From the Pastor: In a couple weeks we will be having our Annual Leadership Retreat. This is a time where we come together as a Leadership Team to discern the mission and vision for Highlands and plan the upcoming year. These past few months our Leadership Team has been reading together and discussing the book Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bolsinger. We will be using the things we as a team have learned in this book to help us plan for the upcoming year. However, I hope that you are not reading this thinking, I m not on the Leadership Team; so this letter doesn t apply to me. The Leadership Retreat is open to the entire church. I would encourage you all to come and help us discern God s mission and vision for our church in this upcoming year. God has equipped each and every one of us with spiritual gifts to use for the Kingdom. We need each and every one of you to use your gifts to accomplish God s mission here at Highlands. Our main focus of this Leadership Retreat is to become a more missional church. Many of you have stayed after church for some of our Town Hall Style Meetings where we have shouted out ideas about how we can be more missional. Many of you have given great ideas and I greatly appreciate you coming to the meetings and giving your input. However, we must move from ideas to implementation. The Leadership Retreat is where we move from ideas to putting things into action. So I hope you will join us to help us plan how to make our ideas actually happen. I know it s still 2018, but with kids going back to school, in many ways it feels like a New Year. With a new school year, there is a sense of hope and excitement for what the new school year will bring. In the same way, I hope you sense some hope and excitement for what the future holds for Highlands. I look around our community and know that we have struggles. There is poverty, addiction, broken families, and the list goes on and on. But we as the Church are the hope of the world, and I believe God has placed our church on the corner of Broward and Biscayne to be the hope of the Highlands community. As we come together to cast vision and plan for the upcoming year let us remember why we do what we do. We are not having a leadership retreat to increase our worship size or increase our giving. If those things happen as a result great, but that is not our primary focus. We are meeting together to cast vision for how we can reach the lost and broken in our neighborhood for Jesus Christ. That is our primary focus. We live in a community that is hurting and broken, and we know the only One who can bring about restoration is Jesus Christ. So we must be a church that points the world to Him. We must be a Church that brings people into relationship with Jesus Christ. We must be a church that cares more about a broken world coming into relationship with Jesus Christ than attendance size and money. And I promise, when reaching the world for Christ is our main mission, everything else, even worship attendance and giving will fall into place. So come join us as we gather together to seek God s vision and mission for Highlands. Blessings, Pastor Katie Highlands United Methodist Church 1955 Broward Road Jacksonville, Fl. 32218 1 September Sunday Schedule 8:30 am Early Devotion/Communion 9:00 am Seekers Sunday School Class 9:00 am Library Sunday School Class 9:00 am Children s Sunday School Class 9:45 am Coffee and Fellowship 10:00 am Blended Church Worship 11:00 am Musician/Choir Rehearsal 4:00 pm Highlands Youth 6:30 pm Young Adults Bible Study September Anniversaries 9/30 Curtis & Marilyn Ossman September Birthdays 9/02 Tiffany Ossman 9/06 Nancy Foster 9/06 Colleen Powell 9/08 Bob McNeill 9/09 Kalvin Youman (PLWM) 9/11 Dennis Hull (PLWM) 9/19 George Daniels (PLWM) 9/20 Mary Ellen Hutchins 9/26 Telia Broughton 9/27 James Phelps 9/29 Hazel Fleming 9/29 Bill McCann September Activities 9/02 First Sunday, First Fruits, Communion 9/03 Labor Day Office & WCDC Closed 9/04 Finance Committee Meeting 5:30 pm 9/04 Campfire 7 pm 9/08 Young Adults Universal Trip Rock the Universe 9/10 Mission Monday 10 am 9/10 Friendship Sisters 6 pm 9/11 Leadership Team Meeting 5:30 pm 9/12 Campfire 7 pm 9/14 Leadership Retreat 5 pm - 9 pm 9/15 Leadership Retreat 9 am 3 pm 9/19 WCDC Board Meeting 11 am 9/19 Campfire 7 pm 9/21 Project Sewing Class 6 pm 9/22 Project Sewing Class 9 am 9/22 Fl. UM Children s Home Fundraiser - 4 pm 9/24 Mission Monday 10 am 9/25 Prime Timers 11 am 9/26 Feed My Sheep 7 pm Weekly Bible Studies Wednesday Morning 10 am Thursday Afternoon - 2 pm Thursday Evening 6 pm Office Information Open Monday through Thursday - 9 am to 1 pm 904-757-7909 Www:humcjax.com office@humcjax.com
Save the Date Oct 5th & 6th YARD SALE Donations will be stored in the front corner of the Fellowship Hall For more Information contact Pennie Nadeau through the office The Leadership Retreat September 14th & 15th Friday 5 to 9 pm Saturday 9 am to 3 pm Everyone is Welcome Help us identify the direction God wants us to go in the next year. Meals will be provided. Come One Come All To The Florida United Methodist Children s Home In and Out Fund Raiser September 22nd Drop In Anytime between 4 and 8 pm. We will have Food, Prizes, Silent Auction, Bake Sale, Dollar Table and much more. If you are interested in helping there are sign-up sheets in the Narthex. We need help setting up on the 21st, 1 to 3 pm And we need Bakers and Station Managers For further information contact Tammy through the office at 904-757-7909. 2
Blessing of the Backpacks A total of over 20 Backpacks were stuffed with school supplies. The backpacks not given out at the Blessing were taken to Highlands Elementary School OCTOBER 31st How will you decorate your trunk this year? Northside Churches 5th Sunday Gathering Participants Dinsmore UNC Pastor Jeff McClendon (904) 768-6101 dinsmoreumc@att.t Ebenezer UMC Pastor Debra Thompson (904) 768-7634 ebenezerum@att.t First Church of Callahan Pastor Daniel Search (904) 980-3877 umccallahan@gmail.com Garden City UMC Pastor Alan Patz (904) 754-4627 gcumc1@yahoo.com Highlands UMC Pastor Katlyn Harrington (904) 757-7909 katiereneeharrington@gmail.com NewLife UMC Pastor Lamont Hogan (904) 766-7779 newlifecommunity@bellsouth.net Simpson Memorial Pastor Lawrence Barriner (904) 355-9335 simpsonmemorial@bellsouth.net Wesley Fellowship UMC Pastor McDuffie (904) 355-4573 dannette@fumccomcastbiz.net Yulee UMC Pastor Sword (904) 225-5381 yuleeumc@gmail.com 3 Come meet the new member of 5th Sunday Gathering First UMC September 30th At 225 East Duval Street
Total Served for July 2018 Referrals 170 Children Under 18 165 Disabled 79 Seniors 72 Veterans 17 Total People 383 The Food Pantry is located at 10435 Biscayne Check in is at Highlands United Methodist Church office at 10421 Biscayne Open Monday through Thursday 10:00 to 12:30 We need plastic bags to pack groceries in. What s Up At WCDC (Wesley Child Development Center) Our Units of Study for September will be Me & My Family and Transportation. We will talk about different kinds of families and how to get from here to there. Every Tuesday morning the older children enjoy Chapel in the Sanctuary. We read a Bible Story and sing Chapel songs. We play musical instruments and celebrate birthdays. The children quickly adopt favorite songs. One of their favorites is I m In The Lord s Army. Upcoming Events October 31st Fall Festival November 15th Thanksgiving Dinner Items Needed by WCDC Paper Towels Vanilla Wafers Toilet Paper Cheese Its Kleenex Graham Crackers Copy Paper Cheerios Hand Soap Whales/Goldfish Laundry Detergent Animal Crackers Toilet Bowl Cleaner Teddy Grahams Air Freshener 33 Gallon Trash Bags Disinfecting Wipes 13 Gallon Trash Bags Bleach Grocery Bags Laundry Detergent Caps Sept 28th Doors open at 6 pm in the Fellowship Hall. Hot Dogs, Pizza, and Popcorn for $1.00 Free Tea & Lemonade Watch for coupons in an upcoming bulletin 4
Before The Leadership Team recently approved spending $1850.00 to have a tree cut down in the front yard of the Parsonage After Highlands has a facebook page: www.facebook.com/humcjax. Since the beginning of the month of August, a link to the scripture reading of the day that Bishop Carter and the Executive council have been reading has been posted. Continuing in September different parables that Jesus told will be posted, to go along with the Story Time Sermon series we are currently in. In the parable of the Lost Son, you might know it better as the parable of the Prodigal Son, the son lived a wasteful life. We should take advantage of every opportunity and every resource we have to spread the Gospel, facebook doesn t cost us anything, except time. Take this opportunity to like our page and share with your friends. Not only does it spread the Word, it also provides something good to counteract the bad that seems so prevalent in the world. Submitted by Ike Matthew Did you know Fellowship Hall Air Conditioner Have you seen the large sun poster in the Narthex and wondered what it is for? It s a measure of the funds we have collected to purchase a new air conditioner for the Fellowship Hall. In the past we have used a thermometer to gauge our progress. But since a rising thermometer indicates hotter temperatures, I wanted to use something that would evoke thoughts of cool breezes, snowflakes (I know, this is Florida), lower temps. One snowflake represents $200 worth of donations. Each ray from the sun will hold 10 snowflakes which represents $2000 of the total funds needed. We have filled 2 rays with snowflakes ($4000) and that is 1/4 of what our goal is. WOW!!! Wouldn t you like to help cooler weather get here faster? Sponsor a snowflake! Your name can be added to the star if you like. Challenge each other to see who can sponsor the most stars, who s first to add a sponsored star, or maybe the most sponsors for 1 star. Let s have fun with the poster while joining together to raise the funds needed to make our facilities comfortable and usable for all. If you have any questions about this trustee project or any other trustee projects, or you would like to join trustees, contact Louise Walther. 5
Community Dinner Highlands United Methodist Church 1995 Broward Road September 26th 5-6:30 pm Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Vegetables and Desserts Join us For Pot Luck, Songs, and Fellowship Thank You To Owen Wingate For Putting the H Back in Methodist 6