From the Oversight Committee:

MISSION STATEMENT Under Construction Growing a Community in Christ

VISION STATEMENT Norway Grove Memorial Lutheran Church is a mission-driven and Christ-centered community. We welcome and celebrate our brothers and sisters in Christ by making God known through worship, education and outreach programs. While under construction, we allow Christ our “general contractor” to equip us as carpenters in building a Christian community filled with the Holy Spirit, love and grace. Trusting in the Lord’s foundation, we may not always understand the blueprint, but embraced by the Holy Spirit, we trust God’s grace to flow through us and do the rest.

PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY We are a congregation deeply rooted in Lutheran values and faith.We share the work of ministry operating as one united community.Our philosophy of ministry is based on biblical truths, directed by God’s purposes and commands and shaped by the giftedness of members in the church, filled with the Holy Spirit, beyond our individual focus.

“We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning - a step along the way. An opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.”  |Archbishop Oscar Romero|

Spring is coming and so is Lent, because lent is the Latin word for spring. You probably knew that, but I just thought I’d let you know I knew it too. I happen to like Lent. It is another one of those contradictions we experience so often in life.  Spring is coming, what was dead will come alive, but we’ll have to wait a bit. March is seldom a pleasant month. It is usually cold and muddy with rain and ice and snow. But Spring is coming! Lent is on the way!Lately I have heard the question in one form or another … “Who are we? What do we need to be as a church here in this place?” Those are not easy questions to answer when you have been a member here for a few years. It’s like a stranger asking me who I am. I can tell them what I do and what I love, but they won’t know what kind of person I really am without asking someone else who they trust to give an honest, unbiased answer.With those questions in mind, Pastor Bud and I thought it might be a good time to talk about what Lutherans believe. What is it that makes us a special place here on the hill between the interstate highway and the rest of DeForest?It is always good to take a look at who we are. Has the church changed since they decided that lent should be a six week culmination of the three year preparation for Baptism? That was back in the 1st Century c.e. when Christianity was a very new religion.So we celebrate Lent. The confirmation students, with a little assist from Pastor Bud, myself, Tom, Troy and the rest of you, will talk about what we believe about the Bible and the Word of God. And we will talk about the Trinity (a human construct but hard to deny since we don’t think these big things without a lot of help) And we’ll talk about creation and how is it we are said to look like God? (In God’s image!)  And we are going to discuss just what happened on Good Friday and what it means for us.I’m excited about what we have planned.  If we want to know a little more about who we are and who we are meant to be … well, let’s talk about it.

God’s Love - Pastor JoAnn … Interim Pastor

Traditionally, the singing of the word “alleluia” is suspended during the 40 days of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday. This period is a time for reflection on our baptism and our way of life, and the joyful nature of “alleluia” is in direct conflict with the more somber nature of the Lenten season. Many congregations will physically remove “alleluia”, usually in the form of a banner, from the sanctuary on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, and it will not be used again until Easter Sunday.The practice of omitting the “alleluia” during Lent dates from the 5^th century, but the practice of actually hiding or burying it began in the Middle Ages.  Some congregations today actually bury a banner or paper with the word on it, while others simply remove the representation of the word from the sanctuary.Here at Norway Grove, during the time of Pastor Kathy Franzenburg, we had a banner stretched across the altar with the word “alleluia” on it. The children would help Pastor Kathy roll up the banner and hide it behind the altar, where it would remain until Easter Sunday. It was a very real reminder of the period of the church year that we were about to enter. On Easter Sunday, the banner would be brought out and once again stretched across the front of the altar so the “alleluia” was once again ready for use in our worship.The use of the ’singing bowls’ we will use during our midweek Lenten worship further helps to show the reflective nature of the season of Lent. The bowls are used in Eastern cultures for meditation, personal prayer and reflection. We use the bowls as a call to worship, reminding us to quiet our minds and prepare our hearts for worship. Currently we have four bowls, each with a slightly different sound, but all of which serve the purpose of reminding us that we are in God’s house and should open our minds to God’s word.What a joy to remember that, though our “alleluias” may be silenced for a short time, we have the promise that, on Easter Sunday , we know that Christ will have once again triumphed over the grave and risen from the dead, and our “alleluias” will once again resound in our worship place.

Elaine Jaeke