Newsletter

March 2015

Cash Snack Bar Open

(no outside food brought in)

Donations accepted to defray cost of larger venue

Center Bowl

Corner of Minnesota & Spenard

Bowling is free includes shoes & balls

RSVP to Kathy Callies, 345-8029 or

kathycallies@gci.net. We want to assign lanes
ahead of time so you can start bowling and
having fun as soon as you arrive.

Lutheran Social Services

of Alaska
Alan Budahl, Executive Director
Now that we are in the Lenten
season, Easter will soon be upon
us. Beginning on March 10, we will
begin distributing Easter baskets
to the children who come through
our food pantry. While the food
pantry feeds them, items like
Easter baskets and Christmas
stockings help make these
childrens lives a bit brighter. So
we invite you to be a part of this
effort by donating Easter Baskets
that includes a story or activity
book about Jesus resurrection.
Thanks to all who participated
by walking or running in the Walk
for Warmth on February 21st. This
walk/run hosted by the United
Way of Anchorage raises funds for
homeless prevention/placement.
We especially want to thank all
who donated as we raised over
$45,000. LSSA is the agency that
distribute these funds to our neighbors in need.
Are you a Thrivent Member or a Thrivent
Associate? Thrivent is offering their members or
associates an opportunity to write a min-grant for
$250.00 to help strengthen our community. Need
more information? Check out 101 ways to spark
action in your community on the Thrivent Financial
website www.thrivent.com/making-adifference/living-generously/thrivent-action-teams
Thanks to everyone who has contributed to
LSSA through the Pick, Click, and Give campaign on
the Alaska PFD application. If you havent
completed your 2015 PFD application, please
consider a donation to LSSA.
Get your sneakers and join us for the Anchorage
Convention and Visitors Bureau Charity Walk on
May8th. All LSSA supporters, families and friends
are welcome to join the team and raise money for
our ministry. More information will be available
soon.

LWML

Joanne Fritz, Womens Guild President

The March and April meetings have changed
dates. The March meeting
will be Saturday, March 14
at 11 a.m. in the church
fellowship hall, and the
April meeting will be on
April 11. Each meeting
will be followed by a light
lunch.
At the meeting on
March 14, we will prepare
Easter baskets for the
children of clients of
Lutheran Social Services.
You can help!
Donations are needed:
Middle size baskets or
containers
Easter candy
Plastic eggs
Small toys
markers, crayons, color
books, etc.

The Guild is supplying an Easter story book for

each basket.
There will be a tub or basket in the narthex at
church, and your donations for Easter baskets may
be put in there.

Pastoring in the New Parish

Jon Huckins, The Global Immersion Project
The longer we live in our neighborhood and
enter into deeper relationships with a handful of
the 13,000 people who live within the 10 X 7 blocks
of Golden Hill, the more we become aware of the
importance of the faithfulness of our little faith
community in this place. We are discovering that
the majority of our neighbors would never
consider attending a traditional church (for a
variety of reasons) and many others who have
attended churches in the past have been deeply
hurt, disillusioned or disconnected from the
church communities of their past.
So is that it? Game over?
No, far from it. As we find ourselves invited (and
inviting) deeper into the lives of our neighbors we
are discovering it is just the beginning. Whether
walking with women through pregnancy and
supporting them in the intimacy of child birth or
officiating weddings of those who wouldnt
otherwise have a pastor in their life or sitting on
our patio with the war veteran enduring PTSD or
checking in on the elderly man next door or sharing
a meal with a friend in the park who doesnt have a
home or simply offering a warm greeting to those
on our sidewalks, we are embracing the fact that
our neighborhood is our parish and we are its
pastors.
So, if we believe Jesus is the hope of the world and
that the Church plays a role in Gods mission of
reconciliation, then how might the Church express
itself in a neighborhood like ours?
There must be a movement of us that rise up not
to impose our beliefs on our neighbors, but to
simply walk with them, care for them, encourage
them in the realities of everyday life and empower
them to live more fully into who they were created
to be.
Doubts.
Loss.

Career transition.
Children.

Marriage.
Play.

Those who embrace this pastorate cant reduce

our congregants to those who come in our
buildings once or twice a week. No, our
congregants are the people we share life with
everyday. There is a building movement of those
who are retracing our pastoral roles back to the
ancient idea of parish. The neighborhood (the
physical place where we live, work and play) is the
new parish and we are its pastors.
We have meals in our homes. We take care of each
others children. We offer marriage support and
counseling when theyre in need. When our
neighbors are the most vulnerable, we hold space
for them to experience the gift of simply being
present. In those spaces, both the presence of Jesus
and the presence of the Jesus Community is made
real.
Further, in this pastorate of everyday
relationship, we open ourselves up to be
pastored by our neighbors. Genuine relationship
doesnt run one direction, it is an act of mutual
submission that frees us to fully share and receive
loveeven if from the most unexpected people and
places.
This isnt a walking away from formal
leadership in the Church, its our faithful act to
fully embrace the pastoral vocation we have
been called to live out each and everyday.
Its hard. Its ambiguous. The metrics are difficult to
calculate at times. The pain often outweighs the
hope. We dont get a platform or a microphone.
Instead, we are given the gift of genuine
relationship. Relationship where we are as formed
as those we form.
In this pastorate, there will be no title that
assumes leadership or authority. No, our only
authority comes when we have fully submitted
ourselves to our neighborhoods and lead with
tangible acts of humble presence and long-term
commitment.
Im not saying the role of pastor in a traditional
sense is bad or wrong or unnecessary. It is surely
needed! What I am saying is that its time we
expand our definition of pastor and begin to
create tangible pathways for those of us called
to this form of pastoring to be mobilized,
equipped and sent to participate with God in the
people and places far off the beaten path of
most churches influence.

Dear Fellow Disciples of ALC,

God is working really hard to change me. I am

going through a transformation with respect to my
knowledge and attitude toward the homeless.
When I think of homeless people I usually think of
those people standing on street corners
panhandling for money or people hanging out on
the streets around Beans Caf and Brother Francis
Shelter. It appeared to me that most were drinking
or drunk and many were involved in crime. Ive
tried to help them in the past by giving them
money. On two occasions the fellow that I gave
money to beat me to the liquor store spending the
money that I gave him on alcohol and cigarettes. I
did not want my generosity being spent in this way.
So I thought about giving them food to eat. As I was
sitting in line at the drive through to Arbys one day
I saw a homeless man on the corner. So I bought an
extra meal and drove over to hand him the food. He
turned his back on me and refused the food. He
wanted money instead. Money to buy booze and
cigarettes, I judged. I soon grew very cynical and
judgmental. I felt like I was being taken advantage
of when all I wanted to do was to help. There has
got to be a better way to help these people I
thought.
So I decided to donate money to LSSA and let
them deal with the people. I had a conversation
with Carol Warren, Pastor Bills wife and then the
Executive Director of LSSA. She had had the exact
same thoughts and feelings that I had. She told me
that she was in the middle of working through
those thoughts and feelings and it was necessary if
she was going to be a help to people and after all we
all know that God wants us to help ALL people in
need. She also told me that if I was being
judgmental and had strings attached to my giving
(the money I donated needed to be spent on food
not booze and cigarettes), then my giving was not
truly giving from the heart. I should simply give and
let God be the judge.
From there I donated my time to helping others.
I worked at the LSSA food bank and the mobile food
distribution sight. I helped clean up the LSSA mens
transitional living facility. I handed out food to the
hungry at the LSSA Thanksgiving Dinner food
distribution. As a spiritual mentor to my grandson
when he went through confirmation, I worked with
him on servant events. We frequently had
Sandwich Assembly Lines where the confirmation

kids and their mentors made and wrapped

sandwiches that would be handed out to the
homeless and hungry people that wanted food. We
also went to Brother Francis Shelter and dished up
food and handed out new pairs of socks and gloves
and stocking caps to those who wanted them.
Believe me, everyone wanted these gifts of love.
These experiences allowed me to have direct
contact with the homeless/hungry people of our
community. So many of the people expressed their
thanks and gratitude to us/me through their words
and smiles and many said to us God bless you. I
truly felt that God was using me to be a blessing to
these people as He has called me to do.
Now I am going through the next phase of my
transformation. Pastor Andy and Pastor Harrison
want to make a difference in peoples lives, not only
our own disciples at ALC but by helping other
people who have great needs. Many people have
told them they feel the same way. One such way to
help people in our community that want to be
helped is through a transitional living facility. This
would mean working with people who need and
want help in all areas of their life so that they can
turn their lives around over a period of time and
eventually become self-sufficient. We dont know
what this means or what we can do to help others,
but a MAT (Mission Action Team), headed by Pastor
Harrison, has been formed to gather information,
ask questions, and get answers. Here is some of the
information that I have learned lately:
1. Homelessness in Anchorage is a growing
problem and currently receiving a lot of
attention on TV and in the papers. Outlying
towns within Alaska are not dealing with the
homeless issue in their communities so those
people are migrating to Anchorage.
2. An addition to the problem in Anchorage is that
agencies in the Lower 48 are giving some of
their homeless people one way tickets to
Anchorage telling them that their lives will get
better because Alaska will give them a PFD.
They dont realize that they are not helping
these people because they dont have a
permanent residence in Alaska and once that is
established it takes a year before they can apply
for a PFD.
3. Only a small portion of the homeless have
alcohol and drug problems. Addictions to these
substances as well as nicotine makes people so

4.
5.
6.

7.
8.

dependent on these substances that they would

rather satisfy their addiction than have food to
nourish their body. Working with these people
is very complex and is best done by government
and professional agencies.
Many of the homeless people would love to have
a break or get some help in turning their lives
around, including people who are getting oneway tickets from the Lower 48 to Alaska.
There are many resources in Anchorage
available to help these people, but there is a
huge, huge shortage of case workers and
resources.
LSSA held a housing summit for some members
of the faith-based community to get together
with representatives from state, local, federal
and professional agencies to talk about the
issues. Some churches are already doing little
things. Others, like us are looking for ways to
make a difference. There may be an effort to
organize the faith-based community to work
together on these issues.
As Pastor Andy indicated in his State of the
Church presentation on March 1st, ALC has
made no decisions or commitments but we are
gathering information, asking questions and
looking for answers about what we can do.
What can YOU do?
a. Pray and ask for Gods guidance and be
open-minded about making a difference in
peoples lives.
b. Talk to Pastor Andy and Pastor Harrison
about your thoughts.
c. Make every attempt to attend adult Bible
Class on Sunday mornings beginning March
8th. We will be going through the study
When Helping Hurts. It was highly
recommended at the LSSA housing summit
that churches go through this study. We are
ahead of other churches as we have been
planning this for some time.

I apologize for this being so long. There is much,

much more that I could have written. Thanks for
taking the time to read this. God continues to bless
us so that we can be a blessing to others.
Blessings!!!

Terry Callies
Licensed Deacon and
President of Anchorage Lutheran

Selling Things in Church

Terry Callies, Anchorage Lutheran Church President
A few years ago the MMC adopted a policy
prohibiting the sale and distribution in the church
of girl scout cookies, boy scout popcorn and other
items for fund raising projects. Also prohibited is
asking for donations for kids school projects and
trips or tickets to kids various activities. These
solicitations have interfered with some peoples
ability to prepare for or focus on worship. It also
makes guests and visitors feel uncomfortable as
they have been preyed upon in the past.
Most people have been respectful of this policy
and have refrained from these activities at church.
A few still violate this policy and we ask that you
please be respectful and refrain from these
activities.
By the way, we do allow ministry partners (not
individuals) to engage in these activities within
reason. These partners are Anchor Lutheran School,
Alaska Mission for Christ, LSSA, Nunapitchuk,
Concordia University, etc.