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NEWS & EVENTS
October 7, 2026
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Book Club on October 7
The Calamity Club by Kathryn Sockett is the LCR Book Club book for discussion on October 7. You may recognize that name remembering her last book The Help. She wrote The Help and then seemed to disappear for 14 years! She’s back with this strong historical fiction book set in 1930’s Oxford, Mississippi. It’s a story of mothers and children, family and found family, struggle and perseverance. If you liked The Help or want to try this new novel, please join us for lively discussion! We meet the first Wednesday of each month at 1:00 in the Fireside Room.
Future books:
November – Horse by Geraldine Brooks
December - Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
January – Whistler by Ann Patchett
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First Wednesday Dinner & Worship - TONIGHT
Join us for dinner starting at 5:30 p.m. and then for Holden Evening Prayer at 7:00.
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Congregational Meeting - Sunday, October 25
The purpose of the October Congregational Meeting is to elect Council members and officers for the new year.
The slate of candidates is:
President – Elsa Larsen
Vice President – Luther Stave
Secretary – Holly Lahd Larson
Treasurer – Chris Westermeyer
Parish Life – Dick Hendrickson & Elizabeth Hendrickson-Nalli
Outreach – Angela Smithson & Adam Bueling
Youth & Learning – Terra Swisher
Worship, Music & Arts – Arlin Becker & Caren Cushing
Nominating Committee – Linda Hildebrant, Jackie Anderson, Nancy Nelson, Wayne Griesel
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Pentecost 19 - October 11
Hymn of the Day: "Let Us Go Now to the Banquet" - ELW 523
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 | | Today, we sing a text and tune by the same person; Guillermo Cuellar (b.1955) Cuellar got the main idea for this hymn from his teacher and mentor, Fr. Rutilio Grande, in Aguilares, El Salvador. This song was included in a mass that he wrote in the 1970s while working with Archbishop Oscar Romero, who commissioned it, but was assassinated before it was finished. The local authorities did not like the part about sharing everything, “come everyone with your gifts to share”, and especially, verse 2, “God invites all the poor and hungry to the banquet of justice and good where the harvest will not be hoarded so that no one will lack for food.” Although Cuellar based this text on Acts 4:32-35, he was accused of being a Communist and after numerous death threats, he lived in Nicaragua for 10 years. You’ll see in ELW the name William Pharris and Bret Hesla; two Minnesotans who helped to create an English version of this hymn, which was first published by GIA Publications in 1994 and now appears in our hymnal of 2006; ELW.
This Sunday, we continue our way through the puzzling parables of our great story-teller. Jesus explains what the kingdom of heaven is like by comparing it to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. On the day of the wedding feast, the king sends his slaves to call for the invited wedding guests to come now as the food and all the preparations are ready. The invited wedding guests ignore the first group of slaves, and then they seize, mistreat, and kill a second group of slaves sent. Of course, the king was enraged, sending his troops to destroy the murderers and burn their city. The king then sends his slaves out into the main streets telling them to invite any random people they can find. So then the wedding hall is filled with guests. Finally, as the king enters the hall, he confronts a guest who is not wearing a wedding robe. (The custom in those days was for the one hosting the wedding feast—in this case, the king—to provide garments for the wedding guests. These wedding garments were simple, nondescript robes that all attendees wore. In this way, rank or station was covered, so everyone at the feast could mingle as equals.) The king is enraged and orders the non-robed guest to be bound and thrown out. The parable ends with “For many are called, but few are chosen”.
Following this parable, we focus on stanza 3, “May we build such a place among us where all people are equal in love. God has called us to work together and to share everything we have. Let us go now to the banquet, to the feast of the universe. The table’s set and a place is waiting” come, everyone, with your gifts to share.”
Peace!
Deacon Gary Butler
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A Note from Gary about Children's Choir
This is a friendly reminder that the Sunday School/Children's Choir leads worship this coming Sunday, October 11. Please have your child/children to the lower level choir room by 8:25 for robing, and an 8:30 am warm-up rehearsal.
Any parents interested in being "choir-parents" to assist with robes (before and/or after) and/or sitting with the kids upstairs in the choir loft, just to ensure they make the best choices in behavior and attentiveness, please let me know! Sometimes the younger children need help finding a hymn in the hymnal.... Your help is much appreciated.
They have practiced leading the first hymn, the psalm, the alleluia verse, and will sing an anthem during the offering. Once their anthem is done, they will stack their music on the choir pew and tip-toe out into the elevator room off of the choir loft, take off their robe, hand it to a parent, and go and sit with their parents for the remainder of the service.
Thanks so much for your help! THEY ARE SUCH GREAT KIDS! It's amazing what they've already accomplished in just four - twenty minute rehearsals!
Peace!
Gary
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Sunday School & Adult Education Hour
Sunday School and the Adult Forum have resumed their fall schedules. Information about the Sunday School program is available by clicking THIS LINK .
Adult Education Forum: Faith and Civic Life will be the topic for the first three weeks of October. We will dive into a study guide that explores the ELCA's social statement for congregations and communities. You do not need to attend all three sessions. We will focus on the following topics:
10/4 - God Acts for the Well-being of All Through Civic Life
10/11 - God Calls All People to Robust Civic Participation
10/18 - Selected Contemporary Concerns in Civic Life and Implementing Resolutions
11/1 - Presentation by Better Place Forests, end of life planning
Our adult education hour will be held in the Fireside Room. The planning team, including Sarah Borgeson, Linda Hildebrant, Rebecca Sauer and Pastor Sarah, is excited to offer engaging conversation throughout the year. As always, if you have ideas for speakers, topics or are interested in presenting, please contact one of us in person or email Rebecca at rjwestermeyer@gmail.com.
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Connecting Across the Generations with Church Buddies!
For the grown-ups: You are invited to sign up as a church buddy to be connected with a child or youth of the congregation. You are encouraged to talk with your buddy when you see them at church, pray for your buddy, send a birthday or baptism anniversary greeting. Gifts and time spent together outside of church activities are not encouraged. This is a simple way for us to make more and deeper connections across the generations and help our children grow in knowing that church is a place where they are cared about. Sign up here to be a church buddy: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4AACAF29ABFBCE9-66082222-church
For the kids and families: Each child and youth of the congregation, under the age of 18, will have a church buddy. This is a grown-up member of the congregation and outside of the child's family who will check in with them when at church activities. They might also send a birthday or baptism anniversary greeting. Church buddies would also pray for each other. This is a simple way for us to make more and deeper connections across the generations and help our children grow in knowing that church is a place where they are cared about.
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Meals on Wheels Need Substitutes
Wayne Griesel, after many years delivering Meals On Wheels, has retired! Deb and Luther Stave moved from the substitutes list to take his route full-time. That means we need another name or two as substitutes. Resurrection delivers every third Thursday; it takes about an hour.
One person can do both drive and deliver the meals but it goes more smoothly if two are available. If you are interested contact Sue Strohschein, MOW coordinator, at 320-282-8963.
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October Mission of the Month 2026
Northeast Youth and Family Services
Northeast Youth & Family Services (NYFS) is a nonprofit community-based, trauma-informed mental health organization and community service organization founded in 1976 and based at 3490 Lexington Avenue N, Shoreview, MN 55126. We serve children, teens and adults across the northeast Saint Paul suburbs and the wider Twin Cities in person, in partner schools and by telehealth across Minnesota. We provide compassionate culturally responsive care for the concerns people reach out for most including anxiety, depression, ADHD, and stress.
Our mission is to transform lives by ensuring access to care that nurtures healing, cultivates community and inspires hope.
We envision a world where thriving individuals and families are the building blocks of safe unified communities established through a network of empowered and collaborative partnerships.
Seven values guide our work:
- equity, inclusion and belonging
We are dedicated to creating an inclusive, accessible and accepting environment that embraces diverse perspectives and backgrounds. It is our responsibility to work toward systemic justice and provide care individualized to client needs.
We strive to be genuine, grounded and true to our values in order to be both trusting and trustworthy. We are invested in learning, and we approach each encounter with humility and sincerity.
Our services are driven by the strengths and needs of our community. Through collaboration with clients and community members we ensure our services are financially, logistically, linguistically, and culturally accessible.
We are accountable, ethical, fiscally responsible, transparent, and dedicated to aligning our decisions with our organizational values.
- transformative relationships
We believe that healing and growth happens in the context of empathetic, client-centered, intentional relationships. We bear witness to our clients’ journeys with curiosity and kindness to promote transformational change.
We look beyond what is and imagine what could be. We stay on the leading edge of care by encouraging our clients and staff to explore their passions and strengths with a creative and playful spirit.
We believe that staff wellness and work sustainability are key to providing excellent mental health care. We understand the importance of organizational supports for secondary traumatic stress and are committed to a family-first work philosophy for staff.
Northeast Youth and Family Services seeks to be a place of safety where everyone can be their authentic selves and clients are seen, understood and empowered to do the important and vulnerable work of growth and healing.
We are committed to deconstructing practices that perpetuate systemic inequalities while expanding perspectives and exploring new ways to serve our clients’ highest good.
We partner with others to increase the accessibility to and acceptance of mental health services and community support programs so that we are all empowered to reach our full potential in a more just and equitable community.
You might know NYFS as your community mental health clinic, but we’re so much more. We’re a nonprofit staffed by top-notch mental health providers and team members who are transforming minds, families and local schools, towns and cities for the better. When you donate to or use our services, you’re helping us grow and provide services to others.
For more information, go to nyfs.org.
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Sing for the Healing
A festival of song in thanksgiving for twenty years of Evangelical Lutheran Worship
Sunday, October 18, 2026 – 4:00pm
Christ Church Lutheran
3244 34th Ave S, Minneapolis
A new year of music series is underway at Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis, and we are beginning with a celebration of the book that guides our worship each week. Sing and hear music from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, first released in October 2006. For two decades the treasures old and new in this groundbreaking worship book and its family of resources have helped thousands of Christian communities sing the church’s song. Join your voices with musical leaders Jennifer Baker-Trinity, Robert Buckley Farlee, Zebulon Highben, Sally Messner, Nathan Proctor, Jonathan Rundman, Mark Sedio, David Sims, and a festival choir. A pre-concert conversation with Martin Seltz, Jennifer Baker-Trinity, and Zebulon Highben about assembling hymnals begins in the sanctuary at 3:00pm.
Our community partner at this event is Hats & Mittens—hatsandmittens.org—that serves schools, shelters, and other organizations in the Twin Cities. Bring hats (any kind, including handmade) and mittens (insulated preferred) to the event. 100% of the freewill offering colleted during the event will go to Hats & Mittens.
Generously sponsored by Parable Wealth
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Every Meal Schedule
It's a new school year, and volunteers are needed to help with the Every Meal Program. LCR is sharing the duty with members of Roseville Covenant Church, so we will be scheduled every-other week instead of each week. The new schedule is now online at the Constant Contact site. Scan the QR code or click the link below to sign up. Thank you for helping with this project! Contact Nancy Nelson for more information.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050A4FA9AB22ABFC1-filling1#/
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National Lutheran Choir Concert
The National Lutheran Choir, based in the Twin Cities, is one of the nation's premiere choruses devoted to sacred choral music. Aligned with the liturgical year, our concerts open the door to a deeply meaningful experience of faith and music. All are welcome!
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To Remember is to Begin - A Concert of Remembrance.
Join the National Lutheran Choir under Artistic Director Jennaya Robison for To Remember is to Begin: A Concert of Remembrance at St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, MN.
Featuring Leonard Bernstein’s beloved Chichester Psalms, the concert also includes works by composers Hyo-Won Woo, Kim Andre Arnesen, Paul Christiansen, Edgar Bainton, Undine Smith Moore, and Kyle Pederson.
Audience members are invited to remember and celebrate the saints in their own lives by submitting the names of loved ones, both newly born and recently passed, to be incorporated into the concert.
Dates & Location:
7:30pm - Friday, October 30 @St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church, Plymouth, MN
4:00pm - Sunday, November 1 @ St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi*
*Livestream of this performance is available at NLCA.com
Tickets at NLCA.com.
Groups of 10 or more receive discounted tickets. Call 612-722-2301 for info on group rates.
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