Advent Service & Tree Decorating

Join us this evening for

Advent Service: 5:30pm

 and

Decorating Chrismon Tree: 6:00pm

Note: This is not this year's Chrismon Tree - we still need your help decorating!

Candlelight Prayer Service

Join us for

our first

Advent Candlelight Prayer Service

using

Compline

(also known as Prayer at the Close of the Day)

Tonight, December 3 at 5:30

 

 

It will be a short service (no sermon), focused on prayer.

Compline is an ancient service, originally used by monks and nuns as the last prayer of the night.

It is an excellent, and Christ-centered way to close the day.

We hope you'll stop by on your way home from work.



Advent Conspiracy

This video may change your whole perspective on Christmas.

 

This video was made a few years ago to promote what they are calling an "Advent Conspiracy" which aims to get back to the true focus of Christmas - Jesus Christ and what he did for us - by focusing not on buying presents, but on four tenets:

1) Worship Fully

2) Spend Less

3) Give More

4) Love All

 

 If you're having trouble getting the video to play, try putting it in full-screen mode.
 

See the previous post for some ideas of ways to "Give More" this season that will spread your dollars to people in need.  (The last day to order Coffee and Chocolate is Sunday, Nov. 23.)

 

Let's "Worship Fully" this season.  Join us for the following;

• Sunday, November 30 at 10am - Advent wreath-making and story-telling.  Come and make an Advent wreath with your family that you can take home and use for family devotions during the season of Advent.  We'll also be giving out Advent Calendars!
• Wednesday, December 3 at 5:30pm - a contemplative, candlelight evening prayer service
• Wednesday, December 10 at 5:30pm - an evening prayer service with Christmas songs and the Grubb Family musicians

Ways to Give this Season

Don't know what to get certain people on your list?

Looking to do something meaningful with your money?

Want to share with others with thanksgiving for what God has done for you?

 

 

Here are three ways to give:

 

 

Coffee, Chocolate, Tea and Cocoa!

1 gift that gives in 3 ways

 

 

Lutheran World Relief partners with Equal Exchange - a cooperative in Massachusetts - which sells fairly traded goods, taking out some of the middlemen to give farmers a livable wage for their work and ensures their practices are environmentally sound. 

 

 

Your purchase of fairly traded coffee and chocolate (and more!) provides:

1.) Delicious coffee and chocolate for you or a person on your gift list

2.) a livable wage for the farmers that grow the beans

3.) access to clean water, health clinics and schools for farmers and their families (when you purchase through LWR, 20 cents goes to LWR Small Farmer Fund, which helps with these services)

 

Click here to learn more.

Click here to start shopping.

Or - to get free shipping and a discounted bulk rate - see the sign-up sheet in the narthex!

 

 

Ebola Outbreak Response

 

Troubled by the news about the Ebola outbreak?  Our partners in ministry at Lutheran Disaster Response are responding to the needs, which includes food.  As people are quarantined, there is no one to harvest the crops, and food shipments have slowed down, for fear of spreading the disease.

 

“We need food,” says the Rev. D. Jensen Seyenkulo, bishop of the Lutheran Church in Liberia. “There is a saying now: ‘If we don’t die of Ebola, we will die of starvation.’”

 

100% of your gifts assist those directly impacted by this crisis.

Consider giving in honor of someone.

 

Click here to learn more.

Click here to give online.

 

 

ELCA Good Gifts

 

You may be familiar with Heifer International - the program in which you can donate livestock to people in need.  Did you know the ELCA has a similar program?  It's called God's Global Barnyard, and it's part of ELCA Good Gifts.  Through this program, you can purchase a pig, goat, chick, honey bees, clean water, vaccinations, mosquito net, fruit tree seedling, survival kit, pantry items, or a whole host of other items for a family in need.

 

Click here to learn more and browse the online catalog.

Or check out our ELCA Good Gifts catalogs in the narthex!

When you make a purchase, you can choose to have a card sent to the person in whose honor you are making the donation.

 

During this season of thankfulness, let's consider making our gifts go farther by helping our neighbors in need.



Homecoming this Sunday, Oct. 26

Join us for a

Homecoming Service of Holy Communion

this Sunday

Reformation Sunday

October 26, 2014

11am

covered dish lunch to follow

 

Our guest preacher will be the Rev. David R. Keck, Sr.  He is the son of the late Rev. Dr. Albert Keck, Jr., who served several interims at Bethany (1970's-1990's).  Rev. David Keck, Sr. served at Grace, Boone from 1967-1976, and during that time was involved in various activities at Bethany and Holy Communion.

Take a trip down memory lane, and check out these pictures from Homecoming 2010!

 

Banner Making

On August 24, we completed our Banner for Ordinary Time

We had crews making leaves...

...and some making fruit

and some flowers and birds

Here's all the fibers laid out

 Now it's time to get to work.
First we had to carefully cover it so the fibers would stay in place

 mash all the air out

 pour on water and start rubbing

 and rubbing

a truly hands-on project

 all ages got involved in the rubbing

 and now it's time to roll

Each little section had to be rolled - hard! - for as long as it takes to sing one verse of "Michael rowed the boat ashore"

 roll and rub and wring out the excess water

 now the other way

Get your back into it!

 time to wring and squeeze

Now the fun part - throwing!

 it's a safe way to get out all your aggression :)

drum roll please...

 Ta-da!  The felted banner

 We dedicated the banner on August 31, 2014 during worship.  We pray that its beauty may enhance our worship.

 

Click on this link for an explanation of the symbolism in this banner from a previous post: 

"Join Us for a Banner Day"

Join us for a Banner Day!

Pulling fibers

The whole family is invited to join in on this congregational-wide activity - making a new banner for our worship space.  This banner will be blessed by all of the hands that worked on it - your hands - so we hope you will participate!

When? 

Laying out fibers

This Sunday, August 24, right after worship, following a covered dish meal.

Under the leadership of our own personal Fiber Artist, Jane, we will be felting this banner from wool fibers - a process which involves using warm water, soap, and agitation (working it with your hands) to get the fibers to shrink down and mesh together.  (Have you ever accidentally shrunk a wool sweater in the wash?  Same concept.)

We will be using wool fiber, some of which has been hand-dyed by Jane, but most of which has been dyed by local dyer "Miss Babs".  Our own Ivy works with Miss Babs, which means Ivy may have also dyed some of these fibers.  Check out Miss Babs' website: http://www.missbabs.com/

Dyed wool by Miss Babs.  Color: "Come Fly with Me"

So, what in the world will be on this banner?

Fibers laid out for the background

 Well, it will be a banner that we will hang in our sanctuary during Ordinary Time, primarily during Summer, when we hear a lot of Jesus' Parables, and often, the Creation Story.

Banner beginning to take shape

 Still can't make it out?  Alright, I'll tell you.

This banner is supposed to hint at several biblical themes all at once.  It should call to mind the Parable of the Mustard Seed (which grows into the greatest of shrubs, and the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches), the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus' saying about the Lilies of the Field, and also the Tree of Life/Cross connection.  (In the Communion liturgy for the Passion/Good Friday is the memorable line: "Christ our Lord, who on the tree of the cross gave salvation to all, that, where death began, there life might be restored, and that he, who by a tree once overcame, might by a tree be overcome."  Thus, the branches on our tree are meant to hint at the cross, to highlight this connection.)

So, without further ado, I give you the backdrop.

Banner backdrop

 What's left to do, you might ask?  Well, we need leaves made, flowers, fruit, birds, eggs, and nests, and it all needs to be felted.  So, there's plenty left to do!  And we'll need some strong backs and arms for the felting part.  So we hope you'll join us and bring the whole family for this banner day!

Update:
Click on our next post "Banner Making" to find out how it went and to see an "after" picture!

Sunday School

Sunday School starts back this Sunday, August 17 at 10am.  Our teachers have invested a lot of time and emotional energy into these classes, so we hope you will bring your family and be involved in the church's educational ministry.  When it comes to the life of faith, there's always more to learn and explore!

11 o'clock Worship in the Park

11 o'clock Worship

this Sunday, June 29, 2014

will be at

Green Valley Park*

 

*Weather permitting, of course.


"The good Lord willing, and the creek don't rise," the Sunday Q&A Sunday School Class will meet at 10am at Green Valley Park (all other Sunday School classes are cancelled).  And our regular, Sunday morning 11am Worship Service will be at Green Valley Park on Big Hill Road, just a few miles down from the church.  The Grubb family musicians and friends will be leading us in singing!


Bring a bag lunch for you and your family - stay and fellowship with us after worship is over!


Rain plans:  If it rains, we'll have worship (11am) and Sunday Q&A Class (10am) at the church.

Join Us and Grace for VBS!

Hello,

This year, we'll be teaming up with Grace to do VBS, and we are reaching out to include adults!  Here's a promotional video!

Location: Grace Lutheran Church
               115 E King St
               Boone, NC 28607
Date:       June 22-24, 2014
               6-8:30pm each night
Theme:    Weird Animals

Coalition Gathering in the Park

Join us in the Park!

Sunday, June 15

at 5pm

Green Valley Park

 

The churches of the High Country Lutheran Coalition will once again be having Summer Coalition Gatherings.  The first Gathering is hosted by Bethany. 

Everyone is invited to come out for fellowship and outdoor games, a covered dish meal, and outdoor worship by the banks of the New River with the Grubb family musicians and friends!

Shall We Gather at the River?

What to bring:
Bring any outdoor games you have

Bring your Bocce ball set!

Bring a covered dish meal

Bethany folks will provide drinks and paper products.  You may also bring a folding chair if you like.



A Playground for the little ones

We look forward to seeing you there!  And go ahead and mark your calendars for the next gatherings:

• July 13, 5pm at Holy Communion, when we will say Farewell to our vicars
• August 10, 5pm at Lutherock, hosted by Grace