 It's that time of year when we "gift" our 3rd graders of the congregation a new Bible. If you have a child who is a 3rd grader and would like to receive this gift from the church, please email childrensministry@washparkumc.org by Oct. 7th to connect.
From your Pastor Greetings Wash Park UMC Family & Friends, Autumn is here! Which means changing leaves, cooler air, pumpkin smells and flavors, and . . . stewardship! Fall is generally the season when we start to look forward to the new year in terms of budget and encouraging giving and generosity for future ministry. This week you will receive a stewardship letter and a pledge card – our goal is to have everyone fill out a pledge card and return it to the church so that we can be fiscally responsible as we prepare budgets and spending for 2021. Of course, stewardship is a larger theological idea than just the giving of money. As people of faith, we consider all that we have as gifts that we can share. Time and talent are just as important in the work of ministry—and together we accomplish so much more for the sake of God’s kingdom. In the Old Testament, we hear about the practice of the ancient Israelites in giving “first fruit” offerings. This was the offering of the very first harvest, and usually the best part of the harvest, to God. This giving symbolized honor and obedience to God, and also trust that God would still provide for people to be sustained and live. Our practices of giving to God are different these days (and we don’t live in an agrarian society), but God still provides for us and asks for our offerings to do the ministry of love, justice, mission, and hope in our communities. Thank you for entering this season with humility, reflection, and openness to practicing generosity as a spiritual discipline and a blessing. WORSHIP LINKS If you were unable to join us live yesterday, you can still worship by following this LINK. To hear the scripture, Stephanie Gerard reading Psalm 90: 1-6, please click Play below. Peace and Love, Rev. Sandi (pastor@washparkumc.org) WORSHIP SCHEDULE
 October Bible Study Join Rev. Sandi and Rev. Jamielee for a deep look into Matthew 5-7 with Amy Jill Levine’s book, Sermon on the Mount. We will meet on Wednesday evenings from 5-6:30pm on October 7, 14, 21, 28 and November 4 & 11. Please order your book and sign up HERE.  Anti-Racism Conversation: Continued Our first book study on White Fragility went so well that we are preparing to tackle another book on anti-racism work. This time we’ll be reading a book written by a non-white author. So, join us in reading How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. Plan to join Rev. Sandi and Rev. Jamielee for one of these scheduled conversations: Monday, October 12th from 5-6:30pm OR Thursday, October 15th from 5-6:30pm. Sign up HERE. Mission Opportunities We will have two mission opportunities in the 4th quarter:
From the Finance Chair Stewardship can be defined as being responsible for oversight and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving. Who is that in your life? What is it? Who and what is something worth caring for and preserving? Awareness around stewardship is needed now more than ever given all the uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought to our church and community. These days it seems that there is less we can rely or depend on which further underscores the necessity to take care of what’s truly important to us during these unchartered times. During times like these, we often lean on what really matters to us – faith, family, and friends. Over the past 7 months, the church and staff have gone above and beyond to keep its members safe, informed, and engaged with the church. Even with all the distractions, the church hasn’t missed a beat thanks to the commitment of the staff and our members. I’ve seen firsthand the extra hours required to plan and execute our mission- a commitment to keeping the church and preschool safe and operational while adhering to all of the new protocols- and providing a forum, both virtual and in-person, for those to engage in worship. WPUMC hits a trifecta when it comes to faith, family, and friends - a one-stop shop in terms of being able to fulfill your spiritual needs in a setting surrounded by your family and friends. In the month of October, we will continue to create awareness around stewardship and the underlying benefits the church provides to its members and community. I recognize these are challenging financial times for all, but I would ask you to think about what’s worth preserving and caring for. For me, the answer is an easy one. Thank you for all of your continued support, both spiritually and financially, and I look forward to a time when we can all come together and worship as one. Best Regards, Mark Warren - Finance Chairman, 303.335.6659  Youth Group Update Hello Youth Families, In spite of all the weird circumstances, it is great to be seeing you all again with more regularity. This month we will be continuing our study of Micah and how his ancient prophetic wisdom can inform how we interact with issues of justice, oppression, and hope. In the midst of all of our serious discussions , we are planning on having an in-person, socially distanced MOVIE NIGHT on October 4th, from 6:30-9pm, hosted by our very own, wonderful Warren family. Because of our COVID precautions, an RSVP is required. If you’d like to attend please fill out THIS form by October 1st. Thank you! If you have any questions about the event, or about our Youth Group, please email Rev. Jamielee at youthgroup@washparkumc.org. Meal Train for Pastor Jamielee and Jordan Assoc. Pastor Jamielee and Jordan welcomed baby Juniperlee to their family in July. We are hoping our church family can support them with a few meals or food delivery gift cards for the family. Jamielee is back to work with all of her many church duties while working on her ordination papers that are due November 1st. If you would like to contribute a meal or donate gift cards, please use the following link to access Meal Train and reserve a spot: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/d32g06 Children's Ministry
Calling all third graders! October is the time of year when we give the 3rd grade children of our congregation a Bible. If your child is no longer in the 3rd grade and missed this, but would still like one, we would love to include them. Without an opportunity to do this in an in-person format, we will be making a video of the gifting. Please contact me by email with names of children ready to receive a Bible at: childrensministry@washparkumc.org. Our worship service presentation day will be Sunday October 11th, so please try to reach me before October 7th. Backpack Blessing If you were unable to make it to our Drive-up Rally Day on Sept. 13th, and would like for your child to receive a Backpack Blessing Bag, please email me to coordinate getting one to you. Virtual Sunday School Check out the church website under the Education menu, Children's Ministry page, for PDF’s and short video clips to help your child engage more fully with our Sunday School lessons. We have a Facebook Live Sunday School option at 10:30 following worship for kids to watch or you can watch it later. Just ‘like’ Park Kids, our Facebook page. Please reach out to me if you have any questions, ideas, or want to host a Children’s Time video to be shown during our Sunday service. We miss seeing your wonderful children during Sunday School and look forward to being in person once more. Blessings, Sheri Salis - Director of Children's Ministry Assoc. Pastor Jamielee and Jordan welcomed baby Juniperlee to their family this July. We are hoping our church family can support them with a few meals or food delivery gift cards for the family. Jamielee is back to work with all her many church duties while working on her ordination papers that are due November 1st. If you would like to contribute a meal or donate gift cards, please use this link to sign on to Meal Train and reserve a spot. You may also reach out to Jamielee personally by emailing her. Her email address is assocpastor@washparkumc.org.
 Pastor's Message Happy Monday, Wash Park UMC Friends! We've been having a great time at Courtyard Worship each Sunday in addition to streaming the worship live on our Facebook page. This Sunday, September 27th will be our FINAL Courtyard Worship! Thank you to all who have participated in Courtyard Worship, either in person or online, and for your support and encouragement during this time. Holding worship in the Courtyard has been a labor of love, as it takes almost two hours each week to set it up, and an hour to take it all down again after service. A special thanks to Steve Bondy for being the one that knows where all the cables need to connect and for making sure that we have sound, video, and we're ready to live stream each week. As we move back into the sanctuary for worship in October, we will be transitioning to virtual-only worship again. At this time we do not have approval from our Mountain Sky Conference leadership to have indoor in-person worship. For more information on the guidelines for in-person worship from the Mountain Sky Conference, click HERE. Some people have asked us how to connect with the worship service if you don't have a Facebook account. Each Monday we've been sending out a link in the all church email and you can use that even without a Facebook account. Additionally, we're looking into streaming on more than one platform so watch for info about that soon. To join us for our FINAL Courtyard Worship on Sun Sept 27th, SIGN UP HERE. WORSHIP: If you were unable to join us live on Sunday, you can still worship with us by using THIS Link. SCRIPTURE: To hear Sunday's scripture, Joshua 1: 5-9, read by Amy Couch, click Play below: BACK TO SCHOOL BLESSING: To view a special video from and for the children of WPUMC, click Play below: Peace and Love, Rev. Sandi  CONTINUED FAITHFUL GIVING Thank you to all who have been able to faithfully give to the church in the midst of the pandemic. We have been working hard to continue to provide worship, mission opportunities, and connections for our community. There are many ways you can give!
JOYS & CONCERNS CHANGE Many of you have expressed the desire to share joys and concerns in our online virtual worship and you've been heard! We are going to start sharing those joys and concerns during virtual worship that you want to share provided that you send them to us with your express permission for sharing. There are many ways you can request prayers-make sure that you let us know if these are for the Pastors only, for the Pastors and Prayer Team, or to be shared through our online worship:
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY: BENEFITS IN ACTION Food Delivery Program Drivers: volunteer drivers are needed for food delivery programs! Click HERE to find out more about connecting with Benefits in Action. Giving and ministry quick links
Make sure you report your acts of service (hours spent, dollars given, items donated) by using this simple form HERE. Our Goal - 2,020 Acts of Service in 2020! Pastor's Message We had a great time at our Rally Day Drive-Up Celebration yesterday! Together, we:
Change to Sharing Joys and Concerns Many of you have expressed the desire to share joys and concerns in our online virtual worship and you've been heard! We are going to start sharing those joys and concerns during virtual worship that you want to share, provided that you send them to us with your express permission for sharing. There are many ways you can request prayers-make sure that you let us know if these are for the Pastors only, for the Pastors and Prayer Team, or to be shared through our online worship:
WORSHIP: If you were unable to join us live on Sunday, you can still worship with us by using THIS link. SCRIPTURE: To hear Sunday's scripture, Deuteronomy 34: 5-12, read by Bert Obleski, please click Play below. CHILDREN'S TIME: For Chris Mikesell's video, click Play below: Courtyard Worship We've been having a great safe and socially-distant time at courtyard worship each Sunday in addition to streaming the worship live on our Facebook page. Don't wait to sign up - we will continue Courtyard Worship through September. Remember to look for a live sign-up link each Monday for the following Sunday. To attend courtyard worship next Sunday, September 20, SIGN UP HERE!  Habitat for Humanity: Volunteer opportunity on September 24 Please consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in September. Volunteering is a great way to support an excellent organization and do something good! There is an opportunity to volunteer at the Habitat ReStore that you may know and love if you've ever dropped off or acquired gently used furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the like there. It is a valuable fundraising vehicle that helps pay for Habitat's infrastructure. The work can vary by preference, and Habitat will have protocols to ensure safety and comfort. Additionally, this is a half-day shift rather than a full day and is located in Littleton. Volunteer opportunities are currently available on Thursday, September 24th from 1:30 - 5:00 p.m. Please contact Carol Nelson at customtrainingllc@q.com or 303.810.4635 to ask questions or volunteer. Giving and ministry quick links
Track your acts of service Make sure you report your acts of service (hours spent, dollars given, items donated) by using this simple form HERE. Our Goal - 2,020 Acts of Service in 2020!  Pastor's message I hope everyone had a safe and fun Labor Day weekend! We're gearing up for our RALLY DAY DRIVE-UP CELEBRATION this Sunday, September 13th. Make sure to join us from 10:45-11:30am in our parking lot. Please bring your food drive donations and any spare change for CHANGE FOR CHANGE to go to a local mission. You will receive a communion blessing, backpack tags for students (of all ages!), and Bags of Hope to take on your way. We hope to see you there! WORSHIP: If you were unable to join us live on Sunday, you can still worship with us by using THIS link. SCRIPTURE: To hear Sunday's scripture, Deuteronomy 31:30-32:3, read by Chris Mikesell, click Play below: SPECIAL MUSIC: To hear Steve's special music from Sunday, click Play below: We've been having a great time at COURTYARD WORSHIP each Sunday in addition to streaming the worship live on our Facebook page. Don't wait to sign up - we will continue Courtyard Worship through September. Remember to look for a live sign-up link each Monday for the following Sunday. To join us for Courtyard Worship on Sun Sept 13th Sign up here. Peace and Love, Rev. Sandi  Volunteer Opportunity Please consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in September. Volunteering is a great way to support an excellent organization and do something good! There is an opportunity to volunteer at the Habitat ReStore that you may know and love if you've ever dropped off or acquired gently used furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the like there. It is a valuable fundraising vehicle that helps pay for Habitat's infrastructure. The work can vary by preference, and Habitat will have protocols to ensure safety and comfort. Additionally, this is a half-day shift rather than a full day and is located in Littleton. Volunteer opportunities are currently available on Thursday, September 24th from 1:30 - 5:00 p.m. Please contact Carol Nelson at customtrainingllc@q.com or 303.810.4635 to ask questions or volunteer. #adventureswithjesus2020 To view the latest Adventures with Jesus compilation video, click Play below: Giving and ministry quick links
Track your acts of service Make sure you report your acts of service (hours spent, dollars given, items donated) by using this simple form HERE. Our Goal - 2,020 Acts of Service in 2020! Pastor's message To My Amazing Church Family, Hello everyone! It is so wonderful to be back from maternity leave. Jordan and I cannot even begin to tell you how much we’ve missed being with you and how excited we are to share our joy with you now that our family has grown. We’ve been following along with the summer sermon series “Songs of Our Summer” and thinking about all the songs that have been important to us over the years. When I first met Jordan, our friendship was long distance. I met him by complete happenstance, although he lived 3 hours away, and we started a friendship even though we were many miles apart. One of the ways we connected over that space, beyond an excessive amount of phone calls and text messages, was music. We made playlists, sent songs, watched music videos, and hummed melodies over phone lines. The music we played formed the soundtrack to our friendship which started a relationship that made a family. Now, we’re humming some of our favorite songs to June, making them the melodies that soothe her to sleep every night. Music has a powerful way of making us recall what is most important to us, sometimes memories, and sometimes hopes for the future. We all have different favorites, different songs that move our hearts, but we are all moved by music in one way or another. As we continue in our sermon series, I am excited to explore more songs with you and the ways that they speak to our hearts. I can’t wait to be with you again in worship! WORSHIP LINKS If you were unable to join us live yesterday, you can still worship by following this LINK. To hear the scripture, Jim Dillon reading Deuteronomy 4: 6-9, please click Play below. Grace and Peace, Rev. Jamielee (assocpastor@washparkumc.org) Courtyard Worship We’ve been having a great time at Courtyard Worship each Sunday- continuing throughout September- in addition to streaming worship live on our Facebook page. Don’t wait to sign up! Remember to look for the sign-up link each Monday for the following Sunday. To Sign Up for September 6th Courtyard Worship, please click HERE. Worship Schedule For September, we will be continuing the Songs of Our Summer Sermon Series. We’re stretching it out just a bit because we’ll have a very exciting celebration on Sunday, September 27th during worship: The Schoolboys in concert! Many of you know and love this classics cover band (of which Steve Bondy is a member) who have offered evening concerts in the courtyard in prior summers. This year, due to COVID, we were unable to host the same summer activities as in the past. But we’re excited The Schoolboys will join us for Courtyard and Virtual worship on 9/27! Watch for more info later in the month. Sept 6: SONGS OF OUR SUMMER: Listen to the Music (by the Doobie Brothers), Deuteronomy 31:30-32:3 Sept 13: SONGS OF OUR SUMMER: Fire and Rain (by James Taylor), Deuteronomy 34: 5-12 Sept 20: SONGS OF OUR SUMMER: I Can See Clearly Now (by Johnny Nash), Joshua 1: 5-9 Sept 27: Songs of Our Summer Celebration! Schoolboys in Concert Youth Group Update Hello Youth Families, I am so excited for the start of our 2020-2021 Youth Group Year! Although our meeting will be different due to Coronavirus precautions, I am no less excited to spend time together learning and growing in our relationship with God and each other. This year’s theme is “Purely Practical: Living our Faith, Every Day”. This fall, we’ll begin with a 6-week study of the book of Micah, an Old Testament prophet who has a lot to teach us about a God who restores us when we go astray. Then we’ll be diving into learning about our character and how who we strive to be makes a difference. Before we commence all that learning, we need to make time for fun! Look for information on our Youth Kick Off Event happening on September 13th! A lot of our planning for this year is dependent on how healthy it is for us to meet at any given time, so be sure to keep up with what’s going on by reading our weekly emails. If you’re interested in participating in the youth program and would like to receive these emails, please follow THIS LINK to sign up your child. We’re also looking at how we would like to meet for confirmation this year! Confirmation is an opportunity to respond to the grace of God available to us, as acknowledged in baptism, and to promise to live as a person of faith. The intent is to remember that you are baptized. “It is not the particular event that you are remembering,” clarifies the Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, Director of Worship Resources with Discipleship Ministries of The United Methodist Church. “It is what has happened to you because of it—what God has done in you—that matters.” Confirmation is open to anyone 5th grade and older. At Washington Park UMC we aim to teach students the history of their faith- what makes it unique- and how they can apply what they have learned in practical ways throughout their lives. If you are interested in hearing more about confirmation, voting on when/how we would like to meet, or if you have any questions about the youth program in general, please email Rev. Jamielee at youthgroup@washparkumc.org. Volunteer Opportunity: Habitat for Humanity Robert Ingersoll said, “We rise by lifting others.” Please consider volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in September. Volunteering is a great way to support an excellent organization and do something good! There is an opportunity to volunteer at the Habitat ReStore that you may know and love if you’ve ever dropped off or acquired gently used furniture, cabinets, appliances, and the like there. It is a valuable fundraising vehicle that helps pay for Habitat’s infrastructure. The work can vary by preference, and Habitat will have protocols to ensure safety and comfort. Additionally, this is a half-day shift rather than a full day and is located in Littleton. Volunteer opportunities are currently available on Thursday, September 24th from 1:30 – 5:00 p.m. Please contact Carol Nelson at customtrainingllc@q.com or 303.810.4635 to ask questions or volunteer. September Book Study: Almost Everything - Notes on Hope Join Rev. Sandi for a time of reading, reflection, and search for hope in these uncertain times with Anne Lamott’s book, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. We will be gathering for discussion on Wednesday evenings at 5:30pm via zoom starting on September 2nd, and continuing throughout the month. Sign up HERE. Anti-Racism Conversation - Continued
Our first book study on White Fragility went so well that we are preparing to tackle another book on anti-racism work. This time we’ll be reading a book written by a non-white author. So, join us in reading How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. We will read the book in September and gather in groups for discussion in early October. If you are interested in joining us, please email Rev. Sandi at pastor@washparkumc.org. I also invite everyone to participate with me in September for 30 Days of Anti-Racism, a resource offered by the UMC General Commission on Religion & Race, click HERE for more info. |
