The State of the Church at Epiphany - 2011

2011 was the 84^th year of God’s grace, Word and Sacraments celebrated and administered to God’s saints at Epiphany Lutheran Church. In January we completed the first phase of our church renovation project. The walls were repaired and repainted a brighter shade of white that brightened the room and made the arch stand out even more so. Wallpaper was added around the sides of the sanctuary that will be durable for years to come. Great care was taken to preserve the integrity of our worship facility. Though we were making everything new, Doug Evans, who headed up our beautification committee, took great care to not make anything look modern (modern in a few decades only looks dated). For example, instead of using regular chair rail like you might use in your home, Don Kirby placed a single strip of oak around the interior, separating the wallpaper from the paint. We took down the two hymn boards which were rather plain and installed a single original, ornate hymn board that was found in the attic. Armin Supernaw washed and re-stained the floor boards, pew caps, hymn board and other woodwork to make it shine again.

The biggest items that were purchased and installed for Epiphany’s 84^th anniversary were oak arches that mimic the arch around the Good Shepherd stained glass window above the altar. Two sheets of white sound fabric were placed inside the arches. Pastor Pope did a masterful job with the woodwork. I like quoting Jim Hermann, who grew up at Epiphany, who said, “This is the way the church should have always looked.” The church renovation costs were about $7,000. Well worth the money!

In January, we were blessed with the transfers of Brad and Kellie Nelson and the adult confirmations of Eric and Amber Wasurick. 

In February, Pastor Zarling, Pastor Roekle and Mr. Boehm began attending meetings about School Choice coming to Racine. Throughout January and February, Epiphany members contributed $27,497 for Debt Reduction. Through a very generous gift from a family, that money was matched. The total was $55,000! $48,600 was paid to TriCity and the remaining balance was paid to LACE to whom we still owed $48,000. What an amazing thing to accomplish in the midst of a recession! Since we had a fire already, we burned the TriCity mortgage at the Easter Vigil.

February was also momentous because we passed the Joint Operating Agreement for the operation of Wisconsin Lutheran School between Epiphany and First Evan. This Joint Agreement was probably 10 years in the making. Now we will be able to work even more effectively and efficiently in our commitment of teaching God’s Word to our children.

We also had one of our most popular Lenten suppers … ever! Nathan Hefti provided Olive Garden salad and pasta for the congregation. It was both very well attended and very delicious! We also transferred Bethany (Bauer) Lee to Friedens, Kenosha.

In December of 2010, Pastor Zarling and Chuck Mano sanded and stained the wood floors in the Parish House and Frank Petrick painted the walls. In March and April, furniture was moved in to the Parish House to give it a “home” feel. It is very comfortable now for small group Bible studies and various meetings.

In May we accepted 8 confirmands into membership: Faith Allen, Devin Harmon, Danielle Hood, Michaela Mano, Cory Nejedly, Samantha Peterson, Sydney Smith and Abigail Zarling. I pointed out in my confirmation ceremony how many of these confirmands were baptized at Epiphany’s font and now they were confirming their baptismal vows before that same font years later. Unfortunately, we also released 21 people from their membership at Epiphany.

In June we tried something new. Pastor Janke and Pastor Zarling did a youth Soccer Camp at New Hope. There were over 80 children who heard God’s Word in devotions and lessons, while at the same time having fun learning soccer. We also had about a dozen teenagers from Epiphany helping as assistants. It was well worth the extra effort to do this soccer camp in place of a traditional VBS.

In July, Roger Tanner was baptized and then confirmed in the worship service. We transferred the Lowery family to Trinity, Caledonia. Pastor was again the head counselor for Training Camp. It was another successful year with about 80 campers from grades 3-9.

This summer and fall, Mano Fencing installed a new gate on the west side of school. They also replaced the fencing around the school playground. John Christiansen from John’s Tree Service, donated wood chips for the playground and cleaned out the gutters on the school. Throughout the year we also made minor improvements to the church and school: repairing downspouts, installing new exit lights, etc.

August was a very busy month at WLS. Because we had voted to accepted School Choice for our school, we had to have a lot of paperwork, building improvements, etc. completed by the middle of August. We had no idea what impact School Choice would have on WLS. The IPSC decided to open 31 seats for School Choice students. We received 26 students, all but 7 of those were from our own church families. School Choice has been a real blessing for our school! Instead of shrinking and cutting staff like is happening in so many of our other WELS grade schools, we are working towards increasing staff and filling our classrooms to about 20 students per classroom. Yes, there are risks and challenges with School Choice, but what a blessing God has granted to our churches and school at just the right time!

In September, we had our annual church picnic. We invited the popular WELS band, KOINE, to beautify our service. The weather, worship and fellowship could not have been more splendid! We also remembered the 10^th anniversary of 9-11. The Bakeless Bake Sale on September 25 raised over $1200 for the new paintings.

In October, the Lord of the Church allowed Epiphany to grow with new members: Lori Ballewske, John Christiansen, Jennifer Fitzpatrick, Adam Noll and Lynne Zygowski through affirmation of faith. Faith Kionka also transferred to Epiphany from Crown of Life in New Orleans, LA.

For the very first time in our history of working together with First Evan in running WLS jointly, we extended a Divine Call from both congregations through the IPSC per the Joint Operating Agreement. We called Michael Koestler to be the principal of WLS since Mr. Boehm is retiring at the end of the 2012 school year. Mr. Koestler was led to return the Call.

Beginning with the Reformation Festival in October, our choir began using parts of a new liturgy called “Jesus, the Compassion of God.” We have only started using the Kyrie and the Gloria for our festival services like Reformation, Christ the King, Christmas Day and the Epiphany Festival. The choir and the congregation love to sing this new liturgy. It is both reminiscent of our heritage by singing the Kyrie in Latin and yet also new and refreshing with the various choir voices and all the instrumentalists that Judy Kirby, Krista Reck and Joshua Krohn are able to organize and implement.

In January Pastor Pope and his daughter, Melanie Schuette, installed the framework and the new paintings. They are fantastic! We keep receiving compliments on them. Tom Hunt, a local artist and a member at First Evan told me that though we paid $3,000 a piece for the paintings, they are really worth about $15,000 a piece! Scott Martyn and Joshua Krohn also installed new track lighting for the paintings, lectern and pulpit, replaced light bulbs behind the Good Shepherd stained glass window to brighten it up, and replaced all the light bulbs in the sanctuary. A number of older members have also commented on how much they appreciate the worship service being brighter. Pastor commented that now the church looks like he always dreamed it could.

It is such a pleasure to worship in God’s house with all the beauty of our stained glass windows, artwork and woodwork, the passion of our musicians and the dedication of our members!

In the coming years we are going to be working on adding PayPal on our website; two video cameras for better quality in recording for DVDs for shut-ins, sermons for Facebook and live streaming on our website; doing even more outreach through canvassing and Facebook; adding insulation in the church attic, etc. Our next big facilities project is the basement hallway and the entire exterior of the church. We hope to take a group of Teens to the Youth Rally in Knoxville, TN this year. Pastor and his family didn’t really take a vacation in 2011. So in 2012, they are planning on going to Racliff, KY to see the new church that was built there, going to Disney in spring and South Dakota in August. Shelley and Pastor are also hoping/planning on taking a tour of the Apostle Paul’s missionary travels around the Mediterranean in 2013.

To God be the glory, great things He has done! – Pastor Zarling, 1/23/12