The Olive Branch, 6/25/12

Accent on Worship

Time After Pentecost 14

Because I have taken a position of leadership in stewardship at the church I attend, I have been
reading and thinking a lot about this subject. So, when I read the Second Reading for Sunday’s Time
after Pentecost 14, it was like I read it for the very first time, and I was truly taken by it. Paul is writing
to the Corinthians, asking them to honor their pledge to help the Christians in Jerusalem, who had
fallen on hard times. I do believe that this is the first recorded stewardship drive in the early church,
and it is not too different from today’s stewardship drives.

Paul wrote, “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet
for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty, you might become rich.”


This isn’t much different than what T. A. Kantonen wrote in 1955. “Stewardship is the reenactment
of Christ’s life in Christ’s people.” Paul wrote, “It is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need,” which is pretty close to something that Milo Kauffman wrote in 1975: “Stewardship is receiving and sharing God’s bounteous gifts and managing them for the best promotion of God’s purposes in the world.”

From the very early days of the church Christians were asked to be generous as Jesus was generous.
They were asked to be grateful for the gift of Jesus’ life and work and through that gratitude be
generous toward those in need. If we are to model our lives after Jesus, our generosity would be
sacrificial. It takes a great deal of faith to give sacrificially. Jesus certainly had to draw on his faith
in the Father when he gave everything by going to the cross.

So I will leave you with one last quote, which is my favorite.: “Stewardship is what we do after we say
we believe.” Clarence C. Stoughton (1949).

- Donna Neste



Urgent Need for Worship Assistants

If you have considered taking on the role of acolyte, greeter, or communion minister at worship,
now is your moment!

We are in need of volunteers in all three of these areas. If you are interested in becoming an acolyte,
greeter, or communion minister, please contact Al Bipes or Peggy Hoeft, and they will help to get you
trained and involved.



Praying for our Graduates

On Sunday, July 8, we would like to remember all of Mount Olive’s graduates in the Prayers of
Intercession at the morning liturgy.

If you, a member of your family, or someone else from Mount Olive is graduating from a high school,
post-secondary school (college, seminary, graduate school), please drop a note to or call the church
office by Monday, July 2, so that they may be included in the prayers on that day.

After liturgy, we will all have an opportunity to extend our congratulations and best wishes to the
graduates at coffee hour.



Sunday Readings

July 1, 2012 – Time after Pentecost, Sunday 13
Lamentations 3:22-33 + Psalm 30
2 Corinthians 8:7-15 + Mark 5:21-43

July 8, 2012 – Time after Pentecost, Sunday 14
Ezekiel 2:1-5 + Psalm 123
2 Corinthians 12:2-10 + Mark 6:1-13



Garden Tour Fundraiser

See some beautiful gardens and support a worthwhile project!

This garden tour is a fund raiser to purchase a rolling overhead door for the serving window in the
east assembly room. This would allow folks to work on the counter without disturbing those who may be
meeting in the East Assembly Room.

The tour will take place on Sunday, July 22, after church. Participants will be served brunch at the
first garden stop, travel to another garden or two, and end the tour with a garden party at the last
stop. The charge for the tour will be $25.00 per person. More information will be available soon,
but in the meantime, mark your calendar! We hope many will be able to attend. We had a great time
with this fundraiser two years ago and we are sure that this year will be just as much fun.



The Bargain Box

Each August, Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries sponsors The Bargain Box, an affordable
way for neighborhood families to obtain good quality clothing (new and gently used) for children of all
ages to wear as they return to school in the fall. This year, the Bargain Box will be on August 4, from 8-
11:30 a.m.

You can help by donating new or gently used children’s clothes or money to purchase clothes
(please include “Bargain Box” in the memo line of your gift), before August 4.

If you have any questions about Bargain Box, please contact Irene Campbell at 651-230-3927.



Guatemala Trip

Mark, Lisa, Jessinia, and Kaiya Ruff will be on a mission trip in Guatemala June 23-30. Please keep
them in your prayers as they participate in a vision team with Common Hope, a non-profit organization
that partners with families to improve their lives through education, health care, and housing. If you
want to follow their activities throughout the week, here is a link to a photo diary:
http://www.commonhope.org/get-involved/join-avision-team/vision-team-diary/



Missing the Font?

Mount Olive’s baptismal font is being restored and re-built. It will be back in the nave by midsummer.



Don’t Forget the Toiletries

Now that school is out and summer is almost here, many of us are planning summer vacations.
We ask that in your travels, you keep any unused complimentary toiletries from hotels or motels to
give to the homeless. (Payment for your accommodations includes these items.) Also needed
are trial-size personal items that can be purchased. Those who are living in homeless shelters, or on
the street have great need but little space for personal hygiene items such as soap, shampoo, etc.
You may bring your donations to church and place them in the box marked "Our Savior’s" on the shelf
in the coat room. These items will be delivered to Our Savior’s Shelter for those in their homeless
program. This is one simple way we can remember the poor.



Book Discussion Group

Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group regularly meets on the second Saturday of each month at
10:00 a.m. For the July meeting, they will read The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope, and for
August 11 they will read The Razor's Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham. All readers welcome!



Suggestions for Capital Campaign Tithe

As the Capital Campaign nears its conclusion, we turn to the good stewardship of the capital
campaign tithe, which can be a gift to share our blessings with the wider communities of which
Mount Olive is a part.

Mount Olive invites you to use the “suggestion form” to suggest nonprofit organizations or
initiatives outside of Mount Olive that might be good matches for funding through the capital
campaign tithe.

Suggestions can be local, national, or international nonprofit organizations or initiatives.
We anticipate that there will be more suggestions than can be reasonably funded, but this form will
raise awareness for future possibilities as well as immediate funding possibilities.

Please print out and return the attached/included suggestion form to Congregation President Adam Krueger’s box in the church office or e-mail the form to the church office at welcome@mountolivechurch.org All suggestions must be received by noon on July 1. Then after July 1, appropriate organizations will be sent a form to propose projects to Mount Olive.


If you have questions, please contact Adam Krueger at akrue14@comcast.net or 612-414-7167.



Every Church a Peace Church

The next bimonthly potluck supper meeting of Every Church a Peace Church will be held on
Monday, July 9, 6:30 p.m., at the Twin Cities Friends Meeting House (1725 Grand Ave., St. Paul,
651-699-6995; http://wwwtcfm.org). The topic of discussion will be "From Death to Life: A Story of
Forgiveness and Reconciliation," presented by Mary Johnson and Oshea Israel, and moderated by Mark
Pitzele.

From Death To Life is an organization which was founded by Mary Johnson in 2005, shortly before
she came to forgive Oshea Israel, the young man who took her only son’s life 12 years earlier. She
now claims Oshea as her “spiritual son” and together they share their inspiring story of healing
and reconciliation in the community.

From Death to Life is dedicated to ending violence through healing and reconciliation between families of victims and those who have caused harm. We offer support groups empowering parents to come to terms with the impact of homicide through emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical healing.

For more information about this organization, visit them on the web at http://www.FromDeathToLife.us.



Trust Annual Appeal

As you may know, last year Mount Olive joined with like-minded congregations in south Minneapolis as part of Trust, Inc. We partner with Trust, Inc. and its other members in a variety of endeavors including CoAM and Meals on Wheels. They also offer other opportunities for shared ministry that we continue to explore (Youth Ministry, Grief Work, Parish Nurse, etc.). Mount Olive member, Carol Austermann, represents us on the Trust Inc. board. 


As part of our continued collaboration with them, this week you will receive a separate mailing from the Mount Olive church office for the Trust Inc. Annual Fund Appeal. Please consider the needs of Trust Inc. as part of your overall stewardship of resources for the good things we can do together.



School Supplies Drive

Summer's just begun and for the Neighborhood Ministries Committee that means looking forward
to the beginning of .... school!? That's right!

Summer is when we start thinking about gathering school supplies for distribution to 100 neighborhood children at the August 4 community meal. While this is an item in our budget, the generous contributions we receive each year from the congregation help us to provide as many supplies as possible. Please look for a Neighborhood Ministries Committee member during coffee hour on July 15, 22, and 29 and offer your support to this vital neighborhood ministry.

- Kathy Kruger
Neighborhood Ministries Committee member



Adult Forum July 29, 2012

“All this is from God, who reconciled us through
Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”
2 Corinthians 5:18

Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only the union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Minnesota?

Join the conversation on Sunday, July 29. Our guest is Tim Feiertag, Grassroots Organizing and Training Coordinator at Lutherans Concerned North America headquarters (LC/NA) in St. Paul. Tim holds a degree in Social Work from Valparaiso University and a Master of Divinity degree from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. His involvement in Lutherans Concerned includes being co-chair of the Kansas City/Lawrence Chapter, serving on the national board of directors and as Regional Director for the Central Region. In 1998, he was elected co-chair of LC/NA, a position he held until 2002. Across time he has participated in and conducted various trainings, from I-Wheel to RIC and Building an Inclusive Church. He comes to LC/NA and St. Paul from the Missouri Children's Division in Kansas City where he served as a
caseworker for abused and neglected children and their families.



Your Foundation at Work: Bach Tage

I’ve been asked to write the first in what may be a series of articles due to my involvement with Bach
Tage, one of the many ministries that have received support from the Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Foundation.

In 2006, a dream became reality thanks to a gift from the Foundation. For the past six years, grants
from the Mount Olive Foundation have made the annual Bach Tage at Mount Olive possible. As a
result, more than 120 choral directors, organists, and vocalists have been able to participate in this
conference, from as far distant as Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and
Ohio, as well as Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, and Illinois nearer by. These examples of comments
from past participants say so very well why the Bach Tage weekend is important:

1. “Bach Tage is a high point of my musical year, and this year was no exception. This is a precious gift you give to all of us who partake.” (Susan Stageberg, Iowa)

2. “… These are the best two musical days of the year for me. In many ways these Bach Tage weekends are the finest continuing education opportunities I have had since leaving graduate school thirty years ago, …The planning, the valuing of community, the sharing of what is obviously treasured… all of this perhaps can be boiled down to one word: “love.” There is an air at Mount Olive of love, of respect, of mutual care of people, of the music, of the tradition that manifests itself in patience under pressure and compassion in the face of limitations.
…This is a wonderful example of what music making in the church should be.” (Larry Christenson, Iowa)

3. “Thanks with all my heart--you have given balm and succor, joy and uplift to this faithful, if occasionally isolated, church musician!” (Margaret Gohman, Mount Olive Associate member)

The Mount Olive tradition of worship and mission is a blessing to those of us privileged to be part of it week to week. Bach Tage invites musicians from throughout the church to experience the liturgy and music which is at the core of our parish life, as they study, rehearse and perform the music of the most significant Lutheran composer of all time.


Often, they also experience Mount Olive’s equally vital commitment to our community as well, as they
share the lunch time with those who gather for the monthly Community Meal.

Without the annual grant from the Foundation, as well as support from Mount Olive Music and Fine Arts, it would be impossible to offer this program without charging a prohibitive fee. Church musicians are not a wealthy lot. But, with generous support, we are able to welcome all who would come.

Genesis 12:2 reminds us, we have been blessed that we may be a blessing to others. At the core, this
is why we have programs such as Bach Tage. Sharing this blessing is what the financial support provided for the past six years has made possible.

- Art Halbardier



Church Library News

If you were at church yesterday, you likely enjoyed refreshments served after the liturgy by our library committee. We were happy to do this as part of the observance of the first anniversary of our Louise Schroedel Memorial Library in its new location.

I recently learned some information about a nonprofit organization organized here in Minnesota and
I am sure you will find it an inspiring story. Read Indeed was founded 4 years ago by 8-year old Maria 
Keller (with the assistance of her mother, Maura) of Hopkins, MN. Maria's vision was to collect and distribute a million books, even one at a time, to the needy children of the world who don't normally
have children's books in their homes. Amazingly, Read Indeed has already distributed 80,000 books
through local food shelves, schools, churches, and Rotary Clubs.

A special children's book drive is being held June 18 - July 15 and books (new or gently used) can be
taken to any M&I Bank in the Twin Cities area. Persons, groups or even neighborhood friends who
donate as many as 25 books will receive a pass to the Water Park near the Mall of America. Think
about it - perhaps you can help this worthy program!

We have just learned that our Mount Olive church library is the recipient of a special gift in the amount of $1,000, given to us by Jack and Lillian Olson, in memory of Jack's mother, LaVern Olson. We are deeply grateful and honored to have this special gift and express our sincere thanks to the Olson's for their kindness.

For more details about library plans, watch for our column next time!

- Leanna Kloempken



Thank You!

Many thanks to all who attended the Art Shoppe meet and greet on June 17.

Special thanks goes to those who prepared the food (the artists thought it was great!), to those who
purchased the art (providing the artists with income!), to the artists for sharing their stories, and
to all who came and listened.