Starting fresh


Text by Julie B. Sevig Photos by Kathryn Brewer


T


hese are just a few of the things readers found when cleaning out church cupboards and


‘That card has been sitting there about


closets, basements and attics: • Mimeograph supplies. • A poker table. • A Sunday school Christmas program from 1942. • Chicken incubator lights. • And, wait for it … chickens—live ones. As a nod to the new year, T e Lutheran posted a


20 years just waiting for me to clean up the church.’


to cut up and make new cards for the home- bound. In them was a card from my grandpop from 1993, his last Christmas with us. T at card has been sitting there about 20 years just wait- ing for me to clean up the church.”


reader call that asked, “What does your congregation need to toss (literally and fi guratively)? Old hymnals or old attitudes? Felt boards or outdated programs? What have you cleaned out that caused both a chuckle and relief?” Few people off ered up attitudes or programs they’d


like to get rid of. But plenty of folks have cleaned out hymnals and felt boards. Clearly, emptying the storage bowels of church buildings caused both a chuckle and relief. And much more. Pam Raynor Warnor, St. Mark Lutheran Church,


Mayville, N.Y., found the 1942 program while desper- ately searching for anything she could use this Christ- mas season. Something from more than seven decades ago wasn’t what she had been hoping for. But Lauren Ashley, Nativity Evangelical Lutheran


Church, East Brunswick, N.J., did make a Christmas fi nd worth keeping: “I found Christmas cards we used


16 www.thelutheran.org


And then there were chickens … Stephanie Quick Espinoza, St. Stephen Lutheran Church, West St. Paul, Minn., was a missionary in Costa Rica when she had to clean out the chickens that were laying eggs in the sacristy/storage closet.


Readers tell what they’ve tossed— and even how cleaning has revived mission


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