At Advent Lutheran Church, we have various ministries for our congregation and visitors. Click a ministry below for more information:
| Children's Ministries | Preschool Ministries | Student Ministries | Stephen Ministries |
| Evangelism | Stewardship | Christian Serving | Worship & Music |
| Property | Men's Group | Women's Group |
Children's Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Kids’Town: Kids’Town is our weekly "Sunday School" Program. We meet during the 9:30 Contemporary Service and the 11:00 am Traditional Service. We start out in church and are released during announcements, and we return in time for communion with our families. Kids’Town is for kids from age 3 - 4th grade. We learn in a fun way how God made each of us special and that He loves us just the way we are.
God's Funhouse: Are you a 3rd - 5th Grader? Have you experienced the fun of God's Fun House? This is a time for you as a kid to have a super awesome, amazingly fun time while learning about God. God's Fun House runs from 12:30 to 2:00pm once a month. Check out our Advocate Calendar link for dates. It doesn't cost anything except the gas to get you here. You are guaranteed to have a blast and have fun!! Hope to see you soon.
Nursery: We have a staffed nursery, newborns – 3 yrs old. Our staff is warm, dedicated, and background checked and will take excellent care of your children. The nursery is located near the sanctuary, and is equipped with a window looking into the sanctuary for further assurance. Each parent is given a vibrating pager that will go off if your child is in need.
Confirmation: Advent Lutheran believes strongly in the rite of passage often known as confirmation. Our program is a three year process. We spend a year on the Old Testament, a year on the New Testament, and a year on the Small Catechism. During the three years, students participate in youth programs, adopt a grandparent from a local nursing home, and serve the community. We work really hard to have the students think about their faith, even wrestle with tough questions so that when they are confirmed, the students really believe what they are promising to do.
Backpack Project: The children of Advent, with the help of our church family, collect items to place in backpacks which will be given to the homeless here in Melbourne at Christmas time. We collect socks, wash cloths, can openers, sweatshirts, flashlights, sunscreen, ball caps, Ziploc bags, toothbrushes and toothpaste. We collect one item a month.
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Preschool Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Stop in and take a tour of our beautiful preschool classrooms where we offer 2-day classes for 2-1/2 year old children, 3-day classes for 3-year-old children and a 5-day VPK class for 4-year- olds. We are open during the school year from 9:00 to noon. We use The Creative Curriculum and can guarantee a VPK slot for children who have already been in our program for 3-year-olds. We'd love to show you around!
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Student Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Be a Part of the Revolution
Every Sunday afternoon we meet for a time of high energy games, learning and small groups. Are you a Junior or Senior High student? If so, have you been to the Revolution? We meet from 12:30 – 2:30 pm every Sunday afternoon in the Knoedler Center. If not, come this week and check us out!Mission Experiences
We firmly believe that in order to live out our faith we need to give back to our community and our world. With this is mind we participate in monthly service events in our community and a yearly mission trip to someplace in our world where we can give back some of the time, energy, talent, love and grace we have been given by Jesus.
Retreats
Twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, we spend a weekend growing closer to God in a surrounding that is not that familiar. In the fall, we do tent camping with just the basics; getting back into nature and spending time with God. The spring opens opportunities for us to retreat to a conference like “acquire the fire,” or to go away to a retreat center, where we can spend time away from our normal lives focusing on God.
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Stephen Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
What is Stephen Ministry?
It is a program grounded in Jesus' command to love one another through confidential one-to-one caring relationships. Whether it is a few hospital or home visits or long term, those who are hurting receive the love and care they need to support them.
- Is life more than you can handle alone right now?
- Are your health, your attitude, or your relationships suffering?
- Are you adjusting to a new job, change in marital status, illness, or death of a loved one, a recent move, loneliness, being homebound or...
- Would you like to have someone in your life to help you through it?
Everyone goes through difficult times. Having someone to care, to listen, and to share God's love with you can help you get through the confusion, loneliness, stress, fear, or spiritual crisis you may be experiencing. REMEMBER - everything is done in the strictest confidence.
This is not a road you have to walk down alone.What have care receivers said?
"As a man, it was difficult and awkward reaching out for help. But I'm glad I did. I probably could have made it alone, but it sure was a lot easier having a Stephen Minister to talk to.""I was hurting so much I couldn't see straight. But I discovered the healing love of Jesus through my Stephen Minister. I can't say enough about this caring program."
How do I receive a Stephen Minister?
For more information on how you can receive a Stephen Minister to walk with you through difficult times, or if you are a member interested in becoming a Stephen Minister, please contact:Kristina Petrik - Referrals Coordinator
(321) 684-1420
kmpaaf@yahoo.comTo become a Stephen’s Minister, each person must complete a rigorous program of 50 hours of training.
To Learn more about Stephen Ministry as an Organization:
www.stephenministries.org
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Evangelism Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Advent Lutheran Church exists to give glory to God, and it is our vision to see lives changed by connecting people to Christ, each other, the community, and the world.
Evangelism is sharing the good news of what God has done for us and for all humanity in Jesus Christ. Successful evangelism is simply taking the initiative to share this wonderful news in a way that is most effective for our community and leaving the results to God.
Our Evangelism team works together to give God our very best through our greeter program, our outreach program, through publicity to the local media, and our great website.
We continue to strive to get everyone to know God and develop activities and programs to get the good news out to the community and the world!
We strive hard to give God our very best!
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Stewardship Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
If the Stewardship Commission were part of the human anatomy, they would be considered as the skeletal system. This very dedicated group of workers not only manage our annual stewardship drives but they also encourage everyone to commit to a ministry that best uses the gifts that God has uniquely blessed them with.
“So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:1-2
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Christian Serving Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Do you want to get involved?
The Christian Service Commission is always looking for new faces! Spend an hour a month in fellowship helping us at the meeting, or spend a little more time by getting involved in one of the projects. It’s up to you.If you would like to help us help the local community, please either:
- join one of our meetings at 7:00 pm on the first Tuesday of the month. All are welcome, or
- send us an email at info@adventsuntree.com
The following is a brief description of our current projects:
Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition: a faith based community re-development corporation responsible for building and operating the Dorcus Outreach Center for Kids (the DOCK), The Greater Heights Apartment complex for low-income folks and the redevelopment of the Evans Center in Palm Bay. Volunteers to mentor and tutor the Kids are needed and welcomed.
Serene Harbor: a domestic violence center for women and children. Every woman who arrives at Serene Harbor is given the tools and support needed to establish safety and then create a plan for their recovery. Needs here are for toiletries, paper towels, other household items including kids' toys.
Habitat for Humanity: An ecumenical Christian housing organization building simple, decent, affordable housing in partnership with people in need. Advent has been very active in support of Habitat over the years, most recently supporting the building of 3 homes with financial backing and labor to help build the homes.
Brevard Sharing Center: a focal point for distribution of food and clothing to the homeless and needy. Over the years Advent has collected non-perishable food and clothing for delivery to the Sharing Center.
His Place: a congregation supporting the homeless and needy by providing a hot meal to 100 folks every Sunday evening and opening their fellowship hall to the homeless on cold (below 45) nights as an approved Brevard cold night shelter. The amazing part is the congregation only numbers 100! The need here is for financial support and volunteers to serve in their kitchen. Located at U.S. 1 and 192 (the yellow church).
Bread Ministry: a partnership between Publix and Advent whereby our volunteers pick up day-old baked goods twice a week and deliver them to needy folks at the DOCK and Trinity Towers. In addition, on Saturday volunteers pick up day old baked goods and bring them to our bread tables at Advent. At any of our 4 services on Saturday and Sunday our members may pick out baked goods and make a donation to support Christian Service ministries. Sunday afternoon all leftover baked goods are taken to Daily Bread in Melbourne. The need here is for volunteers to pick up and deliver the baked goods.
Project Light: a Christian ministry working out of Trinity Presbyterian church in Satellite Beach. This is a street ministry to many of the poorer sections of Central Brevard where a puppet show is given to the children of the neighborhood, based on the stories in the Bible. Following the puppet drama children are encouraged to come forward and receive food and clothing. Need here is for non-perishable food and clothing.
Resurrection Ranch Thrift Store: a Christian based thrift store selling used clothing, small appliances and some household items to the needy of Central Brevard. Need here is for clothing and small appliances and household items as well as for volunteers to help sort items. Often the remaining items at our November White Elephant are donated to the Thrift Store.
SVAAC: Advent is the focal point for the Suntree-Viera Area Association of Churches (SVAAC) Community Care program where we help financially those folks who are behind in rent or utilities or mortgage payments. All of the SVAAC members contribute financially to this ministry which has just begun operation. In parallel Advent has begun stocking a Food Pantry to help local folks with their food needs. Help is needed here in the form of volunteers to help give out food and to screen applicants.
The Haven: strives to meet the needs of neglected, abused and abandoned children in Brevard County and Central Florida by assuring the highest quality of care for the children and the programs continued success. Advent supports the Haven with contributions to purchase household items and to provide a dinner once a month. Need here is for volunteers to help with the dinners and to be the contact person with the Haven from Advent.
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Worship & Music Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
Living in continuous motion as we hope God wants, but we know we can't without Him, we give thanks and actively "ask, seek, and find" the Spirit of Christ in all we do at Advent. With the changes of the church seasons we look forward as we grow in body, mind, and spirit of the Lord. Sharing one body, we are unsustainable as separate parts. We welcome anyone, not just Lutherans, but anyone to join us at His table for Communion at every worship service.
Be a part of us. Start at these two emails below. We urge you to respond. *Test us*! Not Christ!
Worship & Music Commissioner: Debra Bohn 321-794-9900
Traditional Worship Planning Chairperson: Karen Hagen
Children’s Choir
Chancel and Bell Choir
Accompaniment
Sound & Projection
Worship Planning TeamsAssisting & Communion Ministers
Acolytes & Ushers
Altar Guild
Praise/Rock Band
Nursery
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Property Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
This nuts and bolts ministry stays busy managing the buildings and property.
Thanks to our handy volunteers we know that our place of worship is in tip-top condition. The Property volunteers gather the first Saturday morning of every month to tackle cleaning and painting of buildings (both interior and exterior), cleaning sidewalks and parking lots, maintaining planters and grounds, maintaining the Preschool playground, accomplishing required repairs to buildings and facilities, etc.
Anyone wishing to volunteer for these work sessions may contact the Property Commissioner (Pete Jolly) at:Home Phone (321)-610-7790
E-mail old_plane_man@yahoo.comAll levels of expertise are welcome!
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Men's Group Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
The Men’s Group is open to all men of all ages. Our purpose is to “…develop Christian fellowship so our members will grow in faith, hope, and love.”
The monthly Saturday meetings include a breakfast usually made by the men or their wives or by purchasing pastries from the Bread table in the Sanctuary, complimented by a lot of coffee. We start out with prayer, breakfast, and devotion, followed by a short meeting to discuss the events that we do throughout the year. We close each meeting with a prayer.
All during this process, we are fellowshipping, learning about each other, sharing our prayer requests, and developing a love between the men. We also share in the cleanup, where there is more fellowshipping. We learn as we work for God’s Kingdom.
The Men’s Group also works at the monthly Work Days to keep Advent beautiful. We paint, power wash, weed, plant trees, fix signs, and do other maintenance jobs for our church. This work is satisfying, and also builds bonds with men. Men who consistently sacrifice their time, and work along side other men for the good of Advent, are men of faith.
The Men’s Group has raised funds for many of Advent’s worthy ministries. We take a freewill offering at each meeting. A special highlight for the men is the annual Oktoberfest which raises money for replacing tables and chairs, and funding various Advent and community ministries.
Please come to our next meeting, and meet some of the men of Advent.
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Women's Group Ministries at Advent Lutheran Church
The Advent Lutheran Church Women's ministry actively reaches out to the local community and our neighbors around the globe! Throughout the year there is an ongoing collection of donated material to support the varying ministries of Lutheran World Relief. Some of the items collected are:
- Sewing Kits: material with matching thread and buttons.
- Health Kits: towels, wash cloths, tooth brushes, combs, nail clippers and soap
- School Supplies: Spiral notebooks, pencils, crayons, erasers and rulers. These materials are packed into colorful school bags sewn by the Women.
- Quilts: Full-sized quilts are sewn together. For our friends here at Advent, Comfort Quilts, (lap-sized) are sewn with Bible verses embroidered onto each square. These quilts are then presented to members of Advent facing surgery or who are under a doctor’s care
There are many other ministries the Women of Advent get involved in such as our annual White Elephant Sale, Christmas Tree project, and Bakeless Bake Sale. Finally, we are grateful for their loving management of the funeral receptions that we inevitably have to hold. Please join them in their working ministry for Christ!
Schedule
1st Monday at 10:00 am of each month is the business and planning meeting.
The 2nd and 4th Mondays at 10:00 am the Quilters meet.
The 3rd Monday at 10:00 a.m., the Women gather for Bible Study.For general questions about the Advent Lutheran Church Women, please call Lucile Zimmermann at 321-253-2940.
For more information about the Quilters, please call Lynn Borchers at 321-757-3140.
For questions about the Bible Study, please contact Betty Symons at 321-633-7386.
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