April, 2012 Volume 4, Issue 4 The Circuit Writer! Living the Resurrected Life Jesus told her, I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who LIVES in me and BELIEVES in me will never ever die. Do YOU believe this? John 11:25-26 NLT (emphasis & omission, mine) HAPPY SPRING & SOON TO BE HAPPY EASTER TO YOU!! What does it mean to live the resurrected life in the here and now while we are living on the earth? This is what we proclaim in God s mysterious transformation of our lives as we near the end of our Lenten journeys. I pray that God has met you in a new way and that you have been able to spend some time exploring our Maker in the depths of your souls. I pray that God is indeed bringing about some new transformation in your spiritual life even if you don t quite recognize his grace at work yet. As a Christian, sometimes I find myself living in a healthy tension as I seek to live in the resurrected life of Jesus. On one hand, I want to live as a faithful disciple absorbed in the spiritual practices that strengthen my faith in God and help me to grow in knowledge of the Lord. On the other hand, I also am learning to realize that no matter how hard I try to be the perfect Christian witness, that faithful disciple, I will always fall short of the glory of God. Even when I think that I am seeing some significant growth in the fruits of the spirit (Gal. 5:22) I know that pride and arrogance is lurking in the wings of that thought. Sometimes I feel like I am straddling the fence with one leg on each side one striving for holiness and the other tolerating my own human weakness. It s called grace, right? It s grace and forgiveness that we live in. It is God s righteousness that makes us holy. It is living with Jesus Christ as our Savior that makes us holy, not anything of our own doing. And, it is in walking with him each day, following his direction, his instruction, his leading in our lives. It is yielding control to him completely, so that HE can live HIS resurrected life THROUGH US that we might manifest his love here on earth. Oh, when will we ever learn? We Christians spend so much time trying to point fingers at others looking at all their faults, that we forget that God is also correcting us. Living the resurrected life through Jesus himself means that we exhibit the transformation, the change that has taken place in our lives as a result of our relationship with Christ. We can t continue to live as we did and proclaim that our lives have been changed by a relationship with Jesus. It would be a false witness. We have to leave our past life behind to follow Jesus. We can t continue doing the same old things just because we are forgiven. Nor are we to hold onto the pain and grudges of the past. It is time to move on and to let go of the old self as God resurrects your life and re-makes you into a new creation. This is the change that I pray has taken place within you this Lenten season. That you have yielded your whole self to Christ; (continued )
Page 2 Continued from previous page that you will truly forgive yourself and others, leaving the sorrow in the past, and embrace living the resurrected life in Jesus Christ as a newly created masterpiece with a godly purpose to fulfill. In Christ s Love & Grace, Pastor Carolyn A Moment for Missions... We set Saturday, may 5th as the date for the village yard sales so spread the word!!! We will once again be offering free selling spots in the old church parking lot at the corner of State Routes 235 & 508 for anyone wanting to set up there. ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITY TO SERVE IN MINISTY We are looking for more servants for our new tech (technology) team. It would be good to have more people trained to run the sound system, the computer/power-point and projectors. There is a need for someone to cover other activities beyond Sunday morning as we get requests and to help when our regulars are absent (sick or on vacation). If you are interested, just call the church office or talk to the tech people on Sunday morning.
Page 3 REMINDER: THE APRIL SESSION HAS BEEN MOVED TO THE SECOND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 11, DUE TO SPRING BREAK We had a great time at the March session with 22 kids and 16 servant volunteers involved. An early release at school had many of the kids coming an hour early so they were treated with a movie and popcorn during the first hour. The regular session was very busy with teachers trying to make sure that kids were on track to get their badges in May. We also practiced with the puppets for our April 29th performance during worship service. During the April session we will focus on evaluating influences from those around us, so that we can say yes to the good and no to the bad. As always, we will have a lot of fun with interpretive dancing and singing our special songs. We are planning an awards ceremony in May for parents and friends to attend. Watch for more on this! "I would like to thank all of you for your love and support and your prayers of encouragement for me regarding my ordination interview. It is great to feel your support and the power of your prayers. The whole spirit of the interview and the interview team was very different from last year. I know it was the work of the Holy Spirit and a result of your faithful prayers. Thank you to those who organized the prayer vigil and may God continue to bless us all as we seek him and yield control of our lives to him who we trust. The morning of the interview, I was reminded of Proverbs 3:5 & 6--'Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. But in all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths.'"~pastor Carolyn
Page 4 Worship Leaders and Helpers... Acolytes Children s Sermons Greeters Lay Reader Ushers April 1 Audrey Christman Olivia Perk April 8 Nicholas & Christopher Smith Deb Orr Nancy Knight Clint & Amber Armbruster Chad & Shelley Perk Larry & Kay McMillen Clint & Amber Armbruster Deb Mohr Sue Walls Martha Siders Warren & Jean Carey Karol Rader Mike & Connie Madden Bruce & Cynda Weeks April 15 Sam Knight & Sam Yelton Kelly Kauffman Rachael Cool Bruce & Cynda Weeks Karol Rader Jerry & Barb Haas Harley Strayer Orville Tussing April 22 Meghan Orr Malaina Jenkins Pat Holt Sue Walls Gary & Patti Leiss Mike Madden Larry & Kay McMillen Deb Mohr Sue Walls April 29 Evan Kauffman Kaitlyn Copus Youth Sunday Youth Sunday Youth Sunday Youth Sunday Jr. Church Nursery April 1 April 8 April 15 April 22 April 29 Jenni Stratton Janet Siders Kelly Kauufman Karol Rader Youth Sunday Emily Yelton Cierra/Emily Eric Kauffman Sue Walls Gail Dodds
Volume 4, Issue 4 Page 5 Youth Group is meeting on Sundays at 7 p.m. We welcome all youth from 7th 12t grade. If you haven t come to a meeting, please do, we are having a lot of fun! The youth have decided to devote 1 meeting a month to community service and giving back, and 1 meeting a month to just having fun celebrating our faith. We have had an average of 5 youth on Sunday evenings. We are devoting the next few weeks to studying the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, and how they are used in today s world. This past week we studied the 1st commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me, which led to a discussion of things we worship in our daily lives, such as money, video games, and personal relationships. The youth expressed concern about the future if the trends continue. We discussed the 2nd commandment, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, which led to the discussion on things we put above everything else, such as movie stars, cars, sports stars, socialites and the such. Te youth are going to make a conscience effort to not do this, and remind each other when they do. The youth have decided to participate in Adopt a Highway program through Logan County Solid Waste District, as a community service project. We will be adopting CR 24, from SR 47 (Logansville) to the DeGraff Corporation limit. We will be cleaning the side ditches of trash. We encourage everybody to join us on clean up days, we will give plenty of notice. The youth have made cards to be attached to balloons released for the upcoming Grand Celebration. The cards will be available for all to place personal messages on the cards, the cards will be laminated and attached to the balloons for release. The youth would also like to visit Kings Island for Spirit song 2012 on June 28-30, so we will be doing some fund raising for tickets, travel expenses and food. We have a great group of kids, I encourage all youth to join us and celebrate, learn and have fun!
A NOTE FROM FINANCE We thank those of you who have stepped up your General Fund giving. For those of you who were not present in worship on March 11 th, we are including the graph that shows the trend of our income and expenses for both the General Fund and the Building Fund for the past five years. You will notice that while we have leveled off our expenditures that our giving has declined significantly. The only explanation we have been able to come up with is the decline in the economy and the passing of some faithful contributors from the congregation. We have been faithful in conducting our audits yearly and everything has been found to be in order as we strive to be good stewards of the resources which you have faithfully given to us over the years. On March 11 th, we also encouraged people to step up their giving. We are asking that if you currently give $0, if every one of you could just give us $2 or $5 each week, it would help our projections for this year. The same is true if you give $5, maybe you could give us $6 or $7. If you currently give $10, could you give $12? This is what we are asking. We know that times are tough, but as members, many vowed to uphold the ministry of the church by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service, and your witness [from the baptismal/ membership covenant]. We need all of those components to fulfill the mission of Christ. Please prayerfully consider how you personally might be able to make a greater difference in the lives of the families and children we are touching in our community and around the world through the ministry of this congregation. Remember, it takes a community to raise a child and a vital faith community to change the world. We value you and look forward to how God will continue to provide through you.
UMC General Conference 2012 April 24-May 4, 2012 Tampa, FL The General Conference is the top policy making body of The United Methodist Church, and meets every four years to consider revisions to church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs for the next four years. You may experience the conference by watching the live-streaming on the Internet through the national website, www.umc.org. Several issues on the agenda for this year s conference include: Restructuring & consolidation of nine of the 13 general agencies into five offices to carry out the essential functions of the agencies: Office of Congregational Vitality (discipleship & multicultural ministries), Office of Leadership Excellence (higher education & ministry), Office of Missional Engagement (global ministries), Office of Justice & Reconciliation (church & society, religion & race, status & role of women), and the Office of Shared Services (finance & administration, communications, archives & history, information & technology support). Election of Judicial Council members & the Council of Bishops, including the proposal for a President of the Council of Bishops. Judicial Council rulings and requests for review. Discussion on Identity & Human Sexuality, including the inclusive language specific to transgender & sexual orientation, same-sex marriage, and the UMC position on how this relates to clergy and society. Proposed changes in clergy pensions. Possible elimination of the guaranteed appointment for clergy elders. Proposed flexibility in funding and structure in the more local annual conferences. As you can see by this list, there are some very important and highly charged issues to be debated during these two weeks. We ask that you engage in prayer continuously as you lift up all the delegates that will be present representing conferences such as our own in these high intense deliberations. The days are long and the conversations are forthright and emotions are strong on several of these issues. Please cover these courageous men and women in this process and pray for it to be a holy time in the midst, as there will also be incredible worship experiences to be shared and I hope you can catch some of them. Holy Week Services Palm Sunday April 1 10:30 a.m. Maundy Thursday (Here) 7:00 p.m. Good Friday (Maplewood) 7:00 p.m. Sunrise Service (Here) 7:00 a.m. Breakfast @ Stony Creek immediately following sunrise service Sunday School Easter Worship 9:00 a.m. 10:00 a.m.