On Sunday we will hear God’s Word from Pastor Jim Freuhling
and consider how we can apply it to our daily lives. This Living Word of God reminds us God’s unconditional love for us and challenges us to share that same love with others.

Sundays Oct 4,11,18,25 9:50–10:30am and Wednesday Nov 4 7pm–8:30pm, in the Fireside Room

Come Learn, Listen and Grow Together
Join us for five Reconciled in Christ educational sessions!
What does it mean to deepen and expand our faith journey of welcome and inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people and their families? These five sessions invite us to learn together, listen to one another, ask honest questions, and explore how our church can more fully live out God’s call to love and welcome all people.
Each session will include opportunities for conversation and reflection, along with book, video, and website resources for continued learning and exploration.

Our Five Sessions

• Session 1 — Understanding Gender and Sexuality
  We’ll deepen our faith journey by exploring the gender binary system and learning more about sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
• Session 2 — The Power of Language
  We’ll explore the role language plays in welcoming and including LGBTQIA+ people in the church—and consider the implications our words can have for creating a truly welcoming community.
• Session 3 — Seeing Church Through LGBTQIA+ Eyes
  We’ll think about the church through the experiences and perspectives of people in the LGBTQIA+ community and consider how those experiences can shape and influence their faith journeys.
• Session 4 — Creating Places of Support and Safety
  We’ll expand our thinking about how the church can become a place of support, safety, belonging, and inclusion for LGBTQIA+ people and their families.
• Session 5 — Listening to LGBTQIA+ Voices
  Members of the LGBTQIA+ community will share their experiences in the church and help us understand what they need from us as beloved children of God.

Come join us!
Bring your questions, your curiosity, your experiences, and an open heart. Together, we can learn, listen, grow, and continue the journey toward a church where everyone knows they are welcomed, valued, and loved.

For more information, contact Angela Brown.

This is the fourth year that Bethel will be a Rotating Safe Car Parking Host (RSCP). All guests have been through a screening and placement process. We can expect 10-20 guests and about the same number of cars at Bethel during our hosting months. Safe Car Park hours for guests will be between 6:30pm–7am, 7 days a week.

Volunteers are needed to provide hospitality services in the evenings. Food like light dinner meals, lunch items, snacks, and drinks are provided and available to the guests. We also need volunteers to provide hard-boiled eggs, bananas, veggie zip-lock bags, yogurts, string cheeses or dessert items. We will have more specific food needs when our guests arrive as we learn their likes and see what is brought over from the previous host site. Once a week we are looking for volunteers or small groups who can provide an evening meal for all our guests. Monetary donations are also welcome.

Hospitality hours are 7:00pm–7:45pm & 6:30am–6:55am. We are thankful to the YMCA who provides free shower privileges to the RSCP Guests.

If you would like to volunteer or have any questions please contact Robyn Winegardner or Hella Bluhm-Stieber and they will send you the sign-up link.

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Summary
Bethel is following an expedited call process, guided by our Synod and designed for healthy churches like ours. It differs from a traditional call in two ways:

• Council as call committee
  Rather than forming a separate committee, your Church Council serves as the call committee, leading discernment on the congregation's behalf.
• A three-year term
  The initial call runs three years. The congregational vote comes at the end of the term — the decision to extend a permanent call.

The steps:

1. Council updates the profile of who we are and what we are seeking.
2. The Synod identifies and presents candidates based on that profile.
3. Council reviews the candidates and decides whether to proceed.
4. Candidates and Council meet for interviews and discernment.
5. If both believe it is the right fit, the Synod appoints the pastor for a three-year term.

Status 9/30
We have an update about the call process. We received a slate of 4 candidates from the Synod at the very end of August (just after the congregational meeting). This week we have completed the interviews and discernment with this group. Unfortunately none of them turned out to be Bethel’s next pastor.

Charlane is already compiling another slate, which she expects to provide to us in 2–3 weeks. Once we have those names we will quickly mobilize to begin interviews. We hope to have the first round of interviews completed before Thanksgiving.

I am more certain than ever that God is with us in this season and that our Pastor is out there somewhere. We are healthy and attractive as a congregation, and there are good candidates available. Please pray for us all, council, Synod and candidates, and keep investing in doing life together.

Ellen

Status 8/11
The latest (8/11) on the Pastoral call process is that our Ministry Site Profile has been published. This means that the call is officially open. Please spread the word so that our new pastor may hear and respond to the call. We expect to begin considering specific candidates sometime in September.

Bethel's Adult Mission to Mexico brought Bethel people and friends to Mexico to work on projects to build structures and communities, with the help of Esperanza.

Participants were:
Billy Baldwin, Paul Baldwin, Rod Brunngraber, Laurie Bryson, Rick Bryson, Kevin Daberkow, Mark Evashenk, Tori Evashenk, Tom Hoegel, Susan Leavitt, Dave Lofgren, Janice Martinson, Ralph Miller, Rich Teed, Rick Westwick.

They worked with the family who will own the house and they enjoyed terrific Mexican food at the end of the work day. Here are a few photos of this mission trip. You can click a photo to see a larger version.