ADULTS 55+ MONTHLY OUTLOOK

WELCOME JEFF OLIVE AND FAMILY!

Hello, friends! What a joy and privilege to serve as one of your pastors here at TWMC. I am excited to join alongside you in worship, mission and ministry. My family and I have lived in The Woodlands for 10 years. We love this community and this congregation.

I have served as a pastor in the Methodist Church since 1998. Since then, I have pastored rural churches and two-point charges, and served as an associate pastor at a downtown church, a church planter, Director of New Church Development for the Texas Annual Conference, senior pastor, and District Superintendent. A source of great joy in my work over the past 15 years has come from the opportunity to recruit, assess and train church planters in the U.S., Brazil and Asia.

My wife Sharla and I have been married for 25 years. She has worked at The Woodlands Methodist School for the past nine years as a teacher and currently serves as the director of the elementary program. We have two children. Our daughter, Avery, recently graduated from Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, with a music degree. She works in Baton Rouge and serves as a choir director for a Methodist church. Our son, Anson, is a freshman at Texas A&M studying nuclear engineering.

I am thrilled that as Executive Pastor of Church Planting here at The Woodlands Methodist Church, I get to bring together all God has done in my life with all God wants to do here to plant new churches. New churches are the most effective way to reach new people for Jesus. And my deep prayer is that together we will have more influence over our future generations than the culture around us.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. This is the hope we share together. May our hope be made stronger in the days ahead.

Faithfully in Christ,

Rev. Dr. Jeff Olive Executive Pastor of Church Planting

GREETINGS!

by Rev. Chris McLain, Pastor of Caring and Adults 55+ Ministry

By now you are a few weeks into the churches Lenten journey. I am reminded of a story by Tony Jones, the 1990s youth ministry specialist. He shares a story of how he travels to a monastery for a retreat of silence and reflection. There he meets with a Benedictine monk who presents him, a Protestant pilgrim, with a prayer counter. As he receives it, he notices it is not a rosary, but instead is made of tightly woven rope which has 10 strands hanging from it. It has 10 small rope-woven crosses on each strand. He is intrigued with the gift. The monk asks him if he knows “The Jesus Prayer”? Tony says “no,” and leans in like any good student.

The monk explains this particular prayer is what is known as a breath prayer: “This is a prayer that is said in one breath. The first half is said as you inhale, the second, during the exhale.” He then shares with Tony a beautiful mystery.

“Jesus Christ, Son of God; Have mercy on me a sinner.”

The monk instructs Tony to go and repeat it silently in his room, and each time to hold onto a new cross on his counter. “When you have said the prayer and counted all the crosses, you will have said the prayer 100 times.”

Once Tony is done, he returns to the monk, who sends him away again. 500 the monk says. Then 1,000 and then 5,000. By day two Tony does not return to the monk but seeks silence and reflection in his room. Silently he prays until every breath drawn and every breath extinguished is uttering the affirmation of Jesus as the Christ the Second Person of the Trinity, and the human condition that we all are sinners.

If you didn’t take on a fast for Lent for whatever reason, I pray that you will start today with this prayer. In the spirit of 1 Thessalonians 5:17, I challenge you to “pray without ceasing” during this Lenten season. By the end of Tony’s time at the monastery, he was saying the prayer up to 23,000 times per day. But maybe you can just start at 100!

January Prime Timers

Gospel singer Miles Pike performed a variety of gospel songs. Miles has a unique voice and a five-octave range. His message is one of hope and restoration. Hopefully he will join us again soon!

Adult Fitness Kickoff Event

Our Adults 55+ community participated in the annual fitness kickoff event. Our focus this year is “Forward in Fitness.” Peggy Renfro taught a mini session from her Moving in Faith class and shared with Isaiah 40:31. New fitness T-shirts were passed out along with healthy snack bags.

Woodlands Lunch Bunch

Our Woodlands lunch bunch group met at Uptown Asian Fusion. This group meets the second Tuesday of each month for food and fellowship.