Calendar of Events
1993 West Church Street, Freeport, IL 61032  
Church 815-235-1993 School 815-232-3511 CDC 815-232-3443

Directions to ILC

 

Mid-Week Bulletin

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 

(Our Next Mid-Week will be dated Wednesday, November 26)

Number 376 

DEADLINES:
Sunday Bulletins
– Friday by 9:00 a.m. to Marlene King
Mid-Weeks
– Mondays by 9:00 a.m. to Judy Stanton
Newsletters
– Third Wednesday by 4:00 to Pastor Switz

THOUGHTS about the Week   

Guest Article 

There is a group to which I have been erroneously associated for years…and it’s time I set the record strait.  I am not yet a Baby Boomer. 

A Baby Boomer is a term commonly used to refer to the generation which demographers have identified with birth years between 1946 to 1964. Kathleen Casey, according to the record books, was born one second after midnight on January 1, 1946 and is generally regarded as the First Baby Boomer. 

Baby Boomers have gotten a lot of attention over the years and there is much more to come.  They presently make up the lions share of the political, cultural, industrial and academic leadership in the United States. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush...born within sixty days of each other in mid-1946...are the first and second Baby Boomer presidents…and their careers in office illustrate the wide, often diverging, spectrum of values and attitudes espoused by this largest American generational group to date. 

Those first Boomers were one year old when Howdy Doody first dangled on a TV screen the size of a dinner plate; they were seventeen when John F. Kennedy was assassinated…23 when they converged on Woodstock and 36 for the start of the great bull market of the 1980’s.   

The truth is, there was a baby boom begun in 1946 and it lasted for 19 years…a wave of fecundity that added 78 million people to the world. Those are record numbers for American births! In just one year (1946), 3.4 million Americans were born…a jump from 2.8 million the year before…and an increase from 2.4 million a decade earlier. An average of 4.1 million Americans were born each year over those 19 years!!! Indeed, babies were booming!!! 

And now these Boomers are starting to age. We are told they will never grow old...they will just age. And, indeed, considering just the age of these Boomers does not tell you exactly at what life stage they are. There are boomers who are brand-new dads at 59...and others who are grandparents at the same age!  A slew of these Boomers are now 60...a major milestone for those who vowed to stay forever young. Some turned 62 this year.  They have cycled through several life stages (the latest buzzword for consultants)...passing through hippie and yuppie to a new phrase for which a new word has yet to be coined: abbies...perhaps for aging baby boomers. And the reinvention of the Boomer goes on...just as manufacturers and marketers promote sound-amplifying telephones, inch lower SUVs (don’t tell anyone), rhinestone-studded reading glasses, and 0-to-3 sizing systems for those who like a little room but don’t want to own up to being a size 16. 

Many years ago the now-boomers quietly sang along with Lennon and McCartney: 
When I get older, losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine
If Id been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me
Will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?
 

The answer to this one-time rhetorical question has become increasingly clear over the years...and it is simply...Yes! 

It doesn’t matter what life stage you are in or what generation you have come from...the absolute truth of our existence is that we were all created by God and all have purpose and meaning for life found outside ourselves. For God has come to us and has found us in the dark wood of our selfishness and sin (no matter when we were born) and convicts us by the power of His Holy Spirit of our need for Him and the salvation He offers through His saving Gospel. 

So whether you are a Baby Boomer or not...an echo boomer or not  a Gen-Xer or not...a millennial or not...we ALL have the same need and the same solution for that need found in God’s love for us through Jesus Christ. That’s not only a nice thing to know...it’s very reassuring and gives us a taste of that peace that passes all understanding. 

Adapted from an article by Pastor Richard Engel.

(This week’s devotion was supplied by our Senior Pastor, Willis Schwichtenberg.)

May Jesus Christ be praised!

In Christ,
Pastor Switz

Isaiah 41:10
 

+ CALENDAR FOR THE NEXT 14 DAYS +

TUESDAY, November 18

Time
Event
Place
Info

 

Scrip Turn In –
Start ordering your holiday shopping and gift giving. 

Last order before Thanksgiving

 

9:30am

Stephenson Inspiration Hour

Stephenson Nursing Center

 

3:00-
5:00pm

Market Day Pick-up

Cafeteria

 

5:30pm

JV BBB vs. Beloit (H)

Gym

 

6:00pm

Board of Friendship Meeting (note date change)

Church Library

 

WEDNESDAY, November 19

Time
Event
Place
Info

8:50am

Chapel (4th Grade and Mrs. Vehmeier)

Church

 

9:30pm

Administrative Meeting

Pastor’s Office

 

2:00pm

Worship Service at FRH Center (old “Manor”)

At Nursing Home

Pastor Switz and Dennis Howe

3:20pm

Faculty Meeting

School Computer Lab

 

4:00pm

Sunday School Christmas Program Practice

Church (with treats in Fellowship Hall)

 

 

Third Wednesday Meetings

 

 

6:00pm

Board of Worship

Church Library

 

7:00pm

Board of Planning

Family Life Office

 

7:00pm

Board of Parish Health and Welfare

Church Library

 

THURSDAY, November 20

Time
Event
Place
Info

8:15am

Faculty Bible Study

School Library

 

2:30pm

St Joe’s Nursing Home Service

Provena/St.Joe

Pastor Switz and Carl Zulke

5:30pm

Handbells

Balcony

 

6:30pm

Evening Worship Service with Holy Baptism

Church

 

7:15pm

Bethesda Bible Class/#1

Narthex

 

7:30pm

Public School Catechism

Fellowship Hall

 

7:30pm

Our God With Us TV

Cable TV c. 17

 

7:30pm

Adult Choir

Balcony

 

FRIDAY, November 21

Time
Event
Place
Info

5:30pm

Girls BB vs Rochelle

Home - Gym

 

SATURDAY, November 22

Time
Event
Place
Info

7:00am

Men’s Breakfast Bible Class – Book of Genesis

Landmark

 

SERVING – Sunday, November 23

Task

8:00

10:30

Usher Team

#5, Ben Luedtke

#6, Luella Wiederholtz

Lector

TBA

John Wichmann

Greeters

Carol Severson

Richard & Alice Borchert

Acolytes

Erin Kohlbauer
Taylor Funk

Jess Heimer/
Lauren Miller

Cross

Madison Wagner

Sarah Wichmann

Bible

Volunteer

Volunteer

Elder(s)

Shawn Boldt 
w/Brian Elmer

Bob Wiederholtz

Nursery

Kristin Boeck/
Kailyn Wall

Alyssa Wichmann/
Tasha Peterson

Altar Guild

Ann Reedy/June Lockner

Bus Driver

Bob Wiederholtz

 

SUNDAY, November 23

Time
Event
Place
Info

8:00am

Morning Worship
with Holy Communion – COMMITMENT SUNDAY – Last Sunday of the Church Year

Church

 

8:30am

Introspect

WFPS-FM92

 

9:10am

Sunday School for All Ages 
Youth Class
College Age Class
Adult Bible Studies

Church/School

 

10:30am

Morning Worship  – COMMITMENT SUNDAY – Last Sunday of the Church Year

Church

 

5:30-
7:00pm

Junior Youth Group 

Youth Room

 

6:30-
7:00pm

Snacks – Treats for both Junior and Senior Youth

Youth Room

 

6:30-
8:00pm

Senior Youth Group

Youth Room

 

6:00pm

DVD Bible Study – Word Among Us - Philippians

Fellowship Hall

 

MONDAY, November 24

Time
Event
Place
Info

8:45-
9:45am

Immanuel School Prayer CIRCLE

Fellowship Hall

 

3:30pm

Meadowridge Bible Study

Meadowridge Apartments

 

6:30pm

Bethesda Bible Class/#2

1776 Hance Drive

 

7:00pm

Praise Band Practice

Church Sanctuary

 

7:00pm

Voters Assembly Meeting

Fellowship Hall

 

TUESDAY, November 25

Time
Event
Place
Info

9:30am

Stephenson Inspiration Hour

Stephenson Nursing Center

 

 

Fourth Wednesday Meetings

Moved to Tuesday because of Thanksgiving Worship Service

 

6:00pm

Board of Christian Child Development

School Library

 

6:00pm

Board of Publicity

Church Library

 

6:30pm

Board of Parish Education

Fellowship Hall