APRIL Monthly Newsletter
Do Not Cling to Jesus
“Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father” John 20:17a.
The above statement from John’s Gospel was spoken by Jesus to Mary Magalene. She was one of Jesus’ most devoted followers. This is no surprise. Jesus drove seven demons out of her. She was at Calvary as He died on the cross. On the following Sunday, she got up before sunrise to finish the burial process. She showed up to the tomb expecting to see a body. Instead, she saw an empty tomb and two angels (whom she did not recognize as such) asking why she was crying. A moment later, she recognized the risen Jesus standing in front of her. As would anyone who just got back a loved one from the dead, she grabbed on to Jesus. He was not getting away from her again.
Mary failed to understand one thing. Mary wanted was had been. She wanted the loving teacher she had known prior to Good Friday. Things were different now. Jesus was done humbling Himself to death, even death on a cross. He had completed the sacrifice of Himself for our sins. His Father has now shown His Son’s sacrifice was acceptable by raising Jesus from the dead. Jesus would no longer live and work among His disciples the way that He had for three years. He would now be among them in a different and better way.
Forty days after Easter, Jesus ascended into heaven. Now Jesus is with us in Baptism, whenever we read and hear His Word, and when we receive His body and blood for our forgiveness.
Likewise, we don’t cling to loved ones who have died in the faith. We can let the Christian loved one go because Jesus intends to give us something better. Because Jesus lives, they and we shall live. The life that Jesus’ resurrection gives will be different and will be better. We will have glorified bodies. All we know now is sin, disappointment, grief, illness, injury, and death. Why should we want to cling to that loved one? Why should we want to cling to this life? Jesus has risen. And He will return and make us better, perfect, glorified.
In Christ,
Pastor Klein
A Day To Be Remembered!
What has been the most IMPORTANT event in your life---a day to be remembered and treasured??? Most of us don’t even remember this day; the day we became a member of God’s Kingdom, THE DAY OF OUR BAPTISM!!
In an effort to help Trinity members reflect and “remember,” Trinity is honoring the baptismal birthdays of our members. On the last Sunday of each month, members, young and old, who were baptized during that month can sit together, enjoy a treat and, perhaps, share stories during the fellowship hour.
We do have the dates of baptism for most of our members; but, if we missed yours, please let us know so we don’t miss it again. Any questions and/or dates, please contact the church office: 645-4438.
Arise and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. Acts 2:16
Baptism doth also now save us. I Peter 3:21
April Baptisms Anniversaries
Barb Anderson Mike Aurich Paul Childers
Brent Klein Deana Kraft Jason Kukacka
Myleen Maurer Kraig Niebuhr Sheila Roehrick
Tony Schmidtke Craig Schuster Josh Wagner
FROM THE TREASURER
February Home Fund Budget Status Report
Home Fund Balance on February 1, 2025 $73,375.70
February Home Fund Contributions $24,877.95
Designated Giving* $24,293.67
Loose Plate Giving** $584.28
Rental Property Fund $0.00
February Home Fund Expenses $17,899.30
Home Fund Balance on February 28, 2025 $80,354.35
* Includes giving by people who use offering envelopes and
e-giving
**Includes giving by people without offering envelopes
Trinity Fund Report
In February of 2025, Trinity received $300.00 given for improvements to the sanctuary and chapel video and sound systems, spent $459.99 for an altar cloth for the chapel and communion purificators, and transferred $25,000.00 to the Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) checking account.
CHURCH COUNCIL MINUTES
February 6, 2025
Call to Order Congregational President, John Greenfield called the meeting to order.
Opening Prayer
Review of Minutes No objections or comments.
Financial Statement Motion (Jackie, Pastor Boehme) to approve Financial Statement as presented. Motion carries.
Old Business
Parking lot repaving: Mixed reponses so far. How to raise funds for ministry?
Fidelity account update: Donation of stock was received, processed (sold), and the check was processed as part of offerings.
Deaconess/DCE update: Pastor Klein sent in paperwork the day after the voter’s meeting. Looking for housing.
New Business
Nominating Committee: Need 2 Trustees, Board of Education, 1-2 Elders
Tech upgrades: Josh to submit monthly reports to the council.
Reports
Pastor Klein
Pastor Boehme -
Exploring a program called Missionary Pathway (Kairos).
The upcoming “Stay in your Home” Sunday school series will be starting soon. Josh to promote on Facebook and Pastor Klein on the website.
Fellowship Committee -
Met to plan events for 2025
Trustees -
Due to additional interest from Cornerstone, we are reviewing sprinkler system upgrade costs again. $25k for 6” main line + $75k for sprinklers in hallway and classrooms + $75k for sprinklers in the attic (if required). This would also involve getting the fire marshall to determine whether making these improvements would mean that the rest of the building would also need to be upgraded with sprinklers.
Missions -
Trinity is supporting Fort Wayne Seminary Student Adam Holtz. He is a member at Dodge Center and is married with kids.
Stewardship
Elders -
In agreement to move ahead with the Revitality program that gathers feedback from attendees about what we are doing well as a congregation and areas for additional focus. A single-page summary is returned for review and discussion.
Discussion about how to make families with small children feel welcome at Trinity, especially in the sanctuary. Considering audio/video feeds in the narthex and the library as added options.
Education -
Ski trip was postponed to March.
Tech Committee -
Since there are unsolvable issues with the livestream, Josh recommends pausing the livestream until system upgrades have been performed. Last week, Pastor Klein posted a devotional video.
Meeting adjournment
Next Month’s meeting on March 6, 2025.
Trinity Lutheran Church
Council Minutes
March 6, 2025
Call to Order
Congregational President, John Greenfield called the meeting to order.
In attendance: David and Jackie Ohmann, Tony and Bobbie Schmidtke, Karen Wagner, John Greenfield, Pastor Klein, Pastor Boehme, Jim Koch, Kurt Anderson
Opening Prayer
Review of Minutes
No objections or comments.
Financial Statement
Barb Anderson gave the report. The money that was pulled out of our checking that went into the LCEF account will go into the capital fund line and a new category called the memorial fund. (This was in response to a better interest rate with LCEF than our checking account.)
Tony moved to approve the financial statement; Kurt seconded; motion passed.
Old Business
Parking lot update – A letter was written up to go out to the congregation. Clarifications were made. The letter will be sent out next week.
Deaconess update: She’s getting married mid-June. She would like to start June 29. He’s working in Mankato. She has a service dog. They’d like to live partway in between. She will visit on Monday, March 17th. The question was brought up would she be willing or able to take a call here when her internship is up – Pastor Klein thought we should be able to.
Nominating Committee – need a member for board of education, let John know if you have any names.
Tech upgrades – see below
New Business
Thrivent Requests – Barb requested up to $100 for fellowship events in March and April. Jackie moved, Karen seconded, motion passed.
Altar guild would like $460 from the Trinity fund for new cloth on chapel altar and purificators. Pastor Boehme moved, Kurt seconded, motion passed.
Reports
Pastor Klein
Nothing to note
Pastor Boehme
Der Lutheraner is ending their study and are looking at the next one.
Sunday morning study is going well.
Fellowship Committee
March 17th – lunch at 11:30am.
April 20th – Easter baskets for kids.
Trustees
Furnace in the office went out in mid-February. Dan Voight didn’t answer his phone or return the call so Jason was called and he fixed it.
Got a note about being in Elaine Zobel’s estate.
Missions
We got a letter from our seminary student.
$500 was sent to the seminary student
Stewardship
We are getting less offering boxes in 2026 as we have many not being used.
Elders
Deaconess was discussed.
How to identify visitors taking communion.
Revitality program: the first step is a survey that members will take. The survey will get analyzed and tell us what are our strengths and weaknesses. Surveys will start April 13th and go thru May 4th. The results will come in around the end of May. Then we can decide if we want to do any modules to help us in our weak areas. This is a free service thru the LCMS.
Education
Amy Klein would like to lead a children’s choir.
SS curriculum is here for the rest of the year.
A request was made to put the schedule of teachers in the weekly/monthly.
Camp Omega can do July 6-11 or 13-18 for VBS. Leaning towards July 13-18.
Graduation recognition: Erin Nybakke, college grads that have been coming (Megan). May 18th
Tech Committee
There is no additional information to report this month.
Next steps:
- Send Roger Fette an outline of work to be completed
- Review and confirm hardware purchases recommended by Roger
- Schedule installation with Roger
- Document actions and pertinent configuration details in TLC Tech Committee Action Log
Meeting adjournment
Next Month’s meeting on April 3, 2025.
TRINITY NEWS
BOOK CLUB
Here is a new list of books for reading and discussing at Book Club.
“The Undertakers Assistant” by Amanda Skenadore - (Apr. 7)
“Canary Girls” by Jennifer Chiaverini - (May 5)
“The Sisters of Glass Ferry” by Kim Michelle Richardson - (June 2)
Our meetings are held at Kildahl Place, typically on the 2nd floor in the small meeting room.
EASTER BASKETS FOR CHILDREN
Again this year, the Fellowship Committee will provide Easter baskets for the younger children on Easter Sunday. The baskets will be available in the Fellowship Hall during the Easter breakfast. The Fellowship Committee members are Barb Anderson, Colleen Gottsch, Rob Gottsch, Linda Hutton, Kay Koch, Darlene Larson, Linda Munson, and Bobbi Schmidtke.
LENT AND HOLY WEEK WORSHIP
Midweek Lent Worship services will continue on Wednesday April 2 and 9 at 2:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
Holy Week begins on Sunday, April 13, at 9:00 am which is Palm Sunday.
Maundy Thursday, April 17 there will be worship services at 2:00 and 7:00 pm.
Good Friday services will be on April 18 at 2:00 pm and a Tenebrae service at 7:30 pm.
We will celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord on April 20 with worship at 8:00 am. Please note the time change from normal Sunday worship time at 9:00 am. Following the Easter service, the Fellowship Committee will host a free will donation Easter Breakfast.
CHURCH CLEAN UP DAY
On April 12th, we will have our annual church clean-up. This is where we will work on those areas that our volunteers who clean each week do not have the time to work on. In the past, we have cleaned out the light fixtures, dusted hard to get places, cleaned the mats in the entryways, wash windows, to name a few. We usually spend about 2 hours doing this, and the building looks better for the upcoming Holy Week services. If you know of some place that could use some sprucing up, please let the church office know. Or better yet, join us at 9:00 am on April 12th to pitch in. If you have any questions, please ask Pastor Klein.
BLESSED SHALL YOU BE
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.” (Deuteronomy 28:3-6)
This is God’s promise to the Israelites as they stood beyond the Jordan outside of the Promised Land. He promises blessing to His people. He will make them prosper, whether they are in the city or the field. He will make their fruit of their work to prosper, whether from the ground, their wombs, their flocks, or their herds. He will make them to prosper in all things, whether upon their coming in or their going out.
But there’s a catch. He would do this for Israel only “if you obey the voice of the LORD your God.” (Deut. 28:2b) If they did that, He would cause that “all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you.” (Deut. 28:2a). If they didn’t obey the voice of the Lord, if they didn’t keep the commandments of the Lord and “walk in his ways” (Deut. 28:9), they would be met with curse and woe. The blessings would be replaced with curses. Everything that the Lord promised to prosper and bless would be cursed and fail.
Thanks be to God that our Lord Jesus Christ has come into our flesh and fulfilled the law for us – in our place and for our benefit. Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us – in our place and for our benefit. Our Lord Jesus Christ is risen from the dead for us – in our place and for our benefit. By this we have justification before God. We are forgiven, clean, holy, and righteous. The blessing of God is promised to us in Christ Jesus. It depends upon his work, not ours.
All this is ours in Holy Baptism. For in Holy Baptism, God claims us as His own, makes us His children, His heirs, and His holy people. And so it is that the work of our hands and its fruit is holy because we are holy in Christ. It is pressed into His service, and it thereby becomes a blessing to us and to our neighbor.
For this great gift, our reception of the blessings of God because of Christ Jesus our Lord, it is our duty to thank and praise, serve, and obey Him. This is not in order to receive the blessings but because in Christ we already have. With this in mind, we sit down on the first day of the week and set aside as He has prospered us to give to His church for His work of blessing in our midst (1 Cor. 16:2).
– LCMS Stewardship Ministry: lcms.org/stewardship
USHER SCHEDULE
April 6 – Group G May 4 - Group D
April 13 – Group H May 11 - Group E
(Palm Sunday)
April 17 – Group A May 18 - Group F
(Maundy Thursday)
April 20 – Group B May 25 - Group G
(Easter Sunday)
April 27 – Group C
Group A - Ray Larson, Dave Downhour, Ray Ozmun, Larry Pralle
Group B - Tom Pumper, Jeff and Holly Ciffra, Jackie Ohmann
Group C - Kurt Anderson, Brent Casmey, Russell Kraft, Jim Koch
Group D - John Greenfield, Josh Wagner, Kevin Mortensen,
Sheldon Volkert, Karl Thomforde
Group E - David, Erin, and Jared Nybakke, Jonathan Ohmann,
Martin Ohmann, David Ohmann
Group F - Tony and Bobbi Schmidtke, John Pfeiffer
Group G - Craig and Kathy Schuster, Jim Grieser
Group H - Dan Wett, Rudy, Myleen, and Ashlie Maurer, Rob Gottsch,
Jim Frederick
APRIL READINGS
April 6 - The Fifth Sunday in Lent
Isaiah 43:16-21
Philippians 3:4b-14
Luke 20:9-20
April 13 - The Sunday of the Passion
Isaiah 45:22-25
Philippians 2:5-11
Luke 19:28-40
April 17 - Maundy Thursday
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 10:15-39
Luke 22:7-20
April 18 - Good Friday
The Last Seven Words of Christ - Luke 23:34; Luke 23:39-43;
John 15:25-27; Matthew 27:45,46; John 19:28,29;
John 19:25-27, Luke 23:44-46
April - 20 - The Resurrection of Our Lord
Isaiah 65:17-25
1 Corinthians 15:19-26
Luke 24:1-12
April 27 - The Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5:12-32
Revelation 1:4-18
John 20:19-31
VACUUMING AND SNOW REMOVAL
John Pfeiffer Apr. 6 to 12 Dan Wett
Jim/Kay Koch Apr. 13 to 19 David Nybakke
John Greenfield Apr. 20 to 26 Josh Wagner
Tony/Bobbi Schmidtke Apr. 27 to May 3
Brent Casmey May 4 to 10
Rob/Colleen Gottsch May 11 to 17
Linda Munson May 18 to 24
John Pfeiffer May 25 to 31
WORSHIP CAMERA OPERATOR SCHEDULE
Worship camera operators are not needed at this time. The live-streaming of worship services has been paused until technical updates are made.
GREETER SCHEDULE
Apr. 6 Craig & Kathy Schuster
Apr. 13 Larry & Joan Pralle
Apr. 20 The Wagners - Josh, Ruthie, Elijah, Josiah, Isaiah, Lizzie
Apr. 27 Jim & Kay Koch
May 4 David, Jackie, Grace Ohmann
ACOLYTES
April 6 Maddox Schwaab
April 13 Isaiah Wagner
April 20 Elijah Wagner
April 27 Morgan Voigt
May 4 Maddox Schwaab
May 11 Isaiah Wagner
May 18 Morgan Voigt
May 25 Elijah Wagner
COUNTING TEAMS
April - Thomforde & Niebuhr
May - Rasmussen & Downhour
June - Larson & Roberts
July - Pralle & Childers
August - Schmidtke & Anderson
September - Thomforde & Niebuhr
October - Rasmussen & Downhour
November - Pralle & Childers
December - Schmidtke & Anderson
ALTAR GUILD
April - Brenda Niebuhr, Becky DeMann, Mary Vogt
May - Mary Ozmun, June Rado, Linda Munson
June - Becky Grieser, Barb Greenfield, Marcia Huber
July - June Rado, Becky DeMann, Darlene Larson
August - Barb Greenfield, Colleen Vivant, Mary Vogt
September - Becky Grieser, June Rado, Marcia Huber
October - Barb Greenfield, Becky DeMann, Brenda Niebuhr
November - Colleen Vivant, Mary Vogt, Linda Munson
December - Mary Ozmun, Darlene Larson, Brenda Niebuhr
APRIL VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE
PLEASE NOTE: If these times do not work for you, please remember that it is your responsibility to find a replacement or someone to switch with.
(Special services are in bold, italics.)
WORSHIP ASSISTANTS USHERS
April 6 - Deb Thomforde Group H
April 13 - Kurt Anderson Group A
(Palm Sunday)
April 17 - John Pfeiffer Group B
(Maundy Thursday)
April 20 - Pastor Boehme Group C
(Easter Sunday)
April 27 - Craig Schuster Group D
GREETERS ACOLYTES
April 6 - Craig & Kathy Schuster Maddox Schwaab
April 13 - Larry & Joan Pralle Isaiah Wagner
April 20 - The Josh Wagner Family Elijah Wagner
April 27 - Jim & Kay Koch Morgan Voigt
VACUUMING SNOW REMOVAL
Linda Munson March 30 to April 5 Brent Casmey
John Pfeiffer April 6 to 12 Dan Wett
Jim & Kay Koch April 13 to 19 Dave Nybakke
John Greenfield April 20 to 26 Josh Wagner
Tony & Bobbi Schmidtke April 27 to May 3
