Marked By Ashes

1st Sunday in Lent
Just these lines …

… to say that this past Sunday brought the culmination of our 2025 Global Impact Celebration. It was so good for my soul seeing you streaming forward for the Sacrament of Holy Communion and placing your Global Impact Life & Faith Commitment cards in our baskets. Those baskets will be out in the Sanctuary for the next couple of weeks for you to place your commitments. You can also do so online by clicking here. Thank you so much for supporting our mission beyond the walls of Matthews United Methodist. Also, if you missed being in church on Sunday, you can worship with us by clicking here.

This past Saturday, nearly 50 of us traveled to Greensboro for a day of learning and growth around racial justice. We visited the International Civil Rights Center & Museum, headquartered in the famous downtown Greensboro Woolworths, site of the lunch counter sit-in of The Greensboro 4. We ate lunch at the Magnolia House, a noted place for people of color to stay overnight using The Green Book. We concluded our visit by stopping by the Gillespie Golf Course and the First Tee of the Central Carolinas, site of a new mural honoring The Greensboro 6. An amazing day!

 

Annual Report of the Matthews United Methodist Church Endowment

Click here to read the 2024 report on our Endowment. I’m so deeply moved by the amazing steps we’ve taken over the last few years. I’m beyond grateful for our Endowment community of leaders and their devotion to this ongoing project. They have a remarkable vision that will strengthen the ways we Reach, Teach, Praise & Serve at MUMC for generations.

The Endowment’s current focus is to help educate our congregation on God’s principles for handling money and provide tools through Financial Peace University, a 9-session course offered on Sunday evenings beginning March 9 from 6-8 pm. Register now…you can’t afford to miss this! Through the years at MUMC, 133 families have taken advantage of this program and reported a total combined savings of $273,312 as a result of using their new skills.

Click here to read all about our Endowment fund.

 

Video Devotional

A blessed Ash Wednesday to all. Today is one of those days that weighs heavy on many. Every year, I think about why. I think it has to do with the burdens we all carry as the very reality of being a human being, alive, on this planet. If you will, please allow me to share a few thoughts with you today. The title of my devotional is Marked by Ashes.

 

The Season of Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday and, therefore, the first day of Lent. I love hearing from some of you about your observance of some Lenten disciplines: fasting, scripture reading, prayer, service and so much more.

• Ash Wednesday Service – Tonight, March 5, 7 pm in the Sanctuary. We are delighted to have Rev. Dr. Joshua M. Noblitt as our preacher. Josh is a child of MUMC and an ordained Elder in the Western NC Conference of The United Methodist Church. (Learn more about Josh here.) Our worship service will include the Imposition of Ashes.
• Butterfly Project – Order caterpillars & habitats and care for your butterfly to be released on Easter Sunday. Order here by March 23 and pick up in The Commons on March 30 between 9 am -12:15 pm.
• Draw Close: A Creative Lenten Group – Thursdays, March 6 – April 17, 11:00 am-Noon. Details & registration info here.
• 24 Hours That Changed the World – Women’s Thursday Night Lenten Study, March 6, 6:30pm on Zoom. For info, contact Cheryl Sherrard.
• Beginning this Sunday, March 9, we will launch our Lenten Worship Series, Shaping the Virtuous Heart in all our morning worship services. You can read more about this series here.

Be sure to review all of our Lenten & Easter happenings here!

Other Upcoming Opportunities

• Make Prayer Beads at our Community Workshop to provide hope to Western NC neighbors. on Sunday, March 9 at Noon.
• Enjoy Dessert & Conversation with Kathy Izard, Trust the Whisper author on Wednesday, March 19 in The Commons.
• 5th Sunday Fellowship – March 30. 12:15. Bring a dish to share & view American Coup: Wilmington 1898.

 

This Sunday in Worship

We invite you to join us this Sunday in person at 8:15 (Traditional), 9:30 (Contemporary), 9:30 (Family Worship in the Gym), 11:00 (Traditional), or online at 9:30, 11:00 or 12:30 (Spanish – in person or here on demand). Daylight Savings Time starts this Sunday, so be sure to spring your clocks forward before going to bed Saturday night!

All are welcome to join us at Family Worship, an interactive, high-energy worship service for the whole family, at 9:30 in the Gym. This month, we’ll be looking at the virtue of Cooperation as we explore how “We can do more by working together.” Plan to stay following the service for refreshments and a Mission Opportunity supporting kids in Swannanoa affected by the devastating storms and flooding.

This Sunday in our Spanish-speaking service (CCH), Pastor Roldan will be preaching from Exodus 3:5-10, and his sermon title is A Unique Perspective.

This Sunday, Rev. Linda Kelly will be putting the Word into words for us. On this First Sunday of Lent, she will begin our sermon series, Shaping the Virtuous Heart, by recalling persons with the courage to choose God’s will above and beyond all else. Her sermon title is Shaping the Virtuous Heart: Courage from Daniel 3:19-28. Linda shares this quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”

I’m hoping you will invite a friend to see all the creativity that goes into our experience of the Lenten season at Matthews United Methodist Church.

And now, as always, during these strange, uncertain, and yet hope-filled days. Remember … God does God’s best work in moments like this.

Shaping the Virtuous Heart.
Dr. Charles (Chuck) W. Wilson II

Did you know that Eon Malan, our Music Ministry Associate/organist, shared multiple musical selections throughout February’s worship services in honor and celebration of Black History Month? During the month of March, he is playing music selections written by women in honor of Women’s History Month.