Category: Stories

Our staff has ministry objectives for this year, and each one belongs to Rise Together, our vision for building community across every part of church life. Last time, I shared Pastor Leah’s objective, which is about a new room for our nursery on our campus. This week I want to share an update from Claud Smith, our Director of Worship. His objective is about something less visible than a room, but just as important: how we recruit and care for our worship volunteers.

Paul tells the Corinthians that “the body does not consist of one member but of many” (1 Corinthians 12:14, NRSVUE). No part of the body stands alone, and no part is unnecessary (paraphrased, 1 Corinthians 12:15-20, NRSVUE). A choir needs more than one voice. A worship service needs more than one set of hands.

Claud’s objective this year is to strengthen how our worship and music ministries recruit new volunteers and welcome them once they are serving. Growing a volunteer team is not only about filling spots. It is about building a body of people who show up for each other week after week.

Here is what has changed so far. Six new voices have joined the Chancel Choir, and two new ushers now serve alongside the team already in place. Most of that growth has come the way it usually does, through invitation. Choir members invite others when they pass the peace on Sunday mornings, and short-term commitments during Festival GLORIA!, Good Friday, Easter, and summer services give people a low-pressure way to try serving before committing to something ongoing.

Communication has changed too. The weekly worship planning meeting now happens in person on Tuesdays, and the music and worship staff use that time, along with Planning Center and Teams, to make sure every volunteer knows their role before Sunday. And on July 28, the worship team will hold a workshop to build shared understanding between the traditional and contemporary teams.

None of this happened by accident. It happened because Claud and his team decided that shared responsibility is worth planning for.

I’m grateful for the volunteers who show up to sing, usher, greet, and participate in worship services on Sundays without much notice, and for a staff that is working to make sure they are seen and supported. That is what nurturing connections looks like in practice.

May we keep growing together.

If you’re interested in singing, playing an instrument, ushering, or greeting, Claud would be happy to talk with you at ClaudS@fumcwp.org.

For any questions please contact

Pastor Rachel DeLaune at RachelD@fumcwp.org.

Our campus playground serves hundreds of children and families every week! Built in 2003, our beloved play structure is now 23 years old. While our facilities teams have taken excellent care of it over the decades, it is finally time for a complete makeover to bring the space up to modern code and safety standards.

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers, church staff, and our MSEE preschool team, we have been researching options, receiving bids, and working closely with our Trustees and Leadership Council. We are thrilled to announce that a contract has been signed with Kompan to install a brand-new playground during summer break next year!

This project is already off to an incredible start: MSEE and their amazing fundraising team of volunteers and church members raised $137,000 at their April 26th event!

How you can engage:

Take a look: Stop by the playground today to see the current space and envision the exciting transformation ahead.

In Ephesians 2:19-20 Paul says “So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”

We are built together, on one foundation, in one place. 

That is the idea behind many of our ministry objectives this year. Our staff set many objectives for 2026, and one of them belongs to Pastor Leah Gaughan, Children’s Director.

I met with Leah last week to get an update, and here is what she shared:

One piece of the Rise Together Initiative cast a vision for community building across all ages in a centralized location on campus — and planning is currently underway! Part of this vision included relocating the Nursery to a space nearer the courtyard, where families and congregation members can connect with ease on Sunday mornings. 

Our first stage of conversation has begun with the children’s ministry team, the nursery coordinator, and seven families with nursery-aged children. Each of these groups and families provided input on potential locations. Rooms and spaces are being evaluated based on the ages of children served and current nursery needs.

This fall, the next step will be identifying the specific amenities a new space might require — including restrooms, sinks, a check-in area, a nursing space, and safety and security features that meet child protection compliance standards. From there, we will work with the Trustees and the newly formed committee, allocating funds for New Initiatives to determine what is possible as this objective moves forward.

I’m looking forward to seeing the courtyard as a hub for connection! Further updates will be shared as planning progresses — stay tuned. 

Let’s keep building together. 

For any questions please contact Pastor Rachel DeLaune at RachelD@fumcwp.org.

One of my objectives this year is to establish a dedicated fellowship time that bridges our two worship services, providing a consistent space for members to build relationships, share refreshments, and strengthen our congregational unity. Not just coffee in the corner before you find your seat. Real time. Time to connect with people you love, meet people you don’t know yet, and feel like you actually belong to something together.

To help figure out what that looks like, I put together a team. Haley Hogan, Lynn Striepe, Dan Myers, Dave Olsen, Robbie Hopkins, Maureen Witwer, and Randy Nunley have been meeting with me to think through this carefully. Together they represent all the different areas of church life on a Sunday morning here at FUMCWP.

Before we talk about schedules or logistics, we wanted to answer some foundational questions first. What do we actually want people to walk away with on a Sunday morning? Why does fellowship time matter? What does fellowship look like when it is working?

We met on June 17 and worked through these questions together. Here is what we landed on: 

We want people to leave Sunday morning with a sense of community and belonging, feeling spiritually renewed and equipped with biblical knowledge, and informed about the life of the church.

And when we asked ourselves why fellowship time matters, here is what we said:

Fellowship time on Sunday morning is important because we need to connect with the people we love, welcome those we do not yet know, and build the kind of intergenerational community that holds us together and makes us want to come back.

We also began working through our third question: what does Sunday morning actually look like with a real fellowship time built in? We are not going to pretend that is a simple question. It may mean changes to our Sunday morning schedule, and we know that affects a lot of people. No decisions have been made. We are taking this seriously, listening carefully, and working toward something that works for everyone. But we are already on the same page about a few things we find to be very important: fellowship time needs a dedicated block, it needs to be prioritized, it needs a central location, and it needs to be designed so that no one feels left out, whether you are a longtime member, a first-time visitor, or somewhere in between.

We meet again on July 9 to keep working through these questions.

Sunday mornings matter because they are one of the rare times when everyone gathers in the same place, and we don’t want to waste that opportunity. Our goal is to grow not just in numbers but in cultivating a deep, lasting community that loves Jesus with their whole hearts. Achieving this requires intentional effort, clear structure, and a collective willingness to ask tough questions about how we utilize our time together. It also involves viewing this challenge from a broader perspective beyond individual ministry programs, looking at the life of the entire church rather than fighting for personal programs. We appreciate the team’s efforts and are grateful for the work ahead.

We want to keep this process transparent and open. I will keep you posted as we go.

For any questions please contact Lauren Berlin at Lauren@inuapartners.org or Pastor Rachel DeLaune at RachelD@fumcwp.org.

Dear Church Family,

As promised, today begins our summer focus on the objectives of our staff for the 2026 year. We have begun collaborating, planning and working together to help these objectives move us closer to our collective goals. Every week, you will get a chance to see an interview with one of our amazing Directors about the objectives that they are working on and how we can come a long side to support them.

Pastor Rachel’s Objective: Transform our playground into a premier, safe, inclusive play environment that fosters growth for both our children’s ministry and church’s preschool.

Today, we begin with my objective and the Scripture I choose is one that you can commit to memory,

“Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” Nehemiah 8:10

When I think about joy on our campus, I always picture our playground. For 23 years, this playground between the sanctuary and our Asbury building is overflowing with joy! Yes, there is the occasional boo-boo, bump or scrap, but there is no grief in this place, only joy. As a mom of three kids, we are at playgrounds a lot, but our church’s playground is their favorite. I wanted to share some of the words I shared with our Leadership Council this past Sunday as we gathered together to make the important decision about which playground we will be building next.

A playground is a place of endless possibilities and a place where adventure is endless. This is how our 221 MSEE kids and 45 Children’s Ministry kids feel each time the get the chance to run out to our playground. It is place where adventure awaits. But as I have talked to parents both new and seasoned, this wasn’t only a place where children discovered themselves, but parents did too. Two moms grew closer as friends as they shared their lives, watching over their children as they played. A husband and wife took a breath and forgave each other as they talked through the fight they got in on the way to church in this space. And two dads shared vulnerably with each other about their life struggles and trusted each other enough in this place to ask advice. This playground for years, has been a place of transformation and a place of fellowship.

That fellowship became a major part of our discussion on Sunday about the playground vendor that our Trustees spent time researching and recommending to us. Your leaders had robust conversation around which playground will be best for the families present and future that will be a part of our church and school.

A lot of work has gone into these decisions and I want to thank each person that has made this a labor of love over the last six months of work. If you are unaware our playground needs replacing, it is falling apart in places and it is well used and very loved. If you, yourself have not gone up a ladder or down a slide recently, you wouldn’t know how rickety it really is, but we are now at the place where children could get hurt if we wait and the instability of the structure now means it is a liability. This is the WHY.

The WHY NOW is answered because the materials to replace our playground will keep rising in cost. We plan to demolish this current playground next summer on June 5, 2027 and install the new playground in time for our first MSEE students and Church Families by early August 2027.

I want to thank Ashley Finfrock and Amber Woodward who have made this a passion project; it has been a labor of love. For many hours each week they took field trips to other playgrounds, talked to our three vendors, went back and forth with the renderings of different designs and made changes and negotiations. They have also spent much of their time over these last six months looking into each company’s products to find individual playground pieces that could work with our needs. We have also done our version of field research as we have talked to MSEE teachers, Nursery workers, Church members and of course our children. What we learned very quickly is that a revitalized playground will cost far more than the initial $130,000 that we printed in the Rise Capital Initiative packets. This was an arbitrary number unfortunately that was not reflective of current products and the ultimate size of our playground.

But we have a plan and God has been faithful. We have the promised amount from the Rise Capital Initiative commitments, the $140,000 that MSEE raised in their 70^th Anniversary fundraiser in April and funding sources because of the faithfulness of God through wise investments and generous people.

I wanted to end today’s devotion by inviting you to email me with your questions, your prayers and your ideas. This objective will take a whole year to accomplish, but we wanted to keep you informed right off the bat with news from those helping make this important decision. Pray for us as your pastors and a few lay leaders are gathered in Lakeland this week for the Florida United Methodist Annual Conference.

May you feel the joy of the Lord this week and please don’t hesitate to reach out to Pastor Rachel at racheld@fumcwp.org

Brothers and Sisters, we have walked through quite a year together. We have seen God’s faithfulness and wondered at God’s silence. We have charted new paths and stepped into the unknown. We have talked and prayed and planned and sacrificed and now we are hopeful as we step to the edge and look over to see the view. As we reflect on what God has done in us and for us, we wanted to spend the summer communicating clearly about what happens next. Many of you have asked questions about the Rise Capital Initiative that we began last summer and we want to share more about what has already begun and what is to come.

If I can take you back a few years, let’s remember what we have walked through together.

After coming out of a global pandemic and the division around inclusion, we began a year long strategy formation that included Home Meetings that many of you either hosted or participated in. These Home Meetings are where faithful church members opened their home to others for dialogue and dreaming. These 14 home meetings were a place where questions were asked, the faithful shared their hearts and we dreamed of what deeper waters God was calling First United Methodist Church of Winter Park out into next.

Then, out of the work from those Home Meetings, a Strategic Planning Team was formed. These dedicated individuals met for over a year to listen carefully to the Holy Spirit and the work that was already underway and prayed about how to meet the challenges our church and community face. This Strategic Planning Team developed three focus areas that were born out of their hard work:

Deepening Community, Neighboring Well and Resourcing Legacy

We launched the Rise Capital Initiative this time last year with these three focus areas and we all gathered for the Vision Night, the Stakeholder’s Dinner and then for worship and fellowship on Commitment Night in November. As we started 2026, we moved toward living into these focus areas in specific ways.

Your Pastors, Directors and key Staff leaders have been working on Objectives that are collaborative, daring and full of faith. We want to share them with you. But we don’t want you to just passively listen, nodding your head in agreement, we want your questions, your buy in and your thoughtful feedback.

Over the next two months, you will hear from the Pastoral Team through video devotions about what we are working on and where we feel like God is leading us next. We hope you will engage and tune in every Wednesday to learn more.

Click Here To View Objectives

As we begin preparing for Holy Week and the joyous time of Easter, I have had a tradition in our Preschools that I wanted to share with you. Every year, I have had a chance to read the Winky, Wonkey Donkey story to our Preschoolers at Chapel for both Trinity Christian Academy and Methodist School for Early Education. If you have never read the story, it is a joy! It follows a donkey that is having a really bad day and page after page, we learn that something else is now wrong with him. I talk to the little ones about our bad days and ask them if they have ever felt cranky, or naughty or dealing with something that sets them back. I remind them that Jesus loves them anyways, even when they are feeling those things.

Then, I try as best as I can to connect the Winky, Wonky Donkey back to the story of Palm Sunday. I teach the kids about the parade that Jesus came into Jerusalem in. I talk about the donkey he rode and the people that waved palm branches and shouted Hosanna! And then I tell them that while we don’t really know how stinky or naughty the donkey was that Jesus rode into the city on, we do know that God loves us and can use us even on our worst of days. We have fun telling the story with motions and laughing about the Winky, Wonky Donkey. Look the video up on YouTube to listen to the story. It is worth your time.

And after I shared this story over the last few days, it go me thinking about the crowd of the people shouting Hosannas and waving palm branches, and I had wondered if I would have been amongst them? Here is why I ask you this question. There were two processionals through Jerusalem in the year AD 30. The first was Pilate’s Imperial Procession coming from the West. To ensure order during the crowded Passover festival, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, would ride from his coastal residence in Caesarea into Jerusalem. Author and Theologian, Brain Zahnd writes, “What we see on Palm Sunday are two parades. One from the west and one from the east. One where Caesar’s Prefect of Judea rides a warhorse and one where God’s anointed Messiah rides a donkey. One is a military parade projecting the power of empire, the Roman Empire. The other is a prophetic parade announcing the arrival of an alternative empire, the kingdom of God. One parade derives its power from a willingness to crucify its enemies.”

Scholars believe this was intentional and planned by Jesus and his followers as an “anti-imperial” counter processional that would have put those present at the parade in some risk. Not only that, but in all three Synoptic Gospels, those in the crowds laid down their clocks and outer garments which was a public display of allegiance and hope in the new Kingdom Jesus came to usher in.  In those days, your outer garment was also your blanket and your security and so to lay that down signaled a willingness to be sacrificially obedient for this new, counter kingdom.

And so, as we walk closer and closer to Holy Week and as we prepare for the sting of death and the hope of resurrection, I invite you to consider two things. First, would you have even been willing to put yourself at risk, to go against the degree as a citizen of Rome to join the crowd that celebrated Jesus’ final entry into the Holy City. And second, if you were there, what would you have laid down? Throughout this season of Lent, you may have chosen to let go of something or to take something on. But as we prepare for the Holy Season of Easter, what is the final thing God is asking you to lay down to prepare fully for the freedom found through death and resurrection?

Maybe it is your ego, your false self like Pastor Philip preached about Sunday. Maybe it is your anger or your bitterness towards others? Could it be your pride or your entitlement? Or maybe it is your fear of what will come to be in this world that seems to be spinning out of control. What is that outer layer that has been your security and comfort and whatever it is, would you have been willing to lay that down?

As we prepare for how God might show up in our lives over the next ten days, may we be watching and listening to how God might be inviting us into a new way of loving, a new way of living and a new way of living into the hope that just like the Winky, Wonkey Donkey, Jesus loves us even on our worst of days.

Winky, Wonkey Donkey Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKzrYLuI6Yo