APRIL 2017
CONNECTIONS
APRIL JOY April may well be my favorite month of the year: Particularly this year. First of all, from a purely secular point of view, the Masters golf tournament is always played the first full week of April. There is no athletic contest I love more than the Masters. Having lived for a while in Augusta, I don’t have to depend only on the television to imagine what Augusta National, or the town looks like. Then there are the greatest golfers in the world all gathered in the same place. If you love golf, what could be better than that? However, add to that the fact that this year, the second full week of April is Holy Week. It will begin on April 9th with Palm / Passion Sunday. Monday through Friday of that week we will have our Traditional Holy Week Luncheon Services. We will gather in the Sanctuary for a thirty-minute devotion, and afterwards move into the Fellowship Hall for a light lunch. Along side of those services we will have our Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services. Then, on Easter Sunday, April 16th, we will gather for four glorious worship services. As if that isn’t already enough, on April the 23rd, we will be having our Confirmation Sunday. Literally, dozens of young people in this Church who have spent the year learning about Jesus, the Christian faith, and the Church will be making professions of their faith in Christ and joining the Church. What a joy to be a part of their faith journey and welcome these young people into the Church. Interestingly enough, that will be the Sunday when, in all probability, our membership will cross the 5,000-member mark. Every month is a great month at Dunwoody United Methodist Church, but this year, I am finding I am particularly fond of April. I hope you will join us for a wonderful time of April joy. Blessings, Dan
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SUMMER FUN AT THE DUMC NURSERY! It’s going to be a great summer in the Nursery! We have the summer covered for children ages 6-months through 5-years with 10 weeks of themed camps and weekday Drop-In. Nursery Camps: For children age 2-5 years • May 22-25: Pirates & Mermaids Under the Sea (ages 3 and under) • June 5-8: Dr. Seuss and Rhyming Authors • June 12-15: Eric Carle and Collage Techniques • June 19-22: VBS Hero Central • June 26-29: Mo Willems, Teamwork, and Related Silliness • July 10-13: Dinosaur Detectives (ages 3 and under) • July 17-20: Chefs, Farmers, and Food • July 24-27: Police, Fire Fighters, and Emergency Vehicles • July 31-August 3: Doctors, Exercise, and Healthy Bodies • August 7-10: Pet Patrol (ages 3 and under) Drop-In: Regular weekday Drop-In will be available throughout the summer for children who do not meet the age requirement for the Nursery Camps. Drop-In will be held Monday-Thursday from 9am-1pm. For more information, pricing, and registration, please contact our Nursery Director, Usha Raghavan at usha.raghavan@ dunwoodyumc.org or 770-394-0675 ext. 131.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
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Larry Hall & Rachel Blankenship
Catherine Rasberry
Kirstin & Patrick DiMarco
Barbara Sanko
Cathy Mobley
Courtney & Bryan Stillwagon
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I love the arts and crafts! Ella Smith
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We have a foster care crisis in the state of Georgia. There are 13,000 children in the care of our state, a number that has doubled in five years. Currently, 150 children have to spend the night in a hotel room with a stranger because there are not enough loving, compassionate, nurturing homes to offer hospitality to a child experiencing trauma. The United Methodist Children’s home need more people to consider becoming a foster parent or join in the ministry of supporting foster parents. Dunwoody United Methodist Church is joining with others in the north metro area to expand foster care in our community.
The Recent Sale of Children’s Home Property
On January 17 the Board of Trustees of The United Methodist Children’s Home made the decision to expand and accelerate its impact across North Georgia by voting with overwhelming approval to sell its Decatur property. Rev. Hal Jones, the UMCH President and CEO, put the decision into perspective. “We appreciate the UMCH Board’s thoughtful consideration of multiple options regarding the future of The United Methodist Children’s Home campus in Decatur,” said Jones, “I am energized by our Board’s decision, which embraces the changing landscape in providing services to children and families while empowering UMCH to deliver on, and continuously improve its important mission.”
“It is a thrill working with many smart, committed people with the common goal of upholding the wonderful traditions of the United Methodist Children’s Home. Personally, it is particularly gratifying to see our organization be so successful as we participate in an aggressive foster care program around the North Georgia Conference area including areas like metro Atlanta, Augusta, Lagrange and Gainesville areas. Children are being served and foster parents are being supported by the great work of our staff.” - Paul Rozeman, Board Member
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This decision will unlock the capital needed to reach more children and families in crisis. Sample estimates indicate funds from the sale will help to greatly expand local, communitybased ministries in towns and cities across North Georgia, in partnership with many more churches. Though initial projections reviewed by the Board, UMCH estimates the organization will serve approximately 63 more people every year, in perpetuity, as a result of the decision. UMCH has pledged its firm commitment to provide high-quality, uninterrupted service to all its clients, including those living on its campus. Currently, there are 13,000 Georgia children who have been separated from their families, and who are in State custody due to neglect, abuse or abandonment; this is a number that has doubled over the last five years. Every week, when called on by the State, UMCH must currently turn away 30 children who need a loving foster home, because of limited resources. Each week families at risk of homelessness are turned away for the same reason. “The decision will help optimize our ability to address these challenges and reach more children and families in need,” said Jones. APRIL 2017 | 5
In November of 2016, we had the most successful High School Fall Retreat we’ve ever had! Like every year before, we loaded up our high schoolers the weekend before Thanksgiving and headed down to Historic Banning Mills. And like every year before, we had a spiritual theme for the weekend. Only this year, our theme was Flannel. I know what you’re thinking. How can Flannel be a retreat theme? I asked myself the same question. So did Lane Davis, our speaker for the retreat. I called him a month before the retreat and said, “I need you to craft 3 messages about Jesus and flannel.” Lane’s reply? “…okay.” Needless to say, Lane did a great job. He elaborated on how flannel has been used by different people and classes through the years, and it has always said something about the wearer. The same goes for most of our clothes today. We all wear things sometimes because we want what we wear to say something about who we are. But, we fail to be who we were created to be when we let external things define our internal realities. In Galatians chapter 1, Paul tries to remind the churches in Galatia of who they are by using himself as an example: “You heard about my previous life in Judaism, how severely I harassed God’s church and tried to destroy it. I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my peers, because I was much more militant about the traditions of my ancestors.” Paul’s internal reality had been shaped by his religious zeal for the Law. The Law was not a bad thing, but Paul had forgotten its purpose and had become legalistic in his pursuit of righteousness. But, in Galatians 1:15-16, Paul tells the church, “God…was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach about him to the Gentiles.” Paul’s internal reality was rocked by Jesus and it changed everything. When you have a spiritual awakening in your heart and mind, nothing can stay the same. I think Lane’s point on that retreat is not just for students. You see, most of us let external things tell us who we are supposed to be on the inside. Most of us are actually really tired of it and really dissatisfied, but don’t know what to do about it. In fact, it’s become so common place to judge our internal realities based on our external circumstances that we don’t even think about it anymore. It just happens. We wear other people’s opinions of us, we wear worry and anxiety, we wear the weight of the world just like we’re changing flannel shirts. Galatians 3:26-28 - 26 You are all God’s children through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. We are clothed in Christ. We were created to be children of God. We were created in the image of God. What happens if we begin to let this truth define our internal realities? - Andrew Chappell Director of Youth Ministry 6 | APRIL 2017
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CONNECT • GROW • SERVE • LEAD
At the end of Jesus Christ’s ministry in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commissions his followers to go into the world to continue to make disciples of Jesus Christ through living and following the commandments that Christ had set for them during his time on earth. With this in mind the United Methodist Church believes that within our local churches we have the power and authority from God to go beyond the walls of our congregations to make disciples for the transformation of the world. The Dunwoody United Methodist Church Youth Ministry lives into this mission from God through a variety of different missions and services that our young and growing Christians participate in.
Within the Confirmation vows that our students take each year when they enter into membership of DUMC, they pledge to be faithful to the church with their prayers, their presence, their gifts, their witness, and their service. The mission opportunities and partnerships that the DUMC Youth Ministry has created allows for the students of this congregation to live the mission that Christ has left
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for them. In 2017, our Youth Ministry will partner with over 15 different organizations within our community, the nation, and internationally. The goal of our missions’ efforts is to create experiences for our students that do not only allow for them to transform others through their service, but also allow for transformation within the students themselves. Each year the DUMC Youth partner with Restoration Atlanta, an organization that has been created within the largest homeless shelter for women and children in the Atlanta Area, City of Refuge. Throughout the year our students have an opportunity to enter into community with the residents at City of Refuge, and simply “be with” them in fellowship, spiritual development, and play. The idea behind the RATL Retreat is to create a space where those volunteering remove the aspect of “doing” for others, and simply replace it with meaningful relationship and time. In January of 2017, the DUMC Youth Ministry took 36 students and adult volunteers to City of Refuge. The eye opening experience for many of
our students has opened them to more intentional relationship building missions. In the summer of 2017, we will take students in high school to spend a week working alongside the members of Bahamas Methodist Habitat. Currently over 60 high school students have committed their time and skills to serve God within the community of Eleuthera. Our middle school students will travel to Chattanooga, TN this summer to partner with a variety of different organizations to learn more about how Christ has called us into service in many different ways. As we continue to prepare our students for service in the world, we continually seek for the prayers of our congregation. We believe that the missions of the Youth Ministry are directly an extension of the mission and teachings of the church as a whole. Each day we continue to strive to make disciples of Christ within our own ministry, so that these students might enter into the world transformed and seeking to see even greater transformation. - Montana Hamby
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INTERNATIONAL MISSION TRIPS
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BRAZIL, GUATEMALA, PANAMA! See the world like you have never seen it before in 2017 with our international mission program! Our first ever “family” mission team will travel to Panama during July 8-15, 2017. An adult mission team will travel to Brazil during July 21-30, 2017. A second adult mission team will travel to Guatemala during August 19-26, 2017. Three wonderful and exciting opportunities to follow John Wesley’s proclamation that “The World Is My Parish”. Join us as we minister to our parish!
Volunteers are needed to pack food at the Atlanta Food Bank the second Wednesday of the month. Upcoming dates include April 12 and May 10. We meet at the church at 8:30 a.m. under the Wiley and Linda Stephens portico and are back to the church by around 12:15 p.m. Transportation is provided. Questions: call Alan Shinn 770-8490719 or email awshinn@comcast.net.
Missed our first general information meeting?! No problem, contact Dick Murphy to find out more at ram.inc@ comcast.net. Make 2017 the year that you decide to experience one of these great mission trips! You will be happy that you did!
PACKAGE OF HOPE Dunwoody UMC provides “Package of Hope” the last Saturday of each month. Distributing non-perishable food that will feed a family of four for several days, DUMC’s goal is to make families feel welcome as they work through tough financial times to get back on their feet. In partnership with Action Ministries, DUMC would love to have you join us (to volunteer or for assistance). Upcoming dates are April 29 and May 27 in the Youth Area from 9-11a. We have complimentary coffee and pastries for fellowship available. Please contact Cindy Hatcher at cindywhatcher@gmail.com with questions. 8 | APRIL 2017
FOOD PANTRY The CAC Food Pantry receives an average of 1,200 visits per month. Your generosity allows CAC to give food to neighbors in need year-round. Donation bins are near the Nursery/ Young Adult Area in DUMC. For a complete list of items most needed, visit our website under the Local Missions menu and then C.A.C.
2017 DUNWOODY UMC BLITZ BUILD
April 27-29, May 3-6
Last year’s Blitz Build was such a success, DUMC is doing it again! Habitat has changed the format slightly to allow for outside vendors to come in during the week, but we still need many hands to help us with the new Blitz Build format. Ask your co-workers to join and take a day off work to participate in our 27th house and second ever Blitz Build. Join us as we engage more volunteers to become the hearts, hands and voices for the cause of adequate and affordable housing. Yes, this requires extra effort, strong leadership, hard work and careful planning...but we have all that and more at DUMC! The impact reaches far beyond the family you are building with/for and warms your heart more than you ever imagined. There is a job for everyone - no skills required. Contact Jack and Bette Whitley at jwhitley47@aol.com or Samantha Faklaris at samantha.faklaris@dunwoodyumc. org for more information.
CAC
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SPIRITUAL GROWTH CIRCLE Spiritual Growth Circle meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m., usually in the Women’s Activity Room. We share a light supper together since half of our ladies are in the work force. We have programs of interest presented by speakers and circle members. We take part in UMW church activities, contribute to missions and community concerns. If you are looking for a night circle then come join our circle and experience the warmth and concern for each other while being a circle that expresses the overall meaning of United Methodist Women. For more information contact Esther Randolph, 770-594-2595 or erandolph@ comcast.net.
“Grief is the price you pay for loving someone” Zig Ziglar The journey of grief can be fraught with many twists and turns and you can feel as though your heart has been torn in two. GriefShare is a confidential, caring support group and we meet on the second and fourth Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Wesley Room. The cost of $15 is for the participant’s workbook. We will walk with you on the long journey through grief toward healing and hope for the future. This group is facilitated by JoAnn Akers who can be reached at 678-352-8334 or akersjoann@gmail.com. www.DunwoodyUMC.org
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This workshop will address the reasons we pray as well as exploring different methods of prayer. All are welcome to join us including those who want to start a regular prayer time and those who are looking to enhance their current prayer life. Led by Rev. Kathy Brockman, Thursdays, April 20 - May 18, 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. in The Young Adult Suite. Call or email Kathy at 770-394-0675 or kathy. brockman@dunwoodyumc.org for more information.
Join Rev. Jenna Kennedy in a study of the History of Art in the Church. She will lead you through history to see how art has enhanced the Worship of God through visual art and architecture. Wednesdays, April 19-May 3 from 9:30 am -11:00 am and 7:00 pm-8:30 pm in Asbury Room A. Contact jenna. kennedy@dunwoodyumc.org for more information.
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On April 24th from 6-8 p.m. in the Kid’s Kitchen, join Lauren Townsend for a cooking class. Lauren will focus on basic cooking techniques that will help you move toward cooking without recipes. Other topics will include weekday meal planning and stocking pantry staples. Contact polly.frederick@dunwoodyumc.org to register.
Sunday school class for recent graduates/early 20s. A safe space to ask questions, voice doubts, and find God in a modern world. Every Sunday, 10:30am, Young Adult Suite. Contact Laura Keen to register, lskeen33@ gmail.com, (404) 717-7062. Or visit https://www.facebook.com/DUMCYA.
This retreat is open to any lady seeking to understand her gifts and how she can best serve DUMC, God and herself. Sometimes we think that serving God is an obligation, a duty, and that it isn’t meant to be enjoyable. The truth is, though, that God wants us to find joy and fulfillment when we serve. That happens when we serve in a role that matches who God created us to be. Please contact Kristin Eaton at keatonunc@yahoo.com if interested.
That’s right, the Young Adults are starting their own kickball team! Games are Thursday nights at Hammond Park starting March 23rd. Contact Laura Keen to register, lskeen33@gmail.com, (404) 7177062.
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Dunwoody United Methodist Church 1548 Mt. Vernon Road Dunwoody, GA 30338
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Clergy and Office Numbers
MEMORIALS
Dan Brown Senior Pastor
IN MEMORY OF:
Josh Amerson Associate Pastor
Clark David Collins – Mr. and Mrs. Charles Collins Joy Edwards – Mr. and Mrs. Scott Hardin Robert Fortenberry – Mr. and Mrs. Scott Hardin Michael Kennedy (uncle of Patrick Kennedy) – Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Yates Vance Mobley (uncle of Rev. Jenna Kennedy) – Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Yates Virginia Vann – Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Yates, Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Farrell Jr., Dr. Jimmy and Dr. Ruth Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Juray, Ms. Cynthia Connor, Ms. Myrtis Maddux, Mr. and Mrs. Sam Harrell, Mr. and Mrs. James Himes Jr. Harry Watkins – Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Loux
IN HONOR OF: Diane Morgan – Working Women’s Network William M. Wedding, Sr., Jr., III – Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Wedding
Kathy Brockman Associate Pastor Jenna Kennedy Associate Pastor David Melton Minister to the Congregation Sonny Walden Minister of Music Church Office: 770-394-0675 Prayer Line: 770-671-8239 FAX Number: 770-394-8492 E-mail: mail@dunwoodyumc.org Website: www.dunwoodyumc.org
Minister After Hours 770-542-1667
In case of an emergency such as a death or critical illness.