For the last three years, we’ve been journeying through The Great Story. Our goal at the outset was to understand the larger arc of scripture and the grand story of what it is trying to tell us. This is a God of relationships whose primary desire has been to connect with us and help us to connect with all of creation.
As we near the end of this three-year journey, we couldn’t be more excited to share with you some of the plans and vision about what will be coming next, not just for worship but also surrounding our vision of how HUMC will be making an impact on our community.
Stewarding Our Vision & Values Gatherings
We hope you will come and join us for one of the gatherings we’re calling STEWARDING OUR VISION AND VALUES to learn more about our vision for the next couple of years and engage in meaningful conversation with one another on how all of this connects with your story. These gatherings will share more about the details while also providing space for storytelling and engagement around how you can help make this vision a reality.
- Sunday, November 10 – 4:30-6p – focus: teaching and learning – Sanctuary building, Social Hall
- Sunday, November 17 – 1-2:30p – focus: worship & music – Sanctuary building, Social Hall
- Sunday, November 17 – 4:30-6p – ALL 3 focus areas – ONLINE.
- Wednesday, November 20 – 6-7:30p – focus: outreach – Sanctuary building, room 305 (upstairs, education wing) (with tours of outreach in action)
Each gathering will highlight one of the 3 areas of focus:
- Teaching and Learning. We will dig deep in helping to counter some of the harmful ways that scripture and Christian tradition have been used to justify exploitation of power and extensive use of violence. Using the tools of our United Methodist tradition, we will be focused on helping our church engage in meaningful theological reflection and biblical understanding about how we can respond faithfully and responsibly. We will also be working with Dr. Kate Common, using some of her insights from her book Undoing Conquest, as we seek to explore how to take responsibility for the violence of the past and tell better stories in the future. New small groups and learning opportunities around these topics will be launched, and we will be making sure that those in need of ASL interpretation have that available.
- Worship and Music. For 2025-2026, our worship series will be called “The Whole Story.” Building off our work in The Great Story, we will look at the story behind the Bible, how it came to us, and how we can ask meaningful and important questions as we learn and engage this gift. Led by Tony Hagood, our Sanctuary Music Director, and Jeff Rone, our Warehouse 839 Music Director, each service will provide a unique musical experience. There are also plans for our music staff to engage in some special musical Sundays and even concerts outside of Sunday mornings. Finally, we plan to launch our Godly Play program for children ages four through sixth grade in Warehouse 839 as well.
- Outreach. These next two years will see us expanding our partnerships in outreach with some of our strongest ministry partners: Hilliard Farm Market, Hilliard UMC Preschool, Hilliard Kiwanis, and especially the Hilliard Food Pantry Plus. The Hilliard Food Pantry Plus has decided to continue their ministry out of our Warehouse 839 space, and we are planning to launch a learning garden on the west side of our education wing. Work continues on our plans to launch a nonprofit that will serve the needs of our community.
Pick the gathering that speaks to you, or come to more than one! We can’t wait to be in dialogue, storytelling, and conversation with you.