In this Issue
December 7, 2011
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Worship With Us
December 11, 2011
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Traditional Services
(8:30 & 11:00)
“The Road to …
Blessing” (Elizabeth)
Luke 1:39-55
Sermon by Daniel Ogle
Contemporary Service
(11:00)
“The Road to …
Blessing” (Elizabeth)
Luke 1:39-55
Sermon by Melissa Smith
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November 29 -
December 5 |
$43,709 |
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YTD Receipts
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$1,268,291
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YTD Expenses
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$1,199,360
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Difference
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$68,931
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Follow Us
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Pastor's Message
What a wonderful day we celebrated together this past Sunday! We worshiped together with Scripture and plenty of song – all the songs we sang on Sunday. In our traditional worship services, we sang three wonderful Christmas hymns and were able to hear wonderful music from our chancel choir, our children’s choirs and from three of our young adults (you are welcome Leslie). We heard the story of Christmas through the eyes of Joseph in all three services, and of course, responded to God’s word and presence in our lives through our financial commitments – both for the 2012 budget and the three-year capital campaign to retire our existing debt.
Your pastors and church staff are incredibly grateful for your gifts to the church, for they enable us to lead in our shared ministry together here at Fountain City United Methodist Church. We are also especially grateful to our capital campaign directors Tom and Linda Whittaker and Betsy and Chris Castleberry for their tireless work and leadership in stewarding us through this capital campaign. I pray that this Sunday was as much a blessing for you as it was for us.
Of course, during this season we continue to walk the road towards the manger as we anticipate the birth of Jesus at Christmas. We will be blessed this Sunday afternoon and Monday night with our annual choral Christmas program, which will feature our children, youth and adult choirs. Advent is much more than counting down the days until Christmas, but is a time set aside to intentionally examine our lives and prepare ourselves spiritually to receive God’s best gift at Christmas. I hope all of us will take advantage of this time to worship together and to celebrate love, joy, peace, hope and ultimately Christ this season, and every season of our lives. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
-- Daniel
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Christmas Music Program
Sunday, December 11, 4:00 p.m.
Monday, December 12, 7:30 p.m.
Christmas Eve Services
5:00 p.m. - Family Communion &
Traditional Nativity
6:30 p.m. - Contemporary with Communion
11:00 p.m. - Traditional Candlelight
with Communion
Celebrate the Birth of Christ
on Christmas Day
One Worship Service at 10:00 a.m.
in the Sanctuary
(Sunday school will not meet)
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Living and Responding Through Faith
Scroggie Mission Endowment Fund Now Taking Applications
Applications for 2012 funds from the Scroggie Mission Endowment Fund are now being accepted. You may stop by the church office to pick up an application, download the application, or apply on-line.
For more information, please check on-line.
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For the Entire Church Family
Current Calendar
Update Your Information
UMW Upcoming Distribution
Worship with Us During Advent
First Fruits Sunday, December 11
As you come to worship this Sunday, December 11, we hope you will be able to bring your first gift in response to your commitment for the Capital Campaign. You will receive envelopes in the mail this week that you may use in making your contributions. Your contributions may be placed in the offering during worship. Thank you for your generosity in this effort to reduce our capital indebtedness.
Friday Morning Young Men’s Bible Study
The Young Men’s Bible Study will pick back up on Friday, January 7, at 8:00 a.m., as we will be reading together The Good and Beautiful Life, the second book in the three-book series on the spiritual life by James Bryan Smith. We hope that you will join us for good coffee and good conversation as we learn together how to grow deeper in relationship with God and those around us. Contact Daniel Ogle at 689-5175, extension 110, or by email at dogle@fountaincityumc.org for more information.
Financial Support for FCUMC
Ministry Update
While we still have some distance to travel, we are off to a strong start in our financial emphasis for our 2012 ministry as well as our debt retirement. By Tuesday morning of this week, we have received commitments of approximately $934,000 for our ministry program for 2012 and approximately $953,000 toward our plan to retire our debt in three years. We offer our gratitude to those who have returned their cards already and want to encourage others to do so soon. Your responses are critical as we continue to plan for ministry in the coming months.
Even if we are to do no more than continue doing what we are doing, we will need an additional $558,000 to fund our ministry for next year. If we want to retire our debt in three years and save ourselves significant money in interest payments, we will need an additional $850,000 for the capital campaign. We hope everyone will be able to respond to this opportunity to support an ever stronger ministry in and through FCUMC.
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