SHEEP BUZZ NEWSLETTER

November 22, 2024

THANKSGIVING WEEK

All mid-week Bible study groups will NOT meet the week of Thanksgiving. The church office will be closed both Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 29th.

THANKSGIVING PRAYER

Heavenly Father, we come before You with hearts full of gratitude for the abundant blessings You have poured out upon us, both seen and unseen. As we gather this Thanksgiving, we thank You for the gift of community, the fellowship of our congregation, and Your steadfast presence in our lives through Jesus Christ. Strengthen our faith, guide our steps in love, and use us to share Your grace and mercy with the world around us. Amen.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE SERVICES

A service of celebration and remembrance for Jennifer Riva is this Saturday, November 23rd at 11 am. Please continue to keep the Riva's and Kitzmillers in your prayers.

A Celebration of Life Service has also been scheduled for member Luella Harris, on February, 15th at Good Shepherd. More details to come at a later date.

ANGEL TREE

Only a few angels left on the annual Angel Tree Project. Our church has partnered with Carmel Elementary School to provide Christmas gifts for 35 children.

We ask that you return all WRAPPED gifts to the church no later than Sunday December 1. 

PLEASE RETURN THE ANGEL WITH THE CHILD'S NAME WITH YOUR GIFTS! If you have any gift receipts, please put in an envelope for the parents.



We will deliver all gifts to the school on December 9th. If you have a truck, and would be available to help with the gift delivery, please contact the church office.

STEWARDSHIP GIFTS OF ABUNDANCE

Please remember to continue to bring your intent forms to church. A big thank you to those who have already returned their intent forms.

Additional forms are on our website.

A special booklet titled, "Stories of Abundance" is available on the Welcome Desk. This booklet contains all of the wonderful stories that we heard during worship the last few weeks. Please take one per family.

O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.

1 Chronicles 29:16

November Council highlights:

• 82 pledge cards were received by Consecration Sunday, including 39 increasing their giving amount. Thank you! Pledges are accepted after Consecration Sunday as well.
• The congregation generously donated $3,184 to the Hurricane Helene appeal.  $500 were given out in gift cards, $91 was used for food reimbursement money, $1,296 went to Inpiritus, $1046 went to White Oaks, the facility that had been providing shelter to volunteers with no compensation and $250 went to the Director of White Oaks to reimburse for money they had spent serving the community.
• Discrepancies in the payroll report were discovered for this past month. This appears to just be in the reporting function and the pay was correct for GSLC employees, but this is being further looked into.

Read this months Council Accolades

GSLC CALL COMMITTEE NEWS

Ask a committee member to share one of the orange prayer cards with you. It is our hope that you will take these home and keep GSLC in your prayers as this process continues.

If you have any questions, please ask us! We invite you into a conversation with as much information as we can give, understanding that some information must remain confidential. Look for our blue name tags or email us at callcommittee@gslutheran.org.

DECORATE AND EAT PIZZA

Join us on November 30th, if you would like to help add decorations to the Sanctuary to begin the Advent Season. We will begin decorating at 12 PM. Many hands make light work for all. The Youth and Family Committee will also be serving a pizza lunch. Sign up in Fellowship Hall so we can get an accurate count for lunch.

ALZHEIMER/DEMENTIA CARE GIVER SUPPORT GROUP

Please join us on December 7^th at 9 AM, for a kickoff meeting for an Alzheimer/Dementia care giver support group at Good Shepherd. During this one-hour meeting you will learn more about the program and how you can directly help care givers dealing with these types of patients. This informational meeting is open to anyone. Please invite others that might be interested in learning more and participating in this group.Christmas caroling event will follow after this meeting.

CAROLING ON SATURDAY, DEC. 7TH

Make a joyful noise with your Good Shepherd friends as we carol at the Oaks retirement community on Saturday, December 7th. We will meet in the Entry Way at 10am. Sign up in Fellowship Hall. We will be leaving shortly after gathering together and travel to members homes. Bring your fa-la-la-la-la fun self and join us as we spread Christmas cheer!

WHAT IS EVANGELISM

In the feedback gathered from all of you by the Long-Range Planning Task Force, the congregation indicated a strong need to explore and re-ignite evangelism at Good Shepherd. To do this, we'll start with a gathering to talk about what evangelism is, brainstorm low hanging fruit, especially with Christmas ahead, and talk about strategies for moving forward. Let Pastor Karen or Debi Radcliff know that you'd like to come and talk and brainstorm with us on Sunday, December 8, after the second service. No commitment to be a member of Evangelism for the next 50 years - promise! We just want your feedback and ideas! Sign up in Fellowship Hall.

MAKE GINGERBREAD HOUSES-Sunday, December 8th

Join us in making Gingerbread Houses for our Second Sunday Family Activity! We will be serving a pizza lunch beginning at 12 PM before we work together to design and create a holiday tradition! Please let us know how many people in your family will be attending so that we can have enough gingerbread kits and pizza! See you then!

LADIES NIGHT OUT will be on

Tuesday, December 17, at 7:00 PM at

Tuscany Italian Restaurant

250 Cinema View

Woodstock, GA 30189

Please sign up in Fellowship Hall

E-MAIL SCAMS

It has been brought to our attention again that e-mails are going out from people posing as Pastor Karen or staff members. One of the most popular church scams is someone posing as a staff member to get an electronic version of our church directory. Always double check that the e-mail comes from any staff member by making sure the email address ends with @gslutheran.org before responding or interacting with any requests where pastor or staff member might be looking for help. Also remember, the church does not conduct any business using gift cards. Stay vigilent. Think first before acting or call the church if you are in doubt. If interested, there is good information about scams on the table near the doorway in Fellowship Hall.

OUTREACH UPDATE and MORE

We are happy to report that GSLC through the efforts of our Outreach Committee, collected $1,015 for MUST Turkeys and Hams this year. What a wonderful outpouring of love to give to families in need. Thank you.

The Yarn Angels small group has been diligently working with the Encouragement Project to deliver their finished crafts to those in need. Recently we received this thank you as Pastor Karen delivered two prayer shawls on Sunday at Northside Hospital Cherokee. Both shawls were instantly used and Pastor received this text from a family member of one recipient:

"We visited yesterday afternoon and saw the lovely prayer shawl you took her. She loved it! We appreciate the Yarn Angels at GSLC!"

A big THANK YOU to this group of wonderful ladies.

SHARE THE JOY

Thanks to a generous donation, we received an abundance of cute and fluffy stuffed animals. Last week a small group tied informational cards about our Advent and Christmas Services to the animals and hand delived them to the parents in the Child's Play Preschool carline with a Happy Thanksgiving! The parents were so excited to pass the animals on to their children in their car seats and the kids smiles were beyond measure! We will also be delivering some of these animals to the Encouragement Project and recepients of the Angel Tree gifts. What a joyous way to share what we have been given!

WORSHIP ATTENDER SURVEY-Today is the last day to participate

Our congregation has been given the unique opportunity to participate in a national study of worship attenders. The study is being conducted by Faith Communities Today (FACT), a research partner of the ELCA. Since 2000, FACT has conducted research that provides religious leaders of all traditions with critical information about the changing nature of congregational life and how to respond effectively.

For participating in this survey, our congregation will receive a $200 Amazon gift card and, if at least 10 people respond, a report of our responses.

Anyone 18 or older who is a regular participant can complete the survey. It should take between 12 to 15 minutes. Our Good Shepherd goal is to have a minimum of 50% of our regular worship attenders complete the survey. To take the survey, please click the link below.

TAKE THE SURVEY HERE

Please complete the survey by Friday, Nov. 22.

If you are interested in learning more about this study, please visit: https://www.covidreligionresearch.org/attender-survey/

Thank you for your participation.

SUNDAY SCHOOL | 9:45 AM

All youth classes will meet downstairs. K-5 in B3, 6-8 in B8 and High School will meet in B1.

Faith Stories: Rm 117: Book study on “Life Together” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  

Coffee and Conversation: Rm 118: "Hope in the Lord" series. The series draws from numerous parts of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. The author writes that "Through our study of God's word, Christ's Spirit strengthens us to people who hope in the Lord.

Men in Mission: Rm 116: Various topics and discussions just for men. 

WHAT'S NEW

Wednesday Lunch and Learn will begin a new study for Advent titled, "The Weary World Rejoices" by Lifeway Women. Join us at 11:00 AM. Bring your lunch if you'd like. We will meet in Pastor's Office.

WEEKLY BIBLE STUDIES

We are blessed to have great lay leadership to host weekly Bible studies on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Roughly 40+ people attend these studies each week. Check out the Bible Study page on our website to see where you might want to join us.

WORD ON WEDNESDAY will meet December 4,11, and 18 at our regular time (10:00 a.m.) in the Meeting Room. This allows for anyone that wants to participate in the 11:00 a.m. Advent Activity in the Fellowship Hall can do so and/or attend worship at noon. Advent activities (6:30 PM) and worship service (7:30 PM) opportunities will also be available in the evening.

We will use the study book for Advent Shadow and Light: A Journey into Advent by Tsh Oxenreider.  It is available on Amazon and the cost is less than $10 and is also available in Kindle format. 

Do you love your church? Consider giving Good Shepherd a 5 Star review on Google. It helps other know about who we are and what we do!

CHURCH CALENDAR

This is our submission form for you to submit non-urgent prayer concerns. Prayers will be posted to the Prayer Circle, via e-mail, during normal business hours, usually around 3 PM. As always, if you have an urgent prayer request, please contact Pastor by cell or email. 

If you would like to pray for others, as part of our prayer circle, please contact our Media Coordinator and she can add you to the Prayer Circle group.