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Dear Church Family, This week's e-note will cover the following three subjects: New Sermon Series Children's Ministry Opportunity July Financial Update New Sermon Series: Way back in the early 1980's, I read a little book by John Claypool called "Stages." In that book, Claypool reviewed the four major stages of life: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and senior adulthood. He spelled out some of the challenges of each four stages, and offered insights for meeting those challenges. After reading his book I thought, I'd like to preach a sermon series on this topic. It seemed so appropriate for the church. A congregation represents the entire sweep of human life, from infants to senior adults, so a series on life stages seemed a good idea. However, I felt inadequate to the task. I was only 25 years old at the time. Although I could offer insights into childhood and adolescence, it was too early in my life to speak of the challenges of adulthood and senior adulthood. So I made a file on the subject and said, "Someday, I'll preach this series." At age 55, I feel more prepared to speak to this subject. So, over the next four weekends, we are going to look at some of the challenges we can expect during the four major stages of life. The sermon series will be called
"The Rhythm of Life: Moving through the Challenges of Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood and Senior Adulthood." The messages will be based on episodes from the life of David. King David is a good source for this theme, because the Bible covers events from his entire life-including his childhood, adolescence, adulthood and senior adulthood. As mentioned above, the idea for this series and much of the content comes from John Claypool's book, and I want to fully acknowledge and credit his work. Finally, I want to make clear that my goals for this series are quite modest. These sermons will not be exhaustive or definitive statements about childhood, adolescence, adulthood or senior adulthood. They will, however, lay out a few of the growth challenges each stage of life offersand give some biblical guidance on how we can meet those challenges. So I hope you will join us for worship over the next four weeks, and I hope you will invite others to join you. For more information about "The Rhythm of Life" series please click here. Children's Ministry Opportunity: We are in serious need of additional children's Sunday school teachers for the fall. Right now we need at least six more teachers. Many of you could be a blessing and get a blessing by participating in this crucial ministry. If you would like more information please contact Beth Lentchner, Director of Elementary Ministry at blentcher@bumc.net or 324-7248. July Financial Update: After near perfect January through June contributions, July was a different story. We ended up the month $79,000 behind budget needs. It's no wonder that most pastors dread July! Large numbers of folks are out of town, attendance takes a free fall, and giving plummets. So it would be extremely helpful for all of us to catch up on our financial commitments. Thank you in advance for your generosity. Finally, it was good to receive Colleen Roberts and Thomas and Abigail Barron as new members. Welcome to our church family. In Christ's Love and Service, Martin