April 30 @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers

Joys:

+We were happy to welcome Selma and Toni Adevu and their friend, Richard, to our worship this morning. 

+Suzanne Polacek is thankful that Ron qualifies for a new medicine and prays that it will be available soon.

+Mark Leifeste celebrates the birth last week of his third grandchild, Margot.

+Angela Baker is thankful that her surgery went well and for her upcoming 50th high school reunion in Alabama.

+Myrle Myers is celebrating her daughter's birthday with a family gathering.

+Pastor Charles is thankful for the many bulbs blooming each day at the parsonage.

+We are blessed by those who served this week: Belinda Alkula (videographer), Steve Bainbridge (greeter), Lorie Courier (piano), Tim Cook (adult class), Rebecca Glancy (liturgist), Pat Cleaveland & Louise Cook (reception for the Adevus), Myrle Myers (fellowship), Suzanne Polacek (bells), and Ron Revier (choir).

Concerns:

+Sandra Jordan wants to thank our church community for their support, cards, and good wishes after the unexpected and sudden passing of her sister Donna Kittell in Wyoming. Donna had attended St. Paul’s many times and always enjoyed her visits. Your kindness and love were very comforting and greatly appreciated. 

+Scott Glancy lifted up Kami and her medical concerns. Kami is also in need of a laptop so that she could worship with us.

+Bren Smith asks for continued prayers for Gary as his health concern has been diagnosed.

+We join with many across our nation in mourning the deaths of the 156 killed and 382 injured due to gun violence last week.

April 30 @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements

+Ladies Lunch Bunch will meet on Thursday, May 4, at 11:45 a.m. at Parma Trattoria & Mozzarella Bar (1132 W. Dillon Road, Louisville). Please R.S.V.P. by May 2 to Louise Cook (303-859-9327).

+Breakfast Fellowship will next meet on Saturday, May 13, at 8:00 a.m. at Le Peep (2525 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder, next to McGuckin’s hardware). No reservations necessary. All are welcome!

+Please consider signing up to be part of the worship leadership. Help is needed each week for the following: liturgist, flowers, and fellowship time host. A signup clipboard is available on the usher's table.

+It's not too early to be thinking about music for this summer's worship services. Time to offer your talents, gifts, and efforts to the glory of God and to the enjoyment of the congregation. Music of all sorts are welcomed - solos, duets, trios, etc., as are poems or other readings.

April 30 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

Morning has broken at St. Paul's UMC!

Bob & Melanie chat with Toni Adevu and Richard Safo

Our guests from Ghana and Pastor Charles

Selma Adevu shares with the congregation.

Fellowship before worship

Fourth Sunday of Easter

 (YouTube Link of the morning's worship)

Today’s Meditation Verse: “The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers.” 

—Acts 2:42

Welcome... Pastor Charles

Prelude... Lorie Courier / “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” arranged by Lloyd Larsen

*Call to Worship... Rebecca Glancy

Out of a world of cut-throat competition, of winners and losers, and too many left behind we come together. The world’s ways are not our ways. The world’s ways are not Christ’s ways.

Out of a world of hatred, violence, individualism, and life-taking power we gather as Koinonia, as God’s people. God’s ways are inclusive, expansive, and life- giving for all peoples.

Come and worship the One whose love knows no limits! Swim and splash in the cleansing waters of divine community! Resurrect your spirits and souls in worship of the One! Praise be to the Everlasting One! 

—written by Tim Graves, posted on LiturgyBits

*Hymn... “Jesus, United By Thy Grace” (UMH #561)

Celebration of Ministry... Selma Adevu

Litany for Others (inspired by 1 Peter 2:2-10)...Rebecca Glancy 

God of grace and light, found within and out with the structures of humanity, You cannot be contained, but on occasion choose to dwell in hearts and homes. Glance lightly upon the hearts and homes dear to us, the people and places where we seek blessing. 

Build up our homes: Where the happy may find peace; The sad may find comfort; The hungry may find food; The weary may find rest.

Build up the places where we work: Where the honest may find reward; The dedicated may find

delight; The imaginative may find new horizons. 

Build up our community: Where the isolated may find friendship; The marginalized may find welcome; The unloved may find acceptance. 

Build up our nation, loving Lord, And bless those entrusted with the care of our society’s fabric. May they use their skills, their calling, their hard graft to fashion communities of grace and under- standing, where generosity of heart and mind and soul may be not only the gilding of our daily life but its very core. 

Build up the Church, redeeming Lord, So that all Your children may find their place, unique and special, chosen and essential to the living edifice of grace, whereby Your grace each one might know their value in Your economy, and their significance in Your eyes. 

Help us all, this day, to be living stones, and not dead weights, dreaming dreams, and living gloriously the joy and kindliness Of a faith that edifies everything that life should be. In the name of our Saviour, our cornerstone, we  pray. Amen 

—written by the Rev. Dr. Derek Browning, posted on the Church of Scotland’s website

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer... Pastor Charles

Gospel Lesson: John 10:1-10... Rebecca Glancy

Choral Anthem... “Antiphonal Cantate” by Greg Gilpin

Epistle Lesson: Acts 2:42-47... Pastor Charles

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Sermon... Pastor Charles / “Devotion 101”

*Hymn... “Blest Be the Tie that Binds” (UMH #557)

*Words for the Journey... Pastor Charles

Postlude... Lorie Courier / “Let All Things Now Living,” arranged by Lloyd Larsen

Let's worship!

Join us Sunday for worship at 10:15 a.m. in person or online (here). Preview Sunday's bulletin here. 

Come early at 9:30 to meet and greet Selma and Toni Adevu. Selma will also speak to our congregation during the worship service before going to visit Mountain View UMC. Selma and Toni are coming to thank our congregation for the support that we have given the Adevu family for several years in their work in Africa.

36 GBCS Resolutions to General Conference

To read the resolutions, please ask to borrow Pastor Charles' copy of The Book of Resolutions (2016).

The General Board of Church and Society’s board approved thirty-six petitions to General Conference to readopt resolutions that would expire under the Book of Discipline’s eight-year rule (¶510.2a). The resolutions, which had been adopted by the 2016 General Conference but without action, would expire due to the delay in holding the 2020 General Conference.

The Book of Resolutions articulates the official policy statements and our ethical aspirations for United Methodists. The Book of Resolutions contains dozens of statements that relate to our Christian witness to the world.

Below are a few examples of resolutions categorized in three work areas for Advocating, Connecting and Educating:

3428: Our Call to End Gun Violence
Foundational resolution for UMC engagement on gun violence prevention and international small arms transfers.

4134: Rights of Farm Workers in the U. S.
A call to stand in solidarity with farm workers to change unjust conditions.

6129: The United Methodist Church and Peace
Foundational resolution for disarmament work, advocacy on budget priorities, multilateral engagement, economic justice initiatives, and peace education.

Click here for the full list of 36 petitions that were unanimously approved.

Hens for Friends

by Sally McConnell, MSC East Angola Advocate

Quessua United Methodist Mission was destroyed during Angola’s war of independence and its civil war. Once a renowned place of learning, its buildings and agricultural fields were demolished and surrounded by land mines. In 2005 the rebuilding began. In 2015 Kutela Katembo, an agriculturalist from Congo, was commissioned in Helena, Montana as a missionary with the United Methodist Church. Since then, he has transformed the area around the mission into productive agricultural land and is introducing ways to improve the lives of Angolans.

Villagers in Angola need protein! Agricultural possibilities in Angola are great, but there are many challenges in reaching its potential. Kutela is working hard to provide simple, effective agricultural technologies to improve community lives.

 

Malnutrition, especially in children, is a scary, growing problem. To address this, Kutela wants to introduce raising chickens to provide eggs to families. Eggs are an affordable protein for villagers in Angola and the project will also be a learning opportunity for the agricultural students at Quessua.
 

The project will happen in two phases. Phase one is the construction of a chicken coop building. Phase two is layer production, raising the chicks into laying hens.

We need you to be part of bringing better nutrition to the children in villages around Quessua. Kutela plans to raise 2000 chickens. A $10 donation will buy 10 chicks. Let’s fill the hen house for our friends in Angola!
 

You may give using Advance #3022272 - Quessua Agriculture memo: Poultry

Wednesday with the Wesleys

"John Wesley preaching atop his father's grave"
Alfred William Hunt (mid to late 1800s)

As one has time, {she or} he "does good unto all men {and women}," and to neighbors and strangers, friends and enemies: and that in every possible kind; not only to their bodies, "by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting those that are sick or in prison," but much more does he {or she} labor to do good to their souls, as of the ability which God giveth and to provoke those who have peace with God to abound with love and in good works.

~ John Wesley (The Character of a Methodist)

How do United Methodists use pronouns and names for God and for people?

Since the early 1980s, United Methodists have had at least one statement in the Book of Resolutions encouraging the use of inclusive or expansive language for God that reflects the full range of the biblical witness to the nature of God and language for human beings that reflects the diversity and equality of the sexes.

Book of Resolutions Excerpts

• Biblical Language: "Therefore, be it resolved, that United Methodist clergy and laity be encouraged to use diverse biblical images and titles for God, including masculine/feminine metaphors; use language for humans that reflects both male and female; use metaphors of color, darkness, ability, and age in positive ways..." 
  
  
• Every Barrier Down: "Discussions of gender-inclusive language, reading the Hebrew and Greek text through women’s eyes, and liberation theology—especially as discussed by women—are regarded by many as a threat to the Christian faith, instead of new and perhaps even more authentic perspectives on it.... [Therefore] ... we invite the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women to create curricula for local churches with teaching tools on inclusive language, sexism, creating a girl-friendly church, and myths about women and church leadership."

Read more at this link.

This week @ St. Paul's UMC

Monday: Arbor Day

9:00 AM, Office Hours

Tuesday:

9:00 AM, Office Hours

7:00 PM, Virtual Trustees Meeting

Wednesday:

10:00 AM, Zoom Fellowship 

7:30 PM, Choir practice

Thursday:

9:00 AM, Office Hours 

Sunday:

8:30 AM, Bell practice

8:45 AM, Adult class

10:15 AM, Worship 

11:15 AM, Fellowship

12:30 PM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for April 30

We bring April to a close this coming Sunday with scripture lessons from John 10:1-10 and Acts 2:42-47.

April 23 @ St. Paul's UMC: Prayers

Joys:

+Pastor Charles & Belinda were pleased to welcome the Rev. Monte Baker, a former pastor of St. Paul's UMC (1994-1999), to the parsonage last Tuesday.

+Belinda Alkula is thankful for the wonderful Sew What gathering at Louise Cook's on Friday and for the Dinner Circle Brunch Fellowship at Claudia Mills' yesterday.

+We give thanks for Jessica & Jakeb Sawyer whose recent wedding we celebrated during Fellowship Time today.

+Steve Batch is thankful for the upcoming Generations concert (on May 6) at Fairview High School with Ron Revier as director.

+We give thanks for this week's birthdays: Mawce Glancy & Christina Pulaski

+We are blessed by those who served this week: Belinda Alkula (videographer), Steve Bainbridge (greeter), Louise Cook (piano), Tim Cook (adult class), Rebecca Glancy (liturgist), Pat Cleaveland (fellowship), Suzanne Polacek (bells), and Ron Revier (choir).

Concerns:

+Joey Vander Vorste asks for prayers for her three sisters, each of whom has a different need.

+We join with many across our nation in mourning the deaths of the 155 killed and 381 injured due to gun violence last week.

April 23 @ St. Paul's UMC: Announcements

+Please consider signing up to be part of the worship leadership. Help is needed each week for the following: liturgist, flowers, and fellowship time host. A signup clipboard is available on the usher's table.

+Ladies Lunch Bunch will meet on Thursday, May 4, at 11:45 a.m. at Parma Trattoria & Mozzarella Bar (1132 W. Dillon Road, Louisville). Please R.S.V.P. by May 2 to Louise Cook (303-859-9327).

+Next Sunday, Selma and Toni Adevu will be at St. Paul’s at 9:30 a.m. for a meet-and-greet. Selma will also speak to our congregation during the worship   service before going to visit Mountain View UMC. Selma and Toni are coming to thank our congregation for the support that we have given the Adevu family for several years in their work in Africa.

+Do you like worship @ St. Paul's UMC? Pastor Charles is looking for people who are passionate about worship and willing to help on the Worship Team. 

+It's not too early to be thinking about music for this summer's worship services. Time to offer your talents, gifts, and efforts to the glory of God and to the enjoyment of the congregation.

+From the UMCOR Recovery Program: The Marshall Fire Recovery program is still going strong. The UMCOR grant funds will allow us to serve the community through the rest of this year. Thanks to all of you for your help and support. As we are moving into this spring, I need some help with this program. I am looking for a new Recovery Navigator for the UMCOR Marshall Fire Recovery Program. One of our Recovery Navigators is leaving the program and we need someone to step in and help us finish this project. This is a paid position, and my expectation is that this individual would be needed part time for four to six months. Contact Michael Moore / UMCOR Recovery Director – Marshall Fire / 720-661-3859.

April 23 @ St. Paul's UMC: Worship

The choir warms up!

Lorie offers the postlude

Celebrating love!

We love to gather together!!

View today's service at this link.

Today’s Meditation Verse: “Weren’t our hearts on fire when He spoke to us along the road and when He explained the scriptures for us?” —Luke 24:32

Welcome... Pastor Charles

Prelude... Lorie Courier / “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” by J. S. Bach

*Call to Worship (based on Luke 24:13-35)... Rebecca Glancy

We need Your presence on the long road, Lord. The road between fear and hope, the road between the place where all is lost and the place of

resurrection. Like the disciples walking the road to Emmaus, we need Your company! Jesus, stand among us, in Your risen power; let this time of worship, be a hallowed hour.  

—written by Carol Penner, posted on Leading in Worship

*Hymn... “This Is the Spirit’s Entry Now” (UMH #608)

The Twenty-third Psalm (A Native American version)... Rebecca Glancy

The GREAT FATHER above a SHEPHERD CHIEF is. I am His and with Him I want not. 

He throws out to me a rope and the name of the rope is love and He draws me to where the grass is green and the water is not dangerous, and I eat and lie down and am satisfied. Sometimes my heart is very weak and falls down, but He lifts me up again and draws me into a good road. 

His name is WONDERFUL. Someday, it may be very soon, it may be a long, long time, He will draw me into a valley. 

It is dark there, but I’ll be afraid not, for it is between those mountains that the SHEPHERD CHIEF will meet me and the hunger that I have in my heart all through life will be satisfied. Sometimes he makes the love rope into a whip, but afterwards He gives a staff to lean upon. 

He spreads a table before me with all kinds of foods. He put His hand upon my head and all the “tired” is gone. 

My cup He fills till it runs over. What I tell is true. I lie not. 

These roads that are “away ahead” will stay with me through this life and after; and afterwards, I will go to live in the Big Teepee and sit down with the    SHEPHERD CHIEF forever. 

—From the West Michigan Conference, January 2010

Community prayer requests, concerns, and celebrations

Pastoral Prayer / The Lord’s Prayer... Pastor Charles

First Lesson: Acts 12:14a, 36-41... Rebecca Glancy

Choral Anthem... “Birdsong,” by Paul Reed

Gospel Lesson: Luke 24:13-35... Pastor Charles

This is the Word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

Sermon... Pastor Charles / “The story isn’t finished”

*Hymn... “Lord, I Want to be a Christian” (UMH #402)

*Words for the Journey... Pastor Charles

Postlude... Lorie Courier / “This Is My Father’s World,” arranged by Mark Hayes

Happy Anniversary, UMC!

On this day in 1968 the UMC was formed from a merger between the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church.

Dinner Circle's Spring Brunch

Claudia M. hosted her dinner circle's spring brunch at her beautiful, cozy home today. (In spite of a snow shower, it still is a spring day.) 

Claudia served mimosas, orange juice, coffee, tea, sausage links, and Amy A.'s fabulous "Eggy Casserole." Everyone loved the casserole, so we just had to share it in this blog post!

Other dinner circle members brought delicious food to round out the menu. A good, delicious time was had by all! Yay, God!!! 🧡

Amy’s Eggy Casserole
8 eggs (room temperature)
½ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
3 cups shredded jack cheese (12 oz.)
1 ½ cups cottage cheese (12 oz.)
2 4-oz. cans mild diced chilies

Beat eggs for 4-5 minutes.
Stir flour, baking powder, salt, and add to eggs. Mix well.
Fold in shredded cheese and cottage cheese, plus chilies.
Pour into greased 9 x 13 pan.
Bake in preheated 350-degree oven for 40 minutes.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

10 ways to take care of God’s creation

Creation care is a calling for people of faith. In honor of Earth Day on April 22, United Methodist Communications offers 10 ways for United Methodists to care for the environment.

Watch video

Let's worship!

Join us Sunday for worship at 10:15 a.m. in person or online (here). 

Preview Sunday's bulletin here. 

If you join us for worship in person, plan to stay for the reception after the service (fellowship time) to honor Jessica Bishop and Jakeb Sawyer who were married on Easter Sunday afternoon by Pastor Charles. There will be cake!

Sew What!

A wonderful time was in store for this month's attendees of Sew What. We met at Louise Cook's home who provided some delightful refreshments.

The next gathering will be on May 19 and will be held in the Blue Room at the church.

UMARC Requests Bishop Karen Oliveto Serve Twelve Years

United Methodist bishops usually serve four to eight years in a geographical episcopal area before they retire or move to a new region. The United Methodist Association of Retired Clergy (UMARC), however, is hoping that Bishop Karen P. Oliveto will not choose to retire in 2024 and that the Western Jurisdictional Episcopal Committee will re-assign her to the Mountain Sky Area for an additional    four years. (The Mountain Sky Conference covers the states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, plus one church in Idaho.)

In a resolution passed unanimously by UMARC’s Steering Committee, they called on Bishop Oliveto and the Episcopal Committee to ensure her service in the Mountain Sky for twelve years. “Not since the dynamic years of Bishop Melvin Wheatley from 1972 to 1984, have we experienced the extended prophetic and pastoral leadership essential for moving our churches fully into an era of inclusive United Methodism,” said co-chairs Rev. Dr. Harvey Martz and Rev. Dr. Donald Messer.

The resolution asserts that “Bishop Oliveto has broken the ‘glass ceilings’ that prohibited and even crushed previous LGBT+ Christians. She has provided hope and inspiration in our conference and world-wide that God truly loves all people and that the sin of discrimination must be eradicated in our church’s polity and programs.”

While other conferences have splintered due to disaffiliation, her gracious leadership has resulted in relatively few churches considering leaving United Methodism in her episcopal area. During her tenure, she successfully achieved the long-time dream of uniting the Yellowstone and Rocky Mountain Conferences. In addition, she has carried the extra-burden of serving as President of the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops during an exceptionally difficult time in the life of the church.

“Considering the high tension and hard work Bishop Oliveto and her wife Robin Ridenour experience,” say Messer and Martz, “we recognize and respect their need for a new life of service in retirement. However, we would be unfaithful to our laity friends and clergy colleagues, and the well-being of our congregations, if we did not request and pray for an extension of a ministry truly blessed by God.”

Submitted on behalf of the Steering Committee of the United Methodist Association of Retired Clergy Friends (UMARC) by Rev. Dr. Donald E. Messer, Chair,  Centennial, Colorado. 

A time to gather

The Fellowship Team assembled in the Blue Room this afternoon to lay out its plans for the coming months. Thanks to Louise Cook for leading this productive time as we look ahead to our time together as a church family.

Native American Ministries Sunday is April 23

Native American Ministries Sunday serves to remind United Methodists of the gifts and contributions made by Native Americans to our society. A gap in knowledge exists in The United Methodist Church, in congregations and other United Methodist entities, relative to comprehending concepts of Native American life, cultures, languages, spirit, values, contemporary issues, and such. We affirm the sacredness of American Indian people, their languages, cultures, and gifts to the church and the world.

An offering is taken on this Special Sunday to support vital ministries and churches in the Native American communities and allow The United Methodist Church to partner with existing native ministries to develop new programs on behalf of Native Americans. 

Half of the funds collected on this Special Sunday remain in the Annual Conference to develop and strengthen Native American ministries in the conferences. To assist in developing these programs, each conference has a Committee on Native American Ministries (CONAM). These committees seek to advocate for ministry with and by Native Americans to share the diverse culture, history and traditions of Native peoples. The committees determine the distribution of the Native American Ministries Sunday offering, coordinate the promotion of that Special Sunday, and monitor Native American ministries within the Annual Conference.

Twenty-five percent of the donations received fund scholarships designated scholarships for Native Americans attending United Methodist schools of theology. A serious shortage exists of American Indian pastors and trained professionals and these scholarships provide development, implementation, and assessment of a higher education recruitment/retention for Native Americans.

The final twenty-five percent of the donations collected are used to create beneficial programs. These funds allow the UMC to partners with existing native ministries to develop new programs on behalf of Native Americans. Some of those efforts include mentoring programs, peer support systems, funding for economic development projects, and restoring traditional and historic ways that bring forth new leaders for Native American communities.

Read stories about the impact you are making with your gifts.

To give by mail, send checks to GCFA, P.O. Box 340029, Nashville, TN. 37203

Wednesday with the Wesleys

If you desire to read the scripture in such a manner as may most effectually answer this end, would it not be advisable,

1. To set apart a little time, if you can, every morning and evening for that purpose?

2. At each time if you have leisure, to read a chapter out of the Old, and one out of the New Testament: if you cannot do this, to take a single chapter, or a part of one?

3. To read this with a single eye, to know the whole will of God, and a fixt resolution to do it? In order to know his will, you should,

4. Have a constant eye to the analogy of faith; the connexion and harmony there is between those grand, fundamental doctrines, Original Sin, Justification by Faith, the New Birth, Inward and Outward Holiness.

5. Serious and earnest prayer should be constantly used, before we consult the oracles of God, seeing "scripture can only be understood thro' the same Spirit whereby it was given." Our reading should likewise be closed with prayer, that what we read may be written on our hearts.

6. It might also be of use, if while we read, we were frequently to pause, and examine ourselves by what we read, both with regard to our hearts, and lives. This would furnish us with matter of praise, where we found God had enabled us to conform to his blessed will, and matter of humiliation and prayer, where we were conscious of having fallen short.

And whatever light you then receive, should be used to the uttermost, and that immediately. Let there be no delay. Whatever you resolve, begin to execute the first moment you can. So shall you find this word to be indeed the power of God unto present and eternal salvation.

~ John Wesley (from the "Preface" to Explanatory Notes Upon the Old Testament)