St Mark's ELCA: Reminder - Year-end Giving Opportunity

Friends and Members:

Our Synod (all of MO and KS) lives out the Gospel in so many ways. Please read below about some of our ministry, new congregations and campus ministry and more. Give a year-end gift to the Synod as well as St. Mark's as God moves you!

To all congregations and leaders in Central States Synod -- Following and attached is a forwarded message from Bishop Mansholt.

Advent 2012

Dear Friends,

What we do matters! Those words struck my heart earlier this fall in Chicago. We were gathered on a beautiful fall weekend, all of us having put in long hours in preparation and travel. All gathered were dedicated servants in the Church -lay leaders, synodical vice-presidents, staff persons, pastors and bishops. "Why do we do this?" the speaker asked in her devotion, noting the time lost with family and away from the colorful outdoors. "Because it matters!" was her answer. For the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we do this work as a servant Church. This work matters!

The season of Advent is upon us promising the gift of God's tangible presence for a world desperately in need of healing and reconciliation. Advent proclaims the coming of God, the Good News that in Christ all things are being made new. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" This is more than a slogan for the 25^th Anniversary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2013. It is the Promise of God. Each candle that we light on the successive weeks of Advent anticipate the new thing God is doing in our very midst. As we celebrate the coming of God among us, we lift up the many ways God is at work in this Church. We proclaim this Good News of God in Jesus Christ because it matters!

I know the work we do as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America matters to Pastor Janice Hawley and the members of Hillside Community Lutheran Church in Spring Hill, Kansas. Eighteen months ago Pastor Hawley, a 2011 graduate of Wartburg Seminary, began her work as Mission Developer in this newest congregation of the Central States Synod. They are growing and expanding but need the prayers, encouragement and support of the larger Church.

The work we do matters to Pastor Odir Flores-Canales and the members of Iglesia Luterana de la Resurreccíon in Garden City, Kansas. Pastor Canales' roots are in El Salvador but God led him into Lutheran circles in this country and into the candidacy process of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Under Pastor Odir's leadership the regular Sunday worship attendance at Resurreccíon has grown to over 100 and satellite worshipping communities have begun in Dodge City and Syracuse.

To read more, download attached file or CLICK HERE to read online.

Dan Glamann, Assistant to the Bishop

Central States Synod, ELCA

21 N. 12^th St., Ste. 210

Kansas City, KS 66102

913-948-9701 or 866-915-3548

www.css-elca.org