Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23
The Sunday School theme for Rally Day was Fruits of the Spirit, based upon Galatians 5. These verses have been cited as a good definition of love. Michael Timmis is quoted as writing, “The way I define love is by using the fruit of the Spirit, which starts with love. I believe that joy is love rejoicing, peace is love at rest, patience is love waiting, kindness is love interacting, goodness is love initiating, faithfulness is love keeping its word, gentleness is love empathizing, and self-control is love resisting temptation.”
The VisionPath Committee is leading the effort on two upcoming workshops. The Everyone His Witness workshop will occur on Saturday, October 12th and the Shepherding Our Strays workshop on Saturday, November 2nd. We’d love to have you participate in one, or both, of these workshops. Please contact Ann Willoughby to register or complete the signup sheet at church. Cost is $10 to help cover the cost of materials and lunch.
A little over eight years ago, Shepherd of the Valley and Bethel Lutheran started discussing a partnership to have a shared worker. The decision at the time was to start with a shared vicar to see how well the partnership works before proceeding with calling a shared Associate Pastor. This partnership seems to be working, and we are blessed to have Vicar Dailey as the fifth vicar serving both congregations. Pastors Wolfgram and Walla, along with leaders from both congregations, will be meeting with North Dakota District President Arie Bertsch in October to discuss possible next steps for a potential shared Associate Pastor.
The Church Council will be discussing the 2020 budget at our October meeting. The budget will be considered at the fall Voters Assembly meeting which is scheduled for November 17th.
Your Brother in Christ,
Justin Dever
