WEEKLY CALENDAR

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 27
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost
10 a.m.    R.L. Pope Class by Richard Herman on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
11 a.m.    Live Worship Online on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
4 p.m.     Youth **In-Person** Cornhole Tourney
6 p.m.     Worship on the Lawn

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 28
9-11 a.m. Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)
10 a.m.    10@10 Devotion on Facebook
5-7 p.m.   Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 29
8 a.m.       Men’s Prayer Meeting Online via Zoom (New Contact: Tim Lyons)
9-11 a.m.  Sewing Ministry
9-11 a.m.  Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)
10 a.m.     10@10 Devotion on Facebook
5-7 p.m.    Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)
5:30 p.m.  Yoga (Jarrett Hall)

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 30
The Weekly Update on Facebook
9-11 a.m. CCM Monthly Drop-Off
10 a.m.    10@10 Devotion on Facebook
6 p.m.      Youth Small Groups Online (contact Rodney Denton)

THURSDAY OCTOBER 1
9-11 a.m.  Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)
10 a.m.     10@10 Devotion on Facebook
5-7 p.m.    Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)

FRIDAY OCTOBER 2
10 a.m.     10@10 Devotion on Facebook

SUNDAY OCTOBER 4
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
10 a.m.     R.L. Pope Class by Chad Carrick on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
11 a.m.     Live Worship Online on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
4 p.m.       Youth In Person
6 p.m.       Worship on the Lawn

PRAYER CONCERNS

If you or a loved one would like to be added to the prayer list, please contact Lorna McCullough at 336-259-5814. If you put a name on the list, please keep in touch to let us know how that person is doing, as names are removed after three weeks.

During the coming week, please pray for…

Carol Vannoy
Susan Kennedy and family
Margie Collins
Carol Kaiser
Josef Walker
Dean Sharpe-Austin
Kay Eanes
Grant Brinkley and Family
Finley Price Family
Andrea Cain and Family
Robert Miller
Dave Ogren
Tyler Oldaker
Tim Priska
Chris Eddinger
Tracy Brinkley
Peace and justice in our nation, state, and city
Our First Responders, Medical Community, and Essential Workers
All those affected by COVID-19
Our UM Missionaries
All Military Personnel
The United Methodist Church

We extend our prayers and sympathy to the family of Dallas Hutchens who died Wednesday September 23, 2020.

WORSHIP ON THE LAWN CONTINUES

We are pleased to offer an additional opportunity for you to share in worship! You are invited to bring your lawn chair and come join others for a time of worship on the church lawn. We will sing familiar hymns and share prayers, scripture readings, and a homily. We hope you will dress casually and find this time to be both inspirational and relaxing. This service allows us to gather safely, yet still come together for worship. Our plans are to continue the service each Sunday evening until the time that we can safely return to the sanctuary.

We will continue live-streaming worship at 11:00 a.m. each Sunday morning on Facebook Live and WGOS 1070 AM.

MONTHLY CCM DROP-OFF 

NEXT EVENT: SEPTEMBER 30
9-11 AM @ COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY MINISTRY

We are hosting monthly “drop-off” donation events at CCM on the last Wednesday of each month. You will pull up to the front of CCM at 10 W. Guilford St. in Thomasville, pop your trunk, and a volunteer will retrieve the donation items.

SPECIFIC ITEMS NEEDED AT THIS TIME:

• Macaroni and cheese
• Peanut butter
• Pasta sauce and noodles

Thank you in advance for supporting our community!

STUDENT REMOTE LEARNING INTERNET ACCESS CAFE  

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP or call the office at 336-472-7718.

A/V VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR WORSHIP 

Do you enjoy photography? Interested in the latest information technology? We need a few good men and women to train as video camera operators. If you have any interest in helping us take this step forward in virtual broadcasting, please notify Susan Frye (sfrye@mumctville.org or 336-472-7718) or Harold Vannoy (hvobwnknob@gmail.com or 336-240-9524) who will get you in touch with the right persons. We will need this help in the near future to execute this critical outreach mission. Thank you!

R.L. POPE CLASS ONLINE LESSONS

SUNDAYS AT 10:00 A.M. on FACEBOOK and WGOS

The R. L. Pope Class is excited to announce the return of new, weekly online lessons. Tune in to WGOS on your radio or computer.

Teaching Schedule:
September 27  Richard Herman
October 4  Chad Carrick
October 11  Allen Brown
October 18  Jim McGhee
October 25  Keith Tobin

PUMPKIN UPDATE

There is mixed news in the pumpkin department. We have made the decision not to host a pumpkin patch in 2020. We do this with the health of the many volunteers in mind–both those who download and those who manage the pumpkin sales and interact with the public. We WILL be setting up our traditional fall harvest photo backdrop in the church yard, and it will be available for photo ops October 10 through November 1. We regret that the change in plans will come as a disappointment, and we appreciate your understanding of a difficult decision. We eagerly anticipate the return of our pumpkin patch in October 2021.

UMC PANEL DISCUSSION: THE THEOLOGICAL ROOTS OF RACISM AND COLONIALISM

A panel discussion held on September 16th served as a springboard for the remainder of UMC 2020 conversations. You can view the recording of the discussion online at UMC.org/endracism.

“The Church is unique in that it has the ability to theologically interpret our current realities, naming where God is present and where humanity is called to help bring about the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. The realities of racism in our communities brings about challenging questions: If we are the people who are called to ‘love our neighbors,’ why do we see such racism within our religious communities and structures? Why does racism abound within the United States and across the world? How can we as Christians partner with God to help bring about liberation and the beloved community?” (From umc.org/en/content/town-hall-theological-roots-of-racism-and-colonialism-9-16-2020)

Visit UMC.org/EndRacism for archives of this and other videos and resources. The topic of colonialism will be revisited at the November 18, 2020, UMC panel discussion.

CLERGY AND STAFF ARE AVAILABLE

You may contact members of the staff directly or by calling the church office at 336-472-7718 and following the instructions on the recording. Here is a list of staff phone extensions and email addresses, for reference:

Danny Leonard, Senior Minister – Ext. 16; dleonard@mumctville.org
Rodney Denton, Minister of Youth and Young Adults – Ext. 18; rdenton@mumctville.org
Lynda Hepler, Minister of Children and Families – Ext. 11; lhepler@mumctville.org
Brian Russell, Director of Contemporary Worship – Ext. 20; brussell@mumctville.org
Danny Frye, Director of Music – Ext. 12; dfrye@mumctville.org
Susan Frye, Secretary – Ext. 14; sfrye@mumctville.org
Peggy May, Financial Secretary/Treasurer – Ext. 13; pmay@mumctville.org
Jarry Oldaker, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds – Ext. 17; joldaker@mumctville.org

FINANCIAL GIVING OPTIONS WHILE THE OFFICE IS CLOSED

Thank you for your ongoing generosity to Memorial. While the office is closed, there are three options for making gifts to Memorial:

The address for mailing checks is:
Memorial UMC
P.O. Box 428
Thomasville, NC 27361-0428

Online gifts can be made securely at https://onrealm.org/mumctville/give/now which can also be accessed from our website homepage.

Electronic funds transfer (EFT) giving can be set up for your recurring tithe. For information on how to arrange this, please email or leave a message for Peggy May, Financial Secretary, at pmay@mumctville.org or 336-472-7718.

FEATURED DEVOTION

We close this week’s eNews with a 10@10 devotion shared by Rodney Denton on August 14, 2020.

From Worriers to Warriors!

So, I have to admit that last week I got a little overwhelmed with all the crazy things that are going on in our world. As if the pandemic and the drama of the election and the economy and the unrest over racial issues were not enough, we began the week with a hurricane and ended it with the most powerful earthquake to affect our state in over 100 years. It has gotten so bad that I have college kids asking me questions about the book of Revelation and the end times (and incidentally, I stand by the passage found  in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5 that describes the end times as coming like a “…thief in the night…,” meaning we will not know when it will happen, so we just need to be faithful and be ready at all times). But anyway, my point is that there are a lot of big events that are going on right now. To top everything off, at my house I have 3 kids that are all headed to Middle School next week, so the anxiety is especially overwhelming for them as well. It is sort of like we are facing all these incredible, giant-sized troubles in our lives right now, and although my faith tells me that God will find a way to work all of this out, it is still a pretty big challenge to know how we are supposed to live life with all that is happening.

So, this morning, in order to foster some hope in the face of all of these giant-sized concerns, I decided to take a look at the most famous giant killer in the Bible—that’s right, the person that Christians have learned about ever since we were kids at VBS—I want to take a look at David, and specifically his fight with the giant, Goliath.

Now, just in case you don’t know the story (it can be found in 1 Samuel 17), David, a shepherd, was the youngest son in a family of 8 brothers, and they all lived in the city of Bethlehem in the nation of Israel.  The nation of Israel during the time when David was a boy was in a major battle with the Philistines. The two armies had found themselves at a deadlock in the battle; neither army could advance, but neither army would retreat either. As was the custom, the Philistines sent out their fiercest warrior, Goliath, and the Israelites were supposed to do the same. These two warriors were to fight as representatives of their respective armies, and the winner of that one-on-one fight would claim victory over the whole battle for their nation. The problem was that Goliath was so intimidating that no one in the Israelite army would go to the battleground to face him. We are told that he was over 9 feet tall and had armor that weighed more than 125 pounds. This was a large, powerful man who conjured fear, anxiety, and worry in the hearts of the most courageous Israelite warrior! For 40 days, Goliath would come out and challenge the Israelite army to send out an opponent, but none would go. Then one day, the shepherd David left his sheep to take food to his brothers who were near the battlefield. He overheard Goliath’s challenges to the army of Israel and blasphemy against Israel’s God. It fired David up, and he ended up volunteering to go and be the warrior to fight the giant. Now, like I said before, David was sort of young and not exactly “warrior material” (in fact, we are told that he was not even big enough to wear the armor that most warriors wore at that time). He was maybe a little impulsive, and even his older brother and the King of Israel, Saul, told him there was no way that he should try to fight Goliath. David’s response in 1 Samuel 17 was:

 “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this unworthy Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Powerful words. So, David prepared for his battle against the mighty Goliath. We are told that all David took into battle was his staff, his sling, and 5 smooth stones in his shepherd bag. In fact, the Bible specifically says that he went down to the river and chose “5 smooth stones.” I find that sort of interesting that he only took 5 stones. Why not 6 or 7, or as many as would fit in his pouch? Then, we find out later that he only needed 1 stone anyway. I also find it interesting that the Bible records the exact number of stones that he took. It could have simply said he took his sling and some rocks into the battle, but instead we know that he “chose 5 smooth stones from the river” for his battle.  Perhaps there is some wisdom in this, I don’t really know.

What I do know is that some of the events that we are living through right now feel like giant-sized opponents: natural disasters, civil unrest, illness, relationships with others, murder hornets, lack of disinfecting wipes, and all the accompanying emotions of fear, anxiety, worry, anger, and isolation that tend to threaten our well-being and test our faith. My hope is that we might be able to learn a little bit from David about how to prepare for battling giants in our lives. Specifically, I wonder which 5 smooth stones we should choose to carry with us into battle. I have chosen 5 smooth stones that I believe that we should carry with us into battle to face our giants, and to help us maintain our peace during these chaotic days. They just happen to all begin with the letter “P”, so, I’m calling these “The 5 P’s to Maintain PEACE.”

P #1: PRAYER

The first stone that we will place in our bag is Prayer. It might seem sort of obvious (and maybe a little contrived) that a minister would say, “You need to pray about it!” But the truth is that prayer is the most powerful weapon that we have against those giant-sized, peace-stealing threats in our lives. The problem is that prayer is often misunderstood. Prayer is more than simply giving God our laundry list of wants and expectations, as if he were some sort of cosmic Santa Claus. So many people have been left disappointed or angry with God because God did not fulfill their prayerful request exactly the way they anticipated. Prayer, to me, is designed to change our hearts, not necessarily our circumstances. God is more interested in developing us into better people, loving us, and having a relationship with us; and sometimes those things can only come as a result of a long and, at times, difficult process of growth.  We may not read about David praying before his battle with Goliath, but it is clear from his tremendous faith and trust in God that he was a man of prayer and he placed firm trust in his dependence on God. Is it possible that peace comes with the knowledge that God is listening to our prayer, and we can trust that He will always have our best interest at heart?

P #2: PERSPECTIVE

The second stone that we need to place in our shepherd’s bag is Perspective. We have been told that there are people who see the glass as “half-empty,” and there are those who see it as “half-full.” The question is, “Is it possible to choose to have a positive perspective in life?” Unlike the majority of the Israelite army, David had the vision that the battle against Goliath was half-full or, in this instance, “half-won.” He truly believed that victory was at hand, and he was willing to set aside his fear and act on his faith that God was willing to protect him during this battle. Now, we are not David, and COVID-19 is not a 9-foot tall human giant, but as battles go with giant adversaries, this battle can often feel just as overwhelming. I have heard different people describe the decisions to social distance, wear masks, and avoid large groups as giving in to fear. David was cautious to go into battle with his staff, his sling, those smooth, perfectly selected stones, and his knowledge of engaging and defeating bears and lions. Just as the path of victory for David led him through doing all that he could to prepare—not out of fear, but out of forethought and wisdom—we too are called to have a positive perspective of vigilance and good judgment and, ultimately, faith in God during our battles. Is it possible to experience peace by maintaining a positive perspective, trusting that God is with us, and knowing that we have the tools necessary to join God in battle and allow him to lead us to victory?

P #3: PRINCIPLES

The third rock that we can place in our shepherd’s bag is Principles. What I mean by this is that we all have those basic rules and virtues that drive us to action and help us make decisions in the face of difficult circumstances. For Christians, these principles come from the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures. It is easy to see how David’s principles of love of God and love of his faith community drove him to be willing to stand up to Goliath. Goliath had been speaking blasphemy about God and threatening David’s friends and family, and David could take no more. We too can find similar guidance in scripture that drives us to battle for the love of God and our neighbor. Is it possible to experience peace when we apply the principles of love and compassion as we battle for the good and right things in this world?

P #4: PLAN

The fourth stone that we will gather from the river will be a Plan. David had a plan in his mind that would lead to defeating the giant that stood in his way. Part of his plan drew from the wisdom that he had developed from his past with powerful lions and bears. Part of his plan grew from the hope of a future, trusting that with God on his side he could not—he would not—be defeated. So, although it could be argued that David seemed sort of impulsive in his eagerness to fight this intimidating giant warrior, the reality is that perhaps David’s plan was less impulse and more a faithful belief that Goliath was no more impressive than any other threat that he had faced. Sometimes we can get so intimidated by the giants in our lives that we lose confidence in ourselves or in God or both. This can lead us to failing to plan, failing to act, and even getting stuck in our lives. Is it possible to experience peace by forming a plan for our lives that not only draws on what we know we are capable of, but also tests our faith so that we may possibly exceed those capabilities as well?

P #5: PEOPLE

Finally, the fifth and final rock that we can place in our Shepherd’s bag are People. We need to be careful of the people we surround ourselves with. Just as David ran into people like Eliab, his older brother who told him to “just go home,” and King Saul who tried to get him to wear armor that didn’t even fit, we have people in our lives who don’t believe in us or who expect us to radically change who we are just to fit in. The people with whom we surround ourselves offer a great deal of input into how confident and courageous we believe we can be. If we surround ourselves with naysayers and cynics, we will more than likely become pessimistic and doubt ourselves. If we surround ourselves with encouragers and people who build us up, we will be more likely to be self-assured and braver. Is it possible to experience more peace when we surround ourselves with people who inspire us and support us through our battles?

So, there we have it! The 5 smooth stones that David took from the river that day as he faced Goliath—the 5 P’s that led David to Peace for his battle. (And Mrs. Todd my 8^th grade English teacher will be proud of my alliteration on this next statement): The Power of Prayer, a Positive Perspective, Pure Principles, a Plan to Prevail, and the Proper People will all provide us with a powerful push for possessing the prize of peace that God has promised us. May we all be able to make the shift from worriers to warriors in all the battles that we face. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, AMEN!

Join us this Sunday for Sunday School and 11 AM for Worship online, and 6 PM worship on the lawn.  Have a great day, take care of one another, and STAY HEALTHY PEOPLE!!!!

YOU CAN WATCH AND READ ALL 10 @ 10 DEVOTIONS HERE.