1 January/February 2017

Wayland United Methodist Church 200 Church Street Wayland, MI 49348

TO:

The ARK

Wayland United Methodist Church Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors

WORSHIP WITH US AT: 10:00 AM

Join us for coffee fellowship following worship!

For Up-To-Date information “Like Us” on Facebook and visit our website: www.waylandumc.org

CHURCH OFFICE HOURS: MONDAY-THURSDAY 9:00 AM-1:00 PM

PASTOR OFFICE HOURS: MONDAY-WEDNESDAY 9:00 AM-12:00 PM

Office: 269-792-2208 ~ Pastor Jeff: 269-944-9231

Office e-mail: office@waylandumc.org

Pastor Jeff email: jeffwrev@gmail.com

NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE

P A I D PERMIT NO. 2 WAYLAND, MI

Address Service Requested

2 January/February 2017

The Good Effects of Grace in 2017

Good morning and God bless you! Beverly and I thank you for the card and

generous gift we received on Christmas Eve from Sandi Ragan, our Pastor-

Parish Relations Committee Chairperson. We are grateful for the ministry we

share with you, and pray that we continue seeking and finding ways to be faithful. We

appreciate the love you have for God and our Church.

John Wesley was constantly learning, and seeking God’s will for his life. He was a

powerful organizer of community spiritual life in England through small groups known as Classes, Bands, and

Societies. He also sought knowledge in many areas beyond theology and the Bible. For instance, he even wrote

a medical book, Primitive Physick (1791), in which he affirmed:

“The power of exercise, both to preserve and restore health, is greater than can well be conceived…A

due degree of exercise is indispensably necessary to health and long life.”

“A cough: Drink a pint of cold water, lying down in bed: Tried. Or make a hole through a lemon and fill it

with honey. Roast it, and catch the juice. Take a tea-spoonful of this frequently. Tried.”

For the past year, I have used a daily calendar of Wesley’s writings as one source of devotional reading. Most

pages I read and recycle, but I have kept a few for encouragement and insight. In addition to the two selections

from Primitive Physick, I have held on to these:

“I rejoice, because I both see and feel, through the inspiriation of God’s Holy Spirit, that all my works are

wrought in him, yea, and that it is He who worketh all my works in me. I rejoice in seeing through the

light of God, which shines in my heart, that I have the power to walk in his ways; and that, through

his grace, I turn not therefrom, to the right hand or to the left” (“The Witness of Our Own Spirit”).

“By the ‘grace of God’ is sometimes to be understood that free love, that unmerited mercy, by which I a

sinner, through the merits of Christ, am now reconciled to God. But in this place it rather means that

power of God the Holy Ghost, which worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure’”

(“The Witness of Our Own Spirit”).

When I start a new year, new project, or new endeavor, I need to remember the power of God’s grace that is at

work in me and the world. Doing so helps clarify my intentions and give me hope for entering new situations.

God calls us to effective ministry together. We are to be people who pray, plan, and proceed with faith

that God will bring fruit through our efforts. Doing this will be difficult. John Wesley was never one who shied

away from the hard work of discipleship. Instead he addressed it directly.

“Do good designs and good desires make a Christian?

By no means, unless they are brought to good effect.”

(“The Almost Christian”)

By grace, let’s exercise our faith, and bring our good designs and desires to good effect this year. In our

congregational goals, we renew our intention to praise God in vital worship and welcome new members into the

household of God, to grow new leaders, to strengthen our mission service and education beyond worship, and

to build up our financial commitment to faithful work beyond our walls through Ministry Shares. There are many

opportunities to contribute to this common mission. I pray we are inspired by grace to walk in God’s ways.

Peace, Pastor Jeff

269-944-9231; jeffwrev@gmail.com

3 January/February 2017

January

February 1

New Year’s Day Communion 10 am

2

3 Small Group 7 pm

4

5

6 Donna Cole Birthday

7

8 Worship 10 am

9 Donna Priestap Birthday Women’s Fellowship 7 pm

10 Harris Button Birthday Small Group 7 pm

11 Ron & Linda Thebo 31st Anniversary

12 Mary Chestnut Birthday SPPRC 7 pm

13

14

15 Worship 10 am Susan Schloop Birthday

16 Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday Observance Doug & Donna Flick 46th Anniversary

17 Small Group 7 pm

18 Jay Villarreal Birthday

19 Bea Stewart Birthday

20 Katie Holzgen & Linda Thebo Birthday

21

22 Worship 10 am Hollie Schrotenboer Birthday

23 Paul & Susan Schloop 47th Anniversary Worship Team 7 pm

24 Small Group 7 pm Robert Priestap, Julie Phillips & Robin Nyenhuis Birthday

25

26

27

28

29 Worship 10 am Barbara Josey Birthday

30

31 Small Group 7 pm

1

2 Crewe Villarreal Birthday

3

4 Katelynn Andrews Birthday

5 Communion 10 am

6 Darlene Johnson Birthday

7 Small Group 7 pm

8

9

10 Vicky Brower Birthday

11

12

Worship 10 am Scouting Ministries Sunday Brian Middlemiss & Kristen VandeZande Birthday

13 Women’s Fellowship 7 pm

14 Valentines Day

15 Haley Rewa Birthday

16

17

18

19 Worship 10 am

20 Ethan Villarreal Birthday

21 Small Group 7 pm

22

23 Roxie Muczynski & Phillip Ritchie Birthday Ad Council/Finance Team 7 pm

24

25

26 Worship 10 am Lacey Harnish Birthday

27

28 Small Group 7 pm

4 January/February 2017

Children’s Sunday School is offered after worship. Beverly Williams leads this

ministry with Lacey Harnish and Sue Jensen. Children’s Church meets during

worship after the Children’s Message with Pastor Jeff.

Thanks to all who made our Children’s Christmas program so inspiring on December 11!

Adult Sunday School meets 11:15 – Noon

In this informal group, we plan to return to our chapter by chapter study of Genesis. Come as you are on the Sundays you are here. We welcome your reflections on the worship service as well as the Scripture study.

Adult Small Group meets Tuesday’s at 7:00 pm at the Church

This small group has begun through the interest and inspiration of Jon Jensen. It involves questions of faith from Jon and the members of the group. The conversation is insightful and encouraging as we share multiple perspectives

on God’s presence and power in our lives. Come as you are with a desire to

learn and be blessed by the fellowship of people who take faith and its questions seriously.

Monday, January 9th at 7:00 pm @ Margaret Smith’s home

&

Monday, February 13th at 7:00 pm @ Tammy Kohtz’s home

Do you knit, crochet, or have other interests? Call Sue Jensen (269-792-2830) or Margaret Smith (269-792-6710) with questions. Please come even if you don’t have a hobby and just like to visit.

5 January/February 2017

January 1 Epiphany Sunday – Matthew 2:1-12 Holy Communion at an open table

New Series - SAD: Spiritual Affective Disorder

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. - Isaiah 60

Winter can be a time of Seasonal Affective Disorder when the lack of sunlight affects our moods and ability to cope effectively. But Spiritual Affective Disorder can also be a factor as we lead lives that are too crowded, busy, overcommitted, sometimes disturbing and uncertain. At the turn of this new year, we will explore everyday life activities that can become spiritual practices–deepening our experience of a meaningful life and make us more “light-hearted” (Worship Design Studio).

January 8 “Flip the Switch” – Isaiah 60:1-6

January 15 “Soothe a Soul” – Psalm 40:1-11

January 22 “Lighten Up” – Isaiah 9:1-4

January 29 “Make My Day” – Micah 6:1-8

February 5 “Altars, Altars Everywhere” – Psalm 84

Holy Communion at an open table

February 12 “Walk This Way” – Deuteronomy 30:15-20

February 19 “Leave Room for Dessert” – Leviticus 19:1-2; 9-18

February 26 “Get Up and Don’t Be Afraid” – Matthew 17:1-9

6 January/February 2017

Dear Church Family,

Thank you for your Christmas card and generous gift given by Sandi Ragan, Pastor/Parish Relations

Committee Chairperson. We thank you for the many blessings you have given us as part of your

church family.

Love,

Theresa Bodenberg and Kimberly Wolff

Search and Like “Wayland UMC” on Facebook. We use Facebook as a communication source for daily Scripture passages; ministry team meeting reminders; and upcoming Church events. We want to increase the number of people reached in this way.

Congregational Goals for 2017

Our objective is to create a balance

between our inward focus and outward focus.

1. Grow average worship attendance by 10% (2016 - 63), as defined by attending 2 times per month. 2. Spiritual Growth – Increase SPPRC by 1, and maintain current number on other committees.

3. Grow our education department and offerings to have 75% of attendees involved in something outside of Sunday worship.

4. Education of local and church conference Missions by increasing monetary support; goal to be at 100% of Ministry Shares through % of giving and noisy offerings.

If you cannot be in worship, you can listen to the worship service through our web site www.waylandumc.org! Find the Listen Live link. Choosing it, you will have streaming audio from our sound system. And if you want to listen to worship from a prior Sunday, choose the Archived Services link right next to Listen Live.

7 January/February 2017

January Worship Service Servants February Worship Service Servants

January 1- New Year’s Day February 5

Communion: Gwyn Meisenbach Communion: Josh Harnish

Opener: Bob Jackson Opener: Bob Jackson

Liturgist: Ron Thebo Liturgist: Gayle Stewart

Greeters: Gayle & Bea Stewart Greeters: Keith & Tammy Kohtz

Ushers: Bob Jackson & Brian Sprouts Ushers: Bob Jackson & Pete Phillips

Coffee: Sue Schloop Coffee: Tammy Kohtz & Janel Hott

January 8 February 12

Opener: Harry Smith Opener: Harry Smith

Liturgist: Paul Schloop Liturgist: Paul Schloop

Greeters: Jon & Sue Jensen & Emma VandeZande Greeters: Doug & Donna Cole

Ushers: Harry Smith & Kelvin Lapham Ushers: Harry Smith & Gayle Stewart

Coffee: Jon & Sue Jensen & Emma VandeZande Coffee: Margaret Smith & Elaine Rewa

January 15 February 19

Opener: Gayle Stewart Opener: Gayle Stewart

Liturgist: Kelvin Lapham Liturgist: Kelvin Lapham

Greeters: Paul & Susan Schloop Greeters: Paul & Robin Nyenhuis

Ushers: Gayle Stewart & Doug Cole Ushers: Gayle Stewart & Brian Sprouts

Coffee: Josh & Lacey Harnish Coffee: Julie Phillips

January 22 February 26

Opener: Wade Greenawalt Opener: Wade Greenawalt

Liturgist: Julie Phillips Liturgist: Julie Phillips

Greeters: Kimberly Wolff Greeters: Gary & Sandi Ragan

Ushers: Wade Greenawalt & Paul Nyenhuis Ushers: Wade Greenawalt & Paul Schloop

Coffee: Dawn Genther Coffee: Brian Middlemiss & Lori Roberts

January 29

Opener: Kelvin Lapham

Liturgist: Gwyn Meisenbach

Greeters: Brian & Cindy Sprouts

Ushers: Kelvin Lapham & Gary Ragan

Coffee: Sandi Ragan

8 January/February 2017

Thank you for your generous Noisy Offerings during November &

December! We supported the Wayland UMC’s Ministry Shares by highlighting

the Board of Ordained Ministry, and Council on Finance and Administration.

The January Noisy Offerings will continue to support the Wayland UMC’s

Ministry Shares. The February Noisy Offerings will support the Strength for

Service Program. The mission of Strength for Service, Inc. is to publish and

provide spiritual and inspirational literature for members of the armed

services, law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMTs/paramedics and other

community servants. Keith Anderson will present this emphasis as he has

done in prior years.

We collected 44 lbs. of food in November and 19 lbs. of donated items in December for the Christian

Neighbors Food Pantry! The requested Food Pantry items for January & February are applesauce & fruit cups.

Troop 97 meets at the Church Mondays, 7:00-8:30 pm.

At the parents’ meeting on December 5, Scoutmaster Scott Dennis and Assistant Scoutmaster Joe Kramer welcomed new parents and presented an overview of our Scouting program, including options for the 2017 Summer Camp and Friends of Scouting program.

Donna Flick‘s Kitchen

Grandma’s Apple Dumplings

2 apples, peeled, cored & quartered 1/2 cup white sugar

1 (8 oz) can refridgerated crescent rolls 1 cup orange juice

1/8 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap each apple piece in one crescent roll. Place seam side down in

an 8x8” baking dish & sprinkle with cinnamon.

In medium saucepan, combine butter, sugar & orange juice. Bring to boil. Remove from heat & stir in

vanilla. Pour over rolls.

Bake for 25 minutes, or until pastry is golden & apples are tender.

This is a simple & delicious recipe for apples wrapped in dough with a orange vanilla sauce. Don’t

forget the ice cream! Enjoy!

9 January/February 2017

Ministry Shares are the financial dimension of our relationship with the West Michigan

Annual Conference. Our 2017 Ministry Shares are $16,493.00. They are equivalent to

12.8% of our church general fund income. Additionally, the district ministry shares are

based on the per-member rate or budget approved by our district conference.

During 2016, we made very positive progress toward paying 100% of our Ministry

Shares! We currently contribute 8% of the monthly General Fund offering total and

several months of Noisy Offerings.

We will continue using our Noisy Offerings in selected months as additional Ministry

Shares contributions. We will invite recipients of Ministry Shares to be guests in worship

so we may be more personally aware of the impact of our giving.

January Evenly distributed to all Ministry Share areas

April Indian Workers Conference

May Grand Rapids District Board of Missions

July Connectional Ministries office

August Higher Education & Campus Ministry

December Board of Ordained Ministry

We report General Fund offerings and other gifts in the bulletin.

These are the calculations for November and December 2016:

11/6 $2,130.00 12/4 $3,055.00

11/13 $1,021.00 12/11 $1,917.16

11/20 $1,973.16 12/18 $2,886.00

11/27 $2,050.00 12/25 $3,310.00

Total General Fund $7,174.16 Total General Fund $11,168.16

8% payment $573.93 8% payment $893.45

Noisy Offering $138.00 Noisy Offering $136.00

Student Day $100.00 Hardings Rewards $632.38

Total payment $811.93 Total payment $1,661.83