July 2015

The Church with a Warm

Heart

First United Methodist Church

Mineral Wells
DAY OF VISIONING WORKSHOP

meets each
Second
Sunday with
the men of
Central UMC.
This months
meeting will be
July 12th @
FUMC.

Books are now

here for our planned
book study of
Autopsy of a
Deceased Church:
12 ways to keep
yours alive, by Thom
S. Rainer.
Chapters are three
to five pages long -short pages taking 20
minutes or less to
read. We plan eight
to 10 weekly
meetings to cover the
entire book with
discussion of ideas
we can use to help
keep our church
alive. Contact Ken
Johnson at 940 3254366 or Pastor
Lianne at 254-7153331 if you are
interested. We will
start soon and
welcome all who
want to learn more
about becoming
disciples!

Our Day of Visioning workshop will be Saturday, July 11, from 10 am

2 pm at the church.
Please make plans to attend this important workshop, led by our
coach, Paula Johnson, who will lead us as we begin to envision,
articulate, and encapsulate the vision that God is giving us as a
congregation about how it is that we will go about making disciples of
Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We will spend time
learning more about what a vision statement is, listening to God and to
one another, and beginning to put words to what it is that God is leading
us to do here in this community. We have a target date of August 4 to
present a proposed statement to the Administrative Board for a vote.
Paula suggested that in preparing for the workshop, we do these
things:
1) Be in earnest prayer regarding this important matter
2) Give serious thought as to how you would answer these three
questions:
a) What does FUMC Mineral Wells do?
b) Who does it do that for?
c) How does it do what it does?
3) If possible, read Andy Stanleys book Making Vision Stick. If not,
please watch his videos (by the same name) found
at: http://andystanley.com/free-resources/
Ken Johnson wrote: In response to our Healthy Church Initiative this
spring, our adopted Prescriptions call for a Day of Visioning to create a
unified statement of how and where God is calling our congregation to
reach the surrounding community. We are asked to spend the days
between now and July 11th in prayer and fasting for this vision. Please
do this by reading the scriptures listed and any others you might find by
searching the Internet using the keywords vision, visioning AND Holy
Bible. Bring your findings and ideas to the workshop so that we may
have many examples of Gods leadership to use in creating this unified
statement for us to follow as we journey to keep our congregation alive.
The scriptures to read are Hebrews 11:1-2; Proverbs 29: 18; Psalms
120: 1; Psalms 123:1; Jeremiah 1:11-13; Joshua 1: 1-9.
Youth members, your ideas are just as important as those of the eldest
members! Please come. Everyone should be present and contributing.
May God continue to work in our lives to make usindividually and
collectivelyinstruments of Gods love and grace.

Healthy Church Initiative Teams

The teams are shaping up to do the work that the
Healthy Church Initiative study has prescribed.
There are still a couple of positions to fill, but here
you will find a list of those teams, their descriptions,
and names of those who've agreed to serve.
Each of the teams will need to meet at least
once during the month of July to begin to
organize and clarify the tasks they've been
charged to do. That meeting's agenda should
include the team choosing a leader, someone
bringing a short devotional and prayer, designating
a note-taker, and then discussion to clarify and
begin making assignments. (Lianne is happy to
attend that initial meeting simply to answer
questions--these are "lay" teams and she is not an
official member of any of them.) Please pray for this
important work!
Mission and Ministry Audit team
Every ministry or community service of the church is
to be evaluated for its effectiveness (in keeping with the
vision statement of the church.) All activities or
programs of the church that are not accomplishing the
mission will be given one year to implement new
strategies or processes to accomplish the mission and
vision. Any ministry unable to do so will be
discontinued. This audit will be completed no later than
September 1, 2015 to be presented to the
Administrative Board.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Ken Johnson
Jeff Williams
Peggy Harvey
Vicki Novak
Kay Tunnell
Discipleship Team

This team is to create a clear discipleship path for

moving people from where they are on their spiritual
journey to becoming fully devoted followers of Jesus
Christ. The discipleship path will be designed for
everyone, whether a non-believer just finding faith or
one who is maturing in faith. The discipleship path will
represent a lifelong process.
The team will discern a discipleship path within a
Wesleyan model by April 1, 2016. It should encourage
all persons to:
*connect and grow in their relationship with Jesus
Christ
*be transformed through spiritual formation and Bible
study
*connect with other believers for prayer, fellowship,
support, and accountability
*be in service to others for the purpose of the mission

and vision
*understand that discipleship is not merely
Christian education, but the work of transforming
lives.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Cindy Blasor
Vicki Gregory
Geneva Dow
Jolene Williams
Jerry Tunnell
Leadership Development Team

This team will create a leadership development

process using resources provided in the HCI Lay
Leadership Development program. By September 1,
2015 they will have a process in place.

1.
2.
3.
4.

Sue Overton
Troy Huseman
Sharon Garcia
Tammy Crawford
Accountable Leadership Team

This team will outline a process by which the

Administrative Board will transition to the Single
Board Model. The team will study resources
provided by the coach that will enable the Board to
govern effectively. The Coach will hold a workshop
by April 2016.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Eddie Gregory
Jeri Calcote
Shauna Bradshaw
Judy Jackson
Judy Myers
Communications Team

This team will conduct an audit of church

communications no later than September 1, 2015.
The areas they are to address are:
*identifying generations within the church and best
practices to communicate with that specific generation
*redesigning and upgrading the church website, as well as
way to best use social media and designating who will be
responsible for which areas of communication
*identifying opportunities for layering communications for
optimal results
*completing an audit of signage
*identifying ways to post additional advertising in
visible local gathering places

1.
2.
3.
4.

Amanda Daniel
David May
Kenzi Huseman
Bobby Richards

Healthy Church Initiative

Teams, continued
Hospitality and Assimilation Team
This team will design and implement a comprehensive
hospitality plan by September 1, 2015. The plan will
contain systems which encourage all guests to be
welcome and, ultimately through invitation, become
actively engaged in the life of the congregation by
including:
*effective initial engagement of first-time guests
*ways that encourage all current members to welcome
guests and invite new people to become actively
engaged
*create a plan for engaging guests before and after
worship and a follow-up to connect relationally
*strategy for building on-going relationships with
guests
* a plan to use social media to promote the church,
using the website and FaceBook to engage guests
* a way to engage guests who use the building for
other purposes

An Invitation to Walk to Emmaus

Lianne will be serving as one of the clergy on
the women's Walk to Emmaus #409, October 14 in Bruceville-Eddy at the Greene Family
Camp. She would love for some of our women
to experience this wonderful spiritual weekend.
If you are interested (either in this Walk or in
Emmaus in general), please contact Lianne. For
more information, talk with Peggy Harvey, Sue
Overton, or Saskia Vaughan who have all
attended walks and would be happy to tell you
more about what to expect.
And lest you feel forgotten, guys, there are
men's walks as well. (Eddie Gregory has
attended!)
Any of you may check out the Central Texas
Emmaus website at
http://www.ctcemmaus.org/index.php to learn
more. You can find an application there as well.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Cathy Johnson
Carolyn Evans
Judy Myers
Vicki Tuggle
Joan McDonald
Community Connection Team

This team will:

*plan and lead the congregation in conducting risktaking initiatives that will be focused outward.
*plan and organize two outwardly-focused events
to reach new people and building relationships.
*establish one partner in ministry opportunity
*ensure that all events have intentional relational
strategies for connecting with others
Suggested reading includes Get Their Name by
Bob Farr and Reach Out by Doug Anderson.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Jason Nesmith
Tonya Gary
Kelli Husman
Patsy Blondell
Saskia Vaughan

Bible Study
After taking off the month of June, the Monday
evening Bible study will resume on July 6th. We
are at Episode 13--Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
Come join us!

Amazon Smile, An Easy Way

to Give to the Church
Its just 177 days until Christmas, and some of
you "overachievers" have probably already
begun shopping. All kidding aside, just a
reminder of a wonderful program that allows you
to give to the church while you shop.
If you use Amazon, this is a very easy way to
donate to our congregation. Simply go to
smileamazon.com. When you sign in, you will
be asked to pick your charity. Do a search for
First United Methodist Church Mineral Wells.
Select that and Amazon will then donate 0.5%
of the price of eligible purchases.

Church T-shirts
We still have a few FUMC t-shirts left in
various sizes. They are $15 each. See Sue
Overton or Lianne if you would like one.

Missionaries Among Us
Kevin Gregory is now
serving as the leader of the
Pre-teen youth group at First
United Methodist Church of
Georgetown.
His group of about 20
arrived Wednesday, June 24th
to stay at our church and do
some painting for us. The
hall and a couple of rooms

upstairs are badly in need of a

fresh coat of paint, and they've
agreed to do that work for us.
Wednesday evening, they
enjoyed supper in the park with
our youth group, and celebrated
the sacrament of Holy Communion
together. They worked Thursday
and Friday. Saturday they headed
to Splash Kingdom in Weatherford

Words fail me! How do I

possibly express my gratitude
for the amazing love offering
you gave me to help with
expenses to attend my sons
wedding in Cancun?
You are the most kind and
generous congregation Ive
ever known, and I cant begin
to offer enough prayers of
thanksgiving for the
opportunity to be in ministry
with you.
God has blessed me in so
many ways during my years in
Mineral Wells, especially
through each of you.
Thank you, thank you, thank
you!
Humbly and gratefully, Lianne

for an outing. They then joined us

for worship on Sunday morning
before heading home. Each night
they worshipped in the chapel.
We give thanks to God for each
of these young people and their
leaders. May God bless their time
here in Mineral Wells that they
may grow as disciples of Jesus the
Christ!

7/6 Vicki Tuggle

7/8 Christian Lawrence,
Leon Stone
7/18 Heather Runyon
7/19 Maxine Brooks
7/27 Jim Dews, Robbie
Pierson
8/1 Jolene Williams
8/4 Yvonne Vaughn, Diane
Warren
8/5 Madge Holder
8/7 Neal Overton

Our youth are back from their

mission trip where they served
in Natchitoches, Louisiana
along with groups from North
Richland Hills FUMC, Epworth
UMC, and Round Rock UMC.
Nineteen youth and 11 adults
attended. They slept at the
FUMC of Natchitoches and
showered at Northwestern
University. During the week we
painted houses, built
wheelchair ramps, help clear
land to be farmed, and even
built a dog run. It was a lot of
fun and we want to thank the
congregation for their prayers
and concerns. We can't wait
until next year when we will
travel to Arkansas.

Its not all work,

sometimes its fun and
games. During an
evening Scavenger Hunt,
the groups visited sites
around Natchitoches, La.
Jolene Williams Team 2
posed for a photo at the
Steel Magnolia House.
Jolene is on the left and
Mineral Wells youth Lake
Blackmer is on the right.

Brady
digging
(left) Vicki
cooking,
and
Mackenzi
and Kenzi
eating
worms(!?)
.

Kaylee
cutting,
Jeff, Kenzi
& Jacob,
and
Brandon

serving.

Above, the Mission Group is ready to go on the trip to Natchitoches, Louisiana, June 14th. The cooks arent
pictured because they left the day before. (Photo by David May)

The End of a Season

As you know, we held a Town Hall meeting Wednesday night to discuss the future of our church's food
pantry. We have a long history of feeding people in this community, but because of changing
circumstances, we came to realize that that season has come to an end. Please know that this
decision was not made impulsively. After prayer and discussion we simply came to realize that our
limited resources would best be used in other ways rather than duplicating a service already provided
by others.
We will continue to provide the BackPack Buddies program in this community, to feed hungry students
on weekends. In fact, under the leadership of Judy Jackson, we will make even more concentrated
efforts to ensure the success of that ministry.
After healthy discussion and questions being asked and answered, those in attendance last night voted
to close the Food Pantry immediately and to offer the remaining food to the Center of Life for use in
their food bank. We will refer any who come looking for assistance to the Center.
Our members may still bring food to church, and we will ensure that it goes to feeding our neighbors.
And, of course, the Center of Life welcomes everyone to come volunteer in their food bank--packing
food bags, working with clients, etc.
Blessings, church! May we continue to walk in faith knowing that God goes with us into our future!

The Center of Life is looking for volunteers. Call Tammy Lovell @ 940-682-5044 or the
Center @ 940 327-8700 to find how your gifts might fit a need.

Prayer Requests
On Sunday mornings we hear prayer requests from the congregation, but in that limited time, we dont
always get full details or even a complete name. So, if you have a prayer request, please be sure to
write it down on a prayer request card (or anything else) and make sure it gets in the offering plate or to
an usher. Its helpful when we are compiling the bulletin each week.