Pastor Beth

• Current Ministry Projects:

  • Planning & Facilitating Holy Week worship

  • Ministry team meetings

  • Supporting Council Projects: Lease Discernment & Endowment Fund

Susan

• Current Ministry Projects:

  • Worship PowerPoints

  • Creating Social Media posts

  • Website Updates

  • Holy Week & Easter Support

Jamie

• Current Ministry Projects:

  • Choir Leadership

  • Worship Leadership

  • Holy Week & Easter Worship

April is a month of renewal and growth. As we embrace the spring season, it's a perfect time to strengthen bonds and appreciate life's simple pleasures. Here's a bucket list to help you make the most of April with our New Journey community.

With a second grant from Ascension Lutheran Church, the Northeast Valley Consortium churches (Ascension, Christ the Lord, Living Water, New Covenant, and New Journey) will again pack more than 2600 lunches and provide life-saving water and electrolyte powder for persons experiencing homelessness in the greater Phoenix area.

Congregations of the NEVC are invited to again participate in the VBS Mission Project Book Drive at Living Water Lutheran Church.

• 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge

• Walk for Water

• Maundy Thursday joint worship celebration

THANK YOU to 23 members and friends of New Journey who signed letters on March 30 in support of the Women, Infant, and Children nutrition programs; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka food stamps); and global food aid components of the national agriculture budget. Our letters have joined with thousands of others in the Bread for the World 50th anniversary offering of letters to federal legislators.

The Altar Guild invites members and friends to decorate our worship space with fresh flowers on Easter Sunday.

If you wish to bring flowers, and they are in-memorial, please share this with Pastor Beth no later than April 6.

If possible, please avoid Easter lilies due to allergies. After Easter worship, you are invited to bring your flowers home.

Join us for a meaningful journey through Holy Week as we remember and reflect on the events leading up to Jesus' death and resurrection.

🌴 Palm/Passion Sunday: April 13, 10:00 am wave palms and hear the Passion narrative.

🦶 Maundy Thursday: April 17, 12:00 pm Join the NEVC combined celebration at Spirit in the Desert Retreat Center. Foot washing and communion led by Pr. Beth Gallen and Pr. Anna Rieke. Explore the Islands of Silence, the Labyrinth, or the Campbell Prayer Pathway. 🚗 Carpool interest list available.

✝️ Good Friday: April 18, 5:00 pm Experience the Tenebrae service, reflecting on Jesus' betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death.

🌅 Easter Sunday: April 20, 10:00 am Celebrate the resurrection with joyful songs and shouts of "Alleluia!" 🎶

All are welcome! Join us in-person or via live-stream. Visit www.njlc-fh.org for more info. 🙏✨

We’re excited to share that Edison Brown, Director of Public Relations with Native American Connections (NAC), will be joining us as a guest speaker this Sunday!

This Lent, we’ve been steeped in dichotomies—

Stranger and neighbor. Faith and works. Rest and growth. Lost and found. Mercy and righteousness.

Our journey these forty days has asked us to consider these dichotomous ideas and wonder how they overlap, intersect, interact. Where is the tension? Where is the agreement? Is there a reason we plant these categories on either end of theological spectrums?

It was a beautiful day for the Northeast Valley Consortium (NEVC) sponsored Lenten “Walk for Water”. As a planned activity for the 40-40-40- Lenten Challenge over 30 people gathered at a trailhead at the McDowell Mountain Preserve. They represented the five congregations of the NEVC coming together in friendship and to acknowledge World Water Day.

This proposal, which would allow eligible church property to be used for new rental housing is heading for a vote. ELCA has supported these bills in other states in an effort to address shortage of housing and to address homelessness. The primary sponsor of HB 2919 is Republican David Livingston, LD 28, with Democratic co-sponsorship from Sarah Ligouri, LD 5. If you have a position on this bill, now is the time to contact your state representatives to make your views known.

A hard copy of information about the refugee situation, based on the work of Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest and Global Refuge (former Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services) is posted on the bulletin board to the left of New Journey’s nametag rack. More resources are available here.

“Right now, Congress is in discussion around the Federal budget. One big factor on the table is cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare to around 80 million Americans. The proposed budget would cut $880 billion over a 10 year period. Why is this happening, who would it affect, and what can we do? Here are some basic statistics on who receives Medicaid:

New Journey members and friends have twice written in recent years to support Bread for the World’s annual offering of letters. In light of current federal budget cuts to national and international nutrition programs, and the Grand Canyon Synod’s #1 priority of addressing hunger, our upcoming letter focuses on domestic and world funding for hunger relief. Download a copy of the letter here.

You can still sign-up today! The focus of the challenge is on positive commitments for self and our neighbors. All details are at www.lentenchallenge.org and also posted on the Red Door at New Journey.

This is the second in a series of short articles presenting the current philosophy of the congregation council and their strategic planning activities. Last month’s discussion provided an overview of New Journey’s strategic planning activities. These efforts are influenced by the work of scholars and practitioners at the Luther Seminary and elsewhere that can be described as the “pivot in posture” movement. The goal of this approach is to position congregations and the church at large to meet current and future challenges to the health of organized religious practice. There are four aspects of pivoting.

Enjoy these photos from our recent Lenten Wednesday Night Soup & Study session and our new congregational council:

New Journey’s Church Council has determined that a new ministry team needs to be established titled: Nominating Ministry Team. The Nominating Team is a dedicated group of church members tasked with the responsibility of identifying and recommending qualified individuals for various elected and non-elected positions, including but not limited to the congregation council, ministry leaders, and other key volunteer roles. The team works prayerfully in identifying congregation members to guide and lead our church’s ministries, fostering an environment of faith, love, and service.

During January's Annual Meeting, the Congregation Council made you aware of our lease agreement expiration and shared our intention to discern pathways forward for our congregation’s location. We shared our intention to reach out to members of our congregation for input, feedback, and wisdom. This letter is our first attempt at inviting you into the discernment of our congregation’s space and future.