MINISTRY UPDATE
FOR DECEMBER 18, 2022

Happy Sunday. We are glad you are here. Join us in celebrating the joy of Jesus and the freedom he gives during worship at 10 am. You can participate online or in-person. However you participate, our prayer is that you will be encouraged and uplifted through your participation in our worship. Thank you for being part of our faith community.

Watch Online

Our Admin Board has scheduled an Emergency Voters' Meeting for today, Sunday, December 18 following worship. The pump for our boiler has failed. Fortunately, still have heat in many parts of our building from phase 1 of our boiler replacement plan. Phase 2 of the replacement plan has already been authorized and will begin ASAP. This will still leave a few rooms in the building without heat. The purpose of this meeting will be to share, discuss, and vote on options to ensure heat is provided to the entire building.

In the meantime, we ask that you would prayerfully consider giving to the Year-End Offering which is designated to be used to replace the boiler.

Give to Year-End Offering

BLOOD DRIVE TODAY

We are hosting our winter blood drive today. Walk-ins are welcome!

CHRISTMAS EVE WORSHIP

Join us for worship on Christmas Eve at 5pm or 7pm. Because Christmas Day will be on a Sunday this year, we will worship at 10am on Christmas Day.

GIVE ONLINE

Visit gs4nj.org/give to donate. You can donate with a credit card or have the funds debited from your checking account. You can also set up automated giving set up on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or twice-monthly basis.

Give Online

MIDWEEK ADVENT WORSHIP

Join us for Midweek Advent Worship on Wednesday nights at 7pm during the season of Advent. This week’s message is Finding Peace when Hurried

November 30 Finding Peace in Division (Isaiah 2:1-5)
December 7 Finding Peace when Hurried (Isaiah 11:1-10)
December 14 Finding Peace when Hurt (Isaiah 35:1-10)
December 21 Finding Peace when Uncertain (Isaiah 7:10-17)

CHRISTMAS AT PREFERRED CARE CENTER CANCELLED

Unfortunately, our visit to the Preferred Care Center has been cancelled. Some of the residents at Preferred Care have tested positive for Covid and the center is now limiting visitors.

Thank you to everyone who had RSVP’ed to attend.

VIRTUAL ANGEL TREE

Simply purchase a gift card on our website for one of our Angel Tree family members. When you purchase the gift card we will ensure that the family member receives the gift card. You do not need to worry about shipping when purchasing the cards.

Purchase Angel Tree Gift Card

Hi Church-

I want to get real with you for a moment. Ministry takes money. We love Jesus. We volunteer. We worship him. We pray. We serve. All this is great. But the work of ministry involves the people of God being generous in the use of their finances.

We all know that costs have gone up. The price of gas. The price food. The price of clothes. We all feel it. The church has felt it too.

The temptation is to take what we would give to God to use that to meet our increased costs. Our temptation is to trust more in our money than in the Lord. I would encourage you to keep trusting in the Lord in your giving. It is difficult financial times that reveal where our faith is truly placed.

Give to year End Offering

Vicar Jeff Campbell Ordination

Vicar Jeff has accepted the Call to serve as our Assistant Pastor. We have scheduled an Ordination/Installation Service for Sunday, January 29 at 4pm. Watch for more details to come.

Read Vicar Jeff’s Acceptance Letter

DECEMBER BOARD BRIEF

The Good Shepherd Admin Board has published a Board Brief for December to keep you informed of some of the administrative tasks that have been recently accomplished.

Download the December 2022 Board Brief

Short-Term Mission Trip Opportunity

Gary and Sue Kessler in Belize have a short-term mission trip where they are working to round out the team. Dates are January 28 through February 4. The team will be conducting a VBS event at the preschool at Valley of Peace. In addition, the team will be renovating the playground, building some shaded areas and building up and reseeding the soccer field. Accommodations will be at Camp Concordia, just outside of Belmopan, the capital of Belize. Beat the winter blues by spending a week in warm and sunny Belize helping to make life a little better for kids in this poor community.

Cost should be in the neighborhood of $1200 per person plus airfare. If interested, you can email the church office at office@gs4nj.org for more details.

MISSION TITHE SUPPORT

11% of offerings received at Good Shepherd are tithed to support other ministry organizations. We recently updated the organizations we support and our tithe now goes to:

The LCMS New Jersey District
Lutheran Church Charities
Gary and Sue Kessler (missionaries to Belize)
The Kairos Network
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

Feel free to click on any of the links to learn more about these organizations.

MINISTRY UPDATE FOR DECEMBER 18, 2022