February 2018

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF CENTENNIAL EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN FEBRUARY 2018 – VOL. III ISS. II
ow would you answer the following question: If my
loved ones had to describe me in one word or
sentence, how would they do it? Would they say that you
were generous, caring, or kind? Would they describe you
as wise, rich, or funny? Would they be willing to say that
you were usually right, or maybe usually wrong all the
time? How would they describe you or remember you?
Many of those descriptions are very good (although I am
sure that most of us would not want to be remembered as
being “always wrong”). But maybe a better way to be
described would be to say how did we carry out those
descriptions? Were we generous out of pity and guilt?
Were we kind only when others were kind to us? Were we
funny at the expense of others?
Or, did we do all these things because of … LOVE!
If I am on time, you should be receiving this message a little
before the month of February begins. As you turn the
calendar, you see that word written at the top of your
calendar – FEBRUARY – and you cannot help but think of
one day on that calendar – February 14. Maybe that day
causes you to choke up a little, either because you do not
enjoy that day, or that you are reminded that you need to
do something on or for that day.
Anyway you look at it, February makes you think about
love. You see big red hearts and sweet candies and
Continued on page 2….
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a
faith that can move mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the
poor and give over my body to hardship that I
may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and
love. But the greatest of these is love.
Corinthians

Continued from page 1….
chocolates in the stores. If you have children, maybe they
are already asking you to buy them Valentines for them to
exchange with their classmates. Flowers, balloons,
chocolates, cards, bears, etc. are readily available for you
to purchase to show your love to someone.
I am definitely not against Valentine’s Day. I am glad that
we have a special day when we can really show love to our
loved ones. But maybe instead of thinking to yourself
when Valentine’s Day approaches, “As long as I buy the
right items, I will show my love and be off the hook for another
year,” think of ways to continue to show that love…
every day!
February is definitely a month filled with love, but is it the
only month? Listen to the reading for this devotion: If I
have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all
mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can
move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give
all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the
flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. ... And now these
three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of
these is love. 1 Co. 13:1-2, 13
Love is an action, not just a month. The love that we show
to each other is not to be dictated to us because of a
certain day of
the year. What
about February
15th, or March
28th, or July
16th? Shouldn’t
those days be
full of love as
well? How can
we SHOW our
love every day?
How can our
love become an
action and not just
a special month? The best way for us to do that, is to see
what real love is. And the best way to do that is to look to
God, because after all God is love! (1 John 4:8 and 1 John
4:16). And God clearly demonstrates love.
God showed (in action) his love for us, not in neatly
packaged candies with a lovely bow on top, nor with the
biggest and softest teddy bear in the world. He showed his
love for us in a completely different way. He DID
something! He sent us a servant, a humble sacrifice. And
why did God do that? John tells us – because HE IS LOVE!
It was not because we were able to reciprocate that love.
We did not initiate that love. He started this intimate
loving relationship with each of us. Again, why did God do
that? And again we would have to answer, only
because HE LOVES US!
Maybe it does not seem like a big deal to you. Maybe God
sending his Son into the world does not seem like that big
of a sacrifice. But then stop and think why God sent us his
Son. He sent his Son to save us. He made his Son the
worst sinner in the world in order to make us perfect. He
killed his Son so that we will not die. He gave up his Son,
whom he loves, because he loves us even more. And he
did all of that because HE LOVES US! That is true love.
When Valentine’s Day rolls around this year, remember to
buy the candies and chocolates and balloons for your
sweetheart. Celebrate the love that you share with either
your boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife. Show that
love to them, and not only on that day, but every day you
have with that person. But then always remember what
true love is – that you are willing to give up everything that
you are and have for the one whom you love. Love is an
action, not a month. And Jesus shows us, in action, love.
He gave up everything so that we can have everything.
Model your love after Christ’s love for us. Look to Jesus,
who not only loves us on Valentine’s Day, but loves us the
day after, and the day after that, etc… no matter what we
have done or continue to do. See how Jesus showed his
love to the WORLD and has no stipulations for that love.
He gave up everything for those he loves – you and me.

STAFF MINISTER’S REPORT
As Missionaries of Christ, we bring everyone we come in contact with closer to the Savior.
Easter for Kids Planning:
Our committee is busy planning for our next event which will be Saturday, March 24 th . Registration begins at 9:15am. We
will again have the Puppeteers present the Easter story with their puppets. We will also have crafts, games, and the
traditional egg hunt. This will follow with a lunch of hot dogs, chips, oranges, apples, bananas, juice boxes, water, and
desserts.
We will be asking the congregation for your help in donating some of these items. We can also use monetary donations to
help with the costs. Last year we had 80 children attend along with 20-30 parents plus many volunteers. So we sure can
use your help with food items and volunteer areas. Please look for an insert in the weekly bulletin soon with these
opportunities. Thank you.
We are doing something a little different for this event in regards to publicity. Because of the cost of bulk mailing of 2,000
– 4,000 postcards (over $800.00), we will be printing in-house about 1,000 flyers to distribute to the community. We will
still bulk mail to our 280 prospects on our list for a minimal cost. We will be asking our youth group (LYFE) to help us go
door-to-door in the community as a service project.
The HOPE Ministry Could Use Your Help:
What a great ministry this has turned out to be! They put on a wonderful skit
for Christmas for Kids and will be presenting another skit for Easter for Kids.
Because it takes a good 8-weeks of practice for these events, they are asking
the congregation to provide meals for their practices. They practice on
Sundays right after church. Previously the directors (Lin Kanitz & Sharon
Borchardt) were providing all the meals. It was costly for them and took away
from their practice time. If you can help out for one of the weeks, please sign
the sheet posted on the bulletin board in the hallway. This would be much
appreciated and thank you.
~Bob Garbe - Minister of Evangelism & Outreach
TECH REPORT
Using technology to communicate the Gospel of Jesus Christ
Great things are happening at Centennial in terms of using technology to communicate the Gospel. We are looking at
many different projects to enhance everything from communicating with members to worship and online giving.
New App for Online Giving
We have previously communicated to you that our online giving now has an app for any smart device. It is called Give+
and it can be downloaded to your Android/IOS device to further simplify your giving in our services. Use the same log in
that you previously set up on our website giving page and you will be good to go. Don’t forget that we have
“I Give Electronically” cards that you can pick up at the beginning of every service to further enhance your worship in this
area.
Worship Screen Update
We are inching closer to the installation of the worship screens in the church. We have received approval for these
screens from the voters and have purchased some of what we need in order to install them to each wall at the front of
the church. Some outlets will need to be installed and mounts attached before you see those screens so please don’t be
surprised if you see some of that in the coming weeks. We thank our own Gary Nath for his assistance in this project.
May God bless him abundantly for volunteering his gifts to Centennial in this way.
Social Media
We are examining ways in which we reach out to our community and broaden our reach with the help of social media. For
Continued on page 6….

February
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
FEBRUARY 11TH
Explorium Brew Pub
Southridge Mall
(SW side across from Buca’s)
5:30 pm
1 2 3
6:30 pm Worship
Service w/
Communion
7:30 pm Women’s
Bible Study
7:30 pm Dartball
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8:15 am Bible
Study / Sunday
School
9:30 am Worship
Service w/
Communion
10:45 Council
Meets
10:45 HOPE Team
Meets
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
8:15 am Bible
Study / Sunday
School
9:30 am Worship
Service
10:45 am
Evangelism Meets
10:45 HOPE Team
Meets
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
8:15 am Bible
Study / Sunday
School
9:30 am Worship
w/ Communion
10:45 am HOPE
Team Meets
25 26 27 28
8:15 am Bible
Study / Sunday
School
9:30 am Worship
Service
10:45 am HOPE
Team Meets
4th Sunday Fellowship
6:30 pm
God’s Ways
Course
6:30 pm
God’s Ways
Course
6:30 pm
God’s Ways
Course
7:00 pm Choir
Practice
7:00 pm Choir
Practice
7:00 pm Choir
Practice
7:00 pm Choir
Practice
5:00 pm Lenten
Supper
6:30 pm Ash
Wednesday
w/ Communion
5:00 pm Lenten
Supper
6:30 pm Lent
Worship Service
5:00 pm Lenten
Supper
6:30 pm Lent
Worship Service
w/Communion
6:30 pm Worship
Service
7:30 pm Dartball
NO SERVICE
DURING LENT
7:30 pm Dartball
NO SERVICE
DURING LENT
7:30 pm Dartball
FLOWERS
4th - (none assigned)
11th - Cheryl LaPean i/m/o
Sheldon LaVake
18th - (none assigned)
25th - (none assigned)
USHERS
Thursday - Maury Bell
Sunday - Lump Brown, Tristin
Berg, Mike Chapman, John Huth
Head Usher - Lump Brown
GREETERS
4th - Sue Ann Rozga
11th - The Hampton Family
18th - Bob & Sharon Garbe
25th - Don & Stefanie Wintrone
SERMON RECORDING
4th - Bob Mayer
11th - Rich Kanitz
18th - Bob Mayer
25th - Rich Kanitz

LYFE UPDATE
Reclaiming our youth for HIS kingdom.
We have had great turnout over the past 3 months! November saw us pay tribute to our Veterans at General Mitchell
International Airport for the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight. We spent all afternoon and evening getting a tour of the
firehouse (my house), the sheriff's office, the air traffic control tower and the tra-con (radar detection dark room of aircraft
in airspace). We ate, made posters and signs, watched a documentary called "Honor Flight", and for the grand finale- we
welcomed home 150 Veterans among a pep rally that estimated 5000 people in attendance. WOW!
December was our White Elephant Christmas Party, with gag gifts and lots of
laughs. We followed this up with a pizza party and then off to Sunburst Ski
Resort in Kewaskum for a Friday night under the lights snow tubing at speeds
up to 40 mph! INCREDIBLE We had so much fun and so many smiles and
laughs doing down the huge hill and up the magic carpet. It was a great way for
our kids to kick off the Christmas break
Also in December, our Teens took part in our traditional Christmas Program,
along with the Sunday School. They represented well, told the story of Jesus'
birth, sang their hearts out ("SMILE") and overall did a fantastic job!
Christmas Party
In January, we held our 2nd annual Helium Lock-in. Last
year was a big success so we thought we would try it
again. BIGGEST EVENT IN 9 YEARS!! 37 students. 5
adults. 42 total for a 12 hour event!!
UNBELIEVABLE!!! Trampolines, Rock wall, Jump zone,
Lazer maze, Pugil sticks, American Ninja Warrior Course,
Dodgeball, Basketball, Hamster Balls, Lazer tag, high
Ropes Obstacle course, Pizza, s'mores. movie, bagel
breakfast....PHEW! Over 200 pictures taken to capture
this AMAZING event.
Helium Lock-In
February brings us to our Ash Wednesday Spaghetti
Dinner Fundraiser (on Valentine's Day). We have now
started bookending the Lenten season with our
spaghetti dinner and our Easter breakfast. And then on
Saturday the 17th we will sit back and enjoy a Admirals
hockey game at the Bradley Center.
Our Youth Group is for students in 5th grade and up. Teen Bible Class is for students in 7th grade and up. Students are
always encouraged to bring a friend. Any questions, you can contact Rick Martinez at 414.640.1124 or email
at rskmartinez39@gmail.com
WOMEN’S BOOK CLUB—March 4th
We are reading The Prayer Box by Lisa Wingate.
“I loved this novel, a story so well written I could feel myself becoming part of the community setting.
The characters were genuine, fallible and with flaws and reflect real life dilemmas and challenges
while being inspiring! Great read!” - a Google Review
You are invited to join us for discussion of this incredible book on Sunday March 4th after
service. There will be coffee and light refreshments.

Centennial Evangelical
Lutheran Church
3558 S. 24th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53221
414-281-2280|
www.centennialwels.org
prayers@centennialwels.org
GREG PUFAHL, PASTOR
ROBERT GARBE, STAFF MINISTER
LIN KANITZ, ADMIN ASSISTANT
JENNY PUFAHL, SUNDAY SCHOOL
RICH KANITZ, PRESIDENT
JOHN NOLTE, TREASURER
DAVE ROCHESTER, PROPERTY
MANAGER
YOUTH GROUP
MEN’S MINISTRIES
WOMEN’S MINISTRIES
MINISTRIES FOR SENIORS
INTERNET MINISTRY
GLOBAL OUTREACH MISSIONS
MUSIC MINISTRIES
SPECIAL NEEDS
Please join us for worship on
Thursday nights at 6:30 pm and
Sunday mornings at 9:30 am.
“The Lord bless you and keep
you; the Lord make his face
shine on you and be gracious
to you; the Lord turn his
face toward you and give you
peace.” Numbers 6:24-26
Continued from page 3….
those that do not know, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest pages.
We encourage you to support our efforts by becoming connected to these pages
and help us with a “like” and a “share”. If you really would like to help, a comment
would be extremely helpful as well. We would like our reach to be as broad as possible
and the only way to do this (besides paying for it) is to ask you to help. It
takes little time and it would benefit us greatly in reaching our goal of new friends
and new connections. Looking for a way to get your teens involved in ministry?
Get them connected to our social media platforms and ask them to help us with our
goal to spread God’s word and love through these mediums!
Pastor’s Blog—JesusPercent
Some of you may not have heard that our own Pastor Pufahl has entered the
blogging world. His incredibly uplifting blog entitled “JesusPercent” has been live
for the last month and has encouraged many. If you too would like to read this
weekly encouragement, please go to our website, www.centennialwels.org and
look for the “JesusPercent Blog” at the upper right of the screen. As with social
media, if his posts bring any thoughts to your mind, please comment in the
comment section below the post. He is always looking for ideas and feedback.
Thank you for your support in advance!
Want a Centennial App?
There has been some discussion of creating a one stop shop for all of these (and
more) elements of digital life at Centennial and housing it all in a Centennial App
and we would like to hear from you! Would you like us to create an
Centennial Lutheran app for your smart device? Here are some of the features that
could be included.
1. Emergency Push Notifications—if the weather gets bad, we could push a
notification to your phone to tell you if church has been cancelled.
2. Sermons - you could view Pastor’s sermons within the app instead of going to
the website or Vimeo to view them.
3. Integrated Bible link
4. Integrated Prayer Wall—strictly for Centennial Members
5. In–app church calendar & events in real time
6. In-app mobile giving
7. Integrated blog posts, articles and social media integration
If any of this seems exciting to you and you would use this app or if you want to
make sure we include a certain feature, we need to hear from you. You can reach
out to any of the leadership at Centennial and it will get to the app building team.
Thanks in advance for your feedback and we hope to hear from you soon!
~Rich Kanitz - Technology
LAST MINUTE REMINDERS
***The Meet and Eat for February will be held at Explorium Brew Pub. February 11th at
5:30pm. Explorium is located in Southridge Mall on the southwest side by Buca’s.
***Ash Wednesday starts our Lenten season. We will also have a Lenten supper at 5:00
pm all through Lent.
***During Lent, there will not be any Thursday night services. Communion will be given
on corresponding Wednesday Lenten service nights. It will follow the same schedule.
***Thursday services will resume on Thursday, April 5th.
***Women’s Bible Study will continue its study in Habakkuk on February 1st. This is a
monthly study and will be held on the first Thursday of the month in the Bible Study
classroom at 7:30 pm.