will be held at Christ the Servant Lutheran on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 7 PM. All are welcome at this reflective prayer service, childcare will be provided.

Morning Book Club

The morning Book Club will be meeting the Second Wednesday each month at 10:00 am.

October 9th book will be The Girl with Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee. Location will be the Rademacher home.

2121 E. University Dr., Denton, TX 76209 5

News from the

Outreach Team

September is the ELCA God’s Work. Our Hands. Month and September 8th was this years special Sunday to celebrate. Celebrating to the Team meant living the motto and we did. Through our re-lationship with Hearts for Homes we had the oppor-tunity to work with Cumberland Presbyterian Chil-dren’s Home. The “Home” is on 17 acres in our Den-ton community. The property has many areas desig-nated for plantings of bushes, native, and other plants. The area we chose is small and is the legacy of a long-term employee who is no longer alive. The fountain he made was in need of the embrace of native plants that attract butterflies and hum-mingbirds.

On our special Sunday, 8 adult CTS members and 3 of our short members (ones with turbo energy) met at our designated “Adopt a Spot” and the work be-gan. Four circles surrounding the fountain were filled with native plants. All accomplished from 1:30 to 3:00 p.m. By that time the mini members were having a water fight with the hose!

Cumberland staff were very accommodating. They were available, had a building open for access to facilities and air conditioning, and portable canopies that we could use to shade ourselves as we worked. Pastor Katie came by with a short summary of the Home and the man who had built the fountain.

Snacks were provided by Elizabeth Moose and fami-ly and there was a shady spot with benches for us to enjoy the snacks and each other. Beth Willough-by has developed the working relationship we have with Hearts for Homes and now with Cumberland. She has done all that is required for us to water the plants.

On the same Sunday, Janelle Davis announced our t-shirt contest. Please pick up a form, or more, if you would like to join in the fun of designing our Christ the Servant t-shirt. We would like to have everyone join in the fun. The aim is to include all and then to wear our t-shirts to increase CTS awareness within our community. To give identity to “the small church next to Sonic”.

You have provided service suggestions to the Team that we find challenging. Those suggestions have been to provide meals to the com-munity of homeless in Denton. In listening to our Members, we have been assisted in con-sidering how we could meet that challenge and need. And are beginning to work on doing “God’s Work”.

Our ongoing initiatives are improving, and we are serving our own CTS members. We call that Congre-gation Care. We can only serve if we know there is a need. If you know someone who could use help with meals or other things, please tell us. You do not have to identify what the person or family needs, just who. And we want to support all the wonderful activities that have been in existence for years. Team Members:

Christen Cox, Janelle Davis, Yvonne Poppe, Jean Russell, Suzanne Terry, and Beth Willoughby.

Evening Book Club

By Suzanne Terry

In September, we read When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi's beauti-ful memoir about facing death after a cancer diagnosis. We discussed parts of the book that spoke to each of us as well as personal accounts of talking about this sometimes uncomfortable topic with loved ones.

On October 15, Yvonne Lacy will lead our discus-sion on The History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage, at 7:00 p.m., at the home of Joan Lindsey.

For those who want to read and plan ahead: November 19 – Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens December 17 – Christmas party and discussion of the book that meant the most to each of us this year January 21 – Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok

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