INSIDE:
- Minneapolis Synod Worship Service
- Bulletin Download
- YouTube Analytical Data
- Last Sunday's Coffee Hour
- COVID-19 Update - July 1, 2020
- Hennepin County Rental Assistance
- TLC Youth Update from Pete Erickson
- Birdlady in July
- Thrivent Financial Guidance
- Pastor Al: You Changed the World, Part 4
- Conversations on Systemic Racism, Zoom Seminars
- July 12 Parking Lot Service Details
- Visit TLC's Memorial Garden
- Committees and Small Groups
- TLC Phone Number Extensions
- TLC Prayer Team
- July Mission of the Month: Exodus Lending
- Pastor Grace's Wednesday Evening Bible Study
- Pastor Ed on Twitter
- Help in Giving
- God Loves You!
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Gathering in Grace • Growing in Faith • Going Forth to Serve
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This Sunday, July 5 at 10:00am we welcome and will be streaming a special worship service produced and provided by the
Minneapolis Area Synod of the ELCA
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Synod Bulletin with expanded content
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Live-Stream Viewer Data
Last Sunday, June 28, 2020
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Estimated viewers: 406+
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203 Media Devices Linked
to TLC Live-Stream on Sunday
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Media Devices Used
62.4% Computer Desktop/Laptop (Apple & PC)
20.5% Smart TV/YouTube app
11.0% Tablet (Apple & PC)
6.1% Mobile Phone (iPhone & Android)
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Last Sunday after Church
A Real Coffee Hour!
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By Louise Olson
Last Sunday, June 28 around 11:30 in the morning, they came... One by one and two by two, folks drove in to the TLC parking lot, smiling as they arrived when they saw others there on the north lawn, in the shade. It was a sunny, pleasant, (not yet hot/humid or rainy) late morning. Folks brought chairs and drinks and enjoyed fellowship, catching up on news and oh, so nice just to be together in person again! Masks on, masks off at times to be understood, then back on, our time together was simply delightful. Folks came and were in no hurry to leave because sitting together in the shade and breeze was so comfortable!
We miss gathering in person inside TLC; we are growing weary of meeting via zoom. We had a great drive-in service June 14th and one is planned for July 12th (weather permitting), so if you're still unsure about attending in-person, either a drive-in service or a coffee hour, please know that we understand and yet will always welcome you with "virtual" open arms.
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- The church building remains closed to gatherings of any size due to the ongoing essential service ministry of the Early Learning Center.
- Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis for funerals, weddings and baptisms. Contact a pastor directly to discuss.
- Individual access to the building requires prior approval from a staff member, mandatory mask and social distancing protocols.
- Outdoor gatherings are permitted. Please bring your own lawn chairs. Bathrooms are not available. Masks are recommended.
- A Covid Leadership Team is being formed to consider the safe expansion of building use.
- Prayers are highly recommended and sincerely requested as together we seek to adapt and “be the church” in new and vital ways in these ever changing times.
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While in-person gatherings remain on hold, active ministry continues in a wide variety of forms. The church truly is not a building!
Small groups and ministry teams that have met or are meeting during this time include:
- Church Council – Zoom
- Stewardship Team – Outdoors
- Men’s Golf League – Dwan Golf Course (New location)
- TLC Staff – Zoom
- Mission and Outreach Team – Zoom
- Families with Small Children – in driveways and neighborhoods
- RIC Ally Team – Zoom
- Men’s Beer/Bible Group – Zoom
- Stephen Ministry Team – Zoom
- Worship Planning Team – Zoom
- Pastoral Care Team – Zoom
- New - Intern Pastor Grace’s Bible Study – Zoom
- Confirmation Small Groups – Zoom
- Peer Ministers and High Schoolers – Zoom
- Financial Team – Zoom
- K3P3 knitters – Parking Lot
- Library Team – Zoom
- Property Committee - Zoom
- TLC Faith, Fact, and Fiction Book Club - Zoom
- TLC Woodwinds - Google Duo
- TLC Handbells - Zoom
- TLC Chancel Choir - Zoom
- New - TLC Garden Group – Outdoors (Church gardens and landscaping)
- Addiction Awareness Team – Zoom
- Welcoming Diversity Team – Parking Lot
- Dad’s Support Group – Zoom
- Women’s Café Group – Zoom, Text, Parking Lot
- Boundary Waters Planning – Zoom
- Pastoral Visits – Driveways by request
Please let us know if you are interested in connecting with other TLC’ers in any of the ways listed above, or let us know if you have an idea for safely gathering that we can help you put into action.
Also, if you know of an active group that is not listed above, please let us know and we will add to the list!
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Hennepin County residents who have been harmed financially by COVID-19 may qualify for emergency rental assistance. Please see the link below, and share with your networks.
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Watch the Live-Stream starting at 9:55am Sunday Morning
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Visit
www.tlcgo.live
or click above at the time of broadcast to watch the
live-stream of the service. Programming starts at approximately 9:55am
Also find us on your Smart TV...
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By Pete Erickson
Interim TLC Youth Minister
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TLC Youth Hang Out - Wednesdays at 7:00pm
Calling all TLC youth! H
ope you can show up for a Hang Out at 7:00pm. We will play some games, have a devotion and just keep connected to each other. This is a time for 7-12 graders! Here is a recurring link for Wednesday nights. Hope to see you there!
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 927 3741 8476
Password: 110154
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Adults & Youth
Prayer of Examen - Thursdays at 5:30pm on Zoom
The Prayer of Examen is a regular practice that has 5 steps: prayers for God to open us up to examine the grace in our day, prayers of thanks as we examine the day, looking back on the day and naming where we saw God, looking back on the day and naming where we fell short in our relationships with the world, our vocation and family, examining the day to coming - what are our hopes for tomorrow. This will be a 20 minute exercise each week and all you need is a journal or note pad. THE WHOLE CONGREGATION IS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE PRAYER OF EXAMEN.
Here is a link to join the weekly event (this is recurring, so this link can be used every week.
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Do you live in a neighborhood where the loud bangs have already started? Each year it seems to get worse, and I suspect this year when people feel kind of isolated, plenty of doggies will need "thunder jackets", and their owners may need extra sleep. Several years ago when the noise would go on and on even before the Fourth of July, our neighbor, who was a retired policeman, would come out and yell, "Okay...Cool it!" That worked well.
Did you enjoy last week's
TLC live-stream service
? I love seeing kiddies enjoying religion with their whole selves,and the pictures from last year's Bible School children, hopping and singing for joy was so inspiring... Makes me feel like everything is going to get better as we wait and wait for church to be as it was meant to be again. Read
Norma's "Hope for the Day" message
about hugging... so many of us can relate to that. The worst is when you forget that hugging is a "no no" and the person you wanted to hug backs away!
Bible School in our old church in Milaca, Minnesota, was not quite as fun as the present day variety. A lot of the kids were from farms and their parents could not just take them into town for a morning of Bible School. So, I would be in a very small class of maybe two or three others, and worried that even those might not show up. I was always relieved when the week was up and I could stay home... No hopping about or singing outside had gone on, so it was not a positive experience. I'd like to sneak back to Milaca and see what goes on these days in our Lutheran Church. My mom was the organist tor 37 years, so I always felt, even as a child, that I should go to Luther League and of course, Bible School.
We had to change the calendar to "July" a few days ago. Wow, didn't the month of June go fast? They always do, even with so much
"stay home, wear that mask, wash those hands, social distance always,”
etc. Will July be better? Doesn't sound like it will. Businesses and public areas opened too fast in many states, making that old virus stick around and get worse.
Our prayers are needed even more right now.
-Bloomington Bird Lady
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WHAT DOES THIS MEAN
FOR US?
-a continuing series-
By Pastor Al Dungan
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You Changed the World
~Part 4~
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From the time of my conception, through my birth and growth over many years, I had no idea that the color of my skin gave me an advantage, in so many ways, over those whose skin color differed from mine.
I was just me. And my belief then, and for many years, was that other “me’s” had the same advantages that I did. It was natural for me to think this way because I was not exposed to people of other skin colors and cultures except in passing.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. And though my thought and belief process was gradually changing over the years to see that people with different colored skin did not have those advantages, it took the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer to bring it into a stark reality for me. I could no longer assume or pretend that all people had the same advantages that I had inherently possessed.
They didn’t. And they hadn’t from the time the first Europeans landed on the shores of the North American continent. Not Columbus. Not the Puritans/Pilgrims. I had been taught a fairy tale about the history of this country from its founding up until our most recent history.
It was the fairy tale that white skinned people were better than, more intelligent than, more creative than, etc., etc. than all those “others”.
It has been said that history is written by the winners. And the history of the US has been no different. Nothing in our history books, at least the ones that I’d been exposed to, said anything about the genocide practiced on the Indigenous nations who had settled this continent beginning 30,000 years ago. Nothing was said about the evils of slavery that continued to exist in other forms even after the publishing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Nothing was said about how California, Texas and New Mexico were stolen from the Mexican nation. And the list could go on indefinitely, but I have a limited number of words for this article.
The point is this: the murder of George Floyd, hopefully for those of us whose skin color is white, can and will be a watershed in our thinking and belief.
I’m not saying it will be easy. I’m not saying that it will all change overnight. And I’m definitely not saying that the change will come through the legislative process.
What I am saying is that for those of us who proclaim Christ as the Lord of our lives, a change will take place, must take place, in our hearts so that we can join with all people of all nations of all skin colors and say with St. Paul that there is no difference between male and female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile.
We are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Conversations on Systemic Racism
July 12 & 19, 2020
2:00-3:30pm on Zoom
Join the
ASDIC
and
FREC
(Facilitating Racial Equity Collective) communities as we respond to this historical moment.
In light of the murder of George Floyd and countless police killings of Black and Brown people, the world is reassessing the role of both police and society at large in addressing system-wide and structural racism. We wish to look at what this moment is about, how it connects to America’s history of systemic racism, and the forces that continue to sustain racism in Minnesota and the nation.
With the support of Professor
Joe R. Feagin
of Texas A&M University, along with Minnesota anti-racist activists and scholars, we will host four 90-minute conversations with guest panelists over the summer, starting next Sunday.
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THANK YOU!
Since TLC's worship services have gone exclusively online, many of you have signed-up for online giving. . Besides being a great convenience for you, it supports and regulates the church budget.
If you have moved to online giving and normally receive envelopes, please let the church know so we can stop forwarding envelopes.
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Service will be in the west parking lot at
10 a.m. on Sunday, July 12
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Come in your car and listen at 87.9 on your FM radio.
Bring your own lawn chair and sit up front
in designated "safe distance" areas.
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Individual, sealed, communion elements containing juice and a wafer will be available from the ushers at the parking lot entrance.
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What to know:
- Please arrive early, parking lot "ushers" will guide you to a parking space (vehicles will be facing towards the church west entrance).
- Enter parking lot thru the Harrison Avenue entrance.
- Tune your FM radio to: 87.9
- Ushers at the entrance will be providing prepackaged communion cups/wafers (gloved hands). If you're uncomfortable with contact, you are encouraged to bring your own juice and bread/crackers.
- Bulletins will be available as you drive in by gloved and masked ushers. If you don't wish to have contact, please download and print your own bulletin in next week's TLC Weekly or view it on a media device. The bulletins contain hymns and lyrics so you can sing-along.
- You are asked to remain in your car for the service or you may sit outside next to your car in a chair you bring, or near the front in the chalked circles marking a safe distance zone. Please wear a mask and maintain a safe, six-foot distance from others.
- If you live close enough to walk, bring a lawn chair and sit at a safe distance from others and wear a mask. Bring your own juice/wine, bread or crackers.
- IMPORTANT—restrooms will not be available and the office is not open.
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Please Visit TLC's Memorial Garden
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Since 2012, loved ones who had their funeral or memorial service at TLC now have a place and a webpage on our TLC Memorial Garden website. Please visit these saints, honor and remember them; read their obituary, the bulletin and homily, watch the live-stream archive of their service, browse their personal photo album, and, if so inclined, leave a personal message on their page.
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Screen capture of the TLC Memorial Garden home page.
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Committees
and
Small Groups
During this time of social distancing ministry is still happening and we want to hear from you! Let's share your stories with the community of TLC. Are y'all meeting? How have you adapted your meetings to keep everyone safe? What projects are you working on? Send a brief description and some photos to
tlcmedia@tlcmn.com
and we will share your committee's news on The Weekly.
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TLC Phone Extensions Change
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Due to staff and office location changes, phone extensions have also been updated.
When calling the church main line, (952-884-2364) and having the auto-attendant answer, simply key-in the extension number at any time during the announcement and you'll be transferred to that phone extension. There is also an option for the auto-attendant to list the extension numbers.
EXTENSION
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Do you ever need an extra prayer for yourself, a loved one, or a dear friend? TLC has a prayer team that prays often for members, their families and friends of the congregation. Send your prayer requests to
merickson@tlcmn.com
or on the
TLC website here.
Your prayer needs are sent on to the Prayer Team and kept confidential – just between you, the pray-ers, and God. If you would like to be a member of the prayer team, please sign up on the yellow Life@TLC bulletin insert.
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Exodus Lending began in 2014 with a $50,000 grant at Holy Trinity Church on east Lake Street in Minneapolis. Their non-profit mission is to provide payday loan borrowers a pathway to financial stability.
What They Do
They get Minnesotans out of payday loan debt and back on track financially by enrolling and supporting them in a 0% interest refinance program, lending up to $1,000 to qualified participants.
Why They Do It
They envision a world where all people are free from the cycle of debt caused by predatory lenders. We seek lasting change for the individuals and families, for financial institutions, and for our society.
Exodus Lending Successes
$982,828
Participant dollars saved
$322,731
In loans refinanced
176
Program graduates
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Resumes Wednesday nights with Pastor Grace.
Continues each week at 7:00pm
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Join Intern Pastor Grace as she re-Zooms Wednesday night Bible Study. Bring your own bibles and let's learn about the interesting and often overlooked characters in our book of faith.
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 960 1654 7916
Password: 891335
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Click and watch right now. There's 24/7 programming representing TLC. Share with friends.
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Back Issues of the TLC Weekly
including this issue (Today!)
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[CLICK HERE]
to visit the TLC web page where you can choose to read from the past 16 months of weekly E-newsletters from Transfiguration Lutheran Church. This is also a great way to share TLC Weekly with those that don't receive it in email. Tell them to visit
tlcmn.com/tlcweekly
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ELECTRONIC GIVING HELPS SUPPORT TLC
It’s important to know that we can depend on financial support from TLC members. Electronic giving is fast, secure, and reduces administrative costs, allowing more of every dollar to support the important work we are called to do. You can give anytime, anywhere to specific funds with our GivePlus Mobile app (free from the app store). You can also schedule and manage recurring donations by visiting our website and clicking on TLC ONLINE GIVING icon at the bottom of any page, or
[Click Here] to start the process, or contact the church office.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!
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The Coronavirus has clearly upset life in Minnesota and around the world. As you know, even TLC is feeling the impact. Our church services and meetings are all on hold for now and only staff is left in the building, but our mission continues. Without the ability to gather for worship, we have no offering baskets being circulated to collect weekly offerings. In the mean time, bills still have to be paid and we need the continued financial support of our members.
If you normally submit your offering in the offering baskets during service, we ask you to mail your offering to TLC at your normal interval while services are suspended.
If you haven’t done so already, please consider signing up for automated giving through the Online Giving link at the top of every page on our website
www.tlcmn.com
.
Or click here to begin your donation.
This easy to set up program allows you to schedule your offering payments at an interval convenient for you so your support is given whether you can make it to service or not - and whether we are able to hold services or not!
We realize that some of you may have suffered loss of your job or income during this crisis and are unable to fulfill your offering pledge at this time. If this is the case with you, please let us know and we will keep you in our prayers.
Like other crisis’ before it, the Corona virus will eventually pass and our lives will return to near normal. It’s times like these that can really test our faith. Take care of each other and yourself. We will get through this together. And, please don’t forget to support TLC in the mean time.
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Free Subscriptions, sign up to be a volunteer, request care ministry and more!
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Subscribe a friend to this newsletter, TLC Weekly, or subscribe yourself and others to the TLC publication, Transcripts. Interested in TLC membership? Sunday school? Our renowned TLC music program, volunteering and more are choices on this easy online TLC Request Form. Just
[Click Here]
or the "Sign Me Up" button on the left.
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A Reconciling in Christ Congregation
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A Culture of Diversity and Inclusion
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