St. James United Methodist Church 646 Daniel Webster Highway Merrimack, NH 03054 Rev. Lynne Mentzer, Pastor Phyllis Riviere, Office Administrator Contact Us: Office phone: (603)424-7459 Email: stjamesmrmk@gmail.com Stjames-umchurch.org Facebook: St. James UMC Prayer Request email: sjprayerchain@gmail.com Building Christian Community Within and Beyond the Church July- 2017 On the Inside Pastor s Message ----------------- Page 2 VBS/Ice Cream/Choir ------------ Page 3 Meet Mike Dinsmore ------------ Page 4-6 Graduate Jonathan Dinsmore Page 6 Community Connections -------- Page 7 Generosity / Youth Pool Party - Page 8 Missions Information ------------ Page 9 Just for Kids ------------------------ Page 10 July Calendar ----------------------- Page 11 1
Pastor s Message Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Maybe this is the wrong time of year for this, but here goes: what motivates you? No, really. I know it s July. And it s hot. And the biggest motivation is a hammock in the shade, but what motivates you to get up and get going in the fall? Or to do your best at school or at work? Or to aspire to go higher in whatever inspires you? If your first thought is money, think again. According to a recent article in Time Magazine* money and other bribery-based rewards quickly fade as genuine motivators. What does work? Engaging our emotions. Behavior change happens mostly by speaking to people s feelings. We want to feel something. What do we want to feel? Progress. A consistent amount of minor success produces much more happiness than occasionally bagging an elephant. Conversely, when we feel our work is futile, our motivation dies. Notice the use of the plural pronouns we and our? The most effective motivation produces a sense of belonging. And the thing that identifies what we belong to is a meaningful story. We want to feel something, we want to see progress, we want to belong to something bigger than ourselves, and we want to find our place in a meaningful story. All of which sounds a lot like what happens when we know, love and follow Jesus. So -- do people find those things here at St. James? Do we find those things in our worship, study and work together? Here s how the article concludes: People are engaged and motivated by why we do things more than what we do. Which got me thinking we certainly do a lot of things from offering food, clothing and gathering space to our neighbors to assembling health, layette and school kits for UMCOR; from teaching children, youth and adults to strengthening relationships with other churches in Merrimack. In fact, if you stand in our parking lot and look at our building, the entire left side and basement are dedicated to what we re doing. Here s the A-HA! The right side, the sanctuary, is where we do the why. Why we do all of the above is because Jesus calls us to love God and to love one another as I have loved you. (Mark 12:28-31) Not because we re privileged. Not to make ourselves look or feel good. Not because that s what churches do. If everything we do is motivated by the One we follow the One who engages our emotions, encourages progress in spiritual maturity, welcomes us into his beloved community, and invites us to live out the greatest story ever told if everything we do is with and for Jesus first, we will be a highly motivated community of faith indeed! What do you think? If people are engaged and motivated by why we do things more than what we do how are we doing? *Eric Barker, Time Magazine, April 8, 2014 2 Blessings, Rev. Lynne Mentzer
FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Vacation Bible School 2017 Cave Quest Following Jesus, the Light of the World Friday, July 14 th 6-8 pm Saturday, July 15 th 9 am 3 pm. New this year! Rather than a week long program, we are offering a weekend VBS in the hopes of accommodating people with busy schedules. Please join us for pizza and fun activities on Friday evening, and more fun the next day. Lunch will be served on Saturday. Throughout the weekend, we will play, sing, tell Bible stories and more. We are in need of decorating, snack, and program supplies. Stay tuned to see what you can do to help make this year s VBS a success! Ages: Pre-K (age 4) 6th Grade (completed). Call the church office at 424-7459 to register or volunteer. I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream.. SUNDAES & SONGS Sunday, July 23, 2017 3:00 pm (hymn sing) 3:30 (sundaes) Please join us for the first event planned by the ecumenical group Merrimack Faith Communities. Representatives from St. James, Faith Episcopal, Our Lady of Mercy, and St. John Neumann churches have been meeting monthly to build relationships and unity among our faith communities and within the town we all serve. This event is free and open to everyone within our community. 3 An end of the year gathering of the choir will take place on: Saturday, July 8 th at 3:00pm at the home of Henry & Betty Steen.
Meet Mike Dinsmore This is a continuing series of articles to help us get to know new and well-seasoned members of St. James. We hope you ll find these introductions helpful as we work together to build Christian community within and beyond the church. It s summertime (finally!) and, as the saying goes, the livin s easy. But the work of the trustees goes on all year round, doesn t it? You serve as chair of the trustees committee. Most folks know that the trustees are a key committee of the church, but many may not be sure of exactly what the trustees are responsible for. So what s the focus of this committee? The official role of the trustees committee is to supervise and maintain all property belonging to St. James so that the ministries of the congregation can be effective. This includes all aspects of the main church buildings and systems, the outside property, and our Parsonage. We manage everything from the sound system to the boilers - even the parking lot, commercial kitchen, and our lawn mower. That covers a lot of ground, literally as well as figuratively speaking. Do you ever need extra help? Absolutely! The committee is responsible for the property but our small group cannot realistically keep St. James properly maintained and updated. Group projects are a big part of our culture at St. James and I think it is important to open these up to everyone. It was very enlightening when I realized I could do more here than just attend Sunday service. I m not sure the congregation knows that they are able and encouraged to take part. Everyone can participate in very meaningful ways. You don t need to be on a committee to make a difference here. There s a poster in the Fellowship Hall looking for volunteers for specific projects. Have you had positive results from that? From church members? From other folks and/or groups who use our space as well? Yes, this is our first attempt to improve communications and let folks know about opportunities to help. We have authorized June Johnsen and Doug Wilson as our official conduits for coordination of all volunteer work. So far this has worked out very well. Several projects have been taken off the list by members and we even had the Beekeepers association volunteer to power wash fellowship hall for us! It looks like there s some sprucing up of the hallway and other areas of the church in the works. A beautification project. Why is it important to keep our space updated and inviting?. 4
The appearance and condition of our church is the first impression visitors have even before they speak to us. As Christians, we want to reflect a welcoming, safe spirit and show that we care. Beyond that, regular maintenance actually saves us money in the long run and keeps our facility safe for all our members and guests.. So you see our church building and property as a form of ministry outreach to the community and not just a place for Sunday morning worship and church meetings?. I think ministry outreach is the main purpose of having church property in the first place. The purpose of our facility is to enable our congregation to perform our various missions inside and outside the church. We allow various groups to use our facility all the time for approved activities, and often the building provides an important message about our faith even when no members are present.. What examples can you give of ways we do this already and what is the vision of the trustees for growing this ministry of hospitality?.. It is amazing how much our facility is used throughout the week by our members as well as various organizations in our community. You should see the variety of facility use requests we get. It goes way beyond Sunday service. Over the years we have adapted several of our downstairs rooms to host the Hub which is a very important part of our Missions outreach. We have also converted classrooms to host the Clothes Closet and support our Food Pantry. These are very visible ways that our ministry reaches the community outside our walls. Our full commercial kitchen and fellowship hall get put to use monthly for popular church suppers that connect the community with us. As you probably have noticed, however, there are many areas of our building that are in dire need of maintenance or updating to better convey our hospitality. My vision for the trustees is to enable those in our congregation that feel called to join in and help. I personally have grown in my connection to the church through helping on various projects (and have learned new skills in the process)... What are the stumbling blocks to fulfilling this vision? For years, the trustees have kept an ever growing to-do list, but we have struggled with making an organized connection to motivated volunteers. People were always asking us how they could help and we did not have a good process. I still don t know the best way to accomplish this goal, so we are trying several new ideas to see what works. Obviously we hire professionals for the big or specialized tasks, but most of our list items can be done by anyone as part of a team. Some are fixit, some are painting, some are cleaning, and some are just us looking for advice. We have a maintenance budget for any needed materials, but we need to connect our resources and needs with our motivated people. 5
How can we all work together to overcome these stumbling blocks?.. The most important thing is to let us know you are interested in helping or have a skillset we could consult. To do this, talk with June Johnsen or Doug Wilson or review the project poster in fellowship hall for a sign-up sheet. St. James is very much a self-starter culture, so if you see a piece of the church that you would like to address or improve, let us know and we can help you get the resources and approvals you need. I think you will start to see many of these projects springing up all over, improving our church in very visible ways. These are exciting times for the trustees committee... Mike, thank you for all you and the trustees do, week after week, to keep our property safe and welcoming for all. It s a bigger job than most of us realize! Perhaps we can work together more on the projects we can handle in house so there ll be more resources available for bigger or more complicated jobs requiring professional expertise. Thank you for ALL you and the trustees do here at St. James! Jonathan Dinsmore graduated with academic honors from Merrimack High School on June 17, 2017. He plans to attend Virginia Tech in the fall to study Aerospace Engineering. Go Hokies! 6
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS Making a Difference, One Family at a Time Sometimes, in the church, we get so buried in statistics that we forget that our mission is to love and serve God s people standing right in front of us. Sometimes, in our everyday lives, we get so overwhelmed with the news and needs of the world around us that we think we can t do much to make a difference. Well, here s some good news we can, and we do! Here are three stories to lift our spirits and remind us that God is indeed working through this faith community. The first two stories come from our volunteers in the Food Pantry, the third from the church office. 1. A new family came to the pantry, two frazzled parents and three children, two under the age of four. Not only did they need help with food but, more than that, they needed a compassionate neighbor to help them through a difficult situation. The father is disabled and awaiting disability benefits; because they hadn t arrived, he was behind on his rent; and because of that, the family was being evicted from their apartment. Director Donna Johnson not only listened but knew where to find help. She connected the family with the Welfare Office at the Merrimack Town Hall, and as of July 1 st, they are safely settling into their new home. 2. Co-director Denise McKenne tells another story. A single woman, struggling to make ends meet, lost her home and was living in her car. When she came to the pantry, she shared her wish for a safe place to live -- just one room would be fine, she said. Anywhere. As it happened, Denise had read an ad placed by a recently widowed woman in Nashua who was looking for a roommate. She helped make the connection and now two lonely women are sharing space and companionship as a result. 3. A mom with a very busy toddler stopped by the office to ask if we knew of any programs for mothers and children that might offer her son an opportunity to play with other children and herself a much needed, friendly support group. Coincidentally (?), administrative assistant Phyllis Riviere had just finished copying a list of resources available through our newly formed ecumenical group, the Merrimack Faith Community. Two churches in town offer free mother and child programs. You should have seen our grateful visitor smile! Easy to imagine that God was smiling, too. Got stories like these to share? Let Pastor Lynne or Phyllis know so we can add them to the next newsletter. 7
WORSHIP Remembering Our Need to Give 4 th of July is right around the corner, which means that summer is in full swing. So, did you pick up your rock yet? What do I mean? As you celebrate summer this year as you enjoy long-awaited, welldeserved trips to the mountains or the beach we invite you to remember that our God-created need to give never takes a summer vacation. It s part of our bigger need for God which is best expressed in the twin blessings of gratitude and generosity. Simply put we are created by God to be generous persons! So, two timely reminders from your Generosity Team: 1. Please remember that the outreach ministries of St. James continue all year. Our Food Pantry, Clothes Closet and HUB, summer worship, and Vacation Bible School, plus the on-going use of our building by a growing number of community groups, all rely on your regular giving. If you re away on vacation, you can continue your weekly giving by mail, through your bank, or via the electronic giving site on the St. James website (www.stjames-umchurch.org). If your bank needs our mailing address, it s P.O. Box 895, Merrimack, NH 03054-0895. We really appreciate your faithful support! 2. Wherever you go this summer, please bring back a rock (a small one, no bigger than an apple) to add to our Ebenezer in the sanctuary. A what? A rock formation that reminds us that God is here with us; that this is a holy place. Each week we ll add new rocks and watch it grow bigger and taller. Then, when we re together again in September, we ll dedicate it and all the blessings it represents to the glory of God. (To learn more about the origin of Ebenezers in the Old Testament, read I Samuel 7.) May you have a blessed summer whether you stay home or travel far away. We will hold you close in our prayers. Oh, yes! Don t forget the sunscreen! From your Generosity Team: Rev. Jim Mentzer, Chair; Don Grantham, George Kenson, Carol Marrone and Louise Yeaton Congratulations to Jen Savoy! New college graduate Jen Savoy has been accepted at the Boston University School of Theology where she will begin classes in September. Please keep her and her family in your prayers as she continues to follow God s call while balancing family, work, school and church. We look forward to walking with you as your journey continues, Jen! Youth Group Plans Cool Pool Party Thanks to June Johnsen and her generous offer to let us use her backyard pool, our youth group will finally celebrate the end of the year with a cool pool party. The date is Sunday, July 9 th the time is 2-4 PM. Snacks will be provided, and the only requirement is that everyone has fun! Questions? Please call Pastor Lynne at 424-7459. 8
Food Pantry Volunteers Needed Denise and David McKenne will be leaving the Food Pantry at the end of 2017. We are looking for volunteers to take on the following responsibilities starting in September or sooner: Coordinate all efforts for the November Boy Scout Food Drive Coordinate all efforts for the Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets Coordinate Government pick up at SNHS every 2 months (FEB, APR, JUN, AUG, OCT, and DEC) Help clients out with shopping carts each Tuesday between 9:30 am - Noon Pick up Depot Farm Stand produce before pantry hours on Tues. (MAY DEC) Periodic food pick up at SHAWS on Continental Blvd (round barrel at front of store) Tuna fish Canned pasta Kids snacks OUTREACH MISSIONS If you are able to volunteer for any of these, or have any questions, please contact Denise at (603) 320-1101 or at mck2enne@comcast.net. HUB NEWS St. James Health Kit Workshop Saturday was an overwhelming success thanks to the St. James community and the Merrimack Community that attended! Over 50 people arrived to put food out for the volunteers, put kits together and package them for shipping. The task of assembling 1019 Health Kits was finished in less than an hour! THANK YOU to those who baked, to Millie Brightman, Peggy Hodgkinson, Joyce Hawkins, Mike Barb, the Berman s, Nancy, Chris and Nick, and June Johnsen who helped set up, and Kathy and Jim Walter for setting up tables and everyone who came to help. Many hands made the job move quickly and smoothly. A wonderful fellowship was had by all! Office Hours: July 4th Closed July 5 th 10am-12:00 July 6 th 9am-12:00 Thank you to Lisa Sanborn for filling in while Phyllis is on vacation!! 9
SMALL BLESSINGS 10
RC Flying Eagle Remote Club FIN Finance Committee CH Council Church Council UMW/UMM United Methodist Women/Men ECOH Eagle Court of Honor (Scouts) GS Girl Scouts BS Boy Scouts CS Cub Scouts 11 HHH Home Health & Hospice SJH St. Joseph s Fitness Class YG Youth Group FH Fellowship Hall CR Conference Room S Sanctuary P - Parlor UC Undercroft CL - Classrooms