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Weekly Memo for October 27

10/27/2016

A week ago Wednesday we were trying to figure out how we were going to gather all the stuff for the cleaning buckets for Servant Sunday. Together, we came up with the idea of checking with a local hardware store.

I stopped in the hardware store close to my house, Frattalone’s Ace Hardware, near the intersection of Eden Prairie Road and MN Highway #5. Zach, the assistant manager, came out to talk to me. I explained that we were gathering several specific items but needed them in a small quantity. I felt like Mike and Frank on “American Pickers” handing him the list of things that are needed to fill a bucket. I nervously awaited his response.

Zach looked at the list and said, “Sure we can do this. I have to take my lunch, but why don’t you come back in about an hour or so and I’ll have this put together for you and can tell you how much it’s going to cost.” I couldn’t believe my ears, I high fived the guy. I told Zach he had not just made my day, but my week. Zach said, “We like doing this kind of thing.” And that is how we got the stuff to assemble 25 cleaning buckets on “Servant Sunday.” By the way, we got a deep discount.

This Sunday is Servant Sunday; I hope you’ll be here. Worship as we usually experience it will be about 25 minutes; we will sing a couple of songs, have our prayers, my shortest sermon ever and our offering. And then we will have several “servant” opportunities that you can participate in.

On Servant Sunday, some of us will put together the cleaning buckets. Others will wash windows inside and hopefully outside of the church. If you need a sit-down serving opportunity, we’ll come up with that. Still others will clean a few Sunday school rooms. Somebody else is planning some fun and useful projects for the kids. There will even be a group whose service will be brainstorming about what other service opportunities we might take on at our church.

The idea for Servant Sunday is to demonstrate that every time we come to worship, we are “sent out to serve.” So come to worship in your servant clothes. I’m planning on my faded jeans. We will still have our fellowship time afterwards where we will pray over the cleaning buckets and other projects.

And by the way, as of today we have collected more than $3000 total for cleaning buckets. All of which will go directly to this program of our United Methodist Committee on Relief http://www.umcor.org/(UMCOR).

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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Weekly Memo for October 13

10/13/2016

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There are a couple of things to share, especially for those of you who enjoy an opportunity to be able to do something and then almost immediately be able to see the good you have done.

The first is this Saturday (Oct. 15) at EPUMC. Our Trustees will coordinate a “clean up” at EPUMC from 9 -12 noon. Trustees will have several small, hands-on projects that you can do that will make a big difference in how our facility looks. These projects include: closing the garden, checking and tightening bolts on playground equipment, cleaning windows as well as a few other small projects.

Usually “trustees will coordinate” has meant that nine trustees and parts of their families show up and do as much as they can. This year we hope that a few more will find some time to be here, so that a lot more of these projects can be completed. Many hands do make for short work. You don’t need to worry about signing up or telling someone you are coming; just show up and we’ll find something you can do that makes a difference.

The other event is coming Sunday, Oct. 30, during worship. We are calling worship that day, “Servant Sunday.” Each Sunday we receive our offering as part of an intentional “response” to hearing God’s word in worship. On Sunday, Oct. 30, we are going to take that response a bit deeper and have a couple of hands-on projects that will be our response as a congregation.

These projects will include putting together “Cleaning Buckets.” Cleaning Buckets are an ongoing project of our United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). UMCOR provides emergency assistance for people all over the world. As I’ve mentioned a few times, every single dollar of our giving to UMCOR goes to the need for which it is intended. UMCOR has the resources and infrastructure to respond to specific emergencies like the flooding in Louisiana and the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.

EPUMC will buy supplies for as many buckets as we can raise the money to fill. Our goal is 15, which is about $1000, but I think we can do more that that. These buckets need to be packed in a very specific way, so we’ll need more than a couple of hands.

We are also thinking about making sandwiches for the homeless in Minneapolis. Kids will also have a project or they can work alongside parents. And we will most likely have a few left over projects to do from the Trustees’ “clean up.” My guess is that we will need at least a few “testers” to make sure we get the playground equipment bolted down tightly enough.

So on Oct. 30, wear really comfortable clothes. We will gather in the sanctuary to sing and pray and hear God’s word and then spend most of our time responding to God’s word, which is what it means to live as servants of Jesus Christ.

Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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Weekly Memo for October 6

10/6/2016

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Today, a couple of stories about an opportunity we at EPUMC have in the month of October to be Big Enough to Make a Difference.

Last night while I was sitting around at the Huddle talking with someone, Lois Hyde came by and said a hello. Lois has this way of smiling that says she has some great news to tell you. So Lois smiles at me and says something like, “I just heard that in just the month of September, our garden harvested over 900 pounds of vegetables for PROP.” That is great news, it’s half of our yearly goal harvested in one month. But the harvest is not yet over; hands are still needed.

Second story. A week ago our Worship Design Team was talking about our October worship. One of the things we will be doing is something we call “Servant Sunday.” On Oct. 30 we are going to have a brief time in the sanctuary and then move out of the pews and do a few service projects. The major project we are going to do is assemble Cleaning Buckets to send to our United Methodist Committee on Relief. I love doing projects for what we call UMCOR because every bit of our work goes directly to the need.

“Cleaning Buckets” used to be called “Flood Buckets.” They contain supplies that help in the aftermath of disasters. Today I’m concerned about the aftermath of the floods in Louisiana and the coming need as waters rise in Iowa and a hurricane passes over the Caribbean and parts of the East Coast. We are going to assemble at least 15 Cleaning Buckets….This will cost approximately $1,000. Our Worship design team is asking you, in addition to your other gifts to EPUMC, to give towards this need.

We’ll have special envelopes out next week in worship or you can mail in a donation. Sara Maloney and I will go shopping with the money we raise and purchase the things that are needed. And then on Sunday, Oct. 30, as a part of Servant Sunday, we’ll assemble the buckets. Sara and I will buy enough stuff to fill however many buckets we can, let’s make sure it’s at least 15 of them and…with some money left over to cover the cost of shipping those buckets to wherever they are needed.

Third story…After the Worship Design Team and the Leadership team gave the Okey Dokey to the Cleaning Bucket idea, I got worried about what this might mean for our monthly collection for PROP. Sometimes in a church of our size, you do one thing at the expense of the other, and so I called Karen DeYoung of our Social Action team to talk to her about rather or not we should do this. Karen was great; she said something like: “Social Action doesn’t have the corner of the market on what we should be doing to help people.”

I love that attitude… it is a “Both/And attitude.” “A Both/And attitude” says that at EPUMC, we can have one month in which we collect both enough supplies for PROP and $1,000 or more for Cleaning Buckets. This month the products for PROP are toilet paper and canned fruit.

Fourth Story….So then I come into the office today and turn on my computer, and first thing came across this picture. It’s the Adult Mission team at work up at a camp near Park Rapids called…Northern Pines. They are helping repair and maintain some cabins.

In addition to that today we have to decide what is going to be on the “commitment section” of the bulletin. This week it’s a little easier because both Feed My Starving Children and Serving at Simpson will be on there. What I hear is that the Feed My Starving Children crew is always big enough; however, the serving at Simpson crew is getting a little thin for the need. We usually have enough food prepared, but we need to keep at it. And we need some new folks to go down to be on site serving. We’ll have a video coming on this after the new year.

Crops for PROP, Cleaning Buckets, Monthly PROP Supplies, Northern Pines Camp, Feed my Starving Children, Simpson Shelter….all that is a lot to ask for in one month for a church of our size. I believe that at EPUMC we are Big Enough to Make a Difference. We have enough people, enough resources, enough desire to be doing all of these works of mission and mercy, not just adequately, but well.
Keep the Faith,
Pastor Dan

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