As concerns regarding the spread of the novel coronavirus grow, we wanted to update you on what Gainesville First is doing to ensure our campus is clean and safe for you and your family.
As a community of faith, focused on building bridges to Jesus Christ, we are being intentional on making decisions that reflect Jesus’ mandate to love our neighbors. Here are the steps we are taking to prevent the spread of germs:
Join UMCOR in supporting our neighbors in Tennessee to assist with disaster relief. Give to the United States Disaster Response and Recovery through Advance # 901670.
The Work of Christmas
by Howard Thurman
When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.
These words of Howard Thurman have appeared in my social media feed almost daily these past few weeks as various friends and groups post and re-post them. They touch our hearts and stir in us a reminder that Christmas is more than just a holiday with bright lights and festive music. The celebration of the incarnation of Christ is a holy event that calls us to live each day into the vocation for which God has created each one of us. To Thurman’s words we might add those of Isaiah from worship on Sunday that we are called to shine as “a light to all the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). We are called to #showup.
Hello church family!
I want to share some very exciting news with you this morning. Over the last two months a team from SPR and our Children’s Ministry leadership have engaged in much prayer, discernment and conversation for what is best for both ministries that focus upon our children, our preschool and our children’s ministry.
Our preschool is the front porch of our church, a porch that has grown tremendously over the last two years. God is bringing us families who share they don’t have a church home. Our children’s ministry ministers to many children in our congregation on Sunday mornings, and our Wednesday evenings are filled with children whose families attend and many families from our community. Our community events bring hundreds from our community to our campus.
In order to more closely align these two ministries, we have reached the decision to combine the leadership of these ministries. We recognize this is a big undertaking, so we are moving ahead with a 6 months interim period to allow us to evaluate this new alignment of ministries.
I am thrilled to announce that Mary Lina Pardue has accepted the leadership position of Director of Preschool and Children’s Ministry. She and her team will guide us through this transition. We are building a greater support team in the preschool and our children’s ministry.
Mary Lina has led our preschool for the last two years. Under her leadership we have seen tremendous growth. She brings a love for sharing Christ with children, strong leadership skills, years of experience in education and a calling to Children’s Ministry.
Please join me in congratulating Mary Lina and praying for this re-structuring. May we serve those in our congregation and our community with excellence as we live into our call to Transforms Lives and Communities by Building Bridges to Jesus Christ.
Blessed and humbled to serve together,
Rev. Liz Millar
Minister of Discipleship
So we’re in the second week of our Daniel Fast. One-third of the fast is behind us and two-thirds of the fast is in front of us. We can look at this in two very different lights.
We can be proud of ourselves for our commitment, for how we handled this change in diet, how we have navigated our family’s needs, how our grocery buying habits have taken a radical shift...in other words, we can focus on ourselves and give ourselves a lot of “pats on the back.”
According to church tradition, January 6 is the Feast of the Epiphany. It is the occasion where we come to an end of the Christmas season with visitors from afar. With no connection to Jewish tradition, expectation or dreams, the mysterious Magi from the East follow a star in search of the gift of salvation for the world.