Celebration of Mission and Service Work @ PVUMC

You all are out of control...in a GREAT way! News came out this week inside our church about the Extravagant Generosity of this congregation. Because of this congregation's extravagant generosity, you are making a difference in this community and the greater world. Here are a couple of comments from Pastor Nathan Stanton's email to the congregation this week as well as some of my own thoughts and additions.

• We have finished payment on our Mission and Ministry apportionment (our church's share of support for global initiatives) for the 2010 year.

• As of this week we also have paid down debt we owe on the building to $309,000! Just two and a half years ago we had just under 1.2 million dollars still to pay off from building in 1998. By eliminating the current debt on the building, we will have more resources to continue to meet the needs of our community through new outreach programs.

Presentation of the Crop Walk Quilt, November 7, 2010

• The Crop Walk quilt was awarded to Pleasant Valley UMC for the third year in a row for raising the highest amount of donations among all participating churches. Pleasant Valley members and friends were responsible for almost $5,000 in donations to help with ministries that assist others living in poverty and hunger locally and around the world.

• This week, we finished the Operation Christmas Child with Cathleen Simeo making the delivery of 115 boxes on behalf of PVUMC!

• We had volunteers helping GraceMed with their dental checks on elementary students from Cloud Elementary. We had volunteers working with and walking the children between the school and clinic all day Wednesday and Thursday.

• Visit our Mission and Service page to see our current opportunities to get involved, including the Youthville Giving Tree initiative, now through November 30th.

We're out of control allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us where God is calling us to go. What are we learning? We are learning that when we let go and let the Spirit lead, miracles happen, people's lives are touched and changed and our lives are filled and changed as well!

Lost and Found

http://amzn.com/0805448780

 

This book has great statistics and research to back up their findings. Here's the application information that stood out to me. Young unchurched people value COMMUNITY, DEPTH, RESPONSIBILITY, and CONNECTION.  This means that a church who encourages young people to become part of the family, teaches them with depth, and shows through works that the church is responsible for taking care of others, might have what it takes to reach them. The book discusses our need as a society for a "third place." For many of us, our third place of connection, outside of work and home, is our church. These are things that PVUMC is already doing well. By intentionally making new places for new people, we can bring new people in to share in the experience. We can demonstrate that Christians care for one another and the world. They may be skeptical, but they are open to learning about Jesus.

I'm interested in your response. How might PVUMC play to its strengths? What ministries might we include that would more intentionally reach out to young, unchurched people?

Dreaming About Our Future Together

A team from PV spent Thursday evening and all day Friday learning together and being recharged at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection's Leadership Institute in Leawood, KS. Our learning focused around enriching lives, renewing the church, and transforming the world. By focusing on these, we began to picture the future of the church -- a church that would be relevant and active, in and for the world of the 21st century. This is a picture of hope! God is doing good things through the love and ministries of PVUMC. 

As we begin to intentionally plan to share His love with people who are not actively participating in a church family, what dreams for our future do you have? How might we ENRICH LIVES, RENEW HIS CHURCH, and TRANSFORM THE WORLD?