You made a Difference! Thank you to all who helped offer Christ’s love to our community during this Christmas season. Whether it

was donating and organizing 530 boxes of hot chocolate for the Christmas Boxes for the needy, donating toilet-ries for the gift bags for Arbor Terrace or making orna-ments and stuffing the bags and then delivering them with carols to the residents at Arbor Terrace, you have

helped make Christmas a little brighter for many.

And then that moment happens when you realize that you are no longer the ones providing the Christmas Spirit but are

Indeed, the recipients of it!

The Good News 2

The State of St. Luke Toward the end of every year, each congrega-tion in the United Methodist Church holds a “charge conference” at which certain specific business matters are taken care of. One of the items is the Pastor’s Report, which includes sta-tistical data regarding membership and attend-ance, along with a narrative account of the “state of the church.” Although that task is challenging, it is good for us regularly to take a realistic look at the church’s vitality in order to address both its strengths and weaknesses. So, I thought I would share with you some of what I included in this year’s report.

From this pastor’s perspective, St. Luke is a rea-sonably healthy church with a number of strengths. However, it also has some areas in which it is not living up to its potential.

Perhaps St. Luke’s greatest strength is its warm and welcoming atmosphere. The congregation is genuinely nurturing to one another and open to newcomers. Although many churches would claim to be “friendly,” the warm and welcoming attitude at St. Luke seems to be an inherent as-pect of the majority of its members. Thus, it has become a part of the makeup of the church itself.

Another area of strength is in its compassion for others. Given its size, St. Luke is very active in supporting ministries within the community and beyond. This includes ministries such as Our Daily Bread soup kitchen, Project Dignidad, Kingdom Kamp, UMCOR, etc. In addition, the congregation has “adopted” a local nursing home to help provide its lower-income residents with necessities from toiletries to air condition-ers. It also has been an active, hands-on part-ner with Bradford Elementary School. And of course, one of the most consistently visible and fruitful ministries of St. Luke is its Christian Child Development Center which has a current enrollment of 140 children.

With that said, an area in which the church is not particularly strong is in its invitation. St. Luke is welcoming to those who come, and is genuinely concerned about those who are less fortunate; however, we are in need of improve-ment in our evangelistic outreach. This assess-ment is reflected in the steady decline in our membership and attendance. As a congrega-

tion, we have become “comfortable.” There seems to be little urgency with regard to includ-ing others (and even at times with regard to our own attendance.)

As one might expect, our gradually dwindling attendance and membership are having a no-ticeable impact on the church’s finances. Alt-hough the financial commitments from the con-gregation have enabled us to fund our budget, that task is becoming more and more difficult. An increased “cost-consciousness” of the church’s staff and ministries have resulted in significant reductions to our overall expense. However, my concern is that further reductions may begin having an impact upon the effective-ness and scope of the church’s ministries.

Accordingly, our focus for the year(s) ahead must involve an increased emphasis on evange-listic outreach. We must return to the biblical understanding of “mission” in which our efforts to alleviate suffering and provide hope also in-clude a deliberate effort to share the good news of God’s love through Jesus Christ and to invite others to be a part of the church family. Such efforts certainly will stretch us beyond our “comfort zones,” but they are essential if we are to continue as a viable and healthy church.

I look forward to facing this challenge alongside you, as the Lord leads us into a new season of vitality in the years ahead. Charlie

January 7 “A Significant Encounter”

Matthew 2:1-12

Four week series “Joy In the Journey”

January 14 “Finding the Joy”

Philippians 1

January 21 “Choosing the Joy”

Philippians 2

January 28 “Living the Joy”

Philippians 3

January Worship Notes

The Pastor’s Pen

The Good News 3

When doing your online shopping, please keep Amazon Smile in mind. Amazon will give back a small percentage of your shopping total on

Amazon, to St. Luke. Just follow the steps below to give back!

Directions: 1. Visit www.smile.amazon.com 2. Log into your Amazon account 3. Type in "St. Luke Methodist Church" in the "Charity Search" box. 4. Click on "St. Luke Methodist Church" in San Angelo, TX 5. Start Shopping!

You have to log on through www.smile.amazon.com each time you shop for the money to be donated. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

We have received $63.03

so far! Shop On!!!

Upcoming Events & Happenings

Concho Country Emmaus Monthly Gathering First Tuesday of the Month, 6:30PM, Sierra Vista UMC

4522 College Hills, San Angelo, TX

FMI contact Carol Watkins @ 234-3343

or go to: www.conchocountryecc.org

Upcoming Walk: Men’s Walk March 1-4, 2018

Church-wide Emails! Please make sure we have your current infor-mation. You can send your email address to

main.slumc@stluke-sanangelo.org

The Church Office will be

closed January 1st.

TGIW is coming! “Jesus is the ROCK!” We will learn about building a strong

foundation in Jesus Christ as we take a trip through the decades! Begins Wed. January 24th.

The Mission Committee will soon be hosting a “Stone Soup” food drive for Project Dignidad. The shelves will be bare after the holidays so we will have the opportunity to fill them up! Watch for more information coming soon!

The Good News 4

2018! 2018! 2018! That just freaks me out to even write it down. I always want to look back on what we have accomplished this last year. And while I think a retrospective is important, I am learning it is more important to look ahead at what we are ca-pable of doing. Looking back, it was a busy year. We have gotten together to break bread together, we have served people at the Soup Kitchen, we have delivered un-told numbers of meals for Meals For The Elderly, as well as worked in their kitchen, we have worked on projects at the church, we have given food to the homeless, talked with them and prayed with them, we have served Thanksgiving meals to peo-ple who may not have had one otherwise, we have given Christmas presents to the elderly as well as played bingo and even danced with a few. We have worked with Rust Street Ministries and sorted their incoming clothes as well as sorted food and helped handout food to their neighbors. We have invited people to church and youth, and have actu-ally had some come. We have bowled, gone to movies, written and acted out skits about Bible sto-ries, we have had game nights, very competitive game nights including one particularly savage Mo-nopoly game and many late night Scrabble games. We have eaten together at restaurants and had oh

so much yogurt. We have shared more pizza than is humanly possible. We had a messy day that was truly messy, and in the rain no less. We have gone to concerts and we have laughed a lot. No matter any differences or problems we have, we have always laughed. I was told once that that was a sign of a healthy family that they can laugh to-gether. For those uninitiated to what we do, we love each other. We are FAMILY. We have never gotten to-gether whether it was a movie, Sunday School, Youth on Sunday nights, game nights, dinner, any and every time we get together we share our "joys and concerns" and we pray over them. We know what's going on in each other's lives. We pray and even lay hands on those that need it. I see a lot of God's love in these kids and it's a privilege to be able to be around them as they grow in Christ. As I look ahead to 2018 I want to expand what we do to even more outreach and mission work. There are so many opportunities to do that right here in San Angelo and I am working to tap into some we haven't worked yet. I know whatever we do, these kids will make us all proud and they will accomplish their goals with love and support from each other. Happy 2018 everybody! Peace, John

The Good News 5

Making New Year's resolutions is probably the most widely known New Year's tradition. And children are not too young to begin such traditions as well. What a great time to sit down and create healthy, age-appropriate resolutions for each member in the family. For younger students they can plan to clean and put away their toys. To brush their teeth twice a day. Older students can work towards getting homework done ahead of time, participate in household chores to help out the family, and participate in a sport. But what about God? Isn't this a great time to think about planning to do the things that God wants us to do in this New Year. A great visual for young children is to show them a new calen-dar and explain that this is a time to start afresh with a clean slate. To add things into our daily schedule that are pleasing to God. I know as the Director, as well as my staff, we plan to teach and model to the children with God on our side in our hustle and bustle lives. To slow down and see the joy and spark in the chil-dren’s eyes. And we plan to do this by asking God to give us his strength and power to do his will. And we continue to ask for the support and prayers of the church, because if not for all of you, we couldn’t begin to touch the lives of all the children that pass through our doors day in and day out, and we thank you! God Bless you all, Alisen Sanders CCDC Director

Many Thanks to Jimmy and Cindy Brashear

for another wonderful year of Country Christmas! Thanks also to all those who volunteered to make it

such a special evening for all of our families!

Thank you for making

2017 a year to remember!

TGIW will begin on January 24, 2018!

Reflections of 2017....

The Good News 6

Prayer Concerns

Mission Opportunities

PROJECT DIGNIDAD NEEDS: Canned Vegetables • Canned Fruit • Canned meat • Canned tomatoes • Spaghetti sauce

Peanut butter • Vermicelli • Pasta Pinto Beans (large bags can be divided) • Rice (large bags can be divided)

Please drop your items in the box in the Narthex.

WESLEY SOUP KITCHEN Would you like to help serve a warm meal??

We need you on any one of the following days:

Monday, January 15 - 10:00 a.m.

Monday, February 19 - 10:00 a.m. Monday, March 19 - 10:00 a.m.

Call Cathy Talley for more information @ 944-7787

Making Plarn

Every Tuesday, we get together at 3:00 in MP4 to make plarn (plastic yarn) which is used to crochet mats for the homeless. We have a great time visiting while we cut and weave

the stacks of plastic bags being donated to this cause.

Come join us - many hands make quick work!!

Delivering Meals for the Elderly

St. Luke has a permanent route on Fridays. If you wish to assist please sign up in the Narthex or call the church office. This is a great opportunity to ex-perience a wonderful ministry - you can ride along to see just how easy it

can be. John Groth drives the route in the church van and you can take the meals to the door. Meet at the church @10:00 a.m. on Fridays.

Confirmation Class Guy Abbott Sabre Abbott Eula Gay Baldwin Ed Halfast

Bill Gatlin Marilyn Grant John Groth John Guy Ed Halfast Carolyn Haynes

Dolores Land Kathy Nixon Jerry Pike Betty Robinson Donnie Rouse Jackie Shannon

Honorariums

In Honor of

Lola Parker

given by: C.I.H.U. Class

To My Dear St. Luke Family,

I miss you! Thanks for the beautiful send-off with all your good wishes and even a beautiful corsage! I am enjoying

being close to my family but it was so difficult to walk away from that life and so many wonderful friends. Please

keep me in your prayers. Just know you are so special to me and I love you. Merry Christmas Y’all!

Lola Parker

The Good News 7

January Birthdays

Finance Information

Average Worship Attendance 9:00 a.m. Worship ~ 84

11:00 a.m. Worship ~ 73

December 2017

INCOME Pledged Giving $303,898.90 Unpledged Giving 30,341.47 Miscellaneous Giving 25,744.82 Total Income $359,985.19

EXPENSES

Administrative Expenses 7,256.37

Building and Grounds 99,475.60

Staff Salaries & Compensation 199,753.24

Programs 7,202.39

Apportionments, Outreach, etc. 56,705.69

Total Expenses $370,393.29

1/1 Carol Carpenter

1/2 Madison Huedepohl

1/3 Patti Zabecki

1/4 Carol Watkins

1/5 Matthew Self

1/6 Kanon Weatherford

1/7 Hudson Russwurm

1/8 Scott Melton

1/9 Terry Harris

1/10 Don McCollum

1/11 Brooke Cyphers

Steve Robles

Ricky Wright

1/12 Billie Frost

1/14 Fred McShan

1/17 Tiffany Bradshaw

Aaron Roper

1/18 Patrick Shannon

1/19 Jacob Wardlaw

Jane Wardlaw

1/20 Gail Payne

Dave Tarver

1/21 Jimmy Bass

1/22 David DeLosSantos

Susan McKnight

Dallas Robles

1/23 Stephen Anderson

1/24 Elizabeth Downs

1/27 Sonny Barton

Marilyn Grant

1/29 Tim Burrage

MJ Freeman

Kevin Roberts

1/30 Sydney TerHaar

1/31 Cody Lee

Jannett Miers

Dollars for Mission

We have lost touch with some of our St. Luke members - if you have an

address for any of these members, please contact the

church office.

Melissa Kay Cornelius Erica Palmer Melissa Pratz Valerie Ward

Christmas Outreach Projects $518.94

Christmas Offering $15,411.00

Unknown Addresses

1/1 - Church office closed

1/4 - noon - Worship Committee - MP3

1/14 - 3:00 pm - Soupers meet to cook in Fellowship Hall kitchen

1/16 - 6:00 pm - Admin Council Meeting MP1 & 2

1/24 - 5:30 pm - TGIW starts

Important Dates on the Church Calendar

The Good News 8

St. Luke United Methodist Church 2781 West Avenue N. San Angelo, Texas 76904

Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE

PAID San Angelo, TX

Permit #191

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Senior Pastor, Charlie Baskin

Associate Pastor, Ed Halfast

Business Administrator, Cindy Brashear

Children’s and Family Ministries, Lori Jones

Youth Ministries, John Groth

Chancel Choir Director, Jared Capps

Accompanist, Heidi Baskin

Nursery Director, Katina Emert

Child Development Center Director, Alisen Sanders

Custodian, Cassi Hogeda

Church Office 325.949.1545 Website: www.stluke-sanangelo.org

Office Hours: Monday - Thursday

8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Friday

8:30 - 2:00 p.m.

Information for the upcoming February newsletter is due in the church office by

January 19th.

Church Staff

Church Office Information

Newsletter Information

Beginning January 14th