September 4, 2025
There are three items from our August 25, 2025 meeting that we wish to highlight for you.
First, your church needs you.
In order to put on this production called church, there are many opportunities for us to serve, volunteering with the audio/visual portion of the services, ushering, reading the scripture lessons, assisting with communion, and, if you are a handy person, helping out on various projects around our two sites as the need arises.
Please contact any EC member or the church office about any role in which you are interested in serving. Providing these services is rewarding and often leads to deeper assimilation into the church by getting to know people you may not otherwise ever know that well. The time commitment for such is not significant, especially with more volunteers, as many hands make for light work.
Second, we are trying to gauge interest in our Thanksgiving services.
They have typically been held on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Due to their light attendance, we are contemplating having just one service, if any at all, as a Thanksgiving service isn’t technically Biblically based. For example, perhaps the one service could be at Mission with the Shawnee praise band leading the music. We’re open to ideas on whether to have a service or what a service might look like. Please email Pastor Luke with your thoughts at luke@tlcms.org.
Third, a loan from an entity known as TLC JOCO comes due in July next year.
TLC JOCO was formed by a group of Trinity members for the specific purpose of funding our loan. There will be about $1.1 million still outstanding on that loan along with about $300 thousand on our Shawnee construction that was financed through the Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF).
Refinancing through TLC JOCO is not an option as that entity has a definite date by which it dissolves and our money is due to it. Accordingly, we began discussions on August 21 with our LCEF representative about refinancing the entire amount. The discussions were very productive and positive, but we don’t yet have details to report, other than conditions look very favorable for meeting our obligation to TLC JOCO by the due date.
That will come at a cost, however, as the interest rate will understandably be higher than the sweetheart deal TLC JOCO gave us. That will bring added pressure to our finances.
As always, please seek out and get to know your EC representatives offering your input and feedback.
