Growing Disciples
Summer Events!
We’ve got some great stuff planned this summer to connect, play, serve, pray, and learn!
The Lost Years
April 19, 2023A Note from Pastor Jenny Smith Dear Friends, Anyone else feel like they lost the last three years of their life? I intellectually know March 2020-March 2023 happened. My body knows it too. There’s plenty of leftover trauma vibes running around my nervous system to prove it. My Google calendar is full of evidence I lived these last three years. Somehow my children grew taller. My Amazon Photos account even says I have 23,188 photos and videos during…
Town Hall Meeting: Action Steps
Whether you were able to attend the State of the Church Town Hall Meeting or not, we are SO grateful that you are interested in taking some action steps on these issues. Your participation means more than you know, and your engagement will help us create our future as a church. Thank you! Action Step Ideas We invite you to prayerfully consider what God is inviting you to do in the days to come. Choose the step or steps that…
Becoming the Church the World Needs
November 9, 2022A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I remember the moment like it was yesterday. I was 10 years old, and my family and I were on our way out of First United Methodist Church for the day. Rev. Brooks, the retired minister who attended our church, stopped me in the hallway. “Mark my word, April… I think one day you are going to be a minister.” I don’t remember exactly what I said to him in that…
Letting Go
October 12, 2022A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, I’ve always been fond of the season of fall. The cooler, crisp temperatures. The changing colors of the leaves. The start of my Fantasy Football League (and all the delightful trash talking that comes with it). The pumpkin spice EVERYTHING. (Whoever brought the pumpkin spice donuts to church last week… you are very appreciated!) And all the amazing Halloween decorations, costumes, and fabulous candy. (It’s not too late to join us…
Growing Older & Loving Every Minute of It
October 5, 2022A Note from Marilyn Hoeflinger Dear Friends, In November I will celebrate 70 years on this earth. I’m not sure what 70 feels like, honestly. In my mind I am 20, wait, 35, no, most likely 42. I’m not sure why I settle on that number, but when I think of what I want to do and how to do it, it is the body I had when I was 42. When I could sit crisscross applesauce in…
Beginner’s Mind
September 28, 2022A Note from Pastor April Dear Friends, When it rolled around two weeks ago, I didn’t expect this birthday to be as hard as it was. I’m halfway through my 40s… halfway to 90. It wasn’t so much that I was feeling old… (After all, 45 is the new 35 or something?) Instead, I was pondering the reality that there’s a good chance I’ve already lived more than half of my life. In one of my favorite Richard…
Squirrels Throwing Acorns
September 14, 2022A Note from Beth Palmer Dear Friends, I have a deep need to be seen for who I am and to belong. We all do. We want to know that we matter to others, and that we can show up as we really are and be accepted and embraced as our authentic, messy selves. I have always felt lucky that I get those needs met through my college and seminary friends, my volunteering friends and church friends, and…
Seeds of Faith
September 7, 2022A Note from Nikki Buskirk Dear Friends, By now many of you know that I have this dream of being a homesteader, of having acres upon acres of land where I can grow things. Even though that’s a distant dream of mine, I do have a substantial garden plot in my backyard where Tyler, the boys, and I grow food every year, which we harvest and then process to be used until the next growing season. This year…
Opportunities to serve!
Looking for a way to help change the world, or even just your little corner of it? Serving others is so good for our souls! It boosts our joy and confidence. It builds others up and helps us connect with others in friendship and love. It fills our lives with meaning and purpose, and it helps change the world! And it opens us up to being influenced and shaped by God and others, which is life-giving. Click or tap the…
Wednesday Community Supper Resumes INSIDE!
August 10, 2022A Note from Beth Latella Dear Friends, Feed My Lambs — join the Wednesday Supper Team! What do cooking and quilting have in common? They are two of my favorite activities, but more than that, for me, they are two methods of offering warmth and comfort. They are also two important ministries of Hilliard United Methodist Church. Both were changed, but not stopped, by the pandemic. Quilters quilted at home, which suited my view of sewing as individual…
Feed My Sheep
July 20, 2022A Note from Pastor Jon Dear Friends, A short while after Jesus first appears to the disciples following his resurrection, the disciples had left Jerusalem and had seemingly returned to their prior jobs, as we discover in the Gospel according to John. Seven of the disciples, including Peter, had returned north to The Galilee and had resumed fishing. John’s Gospel (chapter 21) says that early one morning Jesus was standing on the shore while the seven were in…
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