Cross Ways

Thought for the Month:

From Pastor Nate:

Beaver Lake Lutheran

Church

November 2019 Grow, Go & Glorify God

God is good to one and all: everything He does is suffused with grace.

Psalm 145:9 Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other

side of fear.

George Addair

Thank you!

As I begin to write my last article for the Cross Ways newsletter, I can’t help but notice that I

am filled with a sense of gratitude. I am incredibly grateful for the four years that I was able to

serve as the pastor of Beaver Lake Lutheran. I am grateful for the way you welcomed me and

my family into this beautiful community of faith and I am grateful for the grace you have shown

us as we struggle to say goodbye. I believe that God led us to this place and he has blessed us

with the support of a wonderful congregation and I am thankful for the amazing years we have

had in ministry together.

In the last few sermons I have given at Beaver Lake, I have tried to tell you how thankful I am

for your partnerships in ministry, how grateful I am that you put your trust in me as your pastor,

how much I have grown to love you as a congregation, how grateful I am that you gave me

space as I grew as a church leader, and how I trust that the future ahead for BLLC is a good one.

As our paths now go in different directions, my family and I will miss you and we have all ex-

pressed to one another great sadness in leaving Beaver Lake. At the same time, we trust that God has good plans for us as well

as we move into a new chapter in our lives. We ask that you keep our family in your prayers moving forward.

In his explanation to the third article of the creed, Martin Luther writes, “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlight-

ened me with His gifts...In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on

earth” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism). I often talk about how God calls us, gives us gifts for ministry, and sends us out into

the world to do those things God has called us to do. I am excited about using the gifts God has given me as I step into my new

role at Redeemer. At the same time, as I have told many of you, this has not been an easy decision and I also ask for your

prayers now and in the future.

When a pastor takes a new call, especially a call that is in the same area, it is important for that pastor to observe clear bounda-

ries. To observe those boundaries, I will not be available for things such as baptisms, funerals, weddings, or pastoral counsel-

ing. There are two important reasons for this. The first is that this allows your new pastor to fill his or her role as the pastor of

this congregation and helps that person to build relationships that will be important for their ministry moving forward. It also

helps me enter my new call with the time and energy I will need to do the best job I can. Anytime a pastor begins a new call,

the amount of time and energy that congregation needs can be a bit overwhelming and so I will need to give full attention to my

new congregation. When I came to Beaver Lake, I set those same clear boundaries with the church I left. However, since I’m

not moving too far down the road, if I do run into you, I hope we can greet each other with a handshake or a hug and talk about

non-church things.

My last Sunday at Beaver Lake Lutheran Church will be Sunday, November 3. I hope you can be there to celebrate the four

years we have had together!

Again, thank you to all of you for the time we have shared. You have been an incredible blessing to me while I have served as

your pastor. You have also been an incredible blessing to Gina, Peter, and Ella. We will miss you!

In Christ,

Pastor Nate

Page 2 Cross Ways

Deadline for Publications

Cross Ways by the 25th of each month.

(Note: Cross Ways deadline has been extended to the 25th.)

Info for weekly bulletin is due by noon each Friday.

Electronic content can be emailed to jdhilpert@comcast.net.

Do We Have Your Correct Address?

Please notify the church office when you have a new

address, phone number or Email address. This will help us

with our church directory, other publications and mailings.

Thank You!

Expressions of Generosity ---Being Stewards of God’s Gifts

Have you checked lately on how you are doing on your 2019 BLLC pledged offering or giving plan?

Take a look. Are you behind or in a position to add to your gift? Now is the time to make those donations. We have less than 3 months to get our general offering into the black. As of 9/30/19 we are behind where we should be by about -$13,700.

We need a strong finish to this year to be in a good position to start moving to the call of a new pastor. Keep this in mind as you fill out your 2020 pledge card as well. Stewardship Sunday is November 17th! Start thinking about a giving plan and setting an offering goal. We also encour-age everyone to write that goal on a pledge card. Pledging greatly helps the budgeting process

which may be critical in 2020 as we try to determine what we can afford for pastoral services.

Continue to be reminded of God’s abundance, all the gifts that we have received, and a neighborhood in need of the kindness of God’s love. Giving at Church and to other charitable organizations changes us and world around us!

Want more financial details. Talk to Rod Johnson or Bill Pringle.

The Vegetable Garden & Farmer’s Market Has Ended!

The 2019 BLLC vegetable garden has been “put to bed” and the Sunday morning Farmer’s Market has closed for the year. It has been another fantastic growing year and our garden produced lots of great veggies and beautiful Zinnias. A huge THANK YOU to all of those who made this year’s veggie garden and Farmer’s Market a success: Lu Larsen for washing and packaging the veggies, running the Farmer’s Market and making her wonderful jars of Straw-berry Jam and Refrigerator Pickles; Kim Richardson for helping with planting, weeding, har-vesting and running the Farmer’s Market; Jerry Swanson for tilling the garden; and, of course, our wonderful congregation who purchased the veggies and flowers at our Farmer’s Market every Sunday! This year’s grand total in donations is $630 (last year’s amount was $530)! With your gener-ous donations, we are able to purchase 2 community gardens ($200/garden for a total of $400) through the ELCA Good Gifts and to donate $230 to the N. St. Paul Food Shelf (because the food shelf has an approximate buying power of $9 for every $1 donated, our $200 donation equals $2,070)! Thank you for your wonderful support and for your generous donations! Susan McGarthwaite (Keeper of the Garden)

Cross Ways Page 3

“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.”

~Karen Kaiser Clark

Change is in the very nature of life itself. It happens to everyone and it happens every

day. We understand this intellectually, but our hearts continually forget it because sometimes it is downright

scary to think about change.

Small changes often go unnoticed, or may simply be a slight nuisance, like road construction on our usual route

to church, or our favorite grocery store changing its hours. Bigger changes can be uncomfortable, or even excru-

ciatingly painful, like when our health is challenged by disease or when we lose a beloved friend, sibling or

spouse.

As human beings, we go about our lives and most of us develop our own routines; we get up in the morning,

retrieve the paper from the front step and read it while we are eating breakfast. Or, we wash our clothes on

Mondays and grocery shop on Tuesdays. I remember growing up my mom had a set of embroidered dishtowels,

one for each day of the week with a pretty lady going about her task of the day. We get comfortable with our

habits and in fact, unless it is brought to our attention or something causes our routines to change, we don’t think

about them much. We all get pretty attached to “the way things are.”

Although change is in the very nature of life itself, change places demands on us. Every event in our lives can

be viewed as a force that is affecting us, whether the impact is to our physical, intellectual, emotional or spiritual

well-being. When you have life changes, they often include loss, and anytime something significant is lost, we

grieve.

Emotional well-being is the ability to understand ourselves and cope with the challenges life can bring. Our be-

loved Pastor Nate Toso is leaving, and this is a huge change - and loss - for each of us individually and for our

congregation. While we are so thankful to him for his ministry to us, as a congregation, we are sad and grieving

the change. Our emotional well-being is challenged as we work to cope with this loss.

Grief can be an amazingly helpful - albeit painful - emotion by assisting us as we move through changes in our

lives. Grief can literally stop us in our tracks and almost force us to take the time to remember. If we let it, grief

allows us to feel a deep sense of gratitude for the many ways we were touched on a soul-deep level, and blessed

for having had that specialness in our lives. Nothing is permanent, and knowing this reminds us to appreciate

and be thankful for the time we have.

Because of his leadership, Pastor Nate is leaving a strong and healthy congregation. We have deepened our rela-

tionships with Calvary’s Cross, welcomed two new churches and grown our partnerships with Achieve Acad-

emy and Cori’s Kidz daycare. We have established two bountiful community gardens, growing relationships

and vegetables. We welcome ALL of God’s people, with open hospitality and support for special needs. We

host a free monthly Community Meal, have sent young people to camp and our Outreach activities have blos-

somed. We’re a different church than we were four years ago: small, mighty and more!

People worship at Beaver Lake because ours is a warm and caring community, a church family with an enor-

mously generous heart. Even as much as we will miss him, we are genuinely grateful to have had Nate Toso as

our pastor. We will grieve, but it will be a grief laced with gratitude and love. From the bottom of our hearts,

Thank You, Pastor Nate.

By: Deb Houtkooper

Page 4 Cross Ways

Beaver Lake Lutheran Church

Council Meeting October 21, 2019

Present: Pastor Nate, Deb Houtkooper, Rick Joubert, Leslie Shank, Kim Richardson, John Thon, Ann O’Keefe

Absent: Lynda Woodman, Katie Xiong

Call to Order:

Meeting was called to order by Deb Houtkooper at 6:53 pm

Deb referred to the Behavioral Covenants

The calendar was passed for Joan

Council “Thank You’s” were written

Ann made a motion, seconded by Rick to approve the 10/21/19 Agenda and the 09/16/19 Minutes. All were in favor.

Motion carried.

1. Pastor’s Report.

Pastor Nate thanked the council for being strong, faithful leaders through some difficult decisions over his tenure at

Beaver Lake and for our support of him and his family. He’s had a great experience.

We had a great forum with the congregation about the upcoming transition on Sunday. Good questions were asked;

unexpected but helpful conversations occurred.

Discussed that continuity of leadership over the next year is important

Open invitation to talk with Pastor Nate if needed

Ann thanked Pastor Nate on behalf of the council and his contributions to BLLC were recognized and praised

2. New Business:

Admin budget initial update: Admin recommends not spending the excess $6.8k in the music budget if it can be helped

in case we need it to balance the budget. There was also discussion around how we need to be flexible and recognize

financial realities going forward.

Transition: Nate’s outstanding projects

1. Community Garden: Deb will talk to Calvary’s Cross about taking on a larger leadership role; Deb is contact

person for the grant

2. Ikengeza: Peg Swanson will be the point person (we also partner with Holy Cross and their Pastor Rusty

Grace)

3. Camp Wapo: Julie and Kim have the information they need to continue this program with our youth (along

with the youth director at Holy Cross)

4. Interpreter services: Rod Johnson

5. Key control: we need more accountability and should revisit the key policy

6. Interim can contact Nate through the synod if questions come up that only he might know about

Transition: next steps from the call manual were discussed

3. Open Business:

Council updates to the congregation: anything we need to bring up for the next Temple Talk? We just had one so nothing yet.

Parking update: thanks to Rod Johnson the striping is done and cost for the parking changes will be much less because Rod can extend the

existing posts so we don’t need to replace them; we can reuse the signs we have and only need to purchase the guest signs

Assign committees to the months that they need to provide Cross Ways articles for; the unassigned ones will be discussed at the next meet-

ing.

September: Youth & Family (Julie/Kim - submit by August 20th)

October: Community Garden (Deb will write & submit by September 20th)

(Continued on Page 5)

Cross Ways Page 5

November: Stewardship (Admin - submit by October 20th)

December: Worship & Music (submit by Nov 20th): Leslie will ask Yvonne

January: (submit by December 20th)

February: (submit by January 20th)

March: (submit by February 20th)

April: (submit by March 20th)

May: (submit by April 20th)

June:(submit by May 20th)

July: (submit by June 20th)

August: (submit by July 20th)

4. Items for future consideration:

More frequent community meals (Food trucks? Ann will research.): short service and a meal; drivers for people who

don’t want to drive after dark; EGF could pay; invite other churches to host or a rotation or simpler meals; youth could

help once per month; other ideas? EGF is tapped this year so consider plans for 2020?

“Spotlight” articles about our volunteers for Cross Ways?

Reconciled In Christ - we need someone to lead this process.

Art work, music, services – are we being inclusive and welcoming? Form an open committee to work on this with

Property, Communications and Outreach.

Discuss the rest of the MIF suggestions for signage, pews, etc. (See February 2019 meeting minutes, Appendix A for

the list on our website www.bllc.org)

5. Ministry team representatives:

Administration (John/Rick)

Enduring Gifts (Deb)

Youth & Family (Julie/Kim)

Health & Wellness (Ann)

Worship & Music (Nate)

Property (Lynda)

Outreach (Katie/Leslie)

Pastor’s farewell planning

Adjournment:

Behavioral Covenants followed? Yes

Next meeting November21st at 7:00 pm at church; Ann is host

Julie made a motion to adjourn, Kim seconded. All were in favor. Motion carried.

Closed with the Lord’s Prayer.

Respectfully submitted by Leslie Shank, Secretary

Page 6 Cross Ways

I’m thankful for my country,

Where freedom and liberty endure.

I’m thankful for those who fought and died,

That these freedoms remain secure.

I’m thankful for the majestic mountains

And rolling verdant plains;

Where the eagles can soar in freedom,

Where the wind sings its joyous refrains.

I’m thankful for the sun and the rain,

Which bring life to Mother Earth.

Though the seasons come—and seasons go,

Springtime brings new life—new birth.

What’s on your Mind?

As we enter into November, we are probably thinking about Thanksgiving, or even Christmas. But have we given any thought to Stewardship?

The goal of our stewardship ministry is to help God’s people grow in relationship with Jesus through the use of the time, talents and resources that God has entrusted to us.

The very word “steward” describes someone who watches over that which belongs to someone else. God has created all that is, and God continues to own all that is. Everything we have be-longs to God. We are given the privilege and responsibility to care for all those God given gifts. We are his “Stewards”!

“Estimate of Giving” cards will be sent out in November. As you are filling out your card, ask yourself – “What can I do to help grow my relationship with Jesus Christ through stewardship?” and “Am I following Jesus’ teaching to be wary of earthly possessions and be extravagantly charitable?” We owe him a lot!

Giving changes us and world around us!

Day Light Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 3rd at 2:00 AM, Don’t forget to turn your clocks BACK 1 hour be-fore going to bed Saturday

night.

I Give Thanks Charles Clevenger, New Boston, Ohio

How Can I express my thanks?

Ah, let me count the ways;

God has showered me with his blessings

For which I give Him praise.

I thank Him for my family

And for my many friends;

I thank Him for His goodness

And for His love that never ends.

I’m thankful for the heritage

My parents bequeathed to me—

Role models of strength and courage,

Yet, tempered with humility.

I give thanks to the humble farmer

Who cultivates the yielding sod.

For the bounty of this precious Earth—

I give thanks to Almighty God!

Beaver Lake Lutheran Church

2280 Stillwater Avenue

Maplewood, MN 55119

651 739-8092

www.bllc.org

Beaver Lake Lutheran Church

Nate Toso, Pastor

Deb Houtkooper, Parish Nurse

Worship Schedule

9:45 AM Sunday School

10:00 AM Worship Service

11/19