St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church
Welcome, thank you so much for visiting St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Berrysburg, PA – the historic Hill Church.
Founded in 1780, ours is a congregational family with a deep and rich heritage that informs out efforts to reach out to our present-day community – near and far – with the Gospel of Jesus. In my years of service here, I have come to see that we are a congregational family that defies easy description. We have the warmth and intimacy of a small congregation, while also being blessed with an extraordinary body of committed and gifted believers that allows us to do many of the ministries of a large congregation. We hope that you will visit often – here, from the comfort of your computer or smart phone or other electronic device, but also in person. Whether you are seeking a family of believers with which to join in serving God, or just stopping to take in the view, we would love to welcome you in person to “The Hill”!
Welcome, thank you so much for visiting St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church of Berrysburg, PA – the historic Hill Church.
Founded in 1780, ours is a congregational family with a deep and rich heritage that informs out efforts to reach out to our present-day community – near and far – with the Gospel of Jesus. In my years of service here, I have come to see that we are a congregational family that defies easy description. We have the warmth and intimacy of a small congregation, while also being blessed with an extraordinary body of committed and gifted believers that allows us to do many of the ministries of a large congregation. We hope that you will visit often – here, from the comfort of your computer or smart phone or other electronic device, but also in person. Whether you are seeking a family of believers with which to join in serving God, or just stopping to take in the view, we would love to welcome you in person to “The Hill”!
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Current Schedule
Come visit us every Sunday!
9:00am - Faith Formation Activities for All Ages 10:15am- Worship All Sunday Morning Activities Currently Taking Place Only on the Zoom Platform |
Prayer for a Pandemic: by Cameron Bellm
May we who are merely inconvenienced Remember those whose lives are at stake. May we who have no risk factors Remember those most vulnerable. May we who have the luxury of working from home Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent. May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close Remember those who have no options. May we who have to cancel our trips Remember those that have no safe place to go. May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market Remember those who have no margin at all. May we who settle in for a quarantine at home Remember those who have no home. As fear grips our country, let us choose love. During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen. |
Pastor's Letter - February
Dear Friends in Jesus,
Before going any further, I want to join with Ann in thanking you, our congregational family, for the many expressions of love we received during the Christmas and Advent seasons. Your kind words, your cards, your gifts and, of course, the congregational gift were truly sources of great joy for us. We are indeed blessed now well into our 21st year of life and ministry together with you here on “The Hill”!
And, as I prepare to spend some time in this letter sharing with you about our congregational family life of worship in this time of pandemic, I also want to highlight the fact that, on Sunday, February 28, the youth of our congregation will again be taking the entire leadership of our worship, to be held on Zoom. Gracie Gehring is already hard at work on her plans for sharing the sermon that morning and our other youth will serve as the leaders of the other parts of worship – so please plan to be Zoom-ing that morning for worship of God and support of our youth!
The fact that our February 28 worship will still be Zoom-only reflects the January 10 decision by our Congregational Council to extend our Zoom-only worship through the end of February, with plans for March and beyond being decided upon at our February 14 meeting – subject to what is happening in our area with regard to infection rates and distribution of the new vaccines at that time. As we all look forward to a return to in-person (as well as Zoom) worship as soon as possible, I would like to ask your help in deciding what exactly that worship will look like. Basically, there are two choices before us…
The first choice is the combining of in-person and Zoom worship in one experience, at our familiar 10:15am starting time. You may recall that this had been our plan for this past November 29 and beyond, until the renewed surge of COVID infections made it a good idea to temporarily stop gathering in-person. This will also be our “new normal” plan for long after COVID infections are just a memory – worship conducted live upstairs in our beautiful worship space which is also distributed live via the Zoom platform for anyone who cannot for any reason be physically present that morning. Now, when we do finally reach our “new normal”, I picture this as a large group of folks physically present upstairs much as we knew before March of last year, with a much smaller number of persons (perhaps shut-in persons or folks who are away from home but who have wifi available or folks who are feeling a bit under the weather and who don’t want to “share it”) joining in via Zoom. For those joining in worship upstairs via Zoom, there will be much less functionality than we presently know in Zoom worship. It will still be the “real deal” – live worship in our beautiful worship space seen and heard via a couple of different devices which will give a couple of different perspectives in separate Zoom windows – but there won’t be the opportunity to interact with others as now, as staying muted will be the norm. Also, time with Miss Laurie and Sunny will no longer be a weekly experience, as Miss Laurie will go back to her pre-COVID sharing of a “Celebration Time” with the young persons who are physically present in worship. This will all be perfectly fine when we do get to that “new normal” time, as attending worship via Zoom will be such a wonderful alternative to simply having to miss joining the congregational family in worship. My concern is that, in the time until we reach our “new normal” – a period during which I expect we will instead have a very small group of in-person worshipers and a large group of folks worshiping via Zoom (in effect, the exact reverse of “normal”), will that be a satisfactory Zoom worship experience or not?
The second choice available to us is to do what we had been doing right along from late June until the middle of November – hold a separate Zoom-only worship and a separate in-person-only worship. This would preserve all of the interacting and visiting of our current Zoom worship for what I expect to be far and away our larger group of worshipers gathering on Zoom. My concern here is that this will mean going back to a different Sunday morning schedule from our familiar 9:00 and 10:15, this after a good many of you expressed to me how very nice it was to get back to worship at 10:15am – that the 8:30am start for Zoom worship in particular had been uncomfortably early for some, perhaps many.
So, prior to our February 14 meeting, Congregational Council and I would like to hear what YOU think. Which choice would you see as being best for our congregational family when we (hopefully, prayerfully soon) resume in-person worship – the combined (first) choice or the separate (second) choice? If you receive my Congregational Family Update emails, please be watching for a link which will allow you to give your answer online. Of, if you don’t do emailing, following the end of this letter you will find a hard copy option which you can fill out and return to the church. As I was saying in the announcements on January 17, this isn’t a legally-binding vote as we would conduct during a congregational meeting. Instead, it is very important information-gathering as Council and I do our best to find the safest and best and most meaningful way forward for our worship life, in-person and via Zoom, until that day to which we so look forward, when we arrive at the “new normal”. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Council President Roy Henry with any questions and thank you in advance for letting me/us know what you prayerfully think!
Pastor Tom
Link to Online Survey or complete form in your Epistle: https://www.stjohnhillchurch.org/survey.html
Before going any further, I want to join with Ann in thanking you, our congregational family, for the many expressions of love we received during the Christmas and Advent seasons. Your kind words, your cards, your gifts and, of course, the congregational gift were truly sources of great joy for us. We are indeed blessed now well into our 21st year of life and ministry together with you here on “The Hill”!
And, as I prepare to spend some time in this letter sharing with you about our congregational family life of worship in this time of pandemic, I also want to highlight the fact that, on Sunday, February 28, the youth of our congregation will again be taking the entire leadership of our worship, to be held on Zoom. Gracie Gehring is already hard at work on her plans for sharing the sermon that morning and our other youth will serve as the leaders of the other parts of worship – so please plan to be Zoom-ing that morning for worship of God and support of our youth!
The fact that our February 28 worship will still be Zoom-only reflects the January 10 decision by our Congregational Council to extend our Zoom-only worship through the end of February, with plans for March and beyond being decided upon at our February 14 meeting – subject to what is happening in our area with regard to infection rates and distribution of the new vaccines at that time. As we all look forward to a return to in-person (as well as Zoom) worship as soon as possible, I would like to ask your help in deciding what exactly that worship will look like. Basically, there are two choices before us…
The first choice is the combining of in-person and Zoom worship in one experience, at our familiar 10:15am starting time. You may recall that this had been our plan for this past November 29 and beyond, until the renewed surge of COVID infections made it a good idea to temporarily stop gathering in-person. This will also be our “new normal” plan for long after COVID infections are just a memory – worship conducted live upstairs in our beautiful worship space which is also distributed live via the Zoom platform for anyone who cannot for any reason be physically present that morning. Now, when we do finally reach our “new normal”, I picture this as a large group of folks physically present upstairs much as we knew before March of last year, with a much smaller number of persons (perhaps shut-in persons or folks who are away from home but who have wifi available or folks who are feeling a bit under the weather and who don’t want to “share it”) joining in via Zoom. For those joining in worship upstairs via Zoom, there will be much less functionality than we presently know in Zoom worship. It will still be the “real deal” – live worship in our beautiful worship space seen and heard via a couple of different devices which will give a couple of different perspectives in separate Zoom windows – but there won’t be the opportunity to interact with others as now, as staying muted will be the norm. Also, time with Miss Laurie and Sunny will no longer be a weekly experience, as Miss Laurie will go back to her pre-COVID sharing of a “Celebration Time” with the young persons who are physically present in worship. This will all be perfectly fine when we do get to that “new normal” time, as attending worship via Zoom will be such a wonderful alternative to simply having to miss joining the congregational family in worship. My concern is that, in the time until we reach our “new normal” – a period during which I expect we will instead have a very small group of in-person worshipers and a large group of folks worshiping via Zoom (in effect, the exact reverse of “normal”), will that be a satisfactory Zoom worship experience or not?
The second choice available to us is to do what we had been doing right along from late June until the middle of November – hold a separate Zoom-only worship and a separate in-person-only worship. This would preserve all of the interacting and visiting of our current Zoom worship for what I expect to be far and away our larger group of worshipers gathering on Zoom. My concern here is that this will mean going back to a different Sunday morning schedule from our familiar 9:00 and 10:15, this after a good many of you expressed to me how very nice it was to get back to worship at 10:15am – that the 8:30am start for Zoom worship in particular had been uncomfortably early for some, perhaps many.
So, prior to our February 14 meeting, Congregational Council and I would like to hear what YOU think. Which choice would you see as being best for our congregational family when we (hopefully, prayerfully soon) resume in-person worship – the combined (first) choice or the separate (second) choice? If you receive my Congregational Family Update emails, please be watching for a link which will allow you to give your answer online. Of, if you don’t do emailing, following the end of this letter you will find a hard copy option which you can fill out and return to the church. As I was saying in the announcements on January 17, this isn’t a legally-binding vote as we would conduct during a congregational meeting. Instead, it is very important information-gathering as Council and I do our best to find the safest and best and most meaningful way forward for our worship life, in-person and via Zoom, until that day to which we so look forward, when we arrive at the “new normal”. Please don’t hesitate to contact me or Council President Roy Henry with any questions and thank you in advance for letting me/us know what you prayerfully think!
Pastor Tom
Link to Online Survey or complete form in your Epistle: https://www.stjohnhillchurch.org/survey.html
News from Miss Laurie, Young Christians Minister
Happy 2021, everyone! I hope your new year is off to a great start! January was a bit challenging for the Little household, but things are looking up and we’re looking forward to smoother sailing as the new year continues!
Because of the current COVID situation, it looks like SONday Celebration is going to remain on Zoom through February. Join us for the fun every Sunday at 9:00 (using the Zoom link provided each week) and mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
Since worship will continue on Zoom as well, Sunny and I will continue to do our weekly “Sunny Sermon” as part of the service, too.
We are going to offer one in-person experience this month – Celebration Club on Wednesday, February 3rd, will be LIVE! As always, we’ll continue to follow the church’s established safety guidelines with wearing masks, social distancing, and keeping our activities confined to our Celebration Space! So grab your mask and join us from 6:30 to 8:00 at the church as we explore this month’s topic – “It’s All About Love”!
We’re slowly working our way back to all in-person gatherings. Until that happens, we’ll continue to offer fun, creative ways for us to stay connected. Come and join our celebration!!
Miss Laurie
Because of the current COVID situation, it looks like SONday Celebration is going to remain on Zoom through February. Join us for the fun every Sunday at 9:00 (using the Zoom link provided each week) and mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
- February 14th – It’s a “Jesus is my Valentine” SONday Celebration! Come and hear how Jesus says, “Be mine”!
- February 28th – Join us in your “jammies” for our annual “Pajama Party” SONday Celebration!! This year, you really will be able to just roll out of bed and be part of the fun!
Since worship will continue on Zoom as well, Sunny and I will continue to do our weekly “Sunny Sermon” as part of the service, too.
We are going to offer one in-person experience this month – Celebration Club on Wednesday, February 3rd, will be LIVE! As always, we’ll continue to follow the church’s established safety guidelines with wearing masks, social distancing, and keeping our activities confined to our Celebration Space! So grab your mask and join us from 6:30 to 8:00 at the church as we explore this month’s topic – “It’s All About Love”!
We’re slowly working our way back to all in-person gatherings. Until that happens, we’ll continue to offer fun, creative ways for us to stay connected. Come and join our celebration!!
Miss Laurie
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Our Mission
St. John congregation, responding to the call of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, unites together to preach and teach the Word, administer the sacraments, and carry out God’s mission. With God’s guidance and grace, we strive to boldly proclaim by word and action the reconciling Gospel of Jesus: Working together for justice and peace, and caring for those in need in our community and world. We invite everyone to join us wherever you are on your faith journey. |
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