A New Twist on a Traditional Men’s Club Soup Supper
at St. John's Lutheran Church, Palmer, Kansas
Changing up the traditional menu of the annual soup supper fundraiser hosted by the Men’s Club at St. John Lutheran Church
in January ended up raising a record amount of contributions at the event. The event usually included chili,
vegetable-beef soup and chicken noodle soup and a few years ago, potato soup was added. To add a little variety
this year, the club decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches to offer along with the soup. The club was awarded
a Thrivent grant to pay for the grilled cheese supplies and they planned for 250 sandwiches.
Club members make homemade soups and desserts and then volunteer to work shifts to set up and serve and later to
finish serving and clean up. Helping at the event also gives the added advantage of being able to hand-pick
and reserve slices of some of the amazing desserts provided by members, wives and others in the congregation.
It took a little while to get the grilled cheese production process to go smoothly, but soon the sandwiches were
flying off the grill and the crowd enjoyed this new-fangled addition to the menu. Several people joked about
such a major change to a traditional meal that rarely undergoes any changes.
Maybe it was the grilled cheese, maybe it was a particularly warm day in January, but a particularly large crowd
showed up to the event and the club set a record for funds raised at $1,705. This was around $200 more
than the previous best event.
The soup supper is one of several fundraiser soup suppers and pancake feeds offered by men’s clubs at LCMS churches
in Zone 7 during the months of January and February. The club decided to send $900 to the District LLL for district
projects and $600 to the North Central Kansas Lutheran Outreach congregation in Concordia.
Men’s Club goes through the Process of Updating By-laws
The St. John’s LLL Men’s Club of St. John Lutheran Church, Palmer, recently went through the process of updating
their Constitution and By-Laws. The club approved changes to the by-laws at their April 11 meeting after
discussion of dues led them to the document that was somewhat hidden at the back of a binder that held the
secretary’s binder. A review of the document showed several outdated aspects of the by-laws. The
documents were last updated on April 1, 1983. They were visibly old, having been typed out on colored
paper that was starting to crumble.
Updates included increasing the dues from “25¢ per month plus Reporter subscription” to $10 per year.
The dues are now to be collected in association with the club’s annual soup supper, held annually in
January. The old by-laws also called for special appointments of a Lutheran Hour Representative, LLL
Membership Representative and Lutheran Television Representative. Those were all combined under one
position of “LHM Ambassador.” A change was also made from specifying a certain day of the month for meetings,
to a more general instruction of meetings being held monthly, without a specific day mentioned.
There was significant discussion during the updating process, especially regarding dues structure and whether
or not dues for the club and for LHM membership should be combined. In the end, a specific donation was requested
for the men’s club, but members were encouraged to donate individually and separately to LHM.
To get the by-laws approved, they were marked with strikes through the old language and new language was inserted.
Copies were given to all members two weeks before the men’s club meeting and then the new by-laws were approved unanimously.
Approximately 315 persons attended the worship service; the offering amounted to over $1,600. The District Board
expresses its sincere appreciation to all of those volunteers who contributed their own time, effort, and money to
plan and bring to pass the Meet and Greet event on Saturday, September 10, 2016, and the worship service on Sunday,
September 11, 2016.
