The Big Wins of Ministry
Enjoy reading through those "wins" identified by our Senior Leadership Team and see the variety of ages and contexts within which we made a Christ-like difference. God be praised!
Big Wins of Worship
(Patricia Cotton, Minister of Worship & Music)
Choir Tour: 19 Junior Choir students and 11 adults made a 3 day tour to Wisconsin and Illinois leading worship at two services at St. John Lutheran Church in Plymouth Wisconsin, attending Education Hour between services and staying with Host Families.
Wedding Coordinators: Under the excellent leadership of Kelli Leighty, our HC team of Wedding Coordinators has grown from Kelli in January of 2023 to ten capable ladies!
Worship attendance grew by 7% from last year! With the increase of attendance, where might God be calling you to serve?
Big Wins of School
(Emily Johnson, School Principal)
The athletics program had a very successful year! Girls Volleyball State Runners-Up, Boys Soccer League Champions, Boys & Girls Track and Field League Champions
We have teacher aides in Kindergarten through 4th grade, assisting teachers in their daily tasks and classroom instruction.
New playground equipment is being installed this summer because of the huge successes of the Big Give and Crusader Run!
Big Wins of Administration
(Pr. Dan Harrington, Executive Pastor)
Successfully hiring Susan (Suzi) Eloph as our new Staff Accountant, with sufficient time to overlap with Beverly Stein as she prepares to retire from full-time bookkeeping on July 31st.
At the December 2022 Voters' Meeting, we informed you of our partnership with the Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF) in conducting a feasibility study for the expansion & renovation of our church and school, and the congregation approved distribution of Church Endowment funds to support this investment in due diligence. As of June 15th, we have completed Phase 1, and it provides a clearer path forward for improvements and expansion of our existing facilities, as well as the financial analysis to support continuing down this path. As we move forward with Phase 2, we will be bringing our findings before the congregation for your approval to move forward with a capital campaign to raise a portion of the funds, as well as to move forward with construction. Stay tuned!
Big Wins of Community
(Chad Van Meter, Minister of Community Engagement)
Out of 117 total students not baptized, 19 were baptized this year. That is 15% of the entire un-baptized student body. Praise God for the connections that Jacob Koehler has been able to make in the school and those 14 different families. Wow!
The Garden had 100 events take place during June 2022 - May 2023, having over 7,300 people enter the doors.
Survey Results:
76% interact with God’s Word on a weekly basis.
36% of 249 surveyed members are making a Christ-like difference by being involved in missional activities in their community.
83.1% of Partners said our worship services equip them to live out their faith in service to others.
Big Wins of Outreach
(Deaconess Melissa Harrington, Outreach Director)
In February, we hosted Project 216 and packed 21,384 meals to send to the Ukraine. Between church and school, we had about 475 people who volunteered to make this happen.
King's Community Outreach's Annual Christmas Giveaway on December 17, 2022 gave the amazing gift of over 500 baskets of food, along with bikes and toys, serving about 2000 people in the community.
Holy Cross has blessed Joe Boway and Liberian Children’s Ministry in two ways. We gave $2,735 to Joe from the Advent Mission Outreach envelope collection at Christmastime which is enough to fund 112 students to attend school for a year. We also donated 30 catechisms for the students.
Big Wins of Youth & Family
(Phil Pelz, Minister of Discipleship)
We had 122 kids ages 4-5th grade join us for VBS this past week with the help of 35 volunteers. It was a great time of learning how to shine Jesus' light in the world!
College and young adult nights have grown this past year and we have over 20 attend on a regular basis. We meet weekly during the summer (Mondays @ 7 pm in The Garden) and every other week during the academic school year.
As a kickoff for Confirmation in 8th Grade, we had 24 students participate in our Camp Lutherhaven Confirmation Retreat on September 9-11, 2022. I always enjoy seeing kids grow in their faith at this event every year!