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Summer Sermon Series ...
The Original X-men
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Join us for
worship!
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Saturday
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Sunday 8:15 am
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Sunday
9:30 am
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Sunday
11:00 am
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And the winner is ... Xmen (the first
video)!
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Bishop Goodpaster's message at 2009 annual
conference Focus is on multiples of
three over the next three years
Bishop Larry Goodpaster challenged both clergy and laity in their respective
sessions to set benchmarks for fulfilling the conference vision, “Follow Jesus,
Make Disciples, Transform the World.” Using three as a reminder symbol, he is
casting the vision for
• 300,000 members in WNCC United Methodist Churches, up from the present 293,000
• 30,000 increase in average worship attendance
• 3,000 Volunteer in Mission teams going into all the world from WNCC
congregations
• 300 remissioned churches
• 30 new faith communities
• All in 3 years (by Dec. 31, 2012)
 Goodpaster
said these goals could be accomplished by faithfully living out our vision. In
his first Bible study from the Gospel of Matthew, he focused on the first part
of the vision, “Follow Jesus.”
“It is absolutely essential that if we are going to be a church and not just
another organization, it depends upon who you follow,” said Goodpaster. “We’ve
chosen to follow Jesus. We have too easily equated following Jesus with church
membership. If we focus too much on the institutional church we have lost the
vision.”
He concluded by posing two questions for consideration:
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What are you willing to leave behind in order to follow
Jesus today?
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Has Jesus disrupted your life enough to make a fundamental
difference in how you live?
The bishop said now is the time to stop worrying about who is
sitting in your pew on Sunday morning, but rather who is not sitting in any pew
on a Sunday morning. It is up to us to change in order to bring new persons to
Jesus Christ.
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