Dear Members and Friends of Holy Trinity,

Here are this week’s updates to pass along to you:

• This coming Sunday, you are invited to wear the color red for Reformation Sunday and of course our final hymn will be, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.

• For my sermon, I will be sharing why I am a Lutheran.  In preparation for this message, you might find it helpful to formulate your own thoughts as to why you are part of the Lutheran faith.

• You will have one more opportunity to return your Time/Time/Pledge cards Sunday as part of the offering. These gifts will be blessed as part of the worship service.  If you need another copy, they are located in the narthex.

• Don’t forget to bring back your Trick-Or-Treat-So-Others-May-Eat bag, filled with food items.  All groceries collected will be taken to AIM on Sunday afternoon as part of their yearly food drive to replenish their shelves. We will be going back into the neighborhoods to collected filled bags as well.  A meal will be provided for all volunteers after the Late Service in Fellowship Hall. If you have any questions, please reach out to Amy Goodson.

• The Lutheran Men in Mission will gather on Monday evening for the monthly supper meeting at 6:00 p.m.

• On Wednesday of next week, the Lunch Bunch will gather in Fellowship Hall at 11:00 a.m. for an informative session on dementia. Lunch will be provided.

• Our semi-annual meeting to elect four new church council members to a 3-year term and for the approval of the 2027 budget will take place on Sunday, November 8 at 9:50 a.m. in Fellowship Hall. The 8 nominees and their bios are listed in the bulletin.

In Christ,

Pastor Fischer

Dear Members and Friends of Holy Trinity,

Here are this week’s updates to pass along to you:

• We thank the Playground Committee and a few others (Christopher Caldwell, Kevin Lockhart, Claude Calloway, Mike Oates, and Chris and Anna Caldwell) who spread mulch in our playground last week.  It looks and smells wonderful!

• Sunday evening, we had a great turnout of people and pets for our annual Blessing of the Animals Service.  We had 23 pet owners and 22 pets, even a horse and a duck for the first time ever.  Photos will be in the next newsletter.

• The October newsletter went out Monday to the Postal Service.

• Our Annual Deutsches Fest will take place this coming Saturday, rain or shine, from 4:00-7:00 p.m. in Fellowship Hall and the back parking lot (if it is not raining). Don’t forget that we will begin eating at 5:00 p.m.  There will be a serving line this year, and you will have a choice of eating in or taking out (but not both).

• Sunday, I will be preaching on the gospel reading, Matthew 22:1-14, as we explore the significance of wearing the proper attire to the wedding feast.

• On Wednesday of next week, our next Family Fun Night will take place at 5:30 p.m. Supper will be provided.

• Then on Thursday, a week from today, the Luther’s Ladies Circle meeting will gather in Fellowship Hall at 6:00 p.m.

• We are still in need of folks to help with our Trick-Or-Trick-So-Others-May-Eat project on Sunday, October 18 and 25, after the Late Service.  This is one of AIM’s largest food collection events of the year in which their shelves are restocked.  Please see your Sunday bulletin or newsletter for the details and reach out to Amy Goodson for more information or to help out.

• We keep in our prayers:
  • Don Simon – who is in Room 308 at the AnMed Rehabilitation Hospital
  • Beth Passow – who had hip replacement surgery yesterday

In Christ,

Pastor Fischer

We remember Martin Luther, born in 1483, nine years before Columbus discovered America. He studied law at the age of 21; became a priest at 23 and a doctor of theology at 28; wrote and nailed the 95 thesis at age 33 and 34; was ex-communicated and became a fugitive at 38; translated the Bible into German at 40; and died from a stroke at the age of 63, an internationally admired leader. His teachings stressed justification by faith, universal priesthood of believers; and supremacy of scripture which form the cornerstone of Protestantism. [Please wear red on this Sunday.]
Martin Luther was eight years old when Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe and landed in the Western Hemisphere. Luther was a young monk and priest when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome. A few years later, he was a junior faculty member at a new university in small-town Germany, intently studying the Scriptures, “captivated with an extraordinary ardor for understanding Paul in the Epistle to the Romans.” In these days Luther was tormented by the demand for righteousness before God. “I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punishes sinners, and secretly, if not blasphemously, certainly murmuring greatly, I was angry with God.” Then, in the midst of that struggle with God, the message of the Scriptures became clear, like a long-shut door opening wide. When he realized that a “merciful God justifies us by faith … I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates.” What Luther discovered is the freedom of Christians trusting God’s mercy in Christ. As he later wrote, “Faith is God’s work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God. This faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that believers would stake their lives on it a thousand times.” This discovery set Luther’s life on a new course —both his own life and his public service as a preacher and teacher. When a church-endorsed sales team came to the Wittenberg area in October, 1517, Luther was concerned that the promotion and sale of indulgences undermined the promise of God’s unreserved mercy in Jesus and the faith that trusts that promise. His 95 Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences became the first of a life-long stream of books, sermons, letters, essays, even hymns in which he expressed his confidence in this life-giving promise from God, the Gospel, and its liberating implications for all of life in church and society. [Please wear red on October 25, Reformation Sunday.]