Let the Sun Shine! Let the Son Shine!- June 2014

Dear Church Family,

      Summer is finally here.  School is out.  Our snow birds have returned home.  The sun is shining.  Travel plans are underway.  While it seems like the world around us is taking a vacation, summer marks a busy time at Hoffman United Methodist Church.  We have all sorts of ways for you to be involved at Hoffman this summer. Lunch Bunch begins on June 23^rd.  The Church Garage Sale is on June 12^th.  In July, we have the Art Show (18^th-20^th) and the Dayton Dragons came (12^th).  The church picnic will be in August.  We have lots of plans, and we hope that you will make Hoffman a part of your summer plans. 

      Annual Conference is June 8^th-11^th.  This year, I am excited to say that Hoffman UMC will be well represented at Annual Conference.  As you may know, each church sends their pastor and a lay delegate (Nancy Curry) who have the opportunity to vote on matters for our conference.   Well, this year, our district selected three additional lay delegates from our church—Julia Circle, Devin Mitchell, and Kim Petty.  Rev. Tim Benkert and Chris Miller will also be representing Hoffman.  So, we will have 7 voting delegates (not including Pam Hitchcock, who goes as a representative of Potsdam). 

      On June 1^st, we will be taking up our special offering to take with us to Annual Conference to support Imagine No Malaria.  We are looking forward to being part of the solution to this problem that is affecting the lives of so many people in our world today. 

      Also, on June 13, our Haiti Mission Team will fly out of Dayton.  You have already supported them overwhelmingly through your financial giving.  Now, let’s support them with our prayers as they travel to build a home for a family in need.  The members of the team are: Cheyenne Barnes, Brett Beard, Evan Beard, Teesha Beard, Bethany Benkert, Tina Mathews, Denise McCuiston, Chris Miller, Lauren Miller, Levi Miller, Liam Miller, and Paul Miller.  Unfortunately, Matison Jackson is unable to attend due to medical reasons.  They will return on June 22^nd.   You will want to make sure to be in church with us on June 29^th, where the Haiti Mission Team will be “taking over” the service to share their experience with us.

      As we move into June, we are beginning a new sermon series called “3 in 1”.  In this series, we are going to be looking at the doctrine of the Trinity.  This is a doctrine that is foundational for Christians, and yet it is one of the most difficult to understand.  How does this whole three in one thing work?  What does it mean to call Jesus God?  The series will last four weeks.  We will look at each “person” of the trinity separately first.  Then, we will explore the doctrine as a whole. 

      We had 13 people in our membership class last month.  We are excited to welcome those who decide to join into our church family.  For those who are able, we will be taking in new members on June 1^st.  We have several who need to be baptized prior to joining the church.  We have scheduled another River Baptism for July 27^th.  If you have never been baptized and are interested in discovering what this means, please talk with me.  I would love to have the privilege of baptizing you

      This June is a special month for Chanda and me because June 20^th marks our fifth anniversary.  I thank God daily for having Chanda in my life.  Not only am I blessed with an amazing family at home, but I am also blessed with an amazing church family. I am blessed! 

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin

Christ Is Risen- May 2014

Dear Church Family,

      “Christ the Lord is Risen today, Alleluia!”  What a joyous season this is as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord!  Hoffman was a wonderful place to celebrate Easter this year.  Easter is the most important day of the year for Christians.  The resurrection is why Christians worship on Sundays rather than Saturday (the Sabbath).  So, every Sunday as we gather together in worship, it is a mini-Easter service.  We celebrate each week because Jesus triumphed over the grave and lives and works in each of us through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 

      My family is doing well.  It is hard to believe this, but on May 6th Wesley will be 2 years old.  Time certainly does fly.  It seems as though he learns a new word every day. On Easter Sunday, Wesley joined me in the choir and in the praise team.  He is such a blessing in our lives.  He even provided me with the foundation for my Easter sermon.  It is hard to imagine what life was like before Wesley. 

      I am very excited about our Post Easter sermon series.  We are beginning a new sermon series entitled "Why?” where we are asking the questions that we need God to answer.  This series was created by asking people to submit questions that we would like to ask.  From all of the questions, we have chosen the following questions to explore together:

· Why do bad things happen to good people?

· How can I know for sure that I am saved?

· Why do my prayers go unanswered?

· What is God’s will for my life?

· What do we know about heaven?

We will be wrestling with these questions and more as we discover what God might want to teach us in the midst of our questions.  Now, I certainly do not claim to have all of the knowledge on these subjects; however, I am excited to explore them with you.  I hope you will join us for this new series.

      I am pleased to share with you that the Administrative Council has approved the initial proposal of the Maximizing Mission and Ministry Team.  The proposal is concerning the leadership structure of our church.  We are working on a model that we believe will help us focus more on mission and ministry rather than budgets, policies, and job descriptions.   The team will continue to work on this plan, and it will be approved at our Charge Conference in October.  Please continue to be in prayer for our work as we work out the fine details of this new structure.  Once approved, we will operate under this structure on a trial basis for two years to determine if it is best for us as a church.  I will share more details in upcoming articles.

      One thing that I love about the United Methodist Church is that we are a connectional church.  Local churches work together to support the national and global work that our denomination does around the world.  We support this work through paying apportionments (each church is apportioned a certain amount).  Last year, because of your generosity, we were able to pay 104% of the amount apportioned to us.  This is an amazing accomplishment.  Thank you for giving to our work that we may continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the WORLD!

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin

Change the World- April 2014

Dear Church Family,

      Spring is here!  At least, I keep telling myself that it is.  If I say it enough, perhaps the snow will stop.  Spring is a time of new life.  It is a time of resurrection and a time of hope.  During this time, we get ready for the big event—Easter Sunday, when resurrection and hope became real to us.  We have a lot of great ways for you to celebrate!

      As they have for the past 43 years, Young Spirits will perform on Palm Sunday weekend.  Performances are on Saturday and Sunday at 7:00 PM in the Milton Union School Cafetorium.  The theme this year is “Change the World.”  I have been given the opportunity to direct two of the songs that they will be singing this year.  Come and support this vital ministry to our teens and community. 

      The Good Friday service sponsored by the Milton Union Council of Churches will be held at Hoffman this year.  It will be at 7 PM on April 18th.   I hope you will be here and  make our visitors from other churches feel welcome. 

      This year, Easter is on April 20th.   I hope that you will join us for our Easter services.  In addition to our normal worship schedule (9:00 and 11:15), we will have a sunrise service and breakfast.  Don’t forget to invite your friends and family to join you.  This Easter, I believe God wants to do something special in our community and in our church.  Throughout Lent, we have looked at the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life.  On Easter Sunday, I am going to give a summary of this series and show some of the pictures so that our visitors can enjoy them.  Then, I will conclude by celebrating the fact that the last 24 hours of Jesus' life are not the end of the story. 

      Then, after Easter, I am going to let YOU create the sermon series.  That’s right, I am going to let you have input into the sermons that I preach.  Here is how:  I am inviting you to submit questions about God, the Bible, theology, the world, etc. that you have always wanted to know.  You can submit the questions in one of three ways: e-mail them to me, put them in my mailbox, or put them in the designated box (details to come).  I look forward to your questions.  Obviously, I will not be able to address ALL of your questions during this series.  While you can submit your questions anonymously, if you would like for me to follow up with you regarding a question, you will need to put your name somewhere on the question.  This should be an exciting series. 

      This summer, I will be leading music at the Mission u conference, which is held at Ohio Northern.  Mission u is like a church camp, except it includes adults, youth and children.  People from all over our conference gather together and learn to put their faith into practical action in the current world context.  Mission u reflects the practice of joining faith and action.  It is all about Changing the World.  This year’s spiritual theme is “How Is It With Your Soul?”   There are two options for the missional theme—The Roma of Europe or Ministry to People with Disabilities.  Through worship, in-depth study, music, prayer, sharing and exploring, Mission u provides an opportunity for you to grow in your understanding of the mission of the church. 

      There are three options for participating in Mission u.  The Four-Day Program is Monday, July 7-Thursday, July 10.  The Weekend Program is Friday, July 11- Sunday, July 13.  The One Day Sampler is on Saturday, July 12.   I hope you will consider taking part this year.  Let me know if you are interested in more details. 

      As we look forward to Easter, may we begin to see where we can begin to change the world around us to offer hope and love to those around us!

 

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Pastor Justin

 

Home From the Holy Land- March 2014

Dear Church Family,

     It is exciting to be back home and in good health.  Many of you know that I traveled to the Holy Land in February.  I spent 10 days on a journey that I believe will impact my ministry in very significant ways.  I wish I could package the experience up in a one-page article and share it with you today, but the more I reflect on it, the more I realize it will take weeks for me to unpack it for myself, let alone share it all with you.  As a personal Lenten practice, I am going to be spending time reflecting on my trip.  I am hoping that I will be able to put together a presentation for you to cover much of the trip sometime after Easter.  In the meantime, I will share pictures and stories with you a little at a time. 

     I can tell you that Chanda and I had an amazing time.  Wesley enjoyed his time with grandma and grandpa.  I think we all did much better than we thought we would with the separation.  We certainly appreciated your prayers.  The weather was wonderful on our trip.  Before we left, I checked the forecast, and it called for rain every day that we were there.  However, we never saw one drop of rain.  Amazingly the weather did not delay our arrival or return to Israel.  The only change to our itinerary was to fly out of Cincinnati instead of Dayton, but we made it to Israel at our scheduled time.   Thanks again for your prayers and support through this trip!

     While the weather did not delay my trip, it has certainly affected us here in West Milton.  It seems that the snow always comes just in time for Sunday morning worship.  While we have not cancelled any services, our average worship attendance has been 148.  To reach our 2014 goal, we need to average about 200 for the rest of the year.  We could adjust our goal, but I think the better approach is to pray and expect God to do something great at Hoffman this year.  Weather cannot hold us back from doing all that God wants us to do.  Another unfortunate byproduct has been that our giving has been down significantly during these winter months.   However, I don’t want to dwell on that.  Instead, I want to thank you for your continued generosity.  I know that we will come out of this season with vigor.   

     I am very excited about the series that we are going to be doing this Lent.  Beginning in March, we are going to be looking at "24 Hours that Changed the World."  We are going to spend 7 weeks looking at the last 24 hours of Jesus' life.  As we look at the events that lead to Christ's death and burial, I will also be sharing stories about my trip to Israel.  I am going to try to bring to life these events by showing pictures and telling stories about the places where Jesus spent his last 24 hours.  I am very excited about journeying with you through this series. 

     During Lent, I want to invite some of you to share your stories with us during worship.  Please be in prayer about whether God is calling you to share with us.  You can share any way in which you have experienced God working in your life.  As a prompt, you might consider thinking about 24 hours that changed your life.  What was a transformative experience for you?  Please let me know if you are willing to share with us.  I would like to begin these stories on March 9.

     This series will culminate with Easter Sunday where we will celebrate the fact that the last 24 hours of Jesus' life are not the end of the story.   After Easter this year, we will be doing a series on the questions that you have always wanted to ask God or a pastor.  I will be giving you the opportunity to submit your questions during Lent.  The questions will be compiled and considered as sermon topics for the Post-Easter series.  I look forward to hearing from you.

     In January, Ad Council approved the formation of the Maximizing Mission and Ministry Team.   This team has begun looking at our current governance/leadership structure at Hoffman to determine if there is a more effective and efficient way for us to care for our administrative and ministry needs.  One of the goals of the team is to move people from administration into ministry.  Please pray for this team as we continue our efforts to discover how we can maximize mission and ministry at Hoffman. 

     Yours in Christ’s Service,

        Pastor Justin

Holy Land, Here We Come- Feburary 2014

Dear Church Family,

      The new year is off to a great start.  I hope that you are all making 2014 a year where you will invest in your relationships with God and those who are close to you.  I know that is something I long for this year.  I want to spend more time with my family and more time with God in 2014.  I know that these relationships are foundational to my life and ministry.

      It is certainly winter!  With our frigid temperatures and treacherous weather this month, I thought it would be good to review our bad weather policy.  Our policy is that we never cancel Sunday morning worship.   Now, we certainly do not people to try to make it if they feel that it is unsafe.  However, if you are close enough to make it and feel safe, we will have an opportunity for you to worship here.

      I have many exciting things to share with you this month.  First of all, I will tell you that we are in our third year of our Revitalization Project.  This year we are focusing on Youth Ministry and Missions. As many of you know, we have received grants each year to help with our project.  This year, we received another grant from the West Ohio Conference.  Part of this grant is to fund sending leaders from our church to the Change the World Conference on April 3rd and 4th.  This is a national conference with world-class speakers that us held right in Tipp City at Ginghamsburg Church.   If you are interested in coming along for this conference, please let me know, and we can discuss the details.

      As I announced in worship on January 19^th, I will be the director of Young Spirits beginning in 2015.  Therefore, this will be David Wion’s last year as director.  This year, I will be assisting him as an Assistance Director.  I know that it is hard to imagine Young Spirits without David, but he assures me that he isn’t going anywhere.  He will still be around.  After all, he has been involved in every Young Spirits musical in some way since the beginning (44 years ago).  He has been the director for 26 years. These are some big shoes to fill, but I am looking forward to the opportunity to work with this organization to continue passing on the love of God through song!

      Another exciting adventure is my trip to the Holy Land.  Chanda and I fly out of Dayton on February 3rd.  Then, we fly from Philadelphia to Tel Aviv, Israel (an 11 hour flight).  As you can imagine, we are very excited about the trip.  There are 120 people going.  Bishop Palmer is hosting the trip.  I am looking forward to being in the places where Jesus was born, lived, died, and resurrected.  It will certainly be the trip of a lifetime. 

      I want to invite you all to join me on the trip by praying for me and Chanda each day.  Below, I have shared with you where we will be traveling each day.  I invite you to pray that God would allow us to learn and grow as a result of being in that place.  You could do some personal research on each location so that you might journey with us.  So, here is a very abbreviated itinerary/prayer list:

Feb. 3- Flying (Dayton to Philadelphia to Tel Aviv)

Feb. 4- Arriving in Tel Aviv; Tiberias

Feb. 5- Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, Jordan River

Feb. 6- Caesarea, Cana, Nazareth

Feb. 7- Jericho, Mount of Olives, Samaria

Feb. 8- Bethlehem, Garden of Gethsemane

Feb. 9- Jerusalem, Via Dolorosa

Feb. 10- Masada, Dead Sea, Qumran

Feb. 11- Ein Karem, Garden Tomb, Yad Vashem

Feb. 12- Flying (Tel Aviv to Philadelphia to Dayton)

 

As you can see, our schedule is packed.  Your prayers can include those for strength, good weather, and focus.   Most of all, pray that we will be able to handle being away from Wesley for this long period of time.  Chanda and I are very anxious about that, but we know that he is in good hands. 

      I have no doubt that this trip will change the way that I read the Bible and preach forever.  In an effort to begin sharing the trip with you, I am going to be sharing pictures and experiences from the trip during Lent.  The series will begin on March 2nd.  I hope you will join us for this exciting series. 

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin

Blessings of the Past, Hopes for the Future

Dear Church Family,

      I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.  Chanda and I are enjoying our fourth Christmas in West Milton, and Wesley is enjoying his second Christmas ever.  We want to thank the church for the generous Christmas gift that we received at the Christmas party.  I also appreciate all of the other cards and gifts.  You are a very supportive and caring church family.  Hoffman is an amazing place to serve.  Thank you!

      We certainly had a good Christmas at the church as well.  I want to thank everyone who made that possible.  We could not have accomplished it without each of you.  It is amazing what our church is able to accomplish.  We could not do it all without each one of you.  I thank God daily for having a church full of faithful servants.

      I want to thank all of you who supported the release of the new CD in November.  We had a great time sharing the songs with you.  It was a lot of fun to work on that project, and I pray that the CD touches the hearts of all who listen to it in a way that draws them closer to God. 

      As January quickly approaches, I have a new sermon series for you entitled “The Bible’s Believe It Or Not.” During this series, we are going to be looking at some Bible stories that you may not believe are even in the Bible.  We will spending some time with a talking donkey.  We may look at the floating ax head or the dry bones rising.  An unbelievable story of forgiveness and obedience is found in Hosea.  We will see what happens when someone sleeps during a sermon.  Then, there was the day that time stood still.   The Bible is full of stories that you may have never heard before, and we are going to spend some time with them.  They are in the Bible whether you believe it or not. 

      January marks the beginning of a new year—2014.  One thing that I like to do at the close of the year is reflect on the blessings of that year and look forward to the hopes for the new year.   I want to begin by reflecting over the many blessings of this year.

      Personally, there were many blessings for our family—Wesley’s first steps, my ordination, and the release of a new CD. As a church, there have many blessings as well.  We are in the launch phase of a brand new youth ministry.  We celebrated the one year anniversary of our new service.  We have continued to support many groups in the community by sharing our space. 

      Of course, numbers are not everything, but they certainly help us see our blessings.  Last year, we set some breakthrough goals for 2013.  We prayed over these goals, and I happy to say that we have surpassed our original goal in all areas.

	Goal	Actual
Average Weekly Worship Attendance	175	182
New Members	5	9
Baptisms	5	9
Weekly Giving	$4300	$4626
Apportionment Giving	100%	Over 100%

      We have a lot to celebrate in 2013!  Now, as we move into 2014, let’s look at the hopes we have for this year.  What do we want to partner with God to accomplish in 2014?  As a church, I want to see our youth and children’s ministries grow so that we can continue to reach youth, children and their families.  We also want to be involved in more Mission and service this year.  On the Administrative side, we are going to be discussing how we can establish a better governance structure to make our work more effective and support people engaged in mission and ministry.  I certainly pray that we continue to see the growth exemplified in the numbers above, but even more important than that, I want to see people grow in their spiritual lives and commitment to Jesus Christ. 

      As we enter a New Year, let’s reflect on the blessings of 2013 and have high hopes for what will come in 2014!

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin

Back to Church Sunday

Dear Church Family,

     Wow!  This has been a crazy summer.  With my ordination, the Mission U conference, vacation, and visiting my mom, I feel like I have been going non-stop.  I am looking forward to no traveling for a while. While traveling is nice, there really is no place like home.  

     This church’s summer schedule has been full as well. Our church picnic was a great time for all who came.   I would also like to thank everyone who made it out to The Back to School Prayer Walk.  Then, there was the Garage Sale, the Art Show, Kids Club, and Lunch Bunch. We had a great time with our Celebrate Summer Series.  But as exciting as the summer was, I know that God isn’t finished with us yet…September is coming!

     On September 8th, we will be having a baptism at the river.  If you or someone you know would be interested in being baptized, please let me know.  We will also be welcoming new members that Sunday.  So, if you are interested in joining the church and have been through the membership class, please let me know. 

     As summer ends and school starts, people tend to make their way back to church.  Vacations are over and it is time to get back into a rhythm of life.  It is the perfect time to invite your friends and neighbors back to church.  On Sunday, September 15, Hoffman is joining thousands of other churches across America for Back To Church Sunday – a special day where we will invite people in our community who are not attending church to come give church a try! On this Sunday, we will be having a special service to welcome these guests and make them feel comfortable. Invite all your friends and neighbors to join you at church on that special day! We have plenty of postcards to help you invite others!

     Many of you will remember that Rev. Tim and I did a rap last year after we had 259 people in church on Back to Church Sunday.  This year we are raising the bar a little bit.  Our combined goal between our two services on September 15th will be (drum roll) 275!  We are still looking for ideas as to what we should do when the goal is reached.  Since we have already mastered rapping, we figure we need something new. 

     Some exciting things have been happening at Hoffman UMC in the past year.  We have been seeing a lot of new faces in our worship services.  One of the age groups that has grown the most is our teenagers.  Because of this growth, we have decided to begin a new ministry focusing on 6th-12th graders.  Beginning on Sunday, October 6th, we are going to be launching a new youth ministry that will meet on Sunday evenings from 6:30-8:30.  We are even going to invite 3rd-5th graders to join us from 7:00-8:00 on the second Sunday of each month.  This will give them an opportunity to experience the youth group. 

     During our time together, teens will have the opportunity to worship, discuss in a small group, eat snacks, and play games.  We are going to have a meeting with our current youth on Sunday, September 29th from 6:30-8:30 to get ready for our launch the following week.  Please be in prayer for this ministry.  We trust that this ministry will begin helping our teens to become fully committed followers of Jesus.  If you are a parent who would like more information about our youth plans, please let me know.  We have some informational meetings scheduled that we would love to invite you to.

     I covet your prayers for all that God is doing through the ministries of Hoffman United Methodist Church.  It is an exciting time to be your pastor! 

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin