Singing a new song together for joy!

This past Sunday we celebrated Animal Sunday and held our annual blessing of the pets. What fun it was to be all together, to share photos of our beloved animals and to welcome and bless dogs, cats and even a chicken in worship. It was so good to be able to share our lives with each other again. Every week since we have started gathering together, folks I haven’t seen in-person for a long time have been showing up. It’s been like a wonderful family reunion. There is joy in being reunited with familiar faces in our familiar space and at the same time, there is excitement in experiencing worship in new ways, in discovering all the improvements that have been made to our church building in the past year and a half, and in anticipating what is next for CLC.
On October 17, we will be kicking off our annual Stewardship campaign and the theme for this year is “Singing a new song together for joy!” based on Psalm 98: Sing a new song to the Lord, who has worked wonders, whose right hand and holy arm have brought deliverance!  We chose this theme as a way of celebrating this community; a community that together not only persevered through the pandemic but used the time to update its building and develop its online worship. We’ve embarked on our Pathfinder journey with the help of our Joshua Group consultant, Kristin and have begun to discern where God is calling us next. Together we have learned new songs that have gotten us through and together in joy we are learning more new songs that will lead us into the future. Thank you to all of you for responded in joy to God’s promises of hope with your offerings of time, talent and treasure that got us to this point and will enable us to move forward.
To start off our month of Stewardship, on Sunday Oct 17, Chris Benson and Deborah Freeman from Thrivent Financial will be joining us as our special guests. Chris Benson is a Bay Area native growing up in Hayward, CA. Chris attended a Lutheran church/elementary school and enjoys living Lutheran. In 2000, he earned an MDIV from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, and served as a Lutheran pastor for 3.5 years before joining Thrivent Financial in 2004. On Sunday the 17th, Chris will be our special guest preacher in worship and after the 10 o’clock service, Chris and Deborah will lead us in a discussion about how we use money intentionally to provide for our futures and to make a difference entitled: “Money, a tool we use to accomplish God’s mission.” The seminar will be presented in-person in the sanctuary and on zoom. Please plan on attending.     
Also, during the month of October, please watch your mail for this year’s pledge packet from the Stewardship committee. We ask that you prayerfully consider the different ways you can contribute to CLC’s future and then return the pledge card via email or USPS. In the coming months, your council will be hard at work developing next year’s budget and planning the future ministries and programs of CLC and pledges give them a feel for the level of support they have to work with. Of course, as always, your pledge can be changed if your situation changes.
Thank you for your continued support of Coastside Lutheran Church. It is a joy to be back together!
Yours in Christ, Pastor Sue  

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