First United Methodist Church

Service Times

9am Contemporary | 11am Traditional

Words on Stewardship from Lay Member, Fred Winterkamp

Last Sunday in worship Fred Winterkamp, a lay member on our stewardship committee, spoke to us about our 2020 Stewardship Initiative. Below is his speech.

1 Peter 4:10 – Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

FUMCWP faithfully shines Christian service in many forms:
  • Locally: Our many youth programs including Studio 150 Dance Ministry, and Trinity Christian Academy taking residence at the Reeves Center.
  • In Service: Supporting folks who need a helping hand, like through Family Promise, and the Foundry mentoring ministry serving those who age out of foster care.
  • In the World: Serving and providing relief aid, mission trips both domestic and abroad, and our partner in hope ministry, Inua, supporting youth in Naivasha, Kenya.

Recently you have seen testimonials during services, so please consider the following: 

  • Serving to share in the joy
  • Pledging to help grow and support the budget
  • Increasing sharing to expand our Christian service

You can learn more about our 2020 Stewardship Initiative on our website. See the ways to give and learn about our modest 5% funding increase goal. 

Matthew 6:21 – Where you treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Help FUMCWP become greater Christ-like servants in the lives of those around us – near and fear – in ways that are “Greater Than Me.”

Fred Winterkamp
Lay Member, Stewardship Committee

Street Eats Assembly at Refuel Wednesday Made Over 500 Bags!

We had a great turnout to assemble Street Eats bags after dinner at Refuel Wednesday! Between several families and a local Girl Scout troop, we assembled over 500 bags! These bags (which are distributed by our congregants to our homeless neighbors) contain water, food, a resource card, and a reminder that they are loved by our community. Make sure to grab a few from the baskets on Sunday morning so you can share them and meet God in the faces of those who are hungry.

Film for the Gospel – Update from Pastor Rick

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always been passionate about film making. My father attests that when I was a little boy at the age of 6, I was creating stop-action movie shorts using stuffed animals embarking on an adventures. God has been amazing to allow me to use that gift in other churches to communicate the gospel in creative ways. Currently, I have been blessed to bring that love of film-making to our Family Ministry at our wonderful church. Combined with the efforts of our lay and staff team who wrote and acted, we have created some exciting movie shorts!

Last spring, we made the Promiseland Toy Box series. We used toys to tell the gospel of Mark and the story of Noah. Recently, we created a spin-off series called the Promise Land Excellent Adventure that resembles the Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure from the 80’s. Lastly, we have the Promise Land News Team, which is a weekly feature of our fifth graders rehashing the Sunday morning lesson in a funny news format. All of our children in Promise Land have been able to see these episodes on Sunday mornings!

Look to hear about more ways that we are using film to communicate the gospel. We have some exciting plans in the future to expand this ministry and if you would like to be a part of this awesome venture, please contact Dawn Peterson, dawnp@fumcwp.org. We would love to have you!

~Pastor Rick Jones, Director of Family Ministry

Words on Stewardship from our Finance Chairman, Ray Sandhagen

Last Sunday in worship our Finance Committee Chairman, Ray Sandhagen, spoke to us about our 2020 Stewardship Initiative. Below is his speech.

“Good morning.  I am pleased to be with you this morning to help kickoff our Stewardship Initiative for 2020.  So much has happened in our Church and the Methodist denomination this year and it is exciting to think about moving into a new year with new opportunities to grow God’s Kingdom in our Church, our communities and our ministries here and abroad.

Our theme for 2020 is:  Greater Than Me.  Because of your generosity this year, we have been able to accomplish a great deal.  Just to name a few important successes, we moved one of our preschools, the Trinity Christian Academy from South Street to Reeves Center and now we have 75 children enrolled with a waiting list.  The Foundry Ministry was launched, serving those who have aged out of the foster care system in our community.  Our dance ministry, Studio 150, expanded into a second location at the Reeves Center.  We celebrated our 3rd class of Kenya graduates through our Inua Ministry.  We were able to make numerous improvements to our campus here in Winter Park as well as the Reeves Center to expand our ministries.  It has been a year of growth for our Church and we are thankful for that.

We have included in your bulletin this morning an insert with some details on our metrics comparing 2018 to 2019 and our budget as well as some of our key movements in 2019.  There are a lot of numbers that you can pour over but I want to highlight a few points.  Our year-to-date pledged giving through August has exceeded 2018 by about 6%, however, our unpledged giving has fallen short from last year.  We believe there are several main reasons for this including tax law changes pertaining to charitable giving, the Methodist denomination vote on our future direction as a traditional or an open church and a decline in attendance from last year.  Other Methodist churches are experiencing the same results as we are.

Our expenses YTD through August are under what we budgeted but exceeded last year as our church ministries have grown.  We added more capital expenses into the General Budget this year and we spent more at Reeves Center in 2019 than last year.  We just got the deed to Reeves Center last week and the Methodist Conference will reimburse us for over $200,000 we spent on Reeves. We are not planning an increase in expenses in 2020 and the Ministries are working on their budgets with that in mind.

December is always a very big month for our Church with total giving that is typically more than double what we have in a normal month.  We anticipate that will be our experience this year as well.  Obviously, we are still working on finalizing our 2020 Budget but we intend to have a balanced budget for the coming year.  Our total budget will be about $5 million. I want to highlight our 2020 generosity goals.  First, we have set a goal to increase our individual and collective financial generosity by 5%.  Secondly, we want to increase the number of pledging units by 5%.  2019 was the first year in a decade that we had an increase in pledging units over the previous year.  Our goal is to have 300 pledging units in 2020.  And finally, our third generosity goal, as I said, is to get as close as possible to a balanced budget.

Our Stewardship Initiative is very important to our Church in 2020, as it always is, and we prayerfully ask for your commitment both financially and spiritually.  The Marcy Trust has generously agreed to provide a Challenge Grant as they did for our 2019 Stewardship initiative.

There are a number of ways to give. You can complete a pledge card or give electronically through Realm or our website. We will enclose pledge cards in the bulletin over the next five weeks.

Please prayerfully consider your gift for 2020.  We are indeed grateful for your generosity this year and our upcoming year.  Thank you!”

Ray Sandhagen
Chairman, Finance Committee    

Ruth Circle Rummage Sale

Oct. 18 & 19, 8:00am-1:00pm

Our annual Ruth Circle Rummage Sale is right around the corner! We are accepting donations on Oct. 14-16. Start cleaning those closets and donate to support local missions!

Members and staff can shop the rummage sale early on Thursday, 17 from 12:00-5:00pm.

Promiseland News Team

Meet our Promiseland News Team! Our 5th graders will provide the FUMCWP news and events each week in Sunday School.

Popsicles for Flood Buckets!

Sarah and Kate Ryan are no strangers to service. Their family – including mom Betsy, dad Andrew, and sister Annie – has served as volunteers within the church for years, and this year is no different! After the recent destruction of the Bahamas by Hurricane Dorian, Sarah and Kate decided they would donate the money raised from their popsicle stand to UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief) in order to help those affected. Their donation will be given to UMCOR, along with over $8,000 donated by our congregants over the past month! Thank you for your contributions. Your generosity makes such a difference!