How Shall We Do Life Together?

4th Sunday of Easter
Just these lines, my friends …

… to say that I’m overwhelmed with our Easter days of practicing resurrection. I hope you’ll take the time and listen to my message from Sunday: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Why I Am Enthusiastically a United Methodist Christian. The sermon is my deeply personal hope and witness for the days ahead and my deep, deep love for The United Methodist Church. May the General Conference remove, revise and regionalize for the transformation of the world! You can participate in worship from Sunday and listen to my sermon by clicking here.

We’ve just received an incredible pastoral letter (We are on the Way to a Better Church) from our bishop, Ken Carter. I’m asking every Matthews United Methodist Church (MUMC) disciple to read this important summation of where The United Methodist Church stands as we enter General Conference 2024 (April 23 – May 3). The letter gives some background to the General Conference and is also intended to be an alternative to statements about our church that may be inflammatory or inaccurate. Thank you for reading and sharing. Please click here for Bishop Carter’s Pastoral Letter.

MUMC, you are a praying people. As you have been doing, please continue your prayers for General Conference. I’ve included this prayer, which we distributed on Sunday, as a guide for your personal intercessions. In addition, you can sign up to join in the collective prayer vigil on April 21, organized by the Western North Carolina Conference, by clicking here.

Additional resources concerning General Conference:

• Western North Carolina Conference General Conference Webpage – This will be an excellent information place for you during the days of General Conference.
• What to Know About General Conference Proposals The Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC) is hosting an Everybody hospitality space at General Conference at Hilton Garden hotel, where they welcome attendees of all abilities. Click here to purchase & donate supplies for this effort.

I do love our marvelous church and tradition of faith. We are a community of faith where nobody is perfect, everyone is welcome, and because of Jesus, anything is possible.

Video Devotional

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch my devotional for the week titled, How Shall We Do Life Together?

Upcoming Events

• Women’s Empowerment Brunch Featuring Speaker, April Diaz – April 20, 9:30 – Noon. At “It’s A Party,” we’re celebrating the strength, resilience, and achievements of women from all walks of life. Whether you’re a trailblazer in your career, a nurturing caregiver, or an aspiring leader, this event is for you! Register by Midnight Tonight! Free childcare 12 & Under.
• Feasibility Study FOCUS GROUPS for Sanctuary/Auxiliary Space Improvements– Provide Your Response as MUMC explores facility upgrades & accessibility. Focus Groups begin Sunday, April 21 in Sunday Morning Groups & Classes.

Focus Groups Open to ALL, No registration required:

– May 5 at 11:00am in Room 158
– May 12 at 9:30am in Room 106
– May 12 at 11:10 am in The Gym (following Family Worship)
– May 19 at 9:30am in The Commons

• All-Church Gathering: Monday, May 6, 7 pm in the Sanctuary. Refreshments served in the Sanctuary Reception Area at 6:30 pm. Come learn about everything that happened at General Conference, as well as all the wonderful things going on here at MUMC. Details
• Leadership Information Session: Wednesday, May 8, 7 pm in Room 94 or via Zoom. Come learn what it means to serve in elected leadership on one of our formal committees. Details

This Sunday in Worship

We invite you to join in worship this Sunday at 8:15 am (Traditional; in person only), 9:30 am (Contemporary; in person or online here), 11:00 am (Traditional; in person or online here) or 12:30 (Spanish; in person or on demand here).

This week Pastor Roldan continues the worship series preparing our CCH Community for General Conference. It is titled, The Elephant in the Room. His sermon title for this week, Separating the Truth from the Lie from Romans 1:18-25.

General Conference is on our doorstep and our bishops from all over the world are coming to town. We are privileged to have Bishop Lawson Bryan with us this week. Bishop Bryan recently retired as the bishop of the South Georgia Annual Conference. He served great United Methodist churches all over Alabama including Ashland Park in Mobile, First in Dothan and First in Montgomery. He is currently the Bishop-in-Residence at First Church in Montgomery where he leads the Respite for All Foundation. Bishop Bryan is married to Sherrill, and she will be with us as well.

Bishop Bryan wrote me a note this week saying, “I have been watching the videos of your Lenten worship services. The emphasis on Embracing Disability: Creating an Everybody Ministry was very well done and extremely inspiring to me. I would like to affirm that Lenten theme and add my own witness to it by reading and preaching on Mark 2:23-3:6 — it’s the story of a man with a withered hand BUT it is also the story of healing a withered understanding of the Sabbath. It reveals the potential of the place of worship to be a place of real transformation for individuals but also for the community. My sermon title, STRETCH, is based on Jesus’ words, “Stretch out your hand.”

I know you will want to be in our Sanctuary come Sunday. I’m so excited about seeing you and introducing you to Bishop Bryan. Be sure to invite someone to church – everyone needs to know they are loved and a child of God. And they may have never met a bishop!

And now, during these disconcerting, uncertain, confusing and yet, hopeful days, remember … God does God’s best work in moments like this.

Practicing Resurrection,
Dr. Charles (Chuck) W. Wilson II

 

Did you know that our beloved Sanctuary Choir has been invited to sing at the penultimate worship service at General Conference on Thursday, May 2? Approximately 60 choir members and other supporters of the ministry will be boarding two buses and will be heading down to the Convention Center at 6:30 am for the 8:00 am worship service. This service will include a special blessing to all missionaries in The United Methodist Church and the choir will be doing two selections for this worship experience: Go Ye Into All the World by Eugene Butler and Let All the World by K Lee Scott. Please pray for travel mercies, safety and the conference as a whole.

Did you know that the new flooring was installed last week in the hallways around the Gym? The floors now match what exists around the Sanctuary. Walk through & enjoy the fresh, bright look!

Did you know that Brenda Murphy and the Campus Beautification Ministry installed new monkey grass under the drive-through portico? Thank you, Brenda & team!

Did you know that members of Centro Cristiano Hosanna (CCH) helped The Micah Connection serve newcomers at an event at The Latin American Coalition? They welcomed 33 families with supplies and food. Funds came from a Mustard Seed grant from The United Methodist Church.