CHRIST LUTHERAN CHURCH

463 Highland Rd., Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 5J8 (705)745-0841

NEWSLETTER
Mission Statement: “As Christians living in God’s grace we seek to demonstrate our faith in
Christ by caring, listening, and responding to the needs of the whole person, serving each other
and those beyond our Lutheran community.”

PASTOR’S NOTES
Throughout 2021 Christ Lutheran has faced many unexpected challenges.
We are still in the pandemic, Paster Scott has moved on and you got an
Anglican as your interim pastor!!
You needed to adjust quickly without compromising your core values and
mission. By God’s grace, the hard work of dedicated staff, the unwavering
support of countless volunteers, and the generosity of our entire church
body, you were able to maintain connection with the body, provide support
to the community, and offer consistent worship and learning opportunities
for all.
I am happy to say, Christ is slowly emerging from the pandemic as a
healthy, thriving church. The emphasis while I am with you will be to keep
the boat afloat but also I hope that our regular events and programming
will return as quickly as possible. While we have not been focused on
numbers, it has been encouraging to welcome a new member to our
congregation and as I write this at the end of July to see us returning to
pre-covid attendance averages. Personally, I didn’t expect numbers to
bounce back this quickly. Although we are beginning to see 90%
attendance, the dynamic is wonderfully different. Some of our regular
attenders have not returned yet but given time I am sure they will. So I ask
you to be gracious and patient as you reconnect with those who are yet to
return.
I am hoping we can restart our weekly bible study in September as well, if
we are permitted we can resume to have a dinner or two through the fall
and our regular events. Let’s hope our Covid-19 numbers stay down.
I am beyond thankful for the blessings God has poured out on Christ
Lutheran. He has sustained and even grown our church in many ways over
these past difficult months. Let us give thanks to the Search Committee for
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the wonderful work in creating our church’s profile and let us pray that
there is now a pastor waiting to join us here.
There is no doubt that God has been faithful to us, and there is no doubt
that you have remained faithful as well. It’s exciting to think about what we
can accomplish together with God leading us.
In Christ,
Pastor Steve
JOIN HIKE FOR HOSPICE 2021
Slowly and carefully, the world is beginning to open up again. As we
cautiously look ahead to September, we are pleased to offer another year of
the week-long, self-led Hike for Hospice – Hike Your Way from September
11-17th, 2021. Hospice Peterborough has remained open and operating
throughout the pandemic. Many programs pivoted to virtual to ensure our
critical care, such as grief support, were still there for those who needed
them. And now, we need you! More than ever, we want to provide a
meaningful event that supports families and friends who have lost loved
ones, while bringing in much-needed funds to ensure programs and
services continue to be available, and free of charge, as the need in our
community grows. You can make this happen through your participation in
Hike for Hospice.Don't miss out on any updates! You can stay up to date by
registering for the Hike on the EasyPledge site and automatically receive
emails.
MESSY CHURCH
Messy Church Monday September 13th, at 4:30 pm (Zoom call)
Sign up for a kit deadline would be August 31st. Please contact Sylvia or
Robin. Kits would be available for pick up either Sunday September 5th or
12th after church.
YARD/BAKE SALE
Saturday October 2nd, 2021 7 am – 1 pm. We are watching the guidelines
but we will aim for this date. If you wish to volunteer to help please
contact Robin 705-749-7371 (email [email protected] ). We
need 10 people at least to support this outreach. There will be no plants or
clothing.
CHRISTMAS TEAROOM & BAKE/CRAFT BAZAAR
Our Christmas Bazaar this year has been cancelled. We look forward to our
Bazaar next November 2022.

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Call Committee Meeting, July 14, 2021
Summarize the result of the Congregation Restorative Engagement
Discussions
Hello Everyone,
Summer blessings to everyone!
Here is an update on where we are on our journey to call a new pastor.
We concluded the restorative engagement discussions, with great input
from the congregation through our Zoom meetings and emailed and written
responses. Thank you for your enthusiasm. Your inputs have provided a
wonderful sense of direction for our mission, and your responses have been
summarized to complete those portions of our Mission Profile. You may not
recognize your comments directly, but the Call Committee used everyone’s
comments to discern a general sense of direction for our congregation. Of
course, this is only a part of our strategic look and mission going forward.
We will complete the rest of the plan together with our new pastor. You
can see the summary below. We expect to complete that Mission Profile by
the mid-August. At that time, with the help of Pastor Reble, we will start
recruiting for our new pastor!
In the meantime, we are thankful for the enthusiasm and leadership of
Pastor Steve. The church is open for Sunday service (respecting COVID
protocols) and there is an on-line service every Sunday.
It is a journey, but we are completing it with enthusiasm and excitement
about our future.
Summarized Congregation Restorative Engagement Discussions
Scott’s Questions – Learn from the past
1.What do you celebrate or are thankful for regarding Pastor Scott’s
ministry at Christ Lutheran Church?
• Focused on relationships and relation building
• Open to new ideas, introduce new ideas
• Compassionate, caring
• Presence in team meetings and events – sharing ideas, assistance,
participative
• Use of social media – sound system, FaceBook
2. How have you been impacted by Pastor Scott’s ministry?
• Fostered leadership-by-members, where people feel valued to be part
of the church
• Empowered people to imagine and bring their ideas to life
3. How are you impacted by Pastor Scott’s leaving?
• Excited about the future and the new opportunity we have in front of
us for a “reset”, to revisit our mission and new opportunities
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Mission Profile Questions
1. What are you excited about regarding Christ Lutheran Church?
• Coming back together (post-COVID) and growing as a church family –
welcoming, looking out for one another, supportive, drawing everyone
back together
• Working together towards new goals, that as a congregation we all feel
ownership in
• Revisit our mission, and the strategy to achieve it i.e. what are the
best options to direct our limited resources and energy to deliver the
outcomes we want
• Refining our focus i.e What is our outreach? What are the needs in our
congregation and our community? Who do we help?
2a. What does it mean to have a Lutheran presence in Peterborough?
• A sense of identity as a Lutheran:
o Theology grounded in the Bible, a priesthood of all believers
o Meaningful worship practices
o Respected in the community as a unique organization, and
appreciated in a positive manner with a good reputation as a
welcoming, accepting, non-judgmental advocate
o Mandated to sustain the Lutheran religion as the only Lutheran
church in area, and to show others in the community who we are,
and get to know who we are i.e. evangelical
2b What does it mean to be part of the National Lutheran Church?
• It is fulfilling to be part of and make an impact on efforts bigger
than ourselves i.e. through CLWR support we take a part in national
and global initiatives
• The National Church is a resource and a guiding light, and allows us
to move ahead knowing we have the support of the bigger entity
i.e. finding a pastor
3. What are the present challenges for the congregation as it moves into
the future?
1) Sustain our current membership
a) Aging membership and declining energy and resources to deliver
our mission
b) Getting everyone back together in the church. Continued support
to encourage everyone to come back.
2) Grow our church family
a) What is required to find and attract new members (Where is the
opportunity? Who to focus on? How to retain members?
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 3) As an evangelical church, what does evangelism look like for us, and
how does it impact growth and sustainability?
a) “Spreading the Word” as a mainline church will be difficult
b) The outreach will bring people in, through our evangelism
c) Where does social media fit into our mission?
4) Leadership to integrate 1), 2) and 3)
4. During the next one to three years, what are the top three mission
priorities for the congregations which, if accomplished, hold the most
promise for the continued development of our ministry?
1) Sustain our congregation as a loving and caring family, and keeping
our members active and engaged in the church family
• Visitation – be open and frequent, reaching everyone
• Continue to foster a strong community internally
• What is the plan to bring us all back together after COVID
2) Social ministry: Helping others will attract supporters to our church,
grow our resources to help others, and bring those persons closer to
Christ
3) Working collaboratively with other churches and social
organizations, to accomplish more than the individual churches and
organizations can accomplish by themselves
5. What trends or issues in the community should be addressed by the
congregation in the next three to five years?
• Mental health, and its impact on homelessness, drug use, hunger
(focus our resources on where to make the biggest impact)
• People relocating from other cities – youth, seniors, former
Lutherans.
• Peterborough as a retirement destination, and fulfilling the needs
of a growing seniors population (work with other groups to be
more effective)
6. What opportunities for cooperation have we found in our community?
• Education and Learning: Health and Wellness committee has access to
experts in a wide variety of health promotion and aging-related
resources
• Social ministry: One Roof Diner, Kawartha Food Share, Cameron
House (women’s shelter), Brock Mission (men’s shelter), Youth
emergency Shelter, Telecare, Senior’s residences
• Ecumenical cooperation i.e. Anglican, Ministerial Association (important
to us

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 • Where we go in the future will come out of planning with our new
leader
7. Ministry Areas (refer to attached, and summarized below)
1) Preaching, Effective Worship Leadership, Musical and Artistic
2) Innovator
3) Social Ministry, Ecumenical Work, Community Work
4) Transformational/Redevelopment for an aging congregation
5) Ministering in Crisis, Counselling, Visitation
6) Recruit and Equip and Share Leadership
Yours in Christ – Al Butson

Church Council Meeting Minutes – Tuesday, June 15, 7:00 pm

ZOOM Meeting 7:00pm-8:30pm
Present: Sylvia, Elizabeth, Milan, Pastor Steve, Al, Robin, Marlys, Janice,
Pauline
Regrets: Charmaine, Brenda
Opening Devotion led by Pastor Steve.
Approval of the minutes of the May 4th meeting is delayed to our next
Council Meeting – the minutes were not complete.
Correspondence:
“Letter of Certification Interim Pastor” from Bishop Pryse received.
“Employment Agreement – Reverend Steve Smith”, signed
Facebook: Send Facebook updates to Jeff Butson at
“[email protected]”.
Reports
Pastors Report -None for this meeting
• Pastor Steve will provide his Pastor’s report for the council meetings and
for the Newsletters
• Working with Robin to put together the Sunday bulletins
• Working with Pauline, Marlys and Gerry to put together the worship
service
• Marly has been very supportive providing the singing during the service.
We are looking for more volunteer singers to support the service.
• Robin is coordinating ushers and readers
Parish Support (Al, Milan)
• Robin and Al are taking care of the yard maintenance for the parsonage
and church. Robin will send out an email asking others if they can help.
• With the church vacant, Robin is monitoring the parking use by our
neighbours

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Treasurers Report (Brenda)
• Cash on hand, operating deficit are not available at the time of the
meeting
Outreach (Milan)
• From our “Hope and Happiness” fundraiser, we raised $500 for the Food
Bank and $500 for the Alzheimer Society of Peterborough
Messy Church (Sylvia)
• There were 6 children and 3 adults at the June 15 Messy Church.
Activities included a craft, fun challenges, a lesson, and singing.
• The next Messy Church will be in September
Christ’s Story Corner
• Marly is preparing for the next on-line story
Health and Wellness – postponed during COVID
Social Activities (Robin)
• It was suggested that we considering a Strawberry Shortcake fundraiser.
Robin is reviewing the suggestion
Stewardship and Fun-raising (Sylvia)
• The June 6 “Hope and Happiness fundraiser raised $2,300 for outreach
and our congregation ministry.
o 91 meals were served, raising $1,130
o 10 gift packages were auctioned off raising $1,170
o There were about 20 participants at the virtual dinner
• We will hold a yard sale in September, depending on the COVID
situation. Robin will ask the congregation to hold on to their castaways
for a few more months, and donate them to our yard sale
Mutual Ministries (Sylvia)
• The Call Committee is preparing the Mission Profile, collecting information
from the congregation through congregation virtual Zoom meetings, and
emailed and written responses from the congregation
Martin Luther House (Al, Marlys)
• Three of the students are staying for another year.
• Marly is promoting the 4th room for lease, starting September 1, 2021
• In the new year, we will connect with the students in a few events
Old Business – none
New Business
• Congregational Visits: Pastor Steve emphasized the importance of
keeping in contact with the congregation by calling when we can’t get
together in person. He and the Congregation Contact team will get
together to coordinate our call program.
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• Synod Convention: Marly is our representative at the June 25 and 26
virtual event. She will summarize the key points from the convention for
our information, and action.
• On-line presence: The importance of social media in reaching people was
discussed. In particular, it is very important that our new pastor have a
strong working knowledge of social media platforms to maintain a strong
on-line presence, reach an audience and retain their attention.
Upcoming Events – none over the summer
Next meeting: September 21, 7:00 pm