Archives for July 2025

Bay Shore Choir Update: Yearly Recap, Summer Plans In Place, Looking Ahead to Fall

Hello Bay Shore,

The Chancel Choir has had a season of growth this year. Musically, the choir is improving their singing and musicality by leaps and bounds. I’m so proud of their commitment, and bravery in singing with less inhibition, more attention to detail of the text, and being communicative singers. Our numbers are still growing. Last year in September we had 3. Now we have 12 regular singers. 

The Easter season was a success for us. The Hallelujah Chorus was really well received at Easter. And I think it will now be a tradition. Our scholarship singers Ariel, Lauren, and Sian are crucial components to our success. The church’s financial support for them is SO crucial and is the backbone of our sound, and a bright spot in the choir and church community.

Our final choir rehearsal of the season was on May 29. On the Sunday mornings of June 1 and June 8 we had a “pop up” choir—which means we are singing songs that anyone can join in and sing. No experience was required, and it went great. We’re trying to attract as many people who want to serve in this musical ministry as possible. 

On June 22, I and several other choir persons led our music for the “in church” Worship in the Park. It was a great service, and the Bible Impov was lots of fun. Another tradition to continue.

This Summer you may have also noticed, each week we have a cantor or more leading our hymns, worship music and more. This was not in the budget, but the staff feels we are responding to the requests to have this. All we have heard are good things.

Next Year:

I have spoken to the “choir council” (Wilanna and Christel), and Pastor Sarah, and we are proposing to the choir that we sing three Sundays a month during the next choir season. I believe that the choir will be excited to do that, and it would help increase participation and enjoyment of the worship experience. 

Rehearsals will stay the same (Thursday from 7 to 8), and I’m planning on adding a ‘Voice Class component from 6 to 6:45 for singers who want to improve their skills. Totally optional, but several members have asked for that and I think it will be a great resource and development space. 

I am also working on being more intentional in choosing music by underrepresented composers. The past two years I have leaned on songs I already know, but my intention is to broaden the music we sing and include voices that have not been heard widely, but deserve to be. 

We will also be working to include lay musicians in more music. Hymns and service music, as well as anthems. As well as Cantoring the service (not just UWM singers or Ben). 

Children’s/Youth Music:

It would be beneficial for our children and youth to learn and sing music for worship services and more if we could set a standard time to practice. I would like to explore finding a time that works for our families and community to offer a children’s music experience weekly. possibly on Thursday before Choir. More to come on this in the weeks ahead.

Thank You: Lastly, I would like to thank the Council, Pastor Sarah, Kate, Dulcie and Marissa for supporting our choir, and me, during this year. Your support, kindness and love has been a bright spot and a joy for me. Thank you for allowing me to serve with you in God’s service here at Bay Shore. It truly is a joy and honor. 

Sincerely, Ben

Dear Bay Shore, 

In our Strategic Goal to engage with the High school youth and possibly invite some of their peers to come with them to Bay Shore, I assembled and mailed care packages for them for finals week. It was a pretty simple package, a few small gifts, some gummy bears, water flavoring packets and a note from me letting them know about the work that the RIC team is doing as well as a prayer for finishing up their school year. We want them to know that this is a welcoming and accepting church and they are welcome to bring friends to check us out. We also have purchased Grad Grams for our graduating seniors that they will receive in a booklet from Whitefish Bay high school, congratulating them on their graduations.

While we have had some trouble getting our middle school and high school youth to attend outside church events, mostly due to busy schedules, I have been focusing a little more on church-wide fellowship and gathering opportunities. During Lent we hosted a Wednesday night Soup with the “Chosen” where we gathered to eat soup and watch a new episode of The Chosen every week and then discuss the episode. This was a big success and we plan on starting it up again in the fall. We also were able to put on an Easter concert for the community, inviting people from Laurel Oaks and other senior living communities to hear Bay Shore’s choir sing a selection of Easter songs as well as letting them join in on a few familiar hymns. We really loved this event and we plan on hosting another concert around Christmas time.

I am also very involved with the RIC team and we hosted two events this spring. A LGBTQIA+ youth theater group called Proud Theater performed at Bay Shore in April. While we were not able to draw a very large crowd, the people that attended really enjoyed it and it seemed like a nice change from the teaching series Pastor Sarah and I had been leading. It was great to see young people so passionate about sharing their experiences and helping people understand how challenging being a queer youth in today’s world can be. The RIC team also just recently partnered with Soup’R books and hosted a book discussion for the book Unclobber by Colby Martin. We had a large group join us and the discussion was very honest and gave people the opportunity to share things about their own reconciliation with homosexuality in the bible.

The RIC team is taking a break this summer, but we hope that you will connect with Pastor Sarah–like her recent blog shared–before October 1. If you have questions or concerns, let her know! If you support RIC, let her know, and if you aren’t sure about it, please make a time and talk to Pastor about it. We want to hear from you.

Recently, we have launched JOY (Just Older Youth) Club for those who are over 50. I hope to get some events and gatherings geared just to this group to build more community. If you can help, let me know.

Marissa Knopick, Director of Youth & Fellowship

I am in the process of figuring out my new work schedule that began on July 1. With a slightly lighter workload in summer, my hours of 8am-noon so far have worked! I appreciate the flexibility afforded to me by Pastor Sarah and the helping hands from Marissa. Fall and winter may be a different story but overall, the change is a welcome one. Pivoting is a skill that I’m working on!

J.A.M. was great this year so far although the numbers fluctuate greatly. We still enjoy singing with Mr. Ben (Perkins) enormously once a month. We also had great participation in our Lenten collection for ELCA good gifts. We collected $250 and spent one J.A.M. morning selecting which animals we would purchase. We bought 1 piglet, 2 goats, 20 chicks, 2 roosters, a honeybee hive and a share of a fish farm. It was a very real way to talk about loving people we don’t even know! That’s what Jesus asks us to do every day.

Summer programming for three year olds through fifth graders is PRAISE PLAY which is a break for all of us. We simply say a prayer of Praise, Play outside (weather permitting) and then eat Popsicles. The three P’s of summer are underway.

Later this summer we are looking forward to a new format of VBS as we join with Kingo Church for two nights of joint VBS, one evening at Kingo and one evening here. The evening  starts with activities, followed by supper and ending with more activities! We are excited to participate with our faith neighbors from Shorewood. Watch your email for more details on how to sign up. The dates are August 18 and 19.

If you would like to join me on any given Sunday for Praise Play time, don’t hesitate to sign up on our activities page of our Website or simply give me a call at (414) 332-6436 or email me at [email protected] It’s a wonderful place to start for our newest eligible friends who are three years old. See you in church!

Kate

July 10, 2025

Dear Bay Shore,

A few years now, the Strategic Plan was introduced with many goals to better build and strengthen our community here at Bay Shore. Several of those goals have been met, or are still in process now. One of the goals was to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation (like Kingo, Lake Park, Redeemer, Cross, St. Paul’s, Holy Cross and many others in our conference and throughout our synod).

The RIC (Reconciling in Christ) Team was formed through the Congregation Council, and has provided now, for over 12 months, learning opportunities like bible studies, conferences, book studies, classes, events, discussions and more to create good conversations and understanding abut the process and basic knowledge regarding the LGBTQIA+ community.

The RIC Team is taking the summer off now, after a busy June month, and will reconvene in late August/September. In the meantime, the Team and I have a special request.

We understood that this process would take a long time and also much discussion. At this point in the process, we encourage anyone at Bay Shore who has concerns, questions or more to meet with me privately between now and October 1. It can be at church or somewhere else. But we hope that if someone has concerns or questions, that they would feel comfortable talking to me, as pastor.

These conversations will be private–I will not share who I have or have not spoken to, nor will I share also particular points of the discussion. I will however (full transparency) summarize the conversations for Council and the RIC Team.

Getting feedback from everyone is important and needed. We pray that you consider this request if you have any concerns.

May God bless you this summer,

Pastor Sarah

Click here to email me to schedule a time.

RIC Team: Susan Foran, Tiffany Pfremmer, Marissa Knopick, Evan Gibson, Beverly Kingma, Laura Anderle, Pastor Sarah Stobie

I loved some of the worship changes we  made this spring, especially adding a cantor for every service. For me, it makes hymn selection more flexible because we can add choices from the new hymnal All Creation Sings (or even less-familiar ones from ELW) and know that there will be a strong voice to lead them. (We usually pick hymns that match the day’s texts or themes, using ELCA resources to guide us.) In addition, Pastor Sarah has shifted the emphasis on special music to the beginning of the service, so that our prelude time is longer and there is no formal postlude, at least for now. I’m excited about this because it allows us musicians the chance to play music we don’t have licenses for at the very beginning of the prelude time (before streaming starts), and opens up new inspiration for making the sending hymn more interesting. One example of two of these changes came on May 11, when I picked an entirely new-to-us closing hymn from ACS, “Ten Thousand Reasons,” asked cantor Sian Whitney to sing the verses, and had the congregation sing along on the very melodic refrain. Scott Cook played the bass line all the way through on cello to underlay the sound and add interest. While it wasn’t a wild sendoff, it had a lot of energy in its newness and message. Watch for more extra touches on sending hymns whenever the opportunity arises. And don’t worry, the old favorites will still be in the rotation throughout the service.

For Easter, much of the music team’s energy went toward the Hallelujah Chorus and a small pre-Easter concert. For the Easter morning service, we had a small orchestra of five strings and myself to accompany the choir (and congregation members who chose to sing!) on the Handel. But besides the Hallelujah Chorus, Ben found a sweet piece that incorporated both handbells and children along with the chancel choir. I thought it was a beautiful day for music as well as the great joy of Easter.

The handbells played a processional and a hymn accompaniment for Pentecost, and we’ll do a piece later in the summer as well. (Please talk to Dulcie if you’re interested in ringing bells this summer, this fall or at Christmas!) I have found a two-day Augsburg Fortress music clinic in Chicago in August that I hope to attend.

I will continue to try to be more creative with the sending hymn and look for new music to extend the prelude time. I also have been selecting much of the music for violist Julie Roubik and providing hymn embellishments for her, and I will be exploring to see if I can find more religious music for us to play together.

Personally, I’m looking forward to a 2-1/2-week trip to Norway and Scotland with my daughter in mid-June.

Thank you for your support.

Dulcie Shoener, Minister of Music