E-News For January 20, 2021 ~ Follow Me

Saxapahaw United Methodist Church

January 20, 2021

Follow Me

Sunday, January 24 @ 11 am

Jonah is reluctant to follow God. The first time he ran away. The second time he preached the world's shortest sermon -- 7 words! And still the people of Nineveh believed. It's amazing. In contrast, the four fishermen left everything to follow Jesus. And they followed Jesus all the way to the cross and the empty tomb -- and the birth of the church. This is also amazing. These two stories remind us that each one of us responds differently to God's invitation to follow -- some reluctantly, some gladly, and everything in between. And the truth is that some of us need to allow ourselves to be caught again so that we can witness God's amazing grace!

We Need Your Pictures!

We've decided that, instead of altar flowers, we are going to adorn the altar with pictures of our faith community so we can "see" each other.

Please submit pictures electronically or bring a recent picture of you and your family to the church and place it on the altar. You are welcome to include a frame for your picture or we can provide one.

Please send electronic submissions by Thursday to Laurie Newlin: saxumcbulletins@gmail.com

Ways to Worship

Sundays @ 11 am

For this season we are skipping gathering in person so that there will be many other seasons when all of us can gather in person.

We encourage you to participate in one or more of the following ways:

Drive-In Church: Participate in worship from the parking lot by tuning in on your radio to 97.7 FM. Come as you are, stay in your car, and experience community in a new way! (See more below in this e-news about the history of Drive-In Church.)

FaceBook and Zoom: We encourage you to continue to connect for worship online. Feel free to use the chat feature to greet one another and share the peace of Christ during the service. Please join us on Zoom or FaceBook this Sunday at 11 o'clock:

FaceBook Live
Zoom (Video) http://bit.ly/SaxUMCVirtualWorship
By phone: Dial +1 646 558 8656, enter, meeting ID: 98064557041
Recorded Service, After noon on Sunday

Help Lead Worship: Participate in worship by reading scripture, sharing a story, and/or providing a musical offering. Contact Pastor Sue if you’d like to participate in this way.

Pray: We cannot underestimate the power of prayer during this season. Pray for one another daily. Pray for our community and our world.

Thank you for your supporting the mission and ministries of Saxapahaw UMC. Tithes and offerings may be given by mail, in the offering boxes, or via secure form on our website.

Support Stone

Soup Menus

Since COVID hit, Mary Casey and her amazing teams have managed to humbly prepare, deliver, and serve this community almost 50,000 meals. Check out this video telling more about their ministry!

To donate, visit the Saxapahaw UMC website https://www.saxumc.org/giving-1 and choose the Stone Stoup Menus option in the secure form or mail/drop by a check at the church made out to Saxapahaw UMC with Stone Soup Menus in memo line.

Local woman uses 'birthday blues' as spark to start soup kitchen

A Brief History of

the Drive-In Church

Adapted from The Washington Post (click here for full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/10/drive-in-church-is-1950s-throwback-may-be-future-religious-practice/)

After World War II, as car ownership expanded and the suburbs boomed, denominations struggled to find facilities in which to launch new churches, and ministers feared losing the faithful to suburban recreation. Rev. Norman Hammer of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, Calif. thought families were skipping services because they didn’t want to get dressed up for church before driving to the beach for the day. So Hammer began holding the nation’s first drive-in worship services on an empty lot near his church in July 1949.

In 1955, when Rev. Robert Schuller was establishing a church in Garden Grove, Calif., the only space he could find for a temporary sanctuary was the Orange Drive-In theater where he preached from atop the concession stand. Schuller believed that drive-in services spoke to America’s mobile and suburban culture offering comfort and convenience. They made the church more accessible for elderly and infirm members and they were a low-commitment entree for hesitant seekers still uncertain about full membership in the church.

Over the years, even liturgically oriented traditions like Catholicism occasionally employed drive-in churches. On Long Island, St. Anne’s Catholic Parish began holding Sunday Masses at a drive-in theater in 1955. St. Anne’s had been a small country parish until postwar suburbanization led to a massive increase in parishioners. Families with children, sometimes still in pajamas or wearing swimsuits for an afternoon at the beach, remained in their cars listening to Mass over speakers hung at each parking spot and walked up to the shed when it was time to receive Holy Communion. St. Anne’s continued to hold drive-in Masses until 1968 when the theater was sold and the parish was finally able to finance construction of a new church.

By 1971, The Reformed Church in America had about a dozen drive-in churches across the country. Then the oil crises of the 1970s changed how cars were designed and used, and drive-in theaters and churches largely faded away.

During this pandemic, while churches continue to innovate through online forms of ministry, churches may also rely on a form of ministry dismissed as a fad in the 1950s: the drive-in church.

The Upper Room Resources

Pick up the January/February 2021 issue at the church or view the PDF File (see details below).

Morning Prayer with The Upper Room via Facebook Live, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 11 a.m. (CT). These guided prayer experiences are archived so you may join us at your convenience if you miss it live.

Resources for Spiritual Wellness in Anxious Times. For navigating the pandemic, this link makes available to you a robust list of timely practices—for individuals and families as well as your faith leaders. Included are digital devotionals, videos, eCourses, podcasts, etc., all of which can be accessed and distributed free of charge to everyone in your congregation.

A PDF File of the January/February 2021 issue of The Upper Room is available to our standing order churches. Because you are a paid subscriber, we want to provide this service to you since we realize many readers are currently reticent or unable to pick up their copy of the devotional guide because of the virus or closed church office. We encourage you to freely share with everyone in your congregation as a gift.