Brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is with great joy that I write this month’s newsletter article. Our newest elders, Gerardo Hernandez and Jerry Sigman, are joining our outstanding team of elders: Jeremy Foster, Fred Bray, Dean Maschoff, Cheryl Weimer, and me. Our team of elders has grown gradually over the past four and one-half years, for which we praise God. Recently Mike Patterson “moved up” from our board of elders to serve as our church council vice president. If he had remained, Faith would have had seven elders. This would have been a first for us as a church in some time.
I am not sure how many of our members have studied our seminary textbooks regarding our doctrine, but I know two who have—Gerardo Hernandez and his wife, Delin Camacho. Not only have they studied this with me, but they wholeheartedly agree with our doctrine.
Gerardo and Delin are also working with me to develop our Hispanic outreach in Lake County. We will start by focusing on the city of North Chicago and leveraging our relationship with the public school system. Additionally, we will start having Lutheran Hispanic worship again at Faith, starting with Bible study and prayer. I will be developing Gerardo to lead this ministry. We praise God from Whom all blessings flow.
Jerry Sigman is a gem. His powerful voice blesses us every weekend in worship, serving as our cantor on Sundays and as part of our worship team on Saturday night. Jerry has sung publicly at thousands of events. We are very fortunate to have his expertise in our musical repertoire. Jerry also serves with Diane Drabicki and me on our search committee for the next director of worship and music. I am impressed with his tireless efforts to help us as a church in this way. Jerry is also the Director of Security for Grainger, which has over 30,000 employees worldwide. Jerry will be a tremendous blessing to our church with his firsthand experience of systems, processes, and HR.
God is blessing us at Faith Lutheran Church!
V/r,
Pastor Jim