People of God!


This is my last Newsletter to you. I want you to know how much I love and care about you all. You have been my family and a Blessing to me and my family these last 32+ years! THANK YOU! And if you ever find yourself in Pentwater please contact me and visit. It would be great to see you!

Before we explore all that is going on this coming month of Advent and Christmas, I want to assure you about Pastor Mark Gilson as your coming Interim Pastor. I have known Mark for quite a few years. He is a good man and he will serve you well. We are also so very blessed to have Terri in our Church Office and Russell as our Family Life Minister, along with our Preschool staff, Ellen & Marilee! They will be an anchor for you and keep ministries going! We also have outstanding volunteers and leaders with our Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Boards of Elders, Education and Trustees! I am so thankful to have been able to work with all these fine people for the good of you God's people and for His work among us and through us! And please welcome our new Custodian -- Ruschel Friday! Ruschel is a very kind and gracious woman. She will do a great job on our ministry team. Our Church Family at St. James is in God's loving and strong hands and in the capable hands of all these good and caring men and women! All will be well! How wonderful to know that God has a plan for St. James Lutheran Church! It will be exciting to see it unfold!

As a wrap-up to our 150th Anniversary celebration MANY THANKS to AMBER LANNNING, and MAGGIE HULS as photographers for our new Church Directory and JAMES MORNINGSTAR and RUSSELL BAUMANN for the many, many, many hours they put in organizing and developing our new Church Directory! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

THANK YOU to all the men who are serving or have served as my PRAYER PARTNERS through the many, many years! You have faithfully met with me individually when you have been scheduled in my office before each service to connect and pray together. I cannot begin to tell you how important and encouraging that has been to me! You are my friends and my brothers, and I thank you. I will miss that close time together. Hopefully you will continue to be a blessing to your next pastor as you have been to me.

December is a busy month for you and your family personally with everything going on and it is a very busy month for our church family with everything going on! I will highlight some of the events and activities in my portion of this Newsletter but the pages that follow will be full of dates and times and activities for you to read and take note of!

On Sunday November 27th we entered the Season of Advent leading up to the glorious and wonderous Christmas celebration of God becoming man in Jesus Christ for our salvation! All because He loves you so very much! I love the Advent Season with the hymns, Advent wreath and candles, decorated tree and other decorations throughout the church! I especially LOVE CHRISTMAS EVE when we sing those magnificent Christmas hymns and carols and listen once more to the beautiful Christmas readings!

We start our Midweek Advent services at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, November 30th. These midweek services will be on the continuing Wednesdays of December 7, 14, and 21. A time of refreshments and fellowship will follow each service. Our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service will be on Saturday, December 24th at 7:00 and 9:00 pm. There will be only ONE Christmas Day Service at 10:00 am. We will have our New Year's Eve Worship Service at 5:30 pm on Saturday the 31st. I believe Deb and I will have our entire Clan here for my last service and we will be celebrating our family Christmas and New Years that weekend.

I will look forward to seeing you and worshipping with you during all these services!

Please look through the rest of this Newsletter for information on such events and activities as the community Christmas Parade, Sunday School Christmas Program, and more!


God is so good!

  ~ Pastor Brooks