Gethsemane Lutheran Church: Joyfully Learning, Living, and Sharing God's Word

Spring is here. The time of feeling like a fresh start, a sense of renewal, or a time of spring cleaning. Not in the means of cleaning out the trash but ra-ther removing items we no longer need or have in excess. Can we use what we have better, more responsibly, or can someone else benefit from it?

If not excess, we could look at where our stuff comes from. Buy local and/or from a small family business would help our neighbor and our earth. You may want to look at only buying necessities for a month. Try borrowing and sharing with family, friends, and neighbors. Buy gently used items.

There are many ways we can use our stuff to serve God. Being grateful for what we have but also for what we can give to each other.

You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

[2 Corinthians 9:11]

Kathy Evans

Congregational Life Chair

Council has been adopting a series of policies in recent meetings. Over the years, successive congregation councils have endeavored to establish consistent approaches to things like key checkout procedures, guidelines for awarding scholarships, wedding guidelines, bad weather procedures, etc. The intent has always been to establish consistency and fairness in administration of congregational life at Gethsemane. We’re gradually migrating these policies and procedures to a standard format. In the first four months of 2026, council has adopted policies relating to:

• Approval of items via email under specific circumstances

• Vacation and sick leave for the church administrator

• Member and non-member use of the facilities and property

• Sexual abuse and misconduct prevention.

This will be an ongoing process. For instance, Treasurer Elaine Jacobsen is developing a series of financial policies, based largely on procedures and principles that are in place now, but not necessarily written down. If anyone is interested about the details of any policy adopted by our congregation council, please contact Lisa Schmidley in the office, or me, and we’ll be sure you receive a copy.

Policies and procedures are only there to support our core mission as a Christian community, which is to praise our Lord and Saviour, strengthen our own faith, and proclaim God’s saving grace to our neighbors.

Blessings,  

Dave Leverenz, President  

david.leverenz@mail.com