Becoming a member of FUMCWP is not a requirement for attendance or involvement, but we believe you’ll find the process both enlightening and enjoyable.
Church Location
125 N. Interlachen Ave
Winter Park, FL 32789
407.644.2906
Join us in-person or watch sermons live online.
Activity Center
1100 N. Fern Creek Ave. Orlando, FL 32803
407.894.2237
Reeves Ministries:
TCA Preschool
Studio 150 Dance*
Jobs Partnership
4 Pillars Counseling & Enrichment Center
*Takes place at both campuses
Last Sunday in worship our Finance Committee Vice-chairman, Rusty Payne, spoke to us about our 2020 Stewardship Initiative. Below is part of his speech.
What does your church mean to you?
I can honestly say I believe the church is the body of Christ in the world today. Its mission is to make Disciples of Christ. I’m a member of First United Methodist Church of Winter Park and I have been attending here for 10 years.
I’m blessed to have two daughters and a lovely wife. This church provides leadership opportunities based upon your spiritual strengths. My wife, Melissa, serves as the chair of Leadership Council and I am the Vice-Chair of the Finance Committee. I also have the opportunity to provide mentorship to youth as a small group leader in Elevate. My Connect Group is the Cornerstone Sunday School Class, which provides opportunities for relationship building through study and prayer. I see my oldest daughter, Caroline, developing knowledge about Christ through her involvement with the Impact Singers, Acolytes, Bodybuilders and Elevate. My youngest daughter, Emily, enjoys learning stories of the Bible in Promiseland. As a family, we attend the 11 o’clock service and sponsor a member of Inua.
As you can see, this church enriches our lives and I can see how we are developing in our walk with Christ. We pledge because this is so important to us. Today, this is what the church means to me. One thing that I have learned is the church is > ME. There are so many more ministries that the church has to offer. As a family, we have submitted our pledge to the church so plans can be made for the ministries in the coming year.
On the night of October 4th, FUMCWP’s Diversity Committee and Cinnabar, a film series program and young millennium ministry, co-hosted 25 Central Floridians at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum for an evening of documentary and storytelling. The Vibrant Family pillar’s mission promotes discipleship, learning, and multigenerational connections. Diversity Committee’s mission is to listen deeply to all points of view and develop relationships towards candor and authenticity. The documentary film, Shelter, featured a series of gripping stories of homeless youth in New Orleans. A panel discussion was also held with directors from Covenant House and Foundry’s ministry partner, Foundation for Foster Children, as well as Serenity, a 23-year-old transgender woman, who experienced homelessness. These speakers all shared transformational stories from those who are often invisible to us.
“You have no idea what it’s like to look around and know everyone is getting paid to be there.” – Raquel
Raquel shared this powerful quote from one of her beloved foster young people. She noted that it’s challenging for abandoned children to trust again, especially when their families of origin were unable to show up and model unconditional love. Youth, who were traumatized, often fall prey to short-sighted “survivor” mindsets. That’s why it’s so important to encourage young people to find what they’re most passionate about in order to ignite their “spark of fulfillment.” These are important steps to healing and wellbeing. Looking at our own interior lives, we may want to ask ourselves how our life passions might compel us to walk alongside vulnerable youth in hopes of empowering them. What are the roads to recovery for us all?
Cinnabar’s next event will be a narrative film screening and circle-up discussion on the night of November 13th (6:30-9:30pm). For more information, send David Witwer an email at cinnabar@cbfilmseries.com. We would love to have you!
In the past month, we have had two amazing retreats for our middle and high schoolers! It is always amazing to watch our students set aside time to grow closer to God and to each other. We are so blessed to be able to go on this journey with them!
Student Quotes:
“The high school retreat is not only tons of fun and laughs, but it’s a chance for connection with God and each other.” – Meredith R.
“I LOVE the mystery retreat! I struggle with anxiety a ton and the first time I went on the retreat I was super nervous. One of my favorite LeBlanc quotes is “participate don’t anticipate” and I think that is a great ideal to live by. The four great times I’ve been on this retreat have immensely help me cope with my anxiety by teaching me to not worry about the future because it doesn’t matter that you don’t know where you’re going, God knows where you’ll end up.” – Lucy B.
“The high school retreat was a great experience. I grew in my faith and made memories with my friends.” – Griffin A.
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.
Recently you have seen testimonials during services, so please consider the following:
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
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
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
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.
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Winter Park 125 N. Interlachen Ave Winter Park, FL 32789
407-644-2906
Reeves Center 1100 N. Fern Creek Ave. Orlando, FL 32803
407-894-2237
Copyright ©2021 First United Methodist Church Winter Park.
