Author: devadmin

BROADWAY BOUND – YOUTH CHOIR FUNDRAISER

Feb. 10 and 11, 6:30pm, Matthias Family Life Center Gym

Support the Impact Singers’ Summer 2017 mission trip. Enjoy a cabaret-style performance of Broadway’s finest, featuring the music of Mame, Wicked, and theme songs from movies. Silent auction will take place both nights. Tickets avialable in the front office and online.

Dinner and a show – Feb. 10, Adults: $30, Children (9-under) $15

Desserts, coffee and a show – Feb. 11, all tickets $20

Register

Seven Experiment Schedule of Sermons and Fasting

• Feb. 26 – a sermon introduction to the series.
  • Ask congregation to read introduction and chapter one.
  • Small groups start meeting the week of March 5.
• March 5 – food
  • The fast on food runs March 6-12
• March 12 – clothing
  • The fast on clothing runs March 13-19
• March 19 – possessions
  • The fast on possessions runs March 20-26
• March 26 – media
  • The fast on media runs March 27-April 2
• April 2 – waste
  • The fast of waste runs April 3-9
• April 9 – spending
  • The fast on spending runs April 10-16
• April 16 (Easter) – stress
  • The fast on stress runs April 17-23

 

– Books will be available online and in the courtyard on Sundays in February.

 

The Wednesday morning Women’s Book Club recently met to discuss our January book, the novel “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand.” It was an enjoyable time with a group of women who love to read and talk about what they have read. If this describes you, we hope you will join us for our February meeting on Wednesday, February 8th. The book we will be discussing then is “A Walk Across the Sun” by Corban Addison. It is a novel that tells the story of two sisters from India caught up in human trafficking and the people dedicated to helping them. It should be the kind of inspiring story that provokes good discussion. We meet in the church library at 10AM on the second Wednesday of every month.

Register Here

Confirmation refers to the decision a person makes to respond to God’s grace with intentional commitment, publicly reaffirming his or her baptismal vows before the congregation. During confirmation class, confirmands learn about the meaning of Christian faith, the history and teachings of The United Methodist Church, and an explanation of the baptismal and membership vows they will be professing.
Confirmation takes place over 11 weeks starting in January and ending in April on Confirmation Sunday. We meet in MFLC Room 313 during the Sunday School time (9:30-10:30am).Below is a list of dates including the Confirmation Retreat, Confirmation Sunday, and a few dates in which we will not be meeting:

• Confirmation Starts: January 22nd , 2017
• Confirmation Retreat: April 7th-9th, 2017
• Confirmation Rehearsal/Dinner: April 20th, 2017
• Confirmation Sunday: April 23rd, 2017
• Confirmation DOES NOT meet: February 26th or April 16th

Please look over these dates and take them seriously. The Confirmation class teaches a lot of information in a relatively short period of time. We ask that your student attend every session and the retreat. The material builds on itself and there will be a make-up assignment due if you are absent.

While we enjoy ministering to the students in Confirmation each year, we cannot run Confirmation without the help of our many adult and student mentors. All parents are invited to join Confirmation as mentors! Student mentors must be in high school and will be selected based on merit, with priority given to older students. Adult mentors do not need to be Biblical scholars or teach lessons to the group- all you need is a passion for students, faith, and a willingness to serve. Mentors use a curriculum to co-lead small groups each Sunday before a large group lesson. Mentors are expected to attend each Confirmation session and the retreat. There will be a mandatory training (offered on two dates- but each mentor must attend one session) for adult and student mentors in January (dates TBD). If you are interested in mentoring and have questions, please contact Michael LeBlanc at michaell@fumcwp.org.

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Last week marked the end of our Summer Mission Trip season with the return of the final group from the UMCOR Sager Brown trip to Baldwin, Louisiana. This summer, you supported 8 trips to places all over the US and around the world. More than 70 missioners served hundreds of people, and found that they received so much more than they gave. We built wells, put on Vacation Bible School, graduated 160 youth in Kenya, packed disaster relief kits, built ramps, installed plumbing fixtures, and so much more!

To bring us in to fall, we held our first ever Panua 5K and raised over $25,000 to launch the third, 3-year class cycle this coming January. Last Sunday, thanks to the donated time and talents of the Colin Murphy family and their business Bungalow Scenic Studios, our gym was transformed into Naivasha, Kenya, and you responded to the call from our Kenyan guests to commit to the ministry of helping another 200 youth in Naivasha, Kenya find the hope of Christ. There are still youth, business and program partnerships available, so if you missed out on Panua Sunday, contact Jensie Gobel. You have truly made a difference in 2016 in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

The next meeting of the Women’s Book Club is Wednesday, November 9th.

We will be discussing the book “Lila” by Marilynne Robinson. “Lila” is a beautifully written novel with religious themes such as forgiveness, redemption and unconditional love. All are invited whether you have read the book or not.

We meet in the church library/resource room at 10AM on the second Wednesday of the month. This will be our last meeting of 2016.

We will take a break during December and then will meet again on January 11th to discuss the charming book “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” by Helen Simonson. Please plan to join us!

“Several years ago our Church embarked on a strategic planning process called Discern. The Discern process helped clarify our core values as a Church and identified three strategic priorities for the Church to focus on: Meaningful Worship, Next Generations, and South Street. Each priority had a series of actions and goals associated with it, and lay + staff teams were charged with implementing each priority’s identified actions. The Next Generations and South Street teams completed their work last year, while the Meaningful Worship team is wrapping up their work now.

As we phase out the implementation teams from Discern, we want to recognize the work and accomplishments of these team members and thank them for their contributions to enhancing the vibrancy of our Church. While the work of the teams is ending, the strategic priorities we identified through Discern remain important priorities for our Church and will continue to be part of our community’s focus in the future.”    ~ Jeff Hanniford

Discern Facilitation Team:

Jeff Hanniford

Julie Cave

Bill Legg

Charles Costar

Erin O’Donnell

Meaningful Worship:

Stacey Cox

Peter Leerdam

Mary Ann Andrus

Natalie Rosander

South Street:

Barbie Boyd (chair)

Jim Berlau

Julie Cave

Joan Coye

Chris Hagy

John Hazelroth

Catherine Matthias

Carol Smith

Next Generations:

Jennifer Clayton

Ally Stricker

Garland Gould

Jon Tschanz

Merrill Frailey