WEDNESDAY EVENINGS

AT MUMC

Church Events

MUMC MONTHLY NEWSLETTER | OCTOBER 2017 |

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• Oct. 2nd / Martha Mary Circle Meeting

• Oct. 4th / WWF 3:00 p.m. Children’s Choir 5:00 p.m. Wednesday Service 5:30 p.m. Dinner 5:50 p.m. Choir Practice 6:45 p.m.

• Oct. 5th / BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) 6:20 p.m.

• Oct. 6th / Feed MHS Football Team (Gym)

• Oct. 10th / Rebecka Ruth Circle Meeting

• Oct. 11th / BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) 6:20 p.m.

• Oct. 15th / Sisters Circle Meeting

• Oct. 18th / WWF 3:00 p.m. Children’s Choir 5:00 p.m. Wednesday Service 5:30 p.m. Dinner 5:50 p.m. Choir Practice 6:45 p.m.

• Oct. 19th / BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) 6:20 p.m.

• Oct. 20th / Feed MHS Football Team (Gym)

• Oct. 25th / WWF 3:00 p.m. Children’s Choir 5:00 p.m. Wednesday Service 5:30 p.m. Dinner 5:50 p.m. Choir Practice 6:45 p.m

• Oct. 26th / BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) 6:20 p.m

• Oct. 29th / No Stress Sunday Trunk or Treat

If you haven’t attended one of our Wednesday evening short

services followed by dinner, you need to pencil it in during

October. The Communion Service is approximately twenty

minutes just in time to head down to the gym for a meal and

fellowship. On the last Wednesday of September, we had

approximately 75 people attend the worship service and 140

people attend

the meal. The

children have

fun playing ball

on one end of

the gym while

the parents

enjoy a nice

meal. Let’s see

if we can get

those numbers

up during the

month of October. If you have any questions, please contact the

office at 870-739-3434.

Pastor’s Pen 1 Corinthians 2:14 New Living Translation (NLT)

But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.

I was moved by this verse of Scripture as I thought about how we live into the vision statement church wide. Our vision statement is: “A church on fire for Jesus Christ, setting the world on fire for Jesus Christ.” I did not go with that that vision statement simply because I thought it sounded good. Instead, I wanted something we could really sink our teeth into. In short, I wanted a vision statement that would remind us of the necessity of full conviction by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without that conviction we are sunk. Without conviction in the Gospel of Jesus Christ we might as well just close the doors to the church and be done, because that’s inevitably what would happen anyway. There is this idea in Christianity today that if we make certain changes or do certain things we will somehow slow the decline of Christianity in the United States. Those tweaks to church life would be comical if they weren’t so sad. The way to stop the decline of Christianity in this country is by people claiming the name of Christ and being fully convicted of the good news of Him.

When we are convicted, we are zealous. And when we are zealous, we are actual Christians. There is no other option when you are convicted of something, we are either zealous or we don’t believe. And I fear that all too often people call themselves Christians and have no idea what that means, in large part because they are unfamiliar with the whole of the Bible.

The reality of being convicted by the Gospel is just as Paul lays it out. In 1 Corinthians, some people are not spiritual and cannot receive the truth from God’s heart to theirs. That’s a fact that can’t be disputed. It’s a clear teaching of Scripture. How then do we set the world on fire for Jesus Christ? This is the important part that I want us to remember: We must accept that our movement is solely dependent upon God. We should be a people convicted of the gospel so that God can use us, and when He uses us, He will set our hearts on fire with prayer for revival. When we pray, God opens up hearts and pours forth His Spirit.

I strongly believe that there will be another Great Awakening, a time when many will come to true faith in Jesus Christ. No, I cannot prove that from Scripture, but I feel deep within my soul that there will be a massive unleashing of the Spirit that will set people ablaze, simply because I know that’s what God wants to happen. But as a fully convicted people, we must pray to unbind hearts from sin and death. We must pray that Christ will be confessed and that this land and all lands will come to a zealous faith in Christ Jesus.

Grace and Peace,

Brother Robert

The Backpack Program We are up and running for the school year.

Read below on how you can help and participate.

MUMC’s local mission project,

the Marion School District

Backpack Program is in full

swing. We had our first

distribution on Friday,

September 22nd. We sent

backpacks filled with lunch,

dinner and snack items home

with the children from all Marion

schools.

Through generous monetary

donations, food donations, and

volunteers who work to

purchase, take inventor, stock

and pack bags, we are able to

continue and expand our

program to provide 100 children

in all school in our district with a

bag of food each Friday.

We will continue to have work

days each Sunday prior to the

distribution day on the

following Wednesday. The

Sunday work will consist of

unpacking, sorting and boxing

up food as well as clean up.

To sign up, please email

bvaughn5@comcast.net.

Please continue to assist with

this project and ensure its

sustainability this school year.

This could not be successful

without the generosity and

loving spirit that this church

possesses.

Backpack Work Dates:

November 12

November 26

December 10

January 3

January 14

January 28

February 11

February 25

March 11

March 25

April 8

April 22

May 6

May 20

Please review the work

dates above to determine

if you are available and

would like to participate in

preparing the backpacks.

Feeding MHS Football Team

MUMC fed the Marion High

School football team twice during

the month of September and will

feed them twice during the

month of October. If you

enjoy football and are a

Patriots fan, then this just

might be an area for you to

volunteer. Meal

preparation starts around

12:30 p.m. on the day of

the game in order to feed

the team at 3:30 p.m.

We need volunteers to help with

food prep, serving, setting up

tables and clean up on October

6th and 20th. If you do not

have time to volunteer but

would like to make a monetary

donation, please take it to the

church office with a note stating

where the donation is to be

credited. To volunteer, please

contact Bartt Vaughn at

bartt.vaughn@ergon.com.

Hurricane Clean Up Buckets

Proverbs 22:17

“A merry heart does good like medicine”

Sermons

October 1

1 Kings 17:17-24 Crying Out to the Lord

October 8

1 Kings 18:7-21 No Weapon Formed

Against Us Shall Remain

October 15 1 Kings 18:22-41

Your Turn

October 22 1 Kings 19:1-14

I Have a Very Zealous God

October 29 2 Kings 2:1-25 Chariots of Fire

Every now and then Sheila and Cyndi get a special note or

a special donation in the Sunday offering. During the month

of September, the church received a different envelope in

the offering. It took a minute to figure it out, but once we

realized, we

couldn’t help but

think about how

awesome and

loving our children

are at MUMC.

Although the

spelling isn’t quite right, we all can see that the money in

the envelope was “hirykane money” from Mason and

Rachel Coe.

We have 31 buckets filled

with cleaning supplies ready

for delivery. Bro. Robert is in

the process of arranging

delivery. All but two buckets

have been filled with the

much needed cleaning

supplies for the hurricane

victims and those assisting

with the clean up.

HULLABALOO 2017

The annual Hullabaloo event, held on

Saturday, September 23rd was a success as

usual. This could not have been possible

without the many volunteers who continue to

step up year after year. This year we had

something for everyone in the family from

shopping for treasures at the rummage sale,

games for the children, a petting zoo, the

bouncy house, the silent auction, sale of

homemade goodies, a concession area, the

meat sales and new this year was a bass

tournament.

The profits from this event will go towards

the building debt as it does each year.

Thank you to all who took the time to make

this event such a success.

How long have you been a member of MUMC?

We have been members since October 2001.

Tell us about your family.

Danny and I have been married for 28 years. We both grew up

in Marked Tree and were high school sweethearts. We married

in 1989 and moved to Marion in 1993 after graduating from

Arkansas State. In 1994 we welcomed our first child, Matt. He is

currently finishing up his graduate degree at the University of

Arkansas. In 1996 and 1998 we had two more boys, Brandon

and Will. They are also attending the University of Arkansas.

Brandon is a junior and Will is a sophomore. Oh and we have

one cat, Socks aka “Kitty” who is well known by our friends and

neighbors.

Tell us about your job.

Well, I graduated from Arkansas State with two degrees, but

ended up being lucky enough to have the best job of all….

being a stay at home mom to our three boys. Danny is self-

employed and has a crop consulting business.

What are your hobbies?

I love to cook, entertain family and friends, travel, love to sing

and dance (but can’t carry a tune and really do not know how to

dance, but I love to anyway!) Danny spends what little time he

has turkey hunting, deer hunting or watching football games

with our boys. We both love going to Fayetteville to call those

hogs, but mostly we love tailgating and meeting all the kids that

we get to be with every home game day. It is such a blessing

for us to get to meet such great kids.

What are you involved in church?

We both have served on church committees in years past and

present, involved in a wonderful Sunday School Class, Friends

and Fellowship, and love helping the Vaughns with Wednesday

night dinners. We also always love to help the youth in any way

possible with their missions such as Hope for the Holidays and

Feeding the Soul mission at Thanksgiving. I recently joined

UMW, and I am very excited to be in a circle with such a great

group of ladies.

What are your favorite things about our church?

I think we both can agree that our service to our community and

the youth group are our favorite part of our church.

Member Spotlight :

Danny and Paula Moore

What are your favorite Bible Verses?

Mine is definitely Proverbs 3:5. Trust in the LORD with all your

heart and lean not on your own understanding. And Danny’s

favorite is Philippians 4:13. I can do all this through him who

gives me strength.

What are your favorite worship songs?

I really do love the new hymns like Amazing Grace (My Chains

Are Gone), but one of my old favorites is Here I Am LORD.

Danny’s favorite is How Great Thou Art.

Parent’s Day Out

PDO Bible Verse of the Month:

Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly

love; in honor preferring one another.

Romans 12:10

Starting the school year

teaching the new students

their daily prayers. They

caught on quickly!

Painting red circles was

so much fun.

The children were busy making new friends and enjoying

the playground outside.

The preschoolers getting ready for chapel. Each Tuesday

Bro. Robert teaches them a story from the Bible. The children continue to hear the story and its lesson throughout the week.

The four year old

class had a visit from

Ms. Meredith with

Crittenden county

4-H. This month they

learned about

healthy drinking

choices. She showed

them examples of

the sugar content in

drinks and juices.

She will be back each month to teach healthy and safe habits.

Preschool

September 11th marked the

kick off to the 2017-18 PDO

program. As the children were

dropped off, there were some

tears from the children and

some misty eyes of parents,

but Ms. Pam and Ms. Kristie

put the parents at ease by

texting photo’s to each parent.

October

Birthdays 10/2 Robert Allison Payne Bius Shannon Busby Kathy Fowler Cathy Horton 10/3 Misty Kennedy 10/4 Iris Bird 10/5 Doug Landry 10/7 Rachel Benson Averie Ward 10/8 Jack Sain Ramer Sutton Debi Williams 10/9 Becky Doyle 10/10 Colby Ramsey 10/11 Karsen McCuiston Sandy Webb 10/12 Paul Allen Ginger Gibbs 10/13 Michael Charlton Wally Fowler 10/14 Conner Allison Cooper Allison Erica Archer East Thomas Gerrard

10/15 Morgan Sain 10/16 Will Boon Witt Kennedy Jessica Shidler 10/18 Nicholas Beaman 10/19 Billy McNeely 10/20 Mike Molloy 10/21 Drew Landry Elizabeth Williams 10/22 Krisit Doyle 10/23 Shelbi Cole 10/24 Shelley Griffee 10/25 Austin Rawls 10/26 Rich Busby Katherine Carpenter Alex Webb Joel Hollis Werner 10/27 Julie O’Quinn Blake Owen 10/28 Linda Cosgrove Don Hanks Lake Laughter 10/30 Lynn Murray 10/31 Ross Letner

PRAYER AND CONCERN LIST:

John Vick, Sam Watts, Doug Landry,

and May Ferguson

OCTOBER USHERS

OCTOBER GREETERS

ALTAR FLOWERS

Joe Catt Danny Moore

Matt Hale Wayne Nelson

Jeff Johnston Tracy Stokes

FRIENDS AND FELLOWSHIP

CLASS

10/1 Sarah Higginbotham

10/8 Syndi Landry

10/15 Open

10/22 Open

10/29 Carol Johnston

81 Military Road, Marion, AR 72364 · 870-739-3434 · marionmethodistchurch.com · marionunitedmethodist@gmail.com

Reverend Robert Cloninger

Senior Pastor

rcloninger@marion-umc.com

Sheila Henderson

Administrative Assistant

marionunitedmethodist@gmail.com

Cyndi James

Business Administrator

cjames@marion-umc.com

Sarah Catherine Davis

Children’s Director

marionumckids@gmail.com

Blake Owen

Music Director

blake.owen78@gmail.com

Tim Parker

Youth Director

cattparker@aol.com

Gary Talley

Maintenance

Church Staff

LaKeshia Lee

Custodian

Gary Wehrum

Recreation Director

gwehrum@gmail.com

Teresa Gardner

Preschool Director/Teacher

preschool@marion-umc.com

Elizabeth Williams

Preschool Teacher

Pam Scarbrough

PDO Director/Teacher

Kristi Stotts

PDO Director/Teacher

Marcia Sutton

Pianist

Debbie Wallace

Organist

VISION STATEMENT

A church on fire for Jesus Christ,

setting the world on fire

for Jesus Christ.

MISSION STATEMENT

Being disciples. Making disciples.

SUNDAY MORNING

9:00 a.m. Prayer Service

9:45 a.m. Sunday School

10: 45 a.m. Worship Service

Marion United Methodist Church