MenuBBQ Thank you!: We had a great BBQ event last Sunday. We sold out of dinners at 300…more than we had a planned. Even better…we raised over $1,500 for Wear N Share and the Clarence Food Pantry (which we will split $750 each). What a blessing for those great organizations. We also raised over $150 for the National Youth event with donations from the baked goods and water (and there were some very yummy desserts). Thank you for your tremendous support and buying tickets. Thanks to a few families who also donated meals for our shut-in’s, and our delivery drivers who brought the dinners to them. They were so very appreciative.
We are especially grateful for all of the people who helped out…from setting up, to prepping the food, to organizing the check-in table, to playing in the band, to making baked goods, and cleaning up. We would never have been able to do this without them. This was an outreach event and we needed servants to help, and we can not thank those who served enough. We were also blessed with Bart from Chiavetta’s…he was great…professional and his experience was very helpful when we were making decisions.
Thank you again and hopefully this becomes an annual event.
National Youth Gathering Interest Meeting: There will be an interest meeting between services on Sunday July 8th for students and parents who are interested in the National Youth Gathering. A group from Holy Cross will be going next year. The LCMS Youth Gathering is scheduled for July 11-15, 2019, in Minneapolis, and events will be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center and U.S. Bank Stadium. Held every three years since 1980, the LCMS Youth Gathering provides thousands of youth and adults the opportunity to come together as a community of God’s people to learn more about Jesus Christ, the Christian faith and their Lutheran identity. During the five days of the Gathering, youth will spend time together in God’s word, worship, service, and fellowship with others from across the Synod.
Services in the Parks: Sunday July 22 we will have our regular 8:00am service here at Holy Cross but for our late service we will join Lutheran Church of Our Savior for a special 11:00am joint service at Ellicott Creek Park, followed by a picnic. Our Holy Cross praise band will be offering the music. Carpools will depart from the Holy Cross parking lot at 10:15. Bring your lawn chairs, a dish to pass, and lawn games.
Sunday, August 26 we will host our own Service in the Park at 10:30am at Clarence Town Park pavilion, to be followed by a picnic and games.
Guest Preachers: Pastor Nickel will be on vacation from July 26th through August 8th. Pastor Spilman will be preaching on Sunday July 29th and Pastor Dr. Wicher will be preaching on Sunday August 5th.
Opportunity to Use Your Musical Gifts: Pastor Nickel will be preaching for services at the Greenfields Lutheran Retirement home on Saturday, July 14th and Saturday August 11th. Services are at 10:45 at the Greenfield Health and Rehabilitation Center chapel and at 1:00pm at Greenfield Manor. Holy Cross members Betty Bissonette and Bob Mank often attend one of these services. Vocalists and instrumentalists interested in offering a solo or group arrangement, or accompanying the organist on hymns, for any of the services are encouraged to speak to Pastor Nickel.
2018 June Voters Assembly Meeting Review
Holy Cross held its semi-annual Voters Assembly Meeting (VAM) on Sunday, June 3rd, between services. Some highlights and takeaways from this meeting include:
Financial News: While 2017 closed strong, there has been a trend in reduced offerings which started in 2017, and continues in 2018. As previously reported, in January 2018 the Council approved using surplus operating funds to satisfy the Mortgage on the Holy Cross Christian Center (HCCC). This has removed approximately $2,400 in monthly expenses from the approved operating budget. So that the benefit of eliminating our monthly mortgage payment has been cancelled out by the reduction in offering. At this point the Council is not recommending any changes to the approved operating budget, but we will continue to monitor the situation and this may lead to a special VAM in the Fall. And if this trend in offerings continues, this would also negatively affect our ability to implement the church’s priorities as disclosed by the Visioning process. Please feel free to see any Council member for a copy of the financial reports.
Visioning News: As previously reported, the Vitality Visioning Process has revealed to us the following top 5 priorities. A brief update on these initiatives follows:
-MOPS: Pastor Nickel, Amy Olsen and others have initiated the work to enable Holy Cross to re-start a Moms of Preschoolers (MOPs) program in the Fall. They have worked with the MOPS national office and have secured a program discount, and scholarships for Holy Cross members. The MOPS organization indicated to us that last year they received over one hundred inquiries about available MOPs programs from our zip code. It would seem that all we need to be successful here is to have the commitment of volunteers to make this program run. More information to follow.
– Holy Cross Building Improvements: Doug Garlapo, Scott Brooks and others have done some brainstorming and proposed different options available to Holy Cross to make our spaces, more inviting, comfortable and functional; however, some recent problems with the church heating system has taken the priority over these initiatives. They continue to gather ideas and look for greater involvement from our members; but before we can consider any work we will first need to see what the heating system repairs will cost, and monitor how our giving continues in 2018. See Doug or Scott for more information on this project.
-Building Relationships with a “Sister” congregations: As there is strength in numbers, the Visioning process showed us how we can do more Kingdom work by being more connected with our fellow believers in neighboring congregations. Coincidentally, some Holy Cross members have been building relationships with members at Our Savior in Buffalo. At the meeting an invitation from Our Savior to join them for their equivalent to our “Worship in the Park” was discussed and our members voted to join them on July 22nd at 11:00AM worship at the Ellicott Creek Park, with a fellowship to follow. Look for more information on carpooling and other logistics in the coming weeks. So, as this mission seems to be growing spontaneously, we look forward to the Holy Spirit showing us ways we can help each other.
– Participation in Mission Trips: Rachel Nickel, Jeff Allan and Tom Marzano have been organizing this. We believe that Mission Trips are beneficial to both the recipients and the givers. While the blessing to the recipients may be obvious, the gift back to the givers is growing in the process of discipleship. And while Holy Cross does not have a lot of experience in this field, we are looking to join with sister congregations so that with their help, we may be able to learn by doing. Please feel free to join this team and look for more opportunities to serve in the future.
-Director of Christian Education Update: Pastor Nickel, Wendy Shelton and others have been researching the costs of, and the process to get, a DCE, either as an Intern, or as a new staff member. We believe that a DCE could bring added vitality to all our discipleship opportunities and would be the next step in a growing church. As our experience with our Intern Samantha Brown has shown, a DCE brings value to all members of our church, and this is something that volunteers have been unable to equal. But there is great moral and financial responsibility in calling a DCE, (either from the field, or from a seminary), so much of this will depend on the congregation’s physical, material and spiritual support; and as such, our financial ability to Call a DCE must be secured. Look for more information on this in the Fall.
With the elimination of all debt, Holy Cross is in a good financial position; but we face both challenges and opportunities. We invite all members to join us as we seek to serve our Lord in service to our community and support of each other.
Thank you to the Veterans of Holy Cross who have served our country so selflessly over the years:
Gary Andrees, US Air Force
Darwin Borschel, US Army
Delbert Borschel, US Army
Robert Borschel, US Navy
Jack Carl, US Army
Carlton Carter, US Navy
Francis Cote, US Marine Corps
William Dannebrock, US Army
Chauncey Dixon, US Army
Daniel Dixon, US Army
Nicholas Dixon, US Army
Alvin Doebler, US Army
Larry Eberhardt, US Army
Henry Eckertson, US Army
Chuck Fiegl, US Navy
Ted Fisk, US Army
Doug Garlapo, US Army
Doug Hartley, US Marine Corps and US Air Force
Jim Houghton, US Navy
Neil James, US Army
Bob Mank, US Navy
Genevieve McQuillin, US Army
Russell Ponivas, US Navy
George Schettler, US Army
Richard Schurkus, US Army
Robert Schurkus, US Navy
Larry Wiepert, US Air Force
Andrew Zubrzycki, US Army
Mike Zubrzycki, US Navy Seabees