Ron Bell
God’s Artwork: A Messy Life Transformed
By Forrest White
Ron Bell kissed his dying mother goodbye for the last time in May 2014, but he could not hug her.
He was in handcuffs, bound for jail.
Years before he had spat upon his sister. It turned into a felony battery charge, he said. She has an Injunction for Protection, i.e. a court order for him to stay away from her.
But with their mother dying, Bell called his sister to come be there, too, unwilling, even with their turbulent history, to deny her whatever time remained with their mother.
Like so many times before, though, an argument ensued, and his sister called the police.
Bell would be in jail over Mother’s Day before being released.
“The judge said, ‘This is sibling rivalry nonsense, but if your sister is home you can’t go there,’” he said.
His sister’s boyfriend met Bell to hand over his wallet and cellphone. From there, he caught a bus to see his probation officer.
She laid out a simple choice
A publication of First United Methodist Church
72 Lakeland Morton Drive Lakeland, FL 33801
Church office
863-686-3163
firstumc.org
First Things First
Rev. Charley Reeb
Senior Pastor
The Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb was on renewal leave during the Fall and returned on Dec. 1.
He'll resume his greeting in the Spring 2025 First Connections.
Welcome back Charley!
PASTORS
Charley Reeb
Senior Pastor
Andy Whitaker-Smith
Associate Pastor
Kim DuBreuil
Associate Pastor
OFrom the Editor
Forrest
White Director of Mission Ministries
HAVE AN IDEA FOR A STORY?
Contact Forrest White at fwhite@firstumc.org
n Christmas day 2005, I took a group of youth and adults to serve lunch through the Stuart Circle Parish meal ministry in downtown Richmond, Virginia.
I had reached out to Patti Russell, who directed the feeding program, months before, as soon as I realized Christmas fell on a Sunday.
We had served there many times before on Sunday afternoons assigned to us by Patti.
I wanted our group to take Christmas Day, which happened to be my daughter Haley's 13th birthday, because it gave me the perfect opportunity to practice what I had preached through the years – that serving isn't simply something to do when it fits conveniently into our schedule.
I'd be lying if I said I remembered the exact discussion I had with Patti when I called to request Christmas. But I'm certain it began like this. It always began like this:
"Patti Russell," she said.
"General ... Russell. Should I stand at attention?" I asked.
"Lieutenant White," she would say. “At ease.”
We would share a laugh and proceed to chat about life for a while.
Patti Russell's body died 10 years ago in December 2014. She was 87.
The Stuart Circle Parish meal ministry went away years before her death, soon after its General "retired," though her role was never as a paid employee but always as a witness to our call as disciples.
Back in the late 90s, a homeowners’ association tried to shut down the feeding ministry. They didn't want hungry people desperate for a good meal wandering through their affluent neighborhood on a Sunday afternoon.
A battle ensued at city council and eventually in the federal courts.
Gen. Russell said this in 1998, two years after the battle began:
"We're not just a bunch of mindless do-gooders. We feel this is something churches are impelled to do - to care for people who need help."
I imagine she squared her jaw when delivering those words.
Indeed, it is never enough for us simply to go to church. As disciples of Christ, we are called to be the church, to care for people at any moment of any day, including Christmas.
Like any good General, Patti was fearless, undaunted by the most imposing man off the streets. So, she wasn't about to back down from the narrow-minded, not-in-my-backyard crowd.
Her side won, which means those facing homelessness won, because they would have a place to find food and refuge on the blistering hot August Sundays, on frozen February Sundays, and on all Sundays in between, even if Sunday fell on Christmas.
Patti always referred to the people who came to eat as "our guests," never as the homeless or the poor.
She knew we are all God's children, dearly loved, regardless of our circumstances.
It made me sad when the feeding ministry went away, but I always wondered if those in charge were heartless or just realists, knowing it would have been impossible to replace Gen. Russell's leadership.
It’s hard for me to believe 10 years have passed since yet another giant from my lifetime left me here to carry on. She trained me well, by her example, as any great General would do.
Her death came three months after I’d been let go by the church I served for 16 years.
When I was cleaning out my office that September, I came across a couple of "promotions" from Gen. Russell.
The last one, printed on Stuart Circle Parish letterhead, read like this:
“Know All Men by These Presents,” she began, “that Forrest White, having served with distinction as a Second Lieutenant, is hereby given accelerated promotion to the rank of Captain in the Army of the Lord.”
Somehow I think Patti knew how very much I respected and appreciated her because of the way I always treated her.
I wish I’d let her know what a privilege it was to rise through the ranks "in the Army of the Lord" with her as my General.
I wish I’d thanked her for preparing me well to carry on.
All the best,
In this joyous season, let us reflect on the truth that serving isn’t simply something we do when it fits conveniently into our schedule and, as Gen. Russell embraced with her life, that everyone we meet is a child of God and should be valued as such. Merry Christmas!
Ron Bell
“You can either be homeless, walk the streets and report to me every day or you can figure this out.”
Bell called every person he knew. No one offered help.
“I’d already burned all of those bridges,” he said.
He had one last question for the probation officer.
“I should be dead”
to make a deal with Him and making promises like ‘Oh, help me please and I won’t drink again.’
“This time, in rehab, the promise was finally real.”
Ron Bell has been sober since May 9, 2014.
“What about rehab?”
“I know a guy,” she said.
An aunt and uncle paid for a motel room in Tampa, so he had a place to wait for a bed to come open at The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center.
He arrived there two weeks later, sober not because he didn’t want to drink, but because he had no money, just food stamps. He couldn’t use them to buy alcohol, his drug of choice.
Bell would spend the next 9 months in rehab. He learned of his mother’s death in a text message from a cousin.
While in the midst of self-discovery, above all else, he found out more about the nature of God.
Even in Bell’s darkest moments, God had always been there.
“In recovery, when I had already burned all the bridges of life with everyone I knew and there was no hope, I reached for the only person I knew I could hope on … That was God,” he said.
“He was always there. I was always complaining about Him, cursing His name, doing horrible things, then trying
On Sept 22, 2024, Bell found himself somewhere he never thought he’d be – preaching a sermon at The Current, First UMC’s 11am contemporary worship service, while Florida United Methodist Bishop Tom Berlin preached at the traditional service in the sanctuary.
There they were, two men of God, separated by three sets of doors and wildly divergent paths to a shared moment in time.
Berlin ascended through the ranks of the UMC as a large church pastor and respected denominational leader.
“ YOU CAN EITHER BE HOMELESS, WALK THE STREETS ... OR YOU CAN FIGURE THIS OUT.”
Bell rose from the ashes of a tumultuous life.
He calls himself “lucky to be alive.”
“I lived in chaos for probably 30 years,” he said.
Bell, 53, grew up with his mother and two older sisters. “My father was very abusive,” he said. “My mother removed him when I was super young, thankfully. But he was a successful man in that he had so much more than we did, but he never gave.”
His father’s good financial fortune created in Bell both a resentment for people who had earthly riches and a desire to have them himself.
It took him years to realize life isn’t about having the most stuff. He speaks now of moving toward a minimalist lifestyle.
“God has shown me now that success is not a paycheck. Success is a state of mind,” Bell said. “I get so much more happiness when I actually do stuff for other people. It’s a big thing in recovery. When you help others it makes you a better person.”
As a child, Bell went to Temple Terrace UMC, but said he doesn’t remember much other than bits and pieces of confirmation.
A Messy Life Transformed
He loved playing baseball – pitching, catching or playing shortstop.
But by high school he had become entrenched with skater kids, “those kids who liked the weird music that wasn’t the same pop music everybody liked.”
“ WHEN YOU HELP OTHERS IT MAKES YOU A BETTER PERSON.”
He didn’t want to be tied down to baseball practice all the time when his friends were on the move with their skateboards.
The drinking got more serious when he was about 15 or 16, he said. He and his friends used all the old tricks like smuggling beer out of convenience stores in soft drink cups.
“I chose to run the streets and do stupid things with my friends, steal, petty crime and things like that,” Bell said. “Partied too much. Drank too much. Drank and smoked weed. Didn’t do any other drugs. When I was young we drank beer. If we could get the hard stuff we’d drink it. By the end (before rehab) I was just drinking rotgut – as much of it as I could – to get annihilated. I wasn’t happy.”
He speaks of times before getting sober where his weight ballooned to 325 pounds, of jaundiced skin, of paranoia.
“I should be dead. I drank so much I should be dead,” Bell said. “I did dumb things. I drove intoxicated. So many stupid things. And I’m still here? There’s got to be a purpose. There’s no way I’m not here for a reason.”
On that September morning, with about 50 people scattered around the First UMC fellowship center, Bell preached from the heart, revealing glimpses of his passion to reach those who may be seen as outcasts by many but who are forever and always welcome and wanted in the loving arms of God.
“We are all the prodigal children,” he said to the congregation. “We are all sinners in one way or another. We all are striving to go home to God.”
“Jesus loves you. Pay attention!”
Bell found himself choking up a few times during the September sermon.
“God’s love for us at all times, that is what truly matters,” he preached that day. “If we embrace that love and we show that love to others it can truly change the world.”
Looking back on the preaching experience a month later, tears filled his eyes again.
“I’m just some poor kid from Town ‘n’ Country (Tampa area), dude,” he said. “I never thought I’d make an impact on anything. Ever.”
Over the last few years, Bell has wrestled with a call to ministry. He calls those years a time of spiritual awakening.
After much prayer, he decided to pursue the UMC’s Lay Servant Ministry track. He has completed the work to
become a Certified Lay Servant and is working toward becoming a Certified Lay Speaker on the way to Certified Lay Ministry. His classes have included basic United Methodist history and doctrine, spiritual gifts, art in worship, worship leadership, and preaching.
A deep passion drives everything in terms of his call to ministry – to make everyone feel welcome and wanted in God’s kingdom and at this church. He speaks of a fellow tattoo artist, whose face and head are covered with tattoos, of choices the man has made, likely because he felt unwanted or “not well in the normal world,” Bell said. He sees that man wrestling with demons similar to those he had to fight off.
“I talked to him the other day,” Bell said, recently. “I said, ‘Man, I love you. You’re a good dude. I’d hate to see you die over this.’”
Bell has thought about some kind of “meet and greet” at the shop where he tattoos now, something for “Saints and Sinners,” which could also include an ongoing podcast.
“I’m like John the Baptist for the church,” he said, with a laugh. “I want to be the crazy dude out in the hills saying, ‘Yo, man, Jesus loves you. Pay attention!’”
First UMC’s Director of Adult Ministry Warren Pattison has been paying attention since Bell arrived at the church. He likely knows Bell better than anyone here, as a friend and a spiritual mentor.
“As a tattoo artist and muralist, Ron is at work in the world, ministering to people most folks in our congregation would be unlikely to meet,” Pattison said. “His heart for those who are outside or feel alienated from the church is a model for all of us. Ron is taking the church that God loves to the people that God loves – people who may never darken the door of a church, but who need to hear again and again that God loves them.”
Bell began coming to First UMC in 2015 with Janette who is now his wife. They began dating while he was still at the Salvation Army in Tampa. She asked him to move to Lakeland. Her three children – Jacob, Brandon and Abigail – embraced him from the start, he said. It was unconditional love for “a guy who was pretty much a homeless addict, fresh out of recovery,” he said.
Within a year or so at First UMC, Bell began painting during worship. Though his mother encouraged his art, he is “primarily self-taught.” Over 30 years as a tattoo artist he has likely done 10,000 tattoos, he said.
“I was frightened to death and my mind went blank,” he said, of the first time he painted in worship. “I had a plan. I had read the scripture. I had read the sermon. I was down. But as soon as the music started I was like, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ It was just the pressure and me overthinking, ‘I can’t turn in an unfinished product at the end of worship for all my friends and maybe some smirky church people.’”
Those days are gone. Standing before a blank canvas with worship ongoing around him, Bell confidently and boldly paints his praises to God. “There could be a few paint splatters” on the kneeling rails and in the worship area in the fellowship center, he said, smiling.
But that’s OK. Painting, like life, isn’t always neat and tidy.
It’s often messy, but, in the end, still beautiful.
“My story?” Bell said. “It’s totally a story of salvation and redemption and God’s grace.”
The Most Wonderful Time of the Years Gone By
Cristi Moore DIRECTOR OF CHILDREN’S MINISTRIES
As a child, Christmas always felt like a wondrous celebration, full of enchantment.
I vividly recall the year I turned eight when my mom transformed every gift into a unique work of art. There were packages shaped like an octupus, a snowman, a giraffe, and so many more delightful creations. That year stands out in my memory, especially since the months leading up to Christmas had been particularly challenging.
My mom was battling cancer, undergoing numerous surgeries and radiation treatments and she was just beginning to regain her strength. I always believed she made that Christmas extraordinary because of the hardships we faced throughout the year.
Years later while reminiscing about our past Christmases, I shared with her how that particular holiday lingered in my mind and asked her what inspired it. She looked at me and asked if I remembered what was inside those gifts. To my surprise, I couldn’t recall a single item.
She then revealed that when she was diagnosed, we were without health insurance and struggling financially. The thought of a lackluster Christmas broke her heart, so she decided to get creative, ensuring each package felt special, regardless of its contents.
In that moment, as a young adult, I came to understand that the true gift lay not in the items themselves but in the love, care and thoughtfulness that made each one meaningful. That realization has made that Christmas one of my most cherished memories.
Andy Whitaker-Smith ASSOCIATE PASTOR
When Morgan and I learned we would have to meet with part of the Florida Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, I took my first trip to Lakeland, where the office is located. We spent the whole day answering heavy theological questions, talking about our leadership styles, taking psychological evaluations, and we both were still recovering from a stomach flu. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.
We stayed at the Terrace Hotel, nearby; and so that evening we wanted nothing more than to go back to our room and collapse. However, as we were turning off Florida Avenue and going through downtown, we received an unexpected surprise.
This was early January – early enough that the Christmas lights around Munn Park were still up and lit. So we decided to park and walk around; after a time a sat down at one of the benches across the street from Harry’s.
I still remember saying “Morgan, this would be a pretty cool town to live in.”
As a pastor, Christmas can turn into one of those seasons that seems more like work, than anything else. So many things have to get done – there’s a lot of expectation, and it can be easy to lose the meaning. I have to confess, there were a handful of years I did not really enjoy Christmas.
Until I moved here.
That first year, standing in Munn Park, in shorts and a t-shirt, looking at the lights, seeing all the people, and seeing the lights and the decorations emerge from our church … I fell in love with Christmas, once again.
I will forever be indebted to this congregation for reigniting the joy of Christmas in my heart, and looking forward to it, each and every year.
Thank you.
Salvation Army: Doing the Most Good First UMC Ministry Partner
On a two-lane road in the North Georgia Mountains, with his two daughters in car seats crying, Jeremy Mockabee decided to climb from the passenger seat of the family minivan into the back to calm the girls. His wife, Kristina, wanted to pull over.
At age 29 and a pilot for Delta Airlines, Jeremy said no. He was confident he could easily navigate the move into the back without making a stop.
But as he moved toward the back, his foot slipped and he fell into Kristina. She lost control. The van careened off the road and down an embankment.
A Georgia state trooper later estimated the van went about
“I remember hearing God –not audibly but just internally through the Holy Spirit – say, ‘Jeremy, if you had died today would you have lived a fulfilled life?’”
He went upstairs to be alone.
“God and I just had an all-out fight in my bedroom. He kept asking me, ‘If you had died today would you have lived a fulfilled life?”
Happily married. Healthy children. Homeowner. Pilot making six figures. Free travel anywhere in the world.
20 feet into the air at one point and flipped 18 times before coming to rest upside down.
With her husband trapped, Kristina broke some glass to get out and check on the girls. They couldn’t see them amid the wreckage.
“The best noise I ever heard was them crying,” Mockabee said. “It would have been a different story if it was quiet.”
With the help of strangers, everyone got out of the van with nothing more than minor cuts.
“We shouldn’t have walked away from that, especially not me since I was out of my seatbelt,” Mockabee said. Back home that night, he couldn’t escape a question.
“I could say I’d led a good life. Absolutely … But I couldn’t say I’d led a fulfilled life because I wasn’t walking in God’s will. I wasn’t the man He created me to be.”
His parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were Salvation Army officers and ministers, as were his two brothers and aunts and uncles on both sides.
But he had chosen a pathway in the sky after falling in love with flying airplanes as a young teen.
“I rebelled, not as in doing drugs or anything, but just by not following the rest of the family.”
As a married couple, he and Kristina had been faithful leaders in their church.
“If the doors were open, we were there volunteering with youth groups, with music, you name it,” he said. “That was my way of trying to appease God, but God was like ‘Great, but I want all of you.’”
- God “ IF YOU HAD DIED TODAY WOULD YOU HAVE LIVED A FULFILLED LIFE?”
In the Salvation Army, both spouses must be called together to be officers.
“I called Kristina up to the room the night of the wreck. I was crying. I was just a mess,” Mockabee said. “I said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m called into the ministry, called to be a Salvation Army officer.”
Jeremy and Kristina Mockabee
It Takes a Community
Her response?
“She started laughing, which was the one thing I didn’t want to hear. She said, ‘I’ve been called, too. But I’ve suppressed my calling. How could I ask you to leave Delta Airlines?’”
At the end of a horrific day, they had “a beautiful moment in God’s hands,” Mockabee said.
But to make sure the calling wasn’t simply an emotional reaction to having defied death, they took two weeks to prayerfully discern without talking about it. The time passed and both remained certain of their calling. They entered seminary in Atlanta in 2011 and were commissioned in 2013.
They will leave the Salvation Army of Lakeland after having overseen a $21 million capital campaign that’s more than 80 percent complete and led the way on the myriad of ministries for an organization many people think of primarily for the Red Kettle campaign each Christmas.
“One of the greatest strengths of the Salvation Army is our humility,” Mockabee said. “We just roll up our sleeves and do it. We don’t look for the accolades. We don’t look for the spotlight. But one of our greatest weaknesses is our humility. We’re so busy doing, we don’t do a good job sharing our story.”
“ WE’RE SO BUSY DOING, WE DON’T DO A GOOD JOB SHARING OUR STORY.”
Both Captains now – Commanding Officers for West Polk County – they took over leadership in Lakeland in June 2019 after having served in Lawrenceville, Ga., and Greenville, S.C.
The Mockabees expect to be moved in June 2025, after older daughter Morgan wraps up her senior year at Victory Christian Academy. Younger daughter Aubrey is 15 and son Maverick (named for Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun) is 9.
There is much to share, beginning with housing for families in crisis.
In order to be in any of the Salvation Army housing programs you must be homeless and have children. Parents must provide birth certificates for the children and pass a drug test. Couples must provide a marriage certificate.
“Our wheelhouse is families,” Mockabee said, before mentioning other Lakeland homeless ministries that serve individuals. “We would be absolutely naïve and quite frankly just arrogant to say we could solve this on our own. It takes a community.”
FAMILIES HAVE OPTIONS AT THE LAKELAND CAMPUS ON KATHLEEN ROAD
Emergency Shelter – There are 40 rooms available. Before expansion was complete last December (from 20 to 40 rooms) they were turning away a dozen or more families each night, Mockabee said. The shelter is consistently full. Families can stay up to 90 days.
The emphasis for residents is on savings, with the average cost of getting into a two-bedroom apartment (first and last month rent, fees, etc.) running at about $6,000, according to Mockabee.
Each week shelter residents have a mandatory life skills class as well as a case management meeting where they look closely at budgeting.
Transitional Living – For families who need more than 90 days, there are eight triplexes, with four more under construction as part of the capital campaign. Each triplex has three apartments.
Families pay 30 percent of their monthly income to stay in a triplex, but never more than $600 a month. They can stay 12-18 months. They must continue to participate in the weekly classes and meetings and focus on savings.
“Not long ago we had a tour and someone asked, ‘What do you do with people who aren’t successful during that 12-18 month period?’” Mockabee said. “We really couldn’t think of a time in the last 3-4 years where that happened. It’s so rare. The program has been incredibly successful.”
Hope Homes – Families may stay in one of these 12 new homes for 3-5 years, paying $900-$1000 for rent each month to help maintain the housing and cover some programming costs. The homes – built at cost by Southern Homes – grew out of the great need for affordable housing, Mockabee said.
Parents qualify for the lengthiest stay either because they’re repairing credit or because they’re working on job advancement or education.
Children as young as six weeks through pre-kindergarten have
access to the HALO – Helping and Learning Opportunity –Center on campus, which is open from 6:30am until 5:30pm Monday-Friday. School-age children go after school to work on homework, with two part-time public school teachers onboard for tutoring.
“Every year we’ve been open our kids have tested higher than the average Polk County student,” Mockabee said. “Over the last 10 years 99.6 percent of our students have progressed to the next grade level. It’s a testament to what we’re doing. We monitor every interim report, every report card. When they go to kindergarten many of our kids – an overwhelming majority – are on a first-grade reading level.
“These kids have lived through trauma. When they come here, it’s a stable environment. Education is a huge, huge part of stopping that cycle of poverty.”
BEYOND TRANSFORMATIVE HOUSING
Disaster Recovery – The Lakeland headquarters was the staging point for the Salvation Army’s Florida response after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. There were about 50 mobile feeding units deployed out of Lakeland, serving more than 250,000 meals. About 80 incident command team members rode out the storms on campus. Mockabee served in Perry, Fla., for two weeks after Helene as incident commander at ground zero.
Angel Tree – Provides Christmas gifts to about 1,000 families each year.
Red Kettle Campaign – A Salvation Army staple, it began in 1891 in San Francisco. All the money raised stays in the service area. The goal for Lakeland this year is $200,000 or roughly 15 percent of its annual income.
The Community Center – Slated for completion in April 2025, the $8 million facility will be home to worship space, an education wing with a computer lab, a gymnasium for leagues (basketball, pickle ball, etc.), a home for church ministries across all age groups, etc.
Jeremy (front right) serving with volunteers in Perry after Hurricane Helene.
Outside companies like Amazon have already reached out about providing classes to train residents in skills such as forklift operation with the goal of eventually hiring graduates, Mockabee said.
“We want the place hopping non-stop,” Mockabee said. “If it’s not we’ve done ourselves an incredible disservice.”
In Lakeland and everywhere they serve, the Salvation Army touts itself as
“Doing the Most Good.”
“It’s not a statement of ego or pride. It’s not ‘We’re doing the most good out of everybody.’ It’s a promise to our donors,” Mockabee said. “A kid came up to me on his 12th birthday. He had saved about $30 in pennies and donated it to us. Whether it’s a million dollar check or $30 worth of pennies we’re going to do the most good with it.”
At the end of a 90-minute interview, only one question remained for Mockabee.
“If you died tonight would you have lived a fulfilled life?”
He didn’t hesitate.
“Yes! Am I perfect? Nope. Do I stumble? Absolutely. But when fall I know who to run to. I know I’m walking in God’s will now. I’m at peace.”
The Most Wonderful Time of the
Years Gone By
CONTINUED
Nicole Wood EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT
Christmas has always been a time of excitement, a special day of gathering with our loved ones, sharing memories and experiencing joyful moments with our family.
Our celebration was forever changed in 2003. At 12:43am on Dec 25, we received a wonderful blessing from God as we welcomed our second child – lovely Abigail Noelle –into our world. After a long anticipated arrival, she finally appeared! We laughed, cried and prayed as Christmas carols echoed in the delivery room. Our birthing doula –a wonderful Christian woman – prayed for our family, thanking God for this beautiful gift and praying Abbey would come to know Jesus at a young age. As soon as she could speak, Abbey would proudly tell anyone who asked that her birthday is on Christmas, “the same day we celebrate the birth of Jesus.” Abbey has the love of Christ in her heart and she brings His light into our family. Her faith is an inspiration. We now celebrate two very special birthdays each Christmas, the birth of our savior and the birth of our daughter, His gift to us!
Kim DuBreuil ASSOCIATE PASTOR
My brother and I loved to sneak around the house looking for Christmas presents. Therefore, my mom and dad found new places to hide the gifts each year. Mom chose the top shelf of her closet (wrapping gifts to complicate our peeking.) Dad chose the garage (covering gifts with an "inconspicuous" blue tarp.) They did not realize that all were easy to find with our kitchen stool. My brother and I became masters at gift “re-wrapping” and acting surprised on Christmas morning!
I know what you’re thinking: what a letdown Christmas morning must have been ... not at all! Finding Christmas gifts was like children looking for the Elf on a Shelf.
I never felt bad . .. and eventually outgrew my impatience. I learned that even though I know the meaning of Christmas, I still get excited about the celebration of Jesus’ birth. The Christmas Eve service, our traditional Noche Buena meal and gift-giving are highlights of my year.
72 Lakeland Morton Drive Lakeland, FL 33801
Church office
863-686-3163
firstumc.org
WORSHIP SERVICES
8:15 am SANCTUARY
The best of traditional worship is presented with a fresh approach to time-honored hymns with a variety of music.
9:30
FELLOWSHIP CENTER
A contemporary, relaxed atmosphere with the worship music of today. ASL interpreter in person.
11:00 SANCTUARY
Traditional hymns with organ accompaniment are featured along with various fine arts music groups.
11:00
FELLOWSHIP CENTER
The Current is a unique, contemporary worship experience. Communion is offered each Sunday.
GOD BLESSES US TO BE A BLESSING
Have you responded to The Blessing, our stewardship theme for 2025? During November we were inspired to act as the hands and feet of Jesus as we commit to give our time, talent and gifts in service to the church’s ministries in the world. If we haven’t heard from you yet, there is still time. By December 31 please point your phone camera to this QR code or visit firstumc.org/stewardship to return your estimate of giving for 2025. In January the Church Council will finalize the 2025 budget, but we won’t meet our bold ministry goals without you. I welcome your call or email to discuss any aspect of the proposed budget and the ministries we support. Handbell College Ring-In Concert, 3pm
Gratefully,
Patrick Hamrick
PASTOR OF CHURCH ADMINISTRATION phamrick@firstumc.org
KIC Family Event at Lake Parker
26 KIC Family Dance Party in Fellowship Center February 23
Kidspack - 9am & 4pm January 8, February 5, March 5
Financial Peace University Begins January 15
JOY (55+ ministry)
- St. Petersburg- Chihuly Collection January 17