FALL FESTIVAL By Pastor Brown

FALL FESTIVAL
By Pastor Brown
On October 30th from 5:00 to 6:30pm we will hold our annual Fall Festival at Praise. This year’s event will again include free food, games, and treats for the children. The affair is open to the community and all those connected to Praise. Because this is such an important event and presents great opportunities to connect with those who are not members of our congregation, I am asking all members of Praise to please assist, if possible, in the following ways:

1. Pray for the event. We are not only asking for physical success of the event, but we also want those who are not connected to Praise, and especially those who do not know Christ, to see the love of Jesus shine through us. May all people be drawn closer to our Lord through what we offer that evening. Pray that His name would be glorified.

2. Come and decorate your cars. We will be lining up our cars (please be in place by 4:30) and handing out candy from our vehicles. Please dress up (friendly costumes only) and help distribute treats to young people. Note: Bible verses written on small pieces of paper can also be dropped into the bags of those looking to receive something good. ?

3. Bring candy. If you cannot attend Friday the 30th, please consider donating some candy ahead of time. A tub for candy will be available in the entrance area of the church beginning the 11th of October.

4. Volunteer to help run the games, activities, and serve food which will be taking place inside the church.

5. We need everyone to come and be greeters. Even if you’re not handing out candy, serving food, or helping with the games, we still need you here. It is important that we have folks available to just sit and talk with our guests. Come and meet some new people and let them see how much our members care for them.

6. Finally, if you can help with planning for this event – please see Alicia Levitt, our Little Praisers director or me, Pastor Brown.

Thank you in advance for all the ways you’ll be serving the Kingdom of God and sharing love with His people.

-Pastor Brown

YOUTH GROUP FUNDRAISING By Pastor Brown

Thank You to Tracie Luley, who has generously offered to be the coordinator of our youth group fundraisers at Praise. Of course this does not mean that Tracie will be taking on all the burdens and responsibilities of fundraising for the youth by herself. We still need many volunteers to head up fundraisers and to assist with larger fundraising projects. This merely means that all ideas for fundraising and coordinating of fundraising schedules should go through her before any action is taken. This way, if we have a single point person to coordinate, it will help ensure that we don’t duplicate our efforts and/or have them overlap with each other.

OCTOBER ACTIVITY FOR YOUTH GROUPS By Pastor Brown

The Newsboys are coming to town! Sunday, October 18th, at 6pm at Memorial Coliseum this great band with their new lead singer, Michael Tate, will be in concert right here in Fort Wayne. With some people having to travel great distances to see an internationally renowned band such as this, we should count our blessings that they are coming right down the street from us here in our very own city. Youth of all ages and their friends and families are invited to attend. Cost is $10 plus a non-perishable food item. Watch the October bulletin for more specific details about attending as a group from Praise.

COMMUNICATION VITAL By Pastor Brown

As our church grows, it takes more and more of us working together and in sync with one another in order to make the very most of our time and resources. One way we can do this is to make sure all our events are communicated clearly and properly to the rest of the congregation. Therefore, I urge all of us to make full use of the following methods of sharing information with one another:

Master Calendar: Before planning any event, please check the master calendar on the office door so that we can ensure that programs and activities do not get scheduled on top of each other.

Bulletin: Please submit all bulletin announcements to the office by Wednesday of each week. You may email Chris at office@PraiseLC.org It does help to submit (if possible) electronic copies of all items needing to be inserted into the weekly bulletin.

Pulse: The deadline for the pulse is the 15th of each month. Jennifer Engelsrud is the volunteer that coordinates all of the articles that are submitted for the Pulse. She does not write the Pulse newsletter. Note that all articles must come from us, the congregation. If you want something to be included, please present her with an electronic copy at englesrud@verizon.net

Website: Pastor Brown is in charge of coordinating the www.PraiseLC.org website material and having it posted to the web. Please submit all items to him that you wish to be posted on our site. At least a 2 week window is needed to have material on the website before a certain date. All information is passed on from Pastor Brown to the generous volunteers at Tri-Pillar Publishing. Please make no attempt to submit directly to Tri-Pillar Publishing, as all material posted to our website must first be approved by Pastor Brown. Email all website requests to him at PastorB@PraiseLC.org

Furthermore, it would be a good idea for each person at Praise to look at the website and explore the particular area in which they have a connection to and are involved at praise. If you are a part of a Bible study, committee, board, or any other ministry, please look at the places on the website that tell about your particular area of service and participation. There are still several areas on our website that are blank. Blank pages do not look good! Just like the pulse, the website is not written by the coordinator. We need you, those involved in your particular ministries to submit what you want the website to say about you. If you are involved with a group at Praise and the website listing for that group is insufficient in any way, please speak with Pastor Brown as to how you might be able to contribute to helping us get everything updated.

Of course there are more ways to communicate events and activities at praise, but these are the standard and basic ways in which most people at church look to in order to plan and become informed about what’s happening. Furthermore, you will note that the Bulletin, Pulse, and Website all have deadlines associated with them for information to be submitted. Although it may be “possible” for some items to be submitted late and yet still be included in some of these publications in time, please do everything possible to get your material in without being late. If your items are not submitted in a timely fashion, there is no guarantee that it will be included in the publication. We thank and appreciate our volunteers for the great service they do for us to ensure these vehicles of communication are kept up to date and published on time. Know that it honors them and shows a great deal of respect for their time and efforts when we observe the deadlines they set for us.

So if you have something to say that benefits or concerns the rest of the congregation, please say it loud and clear through one or preferably all of the mediums above. By working together and communicating properly with each other, we can all enjoy a greater level of awareness and joy in the Lord through what God is doing in this wonderful church of ours. Praise our Lord!

CONFIRMATION

Calling all 6th, 7th, and final year confirmation class (normally 8th grade) participants and their parents… Confirmation is kicking off September 13th. Sunday the 13th will be a group meeting in the Silver room for all participants and parents at 9:20.
Regular classes will begin September 20th. 6th and 7th grades will meet in the gold room, and final year students will gather in the Silver room. At least one parent representative is expected to attend the 8th grade classes on an ongoing basis. All classes end at 9:30 each Sunday. Any questions, please contact Pastor Brown.

TRAVELING YOUTH GROUP

During the months of September, October, and November, we are going to try something a little different at Praise with our youth groups. Our youth group meetings will still take place as previously scheduled on Wednesday evenings, but we’ll change the location. Our goal is to have a different family of the youth host a youth group gathering each Wednesday.
Our thought is not only to get more parents and families involved, but also that this will provide a great opportunity for the rest of the group to get to know the host family on a more personal and individual level. I believe this will help strengthen the relationships of our youth by having others over to discover and learn more about their lives at home.
There will be a sign-up sheet in the entrance way of the church that will list all the upcoming youth group gatherings and the needs for each family that volunteers to be a host. Please sign up at your earliest convenience, or contact Pastor Brown to schedule a day. Pastor Brown will contact you and work with each individual family to arrange details of snacks, games, and devotion.
A reminder that the youth group meetings are held as follows:

3rd – 5th grade youth – First Wednesday of each month at 5:30. We only need 3 family volunteers for this.

6th – 8th grade youth – 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at 5:30. We need 6 volunteer families.

9th – 12th grade youth – Every Wednesday at 7pm. We need 12 volunteer families to each take one turn.

ASKING FOR HELP

Most around the church would say that they are more than willing to help if someone would just ask. Well, I’m asking. Both our youth board and the outreach board have undergone a few changes recently which have left us seeking new and further assistance with a variety of projects. The people we have are doing a marvelous job, but there are just too few of us to efficiently and effectively do all that needs to be done. Many hands makes for light work… and we’re asking for you to lend a hand. Youth board members don’t necessarily have to be parents of youth. Anyone can participate if they have a heart for young people. Note that we are not asking for help from those already involved in 2, 3, or more boards and committees at Praise. There are plenty of people who are not currently serving on a board, committee, or taskforce, that may be available to step forward and share the privilege of furthering the Kingdom of God and supporting Praise. If you’d like to know a little more about how you might be able to serve in these areas, please see Pastor Brown ASAP. Pray about it and see if the Lord is putting it on your heart to serve in this capacity.

2010 JUNIOR HIGH TRIP

For those who missed the meeting concerning the Junior High 2010 Spring Break trip, there is still time to get involved. See Pastor Brown for more info. Deposits for our trip will be due soon.

NATIONAL YOUTH GATHERING FOR SENIOR HIGH

For those who missed the meeting concerning the National The gathering, there is still time to register. See Pastor Brown right away – as deposits for our trip will be due soon. We will send in the initial deposit on October 1st The gathering will be open to all those entering 10th, 11th, or 12th grades in Fall of ’10. Those older may go as long as you haven’t yet reached the age of 21 by July 17, 2010. Those 21 and older may attend as chaperones.

YOUTH GROUP EVENTS FOR SEPTEMBER, 2009

3rd – 8th Grades Sept. 12th 9:30 – 11:30 Service event – Our water bottle distribution that was rained out last month is rescheduled for Saturday the 12th. Come and help hand out water bottles and let people know about Praise. Afterwards we will all go to lunch at KFC. Bring your own lunch money and arrange transportation in advance.
9th – 12th Grades September 27th. The Senior High is invited to join Pastor Brown this Sunday morning by traveling to the Lutheran Home to volunteer and provide a worship service for the elderly residents. Please sign up in advance with Pastor Brown so transportation and other arrangements can be made. We will stop for lunch after the service project.
All youth September 26th. Saturday from 6 – 9pm all youth 3rd – 12th grades are invited to meet at Praise at 5:45 for a fun event at the neighboring YMCA. We’ll begin at the Parkview Y at 6pm with some Wallyball, and then head into the pool from 7:00 – 8:30. There is no cost for this event and you do not need to be a YMCA member to participate.