COZAD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Transcription
COZAD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Volume 3 COZAD UNITED METHODIST CHURCH March 2016 “One Down – One to Go” Every fall I sit down with Gateway District Superintendent Alan Davis and review how the church under my leadership is doing. In the four prior years, these meeting were more of a social time to catch up with family and discussing the accomplishments of the church. But this past year two concerns were raised that dominated our discussions. I knew we had to work together to turn these concerns around. The first concern was our financial position. We struggled during the summer to meet our obligations and even had to borrow some money to get through those months. Not too unusual as we have had to do this in the past but we also had not made any payments to our conference obligations of Mission Shares. We concentrated on our year-end giving during the month of December hoping that we could reach at least 50% of our Mission Shares. It wasn’t looking to good after the first two Sundays in December but the congregation came through with the largest Christmas Eve offering we have ever had. Your response to our Christmas Letter helped us finish the year strong, paying 100% of our Mission Shares, all of our local obligations and allowing us to start the New Year strong. At our January Administrative Council meeting, we decided to change the way we are paying our Mission Shares by proposing to pay half of a month’s payment by the 16th of the month. After much discussion and input from members of the congregation, a motion to pay half a month’s Mission Shares payment each month was passed by unanimous vote. Now we need a commitment from you to make sure we can meet all of our monthly obligations such as utilities and payroll and be able to send a payment to the conference. The second concern raised at our meeting was the declining attendance at our worship services. Since the merger of the two congregations, our Sunday morning worship service attendance has not kept up with the attendance of the two churches in the past. When we started our contemporary service a couple of years ago, it was hoped that we would be able to keep our traditional service numbers the same and bring new members to the new service. Over the last three years we have seen our average worship attendance (all services) drop from 148 in 2013 to 138 in 2014 and down to 133 in 2015. We have had some big services such as Easter (250+) and Christmas Eve (450+ at 2 services) but have not been able to increase our average attendance. There are two ways you can help. First we need to be inviting our friends and neighbors to attend worship with us. And we need to encourage those who are members to come to worship. Our strength as a congregation comes from the worship of God as a group. Even the early disciples knew how important it was for them to come together in worship as often as possible. As a member of the Cozad UMC you have agreed to support the church with your prayers, your presence, your gifts, your service and your witness. The second way you can help is letting us know how we can improve our worship services. Do we need more music, less music; more liturgy, less liturgy; more special music, less special music; more communion, less communion? I hope the message I bring to you each week is not just informative but inspiring also. But I am open to suggestions to improve that part of the worship service also. Let me know if you have some suggestions either by filling out one of the cards in the pews or dropping me an email at [email protected]. I am so thankful for your support of the 5 years I have been serving you as pastor and am looking forward to many more good years. Working together we can reach our goal of making disciples for the transformation of the world. Thank you for helping us meet our Mission Shares obligation 100% this past year and for your effort Pastor Doug Greeters March 6 CeCe Rutkowski March 13 Joan Rush, Ike Davenport Ralph & Sandy Keiswetter March 20 Roger & Jan Boerkircher Kevin, Shelli & Klint Gill March 27 Judy Evans Frank Revelo Worship Helpers 10:30 Service March 6 March 13 March 27 Sarah Anderson & family Easy Worship & Camera March 6 - 8:30 AM/Kem Zook 10:30 AM/Mike Marshall & Larry Harvill March 13 8:30 AM/Doug & Ellen Adkisson 10:30 AM/Mike Marshall & Larry March 20 8:30 AM/Kem Zook 10:30 AM/Mike Marshall, Larry Harvill March 27 - 8:30 AM/Kem Zook 10:30 AM/Doug & Ellen Adkisson & Larry Harvill March Head Usher - Dail Vetter If you are unavailable for your Sunday please find someone to take your place or call the church office. Men’s Breakfast Sunday, March 13 @ 9:30 a.m. All men are invited to have breakfast. The Chancel Choir will be presenting the Easter Cantata, "Come Walk With Me," on Palm Sunday, March 20th at the 10:30 service. On Easter Sunday, lilies will be on the chancel to commemorate the Resurrection and the hope we have of everlasting life. If you would like to share in this tradition on Easter Sunday, March 27, as a gift, or in memory/honor or someone, we invite you to bring a lily to the church office by Good Friday, March 25. The Easter bulletin will contain a list of all lilies given. For your name to be listed in this bulletin, you must let the church office know by Wed. March 23. 2016 Comeca Summer Camp Schedule My Shepherd and Me Camp Preschool - Grade 1 June 19-21/June 22-24/July 24-26 Little Lambs Camp Grades 1 - 3 June 19-21/June 22-24/June 26-28/June 29July 1/July 10-12/July 17-19/July 24-26 Camp Brave Grades 4-6 June 19-24/ June 26-July 1/July 10-15 Survival Games Grades 7-9 June 19-24/July 10-15 Jr High Jam Grades 7-9 June 26 - July 1 Splish Splash Grades 6 - 8 July 3 - 8/July 17-22 Confirmation Camp Grades 6 - 9 July 6 - 8 Comeca Rocks Youth Rally Grades 7-12 July 17-27 To Days of Fun Grades 1-6 August 2 - 4 Family Camp All Ages August 5—7 Go to www.campcomeca.org to see all the details about each camp. Cozad UMW provides scholarships for campers. Call the church office for more information. We offer Sunday School for 3 years old - 12th grade on Sunday mornings 9:30—10:15. The Cozad UMC Fireworks Stand was a huge success and a lot of fun. We are looking for someone or some ones who would like to coordinate this project. Call the church office if you are interested. There is both some good and bad when we look at the current financial condition of the Church. As hopefully you are aware, the congregation had a strong close to 2015. We were able to pay all budgeted item due for the year, including Mission Shares. Unfortunately the Church had only a small carry over to help us get started into 2016. The combination of high utility bills, Insurance premiums, staffing costs, and payroll taxes have put us in a negative cash flow position. It continues to be the finance committees intent to keep the congregation informed of the financial position of the Church. The fact that we’re experiencing negative cash flow so early into the new year is a concern, especially with the reductions of the Church’s operating budget. Faced with the reality of late charges, interrupted services, and tax penalties the Church took the action of borrowing $9,500. We also extended the scheduled payment dates of an additional $5,700 of obligations by a few weeks. Regrettably the Church has no surplus funds to direct towards the payment of either of these steps. Hopefully reduced utility bills combined with increased Easter Season giving will allow us to address the $5,700 shortfall. If each giving unit could earmark $44 towards the payment of our loan balance, we can retire this amount by early summer. Thank you for your continued support. Alan Clark, Finance Chairman We extend our Christian sympathy to the family of LaVon Beans who departed from this life on February 4, 2016. A celebration of her life was at Cozad UMC on February 8, 2016. We extend our Christian sympathy to the family of Anna Adle who departed from this life on February 14, 2016. A celebration of her life was at Cozad UMC on February 19, 2016. United Methodist Women News UMW Executive meeting Thursday, March 3 @ 1:00 p.m. UMW Circle meeting in January Mary Circle - Thursday, March 17 2:00 p.m. @ the church Leah Circle - Monday, March 21 7:00 p.m. @ the church HOLY WEEK Sunday, March 20 Palm Sunday 8:30 Contemporary Worship 10:30 Choir Cantata 11:30 Chicken-N-Biscuit Dinner Wednesday, March 23 12:00 Sermons A La Carte @ CUMC Thursday, March 24 Holy Thursday Service @ 7:00 p.m. Friday, March 25 Good Friday Service @ 7:00 p.m. Sunday, March 27 Easter Sunday 7:00 Sunrise Service @ Comeca 8:30 Contemporary Service 10:30 Traditional Service Cozad UNITED Methodist Church March Calendar SUNDAY MONDAY 6 7 8:30 Contemporary Worship 9:00 Adult Sunday School 9:15 Mom’s Bible Study 9:30 Sunday School 3yrs– 12th grade 10:30 Traditional Worship 6:30 John Bible Study TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 1 5:00 Weight Watchers @ PV 2 12:00 Sermons A La Carte @ Cozad Christian Church 2:30 Pastor Doug will preach at Golden Livingcenter & Meadowlark 2:30 Kids of the Kingdom 4:00 Church School 6:45 Chancel Choir 3 4 1:00 UMW Executive meeting 5:00 PEO 7:00 Administrative Council meeting 5 8 4:30 Memorials Committee meeting 5:00 Weight Watchers @ PV 5:00 Jr Girl Scouts @ PV 5:30 Daisys @ PV 6:30 Brownies @ PV 19 12:00 Sermons A La Carte @ Lutheran 3:30 Kids of the Kingdom 5:00 Church School 6:00 Youth 6:45 Chancel Choir 7:00 SPRC meeting 10 7:00 Finance Comm. meeting 11 12 Set your clocks ahead 16 12:00 Sermons A La Carte @ Church of Christ 2:30 Kids of the Kingdom 4:00 Church School 6:45 Chancel Choir 17 2:00 Mary Circle 18 19 Fellowshi p Hall in use 24 12:00 Sermons A La Carte @ Cozad UMC 3:30 Kids of the Kingdom 5:00 Church School 6:00 Youth 6:45 Chancel Choir 24 7:00 Holy Thursday Service 25 7:00 Good Friday Service 26 Fellowshi p Hall in use 13 8:30 9:00 9:15 9:15 9:30 14 15 Contemporary Worship 9:00 WIC @ 5:00 Weight Adult Sunday School PV Watchers @ Mom’s Bible Study PV Men’s Breakfast Sunday School 3yrs– 12th grade 10:30 Traditional Worship 6:30 John Bible Study 20 PALM SUNDAY 8:30 Contemporary Worship 9:00 Adult Sunday School 9:15 Mom’s Bible Study 9:30 Sunday School 3yrs– 12th grade 10:30 Cantata 11:30 Chic-N-Biscuit Dinner 6:30 John Bible Study 6:30 PAWS @ PV 21 7:00 Leah Circle @ the church 28 27 EASTER SUNDAY 7:00 Sunrise Service @ Comeca 8:30 Contemporary Worship 9:00 Adult Sunday School 9:15 Mom’s Bible Study 9:30 Sunday School 3yrs– 12th grade 10:30 Traditional Worship 22 5:00 Weight Watchers@ PVB 5:00 Jr Girl Scouts @ PV 5:30 Daisys @ PV 6:30 Brownies @ PV 29 30 5:00 Weight 3:30 Kids of the Watchers@ PV Kingdom 5:00 Church School 6:45 Chancel Choir 31 FRIDAY Cozad UNITED Methodist March Birthday’s & Anniversaries SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 1 Jean Douglas Sandy Keiswetter Tyler Peden 2 June Walker Amber Peden 3 Randy May Freddie Nelsen Gretchen Love 4 Linda Love Ryan & Tiffany Schneider (16) 5 Wes Harmoney Dillon Kolbo Allen & Cheryl Kauffman (50) Shane & Amanda Schukei (3) 6 Robin Smith Amy Vetter 7 Michelle Bauer Ty Rogers 8 Violet Spradlin Anngie Love Bob & Ardy Marshall (57) 9 Jann Kloepping Raegen Fleharty 10 Jordan Henry 11 Jim Hatcher David Harvill Alyssa Kolbo 12 Maxine Kline Clint & Tysen DeHarty (5) 13 Shelley Morris Jerry Zook Morgan Flesner 14 Liam Horse 15 Cheryl Hamlin 16 Ann Rodhouse Carolyn Smith Noah Shoemaker Austin & Sarah Pedersen (9) 17 18 Lori McGinnis Bridget Haskell Reilly Fichtner Jim & Lynn Hatcher (49) 19 Mary Gruber 21 Peg Butler Roxanne Reyes Alexa Chrisinger 22 Elizabeth Griffith Kathy Jacob Isaac Erickson Doug & Carolyn Smith (46) Jeff & June Walker (7) 23 24 Brandon & Marie Carol Morrow Morris (21) Skylar Lindekugel 25 Bailey Sigler 26 Marcus Kloepping 28 Karen Smith 29 30 Wendell Lawhead Kiley Goff 20 Clint Hohnstein Sue Aden Christy Chrisinger Carrick Fenstermacher 27 CUMC Worship Attendance & Offering Report The average offering needed per budget/week for 2016 is $4,568. Cozad UMC Youth 2-10-16 25 - Youth 3 - Leaders Worship 2-24-16 24 - Youth 3 - Leaders 31 Rochelle Jung 8:30 10:30 Total Attendance Actual Offering Feb. 7, 2016 32 74 106 $2,654 Feb. 14, 2016 35 104 139 $3,348 Feb. 21, 2016 31 71 102 $2,165 Administrative Council Minutes Interiors: No report February 8, 2016 Pastors Report: Those present: Pastor Doug Smith, Kem Zook, WAR ROOM movie event and bible study attenWendy Waller, Ellen Adkisson, Nickole Zook, Sera dance is 15-20 every week. Shoemaker, and Luann McBride. Bible Study being held Sundays at 6:30 from January 17th through February 14th. Pastor Doug opened with a prayer. Agenda: Change in agenda: The Lifetouch Direc- JOHN; THE GOSPEL OF LIGHT AND LIFE Lenten study tory representative is not here tonight. Study to begin on March 6th and end on April Minutes approved by consensus. 17th; meeting every Sunday, 6:30-8:00 pm except Easter (March 27). Reports of Ministry Teams: Discipleship/Education Team: The team is asking everyone to take time each Wednesday at 3:00 to pray for the Kids of the Kingdom and Church School children and leaders. Pastor Doug and Carolyn Vacation February 16thMarch 1st. Lenten/Easter Services: Ash Wednesday, February 10, 7:30pm Missions/Outreach Team: The team is discuss- Sermons-ala-carte Wednesdays at 12:00 noon February 10, Presbyterian Church host, Rev. John ing the Chicken and Biscuit Dinner. States preaching Evangelism/Witness Team: No report. March 16, Church of Christ host, Pastor Doug Membership Nurture Team: Wendy reported preaching that they are working on the Chili Cook-off, Feb- March 23, UMC host, Rev. James McCrickard ruary 28. The Men’s breakfast is February 21. preaching Palm Sunday Cantata Worship Team: No report. Holy/Maundy Thursday Service, March 24, 7:00 Youth: Youth will have a Sweetheart Dinner on pm Sunday, February 14, 11:30. Good Friday Service, March 25, 7:00 Committee Reports: Easter Sunrise, March 27, 7:00am at Camp Comeca Finance/Stewardship-Finance report: Pastor Contemporary Worship, 8:30am Doug reviewed the Statement of Funds. Traditional Worship 10:30 am Staff/Pastor Parish Relations Committee: No Agreed to change meeting day to first Thursday report. of month (March 3) Committee on Lay Leadership & Nominations: Call to Service Pastor Doug reported no change. Prayer Concerns and Joys Trustees report: Pastor Doug reported on Trus- Adjournment tees proposal to fix the gas Furnace that heats Next meeting: March 3, 2016 at 7:00pm. the offices and conference room. Kem made the Respectfully submitted, motion that we accept Cozad Services bid of Luann McBride $2619.00 to replace the furnace. Funds will nd come from the building fund. Ellen 2 . Motion John: The Gospel of Light approved. Trustees also had a proposal on the and Life Cove lighting. Wendy made a motion that we accept Flash Electric bid of $2420.88 to replace The Lenten Study class will be Cove lighting with LED lighting. Funds to be held Sunday evening beginraised through a fund raising project. Nickole nd ning March 6th from 6:30 – 2 . Motion approved. Cozad UMC Endowment Committee: Went over quarterly report submitted by Richard Hansen. Memorial Committee: No report. UMW: No report 8:00 pm in the Red Carpet room. It is a 6 week study. Bring your friends and join us for this intriguing study. Books are $13. Call the office to get your book ordered. The Cozad United Methodist Youth are grateful to have had Chief Randy Adams at youth on Feb. 24. He shared his career, faith, and the importance of making time with God in our routine with us tonight. We are blessed to have wonderful law enforcement in our community! Cozad UMC is replacing the cove lights around the sanctuary with driverless LED bulbs. These are the lights that are under the stained glass windows all the way around the sanctuary. You may help out by buying one or more of these lights. They are $40 each and there are 66 of them. You may buy them in memory of, in honor of or just because. If you would like to buy one or more of these contact the church office 784-2887. The lights that were there are no longer made. Week of 2-7-16 Adult Mom’s Sunday Bible School Study 5 6 Sunday School 3yrs - 12th Kids Nursery on of the Wednesday Kingdom Church School Vacation Bible School will be 13/ children 4/adults 78/ children 15/adults 6/children 2/Adults 48/ children 9/adults 2-14-16 7 7 13/ children 4/adults -/children -/adults -/children -/adults -/children -/adults 2-21-16 7 8 6/children 6/adults 64/ children 11/adults 8/children 3/adults 47/ children 7/adults May 9 - May 12 3:30 - 6:00 p.m. Cozad Association of Churches - 2016 Sermons A La Carte Schedule 2016 HOST CHURCH All Services @ noon SPEAKER TOPIC: FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT MARCH 2 Cozad Christian 821 F ST Al Jesseph ABANDONMENT MATT/ 27:26/MARK 15:34 MARCH 9 American Lutheran Blake Armstrong 200 E 12TH ST Living Hope DISTRESS JOHN 19:28 MARCH 16 Church of Christ 2117 NEWELL ST Doug Smith Cozad UMC TRIUMPH JOHN 19:30 MARCH 23 Cozad UMC 1515 B ST James McCrickard Church of Christ REUNION LUKE 23:46 Cozad UNITED Methodist Church Newsletter x 1515 B Street Cozad, NE 69130-0187 www.cozadumc.org [email protected] 308-784-2887 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Chancel Choir Director Patty Fenstermacher Kids of the Kingdom Coordinator Tammy Paulsen United Methodist Women Marilyn Peterson Education Team Leader Kem Zook Worship Leader Ellen Adkisson Nurture Team Leader Wendy Waller Witness Team Leader Sheena Kinnan Mission Team Leader Shelli Gill/Wendy Hammerlun Organists Patty Fenstermacher, Ray Jackson Non-Profit Org. U.S. POSTAGE PAID Cozad, NE Permit No.24 x
Similar documents
March Newsletter 2014
In January 432 people made the trip up the hill to use the facility in one month alone. If you are looking for a wonderful place to bring your youth group, host your reunion, conference, business m...
More information