Verna Tomek & Leroy Fritsche

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with some important announcements.

On Sunday, August 9, the LORD called to Himself St. Mark member, Verna Tomek, and on Monday He also called St. Mark member, Leroy Fritsche Home.

Visitation with the Tomek family will take place today, Tuesday, August 11, from 6:00pm-8:00pm at Heights Funeral Home on Heights Blvd. Verna’s funeral service will be tomorrow, August 12, at 10:00am in the St. Mark sanctuary.

Visitation for the Fritsche family will take place on Thursday, August 13, from 6:30pm-8:30pm at Waltrip Funeral Home on Campbell. Leroy’s funeral will take place on Friday, August 14, at 10:00am in the St. Mark sanctuary.

Please keep the Tomek and Fritsche families in your prayers during this difficult time.

Thank you all and God bless.

Schweer & Walker Funerals

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with some important announcements.

On Monday, July 6, the LORD called to Himself two St. Mark members: Richard Schweer and Mel Walker.

Visitation with the Walker family will take place today, Wednesday, July 8, from 6:00pm-8:00pm at Waltrip Funeral Home on Campbell. A funeral service for Mel will take place at St. Mark on Thursday, July 9, at 1:00pm with internment immediately following.

Visitation for the Schweer family will take place on Thursday, July 9, at 6:00pm at St. Mark with a funeral service immediately following at 7:00pm. Internment for Richard will take place on the morning of Friday, July 10, in Klein.

Please keep the Walker and Schweer families in your prayers during this difficult time.

In addition I’d like to remind you that there will be a short congregational voters’ meeting this Sunday, July 12, immediately following the early service. The meeting has been scheduled so that a call can be issued for a new teacher for St. Mark. Please make plans to attend.

Thank you all and God bless.

The Ordination of Paul Andrew Tonn

Good morning!

This is Pastor Heitshusen with a great reminder.

This Sunday, June 14, St. Mark is privileged to host the ordination service of St. Mark's own, Paul Tonn. St. Mark has helped and seen Paul grow in the Lord over the years and supported him in his studies to be a pastor. His preparation culminates with his ordination this Sunday at 3:30pm. Pastor Hafer from Holy Cross Lutheran Church in College Station will be preaching and the president of the Texas District, President Ken Hennings, will perform the Rite of Ordination. There will be a reception following.

In addition, St. Mark will be blessed with a message from Paul during the two morning worship services that day.

Come and share this wonderful day and occasion with us.

See you then!

Reminders: "Joseph" Musical; Voters' Meeting; & More!

Hi, this is Pastor Heitshusen at St. Mark Lutheran with some great news!

Today, May 14, at 7:00pm and tomorrow, Friday, May 15, at 7:00pm, St. Mark school will present the musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” The kids are great; the music, wonderful; and the admission is free!

In addition to those two showings, there will also be a special showing of the musical on Sunday, May 17, at 11:30am, immediately following a special, shortened, contemporary worship service at 11:00am. Of course, admission is free for that showing – and worship service – too! Because of the special worship service at 11:00am, Holy Communion will only be offered at the 8:30am traditional worship service this weekend.

At 3:00pm Sunday afternoon, the students of St. Mark’s music conservatory will have their music recital!

At 7:30pm that same Sunday evening, the Texas A&M Women’s Chorus will have a wonderful (free!) concert at St. Mark. Two St. Mark school alumni are a part of the chorus: senior and chorus president, Melissa Fritche and junior Sara Fehler. The music will be fantastic!

Finally, I want to remind you of St. Mark’s annual Voters’ Meeting on Monday, May 18, at 7:00pm. This meeting will include the approval of the 2009-2010 operating budget, the election of officers for the coming year, and reports by top leaders. Please plan to attend. The meeting is in the sanctuary.

God bless your day.

60th Anniversary & Swine Flu (Yes, We're Still Celebrating!)

Hi, this is Pastor Heitshusen at St. Mark Lutheran some important information as well as a great reminder.

In response to the concerns of some regarding the swine flu, the administration of St. Mark continues to monitor and receive updates from the City, the County, the Center for Disease Control, as well as from the District and Synodical offices of the LCMS and other school districts. At this time St. Mark Lutheran Church and School are continuing with the majority of their scheduled activities. Any cancellations would be announced by email and telephone.

We encourage families to take common sense measures to prevent contracting or spreading this flu, just like any other, but at the same time, be ready to respond to needs in our congregation and our community as we proclaim God’s protection and love boldly for all people in Jesus Christ through our words and deeds. We know that God is our refuge and strength and will see us through this as in all things. Because the tomb is empty, we need fear nothing!

I would also like to remind you about the exciting activities this weekend.

This Sunday, May 3, St. Mark will officially celebrate 60 years as an instrument of God’s grace and mercy in the Spring Branch area.

We will have one combined worship service at 10:00 a.m. in the sanctuary with the celebration of Holy Communion. There will be no Sunday school or Bible classes this week.

Following the service there will be a BBQ lunch for everyone (freewill offering). There will be water games for the kids, so bring swim suits, towels, and sunscreen. There will be games for the adults as well, including cards and dominos. (You can bring your own, too, if you’d like!)
We are asking that you please bring your own lawn chairs for the picnic and games.
This celebration will take place RAIN OR SHINE! If weather does not permit us to be outside, we have indoor contingencies in place.

This is a free event and no reservations are needed, so come and celebrate this wonderful time as a family of God here at St. Mark!

See you then and may God bless your day!

Funeral Announcement for MEL POST

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important announcement.

Last Friday, January 30, the Lord called to Himself St. Mark charter member, Mel Post.

Visitation with the family will take place today, Monday, February 2, from 5:00-8:00 p.m at Woodlawn Garden of Memories, located at 8010 Katy Freeway, just west of Antoine.

A funeral service for Mel will take place tomorrow, February 3, at 10:00 a.m. at Woodlawn Funeral Home on Antoine, just north of I-10.

Please keep Elsie and the rest of Mel’s family in your prayers during this difficult time.

ARCHER, MELCHER, RICHARDSON, WIEDE

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with several important funeral and memorial service announcements.

This week the Lord has taken to Himself four individuals – some St. Mark members, others parents of members; including:

1. Marvin Wiede, father of Joy Hamrick
   
2. Mildred Melcher, mother of Larry and Danny Melcher and Linda Leitko
   
3. Jim Richardson, father of Alan Richardson, and
   
4. Ann Archer, mother of Bruce and Jo Ann Raschke
   

Service for Marvin Wiede will be out of town at the end of February.

Visitation with the family of Mildred Melcher will be today, Wednesday, January 28, in Giddings. A funeral service for Mildred will be at Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Manheim, Texas, tomorrow, January 29, at 10:00 a.m. with a graveside service in Houston at Memorial Oaks Cemetary at I-10 and Eldridge at 3:00 p.m., also tomorrow.

A memorial service for Jim Richardson will take place at Waltrip Funeral Home on Campbell on Friday, January 30, at 10:00 a.m.

Visitation with the family of Ann Archer will take place at Waltrip Funeral Home on Campbell today, Wednesday, January 28 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. A funeral service will take place for Ann tomorrow, January 29 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Mark.

Please keep the Wiede, Melcher, Richardson, and Archer families in your prayers during this difficult time.

If you would like to have this message repeated, please stay on the line for instructions.

God bless your day.

Funeral/Memorial Service Announcements for LES KAHANEK & DOROTHY ALBIN

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with two important announcements.

On Monday, January 12, the Lord called to Himself longtime and faithful member, Les Kahanek.

A worship service celebrating Les’ life and faith in Jesus will take place at St. Mark on Saturday, January 17, at 10:00 a.m.

In addition, yesterday Dorothy Albin, mother of Carol Walker, passed away. There will be a graveside service tomorrow, Thursday, January 15 at 2:00 p.m. at Woodlawn Cemetary.

Please keep families of Les and Dorothy in your prayers during this difficult time.

Funeral Announcement for CRYSTAL LAWRENZ

Good afternoon. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important funeral announcement.

Last Saturday evening, following a car accident in Florida, the Lord called to Himself Crystal Lawrenz, granddaughter of Pastor and Ruth Lawrenz and daughter of David Lawrenz. Some of you may recall that Crystal’s mother, Dawn, died just over a year ago in August of 2007.

Visitation with the family will take place at Cypress Fairbanks Funeral Home  tomorrow, Thursday, December 18, from 6:00-8:00pm. Cypress Fairbanks Funeral Home is located at 9926 Jones Road.

A funeral service, celebrating her faith and life in Jesus will take place at Jersey Village Baptist Church  on Friday, December 19, at 10:00am. Jersey Village Baptist is located at 16518 Jersey Drive.

Please keep the Lawrenz family in your prayers during this difficult time; especially during this Advent & Christmas season.

Funeral Announcement for ELLA MARKET

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important announcement.

Yesterday morning, on Sunday’s observance of All Saints’ Day, the Lord called one of His saints Home. That saint is Ella Market.

Visitation with the family will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, November 3, from 5:00pm-8:00pm at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home at Eldridge and I-10.

A worship service celebrating Ella’s life and faith in Jesus will take place on Wednesday, November 5 at 12:30pm, also at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home with internment following at Memorial Oaks Cemetery.

After the internment at Memorial Oaks, there will be a reception at St. Mark.

Please keep the family of EllaMarket in your prayers during this difficult time.

Funeral Announcement for HENRY ISELT

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important announcement.

Earlier this week the Lord called to Himself longtime active and faithful member, Henry Iselt.

Visitation with the family will take place on Friday, October 17, from 6:00-8:00pm at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home at Eldridge and I-10. A worship service celebrating Henry’s life and faith in Jesus will take place at St. Mark on Saturday, October 18, at 2:00 in the afternoon with internment immediately following at Memorial Oaks Cemetery.

Please keep Henry’s family in your prayers during this difficult time.

2819 Club -- Categorized Results

We took three months (and one Sunday) to pray and seek the Lord's will through The 2819 Club, shared the raw data results of the responses, and now those results have been subsequently been categorized. The results are in a PDF file with it's link below (and also through the title of this post).

Our next step is taking these leadings and focusing on the concretes of what we are to do and how we will go about achieving those goals.

God bless,
Pastor Scott

http://stmarkhouston.org/documents/20080908--2918_Club_Response_Data--Categorized.pdf

Funeral Announcement for DARRELL MURRAY

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important announcement.

On Tuesday, September 2, the Lord called to Himself St. Mark member and friend, Darrell Murray.

A memorial service celebrating Darrell’s life and witness in Jesus Christ will take place this Saturday, September 6, at 12:30pm at Memorial Oaks Funeral Home, located at I-10 and Eldridge.

Please keep Delores and the rest of the Murray family in your prayers during this difficult time.

"Men At The Cross"

Greetings,

I wanted to share with you what I feel that the Lord is guiding me to do as we have been praying for the last 3 months and asking, “Lord, what is it that you want me to do at this time and this place to touch people with the love of Jesus.”

The second part of the prayer was that we are certain that the Lord will show us the center of His will. I am certain that the Lord wants me to go to Men at the Cross at the Toyota Center on Aug 22 in the eve and Aug 23 in the morning. The speakers, including Max Lucado, Steve Farrar, Tony Evans, and Joe White are truly great, and the musicians including Michael Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Brandon Heath are great Christian artists. Would you please pray that the Lord opens the way for you to be able to go there with me and be touched by the message of Men at the Cross? You can go to the website to view 2 videos and to register for your ticket at www.menatthecross.org. The theme is: “Lord, lead me to mentor and love one man to Jesus till he is ready to love another man to Jesus.”

I feel this is such a tremendous opportunity for us as elders to let the Lord take us to Men At The Cross, and then watch how he will use us. Let's please pray for each other that the Lord touches our hearts with a passion to go. Please also start to pray for the night of the 22nd and 23rd for the Lord

• to truly bless this weekend,


• for men's hearts to be open as they are there,


• for people to be brought to faith there that do not know Jesus,


• for Jesus to share the center of His will for us as we are there, and


• for all the glory to be given to God.

I am excited how the Lord has given us this opportunity right in the center of the time that we, as the congregation of St Mark have been praying for the center of God’s will.

Blessings, Joy, and Excitement,
Fred Tonn

Questions re:1829 Club

Pastor Scott,

After all this time in prayer, I must confess that I have not received a definitive answers to the “what do you want your people to do…” query. The LORD has, however, repeatedly confronted me with two questions.

The first question is whether, in fact, the whole premise of 28:19 is an appropriate one to ask this particular congregation at this particular time. This notion came from the LORD challenging me with the difference between the hearts of this congregation (myself included) for, say, putting together a pageant, with its heart for outreach. Whether it was Met, Lisa, Jessica, Kathy, or John it seemed that all it took was a phone call and hordes would volunteer countless hours to produce pageant and all without complaint. I wonder if we would have the same Spirit-filled effort for planting a church? Or, does the motivation for participation in pageant come from somewhere else? Don’t get me wrong. I love pageant. I just don’t think it is the direct method of outreach contemplated by 28:19.

Of course, this question begs a larger one: is this congregation properly educated about the fundamental importance of witness to the Christian faith? There are certainly many individuals at St Mark that have devoted themselves to the practice of witness. But, for the congregation as a whole, the answer to this question comes back, “probably not”. If that is the answer in the current life of this congregation, wouldn’t this knowledge gap be the first thing to rectify? It seems obvious that we should know about this; maybe it isn’t…

I don’t know much about one of our potential partners in this effort, Cross Point Church, but it seems that their congregational culture is different in this regard, that they have something of this knowledge…

The second question is: as a congregation, once we get motivated, to “whom” do we witness? In prayer, I keep picturing some anonymous face like Paul saw in Acts 16:9 saying, “come over to Macedonia and help us”. If I remember correctly, it would have been Paul’s will to head north and east from where he was in Asia Minor and not into Europe (v.6,7) but the Spirit “would not allow” it. His obedience to this vision changed the whole history of the Christian Church; so, it seems that paying close attention to the leading of the Spirit is critically important here. The man in Paul’s vision said “Macedonia”, but I can’t help but believe that Paul would have known him by dress or speech otherwise. I personally can’t distinguish this man, but he’s out there. By that I mean “they’re out there” as in an ethnic group or geographical location relative to St Mark. I live ten miles southeast of St Mark, so my familiarity with areas north and west that have been mentioned in context with 28:19 are very limited.

Forgive, again the fact that I do not have a glimmer of an answer to this question; but, I am willing to follow someone who does.

In Christ,
Steve Grosmann

Funeral Annoucement for LENA HEWITT

Hi. This is Pastor Heitshusen of St. Mark Lutheran with an important announcement.

Last Wednesday, August 5, the Lord called to Himself longtime St. Mark member, Lena Hewitt. Lena passed away just after her 99th birthday.

Visitation will be at St. Mark on Monday, August 11, beginning at 9:30am with a funeral service following at 11:00am. Internment will follow at South Park Funeral Home in Pearland.

Please keep Lena’s family in your prayers during this difficult time.

A "Campaign of Commitment"

Gentlemen,

First let me say what a pleasure it was to work with you during this process. It was an experience that pushed me outside of my “box”.

I never saw a singular direction for our church. With so many people with so many talents certainly God wouldn’t limit us to one goal. When I prayed, “Lord, what do you want your people at St. Mark to do to touch people with the love of Christ?” I saw individuals, families and groups of families Committed to doing that which God has lead them to do. If you would, think of a family working with a mission to help the people there, a group of families coming together to help start a satellite church or 50 men joining with Fred and the Men at the Cross. There are too many possibilities to see them all. The common thread through all this is the commitment, the commitment to do as God would have you to do and follow through with it. I see the church leading a “campaign of commitment” where our members commit to doing something to touch someone with the love of Christ, to do as Christ has commissioned us to do. I realize this is late in the process, but I have struggled with the question “is this meant for me or the church”. I have come to the conclusion that it is me and my family and it is something we will do. Whether this is God’s vision for our church, I don’t know, but I thought I’d put it in to the forum to see where it leads.

Again, Thanks
Frank Radtke

2819 Club -- Raw Data Results

From May through July several people met for 19 minutes on Sunday morning to ask what the Lord wanted the people of St. Mark to do to touch people with the love of Jesus Christ.

That question was also asked in worship at both services on Sunday, July 27.

The following links to a rather large document which contains the raw answers that basic question. The only editing that has taken place is for style, mistypes, and spelling, and other minor aspects. The responses themselves remain unchanged.

From here, we will go through these results in more detail, categorizing and summarizing them into like areas and fields. Following that, we will prioritizes the goals and the means by which we will reach them by God's grace.

In His service and yours,
Pastor Scott

http://stmarkhouston.org/documents/20080728--2819_Club--RESPONSES--COMPLETED.pdf

Nick Moss Declines Call to St. Mark

Last Wednesday, after prayerful deliberation, DCE Nick Moss declined St. Mark's call to be our Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries. He feels the Lord still has work for him to do at St. Paul Lutheran in Lakeland, FL.

We praise God for His steadfast faithfulness as we continue to find the person the Lord has chosen for us.

In Christ's service and yours,
Pastor Scott

Wednesday Noon Services Discontinued

It is always difficult to discontinue a ministry option when some still receive benefit from it. However, at this time we are unable to continue offering the noon service time on Wednesdays, effective immediately.

The Wednesday evening service time will remain and is unaffected by this decision.

In Christ,
Pastor Scott