Holy Communion Sunday, October 4

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We will celebrate online Holy Communion this Sunday evening. The video will be posted online at 4 pm, Sunday October 4. It will not be live, so you may watch it at the time best for you.

You have two options for communion supplies. You may provide your own bread and grape juice or you may use the prepackaged communion supplies we have at the church.

Of course, if you are able to provide your own bread and juice, it allows there to be a larger supply of prepackaged elements for others. All total, I think we have about 300 prepackaged elements at this time.

Picking up the prepackaged elements.
You may come by the church office during office hours between now and Thursday afternoon (9am-4pm). Just come to the office door and the staff will be happy to help you.

If you are unable to come by the office, the communion elements will be available after worship this Sunday. And as I said last week in worship, you are welcome to bring your own supplies with you to church (keep them with you) and we will have a special time of prayer for them.

Video Location.
Starting this Sunday, the video will be on our two primary video locations:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FUMCrestview?ref=hl
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChbBrOzL1CiaC4bclpYfsbw

As pastor, I do have a goal of celebrating Holy Communion in-person again one day, but we are still gradually working through this pandemic.

-Pastor Ronnie

New Sunday School Locations Beginning October 4

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On Sunday, October 4th we will be back to our regular Sunday School schedule. Below is the list of Sunday School classes and their NEW LOCATION for meeting to accommodate social distancing. Please notify your class attendees of this location change.

Agape--Room 212 at 9:45am

Wesley Bible--Conference Room at 9:45am

Biblical Pilgrims--Room 213 on the breezeway at 9:45am

Messengers--Fellowship Hall at 9:45am

Vines & Branches--Chapel at 9:45am

F.I.S.H--Wesley Hall at 11am

FUMC Youth are BACK!!!

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 We are excited to welcome back our Youth programs!

 Sunday School begins this Sunday, October 4, during both worship services, in the Youth Room of the Crossroads Center. 

 Wednesday Night  begins next Wednesday, October 7, in the Youth Room of the Crossroads Center from 6:00-7:30pm. 

Please take a moment to review these important notes:

  • Please be cautious and do not attend if you are not feeling well, running a fever, or have run a fever in the last 10 days. 

  • For Sunday School (starting 10/4): 

    • No temperature checks

    • Masks are optional 

  • For Wednesday Nights (starting 10/7): 

    • Single point of entry/exit - Drop off and pick up will be at the side door (carport) of the Crossroads Center. 

    • Doors open at 5:45 pm.

    • We will require a temperature check at the entrance, so please do not drop your child and leave until you see that they have cleared the temp check. 

    • Masks are optional. 

    • We will be encouraging social distancing. 

    • We will not be providing any food or beverages on Wednesdays at this time. 

    • Please be sure to pick your child up at 7:30pm. 

Please contact our new Youth Director, Paul Adams, or the Church Office if you have any questions. 

Paul can be reached at fumcrestviewyouth@gmail.com. 

UMCOR Sager-Brown Mission Update

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Sadly, our UMCOR Sager Brown team trip for this year has been cancelled. We are so disappointed in not being able to go and do our service for the Lord there. COVID is still striking and causing havoc in our lives whether it is here at home or in doing missions elsewhere. However, we are taking the positive action and are already scheduled for next year! We thank you again for your support. The donations received will be used for next year’s trip.

Beth Moore Small Group

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Cathy Thigpen and Elaine Mantle will be leading a 10-week online women's Bible study called Chasing Vines by Beth Moore. This study will take place via Zoom beginning Wednesday, September 16th @ 6 pm. ALL women are welcome - regardless of whether you live locally or not! Participant guides are highly suggested ($10). Using the scriptural images of the vinedresser, vine, branches and fruit, Beth Moore teaches us that a life rooted in Christ is meant to thrive and bear good fruit. Nothing about our lives nor in our lives is meant to be wasted. Everything changes when we understand and embrace God's amazing design for growing us into fruitful, meaningful and abundant women. Please contact Cathy Thigpen to receive the Zoom login information needed to participate.

Sign up HERE to join this group.

For more information on either of these opportunities, you may also contact April Hight (fumc.aprilhight@gmail.com).

New Sunday School Opportunity!

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***Sunday School Opportunities***
Allen Bell & Lee Thigpen are each leading an online Sunday school class via Zoom. Both classes are held on Sunday evening @ 6:30 pm and are using the Adult Bible Study series published by Cokesbury. This quarter's theme is entitled Encounter. Each successive lesson focuses on the meaning of salvation as understood through the writings and person experiences of Paul. Join us as we are challenged to consider our own salvation and how we can live faithfully into it. *A new quarter begins THIS Sunday, September 13th.* Please contact Cathy Thigpen to receive the Zoom login information needed to participate.

A Note From Pastor Ronnie on Tuesday, July 7

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Update from Pastor Ronnie

Dear Church family,

I have couple of important updates for you. This one will be a little longer- please read all the info.

Worship Technology

We have stopped taking donations for improving our worship technology. When I first began this project a few months ago, my goal was pretty minimal. I asked myself, what is the least we could “get by” with to improve our online stream to be adequate. But your generosity has allowed us to do much better than just to “get by”!

The total for gifts received as of this writing is $8,885. Gifts came in from people within our congregation and even viewers from other states.

Your generosity has been overwhelming. These gifts have allowed us to greatly improve the quality of what we are doing online- and I hope you have noticed a difference already. We still have equipment arriving and we believe it will all only get better with time. I know that some leaders in our church dreamed of making these technology improvements to our church a few years ago, but you have now made it happen (and for much less than the proposal a few years ago). We’ve tried to be good stewards of your gifts. Thank you.

I’m ending the fundraising for this because we believe we can slowly finish out the project with the gifts on-hand, and because we will be raising special gifts for a mission trip this fall to the Disaster Relief center in Louisiana (Sager Brown). We have a team of 12 going and we look forward to sharing more about it in the coming weeks.

COVID-19

I need to report an important but unusual positive COVID-19 case within our congregation. A little over three weeks ago a church member was feeling perfectly fine- but free tests were being conducted, so this person took one (nasal swab test). This person was in worship a day or two after that test (three Sundays ago) at 9:45, wore a mask, and practiced social distancing (all good).

A few days later, this person received the news of a positive test result- which seemed strange since still no symptoms. Could it be a false positive? Just to be safe, self-quarantine was imposed and this person has stayed home for a couple of weeks and has not returned to church (also good). As the days went by, it seemed more likely to be a false positive. But I got word this morning that symptoms (fairly mild so far) are now showing.

I went into this level of detail to stress a few things for you as a congregation.

When we opened up worship in June, it was with a few understandings about our local situation:

--Infection rate for our county was fairly low.

--Our facilities allowed us plenty of space to spread out for two services.

--We would practice social distancing and ask everyone to wear masks for singing.

Since then, the number of new positive cases for our county have risen dramatically because of increased testing but also since Memorial Day when people from all over the country have come here to our wonderful beaches.

We have now had three cases that have appeared from within our congregation, and I believe the reason we have not seen an outbreak within worship is because of the safe practices we have been asking of you.

Therefore, I cannot stress enough to you to please continue these practices if you come to in-person worship.

We continue to monitor information from our county health officials and our presence for in-person worship continues on a week to week basis. I know we are all eager to “get back to 100% normal” but we are not there yet- and will not be for some time. One of the last things I would want is to have to cancel in-person worship again, but I believe that can still be avoided if our worshipers will continue safe practices.

We in leadership are being pressed on many sides from groups wanting to go back to meeting as before. I sympathize. We have allowed a few groups to resume meeting (mostly some of our administrative committees) but I want you to understand the complexity.

The key factors we face are:

Room size vs number of participants

Down time between use/cleaning.

Each of these factors are critical. This is why we have not resumed Sunday School so far. Many of our classes have 12 or more people that would meet in a room which would place people almost elbow to elbow and does not allow any kind of distance. A couple of our classes and groups are having great success meeting online through various programs and apps.

Furthermore, our church is so large and busy under normal circumstances, that a typical room is often used multiple times during a given day. If this were not properly managed, we could have an outbreak.

I share all of this to ask you to continue working together with love and patience.

When we shut down in March, I began doing an almost daily First Light devotion online (now available on Facebook, Youtube and the church app). At first, I thought this would be for a month or so. We are now going on four months and I do not anticipate ceasing this work in the foreseeable future. Currently, we have somewhere between 40 – 100 people watch these devotions each week. I hope it has touched many people in a positive way.

The Stained Glass videos will also continue, but at a slower rate than before.

Thank you for your continued prayers.

Thank you for your generosity and faithfulness.

Thank you for your witness for the Kingdom of God.

Thank you for being The Church.

In Christ,

Pastor Ronnie


Small Group & Congregational Care Survey

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We want to hear from YOU! Your valuable insight will help us as we continue to discern on-going ministry needs over the coming year. Please take a moment to answer the following questions. If you would like a follow-up call or email, please include your contact info in the section below. Additional comments are welcomed as well.

Click HERE to take the survey.

We appreciate your feedback!

April Hight
Director of Congregational Care & Small Group Ministry
fumc.aprilhight@gmail.com
Cell: (850) 423 - 0458