Author: FELC Office

You are invited to become a part of our congregation’s Prayer Circle. This a special invitation and opportunity.

The Prayer Circle gathers Tuesdays at 12:30 pm via ZOOM.  Our gatherings last about an hour. We share prayer concerns that we are aware of, then offer our prayers.  Prayers can be spoken aloud or silently as we feel moved. Some prayers are printed, which we pray every week. Prayers may be for personal needs, local//national/international concerns, ministries and care groups, congregational issues, and in thanksgiving. As always, prayer requests are welcome and are kept strictly confidential. To learn more or to experience the Prayer Circle, contact Barbara Schutz,  bschutz@sbcglobal.net

We have received five pastor candidate names thus far. Two of the candidates have been prayerfully released from further consideration and the interviewing and discernment process continues to unfold with the remaining candidates. Thank you for your prayers as we seek to do the work that God would have us do. Feel free to contact the Call Committee at: felctransitionministry@felcaustin.org. 

We are grateful to Nikki Northcutt and Betsy Appleton for leading Children’s and Adult Faith Formation respectively on September 1. Children started their sessions following the lectionary and prepared a delicious “first fruits” contribution for Hospitality. Betsy Appleton started a series of Faith Formation Sessions on the ELCA Social Statements and Messages, with the current draft statement that will be voted on at the 2025 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. The draft’s comment period is open until September 30. 

Sunday, September 8, is God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday. Learning Ministry is coordinating the light lunch after worship, so we will not be convening at 9 am. For lunch we will be enjoying a play on our Stone Soup lesson from August. So enjoy sleeping in a little, and bring your favorite salad ingredient to share with all God’s Work. Our Hands. participants after worship on Sunday, September 8.

On Sunday, September 15, Leigh Northcutt Benson will be leading Children’s Faith Formation on the topic, Peter’s Faith, at 9 am in the Library. 

Pastor Bob Karli will be starting a three-part series, “Prepare to Die! Funeral Planning and Making Final Arrangements,” at 9 am in the Parlor.  Why a forum on this topic? Because we’re all going to die, and someone will need to make final arrangements, be it planning a service or making end of life decisions. Give a gift to your family/survivors by making arrangements in advance. Do it now, because none of us knows when death will come. Far from being a topic from which we should shy away, this can be a thoughtful, even enjoyable, journey. 

A service to celebrate the life of Dr. Sacha E. Kopp (1967-2024) was held on Sunday, September 1 at First English Lutheran Church, Austin.

We hold Sacha’s family, friends, colleagues, and students in our prayers as he is commended to God’s eternal embrace.

Sacha’s obituary, including links to offer memorial donations, is here

The worship service was livestreamed here

The worship bulletin for Sacha Kopp’s Memorial Service is here.

Rest eternal grant him, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Learning Ministry will start the programming year this Sunday, September 1. Nikki Northcutt will be leading Children’s Faith Formation with a session on First Fruits from 9 – 9:45 in the FELC Library. Betsy Appleton will be leading Adult Faith Formation from 9 – 9:45 in the FELC Parlor. 

Next Sunday, September 8 is God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday. Learning Ministry is coordinating the light lunch after worship, and we’ll be enjoying a play on our Stone Soup lesson from our last Intergenerational Faith Formation session in August.

Please bring your favorite salad ingredient to share with all God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday participants after worship on Sunday, September 8.

We rejoice that Pastor Taylor Dieringer has been called to serve our neighbors at Faith Lutheran Church at 6600 Woodrow Ave in central Austin. Pastor Taylor was an associate member of FELC, with her home congregation of Christ Lutheran in Georgetown. Taylor is a 2017 UT graduate, and she received a Master of Divinity degree in 2021 from United Seminary in Gettysburg, PA. Everyone is invited to celebrate with Faith Lutheran in Pastor Taylor’s service of installation on Sunday, September 22 at 3:00 pm. Wear Green!  

Learning Ministry closed the 2023-2024 programming year with an Intergenerational Faith Formation lesson on August 18, where we learned about being in community through the story of Stone Soup. We had a rollicking good time, discovering that while absolutely no one in attendance knew how to juggle alone, we could juggle many balls as a group. We learned that working together enables us to do amazing things that none of us could have done alone. This truly has been the lesson I’ve learned through the past year of leading the Learning Ministry Team: we are learning in Community and doing amazing things together.

While Faith Formation will not be meeting on August 25, Learning Ministry is hard at work preparing for the 2024-2025 programming year, starting September 1. You can see a sneak preview of what is in store for the coming months on our Calendar. Thanks to Nikki Northcutt and Leigh Northcutt-Benson, we have a full curriculum mapped out for Children’s Faith Formation for the upcoming year, and they are working to create more robust materials to support our Children’s Faith Formation leaders. If you have been willing to teach but uncertain how to start, this is your year to try it! Contact Betsy Appleton, betsy.appleton@gmail.com.

The FELC council met Monday, August 19, at 7 pm.

Kristin Mondy offered our opening devotion.

The annual budget and spending plan process began with the council considering how our mission is reflected in our budget. The budget is a document about our values as a congregation. We spent some time brainstorming about new or necessary spending for the future. We discussed, among other things, increased funding for community engagement and service projects, the need to support our aging infrastructure, including necessary repairs to the pipe organ, and the eventual need to replace the main HVAC system. We discussed the need to replace some of the livestream equipment to continue our outreach ministry of worship and music. Team and committee leaders are encouraged to share their recommendations with the Finance Committee who will begin meeting in September.

Anne Wiebe shared plans that she and Paul Barlow are preparing for the ELCA Churchwide initiative God’s Work. Our Hands. on Sunday, September 8. FELC will be working with Casa Marinella on both indoor and outdoor projects designed to support Austin’s immigrant community.

We heard a report that the guests from Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT) enjoyed their visit at FELC on August 11 and were grateful for the warm welcome that they received. 

The council received reports from the Ministry Teams. The next council meeting will be Monday, September 16.

Submitted by LaRu Woody

 The FELC Racial Justice Task Force invites you to an event hosted by JustSisters–an organization of diverse Christian women committed to love, justice, and sisterhood. The event is called, Christian Women: How your faith impacts your vote. Saturday, September 7, 2024, 9:30 am to 2:00 pm, First Baptist Church, Austin. Participants will hear from a panel of women with diverse perspectives from across the political spectrum to share how their personal faith directs their voting or how it could. $15 registration fee.

Click here to learn more.