MEMORIAL UMC’s MISSION…

We are CALLED by Christ to GROW in faith, BUILD relationships, and SERVE all people.

CALENDAR

SUNDAY OCTOBER 11
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
10 a.m.   R.L. Pope Class by Allen Brown on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
11 a.m.   Live Worship In Person and Online on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
(Please read below about protocols and how to enter the building.)
4 p.m.     Youth In Person
6 p.m.     Worship on the Lawn

MONDAY OCTOBER 12
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 OCTOBER 13
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)

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 14
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 15
9-11 a.m.  Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)
1:30-6 p.m. Red Cross Blood Drive
10 a.m.     10@10 Devotion on Facebook
5-7 p.m.    Internet Access for Students (Fellowship Hall)

FRIDAY OCTOBER 16
10 a.m.     10@10 Devotion on Facebook

SUNDAY OCTOBER 18
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
10 a.m.     R.L. Pope Class by Jim McGhee on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
11 a.m.     Live Worship In Person and Online on Facebook and WGOS AM 1070
4 p.m.       Youth In Person
6 p.m.       Worship on the Lawn

UPCOMING
October 28 Drop-Off Donations @ CCM

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…

Ruthie Burroughs
Randy Flint
James Carmichael
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
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 Nancy Jones and family on the death of Nancy’s mother, Pearl Beck Brinkley, October 1, 2020. The obituary for Pearl can be read at www.wrightfs.com.

INDOOR AND ONLINE MORNING WORSHIP CONTINUES 

SUNDAY OCTOBER 11
11:00 AM 
MUMC ** SANCTUARY** AND ONLINE
 

We are excited to offer an opportunity to gather for in person worship Sunday mornings at 11 a.m.! Throughout this pandemic, our leaders have been vigilant in their efforts to hold the safety of everyone as a priority. Every effort has been made to provide a safe environment for our time together. It also will be essential for us to adhere to some safety practices. We ask for your patience as we move through uncharted territory. 

We realize that some of you are not yet comfortable with gathering indoors, and we honor that choice. We will continue to offer the service on Facebook Live and WGOS. Some may choose to join us for Worship on the Lawn each Sunday evening at 6 p.m.

WHAT TO EXPECT AT INDOOR WORSHIP:

  • Access to the Sanctuary is through the Randolph Street doors only.  The designated entrance for those needing the elevator will be the door under the walkway.
  • You’ll be greeted upon entering the church and asked a few questions.
  • Face masks will be required for everyone.
  • Some pews will be blocked to maintain social distancing; an usher will help direct you.
  • Out of respect for others, please refrain from shaking hands or hugging.
  • Offering plates will be available at the entrance and exit of the sanctuary.
  • When services end, attendees will be dismissed by section to avoid hallway congestion.
  • No nursery staff will be present, but the nursery space will be available.
  • Sunday school will not be offered at this time.

WORSHIP ON THE LAWN 

CHURCH LAWN
SUNDAYS AT 6:00 PM
 
Bring your lawn chair and come join others for a time of worship on the church lawn. We 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. We plan to continue the service each Sunday evening as weather allows.

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:
October 11  Allen Brown
October 18  Jim McGhee
October 25  Keith Tobin

ON BEING THE SALT

A Prayer for Civility in a Divisive World
From United Methodist Now: Inspiration for Daily Living, Monday October 5, 2020

Everywhere we turn these days we see and hear the reminders of a world divided on so many issues.

Social media is full of heated debates and angry words.

God, Help us remember that we are made in Your image.

Guide our words towards civility and wisdom in discourse and discussion.

Teach us as people of faith, to model love for our neighbors in all conversations, whether public or private.

You have called us to be salt and light to our nation and to the world.

Empower us to be peacemakers with our words.

Amen

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
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 September 4, 2020.

Tied Down

I have to tell you, sometimes I feel like I am just not cut out for some of this parenting stuff—especially now that we are doing school stuff at home and my job description has expanded to teaching assistant (or, as my kids call it – taskmaster), ensuring that they keep up with all of their assignments! I know I keep sharing about the ridiculous stuff that my kids do here in my 10 @ 10s, but there is just so much that happens in my house that helps me to better understand life and faith. Now, one of my kids (who will remain nameless because a few weeks ago, I got in trouble for calling him out in a 10 @ 10 where an iPhone and bathtub were involved—and he did not like it)…so, this particular kid who, at this point, does not seem to have the best work ethic sort of misled me.

I was making my random sweep through the house ensuring that no one needed help and that everything was getting done and executing my new “lunch lady” duties by taking lunch orders. I checked on two of my kids and everything was going according to plan. When I checked on the third, I found him lying on my bed, propped up with 4-5 pillows behind him, TV remote in one hand, phone in the other, Chromebook cast aside. YouTube videos were playing on the TV, and I’m pretty sure that some game was being played on his phone. I tentatively asked, as I always do, “How are things going?” He responded, “I’m doing great just got finished with a Zoom call for my Chorus class.” Since it was right at lunchtime, I just ignored the host of distractions from schoolwork that he seemed to be engaged in and asked a follow-up question: “Do you have everything caught up?” His response was, “I’ve been working hard! I have a lot done!” So, this was not exactly the wording I was looking for, but, giving him the benefit of the doubt, I took it that what he meant was, “Yes, I’m all caught up!” Wishful thinking on my part! So, this routine of me asking and getting a similarly vague reply of how hard he has been working went on for a few more days. As many of you know, this is just the first week of school. So, by Friday, Martha Jo and I got a text message from the English Language Arts (or ELA) teacher: “Just checking on (please insert name of my eldest son HERE). He has a few outstanding assignments, and I didn’t want him to get too far behind.” (Teachers are awesome and simply do not get paid enough to deal with this junk from kids that aren’t even their own.) It turns out that all that “working hard” that he had been claiming he was doing had somehow gotten him 15 assignments behind. ??? Needless to say, my bedroom—any bedroom, for that matter—for all students at the newly formed “Dentonville Improvised, Residential, Preparatory School” (D.I.R.P.S.) is no longer open to schoolwork activities. Lesson learned!

But the part of this situation that disturbed me the most is that Gracen’s answers to me—“ I’ve been working hard,” and “I’ve gotten a lot done”—may be technically the truth, but it was certainly not the answer to the question that I was asking, nor was it the whole truth of his situation. He had been working harder than he had been all summer (which, due to the pandemic, mainly consisted of wandering around the house and occasionally starting a fight with one of his siblings). And, in his defense, he had gotten assignments done in other classes—just not in ELA. If it had not been for the teacher casting some light on the actual truth, he might have continued to camp out on my bed and ignore assignments until he was irrecoverably behind for the quarter.

This idea that I can so easily have the wool pulled over my eyes by an answer that is technically the truth has really bothered me. He wasn’t necessarily lying, but he definitely wasn’t telling the truth either. I get sort of the same feeling when I watch political ads and some news media these days. Now, I have to be careful here, because I’m not trying to make any sort of political statement. But I am concerned that the games that are played by both the liberal and conservative media are showing up in the way my children are approaching life and truth. We are living in a world where the same set of facts can be taken by very skillful, persuasive people, and completely different conclusions can be drawn. I can still hear my son telling me, “I’ve been working hard.” (Harder than what?) “I have gotten a lot done.” (That doesn’t necessarily mean he was doing schoolwork; it could mean he has gotten a lot done working through his YouTube “Watch Later” list.) Similarly, “the truth,” as it is presented to us through various media outlets, is often edited down in order to present whatever conclusion the media wants to bring the audience to, not to necessarily present the reality of the situation (“I’ve gotten a lot done,” leaving out, “I’m only 15 assignments down in one class.”) I’m questioning: Where does truth and integrity fit in in this world of spin, half-truths, disinformation, propaganda, and confirmation bias? More importantly, how does this situation affect our concept of truth and integrity? Has the way the world handles information spilled over into influencing how we approach truth? Is honesty a concept that has given way to alternative facts and fake news? Should “fact-checking” even need to be a thing? It sure seems like my kids are being influenced by all of this! My fear is that perhaps we all are being affected by this new subtle form of community-destroying, deceptive social ethics.

God wants his people to live lives of integrity and truth, but it seems so difficult to do these days without A LOT of effort and challenge on our part. Staying connected to our faith and community is more important than ever. It seems like we become more and more divided over every single issue that presents itself. We have traded scriptural truth for convenient truth, and we have abandoned common ground with one another for a battleground of opposing opinions and viewpoints. But the good news in all of this is that there is power in living a life of integrity and serving the concept of TRUTH, especially in a world that seems to have none. As Christians, we need to put our trust in God’s Word as well as one another in order to seek truth. It is almost as if we have found ourselves trapped in a prison that continually seeks to divide us and pull us further and further from our faith community. But we can do better! We can break free from the conflict and discord. There is a passage in Scripture found in the Gospel of John, Chapter 8, Verses 31-32 that I think can help us out on this subject. The context of this passage is Jesus debating with the Pharisees, who happen to be the highly regarded religious leaders of the time, about his claim to be the “Light of the World.” To a first-century, Jewish ear, this was a claim by Jesus that he was God, and they simply did not believe Him, even though it was the TRUTH. This is what the passage says:

31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. 32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“The TRUTH will set you free!” What Jesus is suggesting here is that believing in the TRUTH that his offer of God’s love and forgiveness of sins will not only FREE us from sin, but it will FREE us to do great things in this world and to live a life of integrity. Yes, His TRUTH will set you FREE! Free to love your neighbor as yourself. Free to serve God. Free to be guided by the Holy Spirit. Free to walk humbly with your God.

This whole thing reminds me of a story I heard recently about elephants in Southeast Asia. Although elephants are arguably one of the strongest animals on the planet, elephants in captivity can be controlled and constrained with nothing more than a small rope tied to a stick driven into the ground. In Southeast Asia, elephants are still used as a mode of transportation. Tourists to this area are often amazed at the fact that the elephant handlers only use small ropes to keep an elephant in place.

When asked about this, the reason that is provided is that the handlers start the process when the elephants are very young and they tie the baby elephants to huge tree trunks with large ropes. At first, the elephants pull and tug and fight until they eventually tire out. They soon learn that they cannot move the tree and that the rope will not break. The handlers then begin to reduce the size of the ropes and the sticks and eventually the elephants stop tugging at them and just give up. Finally, it doesn’t matter how big the rope or the stick is, the elephant just passively follows along. They are conditioned to believe that when they are tied by a rope, they are simply unable break free. They are trapped in a prison created solely in their mind. They have stopped believing in the truth of their own power and strength, because they believe they cannot change their situation. It may look silly to people who are standing back and watching as an 8,000-pound, huge, muscular beast is led around by a small rope, but that is how powerful a mental prison can be.

A prison of their own mind? It’s sort of like how we have denied the truth of our own ability and the power that our faith provides us and have surrendered ourselves to our own mental prisons. It makes me want to shake off the mental restraints that keep me from being the man that I was meant to be! But to do that, the first step is to figure out what those untrue beliefs are that keep me from being free.

I think for most of us, one lie that holds us back is just that we don’t think we have what it takes to make a difference in this world. We settle for what other people think about us or tell us and forget what God might be calling us to do. The low expectations that other people have for us tell us we’re too weak, are unable, or are simply wrong. Or maybe we are told that we can just wait until later to do anything that really matters. Those are some big lies. For those of us who have invited Jesus Christ to set us free, we have the most powerful force in existence on our side to make this world a better place. So many times in the Bible, God reminds us that His strength is there for us, leading us, guiding us, supporting us, setting us free.

So, you know what? I don’t want another day to go by with any of you feeling like you are being held back by the lie of a weak little rope. The truth about what God thinks of His people is what will set us free. So, what is the truth? The truth is that together, as a community of faith, we can do far more than people expect. But we have to be willing to work together. The way we embrace integrity in our lives will become a source of strength. The truth is, God has big plans for you, and when we free ourselves from the manipulation we get from the world and engage those plans and pursue God, we will be amazed at the incredible things that we can accomplish together. Are you ready to break those things that hold you back? Are you ready to invest in truth and integrity? Are you ready to allow God to work through you? Are you ready to do what you have been put on this earth to do? In the words of Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, “Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right.” Go and join God to make this world a better place through the truth of His love and compassion!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Join us for worship this Sunday at 10 a.m. for Sunday School on WGOS and Facebook Live, at 11 a.m. for worship IN PERSON and online on WGOS 1070 AM and Facebook Live, and at 6 p.m. for 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