Below is a letter by Pastor John sent to the Faith Lutheran Forest Lake family looking back at the mission and ministries of the congregation in 2022.  You can also watch a video by Faith Church Council member Jennifer Tolzmann below.

Greetings Faith!

We made a subtle shift into 2023 by electing our new council in December.

This allowed our new council representatives to collaborate and start the work for the upcoming year during a January retreat. Once again, phenomenal, and thoughtful leaders have taken up the call here!  

During worship on the Sunday of the congregational meeting, our outgoing council president, Jennifer Tolzmann, shared the strengths of Faith from the past year. We were blessed with wise leadership to navigate our congregation through the pandemic. We are prepared to make important decisions in the next year that will affect Faith for years to come.

Council will devote time in 2023 to articulate goals for strategic planning. In 2017, a three-year strategic plan conceived specific and measurable goals that the congregation met—which led the way to hiring Deacon Nina for adult ministry leadership and eventually our communications manager Dennis Sanders.

Now is the time to discern goals for the next three years and beyond.  

Faith continues to be a generous and faithful congregation. Because of the abundance of general giving that meets the budgeted expenses, we have surplus income from the employee retention credit. This surplus provides exciting opportunities that council is exploring.

We are leaders in advocacy and outreach.

• We partner with Settled, which has now created two Sacred Settlements of Tiny Houses in Saint Paul.
• We wrote over 80 letters to the city/county leaders of Stillwater encouraging them to support an emergency shelter for Washington County; we continue to support the Hugo Family Shelter.
• We donated hundreds of blankets and winter supplies to unsheltered recipients of care from Walking with a Purpose.
• We walked alongside an Afghan refugee family that settled in Minneapolis.
• We provide resources and money to Lutheran Social Service refugee outreach.
• Whenever needs arise, locally and globally, Faith responds generously through Faith Feeds our Neighbor and Faith Lends a Hand!

We are mindful of the costs to operate a large facility. We are considering innovative solutions to reduce our utility costs, which exceed $60,000/year. Faith reaps the benefits of installing a geothermal unit during the 2006 building project. Now, we are consulting with solar companies regarding the benefits of solar panels for long-term savings and care for creation.

Relationships and faith development are essential to our church. Weekly Bible studies, book clubs, and ministry for our children have grown stronger. The choir, band, and bells each welcomed new members into music ministry while leading our congregation in each worship service. Volunteers teach, serve, and befriend a wide net of our congregation and beyond.

You also take care of all 16 members of our staff. Faith has an awesome working environment. In 2022 we hired Daniel Diemer as our new finance manager and Britta Dumke to lead the High School youth group, called EDGE.

Personally, I continue my service in the National Guard as an Army chaplain with the Bearcats, a unit based in Moorhead that drills monthly at Camp Ripley. This is a learning environment where I sharpen my saw through continuing education and best practices from other chaplains who are ministers in the state.

In 2021, I went through a direct commissioning course (a chaplain basic training course). This summer, I will complete nine more weeks of training in South Carolina at Fort Jackson.

On March 1^st, I will have served at Faith for seven years and am due to take a sabbatical. My plan is to take the majority of summer off, including the time away to South Carolina. I will be unavailable for weddings/funerals/baptisms during this time. Planning for coverage while I’m gone has begun.

Council and the Worship committee support combining to one worship service throughout the summer at 9 am. The musicians from both services will join in music ministry in creative ways through the leadership of Linda Burk. I want to stress that this move will only take place during the summer (from the Sunday of Memorial Day to Labor Day) to make preaching coverage more reasonable in my absence. Additionally, this gives our many volunteers a lighter load, too. Faith will return to two services in September when fall programming resumes.  

I appreciate Faith Lutheran so much. You model grace and service to each other and the community around us. I am excited that we continue to make decisions and promote leadership geared for a hopeful future.

Pastor John Klawiter

 

Photo of 2023 Faith Church Council: