The. North Shore United Methodist. April 2016

Transcription

1 The North Shore United Methodist April 2016 Has Anything Changed Since Easter Sunday? It becomes hard not to ask if anything actually did change after the resurrection and, at least in my case, just as difficult to find the energy to get excited about Easter when the promises of Easter seem like they re still going unfulfilled. I don t know how to answer that question fully. Theodicy, or the matter of why a loving God could allow evil to persist in the world God created, is a question without an easy answer or perhaps any answer at all. It s a specter that s hovered over the good news for millennia and will continue to haunt the Church for centuries no matter how hard we try to drive it away. But hope is not lost. As challenging as that question is, it s not the question we should be asking. Because the Church doesn t believe something changed after the resurrection. We believe something is changing. It s a subtle difference, but a profoundly important one. As Christians, we are not naïve enough to believe that Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning and in an instant everything changed, all things were made new and suffering and death were no more. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus walked out of the tomb that first Easter morning everything began to change, all things began to be made new and the reign of suffering and death was finally beginning to come to an end. But in believing thusly, we also profess that the kingdom of God is a present but not yet fully realized reality, and it won t be fully realized until our Lord returns again. This is, in part, why Jesus teaches us to pray Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. It s an active prayer, not a stagnant one. It s a prayer of expectation, not a declaration of a promise fully realized. It s a call to stop standing idly by and start participating in the always unfolding fulfillment of heaven coming to earth. Which is why the question to be asked this Easter season is not what changed after the resurrection, but what has been changing since the resurrection? If the transforming effect of the resurrection was merely a one-off moment, the centuries of unspeakable suffering and tragedy that have followed in its wake would serve as an indisputable denouncement of our faith in a risen savior. But if the resurrection is a moment that happened and continues to happen and will continue to happen not just in the life of Jesus, but also in the lives of those of us who call him Lord, then we can begin to see its transforming power in how we respond to the tragedies in our own lives, how we love and console one another, how we work together to keep evil from ruling tomorrow, and how we come together to alleviate the daily suffering that is all around us. The resurrection was a powerful, history changing moment and the resurrection is a daily reality that transforms the world around us through us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done" becomes not just a prayer, but a way of living the resurrected life. If we look at Christ s resurrection and ask what happened, it s easy to become jaded and say, Nothing. But if we look at Christ s resurrection and ask what is happening, we find an invitation to participate in the transformation of creation, the making new of all things and the ultimate conquest of suffering and death. This is what is so incredible about Easter and what makes the resurrection worth believing in despite what we see on the nightly news or even in our daily lives. The resurrection didn t just happen. It s happening now. During the 50 days of Easter we will be looking at how to live into our baptismal vows and how we as a church are living a resurrected life to bring the Kingdom here now. In Service With You, Pastor Kim April 1st Registration Deadline for Marriage Encounter Weekend April 3rd Community Partnership Program 1pm April 3rd Youth Parent 4:30pm April 5th United Methodist Men s Breakfast 7:30am April 5th United Methodist Women General Meeting 10am April 10th Youth Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser April 10th Church Council Meeting April 14th United Methodist Women Creative Carol Bryant s Thistle Dew Studio 9-2:30 April 21st United Methodist Women Reading 12:30pm April28th Open AA New Sermon Series: Covenant-beginning April 3rd This series will explore living into our baptismal covenant and how we assist Jesus in bringing forth the Kingdom of God now. The resurrection is not only something that happened it is still happening and we have a purpose in it. He who was seated on the throne said, I am making everything new! Rev. 21:4

2 United Methodist Men Greetings Holy Week is upon us as I pen a few lines. We just celebrated Palm Sunday and are giddy with anticipation, recalling our Savior s entry to Jerusalem. The rest of the week s events are unfolding. As we all know, confusion-anxietyhurt-drama are immediately ahead followed by the glorious resurrection. During our April meeting, we will review the annual BBQ fundraiser, projects for the coming year and discuss different approaches for Men s Bible Study. Our guest speaker will present a wonderful ministry opportunity providing handyman services to improve local lives and share witness. Our leadership team has been working on a skills inventory which is intended to catalog our individual ministry strengths. This matrix will allow us to highlight where we believe we can each be of greatest use in advancing The Kingdom. This will also be presented at the April meeting; and maintained thereafter. Please join me in prayer to open our hearts and minds to The Holy Spirit and take action on his direction. In Christ, Fred The next Church Council meeting will be held on Sunday, April 10, right after the Youth Spaghetti Fundraiser lunch. Let s support our youth and then join us and learn more about the great ministries of your Church. PRAYER MINISTRY Greetings from the Prayer Ministry!!!. We pray all the time, but meet on Sunday mornings at 8:30 AM if anyone would like to join us in the Prayer Chapel in the Education Building. Please stop and say hi to anyone of us. We would be happy to speak to you, take a prayer request or just chat about prayer and how wonderful and privileged we feel it is to be able to take your concerns, joys, praises, etc. before the Lord. When I said, "My foot is slipping, " your love, O Lord, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul. Psalm 94:18-19 BLESSINGS - Annie Perez Katie Mason Pat Cahill Susan Fuqua Diane Kunz Joyce Ross U M W UNITED METHODIST WOMEN United Methodist Women News Our meeting will be Tuesday April 5 th at 10 AM. Maureen from the CRRC will speak to us regarding what the CRRC does, about the volunteer program and how the CRRC relates to our community. UMW READING CIRCLE Jan Booth As you enjoy your dinner at your favorite restaurant, have you ever wondered what is behind the kitchen door? In her book author Saru Jayaraman blends personal narrative and investigative journalism to focus less on the food sources and more on the working conditions and wages of the people who prepare and serve the food. Reading Circle will meet on Thursday, April 21st in the Youth Room at 12:30 p.m. We will discuss Behind the Kitchen Door, a bonus book of only 208 pages (counts as two books) from the Social Action category. In March the Reading Circle talked about House of Purple Cedar by native American Tim Tingle. It is a beautifully written novel about a Christian (Methodist) Choctaw tribe in Oklahoma who adhered to their faith throughout repeated violent and sometimes deadly discrimination against the group in the late 1800ʼs. We invite you to widen and enrich your world with us through the United Methodist Women reading program! CREATIVE HANDS Carol Bryant We will meet at Carol Bryant's Thistle Dew Two Art Studio Thursday April 14 Thistle DewStudio is next door to the left of our home: 2322 Valley Forge, Canyon Lake. We will be making more book bags and lap quilts. Please bring your sewing supplies. Bring a bag lunch 9:30am till 2:00pm. I will have coffee and cookies. All are welcome. If you need more info please call Carol Bryant Directions: FM 306 to Potters Creek Rd; First left on McIver Rd; cross two cattle guards; at the bottom of hill Private Rd sign; Valley Forge at the end of road is our home on the lake; take driveway to left to the studio. Carol s Cell # UMW women are the best educated faith based group of women in the world. We must be educated to be able to address the needs of marginalized women, children and youth in the world. So plan on coming to the meetings on the first Tuesday of each month and get to know us and our mission, we are much more than a social club! 2

3 Music News I came across this Choir singer s prayer the other day and want to share it through The Messenger. Bless, O Lord, us Thy servants, who minister in Thy temple. Grant that what we sing with our lips, we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts, we may show forth in our lives. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You see, being a member of the NSUMC choir is not just about singing because you have a beautiful voice. Being a member of the choir is about sharing what we believe and what is in our hearts by uniting our voices in song. We pray that our music is meaningful to all who hears. We pray our harmony is understood. We pray the lyrics reflect our beliefs. We pray our ministry as church musicians enhances the worship experience in every way. We pray that the worship we sign prevails throughout our everyday life. Marty Chrisman April 3rd Communion Offering The Community Resource & Recreation Center (CRRC) provides many services to the Canyon Lake community. The Food Pantry is an emergency food pantry that is funded through local grants, private donations, and church involvement. Through these donations, local food drives, and partnership with the San Antonio Food Bank 500+ individuals per month are fed. For more information see Coming April 9 UMW s E-Waste Recycling Event Thank You for Your Support! Due to a delay in his retirement plans, on Saturday, April 9, from 10:00 2:00, UMW will once again partner with Mike Hancock of Recycling Masters on Hand LLC in San Antonio to collect items for recycling. Accepted items will include: computer equipment, personal electronics, office equipment, communications equipment, household items, lawn and other miscellaneous equipment, scrap metal, and acid and alkaline batteries. Exception: no TVs. Flyers may be viewed under the UMW section on the church s website at: If you plan to be out of town on that day, please feel free to drop off your item(s) in advance of the recycling event by the well house. Questions? Please contact me at: umwrecycling@northshore-umc.org Irene Chase UMW Social Action Chair North Shore Youth It s that time again! The North Shore Youth s annual Spaghetti Luncheon! Join us on Sunday, April 10 th for food, fellowship, and fun! Tickets cost $10 and include spaghetti (with choice of sauce), salad, garlic bread, dessert, and a drink. Carry-out orders are available after each service! You may also be interested in our $70 package, which includes a private table, your own server, as well as 6 tickets. All proceeds will help lower the costs of summer camp for our youth as well as provide scholarships for those in need. Thank you for your support and prayer! Hope to see you there! We are back from the Dominican Republic and had an amazing time serving and loving on the community there. I loved having some of our youth attend and encourage you to check out our North Shore Facebook page for pictures and videos of our adventures! Thank you for all your support, encouragement, and prayers during this time and I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing spring break! We continue our Youth Dave Ramsey Study Wednesdays from 6:30-7:30pm and Confirmation Classes Sunday from 3:30-5:00pm. Each group is diving deep into the Word and I have greatly enjoyed meeting with both. Time is FLYING by and in an effort to keep everyone in the loop and on the same page, we will have a Youth Parent Meeting next Sunday, April We will discuss the Spaghetti Fundraiser (April 10th), summer UMARMY camps, the remaining spring schedule, as well as our next sermon series. Please be in attendance if possible! Lots of exciting things coming your way and as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns! Thank you for all you do to love our youth! 3

4 Greetings Easter People! Eggstravaganza was Eggcellent!!! Thank you wonderful North Shore family for providing so many love filled eggs, such delicious pot-luck goodies, and hospitable hearts for our guests and new friends!!! What a sweet day!!! Happy Easter!!! I pray you are enjoying basking in the glow of the resurrection!!! How sweet to live as people of hope in this crazy world!!! If you were with us in the 11 o clock service on Easter, you were present to witness the baptism of two precious ones. In that public act of baptism, we vowed as a church family to help raise these sweet ones to walk as disciples of Christ. Not just the mommas, daddies, and grandparents. All of us are invested!!! We are all tasked with being Kingdom builders as we all grow in discipleship and disciple others. What does this mean? What do our baptismal vows mean? As a congregation we are going to spend the next several weeks looking at our baptism vows and what it means to live as Easter Covenant people. This will lead us beautifully into Pentecost when our confirmands will confirm their faith. In baptism we recognize God choosing and marking us. In confirmation we are choosing or saying YES! to God! We hope you will join us on this journey! (For more on United Methodist Baptism visit: Covenant! What is a covenant?!? Dictionary.com defines covenant as an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified. There are lots of mentions throughout scripture about covenants. One of the most well remembered one, especially by kiddos is...(genesis 6:9-9:17) Yup you nailed it!!! The covenant God made with Noah after the flood!!! (Genesis 9:1-17) And God gave us the symbol of the rainbow as a reminder or mark of this covenant. We are Easter people, or New Covenant People! During the last supper, as recorded in Luke 22:20, Jesus says, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Jesus is the New Covenant! Thanks to Jesus we live as New Covenant People, Easter People! This month I invite you to do a little deeper research as a family. What is a covenant? What would a covenant look like for you family? What kinds of things would you like to include in a family agreement or promise? Take time to research and read different covenants and write a family covenant together. Covenant with one another about how you will approach your relationship with God and with one another. Then display your family covenant in a prominent place where all can see and be reminded. Just as the rainbow reminds us of the old covenant, so the empty cross reminds us of the new covenant. Save the Date: Vacation Bible School June 27 th July 1 st 9:00-12:00 Save the Date: Summer Camp!!! Come Catch the Wave Mt. Wesley July 21 st 24 th (Current 3 rd 5 th Graders) 4

5 MEALS MINISTRY: 1424 DAYS OF MAKING A DIFFERENCE Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you? And the King will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me! Matthew 25:37-40 Our Ministry of meals to our brothers and sisters in and around our community of Canyon Lake celebrates its 4th year Anniversary this month! God set this ministry in motion with a vision to prepare and deliver hot meals to those needing a little extra bit of assistance. YES LORD was our response! Every Tuesday and Thursday we have some amazing cooks and delivery drivers volunteer their time to prepare and deliver really tasty meals to our community. The opportunity God extended to us to love on people has allowed for some pretty incredible stories of love and compassion. We have laughed, we ve cried, we listened and we have prayed with both the volunteers and with our brothers and sisters receiving the meals. The fellowship means so much to those who are unable to get out of their homes for various reasons. To have a smile greet them at their door and a few minutes to talk makes a difference. God had so much more planned than just a meal ministry. He opened our eyes and allows us to live life with our brothers and sisters! Romance Why settle for a good Marriage when you can have a Great Marriage? Want to get closer to the One you love? Has squeezing the toothpaste from the middle doused the flames of Romance in your marriage? Do you want greater depth, growth and enrichment in your relationship? Rediscover the one you love! If you love the person you re married to You ll love a marriage encounter weekend!! Rediscover the one you love on a Marriage Encounter weekend! Marriage Encounter is 44 hours where married couples can get away from jobs, kids, chores, and phones and focus only on each other. If you d like greater depth, growth, and enrichment in your relationships, you ll like the difference a Marriage Encounter United Methodist Weekend can make! May 6-8, 2016 Inn of the Hills in Kerrville, TX For more information go to encounter.org or Contact Marilyn & Bud Good at mbgood2@gmail.com To date we have prepared and delivered approximately 5,900 meals and look forward to continuing to serve our brothers and sisters whom God brings to our path! Jesus replied, You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 25:37-39 Should you have an interest in this growing ministry please contact Joyce or call the church Open AA Meeting Starting Thursday, April 7pm at North Shore UMC. Registration Deadline April 3rd A weekend of discovery...a lifetime of love... CRRC needs for April The CRRC is in need of soap; bath soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, fabric softener, shampoo/conditioner, tooth brushes, and tooth paste, baby diapers sizes 1-3. Next time you are at the grocery store pick up a few items to donate then drop them off in the Narthex in the baskets located under the TV. Contact Pastor Burke for more information. 5