Pender has a powerful group of individuals who pray for the needs of the congregation. This group offers prayers of thanksgiving, for strength, for healing power for family and friends and for other issues in your life.

Please contact Iris Salcewicz with any prayer requests you have and if you would like to become a prayer warrior for Pender. 

Your joys and concerns will be added to the prayer list.

Some members and friends of Pender have begun an important and timely conversation about our distinctive Methodist pattern of disciple-making and how it provides us with a faithful and fruitful model for today. 

The class is meeting twice a week, Tuesday evenings (7:00) and Thursday mornings (10:00). 

The ten copies of the book we purchased have all disappeared so I hope you will join us next time as we discuss chapter two of Mainline or Methodist? Recovering our Evangelistic Mission. 

The class will meet this evening, September 21 in the library. Because I will be on vacation from September 25-October 1, we will not meet next week but will resume our discussion on Tuesday, October 3 (7:00pm). 

While I am away, Rev. Jeff Haugh from Vale UMC will be available for emergency pastoral care needs. He may be reached at 804-687-3938. 

Pastor Bruce

Jesus Our Light

Have you ever stumbled through a dark room, or tried to walk around at night when there were no lights? Maybe you ran into a wall or hit your foot on something. Do you remember how great it was to turn on the light so you could see where you were walking?

God’s Word says that we similarly walk in the darkness. Our life apart from Jesus is characterized by darkness. When we try to live life by our own sight, we inevitably fail.

Jesus is the light that shines within the darkness of the world around us, and within our own lives. He illuminates the truth of the world so that we don’t have to remain captive to our old ways, but can be transformed by Jesus through forgiveness. 

Without His light shining in the darkness, we wouldn’t know the truth. Jesus is also the one who directs our paths. Just like how we stumble through the darkness without a physical light, Jesus is the light that illuminates the way of life for us.

John 1:5 also tells us that the light of Jesus cannot be overcome by anything. There are no spiritual powers or cultural events that can overcome the light of Jesus. And there is nothing that anyone can do to separate us from the love and light of God.

Spend some time today in prayer, thanking Jesus for the salvation that you have, but also asking Him to continue to illuminate the path of life for you. Then, let the light of Jesus shine through you by the way you love those around you.

“Jesus Our Light.” YouVersion, 12 August 2023.  https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for being the light of the world. Thank you for shining light in the darkness and showing us how to live God-honoring lives. Help me to be an example of You to everyone I encounter, and give me the courage to shine Your light in my community. Amen.

“Jesus You Are The Light Prayer.” YouVersion 12 August 2023.  https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

Board of Discipleship Presentation of the Denman Award for Clergy for Pastor Bruce Johnson.

Award presentation and dinner to be held at 4:00 PM October 8 in the Gathering Place.

District Superintendent Sarah Calvert will be present along with representatives from the Virginia Conference UMC.

Please RSVP to the church office to let us know you will attend. 703.278.8023 or office.admin@penderumc.org

The Harry Denman Evangelism Awards honor a United Methodist clergy, youth, and layperson in each annual conference who has exhibited outstanding efforts in Wesleyan evangelism by faithfully carrying out the mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ.”

The award is named for the late Dr. Harry Denman, a distinguished lay evangelist whom Dr. Billy Graham called “my mentor in evangelism.” The awards are made possible by The Foundation for Evangelism (www.foundationforevangelism.org), founded in 1949 by Dr. Denman, who felt it was the business of every Christian to be an evangelist. It is most fitting that annual conferences today honor persons who carry on the spirit of Harry Denman.

Those eligible for this prestigious award practice the Great Commission. This can involve personal witnessing, speaking, and inspiring individual persons or the local church to be actively involved in helping people experience God’s transforming love through Jesus Christ. Neither the size of the local church with which the person is affiliated, the age or gender of the person, nor the length of their service should limit one’s eligibility. What is essential are the persons whose lives have been changed by the life and ministry of the nominee.

The Virginia conferences honor an individual each year and present the awards at the Virginia Annual Conference gathering.

The selection process is directed by the Board of Discipleship of the Virginia conference, and all nominations are collected through the nomination process set by the board.

Patrick King will be our new Director of Music Ministries.

He will start in October.

Patrick King is a skilled composer, producer, pianist and singer/songwriter from Portsmouth, Virginia and is married to the beautiful scientist, Dr. Kameron King. They have two sons.

He started with a passion and ear for music early in life that would be developed through piano lessons, sitting under great musical influences and receiving his first synthesizer at age 14, through which he gained many musical abilities.

Patrick has produced, written, arranged, played for and provided background vocals for many music artists from Virginia, as well as helping to establish and enhance the music careers of other artists with his advice, coaching and influence. Furthermore, he has two solo projects under his belt titled From the Soul (2019) and Love (2021) which feature mixed-genre styles of music.

Outside of composing and writing, Patrick has served as the Music Director and Worship Leader for a number of churches throughout VA., of which he has helped to establish and enhance their music and sound departments through ministry workshops and training programs. Since then, he has earned his Associate of Fine Arts in Music from Tidewater Community College in Norfolk, VA. and will be receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in Music for Film, TV and Games from Berklee College of Music.

Patrick has a fervent passion for learning, teaching and influencing others with his life’s story centered around divinely inspired events that only God could bring about that have molded him into the man he is today and is the inspiration for his music school he started in December 2020, All Muzic and Arts Academy where he serves as CEO and lead piano, voice and music production instructor.

Patrick thrives in being innovative to push musical boundaries, as well as staying open to current trends and with his past experiences, along with a career as an established composer, singer/songwriter and producer, he seeks to inspire and be a resource for others so they can be the best versions of themselves.

UMM Exploratory Meeting

It has been decided to consider re-establishing a United Methodist Men group here at Pender.

In order to evaluate the viability of forming a new UMM organization we will beholding an exploratory discussion with all interested male members of the congregation in the Gathering Place on Sunday, 24 September directly after the second service. 

Since we will be serving lunch at the meeting, we are requesting that interested people let register in advance by e-mailing Keith Saddler at keith.saddler@verizon.net

We are optimistic that we will be able to re-establish a UMM fellowship which can become a valuable entity in our church experience and in Pender’s community outreach.

Jim and Roberta Pont will be offering Fun With Music again starting in early October. They could use a few more toys for children ages 0 to 5.

Also any children's books also for ages 0 to 5 that would be in good condition to give to the children on their birthday month. During their birthday month we sing Happy Birthday and the children get to pick a book to take home. 

They are really looking forward to beginning this program again after the pandemic when we had to shut down.

Please bring toys and books to Pender. Roberta has left a bin marked Fun With Music in the narthex. 

Any questions? Please feel free to call or email Roberta Pont.

Fun With Music will start October 2nd, Monday, beginning at 9:30am for registration. There is a fee of $25.00 to cover the food and supplies for the semester. This is per family. 

The  program will start at 10AM and end at 11:30AM. 

This program is for children 0 thru 5 and their parent, grandparent, or caregiver. The program will begin with age appropriate singing for the children for 30 minutes. 

It is a very interactive session, making use of instruments, parachutes, stuffed animals and other props. 

The children then will have a snack and then play with toys . The adults are served breakfast and have time for fellowship while the children play. 

We will meet in the Cornerstone Room. 

Please feel free to call Roberta Pont at 703-725-7597 or email at jimandrobertapont@gmail.com. 

Friends and Disciples,

You may have noticed that we no longer have a "My Pender Page" link on our website menu, that is because we have changed the name to "Realm Connect"!

Do not worry, all of your information and accounts are still there, we have just changed the name of the link to organize and reflect on the updates our database has recently experienced. 

Click the "Realm Connect" link on the menu to visit the page. 

On this page, there is a link that reads:

Quick Link to Realm Connect

You can click on this link to access the sign-in page to get to your original account that had all of your My Pender Page information.

If you have trouble logging in, contact the church office for a new "invitation".

Thank you!

Hi Sunday School Families & Friends, 

There are some wonderful family/children's activities happening ithis year. Please come and enjoy! All are welcome -- and invite a friend!

Pender Hill Preschool Teachers and Fire Chief Eric Patterson!

First-Aid Training September 2023

October 1, 2023 - Youth Ministry Event: The Power of Clean Clothes

Pender's Impact for Youth will host a youth ministry event: filling water bottles with powdered detergent that will enable the homeless and the poor to clean their clothes.

Oct 15: Maui hygiene kits

Nov 5: making 100 sandwiches

Nov 19: birthday in a box

Dec 3: Christmas party and kitty catnip socks

Sanctuary Choir Rehearsals continue this evening Thursday, September 21 at 7:30 pm.

All are welcome!

Handbells are not just for children and teens! We have adult handbell groups for beginner to advanced ringers.  The difficulty level of handbell music is rated from Level 1 (easy) to Level 6 (most difficult). Each of the groups rings 6-8 times in worship between September and June and participates in the annual Christmas handbell concert. 

The groups also like to participate in the various festivals that are held by the regional handbell guild (Handbell Musicians of America – Area 3). Our rehearsals are full of laughing and ringing (sometimes more laughing than ringing!) You do not have to know how to read music to learn how to ring handbells! 

Carillon Ringers group is for ringers who ring Level 2 and Level 3 music.

Carillon Ringers rehearse at 6:45 Tuesday. The handbells will play during the Traditional Service about once every four to six weeks. 

Joy Ringers group is for advanced ringers who ring Level 4 and Level 5 music

Joy Ringers rehearse at 7:30 Tuesday. The handbells will play during the Traditional Service about once every four to six weeks. 

Interested? Contact Brian or the Music Ministry

Trunk or Treat (please wear a costume)

games for all ages (we have 9 game stations)

snacks for everyone

live music (by our Common Ground Praise Band) 

This event is on Saturday, October 21 from 2-4 pm in the church parking lot. 

The rain date is on Sunday, October 29 from 2-4 pm. 

~~~

There are two bins in the narthex for the congregation to supply individually wrapped candy and snacks for the Fall Festival on October 21. 

~~~

We also need helpers for our Fall Festival! We will be decorating items for the Fall Festival on September 23.

~~~

We also need the following items:

1. Plastic pumpkins (small and medium). Need both completely closed pumpkins and open pumpkins with a hole on top. 

2. rings (for ring toss)

3. bowling pins

Please put your name on the items so the items can be returned to the owner after the fair. There are two boxes in the back room behind the kitchen (marked "for fall festival"). These items can go into these boxes. 

~~~

We need volunteers to help during the Fall Festival. In particular, we need people to help with the following:

1) Trunk or Treat cars

2) passing out candy

3) corn hole game

4) pumpkin bowling game

5) guess the number of candy in a jar game

6) ring toss (on a pumpkin) game

7) hot apple cider bar

8) football (nerf) toss into a hole game

9) Put one oreo cookie on forehead and have the person try to put the cookie in to his or her mouth without using hands game

10) parking

11) face painting

We need people to sign up by October 8 so we know many people to expect to help us out during the festival. 

To help out during the Festival, please sign up using our SignUpGenius or the QR code below.

Western Fairfax Christian Ministries ("WFCM") Current Request for Donations

WFCM has been providing food and services to the community for 35 years. Pender was one of the twelve founding churches that set the path and began the journey.

Thanks goes out to all of you who continue to support WFCM many programs.

~~~

The WFCM blue cart is outside the church.

All donations of food and toiletries are welcomed and needed.

Item of the Week: Pasta

Please no:

* Expired food

* Glass jars

Thank you for your continuing generous support of WFCM.

The WFCM Food Pantry is accepting outside donations at their address below. There is a greater need for food but fewer donations.

You can also help by ordering from Amazon for delivery to WFCM. Rice, beans, canned fruit, diapers (Sizes 4, 5, 6), pasta, pasta sauce, etc.



                   WFCM

                   4511 Daly Drive, Suite J

                   Chantilly, VA 20151

Financial contributions are also accepted (cash, check or through our website). Please mark your tax deductible donation "WFCM Food Pantry." This will be recorded on your giving statement.

Thank you for your continuing support of WFCM. In 2021, Pender donated 6,128.74 pounds of food and personal care items to help the needy in the community. Thank you for your ongoing and generous support of WFCM.