Monthly News

February 2023

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From the DS...

Many of you know that I am the son of a United Methodist Pastor. What you may not know is that my father once withdrew and became a Southern Baptist Pastor, then an Assembly of God Pastor, before finally returning to the United Methodist church. (which means that I have been dunked, sprinkled, and fired upon by the Holy Spirit. So, I’m good to go according to three different denominations, lol) This all happened from the time I was about 11 years old until I was 15. In other words, it was during some of my most formative faith years. So, when I began to realize a call to ordained ministry, I was not certain which church God was calling me into. After a great deal of research and discernment I decided I was a United Methodist. One of the most important deciding factors for me was the statement in our discipline by John Wesley where he said, “In the essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charity.” (2016 BOD ¶ 61 Section 2) I felt that statement by Wesley was speaking to who I am, and who I believe God has called me to be. That statement is basically suggesting that in the things that matter most; our understanding of God, Jesus, salvation, the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity, in other words the things that we find in our Articles of Religion, in those things we must have unity of belief. But in other things, things that are not found in the articles of religion, that we allow liberty of belief and allow people to have their own opinions. As Wesley spoke about this he also said, “As to all opinions which do not strike at the root of Christianity, we think and let think.” (2016 BOD ¶ 61 section 2) Our world is not a “think and let think world”. Today the prevailing thought on this is that if people do not think like you, villainize them, call them names, even hate them. Let me continue by saying that I am convinced that one of the primary reasons that our church is experiencing what can only be described as a “fracturing” is because we have allowed our world and its dysfunctional politics to infiltrate the church. Perhaps the solution is to refocus on that beautiful statement of John Wesley about the essentials, the non-essentials and disagreeing in love. It seems to me that what many of us have been doing is focusing on the non-essentials and refusing to listen to anyone who we disagree with. I mean what would happen if churches spent 40 days discerning how they could reach the Millennial generation, what we sometimes call the “none’s” because they claim no faith and have no interest in organized religion? What if churches looked at demographic information about their community (which can be supplied at no cost from the conference) so they could “discern” the needs in their community and how they could meet those needs and connect with the people in their community? I believe most of our politicians have forgotten what the essential element of their task is, namely, serving the people. Instead, they focus on keeping themselves or their side in power and oftentimes they will do this with no regard about what is truly best for the country. As the church we need to be better than this, because are better than this. At our recent Gathering in Huntsville with Bishop Cynthia Harvey, she quoted a statement from the Council of Bishops that is very powerful to those who will really hear it. “We must be one people, rooted in scripture, centered in Christ, serving in love, and united in the essentials.” (United Methodist Council of Bishops)

May it be so Lord, may it be so!

Blessings,

Steve

Around the District

PRAYER CONCERNS: Rev. Bruce Wood, Charla Thompson, spouse of Dwayne Thompson, Wanda Black, mother of Tammy Gilts, Rev Mary Lou Adame, pastor at Templo Del Espiritu Santo

NEW APPOINTMENTS Welcome Rev. Curtis Matthis to the West District. Curtis has been appointed the Senior Pastor at Rockdale UMC effective 3/1/23.

A special thank you to Rev. Karen Jones and the amazing congregation at Huntsville first for hosting the Bishop’s event this past Saturday. The hospitality was extravagant, and the food was abundant and fabulous! Also, a special Thanks to Patricia Lund for putting together the gift baskets and to all clergy and laity who contributed.

A&M United Methodist Church Centennial Celebration A&M United Methodist Church is turning 100! February 23, 2023, kicks off our Centennial Celebration weekend! Check out the schedule below and invite your friends and family to join us for a special celebration! Click here for a detailed description.

Go to am-umc.org/events/centennial to register for luncheons or Saturday gala.

Spring 2023 Lay Servant Training

February 25th 8:30am—5pm (must attend full day to receive credit)

Keltys UMC 508 McMullen St. Lufkin, TX 75904

keltysumc@hotmail.com 936-852-4123

Cost is $20.00 per person (must purchase books before arriving)

JOB OPENING

Director of Family Discipleship Ministries

Lexington United Methodist Church in Lexington, Texas is seeking a called individual who would like to work with children, youth and families in the areas of Christian education, discipleship, mission, and outreach. This position is part time with varying hours. If you are interested, please contact:

Lexington United Methodist Church office at (979) 773-2728 or lexingtonunitedmethodistchurch@outlook.com

Rev. Cecil McDowell – Leona Circuit: Tanyard UMC& Two Mile UMC is looking for a gently used computer. If you or someone you know would be interested in donating a gently used computer to the Leona Circuit, please contact Rev. Cecil McDowell – 254-733-9681.

If you have information on anniversaries, weddings, celebrations, birthdays etc. involving the clergy or churches of the West district feel free to send that information to the district at mshanks@txcumc.org to be included in the next newsletter.

The deadline for articles to be in the newsletter is on the 10th of every month.

Please forward this newsletter to your congregation and/or friends.

WEST DISTRICT DELEGATES TO ANNUAL CONFERENCE

This year our Annual Conference is May 28-31 at Hilton of the Americas in Houston. In addition to the clergy and lay delegates that will attend from the churches of the West district, we will still need as many as 24 West District lay delegates to have equal representation. If you are a pastor and you have someone in your congregation, you would like to nominate please send that name and contact information to mshanks@txcumc.org. Please only nominate people who will actually attend the conference and who have an email address. It is important to note that the West district does not compensate people who serve as delegates. They must pay their own expenses.

Campus Ministry Corner

All Campus Retreat at Lakeview in 2020

Over 100 college students will gather for annual All Campus Retreat at Lakeview

This weekend at Lakeview, just over 100 college students and Wesley's staff from 7 different Wesley Foundations will gather for worship, small groups, workshops, fun events, friendship building and activities. All Campus Retreat has occurred since the 1970s, and the tradition continues to this day. Rev. Michael McVey from Fairfield UMC will be the guest preacher for the three worship services on Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday night. On Sunday morning, the message portion will consist of students from each university sharing about how God has changed their life through their Wesley Foundation. We will also share Communion with each other. Each worship service will have a different praise team leading the music. Saturday morning consists of workshops led by the various campus ministers from topics including “Handling stress and embracing Jesus’ peace”, “Apologetics/Reason for faith” & “How to share your story/testimony”' The fun activities on Saturday afternoon will include an all-combined game of Captive, followed by paint-ball, and options include neon dodgeball, nerf wars, human foosball, boating on the lake, time at the pavilion or game room. After Sat night worship, the All Campus folks will enjoy a groovy night of Silent Disco, as well as options of movie night, campfire, or sleeping more. Over these decades, All Campus Retreat has brought together thousands of students from many universities to deepen their walk and relationship with God, as well as grow life-giving friendships. While the actual cost for each student to go is around $150, the campus ministries use their retreat budgets to bring that cost down substantially, the Annual Conference campus ministry budget has a line-item for also helping pay down the costs, so in the end, each student pays about 30% of the actual cost, or even less.

Rev Greg Oberg

Director of Ministry

The Wesley Campus Ministry @ Sam Houston State

www.SHSUWesley.org

Office: 936-295-5463

Cell: 979-248-4462

WesleyFoundation2014@gmail.com

Lent A Season of Growth and Renewal

The Wesley Foundation at Prairie View A&M University, has observed the season Lent for past 8 years. We are proud to offer this liturgical practice to all students. This Lent season is vital to our student's Christian growth and understanding of their faith. Lent began as time of final intense preparation for those who were to be baptized during Easter, as well as a time of spiritual renewal. Lent originating in the fourth century of the church, spans for a 40 week days, beginning on Ash Wednesday, through Holy week where the entire CP3 Ministries will have our Spring Revival. During this Imitation of Jesus sojourn journey of Forty days and Forty nights in the desert, this spiritual practice has become a period of transformation for many students. The students are given a guide to assist them with fasting and prayer throughout this journey, that will include a foot washing service, during Maundy Thursday. This is a powerful tool that teaches the act of humility.

The power of Lent spiritual practice is that it allows the student to self- examine, develop a closer relationship with God, and discover the power in prayer. Lent has traditionally been marked by penitential prayer in preparation of the symbolism of the resurrection. I have truly been overwhelmed with the testimony that comes from this spiritual journey. Each student understands this is an individual journey that we 're practicing as a group. Our prayer focus this year will be inclusiveness of all of God's children into our fellowship, personal growth

among young adults and to love as Christ loves us.

Rev. Dwayne Thompson, Wesley Foundation Director

Prarie View A & M University

832 687-6278

dathompsonsr@gmail.com

Faith in Action-

Aggies give a week of their break to serve those in need

Twenty-nine students from the Wesley Foundation at Texas A&M returned to Aggieland a week early (Jan 9-16) in order to serve God together on our Winter Work Project. We loaded up the bus and headed to the Atlanta/Queen City, TX area, a community to which Wesley is connected through former and current students. Over the course of the week, the students worked on four homes and a church building doing construction work and clean-up. They installed insulation and drywall, repaired siding, laid flooring, did yard clean-up, and more - all for people in need in that community. Each evening after a long day of work we would all gather in worship where students would lead music and share their testimony of God's work in their life. On Sunday morning, the final day of the trip, the John Wesley Ramblers (the Wesley student bluegrass band) led worship at our host church, Atlanta Methodist Church. This week of service was a great way to start our semester at Wesley. We are currently in the 5th week of school, gathering each week for worship, bible study and a lot of fun! Thank you for your continued support for this vital ministry.

Rev Katy Haislet

Campus Minister

Texas A & M Wesly Foundation

tamuwesley.org

979-846-4701

tamuwesley@gmail.com

Please consider inviting campus ministers to your local church to speak and share the wonderful ways campus ministries are changing lives in the West District. These are vital ministries that need your support.

Steve Woody, West District Superintendent

Below is information from the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. For those who are looking for scholarships for higher education, check this out.

Paying for college can be stressful. For many families, affording higher education is the number one factor when deciding which school a student will attend. UMHEF scholarships help make it financially possible for qualifying students to obtain higher education, especially those attending United Methodist-related institutions. In rare cases, awards are also given to students attending other schools.

The deadline to apply for scholarships from the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation is March 1. Apply now for a chance at some of the $2 million awarded every year to qualifying students attending the 100+ United Methodist-related schools across the US. Awards include the popular UM Dollars for Scholars program, which turns $1,000 from your church into as much as $4,000, and many others.

Learn More and Apply

More opportunities serving United Methodist Students

UM General Board of Higher Education and Ministry

GBHEM Scholarships offers financial aid to United Methodist students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees. With this financial aid, GBHEM is opening pathways for students of all backgrounds to earn their degrees and serve as the next generation of leaders for the church and the world.

Scholarship Application Opens: December 15th – March 30th

See the list and learn more

about what different types of aid you might qualify for.

Learn More and Apply