Calvary United Methodist Church. March 2017 Newsletter. Know Christ Grow in Christ Serve Christ Share Christ

Transcription

1 Calvary United Methodist Church March 2017 Newsletter Know Christ Grow in Christ Serve Christ Share Christ PO Box 237, 6 Franklin Street Lawrenceville, PA Calvaryumc@epix.net or (Pastor) maryfdotson@gmail.com Website:

2 Pastor Mary s Musings Wednesday, March 1 st is Ash Wednesday. Lent begins. What will you give up these 40 days? Lent is a self-imposed journey to the cross. A time for us to intentionally let go whatever hinders us in our relationship with God. Often we give up chocolate or sweets. This year why not try letting go of something deeper than candy. Below are 19 things to consider giving up during lent and beyond 1. Fear: God is on my side. In Him I am more than a conqueror. (See Romans 98) 2. The need to please everyone: I can t please everyone anyway. There is only one I need to strive to please. 3. Envy: I am blessed. My value is not found in my possessions, but in my relationship with my Heavenly Father. 4. Impatience: God s timing is the perfect timing. 5. Sense of entitlement: The world does not owe me anything. God does not owe me anything. I live in humility and grace. 6. Bitterness and Resentment: The only person I am hurting by holding onto these is myself. 7. Blame: I am not going to pass the buck. I will take responsibility for my actions. 8. Gossip and Negativity: I will put the best construction on everything when it comes to other people. I will also minimize my contact with people who are negative and toxic and bring other people down. 9. Comparison: I have my own unique contribution to make and there is no one else like me. 10. Fear of failure: You don t succeed without experiencing failure. Just make sure you fall forward. 11. A spirit of poverty: Believe with God that there is always more than enough and never a lack. 12. Feelings of unworthiness: You are fearfully and wonderfully made by your creator. (see Psalm 139) 13. Doubt: Believe God has a plan for you that is beyond anything you could imagine. The future is brighter than you could ever realize. 14. Self-pity: God comforts us in our sorrow so that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 15. Retirement: As long as you are still breathing, you are here for a reason. You have a purpose to influence others for Christ. That does not come to an end until the day we die. 16. Excuses: A wise man once said, if you need an excuse, any excuse will do. 17. Lack of counsel: Wise decisions are rarely made in a vacuum. 18. Pride: Blessed are the humble. 19. Worry: God is in control and worrying will not help.

3 Perhaps two or three of these resonated with you just pick one and each day be mindful of letting it go. Beware whatever you choose, you will become more aware of it throughout the day that s good, just breath and say, I let that go for lent! and ask the Holy Spirit to help you trust God a bit more in that area of weakness. I will be praying for you during this season leading up to Easter. May you find a new sense of joy in your relationship with God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Because of Jesus, Pastor Mary Lenten Service Opportunities in the Valley Ash Wednesday, March 1 Celebrate Recovery hosted by the Knoxville Yoked Churches. Speaker will be Pastor Cathy Dawes Thursday, March 9 Ministry highlighted to be determined, Hosted by A. Wesley Chapel/Abundant Life. Speaker is Dr. Terry Spencer Thursday, March 16 Family Life Network (Rick Snavely), hosted by BIC Speaker is Rick Snavely Thursday, March 23 Ministry highlight to be determined, hosted by St. Thomas/St. Catherine s Speaker is Fr. Dave Bechtel Thursday, March 30 Ministry Hosted by 5-Star Parish, UMC Speaker is Pastor Chris Mastin Thursday, April 6 Norther Tier Missions HUB, host church not yet identified. Speaker will be Pastor Wayne Lehman Upcoming Events & Reminders at Calvary Sunday, March 5 th - Youth Mission Lunch Sunday, March 26 th - New member class begins. Prayer Request - If you have a prayer request, you can send a Facebook private message to Whitney Earle or Maria Drake drakemaria731@gmail.com Maundy Thursday, April 13 Chosen People Ministry, Christian Seder, Hosted by PPMC, United Church of Nelson (and others). Speaker to be announced at a later time.

4 Greetings from the Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC)! Every year the Leadership Team works to develop specific goals to improve the ministries of the church. It is then the job of the SPRC to assess these goals and review their progress within Calvary. One of the 2017 focus areas given to the Leadership Team was to, Develop lay-driven connections with the community in order to build bridges of relationships with those who have yet to know Jesus. Certainly not a simple task, but one as a church we should strive to attain! The words build bridges of relationships really resonated within our group. As Christians we form a strong relationship with God, but we must also form relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and those who don t know Christ yet. At our last meeting, SPRC members discussed extensively ways we could improve relationships both within our congregation and within our surrounding community. And the great news: You can help! We also encourage everyone to pray and think about how Calvary can continue to build relationships with its surrounding community. Our church has several ministries serving our community, including the child care center, food bank, clothing closet, Kids for Christ, Vacation Bible School, Thanksgiving food baskets, among many others. That s no small list! But please continue to be vigilant to our community s needs, and if you are feeling called to help serve in one of these ministries or in a new way, act on it! Pastor Mary can certainly help guide you in the right direction. The SPRC would like to challenge you to help Calvary build bridges of relationships. We are a family of God and each of us are members of this body. We look forward to the potential of 2017 and strive to deepen our relationship in Christ and with one another! God Bless, SPRC Let s start by reaching out to individuals within our congregation who may be strangers to you. Introduce yourself, find out something you didn t know about them, let them know you care! Maybe change it up on Sunday morning and sit in a different pew making conversations with individuals you usually only greet in passing. Let people know that you are praying for them when they lift up a concern or celebrate with them in their praises. It s good to show our love and support for one another. Cynthia Gee, Chair Carrie Blakeslee Steve Hepfer Jeanne Warner Eric Dacheux Kelly Taylor Greg Cummings Chris Young Maria Drake, Lay Leader

5 Thoughts on Stewardship. Since Calvary Church has a special interest in Zacchaeus, perhaps we can learn a bit more this month from an article by Rev. Phyllis M. Bowers, Executive Director, excerpted from the United Methodist Stewardship Foundation Devotional Newsletter, July But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount. Luke 19:8 And. It s interesting to notice the ands in scripture. Zacchaeus answered Jesus call to stay at his house (not visit, stay) by giving generously and promising to go over his past accounts to give justly as well. The crowds were not happy that Jesus singled him out for this honor. They began to mutter and called him a sinner, but Zacchaeus didn t address them. He was responding to Jesus. One of the fascinating parts of this account is the fact that Jesus told a parable about a Pharisee and Tax Collector a few verses before encountering a rich young ruler and Zacchaeus. If the parable was actually a true story, then Zacchaeus already knew and acknowledged himself as a sinner. If the parable was actually a true story, then Jesus coming to Zacchaeus house would have been a means of answering the tax collector s prayer for God to have mercy upon him. And, if the parable was actually a true story, then the rich young ruler boldly approaching Jesus and mighty chief of tax collectors, Zacchaeus, choosing to timidly view him from a tree limb matches the character revealed in those prayers. What does the and teach us about stewardship? The rich young ruler and Zacchaeus encountered Jesus and their response showed what they treasured most. After all, the rich young ruler called Jesus Good teacher and Zacchaeus called him Lord. How we give and how we pray are connected, whether the parable was about Zacchaeus or not. Generosity and justice are connected as well. We are sinners and yet he comes to stay with us. We are given the same opportunities to help the poor and yet it is our encounter with Jesus that is our salvation. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. May we welcome Jesus and give as freely as the humble tax collector who wanted a better glimpse of Jesus and got so much more. Calvary UMW This is just a short piece to let you all know that our UMW ladies keep busy with work at Calvary. In both January and February we restocked the Emergency Food Pantry with some much needed items; we hosted a very successful Red Cross Blood Drive on February 13 th, with another one scheduled for April 24 th (you could mark your calendars now), and we started the huge task of cleaning the kitchen cupboards each one being emptied, the shelf liner washed, the inside of the cupboard washed, then EVERY dish washed (in Clorox water) and dried, then returned to their proper place.

6 Alive in our Faith Betsy Huels rips two slips from the Alive in Our Faith progress board celebrating the payment of $10,000 on the principal of the Friendship Center loan. The balance now: $47,683 Paid in 2016: $ 50,590 Let s pay this off this year! Exciting News for the Hepfer Family This September Steven Hepfer will travel with his team, USA Masters Academy and his mother, Amber Hepfer, to Kuala Lampur, Malaysia and Seoul, S. Korea. While there he will be competing in an international competition while representing the USA. He will also have an opportunity to train with a grandmaster in a foreign academy. He and the team will also have some time to sight-see and experience the culture of these amazing countries.

7 Annual Conference Offerings Each year at the United Methodist Annual Conference, special offerings are taken. The missions committee will be reaching out to the congregation this month asking for your support on these very special offerings. Bishop Jeremiah Park asks that you be prayerful to your contribution. Celebration of Ministry, Friday, May 5, 2017: The Seminary Debt Fund helps clergy, who are under appointment, with their debts from their seminary education. Pastors often graduate from seminary with upwards of $25,000 of debt for their schooling (not counting debt for undergraduate studies). This fund is designed to help those who are appointed in the Susquehanna Conference pay off the seminary debt they accrued as they were getting the necessary education to further their ministry among us in a timely manner. Memorial Service: Thursday, May 4, 2017: Mission Central is the place of miracles, now including 37 HUBS, "connecting God's resources with human need" through mission education, mission outreach, and disaster response. Annually, over $7-10 million worth of goods are distributed through Mission Central transforming over three million lives locally, nationally, and globally. Your generous offering contributions make the daily operations possible. Ordination Service, Saturday, May 6, 2017: Bishop's Partners in Mission calls us to Imagine No Malaria and Imagine No More Debt! 100% of the proceeds from this fund go to Imagine No Malaria (the UMC's global campaign to fight malaria) and paying down the debt of Mission Central so they can focus on their core mission of connecting God's resources with human need. Bishop Park is inviting individuals, congregations and church groups to join him and be Partners in Mission, committing to $100 or more a year. Whatever you can give helps the lives of those locally and around the world. God is still calling us to imagine great things, he is calling us to Imagine What We Can Do Together!