advent lutheran - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T08:44:41Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/advent+lutheranFinding Faith: Church’s multiplicity of services meant to reach allhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/finding-faith-church-s-multiplicity-of-services-meant-to-reach-al2017-11-29T15:21:42.000Z2017-11-29T15:21:42.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960754681,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960754681,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960754681?profile=original" /></a><em>Chloe Pugh takes the lead in a choral performance last season at Advent Lutheran Church in Boca. <strong>Photo provided</strong></em></p>
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<p><strong>By Janis Fontaine</strong></p>
<p>You’ve heard the saying: You can’t please all the people … <br /> But at Advent Lutheran Church in Boca Raton, the ministry tries to please everyone, especially at Christmas, one of the most important holidays of the year. <br /> That’s why you’ll find a wide variety of programs or services on Advent Lutheran’s busy schedule. <br /> “Our church’s mission is to reach every age and stage of life,” Pastor Andy Hagen said. <br /> For a lot of people, Christmas is a very Joy to the World time of year, but to someone who lost a loved one in the previous year, Christmas may not be a joyous time. <br /> “People may have lost the person they spent the holiday with, making the loss harder,” Hagen said. For those people, Advent offers a Blue Christmas service on Dec. 3 with words of encouragement and a candle-lighting remembrance. <br /> It’s an outreach of the Advent’s Stephen Ministry, named for the Apostle Stephen, who spent time with grieving widows and orphans, Hagen said. <br /> “These people build friendships with the grieving, one-on-one relationships that help with the transition after loss,” he said.<br /> All volunteers, these friends fill a bit of the gap left after someone passes. “They love it,” Hagen said. “It’s a big blessing to us as pastors.” <br /> Pastors are there at the beginning, but the Stephen Ministry picks up where the pastors leave off. These people are there months after loss and try to see the person through major events — such as the first birthdays and Mother’s Days — of that first year. And they love what they do, Hagen said. “They’ve been blessed so they want to share that blessing with others.”<br /> Hagen knows that life events like losing a loved one or living through a hurricane can have deep impacts, and the reports of natural disasters and man-made atrocities on the news make it hard to be positive about the future. <br /> “It’s a difficult time for a lot of people. It’s a season of vulnerability,” he said. “But the birth of Jesus is a story of vulnerability, too. They were homeless. Outcast. Refugees. Alone. It’s not all a happy Hallmark moment.” <br /> But there’s room for that, too. Advent will celebrate the season with modern and traditional music and drama at many of its services and programs. <br /> To those who are discouraged, Hagen says, “God is paying attention. He knows we’re worried. I try to stay faithful to what we do and remember God’s in charge.” <br /> When you need help, reach out, the pastor says. <br /> “We’re here, and the lights are on for you.”<br /> Oh, and Merry Christmas.</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Advent Lutheran’s</strong> <br /><strong>Christmas Adventure</strong><br /><br /><strong>Dec. 3</strong><br />Blue Christmas service: 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m. <br /><strong>Dec. 9</strong><br />Early childhood school Christmas program: 10 and 11:15 a.m. Don’t miss the living Nativity after the show. <br /><strong>Dec. 10</strong><br />Christmas Music Sunday with the Advent Choir in a program called “Let There Be Christmas”: 8:30 and 11:30 a.m. <br />Praise Band Christmas program: 10 a.m.<br /><strong>Dec. 12</strong> <br />Advent’s elementary and middle school Christmas program — 6 p.m.<br /><strong>Christmas Eve</strong><br />Worship service: 10 a.m. <br />Family worship service with the children’s candlelight processional and family fellowship following: 4 p.m. Snow is expected to fall. <br />Contemporary candlelight service with Communion: 6 p.m. <br />Candlelight service with Communion: 10 p.m. <br /><strong>Christmas Day</strong><br />Worship service: 10 a.m.</p>
<p><br /><em> </em><br /><em>Janis Fontaine writes about people of faith, their congregations, causes and community events. Contact her at janisfontaine@outlook.com.</em></p></div>Caring for Alzheimer’s patients at Advent Lutheranhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/caring-for-alzheimer-s-patients-at-advent-lutheran2013-09-04T14:17:48.000Z2013-09-04T14:17:48.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960465881,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960465881,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960465881?profile=original" /></a></strong><em>Mary M. Barnes, president and CEO of Alzheimer’s Community Care, speaks during the dedication service for the new Alzheimer’s day center at Advent Lutheran in Boca Raton.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /><strong>By Lucy Lazarony</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;">There has been an Alzheimer’s day center at the heart of the Advent Lutheran community for more than 25 years.<br />“They are part of our community, and we love having them here,” says Pastor Andy Hagen of Advent Lutheran Church in Boca Raton. “For us it goes back to our relationship, our faith through Jesus, which is to help those in any need.”<br />Mary Barnes, who now is executive director of Alzheimer’s Community Care, first requested use of Advent Lutheran’s Fellowship Hall for a day center for Alzheimer’s patients in 1987. <br />The day center and its small staff would serve Alzheimer’s patients in the Fellowship Hall, which was the original sanctuary of Advent Lutheran, on weekdays. <br />“I thought this is a great idea,” remembers retired Pastor Ron Dingle. “We have a building that sits empty and we have people who could be volunteers … We had several members of our congregation who were aging at the time and ended up being clients.”<br />The warm relationship with Advent Lutheran and Barnes and Alzheimer’s Community Care, which formed in 1996, continues with the opening of a brand-new day center for Alzheimer’s patients on July 22 on the Advent Lutheran campus. <br />The new facility, a converted home, has two bathrooms with showers, a row of comfortable recliners, tables and chairs for dining and activities, a kitchen, an office, and a brick patio where patients can relax under mango trees. <br />With cream and pale green walls and almost a dozen windows, the center feels light and bright and cheery. <br />“It’s a very home-like setting,” Hagen says. “And for people with that condition, everything that you can do that is reassuring is good. And now they are being dropped off at a house!” <br />And Barnes says the day center on the Advent Lutheran campus has become a model for eight other dementia-specific day centers run by Alzheimer’s Community Care in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties. <br />“There is no real medication that stops this disease. This is our medication that works because it stabilizes,” says Barnes, speaking at an open house and dedication service on Aug. 4. “It gives people the opportunity to be themselves. Here they can be themselves. Here they can develop new friendships. And here people understand.”<br />And they have a great deal of fun. There are games and music and activities throughout the day, a noontime meal and snacks and plenty of visitors.<br />Toddlers from Advent’s early childhood school perform songs for their “grandmas and grandpas.” They paint Easter eggs together, too. <br />“We color Easter eggs, an intergenerational Easter egg coloring, and then we eat them. Great fun!” says Denise Ceparano, who has worked at Advent’s early childhood school for 25 years. <br />“The ones I bring over are 2 going on 3. Some of them are 3,” Ceparano says. “We go to them. We sing them chapel songs. We have a fabulous interaction with them. Sometimes, we shake hands. We’ve gotten to know their faces. … Elementary and middle school students come over as well.”<br />And pastors and staff from Advent Lutheran are invited to the annual Thanksgiving dinner held at the day center for Alzheimer’s patients and their families. <br />“The church has always been invited because to us they are family as well,” says Denise Douglas, program manager for the day center since 1997. “We’re lucky to have that closeness with them.” <br />As for her patients at the day center and the family caregivers who love them, Douglas says: “You’re not in this alone anymore. We’ve got your back.”</p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960466468,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960466468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="360" alt="7960466468?profile=original" /></a><em>Donna Drucker, director of Family Ministries, leads the children of Advent Lutheran Early Childhood School in song during a recent visit to the new Alzheimer’s day center.</em> <br /><strong><em>Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /><em>Tim Pallesen’s Finding Faith column will return next month.</em><br /><br /></p></div>