Merry Christmas. Trinity United Methodist Church December, 2014

Transcription

1 Trinity United Methodist Church December, 2014 Christmas Eve Service Please join us for our Christmas Eve Service, December 24 th. Pre-service music begins at 7:15pm and the Candlelight Service begins at 7:30pm. Advent Unplugged A sermon series for Advent November 30 through December 21. Join us for a reflective advent season as we prepare our hearts to celebrate Jesus birth. Merry Christmas Trinity United Methodist Church 200 N. Summit St. Bowling Green, OH Non-Profit U.S. Postage PAID Bowling Green, OH Permit No. 56 Or current resident

2 Job Jar If you see something around the church that needs to be fixed, cleaned or maintained in some way, fill out a Job Jar form and put it in the Job Jar. Both can be found on the bulletin table. Help the trustees keep Trinity clean and in good repair. Thank you. Men s Group The next meeting is Saturday, December 13 th, at 9am at the Big Boy on Wooster. Please join us! CHRISTMAS BASKETS The Mission Team will be packing the 65 Christmas baskets for those in need on Wednesday, December 17 at 6:30pm. They will need volunteers to help carry the baskets to people s cars on Thursday, December 18 starting at 9am. The last day to bring donation items is Sunday, December 14, so please continue to bring in your items to help us provide a joyous Christmas to 65 families! Paper products (TP, tissues) Blankets Pasta & pasta sauces Canned fruits Cleaning supplies (not bleach) Canned vegetables Peanut butter/jellies Canned meats/soups Boxed Meals Cereal Baking supplies (ex: flour & sugar) Personal items (deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste) Sunday School in December We will have a special schedule for the Pre-K through youth classes in December. The 7 th and 14 th will remain our normal schedule. On the 21 st, we will have a special Christmas celebration in the Fellowship Hall, so we hope the children and youth will come have some extra fun that day. On the 28 th, we will take a holiday break, so there will be no classes that day. Thank you and Merry Christmas! Thank you! Thank you for your donations to Operation Christmas Child. We packed 25 boxes full of gifts that will provide joy to children this Christmas. Deck the Halls Sale Trinity UMC will be holding its annual Deck the Halls Christmas Sale on Thursday, December 4 th, Friday, December 5 th from 9am-4pm and Saturday, December 6 th from 9am-noon. A soup, salad and sandwich lunch will be provided on Thursday and Friday only from 11am-2pm. There will be new and gently used Christmas items for sale. Anyone that would like to help in the kitchen on these days would be greatly appreciated! 1.

3 The Nutcracker Ballet- All Jazzed Up! Julie s Dance Studio is presenting their 8 th Annual production on Saturday, December 20 th at 2pm and 7pm and Sunday, December 21 st at 2pm at Kobacker Hall, BGSU. The George family will be well represented with Saralynn as a Heavenly Angel, a Candy Cane and many other roles and Stan as Uncle Drosselmeyer again. There will be many styles of dance within the show such as Tap, Jazz, Can-Can, Acrobatic, Ballet, Arabian and Pointe. There will also be a Meet & Greet after each show to meet the cast. Tickets may be purchased at nutcrackerjazzedup.com. Ticket prices range from $15.50-$20. If you have any questions about the show, please contact Stan or Konnie at , us at sgeorge@dacor.net or see us at church. Hope to see you at one of the shows! The Esther Circle will meet at the Church on Wednesday, December 10 th at 10am. We will create colorful greeting cards as our activity. A potluck lunch will follow. All ladies are invited to join this special holiday gathering. As the possibility of severe winter weather approaches, Esther Circle members are reminded that, if there are school delays or no school, our meeting is cancelled. December Worship Volunteers Ushers Maroe Decker Bev Robie Andy Drumm Laura Drumm Gary Manning Joan Manning Chris Sabo Sandy Stoots Liturgists 12/7 Betty Jones 12/14 Pat Brenneman 12/21 Greg Hernandez 12/24 Bob Miner 12/28 Helen Dukes Greeters 12/7 Tom & Claudia Ehmke 12/14 Don & Phyl Pickering 12/21 Becky & Herb Dettmer 12/24 Need Volunteers 12/28 Don & Phyl Pickering Acolytes 12/7 Allie Parish & Savannah Janes 12/14 Mathias & Mitchell Drumm 12/21 Brady & Brynna Gaines 12/24 Aliyah Flores & Saralynn George 12/28 Katelyn Geiman & Jeannette Fretter Communion Helpers 12/7 Stan & Konnie George Helen Dukes Rose & Connor Wilson Katelyn Geiman Coffee Hour 12/7 Tim & Amanda Parish 12/14 June VanVorhis 12/21 Joy Pothoff & Kathy Wittman 12/28 Sheryl Sabo Thank you for your service! 19 Sandy & Tony Aspacher 20 Marge & Al Wilder Nancy & Dick Otley Lesley & George Riker 5 Elena Kramer 7 Sandy Alspacher 8 Mary Ann Bellard, Chris Rutter 9 Pat Robinson, Helen Dukes, Christiania Nietz 11 John Hart 13 Ben Fox, Marlyn Bender 17 Fred Fether 18 Jerry Milnor, Sandy Engle 19 Ellen Farison, Carroll Allison, Phyllis Pickering 20 Sandy Stoots, James Collins 23 Doug Stoots 27 Stuart Sockrider 28 Melissa Hart, Buzz Benschoter 30 Carol Fox

4 Bob Evans Fundraiser Monday, December 8 7am-9pm Please have a meal at Bob Evans on Wooster on Monday, the 8 th, to support our Missions Team. Trinity will receive 15% of sales. You must give them a flyer at the time of purchase. There is a flyer in this newsletter and you can find additional flyers in the bulletin, church office and in the sanctuary. Thank you for your support! Winter Weather Now that the winter season is upon us, we urge you to use good judgment when coming to church for a service or meeting. We always hope to hold services on Sundays, but if there is a snow emergency, or if the weather is severe, please check Channels 11 and 13 for cancellations. Angel Tree The annual Angel Tree will be on the table near the sanctuary entrance starting Sunday, November 30. Please take a card, buy the gift listed on the card and return it to the table by Sunday, December 14. Your gift will make a child very happy this Christmas. Thank you for your help! The Messiah by G. F. Handel Sunday, December 14 during second service The Chancel Choir will present portions of George Frederick Handel s Messiah, featuring vocal soloists and a string quartet from BGSU s College of Musical Arts. Invite friends and family to come celebrate our Savior through this beautiful music realized by this most talented composer. All are welcome to participate in singing this masterpiece. Rehearsals are Thursday nights at 7 PM. Poinsettia Orders Remember to order your poinsettias for Christmas. Money is due at the time of the order and orders are due by Sunday, December 7 th. Order forms are available on the round table by the sanctuary entrance and in the church office. Thank you! Remember to visit our website at for weekly announcements and information.

5 Three Little Words All is Calm. Pastor Dana Ward Every Christmas Eve, we gather to sing that familiar refrain, All is calm; All is bright. But, if we are honest with ourselves, by the time we come to Christmas Eve, the season is usually anything but calm. We will have decorated, and cooked, and bought gifts. We will have stuffed envelopes with cards and photos and mailed them to 15 other states and 3 other countries. And even on December 24 th, we may have last minute wrapping or baking to do. And we may wonder, what do we have to do to make things less chaotic and more calm? In 1982, a powerful book was published titled Unplug The Christmas Machine. It suggested that there are many ways we can put more love and joy into our lives, and thus change our experience of the Christmas season. Its pages detailed ways to spend less money and driving time at Christmas, and focus on friends and family. It invited readers to give up the chase for the perfect gift, and reflect on the true meaning of the holiday. It has been revised and updated over the past 30 years, but the central ideas of celebrating the season with simplicity and spirituality still ring true. This month in our worship, we will explore some of these ideas as we experience Advent Unplugged. We will look at how the mail, the malls, the music and the menus of the season can overwhelm us unless we identify what we truly want to get out of the holiday season, and then find simple and satisfying ways to experience those things. Please plan to join us as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas, and spend Advent Unplugged, so we can truly sing and declare that for us All is calm. With a wish of Peace and Joy, Pastor Dana

6 Financial Report for October, 2014 Sadly, October was not a financially good month for our church. We had receipts of $18, (which included $2,000 from the Education Endowment) and expenses of $19, Obviously, that creates a problem. The problem is not on the expense side as the bills paid were not out of the ordinary. The shortfall is on the revenue side of the ledger. In other words, collections in the offering plate were below what is/was needed. As I write this I continue to be hopeful that as the holiday season approaches, everyone will put the church on their gift lists. Please consider doing just that. The amount we need to pay our conference apportionments stands at $19,889. That s a big nut to crack. Our members and friends have usually been generous to the church around Christmas and this year, your prayerful and thoughtful gifts will certainly be appreciated and put to good use. Those gifts are especially needed in our operating funds. It s from the current operating money that we pay those apportionments. It s also important that we go into the new year with a healthy balance in the operating fund to be able to pay the end of the year expenses that don t get billed to us until sometime in January. And while I m soliciting, allow me to be bold enough to ask you to consider increasing your weekly gifts to the church during Frequently, we tell ourselves that we just can t squeeze any more from what we have especially for something like the church where we really don t have to give anything anyway. But just try to do it. I maintain you ll surprise yourself if you do increase your giving. Very quickly, you ll find that extra money is not even missed. Soon you ll be pleased and feel good with what you re doing as you see the church improving and, I m confident, God will find a way to reward you in return. He s like that. Happy Holidays Tim