Phillips United Methodist Church Connection

Transcription

1 Phillips UMC Connection 1 Pastor Loretta Waughtal Office: 115 Center Avenue Phillips, WI Church: Parsonage: Cell: lewaughtal@msn.com Upcoming Events Pastor s Sabbath Every Friday Collection for Food Pantry First Sunday of month 3 Crafters meet at Julie Olson s house, 1 p.m. 8 Foster family training held at church, 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m Peter Bible study, 1 p.m., Pleasant View 13 Worship at Pleasant View, 10:15 a.m. and Regency, 11 a.m. 16 Paul Webster presentation during worship followed by potluck Pastor on vacation Ecumenical VBS 24 Pastor meeting with D.S., 9 a.m., Tomahawk 2 Peter Bible study, 1 p.m., Pleasant View 30 Leave for VIM trip in Milwaukee 1-4 VIM trip in Milwaukee 10 Worship at Pleasant View, 10:15 a.m. and Regency, 11 a.m. 14 Bible study, 1 p.m., Pleasant View 24 Pastor at District Committee on Ministry, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Stevens Point Price County Fair 28 Bible study, 1 p.m., Pleasant View Phillips United Methodist Church Connection A bimonthly newsletter for members and friends / 2017 Issue #4 Continuing the Conversation Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always for you, because of God s grace that was given to you in Christ Jesus. That is, you were made rich through him in everything: in all your communication and every kind of knowledge, in the same way that the testimony about Christ was confirmed with you. The result is that you aren t missing any spiritual gift while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 1 Corinthians 1:3-7 CEB Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. Jesus came near and spoke to them, I ve received all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I ve commanded you. Look, I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age. Matthew 28:16-20 CEB As I have the last couple of newsletters, I want to share more of what I have been receiving through my continuing education opportunity. Our speaker in June, Ken Nash, began by reminding us of the two most important days in each person s life: The day they are born (or biblically speaking born again) and the day they figure out why they were born (their calling in life). One of the things we are all called to as followers of Jesus is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I ve commanded you. If we are called to make disciples, we better be sure just what a disciple is. A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ who is committed to: being part of the Body of Christ, becoming more like Jesus, and joining Jesus in ministry. This comes from Jesus himself when he said: Follow me : Being part of the Body of Christ; I will make you : becoming more like Jesus; Fishers of men. joining Jesus in ministry (Matthew 4:19). Another thing I want you to understand from Jesus Great Commission is that when he says go he is not necessarily referring to heading out on a mission trip. In the original Greek the real meaning of what he is saying is: wherever you are going in your day-to-day life, make disciples. If we want our everyday life to matter, we have to be real, authentic people that have come to know the love of God through Jesus Christ and share that love with others. We have to learn to live in community with others who are living out their authentic everyday lives in relationship with God. Read James 5:12-20 for an example of what this might look like and then live in a way that you won t have regrets as you get closer to the end of your life here on earth. continued on page 3

2 Phillips UMC Connection 2 Youth Have a Blast at June Outing On June 14 some of our youth met at the home of Troy and Jodie Kadlecek. The gathering started at 6:30 p.m. with the youth cutting and chopping vegetables, mixing and rolling out dough, and frying meat for the grilled pizza they were making. While the pizzas were cooking a game of Apostles Twelve and a brief bible lesson pertaining to betrayal and denying of Christ took place. Soon following the game, some very delicious pizzas were devoured and then spirited games of Sardines and Capture the Flag took place in the yard. The evening ended with the youth enjoying s mores around the fire pit. It was a fun night; thank you Jodie and Troy for opening your home to us. The youth involved made plans for the upcoming summer events. It was decided to go tubing on a lake again as they enjoyed last year's tubing event at the Gabay home. This year's event will be at Worcester Lake and will be hosted by Randy and Kely Erickson. Volleyball will also be a part of the event which will be on Sunday, 30 starting at 3 p.m. More details will be coming as the event draws near. The youth also planned a river float. Connie and Keith Trewyn have agreed to lead the float down the Flambeau River. Thank you Connie and Keith! This will take place Sunday, 20 after worship. If you re interested in floating the river please let me know as I will need to borrow kayaks, canoes, and tubes. If some adults could participate it would be appreciated as we will need pick-up vehicles to haul participants back to vehicles at the starting point. Adults are welcome to float the river as well. Finally in today s busy world I find it gratifying that our youth can still meet. It has been challenging to find available days to get together, but they make it happen. As Hebrews 10:25 states not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching. It is important that young and old continue to meet as we as Christians, regardless of age, must support each other. God be with you! Donna Lind Noisy Can News Once again your extra gifts on the second Sunday of each month have led to us collecting $100 for United Methodist Sunday Ministries. This offering will go towards Native American Ministries Sunday. These gifts fund scholarships for Native American seminarians and strengthen, develop and equip Native American rural, urban and reservation congregations, ministries and communities and annual conference Native American ministries. Thank you for your second-mile giving. We set a great example for the younger parishioners through this ministry. Worship at Phillips Scripture Readers 2 Greg Potter, Sherry Barnet 9 Jake Lemke, Josh Lemke 16 Steve Willett, Gail Redmond 23 Brent Edwards, Steve Japuntich 30 Amy & Jed Miller 6 Julie Olson, Terra Gastman 13 Michelle Edwards, Ben Edwards 20 Joel Nyberg, Carolyn Mealman 27 Connor Gabay, Kyrstin Gabay Ushers/Greeters 2: Kathy Schilling 9: Barb Mabie & Shirley 16: open (potluck) 23: open 30: open all weeks are open! Altar Committee Deb Kadlecek open Church Cleaning During the summer, cleaning once every two weeks is fine. The entire summer is open for cleaning.

3 Phillips UMC Connection 3 Conversation continued To be authentic followers of Jesus we have to own our life stories good, bad, and ugly. When you look at your life so far, you have been through things that no one else has experienced and in ways that no one else has experienced. Where are the places you failed, have been broken, etc. and where and how has the Lord entered in to your story and brought healing and wholeness? Read 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 as an example of what this looks like. Part of owning your story means embracing your holy disturbance. In other words, what makes your heart burn with passion your God-given holy disturbance. Think here of the two men on their way home to Emmaus after the crucifixion of Jesus and the news from the women that his tomb was empty. Unrecognized to them, Jesus walked with them, he interpreted for them the things written about himself in all the scriptures, starting with Moses and going through all the Prophets and finally when they stopped for supper, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him. They asked each other, weren t our hearts burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us, and then they immediately went back to tell the other disciples what they had learned. You can find this story in its entirety in Luke 24: Another person whose life was strongly and positively affected by a heart-warming experience was John Wesley, the father of Methodism. As we live our authentic, heart-burning life, we also must invest in people who do not have a relationship with the Lord. We are not meant to live in a holy bubble separating ourselves from non- Christians. For context on this, read what God had to say through the prophet Jeremiah to his people who had been carried into exile in Jeremiah 29. God was basically telling the Jewish people to settle down in Babylon, Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare (v. 7). Of course we remain involved in the church, but we also get out and live among the unchurched. Here I would remind you that in the past I have said we all have a gift that God desires us to use in the church. Our gifts are as unique as we are, and all are needed for the healthy life of the church. I would ask each of you to find your one thing to do for the life of the church and do it with excellence, but then get out and live your life involved in the larger community. As you broaden your scope of influence by meeting unchurched people in the community and building relationships with them, there will come a time when a natural opportunity arises to share what it means for you to have faith in a loving, creating, transforming God. This may also provide an opportunity to invite them to experience the God that we worship in a community of faith that is welcoming. We are not all gifted as evangelists, but sometimes we just need to do the work of the evangelist and trust God for the results. As Paul told his young protégé Timothy: you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances. Endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, and carry out your service fully (2 Timothy 4:5). Finally, to all of this, apply the 10 second rule. When you sense God urging you forward, to go or to say, respond with an obedient yes right away. If you don t say yes in those first 10 seconds, you will find every excuse not to follow through. I understand some reading this may struggle with questions like, Is this really from God?. But I would remind you from Scripture that as faithful followers of Jesus, you have the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2:11. I have given you much to consider in this letter, if you have any questions please give me a call, , text, or have a face-to-face conversation. I would be happy to hear from you. God bless you as you seek to know and love God fully! Pastor Loretta

4 Phillips UMC Connection 4 Stewardship News Giving: the paradox of generosity for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 2 Corinthians 8:2b Extreme poverty overflowing into a wealth of generosity is another of those grace-filled paradoxes we find in Scripture: those who humble themselves will be exalted, those who lose their life for my sake will find it, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Sometimes we United Methodists act as if, while struggling to make ends meet in our churches, we are suffering a severe ordeal of affliction. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In 2016, the 35,231 United Methodist households in Wisconsin were blessed with incomes totaling about $2.5 billion. Even assuming we put away ten percent of that for retirement, college educations, etc., the tithe on our remaining earnings should be about $172 million. Instead, in 2016, we gave just over $52 million, about 3%. Our wallets are not afflicted, but our faith may be. Our paradox is though blessed with much, we withhold much. What would we be able to achieve if we tithed? In addition to paying the bills, each church could feed the hungry in its community, support overseas missionaries, sponsor and provide scholarships for Volunteer in Mission trips around the world, provide tutoring after school, build a youth center, create a multi-platform communication system that provides your community with access to sermons and Christian education, and hire staff to develop, organize and manage all these activities. And, consider this. As we start doing so much more in the community, our congregations will grow in both membership and attendance as well. When these new and newly revived members model their giving on your example, they will increase the church's capacity for good even more. Now that is Stewardship! Jim Wells, Wisconsin United Methodist Foundation 750 Windsor Street, Suite 305 Sun Prairie, WI or Toll Free wumf@wumf.org E-Giving Now Available On Our Website E-Giving is now set up through Vanco Payment Solutions on our Web site: phillips-umc.org. Recognizing that there is a cultural shift to a more digital world we have taken advantage of an opportunity offered by the conference to try e-giving. This secure option for giving allows you to make a one-time gift, set a specific time period, or give continuously on specific weeks of any given month. For example, I have set up an account to give continuously the first and third Monday of each month. It is a very user-friendly site. Check it out! Ask Pastor if you have questions. Great Garage Sale The 2017 church garage sale held in mid-may was a great success. Total sales exceeded last year s by over $200! We took in $1,289. As our second largest fundraiser, after the Christmas Bazaar, this is especially helpful to our budget. 90% of the proceeds will go into the general fund, with approximately $130 being set aside for a local mission as determined by the Ad Council policy which allocates 10% of our fundraisers for missions. This success is only possible due to the generosity of so many parishioners. It takes many people to run an event like this. Thank you to all who donated items (including cookies), set up, worked a shift, took down or hauled leftovers to the local thrift store. Despite cool weather, the warmth radiated by your friendly social interaction made the event especially successful. Newsletter Deadline Our next newsletter will come out the first part of September. Please submit your committee reports and other news to Pastor L by Aug. 20. You can leave your news items in the church office newsletter mail slot, mail it to 141 Center Ave., Phillips, WI 54555, or lewaughtal@msn.com. You participation is needed for the newsletter to be really useful.

5 Phillips UMC Connection 5 Happy Birthday! 1 Paul Heidenreich Jim Koci 3 Tyler Lemke Paul Schilling 6 Cody Lind 10 Mataya Eckert 12 Allen Nyberg 13 Carolyn Mealman 17 Tim Waughtal 20 Sherry Barnet 27 Bette Thorpe 28 Gail Redmond 29 Tiffany Potter 3 Tanner Miller 6 Gretchen Podhora 10 Marilyn Hamilton Jody Podmolik Greg Potter 17 Addie Gabay 23 Joel Nyberg 24 Nick Gabay 30 Amy Miller Happy Anniversary! 16 Jim & Holly Koci 24 Allen & Jeanne Nyberg 6 Dave & Julie Olson 12 Dennis & Vicki Lemke 25 David & Donna Lind Save the Date Vacation Bible School will take place the week of from 8-11:30. The theme is SonRise National Park. It will again be held at St. Therese Catholic Church. Preregistration forms can be picked up at church. Trustees Report It s been a very busy year for the Trustees Committee so far. We conducted a work day in May and got many items cleaned/repaired and had some good food as a reward. Our bell tower was repaired and resided thanks to Nick Gabay and his crew. We have received many compliments on the looks of the tower. Roof Doctors removed our old shingles and placed new ones that really compliments our church. While fixing the roof it was decided to remove the old chimney which also meant replacing the old hot water heater (this used the chimney as a flu) and replace it with an efficient electric water heater. Our ADA ramp was repaired and given vertical spindles while stone was placed under the ramp rather than covering it with an enclosure. We need to wait until fall to paint it. We will paint the deck medium grey and everything else white. Our outside windows to the north were scraped and painted in between rain drops. We are hoping to get our windows along Beebe street repaired yet this year. Please pray for good weather! Landscaping was completed around the church with special thanks to Jodi Podmolik for providing her landscaping and green thumb expertise. Please take a look at it and enjoy our mini prayer garden. Thanks to all who assisted in this project; there was much hard work that went into this project. Donations are still being accepted to help pay for the material. Now the Trustees will take a rest and enjoy summer Dave Olson Peace Garden Growing, Growing, Grown! The community garden has been planted, weeded, mulched and is growing like crazy! Thank you to all who have donated plants and/or time to this project so far. The tomato and a few other plants in the garden are the fruits (or vegetables) of the youth plant sale which didn t sell at the garage sale. Your assistance will be needed throughout the summer weeding, harvesting and replanting. The exterior perimeter beds still need rock around them to hold the soil in place and to separate them from the lawn. Tuesday nights at 6 p.m. is our regularly scheduled volunteer night, but feel free at any time to drop by to weed or harvest for yourself or for others. As you may recall, the purpose of the garden is to provide access to fresh produce for those who lack it. Since the garden was inspired by our church s awareness of a community need to begin this ministry, it would be wonderful to have a strong, ongoing United Methodist presence. As it says it Matthew 9: 37-38, Then he (Jesus) said to his disciples, The harvest is large, but the workers are few. So ask the lord who gives this harvest to send workers to harvest his crops. Also, if you haven t already seen it, there is a second article about the garden in the June 15, 2017 edition of The Price County Review. The first article was published back in late January, if you d like to look back for it.

6 Phillips UMC Connection 6 Wisconsin. The Bishop asks us 2017 Annual Conference to remember the Bible quote, This year s annual conference s theme was One With Christ. It Yes, Lord, we have faith. Help kicked off with an exciting opening worship featuring Bishop Heon my unbelief! as we tackle Young Choi from the Dongbu Conference in South Korea. We also met these ministries. the rest of the Dongbu delegation. We learned that because a Methodist While times can be missionary went through South Korea 132 years ago, there are currently turbulent in the church, we 1.5 million Methodists there. Our own Bishop Jung was converted by a should also acknowledge and South Korean Methodist pastor, as we learned at the premier of a short celebrate growth in the church. biographical film which was recently created about him. Our United Methodist Throughout the conference we were led in inspired worship by Dr. international growth has been Marcia McFee, author, musician, and founder of Worship Design particularly great in South Studio. Working with the Conference theme of One With Christ in Korea and Africa. Also, we mind, Dr. McFee s expertise led to moving worship with powerful support 14 Health and Welfare singing by the congregation of more than 1,000. During worship we agencies, including United prayed for many things, which we will want to continue to pray for as Methodist Hospitals. We have well the persecuted church (two-thirds of Christians live in dangerous begun 15 new ministries in the regions), wisdom in decision-making for the Commission on a Way past five years. Many of these Forward, and inspiration to grow our faith as well as to spread it around programs are made possible by the world. our apportionment giving. Along with inspirational worship, we had Congratulations to our Phillips three sessions with Pastor Adam Hamilton, United Methodist Church for whose name should sound familiar to all of us fully funding our giving in from several worship series we have % of Wisconsin experienced in our church. His focus was congregations were able to do Leading Beyond the Walls, which consisted of so. lessons in leadership, worship, preaching, and In addition to joyful, missional outreach. He s even more passionate worship and mind impressive in person than in his books and and heart-expanding learning, videos. Pastor Loretta even got a photo with attendance at Conference him. provides the opportunity to get On learning day I chose two very interesting sessions to attend. The to know Pastor Loretta better, first was on growing ministry and discipleship in the small church and which is always fun. We are the second was on effectively reaching your community through church very fortunate to have such a marketing. I m inspired to work with the worship committee and others good and faithful servant to apply what I learned in our church. leading us. When Adam In between worship and education, we took care of the Wisconsin Hamilton and other speakers Conference business. We passed many resolutions. We added described the qualities of celebrations of certain ministries to our Sunday worship schedule, effective pastors, I felt like they including Volunteers in Mission and United Methodist Youth Sundays. were talking about her. Resolutions deal with everything from the mundane actions related to While some of you have had the moving and housing of pastors, to the exciting actions related to the opportunity to attend the welcoming migrants and refugees. Annual Conference as a lay Bishop Jung shared that the State of the Church can be turbulent at delegate, many others have not. times. It was in the past and will be in the future. He asks us to meet I would highly encourage you challenges with humility, kindness, compassion, and mercy just as Jesus to try it. Perhaps you will did. He encourages us to Imagine Wisconsin Anew by engaging our imagine yourself anew as you multicultural community, planting new ministries, launching turnaround imagine Wisconsin anew! ministries with vital congregations, imagining mercy and justice ministries in rural and urban communities and creating Soul Food in Julie Olson, Lay Representative to AC

7 Phillips UMC Connection 7 Mission News Covenantal Mercies Growing up in the United Methodist Church planted so much into my heart. The Methodist Youth Camps, church plays, youth groups, and the Power of One Concert gatherings were just a few of the events that have helped me grow in Christ. Since graduating from Phillips High School, the Lord has constantly been drawing me towards missions. At the end of the Gospels, Christ commissions his followers to go and make disciples. In answer to that call, I am going to South Point, Hawaii full-time as a Women s Pastoral Lead to plant a discipleship school. My main objective will be to pastor the students coming to the school, so they can be sent to the nations. Currently I am trying to develop a support base as it is an unpaid position. Please consider giving a one-time gift or partnering with me monthly. You can do so online at: or mail checks to: Modern Day, PO Box ; Grand Prairie, TX USA (place my name in the Memo: Carla Lind). I also need much prayer support. South Point, Hawaii is very different from other portions of Hawaii culturally as it is well below the poverty line. I am going to be attempting to connect into the schools to reach out to the locals. Pray for connections into the culture and wisdom. Thanks for all you have sown into my life. Many Blessings, Carla Lind Missionary Paul Webster to Visit in A great opportunity to hear how we help make a difference world-wide through our United Methodist connection will take place on Sunday, 16 during our regular worship time of 9:30. Paul Webster from Mujila Falls Agricultural Centre, Zambia, Africa will be with us to share what is going on at Mujila Falls since he was last with us six years ago. He is traveling with a young man, Silvester, who works with him at the agriculture centre. We have had a support relationship with Paul for several years now as each member is asked to put $5 in the cardboard church in the back of the sanctuary during their birthday month. Mujila Falls Agriculture Centre was founded on January 11, 2000 with a mission to show the Lunda People that God has given them everything they need to live abundantly. The agriculture centre is an official project of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. It was founded with a grant of 2,500 acres of land from a Lunda Chief named Kanyama. They have been developing this land as a research centre and training facility for local entry level farmers. The focus is primarily on food production and increasing the protein, vitamin, and mineral levels in the local diets and increasing incomes for local people. Some of the products produced are: milk, yogurt, eggs, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, turkeys, garden produce, strawberries, plantains, bananas, guavas, mangoes, lemons and citrus, field crops, and pine trees. We will have a potluck meal after worship so there will be opportunities to talk with Paul and Silvester one-on-one. Paul will also show a video with scenes from the agriculture centre, so we will be able to see some of the work going on there. Please note for the potluck that we need to be mindful that Paul is on a diabetic diet and plan accordingly. Don t miss this opportunity to hear from Paul and Silvester. Help Support Paul Webster Don t forget about our little white mission church in the back of the sanctuary. The church has a picture of Paul Webster and Andre, taken the day of their visit six years ago when they updated us on their mission work. The church also has a reminder on it that, as a church, we have committed to help support the mission work of Paul in Africa. If we will all put $5 in the church bank during the month of our birthday it will go a long way in helping to meet our obligation to Rev. Webster. If you would like to read more about Paul s ministry you can access his newsletters on the Wisconsin Conference Web site at: then look under the Missions tab; or you can like his Facebook page.

8 Phillips Phillips United UMC Methodist Connection Church Center Avenue Phillips, WI Getting Intentional in Our Discipleship Last month in Continuing the Conversation I mentioned that I would be developing a plan for intentional discipleship. I can now share a part of that plan with you. I developed a five-year Discipleship System Core Curriculum that follows the yearly themes of our church ministry plan. This year our ministry plan theme is Radical Hospitality, so beginning 24 I will be offering a book study of Connect: Creating A Culture of Relationships That Matter. Connect is written by Phil Maynard, one of the presenters I learned from in my year of continuing education. I heard from many good and motivational speakers, but Phil was the one who resonated with me the most for where we are as a faith community. I am very excited to share his work with you. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested in this book study as books will need to be ordered. Cost of the book is $ In September I will offer A Disciple s Path by Jim Harnich. This class is a repeat from a couple of years ago, so if you didn t take it then, please consider going through it this time. It was one of the better received offerings that we have had. If you would like to hear what some of the previous participants had to say about it let me know and I will give you their names. When we turn the calendar to a new year we also begin a new ministry plan focus on Passionate Worship. Starting in April, right after Easter, I will offer The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson. In The Circle Maker, Pastor Batterson shares powerful insights from the true legend of Honi the circle maker, a first-century Jewish sage whose bold prayer ended a drought and saved a generation. Drawing inspiration from his own experiences as a circle maker, Batterson will teach you how to pray in a new way by drawing prayer circles around your dreams, your family, your problems, and most importantly, Gods promises. In the process, you ll discover this simple yet life-changing truth: God honors bold prayers and bold prayers honor God. Each of these studies is from four to six weeks and are scheduled with the intent of leaving space for focused seasonal studies during Advent and Lent. I look forward to you joining me on this journey of intentional discipleship and as always look forward to your questions or comments. Pastor L