What's Happening at Messiah?

Events, classes and Worship Services on the Messiah campus has been cancelled until further notice. However, we have many online activities planned. Check them out below, including our plans for Holy Week.

MLC NEWS

CHURCH BUILDING
Our church building is closed until further notice. However, the office remains open for electronic communication (phone, email, social media) Tuesday-Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

CHURCH SERVICE
Our church service has moved exclusively online until further notice, with only one service at 9:30 am. It will be a blended service, with communion, offering, worship and a sermon. You are encouraged to partake communion with us using your own bread and wine/grape juice, and participate in our offering time using one of the three online methods outlined in this bulletin. Prayer requests for our prayer time during worship can be send to the office at or texted to 865-399-0187.

ONLINE GIVING
There are four ways to give to MLC without using the offering plate:

1) Follow this link: messiahlutheranchurch.churchcenter.com/giving

2) Download the Church Center app on your phone or tablet and choose to use either your debit/credit card or automatic bank withdrawal.

3) Text your dollar amount (with a dollar sign in front of it) to 84321.
If you need assistance with any of these, please email or call the church office at (815) 741-4488.

4) Mail your giving to our address, 40 Houbolt Rd., Joliet, IL 60431.

Please feel free to use any of the methods above. FYI, automatic bank withdrawal via the Church Center app is the least expensive method for the church to process giving payments electronically, but everyone is welcome to use any of the following methods.

LIFEGROUPS

Life is better together. We are now calling our various meeting groups LifeGroups. We have LifeGroups for youth & adults that meet weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and even seasonally. They are on the MLC campus, online, and out in the community. These life

giving groups are created to facilitate serving together, great conversation, a focus on life as worship and life long relationships! Some examples (but not all) include: Quilters, Worship Team, S.A.L.T. Team Daybreak, Insight, Choir, H2H, Memory Bears, Gardening club, Ride the Rock, Online group studies, and the list goes on. What can you add to the mix? Talk to the pastors & staff you may have the next great LifeGroup!

LADIES DAY
Ladies Day 2020 at Olivet Nazarene University has been rescheduled to Saturday, August 8th from 9 am to 3 pm. If you have purchased tickets, they will be honored for this date. If you would like tickets, the office still has some available. They are $45 which includes admission, lunch, and transportation.

SOCIAL UNDISTANCING

Now, more than ever we need to connect because we are better together! Social Undistancing is a new MLC project where we will place you with someone you do not really know within our church community, and get to know them. Ages 18-99 are welcome! I would start with a set time to connect regularly, get to know each other, give each other opportunities to share dreams and anxieties. You could even pray for each other! Contact for more info!

ONLINE CONNECTION CARD

We now have an online connection card for people to interact with MLC, as well as show their attendance at online services. It helps us keep track of who’s watching and the needs of the church. Just go to bit.ly/MLCConnect.

MLC CHILDREN'S MINISTRY

VBS IN A BAG
If you have registered your child for VBS, you can pick up your VBS in a Bag on Saturday, June 6 from 10 am to noon and Sunday, June 7 from 1 to 3 pm. Email with any questions.

MLC STUDENT MINISTRY

CROSS TRAINING (During May)

Cross Training is for students (6th-12th grade) that will continue until summer Hope to see you there! On Sundays, we’re having game nights from 6pm-8pm on Zoom. On Wednesdays, we’re doing a guys and girls Bible study from 6:30pm-8pm on *Zoom. Brian will send out the Code for each event. Contact for more info.

IGNITE (Begins June 3)

Our summer program, Ignite, begins Wednesday, June 3 with our drive-in worship service and will continue on Wednesday nights throughout the summer. We’ll have a time of friends, fun and worship. The location is to be decided, pending federal and state changes in the mandates regarding Covid-19.

WORKCAMP 2020
Workcamp is still going on but with Covid-19 we are going to have Workcamp here in our own town. This means that during the week we will stay at the church for food, fellowship, worship, etc. and do outreach projects in our community. This also means the price for Workcamp will decrease and the exact amount will be sent out to parents soon. The deadline to join workcamp is June 1.

REMIND
To keep up with student ministry schedules and events, make sure you are subscribed to Remind so that you’ll receive text reminders about the MLC student ministry. To receive Remind updates, text @messiahst to 81010
(or add @messiahst to your class list in the Remind app) to get text reminders
for student ministry events.

EVENTS

DRIVE-IN CHURCH SERVICE (Wednesday, June 3rd at 7 pm)
Join us for a unique opportunity to worship God in a new way. We’ll be setting up in the parking lot and worshiping and hearing God’s word proclaimed, all while practicing social distancing protocols. Please come early to find a place because parking will be limited. We ask that everyone wear masks before entering the parking lot and during the service time. Communion will be served.

ONLINE LIFE GROUP STUDY (Tuesdays at 6 pm)
On April 21, we started our interactive online LifeGroup on Zoom. The great news: that group is full! But we would love to start more. If you are interested in joining or facilitating a group please contact

VIRTUAL PRAYER GROUP (Thursdays at 10 am)
on Zoom platform. Email for more information.

COMMUNITY NEWS

FOOD DISTRIBUTION
The Gallowich YMCA (just down the road from the church) is holding food distribution times starting at 10 am on Tuesday, 5/26. The food items are breakfast and lunch foods and the distribution is for children 18 and under. There is enough food in each distribution for up to three days per child.