December 2024 Newsletter

Fremont United Methodist Church

We work to live into God’s wholeness for ourselves and our world by practicing our values of belonging, vulnerability, and mutual flourishing.

Calendar of Events

Alameda Women's Choir Concert

December 7, Saturday 4:00pm

Community Christmas Festival

December 8, Sunday 3:00 - 5:00pm

Red Cross Blood Drive

December 19, Thursday 11am to 4pm

Christmas Services

Longest Night Service, Thursday December 19, 7pm

Christmas Eve Service, Tuesday December 24, 7pm

Christmas Tree Lot

Saturday November 30, to Saturday December 15 (while supplies last)

Saturdays: 9am to 6pm

Sundays: noon to 6pm

Monday to Friday: 3pm to 6pm

Pastor's Message

"You Are a Blessing"

Dear Fremont Family,

Our Advent theme, "Words for the Beginning," begins this Sunday, December 1, and I love the way we will begin. We will begin with the simple but, honestly, radical words, "you are a blessing." There is so much negative messaging in our world that constantly tells us otherwise. Especially in the wake of our recent national election, the word we heard over and over again and continue to hear is that things are terrible, people are terrible, and we need to fear and turn against one another for our own self-interest. But, as we begin another liturgical year anticipating the miracle of "God with us" in the birth of Jesus, the angel Gabriel communicates a completely different message to Mary. Gabriel calls Mary, "favored one!" Mary is considered a blessing by God, and it's not connected to anything she has done or any particular status she has in the world. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Mary is a "nobody" by the world's standards, and yet, this insignificant one with give birth to the Son of the Most High (with her consent, of course! Her body, her choice).

The radical nature of Mary's blessing becomes the gateway to seeing ourselves as a blessing. That is, we do not have to earn our belovedness. It is given to us by God, and we are esteemed by God because God has found favor with all humankind. Amazing. As we claim our identity as blessed ones, then we can turn toward each other and recognize one another as a blessing also. Imagine how the world would change if we began every greeting to every single person we met with, "you are a blessing!"

How are you all a blessing to me at Fremont? Let me count the ways. I delight in the ways you are a blessing to the neighborhood as our annual Christmas tree sale gets underway. You will extend hospitality, kindness and care to everyone who comes to our lot. You are a blessing as you create intentional community through our annual Christmas festival on December 8. You will create safety and joy for our children, for our neighbors and for each other. You are blessing in the ways that you will collect hats, gloves, and socks for our unhoused siblings to be distributed on Christmas day. You are a blessing in the way you will gather on Christmas Eve making room for the Christ child and for neighbors and guests who will join us to light candles to light up the darkness. You are a blessing through your wonderful presence in my life. As we begin the season of Advent, may we begin like Mary in blessing so as to be a blessing.

Grace and peace,

Erin

Deepen our Lives Together

Christmas Services

Longest Night Service

December 19, Thursday 7pm

This service creates a sacred space for people living through dark times. The service will be reflective to hold healing and hope.

Candlelight Christmas Eve Service

December 24, Tuesday 7pm

A family friendly service of Christmas carols and a reading of the birth of Jesus. We will light candles signifying the light that has come into the world.

First Sunday After Christmas

December 29, Sunday 10am

Join us to celebrate the birth of Jesus and hope for the world.

Advent Activities

Advent Study: Rev. Patricia Kessel is leading a three week Advent Study on December 1, 8, 15 using the "Words for the Beginning" Advent booklet. There are copies available in the office. The booklet gives activities for at home use for all four weeks.

Photo Challenge: Take the photo-a-day challenge and post a photo from your day on social media and tag us at @fremontumcpdx. Here is the link to the daily challenge or you can pick one up in the Narthex after Church.

Children's Ministry: The Children are using the "Words for the Beginning" Advent program this season. They will have a take home item each week so ask them to show you what they did in Sunday School after Church.

Board Updates and Charge Conference

Here is a recap of the information that your Board provided at our Charge Conference on November 24th.

Your Board is Centered on our Values:

Our values are key to all that we are moving into: Belonging, Vulnerability and Mutual Flourishing. As we complete our fist year using the single board model we are beginning to understand how it works and have seen greater success at coordinating all activities to be centered on our values and imperatives.

2025 Focus Items:

Kitchen and possible Fellowship Hall Remodel: This will require a Capital Campaign and the vision is that this remodel will update our space into a more useable Kitchen and Hall! Giving us more ability to host community events and rental opportunities.

Family Ministry and Community Engagement:

The Board expanded the Family Ministry to include Community Engagement. This is a way for us to build relationships and connections to all of the families in our building during the week and with our neighbors. To further develop the vision to provide greater Multi-generational connections we will be experimenting with creating a Sanctuary Pray-ground in January. See the detailed article below.

Current Finances and 2025 Budget Planning:

We are right on target for our 2024 Budget. Here is the report from Oct 31, 2024.

For budget planning for 2025, we talked about how we are feel that we are called as a ministry to lean into Community Engagement. This requires us to expand the family ministry, provide better compensation to Erin, and spend more on Community Events. Your board will be working on ways to diversity our funding sources. Stewardship, or Individual giving, provides about 64% of our annual budget and we will be seeking to find new ways to fund our activities.

Items that we reached a consensus on:

We will support Lindsay Hogan as she applies for candidacy to be a Deacon. Click here to find out about the process.
Pastor Erin will be receiving a raise above the minimum required salary that we are required to provide.
The slate of Board Members for 2025.

We submitted to the conference all of the required annual reports for: M.I.L.E., Trustees, Finance, Lay Leaders, and Safe Sanctuaries. Click on any link to read the report submitted.

Join us and participate in leading Fremont forward towards creating our vision: We work to live into God’s wholeness for ourselves and our world by practicing our values of belonging, vulnerability, and mutual flourishing.

Coming In January, Pray-ground Experiment

In January you will notice a change in the Sanctuary. As an experiment we will be removing two or three pews and creating a space for our children called a Prayground.

For 2025 your Board identified that families are one of our focus areas. We expanded the Family Ministry director to include Community Engagement. The Board talked about the many kids and families who are in our building during the week and from our families we heard how they desired more multigenerational connections.

One of our families brought to us the idea that we create a Prayground. A Prayground (an idea already adopted by many UM churches) will provide a welcoming space of inclusion for our children and is a visible way for us to show our commitment to our young disciples.

We are piloting this idea as an experiment to begin with. We will host a conversation about how it's working after we have had time to experience what it's like. Please read one or both of the articles below to see how Churches nationwide have been creating Praygrounds in their sanctuaries and their positive impact. Let's play with this idea and see how it works for us!

UM Communications Article

Article that explores all of your questions.

Community Hub Activity

Fremont: A church moving from being

inside the building to inside the neighborhood.

H.u.G.S. Christmas Ministry

It's time again for the Fremont tradition to carry forth our Christmas Ministry to distribute packs of hats, gloves and socks for Christmas. The collection bin is out and ready to add your items to! Trudy Pollard will be sharing the details about the distribution day. Bring in all new items by Sunday December 15th.

Community Christmas Festival

Second Annual! If you have been attending our ongoing series of community events you will have noticed that attendance by our neighbors has steadily increased! Come greet your neighbors and help celebrate this important season, when we feel the birth of love, hope and possibility.

Sunday December 8, 3 to 5pm

Cookie Exchange

Caroling

Appetizer Potluck

Christmas Crafts

SANTA!!

Volunteers are needed for welcoming, set-up, clean-up, food table monitoring, and Decorations. Sign up here.

Red Cross Blood Drive

Sign up to give the gift of life this Christmas season. The Red Cross will be in our Fellowship Hall from 11am to 4pm on Thursday December 19th. Use this link to schedule your appointment.

Fremonter Details

Fremont Newsletter Articles and Production

The Fremonter Newsletter has always been a critical part of how we communicate, worship, prayer and celebrate together. We would love to encourage everyone to contribute articles to the monthly news letter. Interested in sharing, here is how and when to do it.

Fremonter articles are always due 5 days before the end of each month.
Need a couple more days? That's ok, just contact Diane and let her know you will be submitting a piece.

BEFORE UNSUBSCRIBING: You can reduce the number of emails you receive from us by clicking the Update Profile link below. You will be able to choose your email preferences at that time.