Join Us For Worship This Sunday

Changes in the Office

As some of you probably know, Carol Wiggins is leaving the staff to spend more time with her family. Carol has been our Accounting Manager over five years and she will be missed. We wish her all the best.

With Carol’s departure, we have engaged Cheryl Dial to take on our accounting duties. Cheryl has significant experience working as an independent contractor for several other churches and is skilled in Quick Books and Breeze, the two systems we use for accounting and membership records. Cheryl will be doing most of her work from home, with plans initially to be in the office two Wednesday afternoons a month. The exact dates will be set and communicated separately.

We anticipate this change in staff and office hours will require some new procedures to be implemented; any changes impacting our members will be communicated in advance of being implemented.

We are excited to have Cheryl join us and to bring her experience and expertise to the Heart of Longmont. Please join me in welcoming her! Her email address is finance1@heartoflongmont.org

If you have any questions, please let me know at rleret923@gmail.com

--Rod Edmonds

Change for Change:

Have You Voted for

Your Favorite Name?

Have you voted for your favorite name? We need a name for the HOL housing project. In the running are Wesley Homes, Isaiah Homes and Samuel Homes. Which name speaks to you and identifies how we are helping to alleviate the lack of shelter for those who can not afford a roof over their heads?

Did you know that the average monthly cost of rent for a 900 sq. ft. apartment in Longmont is $1,857! You would have to earn $4500 per month to afford to pay the average rent and still have money remaining for living expenses.

You can deliver hope to those in need with this housing project.

Hospitality Ambassadors

Did you ever play the "tick-tock" game as a kid? It’s where you join hands with your friends and swing your arms back and forth while singing tick-tock. The game is locked and no one else can join. The game made you feel like you were part of an intimate circle, until you weren’t. Your friends moved away or they moved on, becoming part of another circle. Your circle kept shrinking until it wasn’t a circle anymore.

The remedy to that shrinking circle is, of course, to not lock the game and to continually invite others to join. In that manner the circle will continue to grow and grow.

In some ways that is what we have seen happening to mainstream churches today. The circle continues to shrink.

“Every church will naturally tend to be inwardly focused. This is the human condition. We have a predisposition to think of ourselves first.” The Heart of Hospitality

We need to intentionally find ways to connect with guests and those outside of the church to increase their comfort levels. That necessitates knowing the needs of the community and meeting those needs.

To facilitate more intentional actions of being open and accepting, we are creating a team of Hospitality Ambassadors. If you would like to be a member of the team, please call the church office at 303-776-3523.

New Adventurers Book Study

Adventurers will begin next Sunday with Ladder to the Light by Steven Charleston. You can order on Amazon with the link below or check the local library or used book stores. Please reach out to Tricia Grafelman with any questions or to find out what chapter will be discussed each week. 

"In the same voice that has comforted and challenged countless readers through his daily social media posts, Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. Every day Charleston spends time in prayer. Every day he writes down what he hears from the Spirit. In Ladder to the Light he shares what he has heard with the rest of us and adds thoughtful reflection to help guide us to the light.

Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear."

Click here to purchase from Amazon.com

Pastor Claire led worship at St Vrain Manor. If you don’t know, St Vrain Manor was created over 60 years ago by three local churches, Heart of Longmont being one of them. The Manor provides affordable housing for Seniors in the community. 

It was a wonderful morning to be in ministry!

The Reality of Impermanence

Try as we might to keep our lives stable and unchanging, the basic fact of life is that we can’t. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We only know what this exact moment in time is bringing. God created our lives to be a state of not knowing.

It may well be that God created this unpredictable life of ours to make us open our eyes to pay attention to all that is around us. While we try to firmly squeeze our eyelids shut and pretend that all is as we want it to be, that fictional world dissolves as soon as a crack of light squeezes in forcing us to open our eyes wide.

Open your eyes and marvel at the splendor that is before you. Examine the dew on the green blade of grass; that perfectly shaped drop of moisture. Revel in the tinkling laughter of the young child running with hair flying.

Take comfort in the verse from Matthew 6:34: “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” 

And when you find yourself shrinking with worry because all seems hopeless, lost and dark, climb into the outstretched arms of God and rest quietly with your head upon that solid shoulder.

More Questions And Answers About

The Housing Project

As we continue to progress with discussions about the housing partnership with The Inn Between, some information has changed and there have been additional questions.

We continue to welcome your questions and encourage discussion with the team members. Please reach out to Rod Edmonds, Joan Edmonds, Jean Malchow, Clint Schahrer, Tricia Grafelman and Pastor Claire for answers.

Will we be able to see drawings of the housing units?

Yes, when we have renderings available from the architect we will have them on display in the gallery. The earliest we can expect to have any drawings will be October.

What will happen to the houses if The Inn Between ceases to exist?

The deed transfer of the land to TIB will include a “reverting clause” that if The Inn Between changes its mission of providing low income housing or ceases to exist, HOL will have a right of first refusal for transfer of ownership of the land and apartment units back to HOL.

Will we be able to get more information about the project?

The projection for Q and A sessions with church members has been pushed back to October to give the architect time to develop renderings of the project. Exact dates will be communicated once the architect’s schedule is confirmed.

Can we vote on this project?

An All Church Conference was originally scheduled for September 25. That date will now be moved to late October or early November, again to accommodate the work of the architect.

What will happen to the Wild Plum playground?

We are working with Wild Plum to relocate the playground. By federal ruling it has to be closer to the building anyway.

Will I lose my parking spot?

There is a possibility that parking spaces may shift, however, at this time we are only expecting changes to the North parking lot. The move of the Wild Plum playground will hopefully not impact parking spaces to a great degree. We will update you as this plan takes shape.

Will we have a chance to talk to someone from The Inn Between and ask questions?

A time after Sunday Service will be coordinated with Tim Rakow, the Executive Director, for you to hear from him and to ask questions. This will most likely occur in October.

Check out these fun photos from Children's Time on Sunday, August 14!

A New Sermon series begins August 28th! Pastor Claire will be talking about "Half Truths", sayings that have some truth to them but don't hold up well under closer scrutiny. Sayings like "everything happens for a reason" and "God will never give you more than you can handle".

Watch Pastor Claire's introduction below and join us Sundays at 10AM!

Did you know…

Through Mountain Sky United Methodist Foundation, you as an individual can invest your savings in accounts similar to CDs and Money Markets where you will earn above-average interest rates. The fund is called the Methodists Helping Methodists Fund. Your investments allow the Foundation to provide capital improvement loans to United Methodist Churches throughout the region. 

Investment options include:

• Fixed-Rate Investments (one, two, three, four, and five-year) are available for amounts $1,000 and above. Interest is paid out quarterly or reinvested, depending on investor wishes.
• Variable-Rate Investments are available with a minimum investment of $500. Withdrawals can be made at any time upon written notice.

At July 20, 2022, rates for fixed-rate investments range from .70% for a 12-month term on deposits of $1,000 to $4,999 up to 2.32% for a 60-month term on deposits of $10,000 and over. Variable-rate accounts starting at $500 pay .50%.

For more information, including access to the full rate schedule, go to https://www.mountainskyumf.org/faith-based-investments-giving/.

August's compassion offering supports Days for Girls International.

Days for Girls is turning periods into pathways. They increase access to menstrual care and education by developing global partnerships, cultivating Social Entrepreneurs, mobilizing volunteers and innovating sustainable solutions that shatter stigma and limitations for women and girls.

If you wish to donate to this month's compassion offering, you can do so online by clicking here and navigating to the Monthly Compassion Offering tile. Or, you may send a check to the church office with "Compassion Offering" on the memo line.

Our Mission:

Putting More of God's Love Into The World

Helping all persons find deeper meaning and God’s purpose for their lives as committed Christ-followers.

Serving as the Heart of Longmont means:

We will welcome all persons, without reservation or judgment,

just as Jesus Christ would do.

We will work tirelessly by entering into intentional acts of compassion and social justice to make our community a place where God’s love is known by all, where poverty and deprivation are unknown by any, and where respect for the worth and dignity of each person is the norm.

We will respect and honor other religious traditions

while choosing Christ as our way of knowing God best.

We will emphasize life-long learning so that we may

engage our world from a dynamic and creative perspective.

We will work to protect God’s creation.

We will practice stewardship of all aspects of our lives,

including time, talent, financial resources, and spiritual gifts.