Fall 2021: Nourishing Faith
The crisp of fall brings with it a sense of new beginnings.
This is a dense time.
Our hearts and prayers are with children and school personnel as they enter the unknown of this school year.
We pray for their safety. We are keenly aware of the vulnerability of their precious bodies. May God bless and keep our children and those who teach and feed and bless them well.
Our nation is feeling yet and still the sense of fracture. The controversies swirling over masks and vaccinations feels surreal.
As followers of the Way of Jesus, we believe that caring for our neighbors as ourselves is non-negotiable core of our being.
May God continue to breathe and bless through those who minister to others as health care professionals, and may God bless each of us as we mask and receive vaccines if we are able. There are children in our midst and those with compromised immune systems that must be protected.
Our neighborhood continues to find wisdom and ground following the trauma of the uprisings and the continued trauma of racial injustice. Sharing the National Night Out together was balm. Gathering for Weed and Water Wednesdays has been healing.
Beer and Bible (and tea! and bagels!) is time of conversation about faith and life has been a gift. We are in ministry in the heart of the Longfellow neighborhood. This is no small power.
Our church is opening up after the pandemic. We are learning the ways of hybrid worship and new pastoral leadership. We are opening ourselves to possibility and to growth in the Spirit.
The air is full of life and the energy brought by new beginnings.
May God bless and keep us all in this time.
Stay safe. Give thanks to God for people who care and bless and remind us we are not alone.
Tune in for worship and for Wednesday morning prayer services. Support your church with your prayers, presence, service, witness, and gifts.
Life is stirring.
Thanks be to God. Pastor Elizabeth
Planting seeds of faith starts early, never stops growing
By Nan Rice and Nancy Meisel Youngman
A small group met during the summer to plan how faith will be nourished in the new church year.
Faith Formation kicks off on Rally Day, September 12, with returning classes and some new opportunities.
Morning Table will start the day with coffee, juice, and treats available in the Fellowship Hall starting at 8:45 am. Classes will start at 9:00 am and end at 9:45 am.
Toddler Mini-Workshops
A new kind of Sunday School for toddlers (starting at age 2) through pre- schoolers up to grade pre-K will meet on Sundays in September, October, and December.
Each month offers a different theme featuring songs, social time, crafts, a Bible verse, story, and snack at each “mini-workshop.” See the schedule below.
Parents are welcome to stay with their children or leave, returning to pick up children at 9:45.
Children’s Sunday School
Children from kindergarten to age 12 will have Sunday School with teacher and artist, Deb Fors. Her assistant, Tim Rice, will ensure that there are delicious snacks to go with the lessons and projects. Deb plans to coordinate her lessons with Pastor Elizabeth’s scripture readings and sermons.
Adult Class
Mary Ellen Reetz-Pegues will continue to offer Adult Class for 18- to 100-year-olds from 9:00 to 9:45 am. She will use the same or similar materials to those she used last year.
All our teachers have had background checks and have taken the Safe Gatherings course recommended by the Minnesota UMC Conference.
Youth Events
Youth activities are opportunities for youth to not only nourish faith but also to serve and to bond with others. All youth and their friends are invited to these events.
The first is a cookout and movie in September. Two October events include tentatively hanging out at ValleyScare plus coming to church the next day for Harvest Sunday -- wearing costumes and ready for fun.
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fall sermon and all church read series
Stay Awake with Epworth!
By Rev. Elizabeth Macaulay
This fall we will be reading together the book Staying Awake: The Gospel for Changemakers by Rev. Tyler Sit,
Rev. Sit is the pastor at New City Church in the Powderhorn neighborhood of Minneapolis. Staying Awake invites church members to consider essential practices and intentions as we practice discipleship.
The chapters for his book will be considered during worship. You can order the book on Amazon or from your favorite independent bookseller.
Stay Awake with Epworth UMC! Join in considering how your faith calls you to life.
Cultivating Connection
Every Wednesday you are invited to join Pastor Elizabeth for twenty minutes of prayer and connection.
At 8:00 AM on Facebook (@EpworthUMCMPLS) there is time to pray together about community concerns as well as our joys and challenges.
During this time of pandemic distancing, it is a gift to gather together.
You can share prayer concerns in the comment line on Facebook or email your prayer concerns by clicking here.
Prayer is powerful connection.
source of healing, restoring, re-grounding
By Donald Hammen, Father's Day 2021
During my first two years at Simpson College (1962 thru 1964), Indianola, IA, specifically 1962-63, I was the first President of the newly formed Student Christian Movement. Along with guidance from the new College Chaplain and the newly formed leadership council of the Student Christian Movement two things happened that left an impression on my life even today.
First, the Chaplain, myself and the leadership council participated in a study discussion group formed around the book The Miracle of Dialogue by Reuel Howe. I still have that book with underlines, writing in the margins.
We engaged in the study for education and action connected with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement of that time. We anticipated that we could encounter opposition on our small, mostly white college campus and we felt that dialogue among ourselves and others would be the best approach.
Visiting my parents’ house in Des Moines, I attempted to explain to my father what we were doing to get involved with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. This did not set well with my father. It triggered in him the notion that Simpson College was turning me into a Communist. This set off a verbal battle from which neither one of us would back down. It went on for years and sabotaged any meaningful relationship we had experienced up to that point in time.
Fast forward to the Summer of 1970 when I was driving through Des Moines on my way to Minneapolis. Something deep inside of me led me to pull off the road and drive to my parents’ house. My mother was not home but I found my father in the basement.
I told my father that I was tired of the verbal battles that had pushed us apart. I told him that I just wanted him to be my father and me be his son. He seemed to understand what I was saying and asking. We hugged. Things were not instantly perfect going forward but I felt that deep within my soul. in that moment, love did prevail.
Love can be simple. One of my Minneapolis neighbors on the block where I live have placed a yard sign containing these words by Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can drive out hate.”
How ironic that this insight from Dr. King was on display one summer evening in 1970 enabling my father and me to reconnect so he could be my father and I could be his son once again.
During the last year or two of my father's life, we were best of friends. I was at his bedside holding his hand when he died along with my sister-in-law, a Hospice Home Health aide, and his cat.
Today by way of ZOOM I am a participant in a group called Conversations from the Heart, conversations that can open the door to connection and dialogue. It is largely based on Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. We meet every Wednesday.
It is my effort to connect once again with that deep sense of love within me that led me to pull off the road one Summer in 1970 in pursuit of a restored relationship with my father. A sense of love that can ultimately show up in how I speak, how I listen and to what I attend in my daily life.
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