Pioneer Lutheran Church

Members
Publisher: Julie Petersen jmpete@itctel.com Volume of Pioneer Lutheran
Number 11
doors and for their willingness to help at this time.
Special Meeting of the Pioneer Lutheran Church Council
MAY 2009
PASTORMinutes- April, 2009
TYLER HEPNER 601 4TH St. APT 12 BROOKINGS, SD
Plans for the week 57006
of April 20 – April 26, 2009 are as follows:
pastor@pioneerlutheran.org CELL PHONE: 695-2907
President Dana Crooks called to order a special meeting of the Pioneer Lutheran
Church Council meeting Sunday, April 19, 2009 at 11:00 am. Present were Larry
Holler, Tiffany Petersen , Aimee Lutz, Kevin Quail, Arlene Madsen, Glen Thompson,
and Pastor Tyler Hepner. Present also were Donna and Lew Weeks, Joann Thompson,
George Madsen, Sue Holler, Keri Skroch and Bill Powers and Peter Kauffman joined
the meeting later.
President Dana Crooks addressed those congregated and discussed that the Pioneer
Lutheran Church building had caught fire and burned down in the early morning
hours of April 19, 2009. The building was a complete loss.
Pastor Tyler Hepner led a service for the congregation. He preached on Acts and
discussed the many challenges and tragedies that Christians have faced throughout the
years and the measures by which God has been present to see his peoples through the
challenge of the times. The service concluded with Paul Holler playing his trumpet,
and the congregation singing “Amazing Grace”.
Dana Crooks continued to discuss the recent happenings. Lew Weeks said that the
State Fire Marshall would be at the site on Monday morning (4/20) at 8:30 am to
inspect. Lew and Donna Weeks had been at the Church about 8:30pm Saturday
evening to ready the Church for Sunday services, and all seemed fine at that time.
Dana asked the congregation to help make plans for future Church activities. Zion
Lutheran Church, Sterling Methodist Church, White Methodist, and the Catholic
Church in White all offered their building for Pioneer Lutheran to use for services.
Church
Issue expressed
Number their gratitude
28 to all that opened their
Date:
Wednesday April 22, 2009
A council meeting will be held at George and Arlene Madsen’s in White, SD on
Wednesday April 22, 2009 at 7:00pm.
Saturday April 25, 2009
The congregation will still plan to meet on Saturday morning (9:00am) to clean the
cemetery so that mowing can continue this summer at the site.
The afternoon shower planned for Tricia Sykes, fiancée of Pastor Tyler Hepner, will
be held in the upstairs lobby of the apartment complex where Pastor Hepner lives;
601 4th Street, Brookings, SD.
Sunday April 26, 2009
Kevin Quail moved to have Sunday services on April 26, 2009 at 11:00 am at Zion
Lutheran Church in White, SD. Larry Holler seconded the motion. A short
congregational meeting will follow the service to discuss the outcomes from the State
Fire Marshall inspection and how to proceed with the insurance policy. Sunday
School activities are not planned at this point. Decisions for future Church activities
will be decided at the meeting that follows Sunday services.
Adjournment: The table prayer was sung in conclusion of the service, and lunch
was provided by Lew and Donna Weeks and Sue and Larry Holler.
Respectfully submitted,
Aimee Lutz
 May Fellowship
SUNDAY, MAY 10, 2009 SENIOR DAY Thursday, May 7, 2009
Pioneer Lutheran would to recognize our 2009 Graduates
during the service. Please join us in congratulating Salad Supper 6:30 p.m.
them.
Kristina Montis, Chelsey Petersen, Jessie Pike, Lucas Because of the recent fire
Quail, Bayli Skroch, Brittany Tolrud
at Pioneer the event
will be held at the United
Anyone having an email address please send it to me
so I can add you to the emailing list. jmpete@itctel.com
Methodist Church
White, South Dakota
Please come and bring a
MAY FELLOWSHIP
Each family are asked to bring 2 salads for friend.
May Fellowship
Please have them to the United Methodist
Church by 6pm Monica Petersen will
Thanks! present a program on her
 Experiences as an
exchange student in
Argentina last summer.
A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible.
Through the eyes of a child:
The Children's Bible in a Nutshell
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but
God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, 'The Lord thy God is
one, but I think He must be a lot older than that.
Anyway, God said, 'Give me a light!' and someone did.
Then God made the world.
He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they
weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were
driven from the Garden of Eden.....Not sure what they were driven in
though, because they didn't have cars.
Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was
Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who
lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but
one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his
family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him,
but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous
than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in
exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore
a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton
Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the
evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These
plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti.. Then he gave
them His Top Ten Commandments. These include: don't lie, cheat,
smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's stuff.
Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to
use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on
the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a
slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and
500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound
very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of
these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed
up on the shore.
There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have
to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of
The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been
born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the
door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of
fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the
Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named
a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to
some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius
the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands
instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He
went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum.. His
return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
A stunning event happened this month that,
something no one would expect. In the early
morning hours of Sunday April 19, 2009, a fire
broke out at Pioneer Lutheran Church. As the
sun rose, just one week after Easter, the church
building of Pioneer Lutheran was in ashes on
the ground. The congregation was in shock.
Plans were being made for our 125th
Celebration in June. How could this happen??
What will we do??
Many met for an emergency meeting later
on Sunday morning to decide where to go from
here. It was a time of reflecting, mourning and
looking towards the future. We, the people are
what makes Pioneer Lutheran. The Church is
God’s house but we the people spread God’s
word and that can be done anywhere. Many
valuable items were lost but we thank God that
no lives were taken.
Many area churches have offered their place
of worship for us to use.
It was decided to meet at Kevin Quail’s farm
the next Sunday for worship. They have a
newly constructed shed that they set up for all
to worship in. It was a time of healing . Pastor
Tyler preached on the fact that nowhere in the
bible does it say what kind of a structure the
church is. Following the service a meeting was
held to find out everyone’s feelings. It was
quite evident that we want to remain a
congregation and stay in White. Some options
are being looked into for worship. The next 2
Sunday will also be held at the Quail’s farm.
Other plans are still being discussed.
The Council will meet at George and
Arlene Madsen’s on Wed. May 6, 2009 at
7:00pm.

God’s peace to everyone. Let us all remain
strong in our faith and continue to SPREAD
GOD’S WORD.
On This Day
(note: this is a version of the sermon
preached by Pastor Tyler on April 19th,
the morning of the church fire)
On this day, in the year 526 Justinian I was crowned
Roman Emperor in the Santa Sophia cathedral in
Constantinople. On day in 1012 Alphege, archbishop of
Canterbury, was murdered by Vikings after refusing to
be ransomed by the raiders who kidnapped him. On this
day in the year 1882, Charles Darwin died. On this day in
1775, 13 British colonies began a War, a Revolution in
North America. On this day in 1995, a truck bomb
exploded in Oklahoma City, nearly leveling the Alfred P
Murrah Federal Building, and killing 168 people, the
worst terrorist attack in US history up to that point. On
this day in 1993, 80 members of a cult known as the
Branch Davidians perished as their compound in Waco,
TX burned to the ground. On this day in 1943, the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began, an attempted resistance
by Polish Jews against Nazi occupation. On this day
in 1529, at the second Diet of Speyer, the assembled
followers of Martin Luther put forth a protest
against Charles V's attempt to crush the Reformation in
Germany and in favor of defending religious freedom,
eliciting the label "Protestants." On this day in
1560, Philipp Melanchthon, one of the original leaders of
the Reformation, died. On this day in 1978, the Lutheran
church, clinic and school of Zacapa, Guatemala, having
been destroyed by an earthquake in 1975, were
dedicated after being rebuilt. And on this day in the year
of our Lord, 2009, Pioneer Lutheran Church, having stood
on the midwest prairie for nearly 125 years, burned to
the ground.
And so here we are, back where this church began: in
one of the family homes of the community of Pioneer
Lutheran. We have lost something special, and we feel it.
We've lost our church home; the place we have gathered
for so many years to partake of the Word of God, to
baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, to be married, give thanks for the lives of those
we've lost. Can it be true? Have we really lost our
church?
Listen to what Stephen, the first of the Christian martyrs,
had to say when he was called on trial in defense of his
message about Christ Jesus: "Our forefathers had the
tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert. It
had been made as God directed Moses, according to the
pattern he had seen. Having received the tabernacle, our
fathers under Joshua brought it with them when they
took the land from the nations God drove out before
them. It remained in the land until the time of David,
who enjoyed God's favor and asked that he might
provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. But it was
Solomon who built the house for him.
However, the Most High does not live in houses made by
men. As the prophet says:
'Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things?'"
While we have lost our place of worship, we have in no
way lost our church, for the Most High does not dwell in
houses made with human hands. God comes to us by
means of His living Word, and where His Word is, there is
the true church of God in Jesus Christ. And now listen to
the response to Stephen's message:
"At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of
their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of
the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the
witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man
named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen
prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on
his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin
against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep."
By means of his message, by means of his witness, the
Word of God has come to us in such a way that we may
know nothing that happens in the world can separate us
from the love of God in Jesus Christ, our Lord and our
Savior. In the story of Saint Stephen we discover that the
presence of God with us in the world is not dependent
upon any worldly thing, like a building, and that even
things we experience as trials and tragedies actually
give opportunity to bear witness to the reality and
strength of the new kind of life we have been given in
Christ Jesus. For Stephen, his own death, his martyrdom,
became the occasion for his bearing witness to the glory
of God.
This changes everything for us, knowing that our God is
able to work all things together for the good, whether we
see it immediately or not. It poses different a different
sort of question for us than the world presents: why did
this happen? What did we do to deserve this? No matter
what the cause or explanation given, all we can really
know is that "God causes all things to work together for
the good to those who love him, who are called
according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28.) Because we
are called, not to serve ourselves, or any worldly cause,
the most important question we can ask ourselves right
now is, "How is God going to work among us through
this?"
We are reminded in this as well how insecure the world
is. How fragile and frail things are here, where moth and
rust consume, and all we have can be here today and
gone tomorrow. It is unsettling, and this is not
necessarily a bad thing. As this morning's paper
describes the current situation in Baghdad, folks are
beginning to feel secure enough there now to be
engaging in more sinful activities than they felt
comfortable with before. Security has become a license
for serving the creature over the Creator. Being
unsettled, it is difficult to put your trust in worldly things,
to serve the flesh when you know how fleeting it is.
"For a thousand years in your sight O Lord
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night" (Psalm 90:4)
And while we are always going to be tempted to find our
comfort in something other than the living Word and
promises of God, we are not abandoned. By means of
His Word in our place of worship God has come to make
a home with us, to bring us into his own Kingdom. And
by means of His Word wherever we are gathered, we
shall continue to be fed with the same heavenly food,
and be assured that our home is not made with human
hands. The temple of the Lord is the body of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and you, "as living stones, are being built
up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood" (I Peter 2:5).
It is that which brings us together that will always be of
utmost significance for us: The Word and Spirit of God.
This is the beating heart of our community of faith, what
gives us life. And as long as the Holy Spirit continues to
gather us together in the name of Jesus Christ to bear
witness to him, to receive the newness of life in him, to
live according to his will and purpose, we shall be the
church of God.
"Dearly beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal
among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as
though some strange thing were happening to you; but
to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ,
keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of His
glory you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled
for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the
Spirit of glory and of God rests on you" (I Peter 4:12-14).