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

Celebrate Summer

Dear Church Family,

      I cannot believe that August is here.  It seems like school just let out yesterday, and now children and teens are starting to head back to school.  Thanks to everyone who is making the summer a huge success at Hoffman this year.  With an Art Show, Garage Sale, Variety Show, Lunch Bunch, Kids Club, and Dragons game, we have stayed busy this summer.  Now, we look forward to the Church Picnic on August 4th.  We hope that you will join us as we gather as a community for food, fellowship, and fun.   

      This summer has also been a very busy time for me.  In July, I spent a week at Mission u (Ohio Northern University) as the Music Director. I just want you all to know that I had a great time.  It was like a church camp for adults.  I had the opportunity to direct the choir and lead music for 8 worship services and 7 morning praise gatherings.  I had the opportunity to spend a great deal of time on spiritual retreat between my responsibilities.  I spent a significant amount of time reading, praying, and planning worship for our church.  This was a very meaningful time for me.  Thanks for giving me the opportunity to do this.

      As part of our Celebrate Summer series, we talked about direction.  We talked about how it is important to have a plan, but we also talked about the importance to being open to changing the plan as a result of the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  Well, I had planned for our church to be part of a two year process with the Unbinding curriculum.   We had a retreat planned, conference calls scheduled, a sermon series planned, and another church wide study on the horizon.  However, during my time with God in the past month, I have felt a strong sense that God is guiding us in a different direction.  Therefore, we have decided to cancel all the plans that we had made and end our time with Unbinding in an effort to follow God’s leading.  I hope that you all enjoyed your time with Unbinding Your Heart, and I pray that your prayer and faith sharing are strengthened as a result of our time with it. 

      I hope that you are enjoying this Celebrate Summer series as much as I am.  It has been a lot of fun to see what God might reveal in the activities that we enjoy doing.  This series will continue through the end of August.  We have some great things in store for you as we look at grilling out, camping, mowing grass, and riding roller coasters.   I will tell you a secret about this series.  My prayer is that the spiritual insights you learn throughout this series will be experienced each time you encounter these summer activities.  For example, when you see fireworks next year, I hope you recall the freedom you have in Christ.  When you go to the ocean and see the waves, you might recall the glory of creation.  We want to give spiritual meaning to everyday activities.  

      As the summer comes to a close and school starts back, we prepare for Back to Church Sunday. It’s time to reach out and invite your neighbors to church! People need to know that there is hope and a community of people like our church who will love them and do life with them. We encourage you to step out in faith and invite someone to rediscover church. According to Lifeway Resources, 82% of unchurched people would attend church if someone invited them! We are planning a special service on September 15th so that our new guests will feel welcome and comfortable. Inviting a friend is a simple gesture that could change someone’s life.

      I want to thank each of you for your prayers, encouragement, and support of me and the church.  It is a blessing to serve at Hoffman United Methodist Church.     

Yours in Christ’s Service,

 Pastor Justin

Ordination and Annual Conference

Dear Church Family,

      I can’t believe that June is already here.  It is going to be an exciting month for us all.  For Chanda and I, June 20^th will mark our 4^th anniversary.  We also have a trip planned this month to go to Texas to see my mom.  It will be our first trip down there since she has been in the drug rehab program there.  It will also be Wesley’s first trip on an airplane!

      As everyone knows by now, June 11^th also marks my ordination.  This has been a long awaited celebration.  It is marks an end of a journey, but the beginning of an even greater one.  I am so thankful to all of you who contributed to my ordination banner.  It is going to be great!  There is still room for you on the bus if you would like to ride up and be a part of the ordination service with us.  We will be having a reception at our cottage afterwards that everyone is invited to attend.  The address of our cottage is 433 Jasmine.  It is just two blocks from Hoover Auditorium, where the service will take place.

      If you are not able to come to the Ordination service, we will be celebrating my ordination at Hoffman on Sunday, June 30^th.   During that worship service, we will talk about God’s calling upon our lives and what ordained ministry means.  You will also have the opportunity to see my banner and stole during that service.  We may have some video clips and pictures from annual conference to show you as well.  We hope that you will all join us that day.  We will have a carry in meal at 12:30 PM to celebrate together. 

      In preparation for my ordination, there has been a lot of talk about Annual conference, and I realized that many of you may not know what that is all about.  So, I thought I would give you a brief explanation. Each year, all clergy members from West Ohio and an equal number of lay members selected from the local churches attend the Annual Conference session to meet together to worship, fellowship, and conduct the business of the conference. During these sessions, members of the conference hear reports of past and ongoing work; adopt future goals, programs and budgets; ordain clergy members as deacons and elders; and elect delegates to Jurisdictional and General Conferences (every 4 years). The bishop presides over these meetings.

     This Annual Conference will be our first one with our new bishop—Bishop Gregory V. Palmer.  I am excited to hear about his vision for our annual conference.  We will be gathered around the theme becoming the beloved community, emphasizing the word Taken as we talk about how God in Christ has chosen us to be God’s servants in the church and in the world.  We will also be taking our mission offering for Imagine No Malaria during our conference. Please be in prayer for our annual conference this year.

      Hoffman has a great representation at Annual Conference.  It is very unusual for a church our size to have more than two representatives; however, there will be five representatives from the Hoffman at Annual Conference this year—myself, Katie Reinke (our lay delegate), Rev. Tim Benkert, Pam Hitchcock (representing Potsdam), and Devin Mitchell (Miami Valley District Delegate).  It is going to be a great annual conference!

      Of course, you won’t want to miss all of the things that will be happening in worship each Sunday at Hoffman.  We will continue our journey through the Lord’s Prayer.  We will observe Father’s Day and Peace with Justice Sunday.  I hope that you will join us each week as we worship God and seek God’s guidance in our lives! 

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Pastor Justin Williams

Praying, Walking, and Giving

 

Dear Church Family,

       April was an exciting month at Hoffman!  April 1st marked the one year anniversary of starting our new worship service.  We had a wonderful meal together to celebrate what God had done through our Unbinding Your Heart series.  I also need to say a special thank you to all of the work that our Trustees have done in the church.  We have had a lot of big projects and little projects that turned into big projects.  They have been here at the church for countless hours to get the work done.  Thanks to everyone who helped with all of the repairs, updates, and remodeling.  It has been a very busy, but good month at Hoffman.

       I know this is hard for you to believe, but Wesley is turning one on May 6th.  We will be having a birthday party for him here at the church on May 11th.  You all are invited to come and celebrate with us.  We just ask that you RSVP by emailing Chanda at cwilliams620@icloud.com.  If you do not have e-mail, you can call our house at 698-4747. We have been very blessed to have this little man in our lives, and we are excited to celebrate his first year!

       During April, we have been in the midst of this new series called Getting Fit, where we have talked about the importance of spiritual and physical fitness.  We are going to conclude the series on May 5th.  The end of the series does not mark the end of our journey to fitness.  It is only the beginning.  Actually, on May 5th, we are going to invite everyone to join us in a prayer walk where we will put both our pursuit of both spiritual and physical fitness to work. On that day, we will also issue a walking challenge for our church.  I hope you will join us on May 5th as we wrap up Getting Fit.

       Then, the following week we will begin a series that I am very excited about on The Lord’s Prayer.  This is a prayer that is so near and dear to our hearts.  I would guess that most of you can even recite it from memory.  However, I think sometimes our familiarity with it often causes us to forget about the meaning and power of this prayer and just “go through the motions.”  Therefore, I decided we would spend 6 weeks discussing the Lord’s Prayer.  We will be unpacking each petition and what it means in our lives today.  I hope that you join us for this exciting series that explores the prayer Jesus taught us. 

       As we enter May, it is time for us to get ready for Annual Conference and our Missional Offering.  The missional emphasis for the 2013 Annual Conference Session will be Imagine No Malaria. This United Methodist campaign to eliminate deaths due to malaria is making a difference every day. Just a few short years ago, statistics showed a child died every 30 seconds of malaria. Today, malaria’s impact has been cut in half thanks to the efforts and support of Imagine No Malaria and other organizations. Imagine No Malaria's plan focuses on Prevention, Treatment, Education and Communication to eradicate this disease. 

       At the heart of the program is distributing mosquito nets that literally save lives. Each mosquito net costs about $10.  We will be collecting money from now until the first week of June.  We are adding a twist this year—a competition between first and second services! For each $10 donation, a piece of net will be posted on the sheet across from the office (White net 1st service, Red net 2nd). Mark your envelopes or checks, “Malaria 1st Service” or “Malaria 2nd Service” for your service to get “credit”.  

       Of course, I am very excited about Annual Conference this year.  It marks the end of my journey toward ordination.  While I know that it is not close by and do not expect you to come, I do want you to know that you are welcome to join us at the ordination service on Tuesday, June 11th.  If you are looking for transportation, Jim Mitchell has a sign-up sheet for you to sign up on.  It will be an exciting and memorable time!
Yours in Christ’s Service,

Pastor Justin