WEEKLY OPPORTUNITIES
Tuesday
Advent Bible Study - 10am
Wednesday
Bible Study - 2pm
Choir Practice - 7pm
Youth Group - 7pm
Junior Youth Group (ages 7-13) - 7:30pm
MONTHLY OPPORTUNITIES
FOOD PANTRY
1st Saturday of every month from 10am - 12pm!
All are welcome!
Covered Dish Dinners
2nd Friday of the Month at 6:30pm
(alternate hosting with Buddtown UMC)
97 Main St., Vincentown, NJ 08088
Matthew 18:20
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
EVERYONE Is ALWAYS Welcome Here!
Sunday Schedule
REMINDER: Reverend Dave will be on his first round of Paternity Leave from January 12th until January 31st. Please contact the church office if needs arise during that time.
Vincentown United Methodist Church
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ December 2019
How is it with your soul? Our church and our community have been through a lot in the last few weeks. I want to check in and see how all of you are doing. Even beyond this church and this community, the holidays can be a very difficult time for many people. Every week during Advent, we light one new candle on our Advent wreath. One for hope, one for peace, one for joy and one for love. I understand that sometimes it can be hard to have hope when you are not at peace. It can be hard to have hope when you have no feelings of joy. And it can be hard to have hope when you don’t feel love from anyone, not even yourself. If you are having a difficult time this Advent, I want you to know that my office is always open to help you find your hope again.
This year for Advent we are using a book written by Rev. Adam Hamilton, a United Methodist pastor in Kansas. What makes this book unique is the way in which it brings us the Christmas story through Mary’s eyes. Beginning with the end of her life and working our way backwards to the Nativity, Rev. Hamilton helps us to put a human face and human emotions on Mary, the mother of Jesus. This Christmas, we will explore how Mary, just like all of us, struggled with different emotions, but always kept the truth of God’s Word in her mind and heart. By putting a human face and human emotions on Mary, we can learn to relate to her in ways that we, perhaps, never have before.
With Mary’s help, we can learn how to maintain our hope, peace, joy and love this Advent even if life has dealt us some major blows recently. That is because hope, peace, joy and love are bigger than just emotions. Emotions are temporary and vary easily depending on what’s going on in our lives. When something tragic happens, happiness may go away and sadness may take over. When something scares us, we may feel fear, but when that fright goes away, so does our fear. Likewise, when we are feeling down and something really great happens, our sadness is turned quickly into happiness. These emotions are often temporary and largely determined by the environment around us.
But hope, peace, joy and love are constant. Even in the face of death, there is hope. Even when life is getting crazy, there is peace. Even in the midst of sadness, there is joy. And even when we do some unlovable things, God still loves us. Hope, peace, joy and love are not temporary like emotions. They are not determined by outside influences. There is a fifth candle on the Advent wreath that we have not yet discussed. That fifth candle represents Christ. It is our faith in Jesus Christ that allows us to have hope, peace, joy and love no matter what is going on in life. Advent is a time to remember when that hope, peace, joy and love was brought into the world through Jesus Christ.
My prayer this Advent is that no matter what might have happened in your life, the hope, peace, joy and love that Christ brings will be present in your life in ways that are so obvious that you can’t help but notice them. This hope, peace, joy and love looks far beyond the past and the present and anticipates the good news that God has for each of us in the future. That hope, peace, joy and love came through a human face, born of a human mother. They both fully experienced what it was like to live human lives. Jesus felt what it was like to live a human life with all of its ups and downs. Mary felt what it was like to worry about your child. And Mary even experienced what no parent every should, but unfortunately some of you have, and that is the death of your own child. But by putting these human faces and human emotions on Biblical people, we can relate to them so much more. I pray that this Advent, we will all learn how to acknowledge the hope, peace, joy and love that Christ has offered us.
If you are looking for a church home, we invite you to all of our weekly opportunities for mission, ministry and worship. We have Sunday School for all ages at 10am, Prayer and Praise Time at 10:15 and Worship at 11 every Sunday morning. We have a weekly Bible Study for Advent on Tuesday at 10 and a year-long Bible Study in Leisuretowne at 2 on Wednesdays. We have choir and Junior Youth Group on Wednesday evenings. And we open our Food Pantry every first Saturday of the month from 10am-12pm. We’ve got a lot going on and would love for you to join us!
Grace and Peace,
Reverend Dave
Our Sunday Worship Schedule
Regular Worship Schedule
September - June
9:45 Adult Sunday School
Upper Room Prayer
10:00 Sunday School for prek-12th grade
10:15-10:45 Prayer and Praise Time
11:00 Worship Service
Summer Worship Schedule
June - August
10:00 SUMMER WORSHIP
HOW TO CONTACT US
Pastor: Rev. Dave Ledford
609-859-2161
Church Office:
609-859-2161
vumcsec@gmail.com
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@vumc_vincentownunitedmethodist
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