Church News

contemporary music band leader

An Awesome Responsibility

February 19, 2025A Note from Jeff Rone Dear Friends, Constance Cherry is a United Methodist pastor from Indiana with Ohio roots. In 2012, she published an incredibly detailed book about planning worship services and events entitled The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services. When discussing the importance of selecting high quality worship songs, she says this: “Plato once said ‘Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who writes its…
Chili Dessert Fundraiser

Sharing Meals with Gladness

February 12, 2025A Note from Beth Latella Dear Friends, Acts 2 says, “42 The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the community, to their shared meals, and to their prayers…. 44 All the believers were united and shared everything…. 46 Every day, they met together in the temple and ate in their homes. They shared food with gladness and simplicity.” (Common English Bible) This description of the early Jerusalem church warms my heart. It shows community and shared…
encouragement

Living Through Times of Transition

February 5, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, What a start to the year we have had so far. Arctic cold temperatures, devastating urban wildfires, a national championship, a fragile ceasefire deal in the Middle East, a tragic airline crash, and an enormous shift in political power in our country. (All in one month!) I haven’t even mentioned the many things going on in each of our personal lives. If you are feeling a little out of sorts these…
God loves you no matter what!

Human BEINGS

January 29, 2025A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, I once heard it said that we are called human beings, not human doings, and we must remember the importance of simply being. Even Jesus took time away from doing to focus on being. Throughout his public ministry, he modeled the rhythm of retreating for prayer and renewal: spending 40 days in the wilderness after his baptism, withdrawing privately following the feeding of the 5,000, and even stepping away before choosing…
authentic relationships matter, small groups

Authentic Relationships Matter

January 22, 2025A Note from Michael Haney Dear Friends, Matthew 18:20 — “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Way back in 1988, Lisa and I were looking for a church. We were engaged, and as neither of us was regularly attending church at the time, we were looking for a church in which to get married and then attend. One Sunday we visited Plainfield (IN) United Methodist Church. We were greeted…
family canoe trip

Summer Camp Staff Opportunities

Camp Wanake of the East Ohio Conference (UMC) is now recruiting staff for their 2025 summer ministry. They especially seek college students and other young adults who are free in summers (e.g. school teachers) and who have potential for Christian leadership. Peter and Cathy Hahn worked there for several summers many years ago, as did two of their kids. “We can testify that being on summer staff is usually a life-changing, transformative experience.” Camp Wanake’s website contains information about this…

Overcoming Barriers to Success

January 15, 2025A Note from Coshel Caudill Dear HUMC Family, I hope everyone is finding this new year to be full of new adventures and opportunities! For those whom I have not had the chance to meet yet, my name is Coshel Caudill, and I am the Chancel Choir Director for the 9am traditional service. It has been my honor and pleasure to work among such talented people these past few months, and I am excited to continue making music…
The Whole Story message series

The Whole Story

January 8, 2025A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, Those of you who spend a lot of time around young children know that there are two words that get repeated over and over again. The first is NO. Children at this age are figuring out how to exert their power and will in the world, and they soon discover the power they have to refuse whatever is in front of them. And the second is WHY. Children are trying to…
Happy New Year

New Year’s Resolutions

January 3, 2025A Note from Deb Mitchell Dear Friends, Happy New Year! What comes to mind when you hear those words? For an awful lot of folks, it’s the notion of New Year’s resolutions. What comes to mind for me are a LOT of memories tied to various resolutions across the years, typically made at the start of January and unrealized or broken by February at the latest. Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Research shows that about 40% of…