Outside the Box: The Journey from Hurt to Wholeness

Dear Fellow Ministers,

Thank you for your presence, your prayers, and the excitement you shared over our Advent/Christmas worship and happenings! Approximately 2350 attended our seven Christmas Eve services, and we collected a total of $31,128.33 for the Mission Offering! 100% of the collection will be divided between our three Global Impact Partners of Matthews Free Medical Clinic, Matthews HELP Center, and Wings of Hope in Haiti. If you missed being with us in person, you can worship here.

What a joy it has been to prepare for and then celebrate Emmanuel, God with us. We carry that promise of God being with us into our new worship series that will begin this week: The Journey from Hurt to Wholeness. This year, we are going to work as a church on being a trauma-informed, healing-centered church. What that means is that we all carry some trauma from something. One of the realities is that lots of people carry trauma from church itself.

We want to acknowledge that people come into our services hurting, and we want to be sure that the healing Presence of Christ is offered to everyone. This worship series will help us do just that. This coming week we will be concentrating on Matthew 2:1-12 as God forms a sermon in us. We will celebrate Epiphany by using parts of John Wesley’s Covenant Service as we enter a new year. Please read through this text and be thinking about how we can grow in understanding that people we encounter may be going through difficulty, and one of our primary roles is to offer the healing Presence of Christ to them. Watch my video update here.

I am so grateful for the genuine expressions of Christ’s love that Matthew United Methodist Church offers to each other, our community, and our world! That witness is important as people deal with trauma. Thank you all for being such an important part of the healing journey as we all can move from hurt to wholeness. God is glorified through you. I look forward to being in ministry with you this week!

In Christ’s Service,
David

Did you know that MUMC men hosted a Christmas party for men from Hoskins Park, one of our Global Impact ministries? Hoskins Park gives men facing homelessness, drug addiction, substance abuse, incarceration, and health concerns an opportunity to grow and build a Christ-centered life with foundational resources.

Did you know that the Family Covenant Adult Sunday School class members contributed 45 gift cards to The Micah Connection to help our neighbors have food during this season? Thank you all for your generosity!

Did you know that Jake Jones from our Global Impact partner, the Wájaro Foundation in Bogotá, Colombia, was in Matthews last week? Wájaro means “let’s go together” and Jake, his wife Lauren and their team seek to walk alongside groups of people engaged in peace and justice work in difficult regions throughout Colombia.