Ascension Lutheran Church, Fond du Lac, WI

Good Evening,
As many of you might be heading to bed early after a crushing Packer loss I wanted to take a few minutes to ask for a few suggestions. It was our pleasure to lead worship this morning. Each Sunday our time to lift our voices in coorporate worship is a highlight for me. Coming back to Wisconsin after being gone for many years, I know the music I have learned is often different from what many of you may know. So I would like to hear your ideas of songs you would like Joyful Noise to learn along our journey together. I tend to blend the contemporary with the traditional so don’t think you need to only suggest the latest songs, I love the songs that have been in the Church longer than I have. hehe I look forward to hearing from you and we will do our best to get your suggestions placed right in.
In spite of the Packer loss have a wonderful week, keeping in mind the point from Pastor Jeff’s sermon this morning which was to serve rather than looking to be served. Blessings, Grace

Hi everyone.  It’s been a while since I have really blogged about anything on our website, so I thought I’d take some time this evening to tell you about our Discussion Board.  “But, didn’t we already have a discussion board?”  Funny you should ask.  Yes, we did.  For the past several months, we’ve been using a discussion board called Simple Machine Forum.  This discussion board was nice looking and had some great features.  However, too many Internet robots were trying to create accounts on the forum, and it was getting to be quite painful to always delete these fake “users” on almost a weekly basis.

So, I made the decision to get rid of that discussion board and go back to something that we’ve actually used before on Ascension’s website.  The discussion board is called Kunena.  It’s a very nice discussion board, and I am hopeful that you will get some use out of it.  Two nice features about this discussion board are:

• Kunena integrates into our existing website
• no need for a separate username/password (this was the case with SMF)

So…the question is, how does one access this?  When you visit our website, you’ll see the “Discussion Board” button on the left side of your screen under the “Resources” heading.  Our discussion board topics are visible to everyone, but if you want to post a response or add a new topic, you’ll need to sign in to “My ALC” (which is found at the top right corner of our website).  Once signed in, you can modify your profile and then begin posting responses to topics that are already created…or you can add your own topics for others to respond to.

Please, if there are any questions on how to use the discussion board, I am more than happy to assist you with those questions.

Have a great weekend, and God bless!

Well, it has been about a week now since our website has been back online. Thank you so much for your patience as we worked to get the site back to full functionality! We now have software in place that will help to protect our website from those that wish to it harm. With that being said, we were able to complete a few upgrades to the site…which I think you’ll like. Here are a couple things:

• Podcasts: If you go to our podcasts page, you will see a listing of podcasts that are available to listen to (see example).  That part isn’t really different at all.  However, if you click on any one of the podcasts for more details, that next screen does look different.  You’ll now see a graphical interface where you can see all the details from that particular podcast.
• Feedback: If you’d like to submit general feedback to Ascension, you can use the “Feedback” button located on the left side navigation bar of our website.  Your feedback will be sent directly to Pastor Blain, and he will route it to the appropriate person(s) if need be.

These are just a couple areas that have been updated since the site has come back online.  If you have questions about any of the above, please feel free to post a comment below this blog entry or even post a message to our Facebook wall (http://www.facebook.com/AscensionFdL).  We would be happy to answer/address any of your questions!

Last evening, March 22nd, Bishop Jim Justman came to speak with members of Ascension Lutheran Church regarding the decisions that were made at the August 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly. Because some were unable to attend last night’s session, many had asked prior to the meeting if the discussion could be recorded.

Below, you will find the discussion broken into five sections (about 30 minutes each). We have also posted the direct links to each of the MP3 files so that you may download them to your computer and load them on your iPod or MP3 player if you wish.

• Part 1:

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Part 2:

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Part 3:

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Part 4:

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Part 5:

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Downloadable MP3s

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Hi There,

Just a reminder that on Monday, March 22, at 6:30 p.m. the Church Council has invited Bishop Jim Justman to come and join our conversation about the decisions made last summer at the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

This will be a chance for us to listen to what he has been hearing across our synod and in the wider church and it will be a time for us to bring our questions, comments and concerns to him.

We hope you can join us!

JB