SUMC Newsletter May 2016 - Sherwood United Methodist Church

Sherwood United Methodist Church
Reaching out to the hungry: in body or spirit
May 2016
The United Methodist Church is called to be a community, diverse and united in God’s saving love,
sent out in vital life-giving ministry for and with Jesus Christ.
How To Mess Everything In Your Life Up
There are a variety of competing conceptions
of what a Christian life consists of. Possibly the
dominant image of the Christian life in our culture is a
therapeutic model. In this model faith and spirituality
are an extravagant self-help system. We come to
Church to get ethical advice. We pray to teach
ourselves compassion. We do service and good works
because of how they make us feel and who they
cause us to become. In the therapeutic model we
expect an individual to get healthier (mentally and
physically) the farther along the road of discipleship
they travel. Faith helps us overcome our addictions,
and our emotional wounds, and our bad choices and
behaviors till we are whole and healthy and happy.
Health is a wonderful thing and God definitely
cares about your well being. I am not one to gainsay
the experience of anyone who found their life
improved by faith and many spiritual practices can
have powerful salutary benefits.
But there is another way of understanding the
Christian life which is more challenging, and
therefore, perhaps, closer to the truth: it is the model
of the cross. It is a pathway that leads not toward
health and wholeness, but toward a dissolution of
everything including our identity and even our ideas
about God. We would not necessarily anticipate a
person walking this path to find comfort or security.
Instead we would expect them to embrace hardship,
doubt, and pain. We would expect their faith and
spirituality to progressively reveal their brokenness
and need.
Too often we turn to God, or faith, or the
Church because we want to have our life in order.
This leads to the expectation that if we have a strong
relationship with God our life should look neat and
tidy from the outside. So new parents search for a
church to join even though they haven’t attended one
since High School because it is what responsible
parents do. Worshippers put on clean clothes and
smile and show a brave face on Sunday morning
because that is what they think other Christians act
like. We hide our hangovers. We don’t talk about our
family drama. We clean up our language.
The irony is that we do these things because
we want to have a deeper relationship with God and
we assume that people who have a strong faith also
have orderly and attractive lives. So we try to make
our lives look orderly and attractive when other
people are watching. But if the Christian life is a
bloody, sweaty, uncomfortable road to Calvary then
we shouldn’t be surprised that the lives of people of
faith are also messy and ugly. The plain truth is that
every hero of the faith was a rotten sinner. Every
Martin Luther King Jr., every Mother Teresa, every
saint living and dead was as messed up as you or I.
So when we admire the saints of the church
we are not claiming that the ones that went before us
in the faith were especially holy or pure or righteous.
We are saying that we can learn from their spiritual
example precisely because they were flesh and blood
like us. They were angry and confused like us. They
were envious and selfish like us. They were hot and
cold, wild and tame, kind and cruel – like us.
Moreover, in striving to follow the same selfdenying Lord that they were striving to follow we do
not anticipate daily becoming more perfect and clean.
Rather we anticipate a steady exposure of our
weakness. Don’t follow Jesus if you want someone to
make everything in your life neat and tidy. Follow
Jesus if you are willing to mess everything in your life
up – to empty yourself of even the illusion of faith, for
the sake of the one who emptied himself
on the cross.
- Aric
Bev Jerden nominated as new chair of the Leadership team
In February, Jim Haynes resigned from the role of
chairperson of the Leadership team due to health
concerns. In March, Bev Jerden graciously accepted the
nomination as chair to continue the good work Jim and
the team have been doing. Bev and husband Jeff are
originally from the San Fernando Valley, CA. They have
2 daughters (Natalie and Jacqueline) and
2 grandchildren (Leo and Amelia) They have lived in St.
Louis, MO., Eugene and moved to Sherwood in July
1994. Bev has worked in a variety of jobs: record
archivist, credit card customer service and collector,
dance teacher to name a few. Bev's passions
are animals, gardening, music, art, and yoga. She
first came to S.U.M.C. for a Christmas Eve service in
2012 and has been back pretty much every Sunday since
then. Retired, lonely and bored she found S.U.M.C to be
engaging and a comfort. She now considers all the parishioners to
be family and cares deeply about each and everyone. A big thanks
to Bev for serving the congregation in this way.
Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation
blanket and layette donations
Bev Jerden and I delivered the remainder of the Layettes and toddler blankets to the Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation in Hillsboro, OR. The new mothers were thrilled to get them. Now Barbara Maplethorpe can "go for more". Many thanks to Joanna Owens, and Beverly Jerden for the many new onesies, We have diapers, bibs, crocheted and knitted hats to start anew for now. I
can't tell you all how pleased the recipients are when they see us
coming with them. The Virginia Garcia Memorial has a program in
Newberg, so that will be the place for our next delivery.
— Anne Poe
Pentecost, the birthday of the Church
Sunday, May 15th is Pentecost, the
birthday of the Church. Please remember
to wear flame colors (red, orange,
yellow) that morning and join us for a
celebration of the Holy Spirit!
On April 30, SUMC hosted a committee meeting to plan for community meals
(open to the public) to be hosted weekly on Thursday nights starting in the
summer. Sherwood UMC, Helping Hands, YMCA, St. Francis Hope Diner,
Give and Gobble were all represented. Brunch was served at the meeting.
Opportunity to travel in the footsteps of St. Paul to Corinth and Ephesus March 14-22, 2017
Rev. Catherine Davis of Newberg United Methodist Church is organizing an exciting
program that traces the journey of St. Paul to Ephesus and Corinth. This program
includes visits to some of the most important archaeological sites of the world –
including the great Acropolis of Athens, the ancient city of Corinth, and the spectacular
archaeological part of Ephesus. Don’t miss this opportunity to join a great pastoral
leader on a journey of a life time. For more program details and registration materials
visit: www.travelillume.com/trc/eha or call Illume at: 800-368-6757 ex 128
Snapshots
Photos by Anne Poe and Bev Jerden
A Thank You Letter
From Miss Rodeo Oregon Pageant
ANNOUNCEMENTS
UMW: News
and May Meeting
We had a great attendance at our April 20 meeting. We were so
pleased to have Helen Smith, with her daughter, Lee Johnson, Gerry
Harrington, Ruth Rusnak, Joanna Owens, Barbara Pitney, Gail Dunn,
Doris Worthey, and Barbara Maplethorpe. The next meeting will be
May 18, 11 a.m., at the Sherwood Senior Center. All women are invited.
“Penny Jar”: Bus
tickets for homeless riders
We have $40 toward our goal of $100 in the jar to purchase bus tickets for
the homeless folks. Keep on bringing coins when you can.
Please continue to
pray for the health
of Bud Lewis,
Jim Haynes
and Helen Martin.
CALENDAR:
Building Use
As a service to the community the
church building is made available
for use by other groups. Here is a
calendar of those uses for the
month of May.
MAY BIRTHDAYS
3
5
8
12
27
Helen Martin
Lana Cole
Lorene Lewis
Odge Gribble
Shirlene Guthrie
May 25 6:30-8pm YMCA
Leadership
Team Meetings
1st and 3rd Sundays after worship
Meeting Dates This Month:
May 1 at 11am
May 15 at 11am
Give a hand to
Helping Hands.
Donate food, help with sorting, or
volunteer on box packing or
distribution days
(3rd Sat. of the month), or join us on
Mission Sundays!
Call Gerry or Dotty Edy for details:
(503) 625-7975
SHERWOOD UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH
Reaching out to the hungry: in body or spirit
PO Box 127
22280 SW Washington Street
Sherwood, Oregon
97140
Tel: 503-625-7115
E-mail: [email protected]
www.sherwoodumc.com
At A Glance for May 2016
Sunday, May 1 at 10:00AM—Worship
Church Staff
Sunday, May 8 at 10:00AM—Worship
Pastor
Aric Clark
[email protected]
Sunday, May 15 at 10:00AM—Pentecost Worship
(Wear Red, Yellow or Orange)
Sunday, May 15 at 11:00AM—Leadership Meeting
Youth Director
Lana Painter
[email protected]
Sunday, May 1 at 11:00AM—Leadership Meeting
Wednesday, May 18 at 11AM—UMW
Saturday, May 21 at 9:30-10:30AM— Helping
Hands Food Box Distribution
Sunday, May 22 at 10:00AM—Mission Sunday /
Potluck
Sunday, May 29 at 10:00AM—Worship
Pastor Aric’s Office Hours
Thursdays 9am-1pm
Pianist
Cindy Souza
[email protected]
Song Leader
Eden Francis
[email protected]
Administrative Assistant
Holly Dhynes
[email protected]