Investing in the Next Generation Paul Schult, Senior Pastor

OCTOBER 2018

I think one of the most difficult verses in the Bible is found in Judges 2:10:

“After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things

he had done for Israel.”

One generation of Israelite families experienced some of the most dramatic miracles in the history of the world: the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the manna in the desert. How could a generation so closely connected to these miracles so quickly forget?

The thing that always gets my attention is how quickly things can change. In one generation the miracles of God were forgotten.

I suppose that’s why Psalm 78 was written – a hymn sung by God’s people in worship so the words would be written in their hearts!

“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord,

about his power and his mighty wonders.”

I also suppose that’s why Moses, just before he died, shared these words with the people of Israel recorded in Deuteronomy 6….

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Commit yourselves wholeheartedly to

these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you

are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your

hands and wear the on your forehead as reminders.”

Generational transitions are always challenging. What one generation values, the next generation often rebels against. How does one generation hand down their wisdom, and yet allow the next generation the freedom to find their own unique identity and calling. It’s tough stuff! Experts say that is the primary reason why the average life of a congregation is 40 years – one generation.

Wow – this is tough stuff! Can you see why the focus of Redeemer’s future is Investing the Next Generation!?! There is a sense of urgency! Moses grounded his call to action in the love of God, because LOVE CAN’T SIT STILL. Love is what moves people. It is what moved God’s heart to send Jesus into the world. And it is what compels us to answer God’s call.

In the Bay Area on a Sunday morning about 3-5% of people attend church. That means a generation of kids are being raised with virtually no knowledge of the redeeming miracles of Jesus.

In This Issue

Capital Campaign Update 2

Afterhours 3

3 on 3 Basketball Tourn 3

Candidate Forum 4

Life Enrichment 5

LWML 6

Calendar 7

Redeemer is positioned to help reach the next generation! Redeemer is over 90 years old – in other words, Redeemer has successfully transitioned to the next generation two times. Redeemer has had a thriving school ministry for over 60 years – a great connecting point to young families. Redeemer has a culture of believing big things are possible, of taking risks and trusting God to bless new ideas for ministry. Redeemer has a spirit of joy, a culture of grace, a mission heart.

It’s time Redeemer! God is calling us. It’s time to invest in the next generation, to help them find their identity and purpose in Jesus!

You are…. LOVED and SENT – to reach the next generation for Jesus.

Pastor Paul Schult

Loved and Sent: Helping people find their identity and purpose in Jesus.

Getting to Know Jesus is a class designed to study and discuss the core teachings of the Christian faith and life. The focus of the Christian faith is Jesus – who he is, and what he has done for you. It’s about having a relationship with the living God who created you, loves you, and sent Jesus to be your Savior. It’s about getting to know Jesus!

This class is helpful for all kinds of people -if you are new to the Christian faith, looking into the Christian faith, or even a long time believer in Jesus!

Pastor Schult will be leading this class on the following Wednesday nights from 7:00-8:30 PM.

Session 1 – Wednesday, October 24

Session 2 – Wednesday, November 7

Session 3 – Wednesday, November 28

Session 4 – Wednesday, December 5

If you would like to attend please sign up going on line to www.redeemerministries.org

And please pick up a copy of the book “Getting to Know Jesus” by Pastor Schult – copies are available in the back foyer at church. If you have a little time, you can read chapter one for the first class.

Bible Study: Getting to Know Jesus

Page 2—‘Round Redeemer

Capital Campaign Update

“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and mighty wonders.” Psalm 78:4

Check out this picture from the Redeemer Afterhours Middle School ministry event from Sunday night at Red Morton Park. They are the next generation! And we are committed to helping them find their identity and purpose in Jesus.

Who am I? Why am I? What is my purpose in life? These are big questions that young people growing up are trying to figure out. As Christians, we believe the answers to these questions come from God, and are found only in Jesus. You are more LOVED than you can imagine, and SENT with more purpose than you could ever know. Reaching the next generation with the hope of Jesus is vitally important at Redeemer! That’s the focus of our mission, and the focus of our capital campaign. Redeemer has a culture and history of believing in the possibility of big things. Although this is a challenging time and culture for the church, we believe God can do amazing things. We believe God has called us in this unique time and place to reach the next generation in Redwood City.

Hopefully you have seen the initial communication about the campaign, but here is a quick update on some key events.

Major Gift Event – Friday, October 12

This event is designed to help build a solid foundation for the entire campaign, and to create momentum and encouragement for the whole congregation. Every organization needs leaders who are willing to take the first step, make the first commitments, and help lead the way.

The Major Gift event is focused on a smaller group of people who have generously supported Redeemer in the past, who are willing to consider an initial pledge to the campaign. The general goal is for families to consider a pledge somewhere between $12,000 and $100,000 to be given over three years. It is our hope to make significant progress on our total goal of $800,000, and to be able to share that progress with the congregation before the pledge Sundays.

Vision and Prayer Night – Wednesday, October 17 7:00 PM – Redeemer Fellowship Hall

If at all possible, don’t miss this powerful event. We hope to gather over 100 people to hear about Redeemer’s vision for the future and join together in prayer for God’s spirit to fill us, guide us, empower us, and lead us.

Leadership/Advanced Gift Dinner Event Saturday, October 27 6:00 PM – Redeemer Fellowship Hall

This event is planned for everyone in the congregation, and is a way to invite people to consider a pledge to the campaign in advance of the pledge Sundays. This helps make continued progress toward our campaign goal, building excitement and participation. Enjoy an exciting night of fellowship, dinner, vision, and prayer.

Invitations will be coming soon in the mail. But you can already RSVP to Mele Hutton – mhutton@redeemerministries.org

Morning Prayer Monday-Friday, October 29 – November 2 6:30 – 8:30 AM Church Sanctuary

This week of prayer is designed for you to “drop in” and spend time in prayer in the sanctuary at Redeemer. Come for 10 minutes… or for two hours. Come one day, or two, or five! Pray by yourself, or with another person or two. Pray for your loved ones, for Redeemer, for the world.

Prayer is a powerful gift from God. Let’s use it and see what God does!

Pledge Sundays November 4 and 11 9:30 and 11:00 worship services.

Two Sundays of bringing final pledges and celebrating God’s goodness!

Campaign Case Statements will be coming to you in the mail in the next week with more details about the campaign plans.

Watch for daily posts on Redeemer’s Facebook and Instagram accounts.

God’s love moved him to send Jesus into the world! Love can’t sit still! God’s love compels us.

We are deeply loved by God, and sent to share that love with the world.

You are…. LOVED and SENT

Round Redeemer—Page 3

God is moving in the hearts and lives of middle school and

high school students within and outside the walls of

Redeemer! Intergenerational leadership is the direction

God has taken us, and we believe it is impacting the lives

of many. Local high school students have taken on the role

of leading our middle school ministry, which we call

AfterHours.

We believe the next generation is full of impact and

passion, simply waiting to be unleashed with purpose—

and we are leveraging that now. High school students are

the leaders of today, not just tomorrow, and they continue

to prove that. Our first event, “Hot Dogs and Water

Wars,” was a major success! Seeing over thirty middle

school students in attendance, and over fifteen high school

students step up as leaders was a beautiful sight. We

cannot wait to see what God has in store moving forward

for these students. My only ask is that you pray for every

student we encounter, that Jesus’ grace will transform

their life, and that we will have an awesome time while He

does! Thank you for your continued support and

encouragement!

Redeemer & Street Life Ministries: Second Annual 3-

on-3 Basketball Tournament & Dunk Contest

Serve Your Community and Have Fun!

We are excited to host our second annual 3-on-3

basketball tournament on Saturday, October 13th. Our first

ever DUNK CONTEST this year, is going to be awesome!

We have a couple goals in mind—and you are the piece

that matters.

The mission of the tournament is to connect you to the

mission of “Street Life Ministries.” Street Life exists to

serve the demographic of people who are homeless in

Redwood City and The Bay Area. All proceeds collected

from the tournament will be given to our partners at Street

Life to continue the valuable work they are doing here in

Redwood City and The Bay Area.

We look forward to meeting you at our tournament!

-Corey Garrity

Go to

www.redeemerministries.org

to register

Page 4—‘Round Redeemer

Next Life Enrichment Luncheon

October 20 at 11:00 am

Life Enrichment From Loretta Kehler, Committee Member

God enables us through Life Enrichment Ministry to enhance our latter years by sharing with others our

Christian love and fellowship.

Round Redeemer—Page 5

Our 1st Life Enrichment luncheon of the fall was held on

Saturday the 8th of September with a Back To School

theme. Pastor Hoffmann welcomed everyone at 11a.m.,

regaled us with a few jokes and spoke to us about the

unnecessary need to worry. Reading Matthew CH 6 vs 25

– 33 clarifies the need to seek first the kingdom and his

righteousness and all these things, such as food and

clothing will be given to us. Pastor emphasized this by

reading Philippians 4: vs 6 “Do not be anxious about

anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with

thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” A very

special “Thank You” goes out to our gracious piano player

of many years, Grace Schnereger, who passed the baton

on due to being too busy to practice. Laureen Spini, a

concert pianist, passionately played two hymns for us. I

say ‘passionately’ because when playing ‘Onward

Christian Soldiers’ it took no imagination to hear the

soldiers marching. She also played a rendition of Happy

Birthday while everyone sang to the two L’s celebrating

their birthdays in September. Thank you, Laureen.

Ruth filled us in on how changes were being made with

Street Life Ministry and how we can help ($41.00 was

collected at the luncheon), also the need to update Member

Emergency contacts. Much needed exercises followed

which were sorely missed over the summer. Thank you,

Ruth.

Our guest speaker was our own Pastor Paul Schult who

spoke to us about Redeemer’s Mission and Vision over the

next few years……..emphasis on the people of Redeemer

being Loved and Sent. He highlighted Congregational

Priorities focusing on Young Families; transformation to

Missional Living; improvements on facilities; technology

and communication and hospitality and discipleship.

School priorities involving innovative and relevant

academics, funding and operational/organizational

excellence. Much food for thought…….scary,

inspirational and certainly exciting! Thank you for the

update, Pastor Schult.

Pastor Paul said a prayer and we adjourned to tables set up

with a Back To School theme. Black tablecloths with

white placemats (each adorned with several simple

pictures to color); a bright sunflower and ruler centerpiece

surrounded by oodles of paper clips, pencil sharpeners,

colorful erasers and a box of colored pencils with which to

color the placemats met each luncheon guest. Everyone

received their lunch in a sticker adorned brown paper bag

and as each opened their lunch bag they found a delicious

turkey and cheese croissant sandwich with condiments

including mustard and mayonnaise, a bag of potato chips

and a bag of red table grapes. A yummy spice cupcake

with mile high cream cheese frosting was served for

dessert, Juice and coffee also was set at each table. Many

of the friends just put off eating at first and enjoyed

coloring as they hadn’t done such in years. So unique, so

wonderful! We have Madel and Julie to thank for this

innovative luncheon, so thank you, Madel and Julie.

Enjoyed by all!

Be sure and mark your calendar for October 20th, repeat

October 20th instead of the 13th for the next Life

Enrichment Funcheon.

Page 6—‘Round Redeemer

Breakfast and Devotion

When: Saturday, October 6 Time: 8:30 am – 9:30 am Where: Redeemer Conference Room 1 Menu: Egg bake, fruit, breakfast rolls, and coffee

Women of Faith Bible Study

When: October 4 and October 18 Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm Where: Redeemer Conference Room 1

Advent by Candlelight

December 4TH from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Christmas Tea

December 13TH from 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm Contact Shelly Alba for more information: Shelly@cnh-lcms.org or 650-574-0485

Opportunities for the Women of Redeemer.

Sunday Coffee Hour Hosts

Sign up at www.redeemerministries.org

Please sign up to help cover making coffee and cleaning up on a Sunday between services. Providing treats is optional. Coffee Service should run from approximately 10:30-11:00am. Thanks so much for the continued help in making our coffee hour successful! We appreciate you! If you need training, please contact the church office or one of the volunteers you see on that have served in the past.

Redeemer's middle school confirmation ministry. The Head to Heart ministry is led by Pastor Schult and Mr. Garrity. Contact the church office with interest.

Meets Mondays at 7pm at Redeemer.

Still time to join in!

Head to Heart

Electronic Giving

Redeemer Lutheran Church and School has

partnered with PushPay to provide electronic

giving solutions. You are invited to choose an

option that works best for you. Giving has

never been so easy.

Text REDEEMERCA TO

77977

Or go to www.redeemerministries.org

Weekly Sunday Worship Schedule 9:30 am Contemporary Service, Sunday School (RedeemerKIDS) 9:30 am Adult Bible Study 10:30 am Coffee Hour 11:00 am Traditional Service October

Round Redeemer—Page 7

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REDEEMER LUTHERAN CHURCH AND SCHOOL

(A Ministry of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod)

468 Grand Street

Redwood City CA 94062-2062

DATED MATERIAL: October 1, 2018

GOD BLESS THE MAIL CARRIER WHO DELIVERS THIS NEWSLETTER

October 2018 Edition

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Helping people find their identity and purpose in Jesus.