pastorlife

Sunday, September 3 – In honor of Labor Day we have a Blessing of Vocations. Martin Luther lifted up that everyone has a vocation which serves God in its own unique way. No vocation, he said, was greater than another. To honor all vocations, we will offer a prayer and blessing on our vocations, and for some fun–we encourage you to bring tools of your vocation to worship. This could be a book, a laptop, a pen or pencil, a hammer, whatever you use–bring it. And “retired” persons–this still applies! Many of you, I know, are still actively engaged in a project or in volunteering. Students–your vocation is to learn, so bring a textbook or bookbag. This blessing is truly for all. 

Thursday, September 7, 7:00 pm Choir Rehearsals begin. Join our new Chori Director in the recently restaged and organized Chori room for our first weekly, one hour rehearsal. All are welcome (you do not need to be a member of Bay Shore to sing in the choir!).

Sunday, September 10 “God’s Work. Our Hands.”  10^th Anniversary Celebration: Sending to do God’s Work in your own “backyards.” & Blessing of Backpacks. GWOH’s is celebrating 10 years of ministry–watch for my blog post about this on September 1. 

Children and youth–students of all ages–bring your backpacks to be blessed and receive a reminder of the blessing to wear on it all year long.

Our first Second Sunday Series for Adults, at 10:45 am in the Lounge, will feature a viewing of the short film, Black Strings, followed by discussion led by Kate Yelvington, a board member for the Black Strings Triage. We are beginning this Second Sunday Series this month. Look for an adult forum each Second Sunday.

Wednesday, September 13, Grief Support Group begins, 3 pm, in the Lounge. This is free and open to the public. A guest groef counselor will lead this weekly group.

Also on this day, Pastor Sarah’s Bible Study will begin at 9:30 am, in person and on Zoom.  Our first few weeks will center on Jewish holy days in the Old Testament. All are welcome!

Sunday, September 17 “God’s Work. Our Hands.” 10^th Anniversary Celebration, followed by our Community Service Project in Estabrook Park. You can sign up here to pitch in and make God’s Creation a bit cleaner! All ages are welcome. We also will celebrate BIBLE Sunday for 3-year-olds, 3^rd grade and Beginning Confirmands & J.A.M. (Jesus And Me) starts for three year olds-fifth grade during worship.

A.B.C (aka Confirmation) begins for grades 6-8 at 5 pm.  All students welcome. Email Pastor Sarah if you will be attending!

Sunday, September 24, at 9:30 a.m.  Celebrating Bay Shore — we are not yet 100, but we are getting closer. On this day, we will give thanks to God for our church, Bay Shore, and also have some fun trivia, sharing of histories and more at worship and after. 

Wednesday, September 27, at 6:30 Bay Shore is hosting Bay Bridge’s Event on Housing and Segregation with a guest speaker from Habitat for Humanity. Sign up for this free event is strongly encouraged. Please click HERE. 

Saturday, September 30 2023 Outreach for Hope Family Ride, Run and Walk. If you are not able to attend yourself, you can sponsor our Bay Shore team by clicking HERE or using an envelope that will be passed out early in the month. 

Sunday, October 1 – Blessing of the Animals.  In the afternoon, from 1-3 pm, the blessing of all animals will be administered by Pastor Sarah in our parking lot. We do this in a unique way. Come whenever you can between 1-3 with your pets for a quick, personal blessing. Pictures and treats, giving thanks to God for our furry family members–these are good things!

Happy Summer to You!

And thank you for clicking the link and coming here to read about our current news at Bay Shore.

We have an interview committee meeting with candidates for the Choir Position this weekend. I am grateful to share that we have 2 strong candidates, and I am looking forward to the interviews. Please keep our process in your prayers.

What has not been an easy road has been the hiring of a Youth Director. I now understand the term “ghosted” because I have been, by various ages and stages of applicants, ghosted. What does this mean? It means that a person just drops all communication with you, and you really don’t have a clue why. This also includes simply not showing up for an interview after it was arranged around the applicant’s schedule. So, yes, this has been a challenge. But I am not giving up—we will continue to promote the position and seek out a director. Keep this process also in your prayers.

Now, having said that—often roles like Youth Director and Fellowship Coordinator are filled “in house” by members of the community who have a love and skills for these types of positions, but may also have a job and family, too. So, if you have wondered about these two positions, and how that may or may not work for you—give me a call. Let’s talk about it.

July is a quiet month at Bay Shore, as it is in most churches, but we will pick up again in August and September.

We hope to schedule some gatherings for our Millennials and Gen Xers soon.

I will begin my Bible Study again for Wednesday mornings in mid-August, and then have a break for Labor Day and my vacation. But, I am wondering if there is any desire for a bible study in the evening this Fall? I have tried it a few times at Bay Shore, but attendance was very light. I am also wondering if there is desire for Sunday morning educational opportunities—say once a month—on topics, like a forum. Do let me know about that, too.

While most of our committees do not meet until August, I know that the Fall Schedule is on their minds and how best to engage with you and the community–sharing God’s Love with All–and proceed with our Strategic Plan. Nothing happens well if it’s just staff led–so if you have interests and would like to be a part of the planning and implementation of our goals–let me know.

In the meantime, I hope to see you in worship soon, or at one of our gatherings. If you would like to schedule a personal visit with me—let me know by calling the church office. We can get that scheduled right away.

Blessings to you and your loved ones,

Pastor Sarah

Attending Synod Assembly as a voting member from Bay Shore was a privilege. There is always an amount of tedious business that takes place at these assemblies, and there was, but there were a number of moments that were particularly powerful and impactful.

PS…. (from Pastor Sarah) Sara is quite modest! She was also Chair of our Resolutions and Memorials Synod Committe for the Assembly and led our assembly in the adoption of 5 new resolutions!

A few pastoral notes now to share:

The Personnel Committee will finalize our Choir Director job posting very soon, and we will be seeking a choir director as soon as we have a pool to interview. Please pray that the right person with gifts and joy for God applies! 

The Council and Personnel Committee is also seeking a Youth Director as well. We hope to also finalize this position and post soon as well. Again, your prayers are needed for the right person to come and work with our youth!

Did you attend the End of Life Discussion? If you did, you know that Pastor and Kate are happy to work with you and plan out your funeral service details in advance. A handout sheet to help you will be available on Sunday, May 21, and we will email it out on May 22. Look for it!

I am truly excited for our upcoming weeks of activities and worship. Join us! You are welcome to come as you able and as you are. And if you can’t come in person, be with us in spirit online.

Blessings and peace,

Pastor Sarah

Dear Bay Shore,

What a busy few weeks and October looks to be the same. Not only is “church” busy, but I am also getting everything ready for a wedding. I’m too excited to be exhausted!

I have two important things to share with you about our Strategic Plan Process (and how you can help) and this Saturday’s Black Lives Are Sacred gathering.

Strategic Planning Process

First, I am so grateful for our Guiding Team members who have faithfully led us to this next step, we owe them a sincere “thank you!”: Kerry Bantz, Curran Burns, Reed Groethe, Andy Ratajski, and Jessica Weyer. I continue to be thankful for this team of servants who truly wanted to do their best in leading Bay Shore forward into the future.

We have now come to the time when we are creating three core teams to initiate steps to achieve our goals and to implement the new mission and plan for Bay Shore. The three teams are divided like this:

The Talking-to-People Leadership Team

This leadership team will be responsible to propose and realize actions to:

       Speak up for our church life and way of faith in our time and place and

       Help members to be invitational and make it easy for newcomers to be with us

The Neighborhood Leadership Team

This leadership team will be responsible to propose and realize actions to:

Reach out to people, not just in our namesake villages of Whitefish Bay and Shorewood,           but also in Fox Point, Glendale, and Milwaukee’s East Side

The Next-Generation Leadership Team

This leadership team will be responsible to propose and realize actions to:

Raise people of faith in younger generations, by enabling parents to share God’s love with children and inviting young adults and children into our midst.

The Guiding Team is inviting you to consider serving on one of these teams—but we also know that this is a big task. On Wednesday, October 26^th from 6-8 p.m., we are having an Open Training for people in Bay Shore who would like to learn more about the teams, their function, and receive training and guidance on the team’s creation and next steps. Our consultant, Peter Reuss, will lead the 2 hour training. We will provide a light meal, beginning at 5:45 p.m. We also are willing to provide onsite childcare if needed.

If you are interested, please RSVP here.

It is our sincere hope to have Council members present as well as Committee Chairs and any one else in our community who feels called to serve in this important way.

Black Lives are Sacred

Bay Shore has become a quiet partner with Bay Bridge—a local group here in WFB/Shorewood which is increasing awareness about racial injustice and how we, as members of the community, can best respond. We have now been a part of several events with Bay Bridge—for example, our MLK Day of Service and more recently the Library-led program, How Racism Distorts the Human Spirit. Other area churches around us have done even more in the work of racial justice and equality.

This Saturday, we have been invited by our siblings in Christ from First United Methodist—WFB to stand for one hour (10-11 a.m.) at the corner of Lake/Marlborough/Silver Spring and silently share our support, using signs, that Black Lives Are Sacred.

This is different from the Black Lives Matter movement. BLAS is a movement within Christian churches that recognize how our black siblings in Christ need our visible support, and not just thoughts and prayers. 

To learn more about this, please visit their local Facebook page.
To learn more about the unique history of BLAS, visit their website.

I will be there along with our neighbors from 10-11 am this Saturday. I find this simply to be extension of what our church already does—advocating for those in need, standing for equality for all of God’s people, and being a visible person of faith. If you are able, please join me.

Blessings and peace to you all,

Pastor Sarah

Dear friends,

Our Council met this past Tuesday, and we had a long, good meeting of discussion about the future directions of Bay Shore. Here are a few highlights for you:

• Reed Groethe, on behalf of our Guiding Team, presented a report with the motion to accept our new mission statement, values and plan of ministry. It was approved. Council will now create special teams to work on our action steps for the plan of ministry, with deadlines and goals. Our consultant will continue to assist our new team leaders in their work.
• Our Special Summer Appeal concluded (you can still participate—simply call the church office or return your commitment card if you missed our targeted deadline). We had 42 households increase their pledges for 2022 for a total of $22,768. Our Finance Committee will meet soon to discuss our next steps for this year and discerning our 2023 budget. They will report to Council their suggestions on how to adjust for our current deficit.
• Council created a special Task Force for Safety with three members to review and create safety procedures in the event of emergencies.
• And finally, Council discussed our upcoming worship schedule. This past Spring, I had been approached by a few 8 am attendees asking if it was time to have only one service at Bay Shore. Pam Woodard (Council President) and I reached out to many members who attended or had attended 8 am services in the past year. We received thoughtful responses. In the end, the majority of responders agreed that having one service at 9:30 a.m., like we do in the summers, made sense. Council approved to continue our one service schedule this Fall after much discussion. Our goal and prayer is to continue to worship together as one, encouraging one another and also welcoming new visitors with more faces and singing voices. Do mark your calendars with the change.

I have committed to the Walk/Run Outreach for Hope Fundraiser on September 24 on behalf of Bay Shore. Of course, you too could do the event and raise funds as well. But if you prefer, you can simply support through me and my fundraising page. Click here to do so.

Blessings and peace to you as you continue to enjoy this summer’s weather.

I hope to see you soon,

Pastor Sarah