Hi Central Church Family, Have you ever felt out of the loop? I know I have. It is not a good feeling. When you are in the know, it makes a big difference. You are a part of things. In recent weeks, I was thinking about connecting with you more intentionally beyond Sunday morning. That is why I decided to send the Central Church family an email each Friday at 12:00pm with either a devotional thought or something that's on my mind or heart. In my devotions this week I have been reading a lot about the body of Christ. "Now all of you together are Christ's body and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it."(I For 12:27 NLT). In my experience, we often lack the perspective of what is going on in the church. We focus on our areas or the relationships we know, and from time to time need to be reminded of what the total ministry of the church at any given time. Here is a snapshot that I have seen or heard about this week at Central:
We received a thank you note from the Chrysalis leadership thanking us for allowing them to use the Pavilion last weekend for teens to experience Jesus Christ. "Thank you for providing the space for God's work to happen."
Sunday night, our youth and Martel UMC's youth met at Martel for a combined youth experience and to encourage each other in their faith.
Our Wednesday Night Live ministry continues to be strong with between 50-60 in study groups and 90-100 folks enjoying fellowship dinner lead by Stacy Evans and her team.
Our visitation team met this week to discuss and develop a plan on who needs follow up and care from our body.
An anonymous donor gave enough money to pay for a defibrillator for emergencies so it would not impact our church budget.
A guest who is seeking God right now was invited by their friend and they came to church and Sunday school last week.
The Fusion Sunday school for 5th and 6th graders asked me a host of questions about how we do communion at Central. Questions included: Where do you get the bread from? Why do we celebrate communion the way we do? What do you do with the leftovers? Do you have to do something to be a helper? They also met for a social activity of going bowling on Sunday afternoon.
54 people gathered at the monthly Rejoicing Spirits ministry and our folks served them lunch.
Two ladies who are 90+ had their birthdays celebrated by the 90+ birthday team.
As you can see, that is quite a list. I know there are more things that happened but that is a snapshot of how God is at work at Central. Keep praying for us to be faithful as we pursue Him. Bishop Taylor has called Holston Conference to seek God the week of Sept 24-30th as we pray for the United Methodist church, its mission and its people. There are daily prayers written by members of our conference. I invite you to take the time to pray. Reminder that this Sunday is our Brush Arbor Sunday where at 8:45am and 11am we sing some old time songs of worship. I will also conclude our SRSLY? sermon series on the sermon on the mount with the message "Don't You Know Me?" from Matthew 7:13-23. See you on Sunday! God's Best to You, Scott