THE BEACON NEWLY COMMISSIONED GNADENHUTTEN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

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1 GNADENHUTTEN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH THE BEACON JULY/AUGUST 2016 NEWLY COMMISSIONED On June 15 during the Annual Conference at Lakeside Pastor Seth was commissioned as a Provisional Elder. Ten church members joined the group already at Lakeside to celebrate. Seth received the call to ministry at a young age. God was already shaping him for the job at age 7 when he accepted Jesus into his heart. During seminary, Seth knew that the call to ministry was the right choice. He became the youth pastor at his home church in Carrolton, and is very grateful that they took a chance on this young newly graduated man of God. Now for the past three years he has been the pastor here at Gnadenhutten United Methodist Church. By being Commissioned at Conference, Seth is making a commitment as Pastor for the United Methodist Church. Basically he is saying that this is what he wants to do! During the Commission Service, Seth was prayed over by Bishop John Hopkins, and our District Superintendant, Benita Rollins, joined him on stage to support him as well. With his commissioning comes 2 years of continuing education to reach the next goal of Full Elder and the honor of being Ordained. Seth s ultimate goal is to be on the Council that makes decisions for the United Methodist Church as a whole. He would like to be a voice for the young people of the church. As a surprise, the church bought him a new tie on Graduate Sunday that had the ten commandments scripted on it. There were also some secret elves that entered his office while he was away, and gave his office an updated look. He was surprised by the gifts and show of love from his GUMC church family. KEEP IN MIND! Community Worship Service July 3 on the Town Hall Lawn Trustee Meeting 5:30 pm on July 6 & August 3 VBS July 18-22, 6-8:30 pm each evening VBS Picnic July 24 following the worship service Ad Council 6pm on August 9

2 PAGE 2 THE BEACON FROM PASTOR SETH I am so excited about some of the possibilities for growth and transformation here at GUMC! This August, I, along with the youth group, are going to walk through my first confirmation class. In September, I would like to invite anyone who would like to join the church as members, receive the sacrament of baptism for the first time, or anyone that would like to reaffirm their baptism to call the church and let us know. Details to come soon. Also, I would like to offer the opportunity to join in a small group (or two) the opportunity for transformation. These small groups will be modeled after Wesley s Class Meetings, where the purpose is not to share information (Bible study, book study, etc..), but the purpose is transformation. The groups will center on each member answering the question: How is it with your soul? A modern version of the same question might be: How is your life with God? Participants will actively discuss the state of their current relationship with God and how they are living out (and often failing to live out) their faith. I pray that you will consider where you can plug in with these new opportunities, and that you will desire to grow in your relationship with Christ. My heart will leap for joy if the ministries at GUMC can be part of you growing in your love of God and love of neighbor. Amen. Pastor Seth The kids are praying you volunteer! CAVE QUEST VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL VBS this year will be July 18-22, 6-8:30 pm. In the past few years, we ve come to expect over 100 kids each night. It would be ideal to have an adult per 6-8 kids for supervision. Sometimes a volunteer can only give 1 or 2 nights of that week, that s perfectly fine cause help is never turned down!!! Pre-Registration is highly recommended!! The first night is always chaos as we quickly try to register kids, and assign crew leaders. So please pre-register!! To do that visit ez/gnadenkidsquest You will find an easy online form to fill out. If you do not have internet access, please call the church office at and we ll register your child over the phone. We re looking forward to another successful week! Hope you can join us.

3 PAGE 3 JULY BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES Happy Birthday to: 23 Mitchell Dunlap 3 Gayle Underwood 26 David LeBlanc 5 Kara Barger 28 Jim Baker 9 Tanya Welch 31 Amy Bryant 10 June Wickiser, Amy Blickensderfer 11 Matthew Carroll Happy Anniversary to: 12 Jane Miller 11 John & Staci Schreiner, Aris & Jane Modon 13 Carl Gilmore 20 Mark & Stephanie Carroll 16 Logan McPeek 24 Ken & Melissa Morrison 18 John Kelly 22 Don McMath, Taylor Gibson AUGUST BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES Happy Birthday to: 1 Amy Miller 2 Sharon Frank 4 John Bartles 8 Ruth Veigel 10 Shannon Kelly 11 Bailey Waldren, Greg Hamilton 15 Malcolm Young, Mary Lou Huston, Maya Filburn 20 Dan Blickensderfer 21 Don McDonald 22 Tom Frank 25 Jimmy Johnson 27 Kaitlyn Border 29 Betty Knight 31 Tony Troyer Happy Anniversary to: 4 Jim & Janice Baker 6 Hod & Mary Lou Huston, Seth & Kindra Filburn 8 Matt & Robin Bonvechio 9 Rob & Caitlin Long 12 Dustin & Amy Bryant 20 Doc & Mina Williamson 24 Jim & Shirley Emler SANMAN See a Need, Meet a Need...this is a group of men & women of our church that are willing to serve! In the past this group has mulched flower beds, made light household repairs, helped a woman move to New Philadelphia, and every snowstorm this group is out shoveling driveways. The group is looking for projects this summer. Do you know someone who needs an extra pair of hands to complete a project? Maybe you noticed a neighbor that has been ill and needs to catch up on yard work? Perhaps that person is YOU! If you see a need please call the church office at so that this information can be passed on to the group.

4 PAGE 4 THE BEACON SO THEN, IF ANYONE IS IN CHRIST, THAT PERSON IS PART OF THE NEW CREATION. THE OLD THINGS HAVE GONE AWAY, AND LOOK, NEW THINGS HAVE ARRIVED! 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 (CEB) 2016 ANNUAL CONFERENCE REPORT 2016 Vision: Increase the number of vital congregations. Vital congregations are congregations that continually reach new people for Christ and are stronger now than they were five years ago. Vitality also takes vision, principled leadership, and aligned resources. Report from General Conference business: Approved a $604 million budget for There will be a new edition of the United Methodist Hymnal (current edition is from 1989). Africa will receive five additional Bishops by Did not approve any legislation to divest from illegal settlements on occupied Israeli lands. Recommended a commission be established to study human sexuality-related church regulations before the 2020 General Conference. During Conference, Pastor Seth was commissioned (approved worthy to become an ordained minister)! 2016 Resolutions of Annual Conference: 1. Preparing Clergy to Address Domestic Violence This resolution encourages all East Ohio churches to designate a day during the month of October to present an activity that will bring awareness to the congregation about domestic violence. This resolution was supported. 2. Promoting Appointment and Salary Equity for Clergywomen and Clergymen This resolution asks that the East Oh Annual Conference urge that every effort be made to eliminate sex-role stereotypes in activity and portrayal in all aspects of voluntary and compensatory participation including service as clergy. This resolution was supported Challenge: Move from Membership to Discipleship. A disciple is a follower of Jesus Christ for life. Disciples are part of the Body of Christ, become more like Jesus, and join Jesus in ministry. This year s challenge: 1. What is your mission? Evaluate what you are doing at church. 2. Are you more focused on membership growth of the growth of disciples? Align resources-people, money, and capital. 3. Where are you on your discipleship path? Develop a personal discipleship plan. Other Conference Business: Endorse Rev. Gary George as a candidate for Bishop. Approve 70 different Advance Giving projects. Collected 490 Flood Buckets (18 from GUMC)! Collected $ for the 3Cs mission! *for more information, visit or ask Curt Glazer or Pastor Seth

5 PAGE 5 NEWS FROM OUR YOUTH GROUP The Youth Group had a great time finding Identity in Christ at Youth Annual Conference this past June. We got to see an illusionist, listen to a live Christian Rock band, take a faith walk, and grow closer to not only God, but each other as well. During the Gnadenhutten Fireworks Festival we set up a booth to raise money for our Mission work this fall. In August we will be having our Retreat/Mission. For one week we will be doing local mission work and then spending our evenings in God s Word. All Youth entering grades 6-12 are invited to join us for our Retreat/Mission, just let the office know or talk to Mary Border by July 22. During the whole month of July, call the church office with project ideas that you need completed. The Youth are working hard to raise funds to go on a Mission trip next year. We d like to complete projects by August 5, so that the events we have planned are not interrupted. Projects are all free will donations. Contact Numbers for our Youth Leaders: Mary Border or Sandy Brown UNITED METHODIST WOMEN The UMW do not meet during the summer months, but that doesn t mean they aren t working. These ladies are always working on projects, did you notice the flowers planted out front & behind the church? Yep, a couple UMW took an afternoon to beautify God s house. The program for the May 16 meeting of the United Methodist Women was Mother s Day Giving, and was presented by Dorothy Frank. The women gave $300 towards Dress A Child, and $300 to fill Flood Buckets. They will be having a picnic in the new church pavilion (weather permitting) July 11 at 12:30. Also, the women will be serving an evening meal each night of VBS, July The Fall District Meeting will be at GUMC so watch for info on that!

6 GNADENHUTTEN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 220 North Walnut Street P.O. Box 37 Gnadenhutten, OH (home) Church Office Sunday Morning Worship Arise 8:30 Sunday School 9:30 Traditional 10:30 PRIDEFULNESS IN QUARRELS What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don t they come from your desires that battle within you? You kill and covet, but cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight You do not have, because you do not ask God. James 4:1-2 Unfortunately as Christians we aren t perfect, yet. Because of this, we tend to fight and argue on a seemingly daily basis (many times stupid things). Those who don t want anything to do with the church will bring this us and rub it in our face. They have a hard time seeing Jesus or the church as loving when the people who are part of it don t even get along. We aren t known by our love as Jesus said we should be (John 13:35). We should each read James 4:1-2 humbly to see why we are fighting. The reason we fight is because of the warring passions inside of us. It is our desires that are causing the problems. Instead of blaming somebody else for starting the fight, look inside yourself and see if it is you who is really the problem. It can be hard to admit our pridefulness. It isn t easy for anyone. If we do this more, we will stop worrying about ourselves so often and love each other more as true disciples of Jesus. Examine you motive for a recent dispute with another Christian. Taken from shortdailydevotions.com