First United Methodist Church

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On the first Sunday of Advent we explored hope; this next Sunday we will look at peace. We will explore Isaiah 2:1-5; verse 4 reads:
The Lord shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their sword into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Think of a situation where you desire peace, either in your life or in the world. Prayerfully ask God to guide you in doing something this week to strive for peace. Practice peace. You can refine inner peace through outward action. It could be writing a letter to someone from whom you have become separated or it may be writing a letter to your legislator about an injustice. Where you hear gossip, offer a good word. Where people experience brokenness, do what you can to heal. Where sickness and death prevail offer a moment of lifes joy. Pray for your enemies and find peace by trusting that God knows their deepest needs. Listen to others. To find peace, people need to feel heard and to know they are not alone in their suffering. Infuse the conversation with Gods grace. Let the hope and peace of Christ assure you that no matter the situation, peace can prevail.
Are there areas in Hillsboro that need peace? How can we as a church promote peace? Where destruction and violence exist, can we offer a kingdom view? Can and will we go to the dark places and offer signs of Christ? Can we reveal to the community the real hope of Christmas that through Christ, people will find peace and hope?
Many of you already are offering Christ and his peace and hope to our community by sponsoring foster care children and a needy family. This week I want us all to get involved in offering Christ and peace by putting together Bags of Grace and then handing them out to the homeless of Hillsboro. We will assemble them after TNT and hand them out during the week. Please join me in offering Christ to others this Christmas. Peace,

Ever wake up the day after Christmas wondering if that was really what it was all about? Do you want Christmas to be different? To focus on things that really matter, rather than just things? If youre ready to experience something more out of Christmas and life then join us in worship on the four Sundays of Advent, beginning November 28. This year First UMC, Hillsboro will experience A Life-giving Christmas keepin it real in which we will discover a more meaningful way to celebrate the season and find hope for the New Year. We will have opportunities to experience community in service and service to the community. We will have the opportunity to pray and reflect on the Hope, Peace, Joy and Love the season of Advent announces and brings. This Christmas we invite you to experience authentic joy joy that doesnt come with a price tag.To get us started, here is a passage we will look at on November 28: Romans 13:11-14

But make sure that you dont get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all you day-by-by obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We cant afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering an grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Dont loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Individual challenge: Name three things you will do differently this Advent season, substituting things that bring renewed hope and faith, rather than depleting energy and bank accounts.
Practical application: You are encouraged to fridge journal throughout the season of Advent keep a notepad on or near the refrigerator and jot down a time when God got you through something that, at the time, may have seemed hopeless. Now look for ways to share that hope with people in the community. Share Christs hope, and your hope will be increased as well. Send a card to someone in the nursing home, write a note to a youth who may be having a tough time, or call someone to reconnect.

The United Methodist Men (UMM) of Hillsboro First United Methodist Church are an active group, reaching out and serving others in the community and the church as well. November has been a particularly busy month starting with hosting a joint breakfast meeting on November 5 with men from the First Presbyterian Church. Twenty-five men attended this meeting and were treated to a good breakfast and a thought-provoking talk by Rev. Delbert Taylor entitled Living Thanksgiving. The next First Friday Breakfast meeting will be (December 3 at 7:00 am) at the Presbyterian Church and we hope men from other churches will join us.
Next up for this group was cooking and serving food for the November 17 Terrific Nights Together (TNT, a Wednesday night fellowship dinner at 5:30). This included the traditional turkey and dressing meal. Approximately 175 people were served. Scenes from TNT follow:

Next on the agenda was a Faith Builders workday at the house of a client in Hillsboro. Faith Builders is an organization sponsored by the UMM, but not limited to just Methodists. The purpose of this group is to assist people in the community who need help in maintaining their homes. The specific project of this workday (November 20} was to replace ceiling tiles in several rooms. Seven workers completed this work on two of three rooms. Pictures follow:

The organized functions for the month conclude on November 22 when the group provides lunch for the students participating in the United Christian Fellowship (UCF) at Hill College. This will be another seasonal turkey and dressing meal with all the trimmings for about 50 students and you know how they can eat!
If you are interested in participating with UMM in these kinds of service activities or desire more information, please call the church office (254-582-2342) and you will be contacted. Everyone is invited to participate.

Wesley Academy Parents Day Out is a two day per week (Monday and Wednesday) program for children aged 6 months to 3 years of age. The program is dedicated to the development of every child: spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and physically. More information is available on the church website, click on Wesley Academy. Shown below are scenes of the Hillsboro High School cheer leaders visit with the children.

by Betsy Schwarzentraub
Some churches across our denomination follow the tradition of Stewardship Sunday. Regardless of whether we are naturally timid or passionate about the subject, this Sunday invites us all to engage in life-giving talk about joyful, faithful stewardship and how we can nurture generous living.

I say “living,” not “giving,” because generosity is much more than just giving. It has to do with how we receive, manage, and use our energy, time, abilities, relationships, money and possessions, as well as how we share these same gifts. Generous living flows out of a generous heart, which refers to our total nonverbal witness.

“First fruits living” is at the root of such radiant living and honest-to-God stewardship of the life God has entrusted to us. Our Mennonite sisters and brothers describe this biblical phrase as “giving the first and the best of all that God has entrusted to us, and using all the rest according to God’s generosity.” This embraces the whole of gospel living!

So Stewardship Sunday is really a great celebration! It’s a time to lift up the over-the-top beauty and goodness of our generous God and the quality of living freely and responsibly on God’s behalf. The Bible offers a wealth of texts on stewardship, including Jesus’ words in Luke 12:13-21 about being “rich toward God.” Or how about Matthew 6:24-34, where Jesus says we cannot worship both God and money, not to worry about our lives, and to trust our Creator. St. Paul is equally challenging and affirming in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 about acknowledging our abundant blessings, giving intentionally and with joyful abandon, and prompting a ripple-out effect overflowing with thanksgivings to God. Another outstanding passage is 2 Corinthians 4:5-7, about letting our earthenware lives cradle and then pour out the treasure of the gospel.

Wherever we look in the Scriptures, it’s all about stewardship — nurturing generous living in response to our extravagantly generous God. So have a terrific Stewardship Sunday!

*I found this article on the United Methodist Church website and thought it appropriate for us as we head into commitment/consecration/ stewardship Sunday on November 21. May we all engage in generous living.In Christ, Pastor Donna

I thought I would share this with you as we head toward Consecration Sunday on November 21:
We give, I believe, out of love and gratitude. I dont think the Lord wants one dime out of a sense of duty or guilt. Quite often we think of it as a financial issue, but at its very heart, giving is really a spiritual issue. And so we give out of love. We give out of a deep sense of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us. And we give because we really want to make a difference in the world. Our mission is to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world; and a major part of living out that mission is generous giving. –Bishop Lindsey Davis President, General Council on Finance & Administration
Do you live in a spirit of thanksgiving for all that God has done for you? Or, are you like James Stewart in the movie Shenandoah who grudgingly prayed grace and thanks over a meal even though he told God he didnt know why he was thanking God since he (the Stewart character) was the one who did all the plowing, planting, harvesting and preparing of everything on the table?
When the Israelites entered the Promised Land God warned them not to think they got the land, crops, cattle, homes, and other riches by their own hand, but to remember that God had given them everything.
Do we remember? Are we thankful? Where are our hearts?

As of Monday morning , November 1, this years Pumpkin Patch is over. Only a few bales of hay and a somewhat forlorn TAMU canopy remain on a lawn that was filled for two weeks with people and pumpkins. We owe a big thank you to Nanette Wyatt for leading us through this event. She worked very hard and was supported and assisted by a large number of people from the congregation. We also had several hundred non-members visit the site and participate in various ways.
As a reminder of what it was like, here are some pictures of the Wesley Academy visit to the PP:

Congregations that approach financial stewardship from a biblical perspective do not view the money Christians give to their church merely as a way to pay its bills. Rather, such congregations see financial contributions as a way to help people grow spiritually in their relationship with God by supporting their churchs mission and ministry with a percentage of their incomes.
Our congregations finance committee has selected the New Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program as a way to teach the biblical and spiritual principles of generous giving in our stewardship education emphasis this year.
New Consecration Sunday is based on the biblical philosophy of the need of the giver to give for his or her own spiritual development, rather than on the need of the church to receive. Instead of treating people like members of a social club who should pay dues, we will treat people like followers of Jesus Christ who want to give unselfishly as an act of discipleship. New Consecration Sunday encourages people toward proportionate and systematic giving in response to the question, What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?
During morning worship on Consecration Sunday, we are asking our attendees and members to make their financial commitments to our churchs missionary, benevolent, and educational ministries in this community and around the world.
Every attendee and member who completes an Estimate of Giving Card does so voluntarily by attending morning worship on Consecration Sunday. We urge people to attend who feel strongly opposed to completing a card. The procedure is done in such a way that no one feels personal embarrassment if he or she chooses not to fill out a card.
We will do no home solicitation to ask people to complete cards. During morning worship our guest leader will conduct a brief period of instruction and inspiration, climaxed by members making their commitments as a confidential act of worship.
We will encourage participation in Consecration Sunday events through the Consecration Sunday team and governing board members. Since we will make no follow-up visits to ask people to complete their cards, we will make every effort to inform, inspire, and commit everyone to attend Consecration Sunday worship.
Thanks in advance for your enthusiastic participation in Consecration Sunday events.

Have you been to the pumpkin patch yet? If so youve discovered that not all pumpkins are orange! Thats right there are white pumpkins, dark blue-green pumpkins, yellow pumpkins, and multi-colored pumpkins. There are also bumpy pumpkins, little pumpkins, tall pumpkins and short pumpkins, lop-sided pumpkins and squatty pumpkins.
This huge variety of pumpkins got me to thinking about other nature stuff. Several years ago I saw a film on the rain forest and was fascinated by the tremendous numbers and variety of life in the few rain forests we have left on our planet. Did you know there are over 15,000 different kinds of butterflies? There are also 4,000 variety of frogs and 30,000 types of birds. Thousands and thousands of different sorts of flowers bloom in our yards, along the highways and in fields. I just cant help but be amazed at Gods creation!

How Great Thou Art comes to mind when through the woods and forest glades I wander, and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; how great thou art, how great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee; how great thou art, how great thou art!

God is such a good and gracious God. God even created us with lots of variety, but we are all his creation regardless of our size, shape, color, or language. We are a marvel, even as the pumpkins, birds, butterflies, frogs, and flowers are.
Come on out to the Pumpkin Patch and marvel at Gods good creation not just the pumpkins but the people youll meet there.

This is not an average week at the churchbut it demonstrates some of the breadth of the churchs ministries. Just to mention a few things:
On Tuesday evening, 286 dozen cookies (make that over 3,400 cookies) were baked in the church kitchen in support of the Kairos Prison Ministries which members of our congregation support with prayers, finances, and active participation in the ministry. Three of our members will go to prison for a long weekend this month to explain the love of God and the saving grace of Christ to men and women in desperate need of hope and love. Cookie baking in progress:

The United Methodist Men hosted the Terrific Nights Together (the Wednesday night fellowship meal) by serving about 95 plates of hamburgers and hot dogs with all the trimmings including dessert. TNT preparations: (They look pretty relaxed, dont you think?)

The after school program for elementary children (Kids Under Construction, KUC) continued to meet. The after crafts recess phase on the playground is shown.

And then there was the Family Night at the Pumpkin Patch. Games, face painting, special decorations, and, as always, good deals on premium pumpkins for the season. The Pumpkin Patch activities continue through October 31. Did you know that during the 2-week Pumpkin Patch activities over 600 children will visit the site for story telling?

And that, of course, is not all that happened this week. The very successful Wesley Academy, a parents day out program for pre-kindergarten continued its program for little children. More on the Wesley and other things will follow in a future article.

First United Methodist Church, 315 East Elm St., Hillsboro, TX 76645 -- Office: (254) 582-2342 -- fax: (254) 582-5172 -- email: firstmethodist@clearwire.net
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