Category: Newsletter

In January, the staff and church council began exploring new options for managing St. Philip’s membership roll, the church directory, email lists, and contribution records. Since 2016 the church office has used a church management system called PowerChurch, which while robust in it’s own right, had limitations for multiple users. Pastor Laura introduced a newer church management system called Breeze.

One of the highlights of Breeze is that more than one person can use parts of the system at a time, which means regardless of where a staff member or volunteer is working – home, office, or on the road – the information in the database can be accessed. Another exciting feature of Breeze is that congregation members can also create an account and access a church directory straight from their phones or computers. 

What can congregation members do with Breeze?

• Access church directory information on a computer at https://stphiliplutheran.breezechms.com or download an app for Android and iPhone by searching “Breeze CHMS.” (The icon looks like a sailboat).
• Update their own information as soon as it changes.
• Search for contact information for other active congregation members.

How does it work?

• Once you access Breeze either by computer or by app, create an account. The church’s id is stphiliplutheran. If there is a profile in Breeze that matches your name and email address, Breeze will sent you an email with an invite link. (If you do not receive your invite link and have more than one email address, please check with Laura Latham in the church office to be sure we have your preferred email address on file.)
• Go to “People” and search for your name.
• Once there, edit your information (if needed) by mousing over or placing your finger on the grey box that says “Main” and “Contact.”
• Upload a photo of yourself and a photo of your family!
  • For individual photos, click on the profile image, select the photo you’d like to use from your device, adjust the photo as needed, click “set as profile picture.”
  • For family photos, mouse over the grey box that says “Family”” and click to edit section. Upload photo as above.
  • (Please only upload photo of you and/or your family. These images will be seen by other members who may need help connecting faces and names.)
• Search for other active congregation members by going to “People” and searching their name.

If you have any questions or need help navigating this new service for the church, please contact Laura Latham at officeadmin@stphiliplutheran.net or 540-929-1804 (personal cell while telecommuting). If there is information in your profile you can’t edit and would like to have changed, please contact Laura about that as well.

As a community of faith active in ministry, we expect to worship with zeal, serve the world with gladness, proclaim the good news of Christ Jesus, and grow in faith. We also expect for our community to grow. Knowing that God is moving in and through St. Philip we excitedly look forward to Sunday, February 23 (Also Anniversary Sunday), as we officially receive new members to this congregation.

You are a part of a growing community. Share your faith with someone you know. Tell someone about the ministry that you are passionate about. Invite someone to worship.  God’s Spirit is moving through you.

If you are interested in joining the congregation at St. Philip please speak with Pastor Laura or Pastor David.

Did you know St. Philip has an online calendar? All events and room reservations can be found on the calendar, as well as St. Philip Preschool happenings. This is an excellent way to keep up with what’s going on at St. Philip and when the building is available for your events or needs. Because ministry is thriving at St. Philip and part of the outreach of the church is to allow outside groups a space to meet, the building is often alive with activity. For example, a group that offers chair yoga to anyone in the community meets in the fellowship hall on Thursday afternoons at 3:00pm. Not only does the preschool occupy the four classrooms weekday mornings, it also uses the fellowship hall each weekday from 8:30 to 9:15am and 10am to 11:00am on bad weather days.

Because the church calendar is kept on Google, it can be added to your own Google calendar to keep it right at your fingertips. To add the church’s calendar to your own:

· On your computer, open Google Calendar.

· On the left, next to “Other calendars,” click AddFrom URL.

· Enter the calendar’s address in the field provided. The St. Philip calendar address is https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/officeadmin%40stphiliplutheran.net/public/basic.ics

· Click Add calendar. The calendar will appear on the left side under “Other calendars.”

It might take up to 12 hours for changes to show in your Google Calendar.

St. Philip’s calendar can also be found on the church website at www.stphiliplutheran.net/calendar.

Love, Feed, Serve is not slogan; it is mission, it is purpose, and it is identity. St. Philip is an active community of faith, compelled by God’s grand gift of love to share that same love with others. As we move into the year 2020 there will be new opportunities, new ministries, new challenges, new possibilities and all that new stuff should be greeted with faith and hopefulness. In the coming weeks all kinds of new will start to take shape.

Even as pastors and staff, step willingly into the “what’s next”, we want to continually give thanks for what has been. Thank you for your generous hearts! The pastors, along with church council, wanted to give thanks. Your financial generosity for our mission together at St. Philip is appreciated, essential, and inspiring. St. Philip finished 2019 with receipts exceeding giving last year by $9000! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

God’s Spirit moves as we were blessed to receive 26 new members to join in living out God’s mission in this community. This past year was so exciting in many ways:

· Called full time Pastor Laura to serve alongside us with faithfulness, energy, passion, and innovation.

· Rejuvenated faith formation for people of all ages.

· Expanded community partnerships for Feast at Philips.

· Bible study can now be accessed via video conference

· New liturgies shaping worship.

· New online worship experiences and platforms.

· New partnerships for community ministries

We can be bold to Live, Like, †hat. Your St. Philip council is committed to continue to be faithful with the resources entrusted to this congregation. Please keep being faithful. Please keep being generous. God’s got us so that we can – Live Like †hat.