united methodist church
here@
FIRST November 2017
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A sanctuary of Christian hope, love and encouragement in the heart of Sioux Falls.
here@
FIRST
MARCH 2018 Distributed by First United Methodist Church
IN THIS ISSUE 3
EXECUTIVE STAFF Senior Pastor Bob Ruedebusch Executive Assistant Pam Knuth
Letter From Pastor Bob
CONNECT @ FIRST
4 Outreach Ministries
Minister of Children, Youth & Family Andrea Johnson High School Coordinator Curtis Mittendorf
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Construction Update
Children’s Coordinator/Kidstop Director Kassidi Smith
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Calendar of Events
Connections Director Lynne Jones
WORSHIP @ FIRST Modern Worship Director Pastor Taylor Johnson Traditional/Unity Worship Director Kelby Fode Organist Marcia Klimes
CARE @ FIRST Minister of Pastoral Care Pastor Bill Schmeling Outreach/Missions Breanna White
SUPPORT STAFF
@firstchurchsf
Director of Administration Tami Prostrollo Financial Administrator Sarah Callahan
@firstchurchsf
Receptionist Jeri Floyd
SiouxFallsFirstUMC
Administrative/Foundation Assistant Jill Johnson Librarian Cynthia McConniel
www.sfumc.org
FACILITY MANAGEMENT
firstchurchsf
Facilities Director Jacob Forstein
@firstchurchsf
Custodians Don Jones, Tovia Forstein, Donna Plank United Day Care Director Judy Jacobs
A sanctuary of Christian hope, love and encouragement in the heart of Sioux Falls.
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EQUIPPING the SAINTS with Senior Pastor Bob Ruedebusch comfortable. The group meetings are intended to put us at ease with one another, our faith, and with God.
This year the beginning and ending of the Lenten season has curious dates. Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, falls on Valentine’s Day, February 14. Easter is on April 1, April Fool’s Day. This will make an interesting study of God that is for sure.
Our purpose for this Lenten season is twofold. To continue to grow in our prayer life and to be comfortable in knowing and sharing our God story. What better way to grow then with other faithful Christians within our church family.
This Lenten season each of you are invited to personally come on a journey of prayer and faith sharing. We will be using a book “Unbinding Your Heart: 40 Days of Prayer and Faith Sharing”.
Lent is a season of spiritual reflection and growth. There is no better time but the present. I am excited to have us share in a Holy Lent together!
There is still time take part of one of these rich group events. Our goal is to have 40 small groups this Lenten season. You can share in the group experience with no pressure to “do” anything other than read each week’s chapter, do the daily prayer exercises and attend the weekly group meetings. Group discussions will be strictly confidential. At prayer times, we will be encouraged to pray in whatever way you are
Pastor Bob
THE LIGHT - SUNDAYS, 11 A.M. Scripture has a lot to say about light. From God commanding light into existence to that very light breaking through darkness, light is prevalent in our story as people of God. Jesus says to us, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
Pastor Taylor Johnson
Our vision at The Light is to point people to the TRUE Light. The service is a place for people to be introduced and reintroduced to faith in an accessible, yet challenging way. While the music is modern, we are deeply rooted in worship of the God who creates, redeems, and sustains. Come, experience the work of the Holy Spirit in the world and in your life, and don’t be afraid to come into The Light.
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Serve @ First
Welcome Breanna ... to the First UMC team! Breanna (Bre) White is our new Outreach/Missions Coordinator. Bre is currently getting her Masters in Social Work through the University of South Dakota. She and her son, Zavian, live in the neighborhood which helps drive her passion to help those right here around us. In her work with Mission and Outreach, Bre hopes to establish working relationships within the community. Through relationship building and conversation, Bre will assess the needs of our community and our neighborhood in order to identify meaningful programs that will help our kids and our neighborhood develop. She couldn’t be more excited about the opportunities to work with Mission and Outreach at First FUMC alongside all of you! Feel free to stop and chat with Bre on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights or email any time to whiteb@sfumc.org to see how you can get involved in a mission outreach opportunity. The following pages show just a few of the many ways First Church is making a difference in Sioux Falls.
Nightwatch Ministry We are excited to announce that in 2017 the Nightwatch Ministry expanded! Because of your faithful commitment to the Sioux Falls Nightwatch Ministry 7446 meals were served in 2017. That is an average of 146 each week! Breakfast is served Sundays in our parking lot, 9-10 a.m., and dinner’s Mondays, 5:30–6:30 p.m., at Hayward Elementary. This decision was made to begin serving at Hayward Elementary because the Banquet West only serves on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is the hope of the Nightwatch committee to serve on Thursday’s in the near future. First Church has committed to serve the 4th Monday of each month.
Nightwatch volunteers!
We are also extremely excited to announce that Good News Church and First Lutheran Church have joined the Sioux Falls Nightwatch Ministry. Gather your friends and family and give serving with Nightwatch a try, you will be truly blessed by this experience.
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Habitat for Humanity
The Banquet The Banquet meal ministry was founded in 1985 starting with just one meal per week. Now 13 meals are served each week at two locations.
It’s indoor build time! Thank goodness!
The Banquet is a volunteer-based ministry, which means the meals are paid for, prepared by, and served by volunteer groups who come from Sioux Falls and the surrounding area.
We have two homes we’re building indoors in, March and April. We build the 2nd Saturday each month from 8:30-11:30 in the morning. This year Habitat Sioux Falls will be building 10 homes! We would love to have you join us. No special skills are required, just the desire to lend a helping hand here in our community.
We are proud to be a volunteer group that serves twice every month. You can support this ministry by being an active team member or by your financial gifts to pay for the meals. 18-20 of us gather on the 3rd and 4th Tuesday to serve breakfast and dinner.
Meet our new Signature Mission: Kidstop Kidstop provides free after-school and summer programming for low-income children in the downtown area of Sioux Falls, SD.
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Serve @ First
Mayday Sioux Falls Frustrating, isn’t it? You want to make a difference in your community and the people around you. You know that by serving the community you are also serving God but you just don’t know where to start. That is why Mayday Sioux Falls was conceived in 2015, to give everyone an entry level opportunity to make a difference in Sioux Falls by serving God and the community. A few of the opportunities available this year are: • Tying fleece blankets for Project Warm Up • Filling donated purses with feminine hygiene products for women in need • General maintenance and upkeep projects at Pointers Ridge • Trash clean up downtown • Prepare bags of underwear and socks for those in need Sign you and your friends up online to maydaysiouxfalls.org and be the difference in Sioux Falls!
Each month First Church designates one mission partner as our focus of the month. We chose partners throughout the year that touch the lives of those living locally in Sioux Falls, as well as ministries supported by the conference. We encourage you to give above and beyond your pledge to one or more of our ministry partners.
MISSION OF THE MONTH — 2018 January
Habitat for Humanity
February Nightwatch March
Samaritan’s Feet
April
United Day Care
May
Dakota Miracle Offering
June
Bishop Dudley House
July Banquet August
St Francis House
September
Lowell Elementary
October
Community Outreach
November Kidstop December
Church on the Street
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Believing in the Future
Construction Update Praise God! The Chapel and the Wesley Dining Hall (formerly the Round Table Room) have been completed and what an improvement. We want to update you on the next phase. We are under construction remodel in the Multi Purpose Room and the Fireplace Room. In the Multi Purpose Room, we are replacing the flooring, painting, putting up new sound panels and changing the lights to more energy efficient lighting. In the Fireplace Room, we are putting in a fireplace and giving the room a complete update. We look to have these rooms completed by April 1. The other great news is we have received 1 million dollars of the 1.3 million pledged. Because of your great response we haven’t needed to borrow funds quite yet. We look forward to having a complete celebration of the whole completed construction in April/May.
Wesley Dining Hall
Chapel
Fireplace Room
We want to thank especially Jans Corporation and TSP Architects, our principal construction partners, for all their beautiful and hard work.
Believing in the Future Phase 2 Multi Purpose Room Through the generous gift of the William Leopard family we are excited to announce that we are moving the Library to the Next Generation office space on the 1st floor and the current nursery.
The Nursery will be relocated closer to the Sanctuary. The present library space will be the home of our Next Generation team. Our Trustees along with Jans Corporation are in the early stages of finalizing a plan. Look for updates in the months ahead. We have discovered that our roofs over the sanctuary, dome, education wing and the Multi Purpose room are in a bad state of repairs. We are formulating a plan to replace these roofs over the next three years. We will use present funds and other financial resources to accomplish this goal. Again, we will bring you updates throughout the spring and summer.
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Grow @ First
Unbinding Your Heart: 40 Days of Prayer and Faith Sharing Does the word “evangelism” intimidate you? Cause anxiety? Excite you? Evangelism stirs up these feelings…fill in the blank “ “. The “Unbinding Your Heart” study will help you look at prayer and sharing your faith in a refreshing and freeing way. It will help you to answer the question “What difference does it make in your life that you are a Christian?” and when we understand that why question, we can look at the how; how we put words to our faith experiences. You also join in prayer using the prayer journal at the back of the book. This gets us all in the habit of spending intentional time with God on a daily basis; it helps us to develop our relationship with God. You still have time to get plugged into an “Unbinding Your Heart” study. On page 25 of the book we read, “What’s at stake in evangelism is transformed lives, yours included! You and your church can begin to work together on something that matters tremendously.” Let’s seek God for transformation! Get plugged in to an “Unbinding Your Heart” study today!
BOOK STUDY OPPORTUNITIES • Facebook with Pastor Taylor
• Tuesdays
• Sundays
4:30 pm - Carol Flynn 6:30 pm - Dan Olson & Katie Phillips
2 pm - Josh & Jenna Pierce 5 pm - Pastor Bob 7 pm - Harold & Nora Christensen
• Mondays 5 pm - Online with Pastor Bob 5 pm - Don Ditmanson 5:30 pm - Kiersten & Taylor Johnson 5:30 pm - Nancy & Joe Olsen
• Wednesdays 9:30 am - Andrea Johnson 5:30 pm - Jeff Sheets & Ben Lamp 6 pm - Donna Kuper 6:30 pm - Bill & Cheryl Schmeling 7 pm - Cynthia McConniel 7 pm - Curtis Mittendorf (youth)
You are invited to an
Egg-Stravaganza! Saturday, March 24 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. — Free!
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MAR 9 / APR 8
MAR 24
LIVE @ FIRST CONCERT SERIES
EGGSTRAVAGANZA
3/9, 7 p.m. — Kickin’ Brass 4/8, 3 p.m. — Collegiate Choir Showcase
10 a.m. - 12 p.m. — Free!
MAR 25
MAR 26 / 27
PALM SUNDAY
HOLY MONDAY AND TUESDAY
8:30, 9:45 and 11 a.m. Services
12 and 6:30 p.m. — Chapel
MAR 28 / 29
MAR 30
HOLY WEDNESDAY
GOOD FRIDAY
6 p.m. — “The Road to Resurrection”
12 and 6:30 p.m. — Sanctuary
Multi Purpose Room
MAUNDY THURSDAY 12 and 6:30 p.m. — Sanctuary
APR 1
APR 22
Easter
CONFIRMATION
6:30 a.m. — Sunrise Service @ Falls Park 8:30, 9:45 and 11 a.m. Services
9:45 a.m. — Sanctuary
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Financials — 2017 In Review
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xxx
NEW MEMBERS WEEKLY AVERAGE ATTENDANCE
461
FULL APPORTIONMENT PAID
$166,000
31
DEATHS YTD
1,110
FULL MEMBERS
$15,000
CHRISTMAS OFFERING
1,063,869
xxx $ TOTAL REVENUE
TOTAL EXP
1,062,619
$
NET GAIN CARRIED TO 2018 — $1,249 THANK YOU for your faith giving to God through our church. 2017 was a tremendous year in our gift giving to God as a congregation. We received a little over 1 million dollars for our operating budget as well as 1 million dollars for our Believing in the Future capital campaign.
PRAISE GOD THROUGH WHOM ALL BLESSING FLOW!
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WAYS TO GIVE at FIRST UMC
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Online @ www.sfumc.org/give Text ‘sfumc’ to 77977 Auto withdrawal (EFT) Mail: 401 S. Spring, Sioux Falls, SD 57104 Offering plate today
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Deep Thoughts with Curtis
Happy New Year! Well, sort of. Let me explain by first backtracking a little bit and asking a question. Did you make a new years resolution this year? Did you keep it? It’s okay if you didn’t because I made a resolution to be healthier this year and on the fifth day of the year went to Buffalo Wild Wings. So if you didn’t keep to your resolution this year, I think you’re in good company. The reason I bring up the new year is because we are approaching the Biblical new year. In Biblical times, the new year was determined by the moon cycle and is celebrated when we see the first new moon of spring. If you keep track, the new year falls right around the time of Passover and Easter. Easter is the perfect time to talk about forgiveness and renewal. Waking up on Easter Sunday means knowing that your sins are forgiven and you have been washed clean. And isn’t it perfect that Easter always happens around spring, when the world is being resurrected from winter. This time of year reminds us that, although we are not perfect, we are made perfect by the one who took our sins for us. Do you feel like you’re trying too hard to keep your resolutions? Remember that you are forgiven and in forgiveness you have a new chance to get focused on Jesus. The time between January first and Easter perfectly exemplifies our ever increasing chances at perfection with the new year, Lent, the Biblical new year, and Easter. You are constantly being made new until you meet Jesus and perfection, thank God for that. ~ Curtis Mittendorf, High School Coordinator
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FIRST
United Methodist Church
First United Methodist Church 401 S. Spring Avenue Sioux Falls, SD 57104-4398 605-336-3652
Non Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit #606 Sioux Falls, SD
E-mail: fumc@sfumc.org Website: www.sfumc.org Address Service Requested
Farewell to Pastor Bill
Holy Week — Mar 26 - Apr 1 UNBINDING your HEART
It is with great joy and sadness we announce Pastor Bill Schmeling will be retiring to Arizona in May. Pastor Bill’s wonderful caring presence has enriched not only the lives of those in the hospital and nursing homes, but to everyone he meets.
Holy Monday and Tuesday 12pm and 6:30pm - Chapel
Holy Wednesday
We will be throwing Pastor Bill a retirement open house Sunday, May 6. Mark your calendar now to share your well wishes to Pastor Bill and his wife Cheryl.
“The Road to Resurrection” A fun family event - 6pm
Maundy Thursday
Thank You and God Bless You
12pm and 6:30pm - Sanctuary
Good Friday
12pm and 6:30pm - Sanctuary
Easter Sunday
6:30am - Sunrise Service at Falls Park 8:30am - Traditional Worship 9:45am - Unity Worship 11am - The Light 12