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Look around you at Jacksonville First United Methodist. We have so much good happening right in our midst. We are a church on fire. There is a song that Hillsong sings called, “Church on Fire.” When I think about all FJUMC is doing we are a church on fire.
Look around at how our church is being the hands and feet of Christ. We are serving hundreds of families meals and groceries weekly, we are tutoring 25 children afterschool on Wednesdays and building relationships with them, we are quilting blankets, making hats, and numerous creations for people all over, we are having Bible studies, LIFE Groups, Youth events, welcoming visitors, and so much more. We were blessed through COVID to be able to connect digitally; and during that time, I believe God was talking to you and preparing you for when we were fully opened to come back on fire. We have refocused programs and created new programs. I believe we have a new energy within us calling us to do Christ’s work throughout the community. Holy Week is one week away and we have many opportunities to worship with us during that week. Invite a friend to come with you. Sunday, April 10th is Palm Sunday and you will be welcomed with palms, the Choir, and the Handbells that morning. Thursday, April 14th is Maundy Thursday when we remember Jesus’ Last Supper with His disciples. Friday, April 15th is a Good Friday, a service to recognize that Jesus paid the ultimate price for us. Sunday, April 17th, Easter Sunday, we will have music and celebration to remember that Jesus rose to have Eternal Life. We will have our Flower Cross so be sure to bring flowers to add to the cross before Church begins. Let’s continue to be a church on fire and offer Christ to the world. How are you going to be involved? Church on Fire Stephanie Dunn Christian Education Coordinator About a month ago, I was sitting in a meeting of Testimony HQ here in the Connection Center. We were meeting to talk about the Testimony HQ program and our Church. Being raised in a Southern Baptist Church, my idea of “testimony” was standing up in church and sharing your salvation experience! It was usually quite dramatic, and involved a lot of Amens from those in the crowd. So, when Pastor Nathan started talking about Testimony HQ, I suspected it involved standing up in Church and letting everyone know how I was saved. I was none too thrilled anticipating that experience. (Not that it was a bad experience.) Or even worse, going door to door in our community to share my experience. Waaaay outside my comfort zone.
Well, come to find out that’s not necessarily what Testimony HQ is about. You’ve heard the expression, everyone has a story. In this case, this is what “testimony” means. You are not expected to share your salvation story necessarily, just your every day story. What does your day look like with Jesus in your life? How does He have your back through every experience, bad or good? Testimony is a good story that is also a God story. The Bible tells us that even Moses at first felt uncomfortable talking about God. The problem is people are not sure how to talk about God in today’s world. Here are some reasons people feel awkward: “I don’t know enough to talk about my faith; I haven’t had a lot of practice; I wouldn’t want to offend people; I let the Pastor do the talking; and I just try to show my faith by my actions.” Are one of these your stories? The stories we tell inside the church community can spill out into our wider community where we live. Especially today, when people are longing to connect and reconnect, we need to be able to “speak about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20). On that Saturday sitting in the Testimony HQ meeting I felt led to proclaim to the group that I was going to personally challenge myself. I announced that on Fridays, Pastor Nathan willing, I would take an hour to go over to the area where The Marketplace distributes food every Friday morning, and I challenged others present. We have literally hundreds of people coming to this church with a need. But, as I found out they all have a “story”. Lisa Henson took the challenge one Friday, and I was able to do it this last Friday. Lisa shared that her experience brought her to tears, tears of joy and tears of compassion. Lisa and I would approach people in the line and ask if they had a specific need that our church could lift up in prayer. Talking about “opening a can of worms”, the stories just spilled out: cancer, addictions, concerns for family, loss, grief, sickness, etc, etc., on and on. Now, I’ll admit, I was not able to share MY story at that time, but I did share the story of MY CHURCH. Jacksonville First wants to know your need, and then pray over those needs. Someone cares enough to pray about it. However, over time, I may have the opportunity to share MY story. Either way, your heart is full to overflowing!! Now, I have some challenges for you. First, the Prayer Team here at JFUMC could use you as a prayer warrior. At the beginning of each week, you will receive a list of current prayer concerns that you can pray over. Easy! We can all talk to God, right? For that opportunity, let Jim Silvi know you want to be part of that Team. Second, Testimony HQ, speak with Pastor Nathan and see where you can “fit” into that program. It’s great. Third, got some spare time on Fridays between 9:30 and noon? Come to the parking lot behind the FLC and prepare to be blessed. Talk to the people, tell them you are part of this Church; and we want to pray for you. It will show them we care, and I promise you God will be right there with you, giving you words of encouragement and support. Just like Moses! Jo Ann Silvi Office Administrator and Finance Manager Back in December you may remember that the JFUMC Youth led a mission project, Christmas Stockings for the Homeless. They did more than put the stockings together, and actually went into downtown Little Rock and delivered them one evening. Lisa Meadows, one of our Youth, was a part of that group and was very moved by the experience. She told me she wanted to share with others the emotions she went through that night.
Lisa, who serves as the Youth Representative on the Testimony HQ Leadership Team, came to me very excited about how much power there is in sharing our stories. I reminded her she already had a story she wanted to share. So together we are going to share how a night of ministry, with different emotions, affected our lives. From Lisa: “When Ms. Be and I went to deliver stocking to the homeless, it was sad seeing all of those people. They all had different stories. They came together to get the food that was brought and were delighted to get something else not food related. It was scary and nerve racking because we were in their world coming to them. It was something different yet gratifying. You got to enjoy handing the stockings out and seeing the delight in their faces when they received it. It was a wonderful time that had a lot of meaning to me.” For me it was a night of anticipation when we loaded up to go deliver the stockings! We were meeting Grace Church from Saline County. They deliver meals every Friday night to the people in the streets of downtown Little Rock. Our Youth serve at our local Mission 5000 every second Wednesday of the month. With that experience of serving our neighbors - they come to us. In delivering the Christmas Stockings - we were going into their world. We saw where some lived (in abandoned buildings, alleyways, cars, and places unseen). They just came out from everywhere as soon as we found a place to park on the street. The response was almost overwhelming! As we started to hand out the stockings, I got to witness two different things – the look of surprise and joy on the stocking recipients’ faces as well as the transformation of Lisa. She went from being uncomfortable approaching the recipients of the stockings to one with a mission eager to greet and share. That night we became the hands and the feet of Christ. I have to be honest, it was hard to do this. But we also have to see things as Christ sees them. We were called to love not judge. It was sad when we ran out of the sixty stockings we had prepared especially when we knew there was still a need to fill. We still had two more locations we hadn’t even gotten to. That night Lisa and I got outside of our comfort zone. God touched us with the stories the stocking recipients shared. They were humbling, moving and filled us with blessings. It was a special memory made. I know when we do something like this again, Lisa and I can share our story, or testimony, why it is so important to do it. Share your experiences and stories! At the time you may not see God using them, but He will somewhere, somehow! Moved by others’ stories, Be Guinn Youth Director and Lay Servant Lisa Meadows Youth Representative This week, as you may have heard, General Conference has been delayed in meeting. Having been scheduled to meet last year but pushed back to this year because of COVID-19, the Conference has once again been delayed due to reasons surrounding COVID. There is much information, opinion, and blame floating around the Church as to why the Conference is not meeting. One thing worth noting is gathering a global Church is quite complicated in a COVID world. While many places are moving past COVID, there are many countries in which COVID is still wreaking havoc and access to vaccination and proper medical care isn’t available. Moreover, travel is quite complicated depending on where one is traveling from and if visas can even be acquired. Furthermore, access to technology (of which many of us take for granted) isn’t widely available either.
But the reason emotions are riding high in the Church is because the main issue facing General Conference is the issue around sexuality. Many thought this General Conference would be the one in which those in disagreement could finally separate from the denomination over irreconcilable differences surrounding varied viewpoints regarding sexuality. In fact, given the delay, the Global Methodist Church (representing the conservative church) has announced that they will go ahead and form their own denomination within the next month even though General Conference is not meeting. In other words, they are not even going to wait to meet in 2024 when the General Conference has been rescheduled. They would rather just leave. I think what saddens me the most regarding this whole situation is the decision of separation. While it has been brewing for years, such dissolution only reflects the current state of our culture. Our culture is deeply divided and the solution offered is not to play in the same sandbox anymore. It is to throw blame to the other side and prop up one’s own opinion as Gospel. Outsiders look at the Church and only see a reflection of the wider culture. We offer no alternative to the world. Is it possible to offer a third option? Is it still possible to show what true community can look like in when we disagree? It doesn’t seem possible on a global level at this point. But I believe it is possible on a local level and possible among us. We all come different walks of life and different opinions. Yet, it is possible to show how the love of God can allow us to remain as one, with one mission and offer a different picture to the world than fragmentation. May God continue to lead us down a faithful path together. Rev. Nathan Kilbourne Senior Pastor Hebrews 13:16
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” Many of you reading this article are aware of the addition made to the Mission 5000 ministry over the last two years. The Marketplace is a food distribution ministry. It was brought about by one man’s question after receiving a meal at Mission 500. You see, the only food he had was in the bag he held in his hand. He asked if we had any other food for the remainder of the week. We were able to gather up some canned goods to help him through until the next meal. Long story short, that one question and many prayers have brought us to where we are today. We are able to provide hot meals twice a week and distribute canned and dry goods, produce, milk and many other food and health items numerous times during the week. It is a wonderful thing we are able to do, and it is all because the support and grace we receive. Just as in John 6:9 when a boy emerges with two fish and five barley loaves of bread, Jesus knows there is plenty. He already knows there will be leftovers. That act provided many lessons. However, the main thing we need to understand is the lesson that God always provides. That story starts with a little boy sharing food with strangers. Isn’t it inspiring to see someone come forward and offer to help others? Often those others become inspired and give of their time or talents. You see we often have a passion or gift we don’t understand. And, it is not really how much we give, but how much love we put into giving. We have an elderly woman who comes to this church every week and receives food. Several weeks ago, she made a banana cake and presented it to our volunteers to show her appreciation. Although many people today frown over presenting food such as a cake, everyone was over the moon. You see, this frail woman used many of the food items we had provided her to share her love to our volunteers. Just as in John 6:9, there was cake left over. Enough so that Troy Guinn had a piece and took the remainder home. Over the past two years we have changed many of the things we would never have questioned before. Making a cake and presenting it to others in public is one. But, what if we tried other things? How about making a phone call to someone you haven’t seen in church lately? Or a birthday card to let a church member know you remembered them? How about offering to give someone a ride? Volunteering to help the youth and children? You see, that cake can be anything you desire it to be. Sharing for others is best quoted by Sir Winston Churchill when he stated “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give” Jim Silvi Lay Servant and Mission 5000 Chairperson |
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308 West Main St. Jacksonville, AR 72076 Church Phone: 501.982.8176 Church Office Hours Monday-Thurs: 9am-5pm |
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