Music & ice cream Sunday!

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

Hank Troy and Wende Harston will share their gift of music. Join us after the service for an ice cream social in Franz Hall.

See || Create || Disciple

The School of Congregational Development is returning to Chicago this summer as SEE//CREATE//DISCIPLE (SCD) after a hiatus due to challenges posed by COVID-19.

With more than two decades of providing exceptional learning and networking experiences for United Methodist Church leaders, nationally and internationally, the SCD is set to empower and inspire again. 

EVENT OVERVIEW:

Legacy of Excellence: More than twenty years of fostering growth, learning, and networking with United Methodist Church leaders.
Visionary Leadership: The focus is on shifting from "fixing churches" to embracing the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations (Junius Dotson).
Discipleship Principles: The new SCD will focus on three discipleship principles: See. Create. Disciple.

• See: Shifting the focus to seeing and reaching out to all the people Christ has called us to reach.
• Create: Fostering a new United Methodist movement that loves and serves the present age and beyond.
• Disciple: Inspiring and equipping participants to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Workshops: Choose from an array of workshops designed to provide practical tools, processes, and frameworks for discipleship formation.
Immersive Learning: Experience a deep dive into disciple-making with hands-on, practical insights from episcopal leaders, ministry cultivators, and practitioners across the worldwide United Methodist connection.
Networking: Connect with other ministry leaders, share experiences, and build lasting relationships within the United Methodist community.
 

We hope you’ll join us at the Hyatt Regency Schaumburg in Schaumburg, IL, as we come together for this transformative event!

August 4-7: $399 registration. Registration will close on August 2, 2024. 

Find more information and register here.

Greenhouses enrich lives at church mission

Two “life-transforming” greenhouses at The United Methodist Church’s Hanwa Mission are helping to fight climate change and grow education at the mission’s schools.

With financial support from Zimbabwe Volunteers in Mission and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries’ Yambasu Agriculture Initiative, the Hanwa community constructed two half-acre greenhouses.

The Rev. Alan Masimba Gurupira, administrative assistant for Zimbabwe Area Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa, called the development “a milestone in the life of the mission center.”

“It is the firm belief of The UMC, together with our devoted partners, that such a venture will lead the schools into an era of self-sufficiency and in spearheading other developmental programs,” Gurupira said. The horticultural venture, he noted, will form the backbone of other innovative programs to follow.

Read more at this link.

Wednesday with the Wesleys

Now this is properly the testimony of our own spirit; even the testimony of our conscience, that God hath given us to be holy of heart, and holy in outward conversation.

It is a consciousness of our having received, in and by the Spirit of adoption, the tempers mentioned in the Word of God as belonging to his adopted children; even a loving heart toward God and toward all mankind; hanging with childlike confidence on God our Father, desiring nothing but him, casting all our care upon him, and embracing every child of man with earnest, tender affection: -- A consciousness that we are inwardly conformed, by the Spirit of God, to the image of his Son, and that we walk before him in justice, mercy, and truth, doing the things which are pleasing in his sight.

~ John Wesley (Witness of the Spirit)

Indigenous Ministries plan adopted for the Western Jurisdiction

The Western Jurisdictional Conference is reinforcing its commitment to Indigenous people and places after adopting an extensive, detailed plan from the Committee on Native American Ministries, which includes increased funding to take on this work.

The plan for Indigenous Ministries details four basic principles: 

1. Telling the truth, acknowledging harms that have been done, and so helping liberate us all, as we grow in equitable and just sibling relationships with Native American peoples across the Western Jurisdiction.  

2. Identify actions of repair and engage in these actions to enable healing, and to create the context for healthy relationships to form and flourish.  

3. Consultation with Indigenous leaders about property and asset discernment.  

4. Identify, develop, and resource Indigenous leaders in ministry to serve Indigenous-focused churches and communities across the Western Jurisdiction.

Read more at this link.

This week @ St. Paul's UMC

Monday: 

9:00 AM, Office Hours

Tuesday: 

9:00 AM, Office Hours

7:00 PM, Mission u (virtual)

Wednesday:

9:00 AM, Office Hours

9:00 AM, Wednesday Weeders 

10:00 AM, Zoom Fellowship

Thursday: 

9:00 AM, Office Hours

3:00 PM, Summer Book Group

Saturday:   

6:00 AM, BBKC Prayer Time

9:00 AM, Yoga class  

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost:

8:45 AM, Study class

10:15 AM, Worship (Gideon) 

- music by Hank Troy & Wende Harston

11:15 AM, Ice Cream Social

12:30 AM, BBKC

Scripture lessons for July 21

Bathsheba (English rose variety)

We continue with our summer sermon series next week with two Old Testament lessons, 2 Samuel 11:1-4a, 12:16-24a and 1 Kings 1:28-37. The subject of the sermon will be Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite.