december 2011 anchor newsletter
DESCRIPTION
St. Paul's United Methodist Church Pastor James Parks December Anchor NewsletterTRANSCRIPT
A publication of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church ● Williamsburg, IA
No. 12 ● December 2011
Vision Statement: ...to be a church where you can SEE Christ
By
Rev.
James
Parks
Christmas is fast approaching and soon presents will be appearing under your
tree. The presents will be all kinds of shapes and sizes. If you are like me, you like to
get a hold of the presents that are for you and try to guess what they could be. You look
at the shape and feel for the weight, then make your guess.
It is for that reason that I sometimes like to put things in weird packages. I
will take something small and put it in a big box (and maybe throw in some rocks for
added weight and noise). I also have taken larger items and crammed them into the
smallest box I can get them in. I want to throw off the receiver of the gift so that they
can be fully surprised by what is in the box.
Then sometimes you get those gifts that just can’t be disguised. Last year we got my grandma one of the 4 feet tall
barnwood bird houses Kevin Wilkinson made. The best we could do to wrap it was put a garbage bag over it, but that did not look
good. Instead we just set it unwrapped out on the porch and made Grandma walk out there. I did not have ideas on how better to
wrap that present.
This Christmas season we are going to focus on a series called “Outside the Box – The Gift that Can’t be Contained.” At
Christmas we remember the gift that God gave to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus was God’s way of wrapping a difficult gift to wrap.
God wanted to send us LOVE. For some of us “love” might come wrapped in a small package like the size of a jewelry box.
Others of us might think the bigger the better when wrapping “love.” In God’s marvelous creativity, he took love and wrapped it
in a little baby.
This year as we celebrate that wonderful gift, I want us to remember that the gift of God’s love was never meant to be
contained. Once we have opened this gift, it will overflow from us into others. During Advent we will look at ways we have
taken God’s love out of the box, but also see some ways to step out a little farther as God’s love continues to reach new people in
new ways.
Christmas is a great opportunity to share God’s love because people are more open to receive a gift or accept an
invitation. So let’s keep our hearts and minds open to what God may have us do to share his love this Christmas. There may be a
person or situation you think you know what is wrapped up there, but God may have a surprise waiting if you will take the time to
unwrap it. He may be calling you to step out of the box to share the message of Christmas.
I hope you will join me and invite others to join us as celebrate the great gift of God’s love that can never be contained.
Advent Service Schedule - We’ll take out of the box... December 4th—Acceptance December 11th 8:30am & 10:30am Children’s Christmas Musical—Family December 18th—Yourself December 24th 5:00pm & 7:00pm Candlelight Christmas Eve Services—Self-Giving December 25th—One Worship Service at 10:00am January 1st—One Worship Service at 10:00am
There will be no 9:30am
EZ Worship Service on Sunday,
December 11th.
Serving Christ outside our doors!
“Project Puerto Rico”
Children’s Musical,
December 11th at 8:30am and
10:30am
It’s Cookie Walk Time!! Always a hit, our Annual Cookie Walk is Saturday, December
10th from 9:00am-12:00noon or until we run out of cookies.
The price for a bucket of cookies is $12 ($11 if you bring your
red bucket from last year). We’d love more donations this
year, so sign up in the Sanctuary or contact the church office if
you’d like to make cookies for the walk. Please drop off
cookies in containers that do not need to be returned and label
with the type of cookie. Cookies can be left
at the church on Friday, December 9th
during office hours or on Saturday morning,
the 10th by 9:00am. Coffee, cider and
cookies will be served during the sale.
Thank you for your continued support with
this delicious fundraiser.
Community Toy Exchange Saturday, December 10th 9:00am-12:00 noon
We are now taking donations for our toy exchange.
Please bring in your clean, gently used toys and drop them off
in the Children’s Corner. If you bring them the day of, you can
choose to pick up some different toys to take with you . This is
a great opportunity to de-clutter by cleaning out closets and toy
boxes. Toys can be dropped off during office hours. Contact
Erica Wilkinson at 668-1633 or a member of the
Mission Team with questions or if you’d like to
help with this wonderful ministry.
Church-wide Christmas Meal & Caroling
Wednesday, December 14th 6:00-7:30pm
Bring the whole family for a night of delicious
food, fellowship and Christmas carols. After
enjoying a meal at the church prepared by Chef
Jeff, we will drive around Williamsburg
singing carols, delivering goodies and spreading Christmas
cheer. If you know of someone who would be blessed by a
visit from our carolers, contact the church office. We hope that
we will have carolers of all ages singing “Joy to the World” as
we share Jesus with others, so don’t let your family miss out!
Just for fun, make sure to wear your favorite (or least favorite)
Christmas sweater out for our caroling!
Gift Wrap Drive In conjunction with the Toy Exchange on
December 10th, we will be handing out
gift wrap for families to take with them to
wrap the toys with. Until then, we are
asking that you bring in gift wrap and
drop it off in the sanctuary. We’d like to
get enough donations that all families can
take some with them the day of the toy exchange.
Church-wide Breakfast Fundraiser
December 11th 9:15-10:15am Come support our Puerto Rico Mission Team
and enjoy a delicious breakfast for a good
will donation! The breakfast will be in
between the Camel Lot musical performance. There will be an
omelet station where for an extra donation, you can have your
omelet specially made by Chef Jeff or Pastor James.
Poinsettias in honor or
memory of loved ones We will be decorating our sanctuary
with poinsettias for Christmas.
Poinsettias can be purchased for $15. Please
sign up at the Sign-up Station or contact the
church office by December 14th.
Girls Night In Christmas Party!
Sunday, December 11th 5:00pm For our traditional “women only”
Christmas Party, we are going to enjoy
a Girls’ Night In. All women are
invited to join us at the church as we
enjoy the true spirit of Christmas and
bake bread to be delivered during our
Christmas Caroling on December
14th. Sign up to bring an appetizer
to share and come ready to make
goodies for others.
December Love Offering for Project Puerto Rico This year the Christmas Love Offering will go to share God’s love with
the people of Puerto Rico. This year we sent a mission team to Puerto Rico.
This team represented our congregation as they worked diligently with two
specific churches. One church was helped as they host mission teams, and the
other has a school for children in a very poor neighborhood. Our team helped
with many projects, but left noticing how much more needed to be done.
Our Christmas Love Offering will be used in 2012 when our mission
trip team heads to Puerto Rico. The mission trip team members are responsible
for raising their own funds for their trip, so all of your gifts will go directly
towards the projects themselves.
This year we are again challenging everyone to give an equal gift to
Jesus that you give to everyone else because it is his birthday we are celebrating.
So whatever you spend on gifts for others, you can give the same amount to our
Christmas Love Offering. You can give your gift by placing it in a Love
Envelope during the month of December or you can give it at our Christmas Eve
service.
Join us as we offer a Christmas present to Jesus for his birthday
this Christmas and help change lives around the world.
You won’t want to miss this funny, touching program by our children.
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
803 Clearview Drive, PO Box 559,
Williamsburg, IA 52361
Phone: 319-668-2288
Website: www.stpaulsumcwilliamsburg.com
Lead Pastor: Rev. James Parks
● Email: [email protected]
Associate Pastor of Discipleship:
Rev. Helen Parks
● Email: [email protected]
Director of Congregational Care: Teresa Fleming
● Email: [email protected]
Administrative Assistant: Sonja Parsons
● Email: [email protected]
Facility Manager: Jason Kersten
● Email: [email protected]
Discipleship Assistant: Jennifer Schwenke
● Email: [email protected]
Coordinator of Children’s Discipleship: Tina Schafbuch
● Email: [email protected]
Preschool Coordinator: Jodi Geels
● Email: [email protected]
Choir Director: Steve Manning
Organist: Sue Heitmann
St. Paul’s UMC office hours:
9:00am to 3:00pm Mon. - Fri.
Editor: Sonja Parsons
Deadline for news for the January
ANCHOR is December 23rd. Email info to
Sonja or drop it off at the Church.
Joys
Vital Statistics Worship Attendance
October 31 211
November 6 233
November 13 293
November 20 280
November 27 216
Congratulations: Baptisms
Graydon, son of Mike & Megan
Mills, on November 13th and
Hailey Dietze, great-
granddaughter of Jim & Jane
Dietze on November 20th
World Prayer Focus
“Persons With Disabilities”
Financial Footnote As we are winding down the year, the
Finance Committee is excited about the
continued growth of St. Paul’s and the
challenges for us that this brings. We pray that the stewardship
campaign “Get in the Game” has motivated you to continue to
look at your giving. As we near Christmas, we need to remem-
ber that God gave us the best gift of all, Jesus Christ. He did this
because of his unconditional love for us so that we might be
saved. God calls us to also give, to give the message of Jesus
Christ to others so that they too can be saved. Please join the
Finance Committee and “Get in the Game” so that St. Paul’s can
continue to give the gift of the message of Jesus. We
pray that you have a wonderful Christmas and an
awesome New Year! The Finance Committee
Gift for SPUMC Staff SPRC will be collecting cards and money for the
pastors and staff Christmas gift this year. If you
would like to participate, you may place your gift in
the box in the sanctuary or mail it to SPRC c/o Lisa Maser, 212
N. Mill Street, North English, IA 52316. Gifts will be distributed
proportionately to all staff. Make checks out to St. Paul’s UMC
with “Staff Christmas Gift” in the memo. Feel free to include a
personal note to let them now how much they are appreciated.
You may make your gift anonymous or include your name. We
will present the gifts on Christmas Eve. Please contact a member
of SPRC if you have any questions. Thank you! SPRC
We will not have 611 activities on December 21st &
28th and January 4th. We will resume on Jan. 11th.
Everyone have a blessed Christmas break!
Previews being offered:
Wednesday, December 14th at
5:30pm and Sunday, December
18th at 9:30am.
Classes will begin Sunday,
January 8th from 5:30-7:30pm.
Childcare
provided.
St. Paul’s UMC Boot Camp Madness Pastor James shared in November about joining
a workout group called Boot Camp Madness that showed
him how out of shape he was. He joined the group because he
wanted to get back into shape and lose a few pounds. It has
really helped him and now it can help you.
After visiting our Tailgate Party, Carlos Frias, the
founder and director of Boot Camp Madness, talked with
Pastor James about starting a class specifically for our
members. The tentative plan is to start a class in January at
6:30am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Our members
would still pay the regular membership fee, but Carlos will
donate half of that fee to our church to be used for the
ministries of St. Paul’s UMC.
So not only can you get your God-given body into
some great shape, but you also are helping the church, the body
of Christ. Let Pastor James know if you are interested in
learning more about this opportunity. Anyone is free to come to
a few sessions to check it out before signing up.
CALLING ALL WRITERS!
Do you have a God sighting you would like to share
with your church family? Has God taught you a lesson
you want to share? Well, if you do, include your God
sighting in the 40 day devotional written by YOU and
other members of our congregation. Your devotion
would be one of 40 written for our 2012 Lent season.
Criteria for the devotional is:
Scripture
Devotion
Closing Prayer
200-300 words
Please email Melanie Ahrens your devotion at
[email protected]. Please have your devotion
submitted to Melanie by the end of the day January 21,
2012 so editing and printing can be completed before
the first day of Lent on February 22nd. If you have any
questions, ideas or suggestions, please contact Melanie
at her email or at (319) 930-2397.
Concerns
Please lift up Jim & Sarah Lentz
and family. Jim broke both wrists
in a work accident and will be
recovering for at least 6 weeks.
“A Festival of
Lessons and Carols”
Don’t miss this year’s
“Christmas in Williamsburg”
Grand Concert on Sunday,
December 4th. The
Williamsburg High School
and Community Singers will
come together in the High
School Gymnasium for two
performances at
3:00pm and 5:30pm.
SPUMY
NEWS
Sunday, December 4th 9:30-10:20am—Musical Practice
Wednesday, December 7th 5:45-7:21pm—611 Meal & Practice
Saturday, December 10th 10:00-11:00am—Musical Rehearsal
Sunday, December 11th 8:30am & 10:30am—“Camel Lot”
Musical * Plan to stay for breakfast between the musical! Once the
kids are done eating, they can hang out in Classroom B to watch a
movie until we warm up for the 10:30am program.
Wednesday, December 14th 6:00-7:30pm—Church-wide
Christmas Meal & Caroling * After enjoying a delicious meal at the
church, we will drive around Williamsburg singing carols and
spreading Christmas cheer.
Sunday, December 18th 9:30-10:20am—Sunday Morning Club
Saturday, December 24th 5:00pm & 7:00pm—Christmas Eve
Services
Sunday, December 25th 10:00am—Combined Worship Service
Sunday, January 1st 10:00am—Combined Worship Service
Reminders:
The kids have Camel Lot t-shirts to wear with nice jeans as their
costume for the musical.
We hope you’ll participate in the Toy Exchange and Cookie Walk
on Saturday, December 10th from 9:00am-12:00noon
There is no 611 on December 21st & 28th and January 4th. Have a
nice Christmas break.
There is NO Sunday Morning Club on Dec. 25th or Jan 1st.
Sunday, December 4th 9:30-10:20am—Sunday Morning
Club
Wednesday, December 7th 5:45-7:21pm—611 Meal &
SPUMY
Sunday, December 12th 8:30am & 10:30am—Children’s
Christmas Musical. 9:15am—Breakfast Fundraiser
Wednesday, December 14th 6:00-7:30pm—Church-wide
Christmas Meal & Caroling * After enjoying a delicious meal
at the church, we will drive around Williamsburg singing
carols and spreading Christmas cheer.
Sunday, December 18th 9:30-10:20am—Sunday Morning
Club
Saturday, December 24th 5:00pm & 7:00pm—Christmas
Eve Services
Sunday, December 25th 10:00am—Combined Worship
Service (no Sunday Morning Club)
Sunday, January 1st 10:00am—Combined Worship Service
(no Sunday Morning Club)
“You are young, but do not let anyone treat you as if you are not important. Be an example
to show the believers how they should live. Show them with your words, with the way
you live, with your love, with your faith, and with your pure life.” 1 Timothy 4:12