April 2024 Pastor's Letter
But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.” So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid. - Mark 16: 6-8
Dear siblings in faith, The original ending of Mark's resurrection story, the earliest version of the story in the Bible, is quite profound. Mary Magdalene, another Mary (perhaps the mother of Jesus) and Salome show up at the tomb, wondering who will roll the stone away so they can properly anoint Jesus' body according to Jewish faith practices. Instead, a "young man dressed in a white robe" simply tells the women that Jesus has been raised, he is no longer in the tomb, he is going ahead of the disciples back to do ministry in Galilee, and to not be afraid. And heh, the disciples then immediately "flee in terror and amazement." Literally the last words in the oldest version of Mark's gospel are "they were afraid." On a number of levels, many of us might be pretty darn afraid right now too. In a post-COVID world, our healthcare system, our food system, our immigration system, our energy system and climate, our democratic system, our international peace system and more, all systems we began building as a society after the Second World War, all feel like they are no longer working, signaling perhaps a time of the most unprecedented change in our lifetimes. As a congregation, we are also experiencing a MASSIVE amount of change. After almost four years of work, the first meeting between our affordable housing developers and our town leaders we've been journeying toward since we began contemplating a consolidation with Trinity Reformed Church in 2020 took place this past Wednesday, April 17th. Redevelopment Task Force Member Penny Incitti and I are happy to report that it went EXTREMELY well, and our town leaders are eager for further discussion in the coming weeks. After our vote at this past February's Annual Meeting of the Congregation, we just secured the funding and have signed a contract with GSB to help us figure out what the next five years of Spirit filled community will look like at both Messiah Lutheran Church and (in all likelihood) a fully spun off and separate Rotterdam Community Center. Our consultants from GSB will meet with both our Congregation Council and Community Center Advisory Board on Tuesday, May 7th and will then begin meeting individually with both key congregation members and community partners identified by our Congregation Council shortly thereafter. As part of this process, all members of our Spirit filled congregation are encouraged to complete a brief three-minute survey found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Messiah-Rotterdam by Sunday, May 5th. Paper copies are available in Heather's office as well, although completing the survey online is strongly preferred. There will be additional opportunities for the rest of our congregation to lift up their voice as part of this strategic planning process as well in the coming months. Many of our lay leaders who have worked tirelessly, especially since COVID19 lockdowns began, to keep Messiah going, successfully conduct a historic Accessibility Campaign and launch a Community Center all at once have done an AMAZING job of leading this congregation in Christ's name, but also have needed to begin practicing self-care and developing better boundaries. We should all welcome this and support them! Sue Collins, Kimlee Marquise, and Rachel DeTeso did amazing work on our Congregation Council for many years, and while we have a wonderful new Council, we have not yet been able to select a President and Vice President, leaving us with a significant leadership vacuum I'm doing my best to temporarily fill. Kristie Becker has served as our Budget & Finance Chair since long before I even arrived at Messiah, admirably leading us through a significant increase in both finances and financial complexity, and she will be wrapping up her time in that role before the end of the year as well. Judy Becker has made a full time job out of running our massively growing Bread of Life Food Pantry since 2015, and while she will certainly still involved, she wants to step back from leadership in June. Additionally, Heather Zimmer, who has ROCKED IT as our full time Director of Operations, will any day now begin twelve weeks of parental leave as her and Yancey welcome Eloise into God's world! Our wonderful custodian, Sheri Lamb, will need to take a number of weeks off after surgery. And in just a few short weeks our Parish Musician Douglas J. Chilton will be back with us full-time, leading I'm sure an amazing rejuvenation of our choir and music ministries! Here's the thing, just like it was for Mary, Mary and Salome, our fore-bearers in faith two thousand Easters ago at Christ's empty tomb, let us remember and confess that times of uncertainty are almost always EXTREMELY scary times. On the other hand, as we will hear on the Feast of Pentecost, May 19th this year, times of great uncertainty and fear are also times the Holy Spirit especially breaks in to lead us forward into new life and allow for exciting new beginnings to take shape! During this time of change and uncertainty, dear friends, let us all especially hold up one another in prayer. Let us all seek to talk less and open up our ears and our hearts to one another more. Let us all seek to show in person to sing, support and gather around Christ's table together. Especially when we're feeling afraid, let us all know that it is ESPECIALLY during times of uncertainty and change that the Spirit shows up to guide us forward! In Christ, we got this! Happy Easter, dear church! in hope, Pastor Dustin |
Supporting Our Young People Attending the 2024 ELCA Youth Gathering!
Sarah Olochnowicz, along with young adult Kiersten Becker and Pastor Dustin will be attending the triennial ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans from Tuesday, July 15th to Saturday, July 20th, 2024 along with youth and chaperones from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Glenville! While it hasn't happened since 2018 due to COVID, we are SO EXCITED to send our young people to this gathering of over 30,000 youth from across the country to serve, have fun and learn about their faith together!
As a congregation, supporting the faith formation of our young people is one of the most important things we can do and thus we are committing to raise the $4,425 needed for our youth and young adults to attend. So far, we've raised $2,326 so we only have $2,099 to go!
We will also will begin a scratch off lottery ticket raffle before our Mother's Day Mass for the Feast of the Ascension on Sunday, May 12th. If you would like to donate tickets to this raffle basket, please put tickets in a box is in the Faith Center Narthex before that time!
As a congregation, supporting the faith formation of our young people is one of the most important things we can do and thus we are committing to raise the $4,425 needed for our youth and young adults to attend. So far, we've raised $2,326 so we only have $2,099 to go!
We will also will begin a scratch off lottery ticket raffle before our Mother's Day Mass for the Feast of the Ascension on Sunday, May 12th. If you would like to donate tickets to this raffle basket, please put tickets in a box is in the Faith Center Narthex before that time!
Complete Our Congregation Survey Today as Part of Our Quinquennial Season of Visioning!
Three minutes of your time will have a huge impact on Messiah Lutheran Church and the Rotterdam Community Center’s future!
Our goal is to get fifty of our members to complete a brief survey by Sunday, May 5th found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Messiah-Rotterdam. If we reach that goal, one of our youth will get to pie Pastor Dustin in the face after worship!
After a vote at our last Annual Meeting of the Congregation, Messiah Lutheran Church engaged GSB Fundraising to engage our congregation and community in listening, review, and looking forward through an Organizational Assessment. This will serve as the foundation of our second every five year (quinquennial!) Season of Visioning at Messiah, conducted for the first time in 2019. This process will clarify the relationship between Messiah Lutheran Church and the Rotterdam Community Center. It will ensure our Congregation Council, Community Center Advisory Board and Committee Chairs have the tools and training for sustainability and success. It will also provide us with a roadmap for the next five years of ministry together in a document called a Strategic Plan. Your perspective will provide insight that will be critical to our decision making going forward. Thank you for taking time to participate.
Filling out the survey online is strongly preferred but if you need paper copies, they are available on the Usher's Desk. Lift up your voice in this critical process today!
Our goal is to get fifty of our members to complete a brief survey by Sunday, May 5th found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Messiah-Rotterdam. If we reach that goal, one of our youth will get to pie Pastor Dustin in the face after worship!
After a vote at our last Annual Meeting of the Congregation, Messiah Lutheran Church engaged GSB Fundraising to engage our congregation and community in listening, review, and looking forward through an Organizational Assessment. This will serve as the foundation of our second every five year (quinquennial!) Season of Visioning at Messiah, conducted for the first time in 2019. This process will clarify the relationship between Messiah Lutheran Church and the Rotterdam Community Center. It will ensure our Congregation Council, Community Center Advisory Board and Committee Chairs have the tools and training for sustainability and success. It will also provide us with a roadmap for the next five years of ministry together in a document called a Strategic Plan. Your perspective will provide insight that will be critical to our decision making going forward. Thank you for taking time to participate.
Filling out the survey online is strongly preferred but if you need paper copies, they are available on the Usher's Desk. Lift up your voice in this critical process today!
2024 Season of the Rev. Richard Rieger Memorial Harvest Garden
Spring is just around the corner and we are starting to plan for our summer gardening season. Three members of our garden crew have registered to participate in the Cornell Cooperative Extension Seeds to Supper program beginning on February 28th. We will be encouraging people who would like to help with the garden this year to sign up on the bulletin board in the narthex or email Jean at dodgerjones@yahoo.com. We hope to have gardeners working together twice a week throughout the growing season so if you are a beginning gardener there will be more seasoned Gardeners to help you learn. This will be a two hour a week commitment. All ages and abilities are welcome!
It will be lots of fun and a great way to meet others as well as provide food to the food pantries at the Community Center. Any questions contact Jean at 518-878-4412.
It will be lots of fun and a great way to meet others as well as provide food to the food pantries at the Community Center. Any questions contact Jean at 518-878-4412.
Parental Leave Plan
The time has come (or in the very near future) for me to go out on parental leave. I have spent many hours (along with Pastor Dustin, the Council and the RCC Board) coming up with a good plan to help things run smoothly while I am away. You can find the full plan here, but here are a few of the key points:
I just want to say how forever grateful I am for my wonderful Church family here! I can’t wait to introduce you to your newest member of the congregation!!! Looking forward to having some much needed rest and bonding time with my new family life.
Heather Zimmer
Director of Operations
- -We are happily hiring someone as a Temporary Assistant. Their full job description can be found here.
- -This person will have my work phone and will be checking my work emails daily. PLEASE BE ADVISED that if you text my personal phone or email my personal email you will most likely not get a response back in a timely fashion. Work Phone: 518.364.3216 Work Email: office@messiahschenectady.org
- This person will collect mail from RCC and the Church at least once a week and submit any expenditure forms necessary and put any payments in the lock box.
- This person will help Pastor Dustin with sending out the Weekly Update email every week to keep you all up to date!
- This person will send out the weekly Leader Guide for worship assistants.
- This person will be in charge of any outside events scheduled at the church.
- A weekly volunteer schedule will be in place to ensure all Sundays are set up with the current leader guide and bulletins. Those of you who signed up, will be getting an email from me with that schedule.
- Rachel DeTeso-Mathis has offered to help out with any scheduled outside events at the Community Center.
- If any new events are created while I am away, Pastor Dustin will schedule them and put out any necessary graphics.
- Pastor Dustin will oversee the work of the bookkeeper, the Parish Musician and the Custodian.
I just want to say how forever grateful I am for my wonderful Church family here! I can’t wait to introduce you to your newest member of the congregation!!! Looking forward to having some much needed rest and bonding time with my new family life.
Heather Zimmer
Director of Operations
Temporary Custodian Needed
Help Needed!! (Short Term)
Our awesome custodian, Sheri is having surgery on April 23rd. She will need to be in a full cast and unable to work for 6 weeks. We are looking for someone to fill in for the basic cleaning duties at Messiah and the Rotterdam Community Center. This will be a part time, paid position that will require roughly 5 to 6 hours a week. Messiah will need to be cleaned once a week, to prepare for Sunday service. The community center will need to be cleaned at least once a week, with another possible cleaning mid-week.
Work would include:
-Vacuum rugs
-Mop floors as needed
-Clean bathrooms, restock toilet paper and paper towels
-Take out trash and recyclables
-Light other cleaning may be required as needed
If you are interested, please let Pete Jones or Kimlee Marquise know. Thank you!
Our awesome custodian, Sheri is having surgery on April 23rd. She will need to be in a full cast and unable to work for 6 weeks. We are looking for someone to fill in for the basic cleaning duties at Messiah and the Rotterdam Community Center. This will be a part time, paid position that will require roughly 5 to 6 hours a week. Messiah will need to be cleaned once a week, to prepare for Sunday service. The community center will need to be cleaned at least once a week, with another possible cleaning mid-week.
Work would include:
-Vacuum rugs
-Mop floors as needed
-Clean bathrooms, restock toilet paper and paper towels
-Take out trash and recyclables
-Light other cleaning may be required as needed
If you are interested, please let Pete Jones or Kimlee Marquise know. Thank you!
Congregation Priorities for 2024
At its January 2024 meeting, the Congregation Council voted to amend our 2024 Congregational Priorities as follows:
As you'll see from this newsletter, there is A LOT we're doing to achieve all three of these goals in the year ahead! If you have any additional ideas on how to achieve them, feel free to reach out to Pastor Dustin.
- Strengthen our ministry to children, youth, young adults and their families.
- Provide better internal communication and grow volunteer leadership.
- Improve elected and staff management of Messiah Lutheran Church and the Rotterdam Community Center.
As you'll see from this newsletter, there is A LOT we're doing to achieve all three of these goals in the year ahead! If you have any additional ideas on how to achieve them, feel free to reach out to Pastor Dustin.
The Rev. Jonathan Vanderbeck Mental Health Fund
In June 2021 as part of our commitment to prioritize mental health as a congregation our Congregation and subsequently our Congregation Council voted to create the Rev. Jonathan Vanderbeck Mental Health Fund. This fund is designed "to support members in paying for necessary mental health care" and as of the end of July 2023 has $1,039 in contributions but has not yet been used. If you are someone struggling to pay for mental health care, please contact Pastor Dustin for a confidential conversation. If you are someone who would like to contribute to this fund, please visit our Donate & Volunteer page, click "Give" and select "Mental Health Fund" in tithely's "Give To" box.
New Parish Directory to Be Released at our Mass for the Feast of the Reformation on Sunday, October 27th, 2024
Our Parish Directory is a key tool to helping everyone know who is who. Ahead of our work to develop a new Parish Directory by the Feast of the Reformation in October, we encourage all our members to go to https://onrealm.org/MessiahLutheran73113 and update your contact information today if you have not already done so. If you already have an account, click "sign in" and review all your contact information, update your profile picture and more. If you don't have an account, click "sign up" and get started! If you have any questions, please reach out to Heather at 518.355.2311 and we can assist you further!
Rotterdam Community Center Bottle & Can Collection!
Want to contribute to the growth of the Rotterdam Community Center as we work to knit community closer together here in beautiful Rotterdam, NY! One way you can support that important work is donating your bottles and cans to the Rotterdam Community Center's account Green Bottle Redemption Center! Located at 1809 Altamont Avenue, the redemption center is open Tuesday - Friday from 9a - 4p & Saturday from 9a - 2:30p! Thanks so much and please help us spread the word! We've already made hundreds of dollars in contributions to the Community Center through this fund since the beginning of the program.