FIRST UNITED
METHODIST CHURCH
Back 2 School Picnic, Church Retreat
FUMC Newsletter 9/18/24
WORSHIP
Topic: Called to Worship
Speaker: Pastor Mark McGraw
Time: 10:00am
Also available on WKSR Radio 100.9 at 10am, YouTube & Facebook Live!
Verse of the Week
Isaiah 40:31
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Our Church Administrator will be out of office from September 20 - October 1. Please be patient with our church staff in her absence.
The Back 2 School Progressive picnic is THIS Sunday. We hope to see you there!
Jean and Harry Bryan would like to invite you all to their 60th Wedding Anniversary Party! Details below.
November 1-3 we will have a church-wide retreat to Beersheba Springs. Sign up below.
Beersheba Registration Link: https://forms.gle/cpEyVqF5o2vQkBsR9
EVENTS
Today, 9/18
@5:30pm Roots Meeting
@5:30pm Young Adult Team Meeting
Tomorrow, 9/19
@9:00am Circle of Care
@5:30pm Growing Tree Meeting
@5:30pm Disciple Bible Study
@5:30pm Pack Food with RFD
Friday, 9/20
No events
Saturday, 9/21
@7:00am Unload Trucks at RFD
@9:00am Touch a Truck
Sunday 9/22
@@9:00am Sunday School
@10:00am Worship
@12:00pm Bible Beans
@5:00pm Back 2 School Picnic
@5:00pm Youth Group
@7:00pm Theology on Tap
Monday 9/23
@8:15am Monday Morning Prayers
Tuesday 9/24
@5:00pm Wesley Gathering
@5:30pm Girl Talk
@6:00pm Community Garden
What's Up With Wesley
Before and after worship on Sunday, Wesley will have corn stalks for sale - recommended donation $10 per bundle.
If you would like to provide a meal for Wesley Student Gatherings on Tuesdays in November please reach out to Laura McMasters at 931-309-6156.
Disciple Bible Study
This week’s topic in Disciple is the covenant between God and God’s people - one that requires faithful obedience without reservation. Disciples respond to God’s call to enter the covenant of faith and trust that He will provide. What evidence of obedience and trust distinguish your commitment to God’s covenant? To God’s people?
Back 2 School Progressive Picnic
Back 2 School Progressive Picnic Sunday, September 22nd @ 5pm
Beginning at Sharewood Park - Ending at the church
Everyone is welcome! Contact Sherry Hill for details.
What is a progressive picnic? A progressive picnic is a multi-course picnic dinner that's served at multiple locations. You will begin at one park and transition to another.
You're Invited!
Jean and Harry Bryan’s 60th Wedding Anniversary
Saturday, September 28th from 2:00-4:00pm
NHC Place at Cool Springs Community Room
Ministry Fair
Before worship on Sunday, September 29th, at 9am, join us for the church ministry fair in the Fellowship Hall to learn what we’re doing and how you can get involved!
Breakfast will be provided.
This will be a great day to bring a guest so they can learn about our church!
It's Taco Time!
Before and after service this Sunday, Youth will be selling tickets to their Taco Lunch Fundraiser on September 29th.
Food Tickets are $10 for 1 person or $20 for your whole family. Come get some Tacos!
Community Garden
It’s been another great week in the garden! Ruby and Laura picked pockets full of okra, cherry tomatoes, a few peppers, and 20 bundles of corn for Fall decor.
Unfortunately, the drought this year has robbed Middle Tennessee of it’s pumpkin crop, so we won’t have pumpkins to sell this year. The lone garden pumpkin has gone to the playground for Growing Tree kiddos to enjoy.
Blessing Boxes
The first blessing box has been assembled and will be installed soon! The Explore Community Team has created a Facebook page that volunteers can post in: sharing resources and alerts when boxes needed to be filled.
Theologian of the Month
Our Theologian of the Month for the month of September is St. Oscar Romero (1917-1980). St. Romero was a Salvadoran Roman Catholic archbishop who was a vocal critic of the violent activities of government armed forces, right-wing political groups, and leftist guerrillas involved in El Salvador’s civil unrest in the 1970s-1980s.
Although he was considered as someone who would not rock the boat politically for the Catholic Church or the government of El Salvador, which is what led to his promotion to be the archbishop of San Salvador, St. Romero quickly took to the streets of his new appointment and saw the poverty and violence the people of El Salvador experienced first hand. He quickly witnessed the horrors that his government was inflicting on the poor, the outcast, and those powerless against the political forces. This led him to be a voice of the poor. St. Romero was a forerunner for a theological movement known as Liberation Theology—a theological expression which teaches the church has a Divine Mandate to always be outspoken in defense of the poor—as it is with the poor in which we will find Jesus. Romero is most famous for saying, “Let us never tire of preaching love, for it is the force which will transform the world.”
Because of St. Romero’s critiques of state-sanctioned violence against the people of El Salvador, his continued calls for democratic elections, and his unique ability to listen and use his platform for the poor, he received constant threats on his life. On March 24th, 1980, while presiding over the Sacrament of Holy Communion, he was assassinated by a sniper. During his funeral, tens of thousands of Salvadorans attended, as he was viewed as their collective priest. At his funeral, a bomb went off outside the Cathedral of San Salvador. As people fled, gunfire erupted killing 40 people and wounding more than 200. Upon hearing this news, Romero’s theological contemporaries from both the Protestant and Catholic traditions around the world echoed his call for the Church to take up Christ’s radical way of peace, mercy, and love.
In 2015, Pope Francis declared St. Romero a martyr. Three years later, in March of 2018, Pope Francis canonized Oscar Romero to the sainthood.
Book of the Month
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion is written by moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt. When you read this book, you will quickly realize that Haidt is not interested in answering the ethical question of “what is good or wrong?” Rather, he is interested in investigating how human beings come to their ethical conclusions. Haidt draws on his 25 plus years of research and shows how moral judgements arise not from reason but from gut feelings. In this subtle, yet highly accessible book, Haidt gives us the key to understanding the miracle of human cooperation. The Righteous Mind leads us from the science of how we reason and make ethical choices to how we can better understand one another as we seek to be in community with one another.
Share your suggestions by emailing info@fumcpulaski.com with the subject line “Book of the Month.” Be sure to include the Title, Author, and an explanation why you like the book and/or how it helped transform you. You might see your pick as our next Book of the Month!
Opportunities to Serve
Circle of Care
Thursdays @ 9:00am in The Fellowship Hall
Join Circle of Care in boxing & delivering hot meals to our neighbors. Anyone is welcome to show up and serve! No commitment required.
Rural Food Delivery
Thursday, September 19 @ 5:30pm at The Table
Join Rural Food Delivery in folding and filling boxes to prepare for their food give-away on Saturday.
Saturday, September 21st @ 7:00am at The Table Join Rural Food Delivery in unloading trucks and preparing for their Saturday distribution at the Ag Park.
RFD Food Collection
RFD (Rural Food Delivery) is collecting donations in The Fellowship Hall. The item of the month is mac n cheese. Please feel free to drop off non-perishable food items on the shelf in The Fellowship Hall.
Community RFD is a non-profit organization that provides boxes of food at no cost to struggling families in Giles County. Some of our congregants regularly volunteer with RFD.