Sunday, July 24
Preacher: Rev. Taylor Fuerst
Scripture: Psalm 137:1-6
This week's curious question is, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"
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9:00AM and 11:00AM | Sanctuary
Austin/Travis County's community COVID level has returned to medium. At this time, masks are recommended during worship at FUMC Austin. Masks are required for staff and children (age 3 and up) in Childcare. They are also required for adults and recommended for children participating in Children’s Sunday School. For more information about this community of faith's approach to masking, visit our website.
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Pride Festival and Parade Planning Session
Wednesday, July 27 | 6:30PM | Zoom
The Pride Festival and Parade are coming up on Saturday, August 20. We’re joining with other Austin area UMCs to offer hospitality and connection at the festival. Then we’ll join the celebration in the streets of Austin as a witness that God’s love is all inclusive. Here's where you come in. To pull this off, we need volunteers to help plan the details, ready the float, get the word out to volunteers and most importantly, bring the joy and enthusiasm that makes the parade a highlight of the summer. Jump on Zoom for a one-hour meeting, Zoom link sent with registration. Please contact Pastor Cathy Stone with any questions. Register for the planning session here>
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Over the Rainbow: a Mercy & Justice Fifth Sunday Conversation
Sunday, July 31 | 10:00-10:45PM
Sanctuary
All are welcome. We say this, believe it, and work hard to make it true. But what if welcome is just the first step in a journey toward belonging. In this time between Pride Month in June and the Pride Parade on August 20, we celebrate that Pride can’t be limited to a few days or a party.
Because FUMC is committed to practicing Pride every day, we are expanding the conversation we started in June about the next steps in reflecting our deep commitment to full inclusion. Bring your curiosity and ideas as we wonder together about how to be a community of faith where all are welcome, and even more than that, all belong.
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FEAST: Reproductive Freedom
Sunday, July 24 | 7:30-9:00PM
FLC Garrison Chapel
Join Pastor Brad King and the FEAST community (mid-20s to mid-40s) for this dinner event. In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark abortion rights case of Roe v. Wade, we're going to consider and discuss some of the ways that Christians have addressed fundamental questions of procreation. In addition to key scriptural and historical considerations, we will also take a look at Reproductive Justice and what it would mean for us, as a community, to take a stand. Dinner will be provided. Register by Saturday, July 23>
Modeled on an ancient form of Christian gathering, the FEAST Community meets monthly to share a meal and talk about the complexities of following Jesus in today’s world. For more information about any FEAST event, contact Pastor Brad King.
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Coffee Talk
July 24 | 10:00-10:45AM
EDU Murchison Chapel
Come as you can to Coffee Talk, a brief, casual time of connection this summer. On Sunday mornings, we will meet in Murchison Chapel to meet new people, learn, and share together. This week's theme is "Joy." After Sunday, Coffee Talk will take a brief break before returning on August 14. For more information, contact Pastor Cathy Stone.
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Fourth Tuesday Feed My People Breakfast
Tuesday, July 26 | 5:15-7:15AM
Family Life Center
We need volunteers! Preparing and cooking this meal that feeds our vulnerable neighbors begins at 5:15AM and clean-up is finished by 7:15AM. July 26 is a fourth Tuesday, for which First Church sponsors the meal and provides the volunteers. Sign up here>
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Appalachia Service Project (ASP) Slide Show
Sunday, July 31 | 12:15PM
FLC Garrison Chapel
Thank you, First Church, for helping us reach our fundraising goal for ASP again this year! Your support means that homes are warmer, safer, and drier in Floyd County, Kentucky. Learn more about the projects we worked on and the fun we had as our high school team shares photos and stories from this year's trip at the annual ASP Slide Show. Our time together will be even sweeter with ice cream treats. We can't wait to show you the impact that your support had on so many!
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NEW DETAILS
Schlitterbahn Youth Day
Wednesday, August 3
9:30AM-4:00PM
Meet at FUMC to Carpool
It's the hottest coolest time in Texas! Mark your calendar for a youth day at Schlitterbahn on August 3. This end of summer blast is open to all youth—we want incoming 6th graders and outgoing 12th graders to join us for a day of fun, sun, and waterslides! Cost is $40 and we need volunteers to help us carpool there and back. Sign up today>
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New This Week
Mercy & Justice Book Study: Mediocre
Tuesdays | August 9-30 | 6:30-8:00PM
Zoom
What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color, instead of by actual accomplishments? In Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America, Ijeoma Oluo exposes the devastating consequences of white male supremacy on women, people of color, and white men themselves. Mediocre investigates the real costs of this phenomenon in order to imagine a new white male identity, one free from racism and sexism. As provocative as it is essential, this book will upend everything you thought you knew about American identity and offers a bold new vision of American greatness. Read through chapter 2 for the first meeting. Zoom invitation will be sent with registration. Sign up today>
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Table for 8, please! Whether you are picnicking, potlucking, hosting, or dining out, it is hard to beat a shared meal as a way to make new friends and reconnect with old ones. Just think of all the ways Jesus used meals to invite all kinds of people into deeper relationship with God and one another!
Table for 8 is a casual, fun way to spend one meal a month connecting with people from FUMC in a relaxed atmosphere. Whether you participate solo, with a spouse or partner, or with a family of any age, the goal of Table for 8 is to bring a small group of adults who live in the same general geographical area together for fellowship and a meal. We hope groups will meet three times in the fall and three times in the spring. Once created, your group will organize the details of those meals based on the needs and preference. The goal is to meet new people or deepen connections with people you don’t know well. Sign up with a sense of adventure! Do continue to see your longtime FUMC friends, but please don’t request that we put you in a Table for 8 group with specific people.
As you sign up, you can indicate whether or not you are interested in being in a group that also includes children. Groups will be notified in mid-August and will begin meeting in September. When you register, consider volunteering to help coordinate your group’s first meeting. Questions? Email Emily Buchanan.
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For 15 years, FUMC Austin has partnered with Pickle Elementary School, finding fun ways to empower and care for students like hosting the semi-annual book sale. It is no secret, though, that the last few years have been extra challenging for teachers and staff, so we put our heads together with Pickle Principal Rosa Waters to create some new ways to support the Pickle community.
This summer, our goal is to raise $8,000 to transform a space into a teachers lounge and welcome the staff back to school in style. Want to know how far your gifts will go?
- $20 provides a gift card to go into the Back-to-School care packages our VBS children will put together.
- $50 provides a reading lamp to help make the teacher’s lounge a warm and inviting space.
- $100 provides coffee for tired teachers on their first day back in the classroom.
- $200 provides a coffee station or a rocking chair for tired staff for all the days after that.
- $500 provides a cozy couch or yummy snack station for the teacher’s lounge.
- $1000 provides a fresh coat of paint for the whole lounge.
Teachers and staff return to work on August 8, and we will celebrate them with breakfast tacos and other treats. If you would like to help host that breakfast or you have a decorator’s eye and are ready to transform the teacher’s lounge, contact Pastor Cathy Stone at cathy@fumcaustin.org.
Help us lean into love this school year by sharing what you can to care for educators so that they can focus on caring for Pickle students. Your gifts, marked “Pickle,” may be brought to worship, mailed to or brought by the church office, or made online by typing “Pickle” in the optional memo box on the giving page of our website.
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Submit a prayer request online.
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Within Our Congregation
The Drazic Family, Pat Freeman, Melissa Maluski, Sallie Novinger, and Dan Wood.
Youth and adults serving on our Reach Beyond Mission team.
Condolences to Dan Kilday and family on the death of his mother, Genie Kilday.
Beyond Our Congregation
Jo Rene Altenberg, sister of Fay Brown; Sue Bloodsworth, mother of Michelle Gaiewski; Doug and Todd Fogle, brother-in-law and nephew of Meridith Albright; Bonnie and Dick Fuerst, parents of Brad Fuerst; Cindy Gunderson’s friend; Gordon Graves, brother of Fay Brown; Betsy Hebert; Glen Holt, brother of Robbie Ausley; Johnnie Houston, mother of Marcia Houston; Wayne Kellberg, father of Tami Kellberg; Travis Maher, friend of Willie Wisko; Elissa Marek, friend of Curt Ashmos; Rev. James Mayfield, friend of Molly Drazic; Robert McCarroll, son of Virginia McCarroll; Reg Mills; Mitzi Moore and Vickye Patrick, friends of Jan Ashmos; Will Niels, newborn child of Ann & Dick Young’s friends; Jewel Ruth, mother of Barbara Ruth and grandmother of Rachel Wright; Lauren Stafford, niece of Cheryl Bias; Tonya Basler Stout, sister of Grady Basler; Carol Talleur, great aunt of Kaitlyn Krejci; Candace Vielma, friend of Meridith Albright; Candace Willard, granddaughter of Kathy and Tom Calnan.
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Contact Us
First United Methodist Church
1201 Lavaca St. Austin, TX 78701
(512) 478-5684
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