February 2016
Worship Opportunities

9am & 11am Worship Services

Circuit Rider Deadline

Please have any newsletter related articles, information, etc. to the Communications Director by February 23rd - [email protected]

 
 
 


2/7 - Boy Scout Sunday

2/9 - Shrove Tuesday @ 6pm

2/10 
-   Ash Wednesday @ 7pm

2/14   -  Revival Sermon Series starts!

2/14   -  Family Promise week starts

SCOUT SUNDAY



Scout Sunday on Sunday, February 7th.  If there are any scouts who would like to participate, please contact Vivian Kimoto at [email protected].  Please wear your uniform!






The week of February 14th, our church will again be hosting the Family Promise Program.  Currently the program is serving two families. There will be many opportunities to help:
  • Donate food or beverages
  • Monetary donations to provide funds to purchase breakfast or lunch supplies
  • Be a dinner host at an evening meal
  • Be an overnight host
  • Help putting away supplies on the final Sunday of the families' stay
Stop by the Missions - Outreach Table between services for further information or click on the link below to sign-up.


#LOVENOTES
by KerrySue Thompson
As each of us prepares to enter the Lenten season, we often reflect of what we might consider giving up.  There is the no coffee, no sweets, no TV, ...something that will truly challenge us to clear our hearts and offer more time and space (and possibly resources) to arrive at the cross in celebration of Easter.

 

This year let's ADD not subtract.  On the heels of #SCUMTHANKS for Advent and the ease at which each of us can communicate our gratitude, I'd like to offer a similar challenge, #LOVENOTES.  To whom would you send a love note?  The answer; anyone and everyone who needs to hear they are loved.  God, to family, to your church and to others in our lives that we may not intentionally and often forgetfully say, "I love you" to.
 
Love notes are preciou s.  They are kept, if not literally in that desk drawer or the tattered box on a bookcase, in our hearts.  They are
reflections and reminders of moments both passed and present.  They are part of what enables us to live in celebration of love and its power.  The love of God, our heavenly Father, is the most powerful of all our loves.  It remains our first love as followers and anchors us in how we extend love to others.  Easter is that celebration of His most powerful act of love.
 
Join me in the weeks ahead as we offer our love notes and are reminded daily of the power of love.  #LOVENOTES

A Call to Worship
by Scott Mocha
Hello friends!  I am so thankful and excited for the opportunity to serve you and to serve Pastor Melissa as the Chairman of the Worship Committee for 2016.   It's going to be an incredible year, and so much of that is due to the hard work and dedication for the past six years of Keir Karzen.  Thank you Keir, your service and continued investment in this community will yield amazing fruit for generations to come.  Stepping into such big shoes and history requires me, as the new chairman to really dig into what Worship means.   
 
Worship can mean so many things, and especially within our congregation.  It can be the Worship Service that many of us attend on Sundays, it can be the songs we sing when we get together, or it can mean just the act of Worshiping God by expressing our reverence and adoration for Him.   The truth is, it means all of those things, and so much more.  Worship is meant to be a way of life.  For 2016, the Worship Committee will aim to assist in creating an environment where we explore that, experience it, and share it, and consequently worship Him with our whole beings both inside and outside of the church walls.  In all we do, we will seek to create opportunities for our congregants and our community to have a first-hand experience with the creator of the Universe.   This is our call, our call to Worship; I look forward to answering it together.  

 
40 Days of Lent: Find your own spiritual path
 

Fasting
Giving up something meaningful for Lent.
 
Bible Reading
Take the time to read the Bible.
 
Prayer  
Make more time in your life to pray.
 
Service
Take on a new habit of serving by volunteering in the community, making special financial gifts to service organizations, singing in the choir, or participating in a small group.
 
Rest                                                                                  
Find moments during an ordinary day to be still in God's presence by meditation, listening to sermons on your commute or read a poem that feeds your spirit. 
 
Child Resources
Find ways to share the meaning of the season with the children in your life. While focus may be on Easter baskets and new clothes, you can enter into special times to help them find deeper meaning to the season.  
 
Learning
Use Lent as a time to learn about the seasons of Lent and Easter, and some of the practices of the Christian church.
 
Worship
Attend the Ash Wednesday service and try to participate in the upcoming Lenton Sermon Series.
 
Observe a Holy Lent
Find your path of self-reflection and spiritual discovery, and invite others to join you as you seek to observe a holy Lent.  
Why Ashes?



One Wednesday a year, sometime in February or March, you notice someone at work, school, or elsewhere with a smudge on her forehead. It looks as if she missed a spot when washing. Then you see another who looks as though he needs to glance in the mirror. By the time you see the third, you realize it is  Ash Wednesday  and these passersby must have received the imposition of ashes.
This practice we use to mark  the first day of Lent  may seem odd. People go to church mid-week to have a cleric place dirt on their foreheads.
 
Why ashes?
 
In "A Service for Worship for Ash Wednesday" in the United Methodist Book of Worship, two suggestions of what worship leaders may say as they make the sign of the cross on another's forehead are offered: "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return," and "Repent, and believe the gospel." Each points to an aspect of what the ashes represent.
 
Remember that you are dust...
 
Ashes were an ancient symbol of our humanity. In Genesis, we read that God formed human beings out of the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). The Hebrew word translated dust, is occasionally translated ashes elsewhere.
 
...and to dust you shall return

Our humanity also calls to mind our mortality.
After expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the first human beings are told by God, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Genesis 3:19 NRSV). We know the day is coming for each of us when we will return to dust.
Receiving the imposition of ashes is a powerful way to confront our humanity and mortality. They remind us that we are not God, but God's good creation. In them we recognize that our bodies will not last forever, and come face-to-face with the reality of our eventual death.

Repent...

Ashes also signify our sorrow for the mistakes we have made.  When we participate in the service of ashes, we confront our sin. We recognize our inability to live up to all God has created us to be, and our need to be forgiven.
The palms waved the previous Palm Sunday to welcome Jesus as our King, have been burned to form the ashes. In some sense, they serve as a reminder of how far we fall short of living up to the glory of Christ.
On the first day of Lent, we come before God recognizing our humanity and repenting of our sin.

...and believe the gospel
 
While this may sound fatalistic, it is not the end of the story. Lent leads to Easter, the day we celebrate that though our bodies are temporary and our lives are flawed, a day of resurrection will come when we will live in the presence of God forever.
One Wednesday every year we go to church remembering who we are, and hopeful of who we can be.


Ken & Sue Terwall
2/7/87
29 years
Kathryn & William Swope
2/10/80
36 years
Barbara & Dennis Goff
2/14/80
36 years
Jenk & Patty Stephenson
2/14/76
40 years
Val & Russ Tippy
2/18/84
32 years
Michael & Linda Saccoman
2/21/70
46 years
Ken & Lisa Rosso
2/22/92
24 years
Ken & Barbara Spencer
2/25/56
60 years
Gary & Anong Popejoy
2/29/68
48 years



Phyllis Pemberton
2/1
Suzanne Hein 2/3
Deanna Jennings 2/3
Karen Werner 2/4
Jayme Allsman 2/5
Megan Tripp 2/7
Cain Chouinard 2/9
Michelle Hubbard 2/9
Louise Norris 2/9
Lisa Ingwersen 2/10
Alison McPhee
2/10
Lynn Hoar
2/11
Mike Wolfe
2/11
Maria Fulkerson
2/14
Carson Jones
2/15
Kimberly McDougle
2/15
Steve Conwell
2/16
Carrie McPhee
2/16
Aaron Miller
2/19
Steven Berkebile
2/20
Judy Jennings
2/20
Charisse Miranda
2/21
Stephen Spencer
2/21
Sandra Geyer
2/22
James Schmitt
2/23
Jaymison Day
2/25
Dylan McDougle
2/25
Floyd Buen
2/27
Kristen Lewis
2/27
Kim Chapman
2/28
Campus Update!

The Dream Team along with The Trustees are working to renovate the "cry room" to make it more welcoming to families.  It will be called the "lullaby room".  


  

Dear Beloved Community,
 
What is God? The eternal One Life underneath all the forms of life. What is love? To feel the presence of that One Life deep within yourself and within all creatures. To be it. Therefore, all love is the love of God." Eckhart Tolle
 
This Lent we will be focusing our worship and our studies around Adam Hamilton's Book Revival. Revival has many negative connotations. For some of us we are reminded of the slick preacher rolling into town to take advantage of believers. Yet, the Latin word for revival is re-vivere, meaning to reinvigorate, to restore to life, to become strong and healthy after a period of decline, to renew or revitalize. We will focus on three areas: healing, empowerment through renewed faith practices and preparing us for the resurrection of Christ on Easter. This Lent we will address our hurts from the church, what our image of God is and how we can move into a revived, made strong, reinvigorated faith in the love of God.
 
Moreover, we have tangible ways to express and practice our faith and love during Lent.  First, we will have three buckets in the Sanctuary - Giving Up, Giving To, and Adding To. For Giving Up, you can write on a piece of paper (provided for you) those things in your life that are preventing you from being the Child of God (for example, you are giving up gossip, negative actions that tear down, or negative behaviors that don't bring you into a place of grace.). For Giving To, you would bring money to place in that bucket allowing us to share love by saving lives in supporting Imagine No Malaria. Adding To, you would write on a piece of paper (provided for you) ways you are adding a practice or spiritual discipline (for example, attending one of our Bible Studies, praying more, and the above two, Giving Up and Giving To, are also spiritual disciplines) bringing you closer to the revived, made strong, reinvigorated faith in the love of God.
 
By engaging in these practices of Giving Up, Giving To and Adding To over the course of lent, we will be doing a #lovenotes & #pointback2God challenge where we will post on instagram and Facebook our loves notes to God, to our Church Community and to those individuals in our lives.
 
In addition to letting you know about the Lenten Series, I wanted to update you on the current status of our Christian Education program. Your Staff Parish and Church Council are working very hard to research and rewrite the position of Christian Education Director so that it will further meet our needs as a growing church; we have had the same job description for thirty years.  We met and have heard different options of ways to fill that position from a Christian Education Director, Children's Minister, and/or Family Life Pastor. We are working with staff and with Marianne Smith, who has agreed to volunteer to cover and work as our interim Christian Education Director to insure the programs we know and love, like Shrove Tuesday, Easter, and VBS will continue to function and nurture our children in the faith. Marianne is working with Melissa Day to address Sunday school and will pick new curriculum. In addition, they are addressing the structure of classes. We are working to gather volunteers so that we can further split ages to at least have preschool, lower elementary and upper elementary. Marianne's volunteering will also allow our church to make the right decisions about further staff positions and staffing.
 
If have further questions or would like to volunteer please contact Marianne Smith at [email protected].
 
May the love of God fill your life,
 
Pastor Melissa 


Youth Schedule

February 7th - Super Bowl Party!
(time & location TBA)
Come root your favorite team on (even if they didn't make it to the Super Bowl), play games and touch football with us, laugh at the commercials, and hang out with your youth friends!

February 14th - No UMYF! (Valentine's Day)

February 21st - UMYF (6-8pm)

February 28th - UMYF - Oscar Spectacular Party! (5-9pm)
We always talk about doing it...let's get together during the Oscars, watch it together, and predict who we think is going to be the big winners of the night!
Youth are encouraged to dress nice (shirt and tie, dress, etc) as we'll have a red carpet, sparkling cider, Photo Booth, and more! We are getting classy! :)
Friends are encouraged to join us, it's going to be a fun night!


Important Dates to Note on your Calendar!

Confirmation class begins  - February 21st, 11am-12:45pm
Confirmation retreat - March 4-6, $50 per Confirmand
Hoops of Hope! to benefit our local Special Olympics - March 26th, 10am-11am
Camp Colby Work Weekend - April 1-3
SSP @ Smith River - July 9-17


SSP Payment Schedule

Please have your payments made out to SCUMC and try not to be late, as we have a schedule of payments we need to make to Sierra Service Project! If we are late, we get late fees, so please try and be on time if possible :)
January 31st - $120 due
March 15th - $140 due
June 1st - $140 due
With the initial deposit of $50, this total comes out to our $450 base cost. Youth can also use their fundraising money they may have stored (contact me for totals) and help us with future fundraisers to offset costs!



Children's Ministries and Children's Education are going through some exciting changes.  We have ordered the Deep Blue curriculum for our church school.  This curriculum goes along with the Deep Blue bibles that were donated to our children by the Galpin company.  In March, we will start holding 3 children's classes during the 9:00 service to align ages and school grades with the curriculum.  We will have Preschool for 3's and 4's, Early Elementary for K, 1st and 2nd grade and Older Elementary for 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th.  We will be needing congregation members to volunteer to teach one Sunday per month to carry out this program.  Your lessons and crafts will be prepared for you ahead of time so all you have to do is come in and teach. Please sign up on the patio between services or contact Marianne Smith (297-5043) or Melinda Day.


Our Tuesday afternoon Delta program is an active bunch of children learning how to apply the teachings of Jesus into their everyday lives. We always welcome extra adult volunteers to help with crafts and games!  Also, if you have a talent the children might be interested in, please speak to Melissa Day about being a guest one week.



Shrove Tuesday, which is our church's Mardi Gras festival, where traditionally the lard and sugars are used up prior to the sacrifice time of Lent, is celebrated with a pancake dinner and a night of intergenerational games and a carnival! This year we are holding it on Tuesday evening February 9th from 5:30 to 7:30.  Pancake dinner will be served at 6:00.  We will have gluten free pancakes available.  This year we are asking for a free will offering with a suggestion of $3.00 p er person.  We are going to be playing Bible Charades and filling in an intergenerational crossword puzzle.  Come planning on making some new friends.  This event is not limited to families with young children.  It is open to our community and church members.

- - - - -

Keep your eyes open for the dates of Vacation Bible School (VBS).  They will be determined soon!



Six Things Growing Churches Do That Others Don't
 
Ninety percent of the churches in the United States today are stagnant or declining.  Dying churches are closing their doors at the rate of ten per day. Even church members who have been dedicated to the church for years are attending church less than ever before.  It would be easy to throw up our hands in frustration with church growth and give up, but perhaps there's a glimmer of hope. If ninety percent of churches aren't growing, that means there's ten percent that are. Which leads to two conclusions, either God is choosing to bless these churches over the others, or these churches are doing something the other churches are not.

1. Growing Churches are Outsider Focused
 
Growing churches focus on those outside the church. The Pastor speaks a message each week that appeals to those who don't know Christ. Every ministry in the church puts a high priority on guests. Church events are geared towards reaching those in the community who don't attend a church. The church budget is geared around evangelism. Discussions revolve around the best way to reach those far from Christ.
 
Dying churches focus on those inside the church. The Pastor speaks a message to the congregation each week with little thought of guests. Ministries in the church place a high priority on serving those inside the church. Church events are geared towards fellowshipping with one another. The church budget is geared towards keeping members happy. Discussions revolve around the color of the carpet.
 
2. Growing Churches are Staff Led
 
In growing churches, the Senior Pastor is allowed to lead and make decisions based on the vision God has given him for the church. The Senior Pastor is allowed to hire his own staff as the budget allows. The Senior Pastor decides what ministries to add and what ministries to cut. The Senior Pastor decides what events should take place and which shouldn't.
 
In dying churches the church or church board lead and make decisions. The church or board nominate and approve any hires made. The church or board decides what ministries should be funded and which shouldn't. The church or board decides what events should take place and which shouldn't. In a dying church, the Pastor only has as much authority as the church or board chooses to give him.
 
3. Growing churches value innovation over tradition

Growing churches are innovative churches. They are always seeking out new ways to reach the communities they serve. They leverage technology for the benefit of the Gospel. Growing churches have a strong online presence through their website and social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Innovative churches believe the best way to make disciples is through community, so they embrace small groups.
 
Dying churches are churches so rooted in tradition they refuse to change. They are always seeking out ways to preserve what has already been established. They fear technology and believe it's a danger to the Gospel. Dying churches have little to no online presence. They believe the best way to make disciples is in a classroom, so they embrace class settings such as Sunday School.
 
4. Growing Churches have a bias toward action
 
Growing churches get things done. They're not satisfied with just talking about problems and opportunities. They do something about them. Growing churches are willing to make decisions that benefit the church, even though it may hurt some feelings. They're not satisfied with waiting for those far from Christ come to them. They go out into the communities to reach people right where they are.
 
Dying churches talk about getting things done but never actually act. They talk about the same problems and opportunities over and over again but never do anything about them. Dying churches refuse to make hard decisions that may hurt someone's feelings, even though it would benefit the church. They're satisfied with who's already in church and refuse to reach out to those outside the church.
 
5. Growing Churches Celebrate Well
 
Growing churches gather together to celebrate what God is doing in their church and community. There's always a sense of excitement of what God may do next. Because of this people are hesitant to miss church. People are excited to serve and give back to the church because they see how it's leading to life change. Smiles, handshakes, and hugs are frequently seen in a church that celebrates.
 
Dying churches gather together out of obligation. There's never a sense of excitement about what God may do, so people don't think twice about missing church. Most people refuse to serve or give back to the church because they never see how it's impacting lives. Dying churches don't have time for smiles, handshakes, and hugs because most people are looking to leave church as fast as possible.
 
6. Growing Churches have faith in God

Growing churches believe God can do something great through their church. They embrace risk and take chances to advance the Gospel. They believe God is with them and through Him they can accomplish things that look impossible. Growing churches have meetings that are filled with ideas on how they can accomplish the vision God has given them.
 
Dying churches believe God has forgotten them. Maybe there was a time when God did something great in their church, but that was a long time ago. They avoid risk at all costs and never take chances. They allow fear to control their decisions. Dying churches forget that God is with them, and so everything looks impossible to them. Their meetings are filled with excuses on why they can't do something.
If you serve in a dying church, there is hope. You may have forgotten God, but God has not forgotten you. The good news is the God we serve specializes in bringing the dead back to life, and that may be just what your church needs.


 
Everyone who has a heart to sing is invited to join us to praise God in worship at the 9:00 a.m service each Sunday. No experience necessary.  You do not have to know how to read music. For more information on Choir, please email our Director of Music, Christine at [email protected] or talk to any choir member. 


Event Picture Takers!  If you like taking pictures, we would like to recruit you to help take pictures when you attend church events.  If you are interested, please contact Donna Nacey at [email protected].