Faith Lutheran Church

Music Ministry Update

MUSIC MINISTRY UPDATE by Sean Newman

Dear Faith Lutheran Church Congregation,

As I reflect on this year, I am grateful for the many worship and music ministry events, enhancements, and opportunities that have taken place. We were able to accomplish so much over this past year, and I look forward to many more in 2026! I want to especially thank all our music ministry participants for their hard work:

  • Brendan Baker
  • Deb Carr
  • Diane Drabicki
  • Cam Garchow
  • Steve Garchow
  • Mary Petit
  • Barb Rogers
  • Denis Roger
  • Jerry Sigman
  • Teresa Sigman
  • Shannon Smith
  • Kristin Arends 
  • Carol Behm 
  • Jan Bersano 
  • Lisa Hove 
  • Sheri Jordan 
  • Judy Kraemer 
  • Marilyn Palmer 
  • Charles Rapp 
  • Laura Seyfert
  • PJ Liphardt

I also wanted to thank all those who participated in the Children’s Christmas Program:

  • The O’Donnell Family
  • The Heckenbach Family
  • The Raschke Family
  • Bonnie Battista
  • Michael Appel

I’m looking forward to many more opportunities with our Sunday School and youth next year.

Our music ministry season is off for the month of January. We will resume rehearsals for the Spring 2026 music ministry season in February. The first rehearsals of the next music ministry season are as follows:

  • Wednesday, February 4th, 2026: Adult Choir 7:00-9:00pm
  • Sunday, February 8th, 2026: Children’s Choir and Children’s Handchime Ensemble 9:15-9:45am
  • Sunday, February 8th, 2026: Handbell Choir 11:45am-1:00pm
  • Sunday, February 8th, 2026: Select Handbell Ensemble 1:00-2:00pm

If you are interested in joining any of our ensembles, please contact me for questions and details.

Thank you to all of those who serve as worship servants here at Faith. As I am typing this, we still have a few needs for worship servants. If you are interested or know someone who would be interested, please contact me as soon as possible:

  • Faith A/V (livestream and PowerPoint): we need worship servants for the second and third Saturdays of the month for our 5:00pm blended service.
  • Faith Acolytes: we have reinstituted acolytes! We already have the 8:00am services on the second and third Sundays of the month covered but would love to have more children serve in this way.
  • Prince of Peace A/V: if anyone (from either campus) would like to assist in this capacity, please contact me so that I can put you on the schedule.

If you are interested in being a worship servant for any of these roles, let me know as soon as possible.

As a reminder: regarding our worship services at Faith, please feel free to utilize our nursing room (the room next to the bathroom in the fireside room). Eventually, a TV with livestream access will be installed into that room so that our moms can watch the service in real time. In the meantime, moms are welcome to use their smartphone and connect to our WiFi to stream the service.

In other news, I had the opportunity to conduct the Concordia University Chicago (CUC) Männerchor for their final performances of the semester at CUC’s Lessons and Carols services. I also was invited to play in an alumni band and accompany for Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus at my alma mater, Fenton High School’s 100th annual band and choir concert (in Bensenville, IL). Attached are pictures of those events.

I will have more to share next month!

God’s musical blessings,
Sean J. M. Newman
Director of Worship and Music Ministry