Thank you, Alleluia!

Dear People of Alleluia!,

For once I don't have the words to fully express what I'm feeling. Becky Jacobson asked me a few weeks ago if I was going to cry when I left my position as Youth Pastor at Alleluia! I told her no because I'm too macho for that! No, seriously, I don't feel sad at all about leaving my position, because I feel it is the right thing to do now. I will miss watching first hand all the kids continue to grow in faith, but I think it is time for someone else to take over -- and I have seen God quickly provide Amelia Shrum. I know she is just what we need right now.

When I reflect on where the faith of the youth of Alleluia! is now, I am quite content and happy. Our teenagers are becoming gracious leaders who have fun together but who have also proven their faith in times of trouble and disappointment. Our middle schoolers are right behind them and our littlest ones continue to amaze me with their understanding of spiritual things. I am not saying that we have perfect kids, but I am confident that each one can go through their own struggles by faith with our help. I will continue to pray for each one to remain strong in God's power and love.

Although I won't be front and center in youth ministry, I still will care deeply for our kids. As I work on other things in my career, I will keep looking for opportunities to serve, encourage and teach young people. Please pray for God's plan for my next steps to become clear to me and keep praying for our young people, too.

Finally, thanks for all the encouragement each of you has been to my family and me. The "Roast" you all put together a few weeks ago made Ryo, Stephen, Andrew, Faith and me feel well loved and much appreciated. Each of you deserves the same, because without the congregation's prayers, love and support I couldn't have done a thing.

With Christ's love, Don, Ryo, Stephen, Andrew and Faith Pearson

Spiritual Gifts

In Sunday School, on March 11 and 18, we talked about Spiritual Gifts and how to put them to use. In the characters of Priscilla, Aquila and Apollos (from Acts, chapter 18) we learned how Christians can help each other to identify and enhance our God-given talents.

The first step is to help each other identify our talents. We used the ELCA’s Spiritual Gift Inventory to introduce the kids to the concept that God gives each person a special talent, ability or interest in order to serve others. (1 Peter 4:10) You as a parent may already know what your child’s gift is, but our purpose in doing this is to encourage each of us to understand and use our gift, and to help our church friends do the same.

We used materials from the ELCA’s website entitled “Early Signs of God’s Design." Click here to go to the website and download the materials.

This exercise is meant to support you as you raise your child to worship and serve God. Please read over these materials and let me know if you have any questions. We are praying for your child individually to hear and respond to God’s calling.

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF Results!

Thanks to the efforts of 15 of our Sunday's COOL kids we were able to raise $132.82 by Trick-or-Treating for UNICEF! This will help UNICEF to provide clean water for a whole village!

Adult Sunday School Bible Study

The Gospel of Mark

Led by Youth and Family Pastor Don Pearson

Sundays — 9:30 a.m. in the Scottish Corners Elementary Art Room.

March 12—God’s Power—Mark 1:1 to 3:12
March 19—The Disciples—Mark 3:13 to 8:30
March 26—No Meeting
April 2—Suffer Many Things—Mark 8:31 to 10:52
April 9—Triumph?—Mark 11:1 to 16:20

Please read the passage before coming to the study!

Velvet Elvis, Chapter 7

February 19, Chapter 4 -- Good
pp. 156-177

1. What is the significance of Jesus rising from the dead in a garden? (pp. 156-157)

Our Environment, p. 157
2. Why should Christians be environmentalists? (p. 158)
3. What is the difference between calling creation ‘good’ and ‘perfect’? (p. 158)
4. What environmental sins does Bell talk about on page 159?

Moving Forward, p. 160
5. What will happen to creation when Jesus returns? (p. 160)
6. What is the full meaning of the cross? (p. 161)
7. What is the difference between the beginning of creation in Genesis and the end in Revelation? (p. 161) What does this mean about God’s goal for creation?

A New Culture, p. 161
8. What term does Paul use for Jesus’ resurrection? (p. 161) Why?
9. What did the first Christians do with the order of the Roman Empire? (p. 162) How did they do this? (pp. 162-163) (Read Acts 17:6 in the King James Version if you have it.)
10. What did Paul do first in world literature? (p. 163) (Galatians 3:28)
11. Why didn’t the first Christians spend a lot of time proving Jesus’ resurrection? (p. 164)

Serving Others, p. 165
12. What does Bell mean when he says God’s blessing is always instrumental? (p. 165)
13. And what does Bell mean when he says God’s blessing is universal? (p. 165)
14. Why does Bell call the church a “blessing machine?” (p. 166)

Good News, p. 166
15. When do the most powerful things happen in a church? (p. 167)
16. What’s wrong with setting out to make converts, according to Bell? (p. 167)
17. When does Bell think the church is at its best? (p. 168)

Difficulty, Suffering and Hope, p. 168
18. What message should the church never, ever give about following Jesus? (p. 170)
19. What is the church’s gift to the world around us? (p. 170) Why can we give this gift? How can we give it? (p. 171)

Velvet Elvis, Chapter 6

February 12, Chapter 6
"New," pp. 138-152

1. What would you say to Bell’s friend at the beginning of this chapter? (p. 138-139)
2. Who does Jesus call “sons of hell?” Why? (p. 139)

Who We Are Now, p. 139
3. What happens when we identify with Jesus’ death on the cross? (p. 139)
4. Read 2 Corinthians 5:17. What does Bell say this means for us? (p. 141) Where should we be putting our efforts?
5. Read Philippians 3:16. What sort of attitude should we have about who we are now? How does that contrast with the guy Bell was speaking to at the beginning of this chapter? (p. 142)
6. What place does shame have in the Christian experience, according to Bell? (p. 142)
7. What should our view of our new life be? (p. 143)
8. What was Jesus’ definition of “eternal life?” (p. 143)
9. What should religious communities focus on? (p. 144)
10. What does Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son teach us about atonement? (p. 145)
11. What does Bell mean, “Hell is full of forgiven people?” (p. 146) What’s the difference between heaven and hell?

Two Realms, p. 147
12. What is Bell’s definition of “hell?” (p. 147)
13. What is Jesus’ goal? (p. 148) Why?
14. How does our vision of heaven and hell need to change? (p. 150)

T’Shuva, p. 150
15. What does Jesus mean when he says “T’shuva?” (p. 150)
16. What does Bell say it means to be reborn? (p. 150)
17. What do we need to do then? (p. 151-152) Watch out, this is a trick question!!!
18. What brings heaven to earth? (p. 151)

Velvet Elvis, Chapter 5

February 5, Chapter 5
"Dust," pp. 124-134

Torah, p. 124
1. What does Torah mean? (p. 125)
2. What does Bell say was the “central passion of the people of Jesus’ world?” (p. 125)
3. What was the first level of education for first century Jewish children? (p. 126) What was done there?
4. What was the next level of spiritual education? (p. 127)
5. Besides memorizing the rest of the Old Testament, what would students at this level do? (p. 127-8)
6. Why the focus on questions in rabbinic education? (p. 128)

Disciples, p. 129
7. What was the next step in rabbinic education? (p. 129)
8. What was the goal of a rabbi’s talmidim? (p. 129)
9. How far would the talmidim take this goal? (p. 130)
10. What is the significance that Jesus called fishermen to be his talmidim? (p. 131)
11. Why did Jesus take his talmidim to Caesarea Philippi? (p. 132)

“I Chose You”, p. 133
12. What lesson does Bell want us to learn from the “walking on water” passage? (p. 133)
13. What “provokes Jesus to no end?” (p. 134)
14. What message should we take away from this chapter? (last sentence on page 134!)