Dear Church Family,
Clever entrepreneurs see an opportunity and they go for it. Savvy marketing experts figure out how to effectively promote and sell their products. Shrewd investment professionals find ways to grow wealth into the future. In the secular business world, people often figure out what their opportunities are and find ways to quickly take advantage of them in order to advance their own earthly goals and purposes.
Is there anything that Christians in the church can learn from how secular people do business in the world when it comes to advancing the eternals goals and purposes of Christ’s kingdom? Apparently Jesus thought so.
What can we possibly learn and apply from how people in the secular world pursue their own self-interests—even from a guy who sounds like a crooked scoundrel? That’s what we’ll find out this weekend as we study one of Jesus’ most deliberately shocking and challenging parables!
To attend in person this weekend whether on Saturday at 5:00 pm or Sunday at 9:30 am please register with this form ahead of time. You can expect us to follow the things outlined in our Phase 1 Plan, and we kindly ask you to also follow those guidelines.
*Please note that our maximum allowable attendance at this time during the pandemic is 75. Therefore, if and when our pre-registration for a service fills up, you will need to choose a different service that still has availability. Otherwise you are invited to watch and worship online. We know this isn’t ideal; we look forward to heaven where great multitudes will be gathered together without social distancing! But for now we also trust that God will bless our digital outreach to meet even more people where they’re at. We hope that those of you who watch online are still able to set aside worship time as special and can greet one another in our virtual lobby. We need each other’s encouragement now more than ever—whether in-person or online.
To watch live online with others simply click here either on Saturday at 5:00 pm or Sunday at 9:30 am. It was a joy this week to interact with families during our DSA chapel services which are also now being livestreamed on our church online platform. Feel free to check it out for yourself and join us for chapel Wednesday or Friday mornings!
ICYMI: Watch past sermons, services on-demand, video devotions, and other Christ-centered content on our YouTube Channel. Subscribe and share with others!
DSKids Weekend: Join us this weekend August 22/23 as we welcome new families into our DSKids program and celebrate this ministry! DSKids provides materials and activities for children ages 3 years through 5th grade and encourages and helps equip parents to be spiritual leaders in their own home. It is a joy as a church family to offer support for this area of our ministry with prayers, resources, and volunteers as we all walk together in faith. We want to not only follow Jesus, but help others follow Him as disciples until we reach our heavenly home! Next Sunday we will highlight this ministry, asking the Lord to bless all our DSKids families. Our Preschool and Kindergarten families will receive a special gift to share God’s Word at home, with a family devotional Bible. We hope you will join us in this welcome and celebration either online or in-person!
DSKids: Check out the weekly resources being provided by our DSKids team. We are not at this time providing in-person DSKids ministry during our weekend worship services at church.
DSYouth – All students in 6th grade through 12th grade are invited to join us at church this Friday, Aug. 21 from 6:00-8:30 pm. We hope to see you there in person – if not, you can participate virtually too! Just find a friend who can Facetime you in! Parents must register students prior to event. (If you have registered in the past for DSYouth, it is not necessary to repeat it.) Click here. Please read the safety guidelines here. Questions? Contact Dr. Erik Landwehr.
Meet Your Leadership Team: Last weekend we installed the newest members of our church council and introduced them to you during worship. The next couple weeks we’d also like to share a series of videos to introduce you to the other council members serving on your behalf. Please watch this video from Ron Hansen.
Weekly Offerings: Last week: $9,471.00 | Needed weekly to meet FY ’20-’21 budget: $9,106.96
Equipping Christian Witnesses – is the name of a campaign to raise funds in support of our vital ministry partner, Martin Luther College (MLC). Please watch the video I made for more info about this opportunity to give. Currently $2,760 has been contributed towards our goal of $20,000. That means we are about at 28% of where we’d like to be by Labor Day weekend. Thank you to those who’ve already contributed!
Online Hosts Needed – In the same way that a greeter provides a welcoming presence at our church’s physical location, an online host has the opportunity to do the same on the church’s digital location. More than ever our digital location is the first (and perhaps only) contact people have with our church. People are hungry for human connection. You can help provide that using our church online platform. Training provided. Teens welcome to learn too! Please contact Staff Minister Becky if interested.
Production TeamVolunteers Needed – Additional streaming technicians and camera operators are needed to help us support the production of our worship services. We hope to grow our team of multiple volunteers so that volunteers can be scheduled on a rotating basis and we can be sure to have enough people to cover all our weekend worship services, our academy chapel services, and any special services, concerts, or events that we may host this year to connect with people online. Training is provided. Please contact Scott Sievert if interested.
Online Giving: Giving online is easy to do either by clicking the “My Giving” tab while logged into MyDSC | by clicking on “Give” on our website: www.divinesaviorchurch.com | or by clicking “Give” while watching live on our church online platform
Weekend Playlist – Jesus Thank You | O God Your Hand the Heavens Made CW 481 | Son of God, Eternal Savior CW 492
Changing Lives with Jesus,
Pastor Ben
