Welcome from our Pastor!
Pastor's Letter
How Lutherans Interpret the Bible
Small Group Bible Discussions
Mission Partner
Welcome from our Pastor!
We are glad that you have found our website and pray that you may be able to join us in person for worship, fellowship and service. Our church is a Lutheran congregation which is part of the larger Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
We are a historic congregation in Enfield New Hampshire, where we have been the Community Church for over 150 years. We also serve the Lutheran community in the growing Upper Valley—Lake Sunapee area.
We have several styles of worship to meet the varying needs of our community.
We have a traditional liturgical service at 9:00AM and a shorter spoken service at 11:30AM. On the second Sunday of the month, we also have a short Family Worship service at 10:15AM. Although children are welcome at any of our services, we have a short Message for Children at most 9:00AM services, and the Family Service is particularly designed to encourage families to worship together in a setting that is adapted to children.
Our mission statement, shown on our homepage, reflects the ways in which God strengthens us through God’s Word and the gifts of Holy Communion and Baptism. It also reveals the importance of our outreach and service in both the community and the world. Our local service includes an Ecumenical Thanksgiving In-Gathering, hosting community breakfasts, participation in the community dinners sponsored by our Ecumenical Partner—The Enfield United Methodist Church, and stocking the Enfield Town Food pantry. We also serve the needs of refugees and troubled girls through donations and service at programs run by Lutheran Social Services of Northern New England. Our international outreach includes donations to the ELCA World Hunger Relief and sponsorship of an ELCA nurse in China. Our Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and youth programs serve the young people in our congregation and provide another form of outreach to the community. Our prayer quilt ministry reaches out to those who are grieving or suffering.
Fellowship is also an important part of ministry to one another. We enjoy activities such as youth group, puzzle parties, pizza/game nights, and women’s and men’s groups.
We pray that we will have the chance to meet you in person. Your participation in our worship services, or fellowship and outreach activities will enrich our own experiences. If you have any questions, please contact me at pastor@clcenfield.org
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Patricia Harris
A letter from Pastor Pat
April 17, 2008
Dear Community in Christ at CLC,
As I write to you, I am enjoying a beautiful spring day after what has been a very long, difficult winter. The ice on Lake Mascoma is rapidly receding and despite the mounds of snow along my driveway and walk, there are crocuses blooming on my sunny hill. As the world outside our door begins to wake up, we once again remember how truly blessed we are to live in this beautiful part of the world.
The blessings that we experience are not limited to the physical environment in which we live. As we think about our daily lives, we realize the incredible privileges that we enjoy. Although many of us worry about the economy, the future and whether our paychecks or social security will last as long as the pay period, most of us have comfortable homes, enough food on the table, and experience relative safety and security. There are many people in our immediate community and certainly in the greater New England area who do not have these blessings.
As the community church in Enfield, we have had a historic commitment to making life better for people in this area. Our mission statement reflects this commitment in its call to us to reach out to the community and the world. Our work today continues the tradition and the mission response. Included among this year’s local mission and outreach efforts have been donation of our Advent midweek offerings to WISE (a local organization that assists abused women and children), donation of our Lenten midweek offerings to Ten Bricks (a local organization that helps the homeless), preparation of Wednesday night community suppers at the Methodist Church, and the annual Thanksgiving in-gathering. We have also become a sponsoring congregation in the Upper Valley Interfaith Project, which is a collective effort of over 20 congregations to address some of the systemic problems in our area. On a global effort, our Lenten coin boxes have been used to purchase farm animals which will be given to people in destitute areas of the world to help them feed their families.
At CLC, we will be offering two new ways for CLC members to reach out to the community and the world to share God’s love. First, the Stewardship and Social Ministry Committees are beginning a mission of the month. Each family will be provided with a hand-decorated container in which they can place pocket change. Each month the collected pocket change will be donated to a specified local or global charity. Secondly, as part of a broader ELCA effort, the Stewardship Committee has endorsed our participation in “Blessed to be a Blessing.” CLC members will be given an opportunity to tithe (give 10%) of the extra $600.00 check they will receive as part of the Federal Government Economic Stimulus package. Ninety percent of the money collected will be given to local Upper Valley organizations that work among those who are too poor to receive this government blessing. A tithe or ten percent of the money collected will be given to a New England Synod congregation that works among the poor.
In this Easter season, as we give thanks for our risen Lord and daily enjoy the blessings that God has given us, let us pray that each day we may also be a blessing to someone else.
Yours in Christ, Pastor Pat
How Lutherans Interpret the Bible
The Sunday Morning Adult Forum has been viewing and discussing a DVD series on “How Lutherans Interpret the Bible”, a mini-course developed by Dr. Mark Allen Powell of Trinity Seminary in Columbus.
This series has been so well received that Pastor Pat will offer a second showing on Wednesday nights from 6:00 to 7:00, beginning on Wednesday April 9th. This DVD series and discussion will occur every Wednesday evening from April 9th through May 30th with the exception of April 28th. This series is an excellent introduction to the ELCA’s Book of Faith Initiative, which is encouraging Lutherans to learn more about the Bible and to read it faithfully.
If you have questions such as “Is Everything in the Bible true?” or “Should I believe everything in the Bible equally?” or “What do Lutherans mean by Law and Gospel?” then this mini-course and discussion series is for you.
Even if you cannot commit to attending every session, you are welcome to join the discussion on the evenings you can attend. There is some review in each session so you will be able to “catch up!” I look forward to discussing the Bible with you.
(Submitted by Pastor Pat)
Small Group Bible Discussions
As an outcome of both a CLC goal to encourage more small group efforts (see goal article in April Good News) and an overall ELCA effort to encourage more Bible study among Lutherans (Book of Faith Initiative), CLC will be starting a few small group Bible discussions in individual homes. Two groups will convene for the first time in the May-June timeframe (watch the Sunday bulletins, the webpage and the bulletin boards for more details).
These groups will meet, socialize and study together in an effort to help participants hear God’s Word through the Bible for our lives in the 21st century United States. One group, which will gather in the Enfield area, will meet for the first time at the home of Phil and Susan Cronenwett, with a tentative date of Thursday evening June 12th. The other group, which will be centered in the New London-Lake Sunapee-Grantham area will meet for the first time at the home of Carol and Larry Brudnicki, with a date of Thursday, May 15th at 7:00 p.m.
Although Pastor Pat will participate in the initial meeting and help provide study materials, these groups will set their own gathering times/places and will self-facilitate their own discussions. The small group setting will provide an opportunity for CLC members to get to know other members better and will encourage community building. Study materials will be loosely based on the ELCA’s Book of Faith Initiative which is a multi-year effort to help Lutherans become more familiar with the Bible. Those who attended the Advent midweek worship services have already had a brief introduction to the style of study, as some of the materials were used for the Bible discussions in those services.
Please prayerfully consider how your participation in these small group discussion/gatherings would help build community within the congregation and would encourage your own faith development.
(Submitted by Pastor Pat)
What is a Mission Partner? Does CLC have a Mission Partner?
A mission partner is a congregation that is in a start-up mode that receives help from a well established congregation that would like to support its ministry. The established congregation provides money, prayers and other forms of help to the ministry which is just starting up. In return, the start-up prays for the established congregation and provides information about the new ministry.
At the congregational meeting in January, the CLC congregation voted to support the Mission Endowment Fund Committee’s recommendation of supporting the “By The Way” ministry in Nashua NH with a $300.00 donation from the 2008 proceeds of the Mission Endowment Fund. This support has enabled CLC to be a mission partner to “By The Way”.
“By The Way” is a new mission start in the ELCA which is targeting ministry to young adults in the Nashua area. This ministry is not done in a church building type setting, but instead the mission developers go to where young adults typically gather—places such as Panera, Barnes and Noble, and the Chicago Grill. Ministry includes discussion sessions, book groups and one-on-one meetings. This mission start-up is an attempt to reach a segment of the population which is not usually found in church and which often refers to itself as spiritual, but not religious.
Pastor Kari Keyl is one of the two mission developers, along with youth ministry specialist Steve Kennedy. When Pastor Keyl fills in for Pastor Pat, as a supply pastor on Sunday May 4, she will update CLC on some of the happenings at “By The Way”. Be sure to engage her during the coffee hour or sit in on her Adult Forum discussion. Please remember “By The Way” in your prayers.
(Submitted by Pastor Pat)