fenton united methodist church newsletter october/november...

Fenton United Methodist Church Newsletter October/November Edition 2015

www.fentonumc.com

God Believes In YouGod Believes In YouGod Believes In YouGod Believes In You by Jeff Jaggersby Jeff Jaggersby Jeff Jaggersby Jeff Jaggers

MAINSPRING Keeping our congregation in sync with God and each other

The Theme for this edition of The Mainspring is stewardship.

Most of the time when church people hear the word,

two things happen concurrently: our blood pressure

soars to several points and our minds go to money; as in,

“Oh no, the pastor is going to demand more money…

again!”

Actually, our minds should go to cows.

The etymology of stewardship is from an old English

word, stigweard meaning the keeper of the cattle pen. A

stigweard was the guy who was entrusted with the care

and feeding of the cattle belonging to the master of the

estate.

Believe it or not, to be a stigweard was both a great

honor and a tremendous responsibility. The stigweard

was no slouch. Think of the s+gweard as

the person to whom the thoroughbred

race horse owner entrusts the care of

her or his best horses, or the mechanic

that the NASCAR driver entrusts his or

her vehicle. The stigweard was entrusted

to care for the master’s cattle as if they

were his own, but, of course, they ultimately belonged to

the master of the estate. In old English economy, cattle

were not just food, they were currency— wealth; so, the

master was entrusting his wealth to the stigweard.

Jesus told a parable about a rich man and three stewards

to whom he entrusted his wealth. To one, the rich man

gave a whole lot of money, and the other two, lesser

amounts. Then the rich man left for several months, or

even years, expecting the stewards to care for the money

as if it were their own. And when the rich man came back,

the first two stewards had worked to grow the amount of

money for their master. The third steward didn’t do anything

with the amount which was entrusted to him. The rich

man commended the first two stewards and rewarded

them. The third steward he called “evil” and “lazy” and

sent him packing.

God has made us His stewards. God has entrusted us

with a portion of God’s wealth: time, talents, treasure

and terra (earth/creation). All that we have has been

given to us as a gift of God’s grace: the time, talents,

money, mind, body and earth that we either spend, waste,

save, throw away, or nurture. It is our great honor and

responsibility to use these gifts from God in alignment

with God’s love, God’s will, and God’s purposes. That is

stewardship. It is a lifelong process of prac+cing aligning

In short, stewardship is discipleship.

I once read somewhere that stewardship is everything

we do after we say, “I believe.” That makes

sense to me. As a follower of Jesus Christ,

I want to align my thoughts, my words,

my values, my priorities, and all that I have

been given with the love, will, and purposes

of God. Saying it that way somehow sounds

a lot more spiritual than, “I have to muck

out the cow pen.”

It is an awesome and humbling thing to know that God

believes in you and me so much that He trusts us with

the care of His riches. In gratitude for all that we have

been given by God, and in humble response to God’s faith

in us, let us always strive to align our time, our talents,

our wealth, our bodies, our minds, and our care of the

earth with the love, will, and purposes of God. Thanks be

to God!

And, as always, I am proud to be with you on the journey,

Jeff Jaggers

Lead Pastor

Stewardship is

everything we do a�er

we say, “I believe.”


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Stewardship and Community Outreach By: Brooke Caldwell

Stewardship is kind of a big, scary word, isn’t it? It’s sort of a “church word” that I’m not sure

we all know the meaning of, and we’re kind of scared to ask because we don’t want to sound

“unspiritual” or like we don’t know what we’re talking about. At least, this is how I always felt when

I would hear the word stewardship. When I was asked to write an article about it, that made me

really nervous! That was, until I figured out what stewardship really was and then I knew exactly

what I wanted to say about it!

Stewardship is actually a pretty simple concept. It is aligning your time, talents, and treasures

with the purposes of God. So when we think about it that way, and not just as a big “church” word,

suddenly that task of being a steward of God gets a lot less complicated. You may even find out

that you have been being a steward of God and didn't even know that was what you were doing!

If, however, you hear that definition and realize that your life doesn’t really line up with that

description, then I have news for you: it can change! It is not that hard to get involved and to care

about and be passionate about what God is passionate about! Now, that doesn’t mean that you have

to do everything, or care about everything that God cares about because that would be super overwhelming

and impossible! What I am challenging you to do though is to find one thing that you are passionate about, that God has placed a call on your life in, and do it!

Community Outreach is that thing for me. When I think of what I can do to use my time and

my talents to serve God, that is exactly it! Making kids smile, being a part of city boards, going to

city meetings, and doing it all in the name of Jesus, is my dream that I get to live out! I just encourage

each of you to spend some time in prayer finding out what piece of God’s heart that you have, and

then get out and do something!

OUTREACH


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OUTREACH

Call for Candy and

Volunteers! For “An Event So Good… It’s Scary”, held at FUMC Family Life Center, we need candy to hand out to the kids for the Trick or Treat Trail! Please bring individually wrapped candy and “feed” them to the garbage monsters located in the Narthex and by the entrance of the Family Life Center! In addition, we will also be looking for volunteers to

the kids coming to the event.

Call for Volunteers! We are looking for many volunteers to help run Upward basketball this season at FUMC! The first thing we need help with are the registration nights. These are taking place November 17 & 19 from 6-8pm. For these nights we need volunteers to help with uniform sizing, running drills, and media help! Then, for the season of Upward which begins January 23, we need many volunteers in several areas: prayer, half-time devotions, coaches, referees, and concessions! If you are interested in any of the above, please contact Brooke Caldwell for more information: [email protected].

Carillion Handbell

Ensemble Mondays at 7:15pm If you are looking for a noteworthy way to praise God during worship, you are invited to join us! Contact: Lisa Pearson, (810) 569-3451 or [email protected].

Chancel Choir Thursdays at 7:00pm If you’re new or one of those that joins us from time to time — please search your heart and consider joining us full t ime! We a lways welcome new members and would love to have you jo in u s th i s f a l l . Contac t : Dan Mikat, (734) 995-4581.


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RELATIONALSTEWARDSHIP…BYMICHELLEFORSYTH

As a seminary student, I am constantly being inundated with

biblical information, church doctrine and polity, homiletics, et

cetera. Obviously, this is all valuable information but some of

it is not practical ministry. As seminary students, we are

concerned about God’s people. Essentially, we are in semi-

nary because we want to be God’s vessels to offer hope, to

extend grace, to care and love God’s people, and to be in rela-

tionships the way God intended us to be.

Jason Vickers, one of my favorite professors of theology, al-

ways tells his students, and I am paraphrasing here, “If you

don’t hear anything else I say during our time together, please

listen to this: go and be in community with one another.” He

stresses the importance of establishing relationships, making

friends, connecting with one another. He is a remarkable pro-

fessor because he practices what he “lectures”. He always in-

vites his students out to dinner after class. Over dinner we bond

and break bread together. I always find this time to be a won-

derful experience with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

God created us as relational beings. So we must view relationships as a

stewardship to initiate, maintain, and promote the glory of God. There- fore,

we are responsible for our relationship with God, and our relationships with those that surround us. I am not

dismissing the importance of monetary gifts. Our ministries would not survive without our financial offer-

ings. But the gift that I am speaking of, is taking care of one another, and building long-lasting relationships

that cultivate caring communities that will bring hope to the world. What would the world look like if we

cared for God’s creation that God entrusted to us? I believe that the Church would turn from task-driven to

relationship-driven.

Rick Lawrence published a fascinating study conducted of ten thousand youth group teens in Group Maga-

zine. The teens were asked, “If you were choosing a church, how important would the following things

be?” The first two responses, both of which ranked well above all the others, were: a welcoming environ-

ment where I can be myself (73%), and quality relationships with teenagers (70%). Mark DeVries, author of

Sustainable Youth Ministry claims when teens are thinking about the church they might want to be a part of,

they are not thinking about— at least not initially— the adult leaders. They instead are asking, “Are these

the kind of people I would like to be friends with?” I believe that this speaks volumes about how important fel-

lowship is. Consequently, money is not necessarily the primary issue in our churches. Perhaps the deeper

issue is the forming of relationships. Having strong relationships with one another and with those in our

communities is vital for a sustainable ministry. Our emerging generation is yearning to belong. So, let us

be the church with a ministry that is rooted in love. Love for God and for others. Let us be a church that seeks

the wellbeing of others and invites them to be in a relationship with us.

Yours in Christ Jesus,

Michelle Forsyth

Photo Credit: Lisa Okoniewski


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EQUAL EXCHANGE FAIR TRADE PROGRAM

Equal Exchange (EE) is a worker-owned co-operative, an alternative business model based on democratic principles. Established in 1986, Equal Exchange is located in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. EE co-operative is supported by 12 different denominations, including the United Methodist Church (UMC). The United Methodist Church has been affiliated with Equal Exchange since 2002. Equal Exchange (EE) supports sustainable agriculture and development. EE provides aid to impoverished farmers by trading fairly with coffee, tea, and cacao farmer co-operatives in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Equal Exchange donates 15 cents per pound of products sold through the United Methodist Church to UMCOR’s agriculture and farm division. The amount donated to UMCOR from EE each year is over $18,000. In addition to the above mentioned benefits of EE sales, proceeds from the sales of EE products sold at Fenton UMC are donated to the Food Resource Bank. Foods Resource Bank (FRB) works to alleviate world hunger by raising money to help people in developing countries grow their own food. Be sure to check out the EE products in the church office!

NOTES FROM GOD ON STEWARDSHIP Faithful Stewardship motivates others to put God first.

“For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians…

and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action.”

2 Corinthians 9:12

CONNECTIONAL GIVING BY JEFF JAGGERS

Episcopal Fund

Bishops have always had a very special role in our church… elected and consecrated

to speak to the church… and from the church. The apostle Paul called it

“a noble task,” but it is practical, too, since our bishops oversee and promote

the church.

When do you Worship? Thoughts by: Mary Wermuth, Worship Committee Chair

Sunday Worship involves song, prayer, Bible readings, sermon, sharing. Or is Sunday Worship a social activity?

Are we aware of connecting and being with God in Sunday Worship? A “YES” answer means the Sunday

sharing of Worship adds strength and dimension to daily personal worship.

What does Monday through Saturday Worship involve? Most people say that grace before meals is a worship

of giving thanks to the Lord for providing for our needs. What about the many 15-30 seconds each day that

we stop just to praise God for sunshine, a good friend who stopped by, for strength to get through a difficult

time/ Do we add a song in our hearts to those moments? Do we find some scripture to read? Think of all

the items and mementos we have to remind us of the people that we love. What mementos of God’s Love do

we have to daily remind us to rejoice in His Love for us?

We need to remember that our daily worship is our personal faith in action. Daily worship at table, in quiet

moments, in sunshine or in rain gives us disciples of Christ to help others to become disciples of Christ to

transform our community and the world.

Welcome to worship always!


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“M��J��C� ��!

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119 S. Leroy St. Fenton, MI. 48430 Address Service Requested

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Find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/FentonUMC

If you would like to include an ad into our Fenton UMC Mainspring, please email our newsletter editor, Lisa

Okoniewski at [email protected].

Submissions are due by the 15th of Nov. Sunday School Kick Off Party, 2015

On Sunday, September 13th we celebrated the start of a new school year

with our Sunday School Kick Off Party! The kids were so excited to be

back with their friends at church after a summer of busyness and activities.

We are looking forward to the exciting year ahead in Sunday School! We

began with a fun day of meeting our teachers and friends, singing songs,

eating delicious donuts, jumping in bounce houses and playing new games!

We also introduced the new unit "BELIEVE" where we will discover what

we believe about God and how that effects the way we act and treat others.

We hope you can join us!

- Mallory Lyman, Children's Ministry Director

fenton united methodist church newsletter october/november...

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