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1. Check out New Content on the Portal
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Hello Everyone! Hope you are enjoying lazy summer days! Or at least staying cool when the mercury rises!
Be sure and check out the new content on our webpage and also visit us on Facebook!
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Date Sent: 6/21/2010 2:17:39 PM
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2. Loving God, Loving Neighbor
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The People of The United Methodist Church
- Help people in their community
- Accept you for who you are
- Offer a place to belong
- Care for and support each other
- Show respect for other religions
- Support people facing difficulty
- Welcome diverse opinions and beliefs
- Guide others to find deeper meaning
When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, his response was: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment” Then immediately he broadened this admonition: “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’”(Matt. 22:37-38. See Matt. 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; and Luke 10:25-28.)
These verses about loving God and loving neighbor as ourselves are known as the Great Commandment. Again and again, the Bible teaches us that loving God and loving neighbor are two sides of the same coin. We cannot do one without the other
Loving our neighbors means responding to specific needs—hunger, illness, imprisonment, loneliness, and so forth. Love is more than a feeling; it is behavior. It is practical and concrete.
Secondly, our neighbors include many people. Within the context of the Christian community, our neighbors are our brothers and sisters in Christ. Neighbors may also refer to the contemporary understanding of those who live near us. However, from a biblical perspective, neighbors often include people whom we might not normally consider:
* strangers;
* prisoners;
* people who mistreat us (who are our enemies);
* people from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds;
* people from different religious traditions;
* people who irritate us and push the boundaries of our patience.
Therefore, loving our neighbors requires attention and sacrifice. We have to pay attention to what is happening around us in order to see our neighbors and to recognize their needs. We must also consider their needs to be as important as our own in order to live faithfully. Loving neighbor is more than random acts of kindness. It takes time, energy, and commitment. It is a lifestyle carefully cultivated in response to God.
Finally, these passages emphasize that loving our neighbors is not optional; it is mandatory. It is what Christians do and what Christians are. Our lives are a testimony to our love—our love for God and our love for neighbor.
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Date Sent: 10/26/2009 5:46:12 PM
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3. RETHINK CHURCH
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Eight years ago, The United Methodist Church introduced the “Open hearts” welcoming and advertising campaign. The result was phenomenal—increasing awareness of the denomination and welcoming newcomers.
 Now we are taking the campaign to the next level,
redefining the church experience beyond the church doors and inviting people to become engaged in the world. “Rethink Church” aims to show seekers of spiritual meaning that in United Methodism’s mission of world transformation, they may find hope.
Soon, through this important campaign, spiritual seekers in your community will encounter United Methodist Church messages in the media and over the Internet urging them to “Rethink Church.” When they do, they may look to your congregation for evidence of how “rethinking church” looks.
• Will they find you active in your local community, doing tangible things to better the human condition as the United Methodist means of spreading the gospel?
• Will they see your church, not as a place to come to and be within but rather, as a base of operation to move out into your community and spread faith?
• Will they see proof of the United Methodist claim that we are a denomination “unbound, outbound and active”?
For the church to be relevant to future generations, young adults must find us doing more than dutifully sitting in our pews for worship. They must find us inspired and energized to go into our communities, neighborhoods, highways and byways as our uniquely powerful Wesleyan way of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Date Sent: 10/9/2009 11:51:06 AM
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