A Life Giving Christmas

Don't miss our Advent Series, "A Life Giving Christmas"
November 28 - Hope...Next Year Things will be Different
December 5 - Peace...Strength To Hold On
December 12 - Joy...To Get me Through the Tough Times
December 19 - Love...Gotta Have It


Christmas Eve, 7:00 - A Life Giving Christmas
With Carols and Readings as well as Orchestral Music from the Ferris Family.

For More Information check out our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/First-United-Methodist-Church-Wortham-Texas/136712449695823

Mark Winter's One Man Show Ministries is coming to Wortham, TX

Winter is here again Oh Lord!

Mark Winter that is. Mark Winter is a United Methodist evangelist that brings Gods message to life with entertaining drama and relevant messages of hope and life. Mark will be with us Sunday morning 9/26 at 11:00 them nightly at 6:00 PM. Each night will be a different theme within the overarching theme of Jubilee. This is what Mark has said of his Jubilee event:
"The Jewish Jubilee was a grand time of celebration. Every 50 years, debts were canceled, slaves freed, ancestral lands returned.

Mark Winter’s One Man Show Jubilee is also a great time of rejoicing. For three days, Mark blends powerful preaching and dramatic sketches in an event that will inspire and energize your congregation. In addition, Mark will minister to youth, men and women in separate programs. Mark is also able to reach into your community with the “Right Choice” show, designed to help children make the right choices in life."
Come celebrate with us and hear Mark as he brings God's Word to life for us.

Wonderful Worship Day!

Wow... What a wonderful worship day! I mentioned last week that this was one of a pastors favorite times of the year because the church family seems to come back together after Labor Day. Summer travel has finally come to an end, school is back in full swing, fall sports schedules pick up, and life gets back on a regular schedule. That means more of the family is together each Sunday at worship. Why is that important? Because without each of you, the family of God, we are incomplete.
Did you know you are important to the church and to God? Yes, I know it's great to have you in church because the offering goes up when more people are here. As important as that is it is not the point. When we look at it Biblically, we are all parts of a body. When a body part is incapacitated it hurts the entire body. If you want to look at it as a team, think of a football team without a Lineman to block for the Quarterback or a Safety to cover the field on defense. Without all the team together the entire team suffers. Oh, others can fill in but it isn't the same as when you are here. Why? Because you are important!

Results of the Pastor's Retreat

Over the past week I have been secluded in the Elm bottoms and Mesquite Flatts of Central Texas. I had the opportunity to see deer, mosquitoes, birds of every variety, black flies, squirrels, and copperheads. Amongst the various aspects of God's vast creation I had the opportunity to spend time in prayer and reflection as I looked ahead toward the year and planned the sermons that we will share in Corporate worship. Over the next weeks of August we will be looking at various aspects of Corporate Worship. Then in September we will hear from Gideon and then work through First Timothy before Rev. Mark Winter arrives for our Jubilee Revival from September 26 - 28. October will find us in 2 Timothy and November will follow with a look at our heritage.
I look forward to our time together as we travel through these next months with all that is ahead.
May God continue to bless us as we continue to be a blessing to others.
Peace
Jay

During Vacation Bible School as well as last Sunday we have supported a missionary from Liberia, Africa named Anne-Marie Simbagoye. Anne-Marie is a French speaking native of Burundi and a teacher. During violent wars in Burundi she became a refugee in Kenya and began a school for the children of other French speaking refugees. She and her husband, also a United Methodist Missionary, later moved to Liberia where she continued to work with children in the J.J. Roberts United Methodist School Monrovia, Liberia.
Our support of Anne-Marie has qualified us as a Five Star Church in the Central Texas Conference. Should we decide to further our relationship with her and become a Covenant Partner with her work and another Person in Ministry, we could do so and then qualify for recognition with the Global Board of Missions. I hope you will consider this extra-mile of mission support: not for the recognition, but for the work that we will be able to support around the world. The total financial support of these missionaries for our church would be $1300. With only having started this initiative last week we already have over $300 pledged for this cause.
I am proud to sat that it looks to me like Wortham First is about to be once again recognized a people of God that put mission and ministry around the world high on their list of priorities.

5th - Graduation Sunday!!!

I wanted to mention two things this week in my note to you the ministers of Wortham First...
1) Next week would be the Sunday for our 5th Sunday Celebration. It was scheduled to be at First Baptist Church and I was to preacher; however, the Baccalaureate Service has been planned for that evening instead. I hope you will take the time to be a part of this great worship event in the community.
That being said, one of the things that happens at the 5th Sunday Gatherings is an offering for the Ministerial Alliance Fund. Fortunately we have been able to help many families over the past months, sadly we are in need of funds to continue helping as we have. Since the Ministerial Alliance will not be receiving an offering the other pastors and I have decided to take a special offering next week. The offering will be gathered in addition to our normal monthly offering.
2) Additionally, next week will be an opportunity for you to celebrate with the graduating seniors of our church. Brittany Graham, Levi Lansford, and Bradley Paradoski will be graduating this year and will be invited to the Altar for a special time to honor and congratulate them as they move forward with their life and find where it is that God is calling them.
Peace, Jay
PS. Don't forget to bring your canned goods for the food pantry. Especially needed are canned meats, boxed dinners, canisters of Quaker Oatmeal, syrup, and peanut butter and jelly.

Sunday of Solace

Solace – Today we begin a series called Sundays of Solace, Six Weeks with our Risen Lord. "Sunday" we understand, it is the first day of the week. It is not the Sabbath of old that those of the Jewish faith follow, it is the day of the Resurrection of our Lord. It is the day that we gather together to worship our Risen Savior.
"Six weeks with our Risen Lord", we can even get that too. There are Six Sundays between Easter and Ascension Sunday. But Solace. Why Solace?

When you Google the word Solace, you get a couple of options, information about the James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, or definitions. Well, since I'm not near the fan of 007 since Sean Connery retired, I chose to check the definitions.
The top definition for Solace is: 1) comfort in sorrow, misfortune, or trouble; alleviation of distress or discomfort. 2) something that gives comfort, consolation, or relief:

Solace is a comfort. Solace is a peace.

So, solace is what we seek in our risen Lord. Over the next six weeks we will slowly work our way through Luke 24 and Acts 1 as we walk with our risen savior the his last weeks before the ascension. It is in this time with our resurrected Lord that we find Peace and Comfort in this life. It is in seeing Jesus offer solace to his Disciples, be they the two Disciples on the way to Emmaus or the Disciples who wouldn't believe until they saw the wounds. My prayer is that over the next six weeks you will find this sanctuary to be a place of solace, but more importantly you would find that Christ is the only one that can truly offer you solace.

Wednesday Meal a Reality?

In our recent Leadership Retreat we discussed several areas of possible outreach and improvement at the church. Some of these include a community clean-up day where we go door-to-door and street-to-street offering to clean street curbs and/or rake leaves, Re-Starting our monthly Children's Time, initiating a community volleyball tournament, developing and starting a new youth program, activating our Emmaus Community, becoming more visible with newsletters and mailings, going door-to-door with door hangers and "12 Second Evangelism", adding a Wednesday Community Meal to the schedule of Wednesday activities, as well as many other great ideas.
The Wednesday Community Meal has been discussed before and looks like something that will actually happen. Several times we have had snacks or a meal at the 6:00 Bible Study but that was for limited number. The idea of the Wednesday meal is that the parent's of the Scouts, members of the Bible Study, and Worthamites in general can have the opportunity to have a hot meal prepared for them at little or no cost (donation only) where they can sit down, visit with the family or others, and not worry about the cooking, set-up and clean-up of the meal.
We am proud to announce that we will have a test run of this community meal starting in April and being served bi-monthly, April 7th and 21st. On April 7th we will have King Ranch Chicken, Salad, and Mexican Cheesecake for our first meal. The meal will be served from 5:15 - 5:45 with the Bible Study following at 6:00.
We look forward to the great ministry that can and will grow from this community meal. I hope you will all join us as we gather in fellowship for the meal.

Haiti Relief

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Haitian people and the relief workers. I do not know of a disaster of this magnitude in my lifetime. The Tsunami of 2004 is close. In the Tsunami 230,000,000 reportedly lost their lives. After only one week, the estimate for the Haiti Earthquake is 200,000 and rising.
UMCOR has been hit hard as well. The Director of UMCOR, Rev. Sam Dixon, as well as others with UMCOR and UM Missions were in Haiti on January 12 and have lost their lives, others are in critical condition.
As UMCOR and other relief agencies work to bring peace to the people of Haiti, they also seek their own peace as their grieve. Please continue to pray for the the relief efforts and look for ways that you can be a part of the help that is needed. Give to UMCOR by check here at the church and write Haiti #418325 in the memo line. The Conference will also deliver health kits and stock lists for the health kits is listed below. Please consider compiling a kit that we can include in the deliver.

Health Kit Items Value: $12 per kit

Place these items inside a sealed one-gallon plastic bag.

* 1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27", No kitchen towels)
* 1 washcloth
* 1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
* 1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
* 1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
* 1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)
* 6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages
* $1.00 to purchase toothpaste
(NOTE: UMCOR Sager Brown is now purchasing toothpaste in bulk to be added to health kits before shipping to ensure that the product does not expire before they are sent.)

Important Kit Assembly Information

* All items included in kits must be NEW items.
* All emergency kits are carefully planned to make them usable in the greatest number of situations. Since strict rules often govern product entry into international countries, it is important that kits contain only the requested items-nothing more.
* Do NOT include any personal notes, money or additional materials in the kits. These things must be painstakingly removed and will delay the shipment.

The New Year

We have made it to a new year. With the eve of another year we celebrate, we make and break resolutions, we look back on where we've been and we look ahead at where we are going. A new year is a time for a fresh start, a restart, a new start and that is what we are going to do here at FUMC Wortham. We can not become complacent and think that the growth we have seen this year is enough. No, we must keep moving ahead to be the church God has called us to be. Over the next couple of months we will look at what we do and why we do it. Everything is on the table. We must look at everything we do through the lens of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
This process of evaluation will develop in waves over the next months. This week we named the new officers for the church that had been elected at our Fall Charge Conference. In the next weeks these leaders will be trained at the Waco District Leadership Training Event at Austin Avenue United Methodist Church in Waco, TX on January 24th. In the next month we will meet for our second annual leadership retreat and discuss the future of our church as we seek to keep Christ at the center and grow to the great potential that we have here in Wortham.
Borrowing from Steven J. Covey's Habits of Highly Effective People, we will begin with the end in mind. We will look at what we envision the church to be in the future then work backwards to today and build incremental goals to ultimately reach our future potential.
I look forward to this new year as we reach beyond our walls and become a place, not only of open hearts, open doors, and open minds; but, a place that opens hearts, opens doors, and opens minds.

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