From Another Blog

Lent and The CORE Location

February 9, 2009 by Rick

“This year’s Lenten services will begin on February 25th, Ash Wednesday,” and our congregation, St. Peter, will not be a part of the usual pastor rotation. Instead, Pastor Skorzewski (aka “Pastor Ski”) and Pastor Glende (aka “Pastor Tim”) will each lead three of the six services. According to our December/January/February 2008-2009 newsletter, the reason our “Lenten services will not include a pulpit exchange of pastors” is due “to pastor vacancies in the area.”

James Skorzewski is pastor of The CORE, our new daughter congregation. The CORE will begin holding services the Sunday after Easter at the defunct Big Picture movie theater. The Big Picture is similar to an IMAX theater, except the Big Picture’s movie screen is larger than a standard IMAX. The Big Picture boasts an entertainment screen that is 80 feet wide and 60 feet tall.

Also, this puts The CORE only one block away from another WELS church: St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church and School. St. Paul is a congregation of over 1100 members and is notable for its outreach efforts among Hmong immigrants. There are over 40 other WELS congregations within a 20 mile radius from The CORE’s new location. Within about a mile of The CORE, there are four other WELS congregations each averaging over 1000 members. Lawrence University is also near by.

The CORE’s plan is to reach out to the people in the Appleton area who would not consider becoming Lutheran or WELS. In other words, The CORE’s goal is to reach all the people those large WELS congregations are not reaching. The CORE’s motto is, “In order to reach people no one else is reaching, we must do things no one else is doing.” One of the things The CORE has been planning to do is avoid public identification as a “WELS” and/or as a “Lutheran” congregation.

St. Peter is not supporting The CORE financially. Anonymous WELS members gave $100,000 as well as a parsonage to get The CORE started.

In other news, St. Peter also called Chris Christenson to be our Assistant Pastor to serve under new Senior Pastor Tim Glende. Pastor Glende’s mentor, Rev. Ron Ash retired in 2008 as pastor, but still serves as advisor for The CORE. Pastor Skorzewski and Pastor Ash both serve on the Board of Directors of a controversial organization called Church and Change.

[This personal web log is about amateur photography, worship, history, and anything else of interest from a WELS confessional Lutheran layman’s Christian perspective. If anyone would like to participate, please leave a comment, or contact me directly at x22sun-wordpress2 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com.

“Light from Light” is from the Nicene Creed and refers to Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the three person oneness of God (Trinity). God is three persons. God is one. There is only one God.

“Light from Light” also refers to photography.]