In the past few months we have held two "Messy Church" events at First UMC-Roswell. Each event was designed to provide many hands-on experiences of Biblical concepts that would appeal to all ages, especially children and families. For example, rather than having a traditional Easter Egg Hunt, we had Messy Church Easter where families could come, roam freely through several outdoor "stations" where welcoming adults guided them through messy activities such as coloring eggs, tossing eggs, painting hand prints on a cross, etc. After about an hour of participating in the many activities offered, the entire group gathered together in our outdoor courtyard for a short, casual, family friendly worship service. (Just a few songs and a tiny message, really.) Then everyone went indoors to enjoy a meal at no charge to anyone.
     Our second Messy Church event was held on the lawn and sidewalk in front of the church yard, which attracted people who were simply driving or walking by and stopped just to check us out. One grandmother and teen-aged grandson who attended enjoyed themselves so much they volunteered to assist with our VBS, scheduled a couple of weeks later, but being promoted at Messy Church. Today is our fourth day of VBS and the grandmother/grandson team have been here all week, participating, having fun and getting to know more of our church family.
     Our Messy Church events have drawn about 50% of their participants from individuals and families outside of our regular church attenders.
     Another interesting thing that has happened... 

I was invited to lead "Cowboy Church" before each of the four horse shows that a local Horsemen's Association sponsors here in Roswell each spring and summer. For a brief 15 minutes before the first "class" of the show begins, we gather on the arena bleachers for songs, scripture and a short message. A gentleman from our congregation brought his banjo! The Administrative Council at First has endorsed this Cowboy Church as a good opportunity for us to offer worship outside the walls of our church (as encouraged by our Healthy Church Initiative Prescription.) At the last horse show, our youth group came out with free coffee and doughnuts to offer to all of the cowboys and cowgirls as a service project. Just last week, I got a phone call from a gentleman who heard about the woman preacher who "led Cowboy Church early Sunday morning, drove back to her own church to preach at regular worship, then went back out to the horse show to compete in the afternoon events" and thought that was pretty cool. That couple was in worship here at First last Sunday.
     We have also been exploring the idea that all five of our Healthy Church Initiative prescriptions will be woven together in the Discipleship Process we are currently developing. This discipleship process is inspired by the presentations of Jorge Acevedo at Annual Conference and are based on Wesley's Means of Grace. Our intention is to create a process to intentionally lead people through experiencing Prevenient, Justifying and Sanctifying grace in a way that is relevant to our congregation and community. I have a whole chart, modified from the one that Rev. Acevedo showed in his power point at AC which explains the skeleton of the process. Submitted by Rev. Tina Cross 

UNM Wesley Young Adults is a college age ministry. Meals are needed every Tuesday evening during the school semester, to feed approximately 20-25 students. We are seeking groups/individuals to sign up for a meal! Please take a look and send us a message if you have any questions to Victoria Baker:rvlmbaker@gmail.com. This group of college age young adults seek to spread the Word of God with passion every week and strive to be more and more like Jesus by reaching out to bring others to that same place of passion. Won't you join in the ministry by sharing your ministry of a meal? These meals are dinner only, no breakfasts or other times.  

Thank you and God bless!