We Miss YOU!

At last night's Elders' meeting we looked at some numbers. On paper, St. John has over 500 members. That's as big as the whole town of Charter Oak. But before you get too excited, think of this, our average Sunday attendance inn 2017 was around 130. If that still sounds good for a small rural town in Iowa, Keep in mind that that's an AVERAGE. The Sunday School Christmas program may pack them in, but there's plenty of Summer Sundays where we're lucky too break 70.

Did you know that Pastor has a list of over 130 members whom haven't received communion, or in some cases even attended worship in YEARS. Mind you, many of these are folks who've gone to college, military service or gotten married and moved away. But others have just gotten out of the habit of getting up on Sunday morning.

It's not about increasing our numbers, it's about reaching more people with the Word and love and grace of Jesus!

Can you help? If you have family members whom are far away and not likely to come back, encourage them to find a new church home or to officially transfer their memberships. If they're still members, maybe you could let the church office know their new address and let THEM know about our new YouTube ministry.

AND... if you yourself haven't attended in a while, we'd love to see you. If your neighbors, friends or family members are "lapsed" members, please encourage them to come on back. God misses them. They're fellow members miss them!

FINALLY.... Lots of folks move in and out of Charter Oak, it's not the same community it was 50 years ago. Do you even know some of your new neighbors? Introduce yourselves and invite them to come visit St.John some Sunday. Tell them about our VBS program coming up next month or our great playground. Or tell them about the Sunday School, Confirmation, and Adult Instruction programs that resume in the Fall.

If nothing else, share a link to this website, our church Facebook page or our new YouTube channel- talk about an EASY way to "offer with open arms, the love of Jesus!"