On the Wednesdays during Lent we will gather by candlelight in the sanctuary around the baptismal font to Walk to the Cross. As we utilize the Order of Evening Prayer we will engage in various symbolic actions that recall the events of Jesus’ suffering and death. Through these actions, we will experience how this story is also our story. We were there and now we are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Light Supper will be served at 6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall each week featuring foods that call our attention to the hunger suffered in a variety of cultures worldwide. Worship is from 7 to 7:30pm in the Sanctuary.

• February 22 - Ash Wednesday
       Jesus is Condemned: Washing Our Hands
       Holy Communion with the Imposition of Ashes
• February 29 - Jesus Is Mocked: Torn
• March 7 - Jesus Carries Our Sins: Burden Bearing
• March 14 - Jesus Is Crucified: Nailed
• March 21 - Jesus Dies: Sour But Sweet
• March 28 - Jesus And Me: Popped!

Special Arrangement of Sanctuary for Lent

During the season of Lent, the Sanctuary will be arranged in “antiphonal” seating. The assembly will be divided in half with each half facing the other, with the altar and baptismal font placed in the center. Such seating during Lent will enable our worship to physically reflect that we are a community gathered by and around Christ who is at the center of our life through the Word and the Sacraments. Such seating will also create a greater sense of intimacy for our gathered assembly. We will literally be able to speak, pray, and sing back and forth to each other.

Just click here to download our guide to observing and reflecting on Lent at Christ Church!

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Are you interested in learning a “bite” more about the issue of world-wide hunger? Starting with the meal before the Ash Wednesday service on February 22 our Network volunteers are prepared to do just that. The following will, we hope, whet your appetite for samples of typical meals from around the world starting with what a typical low income family might eat in our own country. Here is what you can look forward to when you join us for supper on those Wednesday evenings at 6:00pm.

• Ash Wednesday, February 22 – Inner City Shopping in the US
• February 29 – A taste from Hungary/Eastern Europe
• March 7 – A taste from Mexico
• March 14 – A taste from Malaysia
• March 21 – A taste from Brazil
• March 28 – A taste from India

Most of our effort will be to provide renewed energy to provide food for our Boone County Caring Center as they work to help the many hungry in our own area. Money and food will be collected throughout the year in support of that important agency. A representative of the Caring Center will join us for services and the education hour on February 19. Please come and help.

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The 2012 Christ Church Pictorial Directory was e-mailed out this week. Please contact the office if you did not receive it. We would like to offer very special thanks to Kurt Kroemer for his dedicated work in taking photos and compiling the directory.

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We have started a new ministry scheduling program (called Ministry Scheduler Pro) that is web-based and allows congregation members access to update their availability and preferences further in advance. We will still schedule by the quarter and will send out reminders to submit your availability. Now you can easily view and make changes to your Worship Ministry availability over the internet! In addition, it makes the process of scheduling volunteers much simpler and allows for a more fair distribution among all volunteers. The program allows you to submit any dates or ranges that you are unavailable to serve, submit requests for subs, and accept a sub request electronically as well. We will continue to use the yearly schedule previously laid out for Altar Guild, Financial Assistants, and Ushers.

On Monday February 6th, you should have received an email with instructions on how to log in to your account. If you did not receive the email and would like to be involved in the worship ministry, please email the office at officeadmin@zionsvillelutheran.org so we can add you to the system. (Don’t forget to check your junk mail to make sure the email didn’t land there.) If you would like training on how to use on the online terminal, Cheryl Kussow will be available in the narthex following the 8:15am service on Feb 12. You can also contact the office to schedule a time for training between 8am-5pm, Mon-Fri. Cheryl Kussow can schedule times for training via phone in the evenings.

The deadline for submitting changes and availability for the second quarter (April-June) is March 1st. Please also indicate your service preference time for summer services. After that, the schedule for the quarter will be created and you will be scheduled automatically according to what we have on file. At that point, you will be responsible for finding your own subs and notifying the office of any swaps.

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Journey kids, keep February 26th free. From 4:45-8:45pm you have the opportunity to join us for a really fun time. For $25 you will get unlimited pizza, soda, bumper cars, laser tag, Go-Karts, mini-golf, bowling, and you’ll get a $10 arcade game card. If you are interested registration and money is due to Craig by February 19th. See me for questions or concerns.

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The 2012 Nominating Team has been assembled and will be actively recruiting members for the following positions in the upcoming weeks. Please review the below opportunities and prayerfully consider serving.  If you have any questions regarding the below positions, please feel free to contact a member of the 2012 Nominating Team (Pastor Albertin, Steve Nobis, Kim Handrock, John Burkhardt, Mike Callecod, or Todd Kane) 

• Governance Board – 2 positions 
        - Term: 3 year (elected)
        - Meets 1 time per month for ~2 hours / Typically conducts 2 retreats (fall & spring) in lieu of monthly meeting
• Endowment Team – 2 positions
        - Term: 4 year (elected) / 3 year (appointed)
        - Meet as needed
        - Current Chair – Glen Tuffnell
• Audit Team – 1 position
        - Term: 3 year (appointed)
        - Meets once a year to audit church finances
• Synod Delegates – 2 positions
        - Term: 1 year (elected)
        - Attends Synod Assembly in Covington, KY: June 7-9, 2012
• Nominating Team – 3 positions
        - Term: 1 year (elected)
        - Meets 2 or 3 times per year; beginning in January
        - Works with Pastor and outgoing GB members to recruit future leaders.
• Mission Ministry Network Chairs
        - Term: 1 year (appointed with option for re-appointment)
        - Meets ~1x per month with Staff and MMLT Chairs
        - Current Openings: Stewardship, Fellowship, MMLT Leader
• Network/Team Members
        - Term: Request a 1 year commitment (recruited)
        - Meets when your team//network as directed by Chair/Leader
• Sunday Mornings
        - Lectors, Ushers, Communion Assistants, Assisting Ministers, Nursery Attendants, Counters, Altar Guild, Hospitality, Greeters
        - Sunday School Teachers/Journey Guides

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Do you miss cuddles and nursery rhymes? Are you an empty nester? Are you a youth who wants to learn how to care for children (and maybe line up a new babysitting job?) The Nursery at Christ Church at the 11am service is brimming and in need of two caregivers instead of one. Because of that, we need to increase our ministry providers in our Nursery category. Our idea is to pair an Adult with a middle school or high school youth. If interested, please select Nursery as a ministry option in your profile on the Ministry Scheduler Pro login site. We hope that all adults with young children sign up for a turn, as well as adults who no longer have young children that need the nursery. Once again, having a good list of volunteers helps spread the load.

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We are forming a small group for instrumentalist musicians. This group is intended as a "for the enjoyment" of it ministry. There is no expectation that anyone be willing to play in church. It is possible that some from the group may choose to play in church as a result of this time spent together but that is strictly voluntary. All activities of this group are GET TO's!!! We will meet one Thursday evening a month from 8:00PM to 9:00PM. For the month of February we will meet on the fourth Thursday (Feb 23rd). Thereafter we will meet on the third Thursday of the month. Please contact Greg Holbrook at 769-4322 or dgholbrook@holbrooks.us if you have any questions. We hope to see you there.

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Needed: Volunteer readers for Read Across America for week of February 27 through March 2.

Come and read a book out loud to one of our ECM Preschool Classes. This is bound to make you smile! Call Christine at 873-3232 or ecm@zionsvillelutheran.org.

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How Hungry Are You? How hungry are others in our community?

Many people are hungry in many different ways, and many in our community have a spiritual hunger or a malnourished faith. If you are “hungry” to serve and to welcome people to our church family…WE COULD USE YOUR HELP in the Bread Corps. The Bread Corps is easy and is a powerful ministry at Christ Church. We need volunteers for one month “shifts” to deliver baked goods and a CCZ bag to new visitors. Interested? See Todd Kane or send an email to: tkane@indy.rr.com

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ECM Preschool Usborne Book Fair coming Sunday, Feb, 26 between services. Free shipping and handling. The Rep will be here to accept your orders and will accept cash, checks and credit cards. This Book Fair will benefit our preschool and add to your child’s library at the same time. Thank you for supporting our ECM Preschool.

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Our friends at Love INC (Love In the Name of Christ) operate around the country to help so many people with a huge assortment of needs. Right here in our own community, Love INC of Boone Country reaches out to our neighbors to help with food, clothing, shelter, health care, and so many other life-giving needs.

And in fact, right now we have some clothing needs that we invite you to help us with!

• Pants (size 14-16), tops (XL), skirts, and/or dresses for a 52 year old female. We could also use shoes (size 8), underwear (size 7), and socks (size 8-9).
• Slacks (38 waist, 35 length) and shirts (XL) for a 50 year old male. We could also use shoes (size 10.5) and underwear (size 36-38).
• Jeans (size 7 - juniors) for a 38 year old female.
• Pants (52 waist, 30-34 length), shoes (size 12 1/2W), boxers (52 waist), and ankle socks for a 30 year old male.
• Pants (size 14), tops (XL), shoes (size 7 1/2 - 8), underwear (size 6) for a 55 year old female.
• Dresses (size 12), coat (size 12), boots (size 8- would like cowboy, but happy with any), jeans (size 12) for a 57 year old female.

If you could help us with any of these items, it would be so appreciated. Please let Barb Starkey (WSTARKEY@indy.rr.com) or Martha Schmidt (mooseswart@gmail.com) if you can provide any of these items, or if you have any questions, and they'll be more than happy to speak further with you.

And if you would like to know more about Love INC of Boone County, just click here to visit their website!

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“The Making of the New Testament” led by Pastor Albertin.

This study provides a useful introduction to the New Testament, an explanation of how the New Testament came to be and a proposal for what that means for the life of the church and Christians today. Come and join the free-wheeling discussion . . . and fellowship. The Bible Bunch meets every Wednesday Sept – May in the Luther Room.

NOTE - Our class on Wednesday, February 15, is canceled! We'll resume on February 22!

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Christ Church Office Administrator, Julia Goldberg, is looking for a volunteer to help in the office on Thursday afternoons copying and stuffing the bulletins and doing other administrative tasks such as filing and data entry. Please email her at officeadmin@zionsvillelutheran.org if you are interested or have any questions. Thank you!

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Wednesdays, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, in the Luther Room

Christ Church is a place that boldly proclaims the Christian Faith but does it in such a way that encourages people to ask questions.

If you have questions about the Christian Faith or the Lutheran Church, perhaps the Inquiry Class is for you. Pastor Albertin is currently meeting with people who are thinking about making Christ Church the place where they will continue their spiritual journey by becoming a member. There are also those who are already members but want to ask more questions about the Christian faith. If you join the class, you will discover that no questions are “out of bounds.” You will learn about the unique contribution that the Lutheran movement has to make to the Christian Church and how Christ Church seeks to make that happen. Come and join the discussion.

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Christ Church ECM Preschool has achieved a Level 2 rating in Paths to QUALITY.  Paths to Quality is Indidna’s quality rating and improvement system for child care and early childhood education programs.  It is a consistent set of standards to help parents identify preschools that have met state requirements for safe and happy learning and growing environments for young children.

This is one more step we are taking here at ECM Preschool to constantly improve the quality of our program.  We offer a Christ-centered and age-appropriate early childhood education, promoting the physical, social, spiritual, emotional and cognitive development of each child through an integrated curriculum approach. 

• We are thankful to God for the many wonderful ways He has blessed us as we have gone through the process of reaching this goal.  We want to do all we can with the gifts God gives us to provide the best preschool we can for our congregation and community.

• Paths to Quality is a voluntary statewide system created to improve the quality of child care and early childhood education.  The system has been studied and validated by the Child Development and Family Studies experts at Purdue University.

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