JAM (Jesus & Me) joins the Earth Day of Service with projects here at St. Martin's. Third, fourth and fifth graders are invited to lunch on April 18 as they enjoy making St. Martin's a greener place from 12:15 to 2 pm. JAM will be working on eco-friendly projects around St. Martin's to kick off the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day week. The week culminates the following Sunday with a Earth Day Celebration Sunday. For more information, contact Sharolyn Browning, our Child & Family minister.

St. Martin's Youth will gather to lead worship for the community at out 8:45 and 11 am services. They'll be leading songs, preaching, offering prayers and serving communion. For more information, contact Erika Rorer, our Youth & Family minister.

"Sharing God's Love" in today's world within a church budget has altered the communication methods at St. Martin's over the past year. Taking advantage of today's electronic technology, we can reach out to members and the community at large quickly and cost-effectively. For example, we now have a monthly e-newsletter, bi-weekly e-mail updates, a wonderful newly redesigned web page, posters of upcoming events in the Narthex and around the building, a church magazine for visitors, and appealing banners to grab the attention of all who pass by the church. Come join us on April 25 at 10 am in the Fellowship Hall for "E-Sunday" at St. Martin's for demonstrations regarding all of our new electronic communication tools.

Notes from the congregation

St. Martin's Adds Bob Beglau As Our Church's New  
Director of Financial Development & Planned Giving
From Terrie Jordahl, Church Council President: St. Martin's, just like most other churches, has felt the pinch of difficult economic times. Last year, we reduced staff salaries for a period of time and we have been cutting back on many other expenses. Leadership in the congregation has been working hard to identify opportunities to meet these challenges. We have listened to ideas from members of the congregation, staff, and stewardship experts. One of the ideas that makes the most sense, has proven successful elsewhere, and could help us address our short and long-term needs is to add the position of a Director of Financial Development and Planned Giving to St. Martin's staff. In its February meeting, the Church Council approved the decision to add this position.

The Church Council and Finance Committee and Endowment Board feel strongly that the creation of this position is necessary and vital to the future growth of St. Martin's. The mission of this position is to encourage and empower our members on their spiritual journey to embrace stewardship, and all that stewardship entails, as a grace-filled and loving response to God for all that we have and all that we are. The responsibilities of the position will include coordination and implementation of funding efforts that will support the St. Martin's Operating Fund, St. Martin's Endowment Fund and our overall strategy and financial objectives. We also anticipate that this will help with membership involvement, growth and outreach.

I am pleased to announce that, after a short search, we have found a great person to fill this position. Bob Beglau, long time member of St. Martin's, has been asked to be the  Director of Financial Development and Planned Giving.

Bob will report to Pastor June and the Church Council until a Senior Pastor is in place. Please congratulate and thank Bob for taking on this important ministry for our church!

Call Committee Update
From Wyn Speir, Call Committee Chairman: Over the last month, the Call Committee has received the names of five pastoral candidates from the Bishop's office to consider for our pastoral vacancy. We have checked references, and telephone interviewed all five. We have face-to-face interviewed two of the pastors, with one more interview scheduled after Easter. The Committee feels good about the process and the progress being made, and we will keep you informed.

March Church Council Meeting Highlights
Read the highlights of the March 15 Church Council Meeting here.

Seating Expansion
Thankfully, we need more church seating for our large services. In order to accomplish this goal, the music department has volunteered to reconfigure its equipment in the South Transept to allow additional seating in the North Transept.  After a review of several options, the most cost-effective solution was determined to be removing the storage wall in the South Transept and elevating musicians and their equipment to provide additional floor space. This modification will allow roughly 50 additional people to attend our worship. Work on the storage wall removal is slated to be completed by Jubilee Sunday.

Weekday Parking At St. Martin's
The City of Austin will be installing new electronic meters around St. Martin's in the coming months. As always, if you come to St. Martin's during the traditional workweek, you can park in either of our parking lots for free. Paid street parking is only in affect during normal business hours Monday through Friday. If you are here for an event in the evenings or weekends, the street parking is free.  We will have the option of reserving meter parking during normal business hours for funerals or large events to save free street spaces for our members and visitors.

Finance Committee Reports
All members are invited read through our St. Martin's Financial Plan, which is available in a binder located at the front desk of the church office. In this binder, you will find: the current Treasurer's Report, the Finance Committee minutes from 2009-2010, and our Financial Stewardship Plan. All are welcome to review these documents.

Old Playground To Be Removed & Donated
Very soon, the dismantling and donation of the large playground structure at the corner of 16th Street and West Avenue will take place. One year ago, the Department of Family and Protective Services notified us that it was too risky for preschool students to cross the street and that the playground structure itself was unsafe for play. We agreed.  Because the large playground has created wonderful memories at St. Martin's for two decades, this was a very difficult decision. At first, we had hoped to retain the structure for other uses. Unfortunately it does not make good stewardship sense to maintain a 20 year old structure given the cost to repair and limited amount of use it would receive.  We are in the process of donating the structure to an organization that will put it to good use and care for it as we have for many, many years.
 
New Natural Playscape & Park For Our Undeveloped Yard
The former Biblical Garden between the Sanctuary and the Fellowship Hall will be modified into a Natural Playscape and park for everyone to use. A Natural Playscape is a play space that looks and feels like a natural environment, with as little man-made components as possible. The new park will have a handicap ramp, labyrinth and lots of play and rest areas.  Among its many uses, the new park will also provide a safe, engaging area for the preschoolers during recess, in place of the old playground. The current yard has remained  undeveloped since the completion of the renovation project almost a decade ago. Fortunately, the school is now able to fund this project to create a multi-use space. Plan drawings are hanging on the windows facing the yard. Development should begin in April and we hope to dedicate the space during VBS in June. More detailed information on the Natural Playscape concept will be provided in the May newsletter.

Library Update
The St. Martin's Library has been moved and modified a number of times through the years. The dedicated librarians who diligently kept our books up-to-date and organized in the past are no longer with us, and the library has been in need of attention and care for a number of years. Therefore, the recent arrival of another dedicated librarian into the congregation, Del Taube, has been a great blessing. Del graciously volunteered to assist with the library update and is currently working to catalog existing books. She also is arranging for new additions to the collection. Plan to visit the new and improved library this fall in Rm 231.

Introducing Del Taube, Our Librarian
Have you noticed a few changes taking place in the library?  Well, there is a HUGE mouse that is taking each of the books ... no, not really! Let me introduce myself. My name is Del Taube and I am your new church librarian. I am so pleased to be serving our church membership in this role. Yes, there will be lots of activity in the coming weeks as progress flows through the shelves of the library. I will be adding new books, cataloging current ones, and beginning new categories of children and teen books as well as a DVD section. This will be my third Lutheran church library that I have established over the years. Previous congregations have been extremely pleased with the variety of books, family DVDs, and ease of access. This is an endeavor of pure joy for me. It will take time, but I will keep members of St. Martin's informed on a regular basis as things develop. I hope to see you in the library soon!

Donate Items For Our Sack Lunch Ministry
Did you know that 40 to 50 people each week come to the church office for one of our pre-made sack lunches? This ministry to the hungry depends upon your donations to our church. We are always in need of: individual juice cans (not boxes), individual Vienna sausage cans, individual pop-top fruit cups, peanut butter sandwich cracker packs, disposable spoons, individual bite-sized Snickers candies, and brown lunch bags. Please consider purchasing these items periodically as you do your regular shopping. You may bring these donations to the church office on Sunday mornings or during business hours Monday through Thursday.

High Efficiency Gym Lights To Be Installed
Benjamin Sullivan, our Facilities Superintendent, with the help of the dedicated Mop & Hammer group, will be replacing the current gym lights with energy efficient lighting. This project, which will reduce our electricity costs, is being funded by donations from the basketball group and individual sponsors. Work will take place over the summer.

Summer Camp With Cross Trails
Guess what? Summer camp is now available for children as
young as second grade! Summer camp registration is underway for Cross Trails' Camps Ebert, located in Harper, and Chrysalis, located in Kerrville. There are programs all summer long for children from elementary age up to high school. Learn more here.

Sunday School Health Advisory
A couple of children in our Sunday School program contacted us as being diagnosed with Fifth Disease. It is not cause for alarm but is contagious, and for some can have serious side-effects. If you have a rash or other symptoms, contact your physician. Learn more about Fifth Disease here.  

Playtime in the Nursery

Babies, toddlers and parents are invited to play in the nursery on the second Thursday and fourth Friday from 10 am to noon. For more information, contact Mindy Lado or Sharolyn Browning, Child & Family Minister.

Adult Education At St. Martin's
Join the Adult Forum class on Sundays at 10 am in the Fellowship Hall for these events:

• April 11: Honduras Book Sale and Honduras Presentation, led by Bunny Oliver. See pictures and hear stories about our congregation's 10-year involvement with the Colonia Solidaridad in Juticulpa, Honduras.
• April 18 and May 2 & 9: See Through the Scriptures, led by Harvey & Betsy Kitzman. Get a full overview of the entire Bible in this fast-paced and popular Crossways Class.  From Genesis to Revelation, you'll get an understanding of each book of the Bible.
• April 25: "E-Sunday," led by the Environmental Stewardship Committee. Experience St. Martin's new website & get hands-on lessons on how you can get electronically connected to St. Martin's through e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  

In our Council meetings, we continue to talk about Evangelism.Part of that discussion is to talk about what the purpose of the Church is in the world.As a group, we are reading "Reclaiming the 'C' Word - Daring to be Church Again" by Kelly Fryer, a Lutheran church developer with nearly 20 years experience leading congregation in renewal.She says that God's mission for the church is to "draw people in and transform them so that through them, God can change the world."

The mission of the church, then, is not to make the members happy and content. It's not a social club. It's not to be a safe place so we can avoid the world around us. The mission of the church is transformation, new life -- change. Changing people and changing lives so that those people can go and change the world.

That means that to serve that purpose, we simultaneously focus our efforts on the people who are here and on the people outside our doors who aren't here yet.We have to think about speaking to the hurts, concerns and needs and even wants of the people we don't know yet.We have to gear our ministry towards a new generation and a new group of people, strangers even, who we haven't met.

We have changed a lot at St. Martin's. Some people might even be uncomfortable with some of those changes. But in changing we are trying to follow God's mission for us at St. Martin's. We are assuring that the message of Jesus and the spirit of St. Martin's gets passed on to future generations. We are assuring the future of this congregation in Downtown Austin. We are bringing new people in to send them out to change the world.

 The Holy Spirit has great things in store for this congregation and for the people who worship here -- we just need to allow the Spirit to leads us!