Category: Church Updates

Sermon Series: Aug. 18- Oct. 6

Our next sermon series will focus on activating the unique strengths God has given us to further the work of His Kingdom. In this eight-week series, we will spend the first four weeks talking about why we serve within our church family and the second four weeks considering our call to serve outside the church. Our prayer is that this series will encourage and equip you to live into your unique calling.

Save the Date:

• On Sunday, Sept. 29, we will be holding a ministry fair, showcasing serving opportunities both inside the church and out in the community.
• Following the sermon series, we will have multiple opportunities to attend a “When Helping Hurts” workshop. We highly encourage participation in this workshop for everyone serving within one of our ministries. Dates forthcoming.

Invitation to Engage Your Strengths:

• We invite you to take the Gallup StrengthFinders 2.0 assessment. The book, Living Your Strengths, is a resource that frames how God has equipped each of us for our calling. After you take the assessment, update your Realm profile using your computer. Tell us your top 5 strengths and interests. Login at onrealm.org/fumcwp and follow this clickstream. My Profile > Edit Profile > Personal Information > Skills and Interests.
• Our Faith Journey Roadmap offers some pretty cool ideas for you and your neighbor. As a vibrant family, we have opportunities for every stage of life. We have options for visitors and attendees, for people fully engaged and committed, and even for ministry leaders. Grab a copy of the Roadmap on Sunday, Aug. 18.

• The renovation for Building 200 is near completion. Support groups will soon move into the space, opening up the conference room in the main building for church meetings and study groups.
• Studio 150 has been approved by Leadership Council to open a dance studio at this campus. The two rooms slated for the dancers will soon be remodeled.
• The Counseling Center team continues to work through the business model creating a mission and vision statement.
• Foundry has identified their office space and is in an ongoing discussion regarding the renovation and the promised funding by the conference.
• The thrift store items are being distributed to different support organizations with the hope to be cleared out by the end of the month.
• Would you like to be a part of the planning for the TCA Pumpkin Patch and Fall Festival? Contact: Denise Meyer at denisem@fumcwp.org

Our family at First United Methodist Church of Winter Park would like to extend our deep gratitude to Chevalier Lovett for serving as our Interim Worship Leader in the contemporary service in March and April.  Chev has blessed us with his enthusiasm for music and worship and his love of Jesus. While Chev will be helping us periodically in the future, he is pursuing his full-time calling in the non-profit world – pursuing justice for those without a voice.

Over the next several weeks we will have a variety of worship leaders and it is our prayer that you will graciously welcome all these talented young adults.  Our Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) is busy interviewing candidates for this open position. Please know that they are prayerfully seeking God’s guidance as we fill this important position.  SPRC seeks a candidate who practices discipleship, exhibits excellent musicianship, connects with the congregation, develops and mentors praise teams, and is available to collaborate. 

As a congregation, we invite you to also be praying that we find the right person to lead us in contemporary worship.  Just as God supplied Chev in this transitional period, we believe God will provide our church family with the right person to fill this permanent position.  

We are all too painfully aware of how individuals with malicious intent have perpetrated acts of violence at places of worship and schools both within our nation and around the world.  While these senseless acts cannot be completely eliminated, we as a community need to be prepared to respond during times of trouble.

Our Emergency Preparedness Task Team has been meeting and will be implementing some additional security measures around our church and school campus.

While we desire to have an open, welcoming environment, it is also very important to help safeguard the safety and security of our staff, our congregation, students, preschoolers, visitors, etc.

Installation of Phase One of our new security system has been initially implemented as of the end of November.   Phase One is based around the school and the Wesleyan building.  We have installed new security cameras, upgraded security locks, keycard readers and intercoms.

Daily operations for the school will be very similar to present operations with improved security and smoother locking and access to the playground gates.  During school hours the only access to the school will be via intercom and remote door access on the walkway between the Matthias Family Life Center and the School.

Operations for administrative and ministry staff will change with the new system.  Access to the church office will be via intercom and remote door access at the two primary Wesleyan doors.  Staff and Lay leadership access will be via keycard.

Additional phases will include the Sanctuary and the Matthias Family Life Center.

Speaking of security, with rolling back time and the Christmas shopping season upon us, please be sure to lock your cars in the parking lot and when parking around the church.

Thank you for your patience as we transition to our new system and fine tune the process.  We look forward to implementing this new level of security with you.

~Trustees

Last Sunday, a couple hundred members filled our sanctuary to respond to Leadership Council’s call to vote regarding the adoption of the Reeves Property. For those of you who missed the church conference, here’s a quick recap. Jeff Hanniford, Chair of our Leadership Council, presented the proposal to all the attendees. Members were then invited to ask questions regarding the proposal. Here are a few of the questions asked in a paraphrased format.

• Property Name – Church Member: What’s the new name of the Reeves Property? Pastor David: Naming the location will be a long process, involving many people.
• Volunteers Needed – Church Member: How many volunteers are required to run the ministries at Reeves? Jeff: We will live into that as we do not know those numbers yet.
• Amount of Property – Church Member: How much property is at Reeves? Jeff: There is a lot of potential including a house, compared to South Street where we were limited in building the campus out.
• Money Spent – Church Member: How much money has the church already invested in Reeves? Bill Legg, Chair of Trustees: $50,000 funded by FUMCWP; but in totality over $130,000 paid in part by the Marcy Trust and FL Conference reimbursement. Pastor David: The Feasibility Study was the only other funding from FUMCWP in addition to that. 

Following the time of Q&A, members were encouraged to give speeches in favor or against the proposed adoption. Denominational rules state that members are permitted to give up to 3 speeches for each of the two positions. After 3 speeches in favor and 1 in opposition, a vote was called. Our members present at the church conference gave a resounding ‘Yes’ to the adoption. 

Our Future at Reeves

As our church family moves forward expanding ministries into this property, we understand it will be a slow, strategic and prayerfully guided process. Look for more updates and opportunities regarding Reeves.

What do you call Spring Cleaning that happens in the Summer? 

This summer we shared the excitement of the Realm online community with our church family.  Realm is a tool and database that will facilitate our ability to grow in deep connections with one another. 

We continue to see expanded activity on Realm as hundreds within our family have already embraced this community. If you haven’t received an email invitation from Realm yet, it may be because we don’t have your current email address in our database. Help us do some Spring Cleaning as we Clean-Up-Our-Data.Take this quick 5 question survey to ensure your information is correctly entered in the church database.  

Realm offers an app and online website for everything – groups, announcements, events, giving, and much more. We see this online community impacting us in many ways:

• Offer an active database for church members.
• Provide additional ways to communicate and connect as a church.
• Offer a virtual location to access information and announcements in one central spot.
• Provide an app that keeps our family connected with the swipe of a thumb!
• Create a place to conduct the work of ministries – that allows for a ministry history.
• Promote online conversation in a society that leverages technology in just about every aspect of life.
• Streamline logistics of registration, child care needs, and ticketing for church events.
• Allow a venue for online giving for those who prefer digital ways to give and track.
• Offer a technologically updated approach to the daily operations of the church.
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBxrePpzGDU&feature=youtu.be

As we continue to prepare the Reeves property for the arrival of Trinity Christian Academy (TCA), we are working closely with the City of Orlando to meet all city codes to ensure the safety and security of TCA’s children & teachers, as well as others who use the property. This process is, unfortunately, taking longer than originally planned, and as a result, we are delaying TCA’s move to the new space at Reeves for a short while.  The delay will allow the remodel team to complete all of the necessary work in the new space prior to moving the school.

Trinity Christian Academy is a ministry of First United Methodist Church of Winter Park (FUMCWP). As a local United Methodist Church, FUMCWP is a tenant of the Reeves property which is owned by the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Press inquiries: Please contact Sarah Skidmore, Director of Marketing and Communications at sarahs@fumcwp.org.