Greetings, my name is Jane Nechville and I’m the Community Life chairperson for 2025.

When I was married and expecting my first child, my husband and I were looking for churches in the area. Many were nice, but nothing compared to St. Luke’s.

We felt like we were immediately at home.
Our girls were baptized here and confirmed at St. Luke’s.
My husband and I taught Sunday school and were worship leaders. We helped put on the Christmas program and the girls were in choir from a young age on.

Our committee’s goal is to provide leadership and to be an advocate for our community ministries. It is the mission of Community Life to support activities that nurture relationships within St. Luke’s congregation by maintaining and expanding small group ministries and fellowship ministries.

I accepted this position because I love meeting people and bringing folks together in community. 

As a member of St. Luke’s, I’ve participated in many of the amazing factions of our community, which I hope many of you decide to participate in also.  It’s a wonderful way to get to know people and be involved in this amazing church!

Some of the people I must recognize are the many folks who host and contribute to our Sunday morning treats.

Our dishwashers who clean up after us every Sunday and every breakfast, lunch, funeral, etc. 

Our Card Ministry writes out special messages to folks suffering an illness, death in the family, hospitalization, etc., using handmade cards made by our own Bev Brosam.

Our Care Team brings home communion to those who cannot come to church weekly. Many of these folks enjoy my dog Kaija, who loves visiting people like Margaret Dahl.

We hope you will join us on the last Friday of the month Game Night. This is for families of all ages.

Just bring a game and snack to share. Beverages are provided.

Please let me know if you’re interested in any of these functions of community life. We would love to have you and we welcome you with open arms. ​

Hello St Luke’s! I’m Leah DeSchepper and I am serving on council as Past President.

Who am I?

I have been attending st Luke’s since I was 6 years old. St Luke’s and its members helped raise me into the person I am today. I have been involved at St Luke’s for most of my life serving in many areas and leadership roles. Being on council has been a wonderful opportunity to give back to a congregation that has given so much to me.

What is my role on council?

The role of past-president here at St Luke’s is the third and final year in a presidential role. The first year is as President-elect, a year of learning, the second year is as President, a year of leading, and the third year is as past-president, a year of supporting and advising. This year I will support our council president Kelsey and all council members with almost anything they need. I will also lead the personnel committee.

How can you support?

Share your joys and concerns about st Luke’s with your council representatives. Council loves to hear from all members. And most importantly, continue to pray for the leadership of st Luke’s and your fellow members. 
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Thank you!

My name is Diane LaFontaine. I didn’t have any say about coming to St. Luke’s. In 1955 my parents moved to a house a block away.

After several years of continuing to drive to my mother’s home church in south Minneapolis, she realized having a Lutheran church a block away made more sense, so I’ve been here since 1959.

​I was confirmed here, I was married here in 1972 under that skylight when the sanctuary faced the other way. My children were baptized and confirmed here and some of my grandchildren were baptized here. My parents and husband’s funerals were held at St. Luke’s.

None of that is really important. What’s important is all of you. You’re why I stay. Over the years I’ve spent time with so many wonderful people on committees, in classes and bible studies. I’ll echo Becky Olson from last week: if you don’t feel like you know people, get involved! Join a group! There’s bible study on Wednesday night, you can learn to quilt, help out with property, be an audio visual volunteer, be on a committee, help with kids on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights. As Rob says, there are 100 ways to participate in this congregation. I can guarantee you’ll be glad you did and you’ll make some good friends.

I’m your representative for Stewardship, after much thought and prayer. I’ll admit I never thought I would be on church council for Stewardship! I’m not 100% sure what all I’ll be doing.

There was no talk of money growing up. I got married right out of high school and had kids right away, we spent what we made - child care, mortgage, old cars. I still wasn’t really saving much for a number of years.

I took a class at church that emphasised saving, - I can never remember the name of the class - but it gave real ways to make savings happen. I had always known we should have savings, it just was hard to make it happen.

Now I have $1000’s in savings instead of $100’s, I’ve got CD’s which I never could have had and locked up 1000’s of dollars for any period of time before. I’ve got peace of mind if we have an emergency, and an interesting side effect is that as my savings have gone up, so has my credit score.

Best of all, I’ve been blessed to increase my giving to St. Luke’s in the last few years, and that’s wonderful. I love this church, and I’ve always wanted to be able to give more.

I think we’re so blessed to have this lovely building to worship and meet in, the talented musicians, a pastor who challenges us to grow closer to God and be better people. Most of all, we’re doing things in our community and the world that are making lives better. I hope you read the annual report that lists all the organizations that we support with your giving. It’s not just the visible gifts and collections at Christmas time, but the monthly gifts to places like the Synod that supports many organizations and congregations, Lutheran Social Service, and a host of others. The support that the recipients of those ministries receive doesn’t happen without us, and means we’re fulfilling our mission.
I realized that I did have a place on Stewardship after all. You may too!