Mercy Seat » News

Making Mercy Seat Work

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:01:24 +0000

In the past, when pledge-time came around, Mercy Seat would take the public radio route: “supporting us is the equivalent of a latte with 3 raw sugars and a mega-depth charge a day!” But in more recent history, we’ve started thinking about things differently. Mercy Seat isn’t your typical non-profit, nor your typical church. It’s a place where people come together and make redemption happen. The tricky part is where I insert money into this equation, but in all aspects, Mercy Seat is only as much as the people who go there make of it. When we gather at the table, it is whatever 4 people who stand up first who help in the sacraments. When we put together a fundraiser, the ideas come from the congregants. And so when it comes to playing Mark and Kae or commissioning our fantastic liturgies, it is all of us who scrounge together and make Mercy Seat happen.
So here’s the pitch: every year we ask people to think about what they can afford and pledge money to make Mercy Seat work. This year the Committee of the Future and the pastors came up with an un-padded amount of what it costs to run Mercy Seat for a year. It’s $149,000 and includes paying for our music ministry, rent, childhood ministries, missions, and our pastors’ salaries (That’s right, you just read “pastors’ salaries” – plural – because this year we want to commit to paying our beloved pastor Mark a portion of the salary he has not been taking). After receiving support from other sources, we need to raise $121,000. We divided the big budget number up into what we call “shares” to make it easy to understand how an individual can do their part to help us meet our budget goal. If 130 people give a share worth $18 a week ($78 a month) we will reach our budget goal. Of course, give what you are able despite the share scale. As you might have guessed, you are more than welcome to give multiple shares or even old-school tithe!

If you have pledged shares in the past, don’t forget to renew your pledge this year so we can add your shares to our total.

Also, consider automatic giving using Thrivent Simply Giving. It just takes filling out a form and including a voided check. Automatic giving not only enables us to have a predictable budget, it has allowed us to change the way we give during our worship services.

Finally, thank you. It is not an exaggeration to say that you’re what makes Mercy Seat work. I firmly believe that this place is special and I hope you join me in making sure Mercy Seat continues to make redemption happen.

Forest Russell Lewis

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:21:40 +0000

On November 20th, The World’s Laziest Book Club (TM) will be reading “He’s Not Possessed, He’s My Husband!” from our own Forest Russell Lewis. Forest has written loads of short stories, including a couple that have been read as liturgical responses at Mercy Seat holiday events. You might recognize Forest as the tall, attractive, enigmatic fellow wearing Carharts and a log-chain belt.
Book Club director Cody Menning will be circulating the story to the book club email list this month. If you’re not on the list, talk to Cody at church or email him here: codymenning at gmail dot com.

Ender’s Game

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:16:10 +0000

In honor of summer, Hollywood blockbusters, Comic-Con, and reading for fun, this months book club is going to venture out into the uncharted territories of Science Fiction. In August, the World’s Laziest Book Club (TM) will be reading Orson Scott Card’s Hugo and Nebula award winning novel, Ender’s Game. Book club will be on the 21st this time around and their might even be a place for us
to meet this time.

BBQ This Sunday

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:47:52 +0000

There is a free BBQ this Sunday (24th) after church. Just come to church, hang out, and eat. That sounds easy, right. The good news is that it won’t be 1000 degrees.

Resonance is Coming

admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:19:45 +0000

In July we welcome a brand-new liturgy from the absolutely spectacular Holly Newsom. Newsom heads up the minimalist rock band Zoo Animal, who have taken over the Twin Cities music scene. Resonance will mesmerize us all with its meditative minimalism. Read Minnesota Public Radio’s take on Newsom’s Zoo Animal and you can read a little more about Resonance.

Mercy Seat NE for NoMi

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:21:27 +0000

Mercy Seat loves its community and its neighbors. We are saddened to see the amount of pain and trouble caused by the recent tornadoes in North Minneapolis, just across the river from us.

Will you join us helping our neighbors in NoMi to recover from the damage caused by the recent tornadoes? Every contribution helps!

http://givemn.razoo.com/story/MercySeatNEforNoMi

All donations will go to the Minneapolis Foundation‘s North Minneapolis Tornado Recovery fund.

Book Club Two-fer

admin — Fri, 27 May 2011 19:18:37 +0000

The World’s Laziest Book Club™ is going to be a two-for-one in July. We will be reading “Let the Great World Spin,” by Colum McCann and watching James Marsh’s documentary “Man on Wire.” Both the book and the documentary revolve around Philippe Petit’s wire walk between the World Trade Center towers in 1974. We will be meeting on Sunday, July 17, after church.

Persepolis

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 15:55:32 +0000

This week the World’s Laziest Book Club™ will discuss Marjane Satrapi’s classic graphic novel, Persepolis (or the Movie version – whatever you have time for). Persepolis tells the tale of a young girl trying to grow up punk-rock in 1970s Iran, amid the very unpunk-rock disturbances of the cultural revolution. Pick up a copy at 1/2 Price Books now and you can totally read it, like, Sunday afternoon before church.

We’ll meet after church at Stephanie Johnson’s house. Get directions at church.

The Life You Can Save

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:51:00 +0000

Acting Now To End World Poverty.

That’s the subtitle to Peter Singer’s 2009 Manefesto on affluence, poverty, and giving. Ambitious? Yes. Plausible? Perhaps. Insane? Let’s find out. The third Sunday of each month Mercy Seat meets for some postchurch textual healing. This month’s author has taken his 40 year career in bioethics and turned it on humans in The Life You Can Save. Grab your copy now ($3 used on Amazon) and meet us on April 17. (Location TBD)

If It’s Good Enough for Joe Biden

admin — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:14:13 +0000

This Wednesday is the beginning of the season of Holy Lent. That means, party down on Tuesday, because there’s gonna be some fasting coming up. On Wednesday, Mercy Seat will be holding a brief service for Ash Wednesday. It will be 8 PM in our regular space.