LEOTI UNITED METHODIST CHURCH THE PARISH POST May 2014 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat National Day of 1 Prayer 6:30 am 2 3 Chapel open 7 am - 7 pm Jim Roelfs 4 5 6 7 8 9 6:30 am 10 Emmaus 7:00 pm @ UMC Brad Kirk 11 12 13 14 15 16 6:30 am 17 Happy Mother s Day! F.Hall booked 5:30-7 p.m. V.B.S. Meeting 5:00 pm Last Sr/Jr High GAP @ C.C.C. 7-8:15 pm Finance Meeting 7:00 pm Randy Keeton Mother/Daughter/ Sister/Friend Salad Dinner 6:00 pm Baccalaureate 7:00 pm HS Graduation 2:30 pm 18 19 20 21 22 23 6:30 am 24 Graduation Sunday Mark Fairchild Emmaus 7:00 pm @ UMC F.Hall booked 5:30-7 p.m. 8th Grade Promotion 7:00 pm 25 26 27 28 29 30 6:30 am 31 Greg Fletcher Memorial Day Seniors ShayReah Loy Joshua Mehl Brock Sheppard 8th Grade Karlee Seaton
2 Using the Church We serve a generous God, so we want to generously show love to Leoti! Our church regularly serves as host to many dinners and events. If you would like to consider using the facilities for something, please contact Tabitha in the office first so we can check our calendar and schedule it. If you are borrowing something from the church, please let us know in the office. You will find a sign-up sheet near the door in the kitchen to check things out. Finally, if you are using the kitchen and using church plates, cups, and utensils, please check the shelves under the window first as we try to keep those conveniently stocked for events. Help us as we show God's generous love to others! Thank You Notes Thank you to all who helped with Lanny s funeral and the meal. We are very grateful for our church and celebrating Lanny s life together. Grace and Peace, The Lanny Mehl Family Tornado Shelter Spring means tornado season for western Kansas. Our church is a registered tornado shelter for the city of Leoti. In the event of a tornado please use the first basement classroom on your left. If you live in the area near the church and know a tornado is approaching this area, please feel free to use the church. If you have a key to the building, please unlock the church for others as we all can help each other. The most important door to unlock first should be the kitchen door. Men s Group Breakfast Bible Study meets every Friday morning at 6:30. All men are invited to come and join with us. Prayer Requests The Family of Leatrice Lane Russell Lewis Rick Gilmore Susan Peterson Jack Smades Continued Concerns Kelma Burch Steve Ames Mona Herbers Tara Biermann Tony Crow (friend of Sheppard family) Military Government Leaders Calling all gardeners! We need some help around the church. If you have a green thumb, we need to get the grounds at the church looking beautiful for the spring. If you would like to help maintain our flower beds and do some work around the outside of the building, please talk to Pastor Brad or Kevin Clark about helping. The church is happy to provide all the materials. We just need you!
3 CREED: What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything! The Apostles Creed is much a part of our worship as it is part of our history. It sits there at the end of the sermon. For some it may be a happy sign that the service is starting to end and they need to wake up. For others it might be said with rote memorization and not much thought. When something is a part of our weekly worship, it is easy for it to become something that we just go through the motions. Yet, just like all of worship, we should not merely let worship happen to us. We need to engage our minds with our hearts as we worship and always genuinely bring ourselves to give our best to God. How can we use the Apostles Creed to help us worship? The Creed is near the end of the service for a reason. Everything in our worship is put there for a reason. It is placed near the end because it is our response to hearing the Word read from the Bible and then preached. We hear about what we believe and then we respond by sharing our common faith. It is our reaction to act on our faith. In one way we affirm what we know. The Creed is also our common faith. There are heresies that have come up in the history of the church. The Creed has helped to focus the church on keeping the faith true in the face of distractions. Today we are faced with new heresies. There are some people who want to share that truth is relative. Your truth is not the same as my truth, and that s okay, they say. The Truth of scripture is absolute. It is always true in all times for all peoples in all situations. The Creed defines for us the essentials of our faith and gives us an identity. That identity is important. We are not just a group of people who worship sits on high. We worship Jesus, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. God has come to earth. Within this Creed is the Good News that Jesus died and the third day He rose from the dead. This faith defines us because God defines us. It is all found in the Scripture. The Creed is simply a distilled list of our core beliefs, including a belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we believe in a resurrection of the body and everlasting life, and we believe in a universal or catholic church (catholic literally means universal). If you don t stand for something you ll fall for anything. I ve heard that adage a few times. We as Christians stand for something. This Creed is our core list. I hope that as we read it each Sunday and witness together our faith in God we find that it is an important part of our worship. When we stand together on our faith we find it easier to stand. When a neighbor falls in their faith, we stand together to lean on each other and pick another up. There is love and forgiveness of sins in this faith and Creed. We need the Creed because we need our faith. We are studying the Apostles Creed over the month of May and most of June. There are two books, This We Believe! and CREED, that we will use to walk through this together. The youth and adults will be studying it in Sunday school. You are invited to join us as we grow! You can find the books at the church. Let s truly worship as we read that Creed anew each week! Blessings, Pastor Brad
4 May 2014 Greeters & Ushers Date Greeters Ushers May 4 Mr. & Mrs. Ellis Rewerts Randy Keeton Noreen Walk & Rosetta Hayes Jim Hayes May 11 Mr. & Mrs. Stacy Seaton Joshua Clark Tayler Seaton May 18 Mr. & Mrs. Randy Keeton Greg Fletcher Nevada Parker & Diana Kirk Gabe Fletcher May 25 Mr. & Mrs. Mike Nickelson Jacob Clark Tabitha & Cheyenne Rutherford Kolton Sheppard May 1 Sheri Loy May 4 Jeanette Price May 9 Francis Miller Steve Tankersley May 10 Kathy Bangerter Rosetta Hayes May 11 Bruce Loy May 15 Amber Miller May 17 San Juanita Salazar Happy Birthday!!! "Who first beholds the light of day In spring's sweet, flower month of May And wears an Emerald all her life Shall be a loved and a loving wife." May 24 Diane Whitham May 26 Steve Price May 27 Doug Weilert May 28 Abigail Nickelson May 29 Greg Fletcher May 30 Virginia Lee Treven Burch Anniversaries May 7 Bruce & Sheri Loy Note: Please let the office know if we have missed your birthday or anniversary.
5 Christian Maturity Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22 (NIV) This is the recommendation of the Apostle Paul to his young apprentice pastor, Timothy! Sounds a little like his message to the Corinthians in his second letter (5:17), Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! The binding element in both passages is a relationship with God, which in turn allows for a person to change their life forever. In Timothy it s who call on the Lord, in Corinthians it s is IN Christ! The hope of a NEW CREATION (described as righteousness, faith, love, and peace) is presented to anyone who will claim Christ as their personal savior. That my friends is what EASTER was all about. The opportunity to Financial Facts Through April 2014 YTD Budget $ 55,712.68 YTD General Fund Contributions $ 48,508.40 YTD General Fund Expenses $ 46,620.47 accept Christ s death as a personal sacrifice for your sin and the RISEN celebration fulfilling the hope we have for an eternal life is salvation for all believers. NOW WHAT? Easter is over! But wait, is it really? The Christmas jingle goes, Why can t everyday be like Christmas? Well I want to sing, Why can t every Sunday be like Easter? The ugliness of our sins has been forgiven and for one day it just seems all is right with the world. Everyone dresses up, gathers in fellowship and food, and generally, if only for a day, the world seems like a NEW CREA- TION! Something is different about this day. As Christians we should celebrate, EVERY- DAY the gift of forgiveness as we accept the challenge to live in a new manner, to be Christlike! I dare you!!!! Flee the evil desires of your youth, selfishness and pride! The book of James tells us to resist the devil and come near to God (4:7). You know, in Christ and calling on the Lord. Just try to be mean, ugly, sinful, hating or problematic when you are in an ever loving, always celebrating, closer than ever relationship with God/Christ/Holy Spirit! We are all ministers of the GOSPEL message. So the advice to Timothy holds true for us: pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace. The way to do that? Walk with others who share your beliefs. In community you gain strength and protection. In good company your youthful desires are kept at bay. Treat every Sunday like Easter. Go to church and celebrate along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Amen! Grace and Peace! Shad Coming to the Theater Room near you.. Summer Movie Matinee Schedule to be determined. Childcare available at church upon request.
6 June 2nd-6th The 2014 Vacation Bible School 9 am to 12 pm For Kids Grades Preschool through 6th If you would like to help or have any questions please call Michelle @ 375-4658. Please remember to save your aluminum cans for the National Day of Prayer. They can be left in the stock tank in the Church Parking lot! Thank you! Leoti United Methodist Church P. O. Box 430 111 S. Wyoming Leoti, KS 67861 620-375-4554 Return Service Requested