CHAPEL CHIMES

5758 Old Highway 135 N ● Ki lgore, TX 75662 ● 903 -984-5622 ● March 2015

McCary’s Chapel United Methodist Church

100 Serving God in the Liberty City community since 1913

Unity and Diversity

By Debby Brown, Pastor

H ave you ever considered how such a di-verse group of men and women were chosen by Jesus as his disciples and apostles and how those 13 men along

with the women who supported them went on to spread a faith and a way of living that continues today, bringing relief and comfort to so many throughout the world? A tax collector, among the most hated men in Israel; uneducated fishermen; young men and older men; Paul, a murderer of Christians; James, the brother of Jesus; Lydia, a wealthy businesswoman to name just a few. Matthew, Mark and John all record instances when the disciples argued among themselves. Probably, just by the sheer probability, there were more disagreements among the disciples and Jesus’ followers than are recorded in Scripture. Imagine 13 men traveling around Israel and living together as well as the wives, other women and disciples that followed them. There must have been moments when Jesus threw up his hands and went to pray to the Father. Any organization has its moments of dis-jointedness and disagreement. But the mark of Christianity is our ability to learn to resolve our differences in a manner that brings honor and glory to God without breaking down our friends and

loved ones. In Ephesians 4:3 (GW) we are told by Paul: “Through the peace that ties you together, do your best to maintain the unity that the Spirit gives.” Part of growing past hurts and beginning to

heal is acknowledging the hurt and pain. This is true in all areas of life. It is why I am asking us to focus dur-ing the Lenten season on unity and diversity. We are diverse people with many different gifts and tal-ents. Every gift and talent is neces-sary to be the church God is calling us to be. However, in that diversity we are called to unity in Christ. Unity in Christ does not mean that each and every one of us must agree with each and every thing that someone else says and

does. It can be as simple as acknowledging that we disagree on a particular issue but we do not act or use words in ways that are un-Christ-like. These words are much easier to write and read than they are for most of us to do. Remember that “being the church” is difficult and we are called to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Maybe our par-ticular cross for this Lent is to learn a new way to be unified with our fellow Christians. Think and pray about it. Grace,

Pastor Debby

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves

with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong

to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise...” — Galatians 3:26-29 (NIV)

Rev. Debby Brown, Pastor

P a g e 2 C H A P E L C H I M E S

February Scriptures

and

Sermons

1 Polly Green

2 John Jones

3 Benjamin Easley

5 Erin Benson

5 Carol Cochran

8 A’Mya Thompson

10 J D Hill

11 David Spann

17 Patty Pickle

21 Tammy Hines

24 Brittany Hefner

26 Peggy Jones

29 Jeremy Hefner

6 Roger and Cindy Hefner

8 Buck and Vicki Watson

18 Stephen and Gayla Fry

Sisters in

Christ

March 26 at 6:30 P.M.

Fellowship Hall

1

Sermon: WORLD DAY OF PRAYER

Knowing the Good Shepherd (The

God We Can Know)

John 10:1 — 10

8

Sermon: Knowing the True Vine

(The God We Can Know)

John15:1-8

15 Sermon: Knowing the Way, the

Truth and the Life (The God We Can

Know)

John 14:1-7

22 Sermon: Knowing the Resurrection

and the Life (The God We Can

Know)

John 11:17-26

29 Sermon: PALM/PASSION SUNDAY

5th Sunday Praise and Worship

Dialogue Sermon — Bring your

friends and your questions

March

Birthdays

March

Anniversaries

P a g e 3 C h a p e l C h i m e s

UMC enacts new safe

sanctuary policy

L eadership training Feb. 21 fo-

cused on new policies approved

by McCary’s Chapel UMC as well

as instructions on new, tougher Safe Sanctuary

guidelines adopt-

ed by the United

Methodist Church

with which we

must conform.

Safe Sanc-

tuary — a Child

Abuse Prevention

Policy — helps en-

sure the protec-

tion of any child

who participates in any church function.

The “Two Adult Rule” requires no fewer

than two adults be present during any

church sponsored program, event or minis-

try involving children.

Assigned adult roamers will be used to

comply with this rule whenever two adults

are not available.

All church workers for children are en-

couraged to have first aid and CPR training.

Anyone working with children must take

and pass online Safe Sanctuary training. To

take the training, contact Dan Ramsey by

email at Dbramseyjr@sbcglobal.net includ-

ing your name,

email address

and UMC District.

Dan will enter

you into the

TrainRight system

and you will re-

ceive an email

from TrainRight

with a link in-

viting you to take

your online training. Click on the link in the

email which will take you to trainright.org

and click Register. After you register, you will

be prompted to Sign In. Remember your

password. Once you have signed in you may

begin training at your own pace. If you have

to stop at any point just log out and log back

in when you can return. When you finish,

(Continued on page 5)

Leadership Training Saturday Feb. 21 in Fellowship Hall.

P a g e 4 C H A P E L C H I M E S

S eeking community help in

supporting McCary’s Chap-

el UMC Food Pantry, the pantry

committee has voted to place

collection containers in retail

locations around southwest

Gregg County. The campaign is

called “Changing Hunger With

Your Help.”

We all get loose change

sometimes. While many people

save their pennies, nickels and

dimes — others do not. It is our

hope that folks who have spare

pocket change which is not obli-

gated will choose to drop it in

one of the containers—people

outside the church who live in

the Liberty City-Kilgore area or

even those just traveling

through.

Pantry members will col-

lect the money on a routine ba-

sis for deposit to support the

food pantry, which helps feed

several hundred families a year.

Eddie and Timmie

Mobbs led the way bringing two

very large, partially-filled

change jars to the church. One

is located in the Narthex and

the other in the Fellowship Hall.

The Mobbs donated all their

spare change to the cause, as

did Newton and Judy Tomlin,

who donated a third change jar

located at the rear door of the

Sanctuary. We hope members

will join in — but being aware

that our members already give

generously, we are placing oth-

er collection jars at various loca-

tions. Look for them soon!

Pantry seeks community help in ‘changing hunger’

C H A P E L C H I M E S P a g e 5

you can save or print your

certification which is good

for two years.

Applicants must pass a

criminal background check

each year.

Training and back-

ground checks should be com-

pleted no later than April 1, at

which time those who work

with children will be “Certified”

by the UMC to work with chil-

dren.

The Leadership Training

also familiarized all partici-

pants with church policies on

Building Use; Weddings; Gifts

and Memorials; as well as Sex-

ual Ethics. Those policies will

be posted on the church web-

site and print copies are availa-

ble through Pastor Debby.

Reports were given on

recent Trustee and Finance

Committee actions.

(Continued from page 3)

A kindergarten teacher was

walking around observing

her classroom of children while they

were drawing pictures. As she got to one

girl who was working diligently, she

asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no

one knows what God looks like."

Without looking up from her draw-

ing, the girl replied, "They will in a mi-

nute."

UMC enacts new safe sanctuary policy

Laughing Matters

Page 6 C h a p e l C h i m e s

Taking Care of Business Finance Team

Seeks Tel lers

Men’s Fellowship

Breakfast March 28 at 8 a.m.

Fellowship Hall

By Brad Provance

Chair of the Board of Trustees

T rustees met on Feb. 19. Items discussed were: Someone has

voiced interest in the old altar in the upstairs Sunday School Room. Trustees voted to check with church members to see if anyone knows anything about the altar. Was it do-nated by a church member? Does it have sentimental/family value to anyone? Would anyone object to selling it? If so please con-tact Brad Provance.

The Men’s Fellowship Breakfast will resume Feb 28th.

We are putting a link on the church website for online donations to the church.

The issue of grass mowing was discussed. Mowing should resume in April.

We have installed locks on the old thermom-eters that control the dampers in the gas furnace.

We voted to close out the Jericho Road fund and not reopen it.

— Brad Provance

Tr ustees Act on

Several Items

By Cindy Provance Chair of Finance Committee

F inance team is look-ing for members of our congregation to become tellers after

worship service on Sundays. Tellers will be verifying the deposit that goes into the bank. If interested please see Cin-dy. Also, the Finance Committee has enact-ed a policy which requires anyone spending church funds to submit and receive approval through a purchase order request prior to spending church funds. This will help us keep better track of funds and will enable us in the future to track spending better. —Cindy Provance

T he Administrative Council met on Feb-ruary 19. The council approved an Amended Budget for 2015. The Coun-cil voted to discontinue the Jericho

Road Fund, close the bank account and transfer the remaining funds to the Food Pantry.

The Administrative Council voted to cre-ate an account at Heartspring Methodist Foun-dation for the purpose of adding an on-line do-nation ability to our website. The account will be established with $100 and the signators on the account will be Cindy Provance, Laura Spann and Timmie Mobbs. No further business was conducted.

Administrative Council

The vision of McCary’s Chapel UMC is to be a vibrant, growing congregation changing lives

and reshaping futures for Jesus Christ.

S e r v i n g G o d i n t h e L i b e r t y C i t y c o m m u n i t y s i n c e 1 9 1 3

5758 Old Highway 135 N ● 903 -984-5622 ● March 2015

McCary’s Chapel United Methodist Church

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Reverend Debby Brown, Pastor ● Cel l 903 -576-3142