Last chance to give a tax deductible gift in 2013

Two options for a last minute donation to Trinity-Lynnwood/Pointe of Grace.

1. Go online to Trinity's secure donation page and make a donation by electronic fund transfer from your bank account or use your debit or credit card before 9:00 pm PST Tuesday December 31..
2. Write a check and drop it off at the church office between 10:00 am and 12:00 noon on December 31.

Your help is still needed to support the many ministries here.

Pick up your 2014 Offering Envelopes in the church narthex.  Over half of the 470 envelopes have been picked up. Save us postage and pick yours up soon.

DON'T USE YOUR 2013 ENVELOPES!!!!!  Those numbers are no longer valid and if used your contribution will be credited to someone else.

Year end contribution statements will be sent out in early January 2014.

Thank you for your support and your service to Trinity-Lynnwood/Pointe of Grace.  The generous giving of each each person is vital to the mission and ministry that we share. 

Thoughts on the Advent Season

Though Advent is past, this is great information from our Music Director, Norma:

The ADVENT Season

     Advent is the liturgical season that precedes and prepares for Christmas. It is a season of hope and of longing, of joyful expectation, and of peaceful preparation. Many symbols and traditions are associated with Advent, calendars, special Advent music, food, processions, and other traditions that may vary from one culture or region to the next. Here are a few interesting things to know about Advent:
 
When and how long is Advent?
     For most Christians, the Advent Season always begins four Sundays before Christmas.  The First Sunday of Advent, which also marks the beginning of the new liturgical year for the church, could be as early as November 27 or as late as December 3.

     The Third Sunday of Advent is traditionally called "Gaudete Sunday" (from Latin, meaning "Rejoice!), because the "Entrance Song" is taken from Paul's letter to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice! The Lord is near." (Phil 4:4+5b)

     Advent technically ends on the afternoon of December 24, since that evening, Christmas Eve, begins the Christmas Season.
 

What does the word "Advent" mean?
   When capitalized, "Advent" usually refers to "the coming of Christ into the world" or to "the liturgical period preceding Christmas"; it may also refer to the "Second Coming" of Christ (the "Advent of our Lord").
 

What are the traditional colors of Advent?
   Many churches use blue instead of violet throughout Advent, although they may also use rose/pink on the Third Sunday. Other church decorations (altar cloths, banners, etc.) will often have combinations of violet, pink, and blue throughout the season. Liturgically-minded churches will avoid greens and reds (the secular Christmas colors), and will wait until the Christmas season to use decorations with white, silver, and gold colors.
 

What are the liturgical readings for the Sundays of Advent?
     Each of the four Sundays of Advent has its own special readings and characteristics:

• First Sunday of Advent - The readings look forward to the "End Times" and the coming of the "Day of the Lord" or the "Messianic Age"; the Gospel is an excerpt from the Apocalyptic Discourse of Jesus in one of the Synoptic Gospels.
• Second Sunday of Advent - The Gospel readings focus on the preaching and ministry of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus, the one who came to "Prepare the Way of the Lord."
• Third Sunday of Advent - The Gospel readings continue to focus on John the Baptist, while the first and second readings convey the joy that Christians feel with the increasing closeness of the incarnation and the world's salvation.
• Fourth Sunday of Advent - The Gospels tell of the events that immediately preceded the birth of Jesus,
• including the dreams and visions of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth.

 
Why do we not sing Christmas carols during Advent?
     Many people want to sing Christmas songs during Advent because everywhere around them, except in the church, the world is observing Christmas with lights, parties, decorations, trees, concerts, school and choir programs, radio and TV, and their own shopping. Everything seems out of sync when the church seeks to preserve the integrity and message of Advent by putting off its Christmas celebration until Christmas Eve. The question comes up every year, and most congregations have partisans on both sides. Rather than be on either extreme, our congregation is somewhere in the middle, being faithful to Advent themes and music early in the season, while gradually introducing a few Christmas hymns as Christmas approaches saving Silent Night and Away in a Manger for Christmas Eve.

Blessings,
Norma Aamodt-Nelson, Minister of Music

Trinity's Office Hours Now Through New Year's

Building/Office hours are as follows:

• December 27-30 - office closed
• December 31 - office closes at noon
• January 1 - office/buildings closed

January 2 - back to normal schedule:

• Monday - office closed
• Tuesday-Thursday - office open 10 AM-3 PM
• Friday - office open 10 AM-1 PM

Sunday's service times are standard.

We hope everyone has a great, enriching and blessed holiday season.

A 2013 thank you from Pastor Paul

I want to say thank you to you and all of the people of Trinity-Lynnwood and Pointe of Grace. This has been a remarkable year. You might think that I have the challenges of the past year in mind, but I don’t. Instead, I am thinking of the amazing ministry that we have accomplished together and that together we support. God’s grace and love and abundance is so present in you all.

I firmly believe that what we do in ministry is a reflection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also firmly believe that, while none of us can participate in every ministry, everything we do in ministry is a reflection and an extension of each one of us. The congregation is you as much as you are the congregation.

So, here’s a sort of celebration (incomplete to be sure) of the ways we’ve partnered in God’s love for the world over the last year.

• 90+ elementary school children nurtured in our Footprints program on Sundays
• 200+ elementary school children engaged in growth and fun in VBS
• 240+ new receivers of care from our Pastoral Care Ministers
• 300+ children daily in our Preschools and Child Development Center
• Over a dozen concerts and an art show
• Weekly worship in both an assisted living complex and in a long-term care facility
• Space made available for Lutheran Community Services’ Family Support Center and for Compass Health’s Consumer Group
• 4 worship services every Sunday
• Worship space made available weekly to 3 developing congregations – Chinese, Korean, and Estonian
• Weekly drop-in youth programming for students from Kamiak High School
• Space for community events to address awareness and the needs of those who are homeless or underemployed
• The new diversity in adult faith formation opportunities through Communiversity
• Significant steps toward creating a “green” classroom for the schools at Trinity-Lynnwood
• Beginning steps toward creating a community center for youth and older adults with partners from around south Snohomish County
• Providing meeting space for 4 AA groups, for Scouts – Girl, Boy & Cub, and for a youth basketball team coached by one of our members
• Volunteers that help keep the office going (including the gift of a weekly batch of cookies)
• Volunteers (a lot of them) that support and help lead worship.
• Volunteers (incredibly faithful) that help maintain and repair our facilities
• $40,000 dispersed by the Living Water team for potable water projects around the world
• $13,700 to support ministry in Tanzania
• $27,000 to provide basic support and hope to those served by Neighbors in Need – Saturday Morning, the Neighborhood Youth Alliance, the Emergency Cold Weather Shelter, and Packs for Kids
• Dozens of ministry groups of all sorts that touch the lives of members, participants, neighbors, and friends
• Our experienced, dedicated, and innovative staff

And the list could go on and on.

This is an amazing, gifted and VERY blessed community of faith.

I hope that you will continue to support, and more than that, to grow in your awareness, understanding, and support of all we do TOGETHER. Pray, give, participate, and celebrate our ministry, your ministry, this ministry.

May the peace of Christ be yours this Christmas,

Pastor Paul

Dick Gourley and Vern Vaders--Making Space by Maintaining Ministry Facilities

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

When we talk about “making space” for people to recognize what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discover and assume their unique roles in partnership with God, we might think primarily of the spiritual, emotional, relational space where people learn more about God and themselves and develop their gifts.  But all of that rich, life-enhancing action unfolds in a physical space.

Dick Gourley and Vern Vaders have quietly been exercising their ministry of caring for the physical spaces at Trinity Lynwood/Point of Grace day after day and year after year for many years.  Both very long-term members of Trinity (Vern for 56 years and Dick for 47 years), in their retirement years, they have contributed almost daily service to maintaining our buildings. 

Over the years they likely contributed thousands of hours of labor, saving tens of thousands of dollars that would otherwise have been spent on hiring work done.  They fix locks, handle plumbing problems, change faucets and re-set toilets.  They change light bulbs, minor electoral problems and maintain equipment in the pre-school.  At Pointe of Grace, they have taken out trees, repaired broken sprinkler lines, and worked on other maintenance issues.  Dick is the caretaker of the organ, having worked closely with the builder in its early years so that he knows how to make small repairs and keep it clean.  He contributes his time as an usher at funerals to save families costs that would be associated with that.  Vern has spread bark and supervised young people looking for community service opportunities at the church.

With their long history at the church, they recall the days when Sunday School was a thriving ministry and they’re eager to see today’s forms of ministry expand and grow.  They enjoy handling maintenance issues in Trinity’s Preschool and Child Development Center, where the children call them “the grandpas.”

The Trinity/Pointe of Grace community is like a family to Vern and Dick and they treasure the personal connections (as well as the hugs) they enjoy with folks here.  Their quiet commitment to maintaining the place where a lot of ministry happens is often unseen and unnoticed.  Sometimes it can be frustrating because things that are often used often break and often need cleaning.  Yet they continue to come regularly, expressing their gifts in service of the whole so that many other gifts can emerge through what happens in the facilities they work to maintain.

John Berg--Community and Middle East Peace Builders

TLC/PoG Story Project

We are collecting stories of how members of the TLC/PoG community have recognized what God is doing to meet the deep needs of the world and discovered and assumed their unique roles in partnership with God.

John Berg’s call to participate with God in meeting the needs of the world arose from a very personal faith encounter with Jesus during his college years.  He was raised and participated actively in the church but it seemed more of an organizational than a personal relationship to him.  In his early college years, he looked for friendship and community in the 60’s drug culture.  Later, he met some folks associated with Campus Crusade for Christ.  They befriended him, listened to him, and shared their own faith with him.  In contrast to his other circle of friends, John experienced these friends authentically caring for him and his well-being.  He came to understand that a personal faith connection with Jesus was what inspired their love and embraced that same relational connection for himself, recognizing and trusting in Jesus as a solution to the problem of his sinfulness.

John had been studying marketing but, with this new-found perspective, he was no longer drawn to marketing goods and services.  He wanted to invest his life energy in marketing the transforming, reconciling relationship with God through Christ that he had experienced.  This impulse led him to become what is sometimes called a “career missionary.”  After short-term experiences with a mission organization in France and in Lebanon, John went to Fuller Seminary’s School of World Mission, where he met his wife Nancy.  Upon graduation, they served abroad, first in London, then in Cairo, working with an agency that produced a publication that explored life issues from a biblical perspective.  Eventually, John was asked to return to the US to serve as a fundraiser for this mission.  He served in this role for two organizations focused on the Middle East for more than 20 years.

I

n 2009, the organization John was serving with was forced to cut staff and he entered a phase of discernment about how to continue to express his passion for reconciliation in the world as he has experienced it through relationship with Christ.  Most career missionaries who work outside of denominational structures are responsible to raise their own support by soliciting financial commitments from churches and individuals.  Without a sponsoring organization, John was also in need of a channel for the gifts of those who were supporting his ministry.  Through conversations with former pastor, Mark Reitan, and pastor Eileen Hanson, John found space in the Trinity/Pointe of Grace community to continue his ministry.  He formed a mustard seed group, Community and Middle East Peace Builders.  Those supporting his bridge-building ministry contribute gifts designated to Community and Middle East Peace Builders.  Until 2013 budget cuts, John’s ministry had received a modest contribution from the church benevolence budget to help cover office space. He hopes for this to be renewed.

John’s intention to build bridges between the Christian and Muslim communities remains strong but he has expanded his focus to be an advocate for social justice, non-violence and reconciliation among multiple populations in our community.  He sees the central theme of his ministry as bringing healing opportunities to broken relationships.  He sees God’s desire that people find reconciliation with God and with fellow human beings and wants to join in furthering that end.

A primary role that John, through Community and Middle East Peace Builders, plays is as a relationship broker, building bridges with many different agencies in the region and helping to connect people to the right resource to meet specific situations.  He represents 25 different organizations in our region and tries to create scenarios where individuals and organizations can work together for healing, and personal betterment.  Some of the things he has done in this networking role include:

• Provides monthly educational opportunities at Trinity, Lynnwood, to educate people in our community about ways to engage in reconciling work locally and across the world.
• Participates in programs welcoming veterans home from Iraq and Afghanistan
• Has done several days of training in The Compassionate Listening Project approach
• Serves on the leadership council of the “Beloved Community”, a diverse group meeting monthly in Seattle who engage in multi-ethnic outreach   
• Meets regularly with Unitarians and Muslims engaged in “Building Bridges” between interfaith groups – including “Racial Profiling and ‘Secure Communities’ bill”
• Participates in Caregivers across Generations (caring for our parents)
• Serves as the Seattle area volunteer representative of Churches for Middle East Peace, including two local networks (Palestine Task Force (CCGS in Seattle) and North Puget Sound Israel-Palestine Mission Network (CCGS in Everett)
• He has served as co-chair of several regional conferences including “Standing with the Living Stones of Palestine” and also “Confronting Islamophobia
• And more to come!

John has long been driven by his desire to join God in manifesting God’s reconciling dream for the world.  Trinity/Pointe of Grace has offered the space for his ministry to continue to unfold in our community.