The hunger games are full on and millions are drawn to the story of an unlikely hero who becomes an icon social change and revolution.  The books and movie give rise to some really great questions and pull at the hearts of each one of us in some ways. 

We are going to take the next few weeks to look at themes in the hunger games an ask what they might have in store for us as people of faith.  In doing so we are going to be using the beatitudes found in the first part of Matthew 5 as a guide on the journey and in the conversation. 

Come and join in the fun as we @ MUMC talk about the Hunger Games and the Gospel. 

When we think about sharing our faith with other people it can be a little lot intimidating. Throughout October we are going to be engaged in a teaching series called “How to Shout Without Screaming.”  No one likes to be yelled at, but we can get our point across and influence others.  We don’t share our faith so that we score points for our team, but rather so that others can come to know the full love God has in store for them, to the point that Jesus would die on the cross. 

As we work through the series we will also have some take home “field work” pieces too. 

I am excited about this series because we are going to be talking in real and practical ways about how you can be you while still sharing your faith and not being one of the offensive screamers that turns off people to the promise God has in Store for them. 

October 9th-         Faith sharing by being a good friend (Field work: Listen to at least to people share their faith story with you.  Focus on listening to their story)
October 16th-     Corn Maze
October 23rd-        Faith Sharing by living a good life (Field work:  After listening to someone’s story and getting to know them deeper, share your faith story. 
October 30th-     Trunk or Treat
November 6th-     Sharing the Good News of God’s Love (Field work":  Now that you know each other’s stories, share how you both have simular stories in that God is working in both and wants the best for both of you)

Journeying Together Toward Deeper Discipleship
LifeForceYouth.com

This past week we talked about doing faith as a team.  an important point was that: “The people you give permission to be in your life now, have permission to shape your future.”  We talked about how we all need encouragers (faith coaches), faith companions (like teammates), and apprentices (like rookies) that we can encourage and invest in to grow. 

Tomorrow!!

     We are sending out our ignite email our early this week because of some really exciting things happening tomorrow morning.  It is the annual See you at the pole day before school.  If you are a Middletown Middle r high school student (or parent who would like to come and support our students) come to the football field at 6:45am.  There will be some great music, food, a short message and then a time to pray for the students and teachers of the schools.  It is always a great time and worth getting up and out of the house early.  Everything will be wrapped up by 7:15 so students can go to class and everyone else can get their day started. 

This Week

we are going to be wrapping up our “grow up” series. We are going to be focusing on our scripture from James 1:2-4.  Read this scripture this week and think about a time in your life where there were obstacles and roadblocks.  How did you over come it?  How did it make you stronger? we will talk about how giving our all when we feel like we have nothing left allows us to grow in our strength.

The Coming Weeks:

September 18th Youth Group 6:00-7:30
Second week in the Grow up teaching series
Bring in a baby picture

September 25th Youth Group 6:00-7:30
Third week of the Grow Up series
Bring in a picture of your Grand parents

October 2nd Youth Group
Final week of the grow up series
Bring in the faith commitments you are making.

October 9th

     Faith in action weekend
     We are going to be serving the community all weekend. Find something that you can do and then come to Fuel and tell us about it. It is going to be EPIC.

     FUEL Worship
     We are going to be worshiping and witnessing to our faith in action weekend. As well as kicking off our teaching series James

October 16 3:00-7:00 Corn Maze

Bring $10 to get in and then some snack money if you want. Dress in old clothes that can get muddy. We are going to Summer’s Farm in Frederick and we are going to get lost in their big ol’ corn maze, jump on the blob thing and play in the hay. We will meet at church at 3:00 and be back by 7:00. Bring a friend and a canned food item so that you get $1 off of your admission.

October 23 6:00-7:30 Youth Group

Week #2 of our series on the book of James

October 30 6:00-7:30 Trunk or Treat

dress up and hand out candy to kids in the community. You can bring a car and decorate the trunk, help with one of the rooms in the church, or help in the kitchen making small snacks, drinks and help people feel welcome. It will be spooktacular.

Continue on the Journey

Be God’s

Pastor Chris

Our middle school Sunday school rooms have been getting some much needed attention from Peggy and some of the other saints of our congregation.  It is amazing what a really great cleaning, a coat of paint and TLC will do to make a room look much more welcoming. 

Now we are setting our sights on replacing some carpet, getting a dehumidifier and some other little things to make the rooms live up to their potential. 

Serving is a great way that we put into play all of the things that we understand to be true about our faith as we are called to have an eye for those others forget. 

START NOW-Bring in items for cleaning buckets (list in the narthex or click here for a PDF version)

Saturday October 1st
Trip to Serrv International in New Windsor meet at church at 8:15 am– 4:30pm

Sunday October 9th
Dresses for the World in the social hall 8:30-1:00pm
Cleaning bucket packing event beginning at 9:45am click here for a PDF version of the packing list
Food Packing event at Camp Manidokan 1:00-5:00pm
Food Drive groups leaving from MUMC at 11, 12 and 1pm
Middletown High School Grounds Cleanup 2:00-4:00pm
Nursing home visitation 2:00-4:30pm

Chili Cook-off and Evening Worship
Return to church at 6:00pm for a chili cook-off dinner and vote for your favorites dish ($1 per vote). The proceeds will go to the food bank. Then stay for worship where we will share our experiences of how God has moved throughout our time of service during this weekend.

Saturday October 15th
Trustee Clean-up day at MUMC 8:00am-Noon
Everyone is invited to come and work around the grounds of the church

We are going to have the opportunity to serve in a number of different areas as well as do some really fun stuff like going to the corn maze, Fuel Worship, helping kids at our annual Trunk-or-Treat and other great things.

There are print copies of the catalog available at church or download your very own copy by clicking on the link below.

Fall 2011 ministry catalog

Typically the morning is filled with work and then we will go out and do something fun in the evening.  The program will end with worship in Middleotwn park with The GAthering worship service where students will have the chance to talk about the things that they have been doing the past couple of days.  Come and be part of the fun. 

Sign up at church or email chris@lifeforceyouth.com

When faith guides us then we can encounter the Kingdom of God here and now and we don’t have to just wait until heaven comes along.