The Messenger McMannen United Methodist Church

4102 Neal Road, Durham NC 27705

Sunday, September 20Sunday, September 20Sunday, September 20Sunday, September 20

11:00 am11:00 am11:00 am11:00 am

Potluck lunch following the service

NO 8:45 serviceNO 8:45 serviceNO 8:45 serviceNO 8:45 service

Our special guest Preacher for Homecoming is

our new Assistant to the District Superintendent,

The Reverend Jessie Larkins.

The Reverend Jessie

Larkins grew up at

Aldersgate UMC in Chapel

Hill, NC where she learned

how to love Christ and the

life of the church. She

attended college at UNC-

Asheville where she met

her husband while studying Math and French.

Following college, Jessie served for a year with

the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, a young adult

service year. In this year she came alongside

battered women and children in an emergency

domestic violence shelter. Her experience of

injustice and the silence of the church pushed

her back to NC for seminary where she attended

Duke Divinity School and became ordained an

elder in the NC Conference.

Jessie has served churches around the Durham

area as an associate and solo pastor where she

has delighted in helping congregations

understand the radical implications of following

the Risen Savior as they engage in ministry with

their local communities.

Jessie’s other vocation is to be the mother of

Elijah and Noah and wife to David. They love

living in Durham, enjoying the culture of the local

community, and engaging with their neighbors to

ensure that Durham is a great place for ALL

people.

Your recycled magazines would be appreciated at C.A. Dillon Youth

Development Center Suggested magazines: cars, sports, youth, Our State,

video games

Our Church Family: James & Marti Bennett; Marian Clark; Family of Bobbie Morgan; Emma Jean Phelps; Dean Porterfield; Barbara Rovetto; Delma & Dick Smallwood; Wendell Family; our college students; preschool families

Friends and Family: Joe Blum; Katie Bradley; Howell Brown III, Philip Browning; David Clayton; Robin Clements; Alida Cockerman; Jill Conelly; Rose Eapen; Judge Carl Fox; Willene Gilreath; Mike Goodwin family; Graham & Lotz families; Gwen Hall; Stanley Hutchins: Allison Jenkins; Charles Johnson; Judy Johnson; Elsie King; June King; Ruth King; Luther King; Rod Mabry; Alwood Mangum; Grady McCutcheon; Donald McFarland; Patti Morrison; Mary Ann Norris; Amory Oliver (Carolyn Woolley’s aunt); George Paulides and family; Jimmy Riley; Louis Rivers; Caroline Sasser; Carl Schmidt; Parker, Melissa & Gene Schumacher; Susan Steele (Kim Stainback’s mom); Jeff Stutts; Randy Taylor; Bonnie Toaso; Janet Truckner; Laura Turkel; HA Turlington; Taylor Wagner; Carole Ward; Rachel Whitt; Alex Whitaker; Andrea Wilkins; Zhang family; the unemployed and their families; the victims of violence; travel mercies; Residents and staff at C.A. Dillon; Christian Believer Bible study group; Iraqi Christians; our armed forces and military

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3

If you are willing to help, please contact

Hardy Hutchins at 919.477.2900 or hardy@hutchinsdesignbuild.com. There’s a job for everyone! Lend your hand to support this

important event at McMannen.

Thurs, September 10 “My Fair Lady” at Temple Theater, Sanford. Lunch @ Ms. Lacy’s 11:20 am--5:15 pm Deadline 9/7 noon $40

Friday, September 11 Lunch and meeting at 12:00 pm. Our guest speaker is Jenny Noyes who will be teaching us about how to build

a tower garden.

Primetimers Exercise at 10:30 am Monday & Wednesdays in Fellowship Hall

To receive more information about a Primetimers program or to sign up for the trip, please contact Jim Lore at 384-2102.

September Committee Meetings

SPRC Tues, September 15 @ 6:30 (E201)

Finance September 22 @ 6:30 pm (FH)

Sunday, Sept 13

8:00 am

All are welcome!

MondaysMondaysMondaysMondays

7:00 pm7:00 pm7:00 pm7:00 pm Youth Center

Lead by Pastor Calvin

NO MEETING LABOR DAY

September 7

On behalf of the Chancel Choir, we would love to extend a welcome and open invitation to join the choir for the upcom-ing year! If you love to sing and praise God through music, then this is the place for you! No experience is necessary! We would love to have new members! The Chancel Choir provides music for the worship services 2-3 times per month and serves

as a fantastic small group to share the Christian faith with! Our first choir practice will begin on September 2nd at 7pm. All choir practices last from 7pm until 8:45 pm on Wednesday evenings. All are welcome! Can't make Wednesday evenings? Please join us in rehearsal Sunday mornings at 10:15am prior to the service!

“I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 104:33

Building Young People’s Ministries

As your nominated and elected representatives, the Staff Parish Relations Committee (SPRC) and the Church Council have been hard at work over the last year, responding to the vision of our congregation to build and invest in thriving young people’s outreach and ministries. Our first real step in that direction occurred last year with the establishment of the church budget, designed in part to support the staff and programming to ac-complish that goal.

The next big step was hiring Calvin Dickenson as the Director of Youth and Young Adult Outreach and Ministries. He has been doing a great job providing formational guidance and events for McMannen’s youth, meeting the parents of families with children, connecting with our young adult members and visitors, and building relation-ships in the community. Most recently, Calvin has been named (volunteer) chaplain of Riverside High School’s football team, and is connected with Partners for Youth Opportunity as a mentor of a High School student! God’s provision in working out those relationships with church and community members has been a joy to watch.

Even more recently, on the Children’s Outreach and Ministry front, our SPRC and Church Council have discerned that the best next step for us is to expand Jackie Bolen’s role as Preschool Director into a position that includes all of Children’s Outreach and Ministry. Since June , she had been assigned that role temporarily for the summer

months to handle the large summer events such as Vacation Bible School. SPRC, in reviewing where we are, where we want to go, and how things are progressing, recommended and the Council unanimously approved making the temporary summer role a permanent one. With that change, directing the Preschool remains Jackie’s first priority, but now Jackie is also officially responsible for the rest of McMannen’s Children’s Ministries and Outreach. We believe this is a move that demonstrates wise stewardship of the church’s financial resources, and that has the best interests of our church and neighborhood children in mind. During the school year, she will be spending about 1/3 of her time on Children’s ministries and outreach; during the summer that proportion shifts to 2/3 of her time.

Building the infrastructure, the vision, the skills,

and the relationships with young people is a

journey that will take more than a few months for

our congregation to achieve, but McMannen

believes that this is the direction God is leading.

My prayer is that your prayers and investment in

building toward this future will bear much fruit.

Along the way, I pray that we will continue to

dream together and inspire one another to be

faithful listeners to and followers of God’s call

upon our shared life as brothers and sisters in

Christ.

This month our Youth Group will be “Splashing” into the fall! After a fun, but kind of quiet summer, we are going to kick things off on

Saturday, September 12th as a part of our church-wide

Block Party. Yes! We will have a dunk tank. Yes! Pastor Calvin will

be in the dunk tank at the end of the Block Party. Then, as long as someone has good aim, a drenched Pastor Calvin will lead our

McMannen Youth Fall “Splash” at 7pm. This will

be a youth worship event that all youth are welcome to attend. We will be inviting all the youth groups we visited on our Youth Group Tour last spring and many more.

The very next day, Sunday, September 13th will officially begin our regular schedule for the fall. Our

10am Sunday School class will resume that morning in the Youth Center. Then from 4-6 pm we

will have a joint Youth & Parents Orientation Meeting. During this time we will talk about the

plans for the upcoming semester, make a volunteer list for meals and discuss Pilgrimage, one of our ma-

jor events which will be in Fayetteville November 13-15. Also, I will explain more about our new 4-week

PEPS pattern:

Week 1 - P = Prepare for Mission (learning and planning to be ready for service)

Week 2 - E = Engage in Mission (serve God and our neighbor)

Week 3 - P = Process Mission (review our mission experience from previous week)

Week 4 - S = Social interaction (doing something fun together)

Within each PEPS cycle we will explore a particular theme, such as compassion, teamwork, patience, etc. We will repeat this cycle with various forms of mission and fun. Please see Pastor Calvin for a more detailed youth schedule. Grace & Peace,

Pastor Calvin

Friday, September 18Friday, September 18Friday, September 18Friday, September 18

7 PM7 PM7 PM7 PM

McMannen UMC Fellowship HallMcMannen UMC Fellowship HallMcMannen UMC Fellowship HallMcMannen UMC Fellowship Hall

Enjoy a movie about acceptance; being brave; having hope; and understanding that our

differences and our mistakes are part of being

human.

Currently enrolling! Spaces available in all classes. See

Jackie for applications for need-based scholarships.

Please continue to collect the labels so this year’s preschoolers are able to take advantage of the great educational opportunities offered by this program.

Thursdays

2:00 pm

Betty Ray’s home

All are welcome! Lead by Pastor Ed

Call Anggie in the church office for the address

Visit our website to pay tuition or donate to the

scholarship fund online! Mcmannenumc.org

McMannen UMCMcMannen UMC

Community Block PartyCommunity Block Party

Saturday, September 12Saturday, September 12

55——7 PM7 PM

Activities will include a Bouncy House,

Face Painting, Yard Games, Bubbles, Corn Hole, Great

Food at fair prices, New Friends and Dunk a Minister!

Immediately following this event all youth (ages 6th grade through High School) are invited to gather in the sanctuary in community to enjoy the presence of God and start the fall off with a youth worship service.

In our culture, one of the first things that we think about when we think of the month of September

is that students go back to school. When grade-school children return to school, the first days and

weeks are o�en spent reviewing the basics that may have begun to fade from memory during the

summer months.

So too with our spiritual lives. Without a en!on, we are easily distracted by the affairs of the world

and some of the basic principles of our faith journey are suscep!ble to fading into the background. Here are a few

simple refreshers on our faith and faith community. Just for fun, so that you may join in solidarity with our young

students, I’ve wri en them in the form of a quiz. The answers are on the next page. Don’t take this quiz (or your

performance) too seriously. Perhaps they will spur you to learn more, or remind you of an important faith prac!ce

or truth that you have set aside!

1. The first followers of Jesus were known as “disciples.” As the term is used in the Bible, a disciple is which of

the following? Chris!ans are called to be disciples of Jesus even today!

a. Student/Learner b. Member of a motorcycle gang

c. Good friend d. Teacher

2. Persons who decide to publicly commit themselves to a church, and who vow to support the church with

their prayers, their presence, their gi�s, their service, and their witness are known as:

a. Crazy b. Representa!ves

c. Ambassadors d. Members

3. The closest biblical analogy to the meaning of “members” in the body of Christ is:

a. Members of an exclusive club b. Members of a plant species

c. Members of the body, like the hands or eyes, d. Members of the studio audience

which are mutually dependent on each other

4. The official Mission Statement of the United Methodist Church is to:

a. Build churches in every neighborhood b. Vaccinate all people

c. Get more members than the Bap!sts d. Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the

transforma!on of the world.

5. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Movement, defined several ordinary “Means of Grace,” or ways that

God had chosen to bestow God’s grace on God’s followers. The Means of Grace include:

a. Works of piety (holy living) such as prayer b. works of perfec!on, such as keeping your

and scripture reading, and works of mercy house spotless, and works of courage,

such as caring for the poor such as defending your family from wild

animals

c. displays of fashion, such as wearing fancy church d. a ending mee!ngs and balancing your

clothes, and displays of holiday cheer, vaca!on budget

such as hanging garland wreaths on your front

door at Christmas

6. The Lord’s Prayer was originally taught by:

a. Jesus, as recorded in the Gospels b. Paul, as recorded in the Acts of the

Apostles Chapter 43 verse 4

c. Athanasius, early church theologian d. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist

Church

7. Chris!ans believe God loves you:

a. When you have had a good day b. When you remember to say your prayers

before you go to bed

c. When you are angry, sad, or jealous d. All of the above

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this simple li le quiz. Please remember to keep our church’s students in

prayer, remember how much the body of Christ needs you, and please remember how much God loves you!

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Ed

Answers: 1)a; 2)d; 3)c; 4)d; 5)a; 6)a; 7)d

If you come to McMannen's campus early on a weekday morning, you may be surprised to find some hard-at-work students studying away.

We are delighted to welcome the students and teachers of Bull City Gymnastics (BCG) to our Youth Center, where they will hold academic classes five days a week from 7:30am-12:15pm for 3rd-8th graders throughout the school year. The students are enrolled in the Christa McAuliffe Academy (named for the astronaut), a nationally accredited online school specializing in distance education, and BCG is leasing the space from us. This arrange-ment allows their advanced gymnastics students to zip through their coursework each day with help from dedicated onsite BCG teachers, before they head to the Bull City gym (around the corner on Bennett Memorial Drive) to practice their routines. Although you may see an occasional gymnast doing cartwheels and round-offs on the front lawn in their spare time, the purpose of their time on our campus is academic rather than athletic: you're much more likely to see the youngsters here thinking about a math problem than turning a triple backflip.

Zander Howe Son of Jessica Wagstaff and Matt Howe

Baptized August 16, 2015

Leon and Gaynelle Pope Joined: June 14, 2015

Rev. Calvin (staff) Rebecca and Kathleen Dickenson Joined: June 28, 2015

Patrick & Laura Geraghty and

Elaina Baptized: May 3, 2015

Joined: May 3, 2015

Shaun Gruber Grandson of Kathy Coleman Baptized: June 14, 2015

Andrew & Sarah Fuller and

Reuben

Baptized: April 12, 2015

Sarah joined: June 28, 2015

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Philemon 1:17

Please always refer to the

calendar on the McMannen

website for the most up-to-

date informa!on.

Download our calendar information: A file can be downloaded and imported into any calendar program that will let you import a comma-delimited text file. Most calendaring software, like Outlook, Lotus, etc. has this feature built right in.

• Simply click the ICAL symbol on the calendar (bottom left corner) on our mcmannenumc.org website

to download it to your hard drive.

• Then open your calendar software and import it.

4102 Neal Road

Durham, NC 27705-2320

919-383-1263

Fax: 919-383-0546

www.mcmannenumc.org

Church Office Hours:

Monday-Friday: 9 am - 1 pm

D eadline for the

next newsletter,

“The Messenger”, is

Monday, Septem-

ber 21— 9 am for

all events through

October.

Sunday Mornings 8:45 am - Worship

(in Neal Chapel)

10 am - Sunday School

11:00 am - Worship

(in the Sanctuary)

Come and Worship!

Mission: Mission: Mission: Mission: To proclaim the gospel of Jesus

Christ to the world and to live it out in loving witness to whomever we meet with the

purpose of changing hearts and

strengthening the community of believers.

StaffStaffStaffStaff

Ed Priestaf, PastorEd Priestaf, PastorEd Priestaf, PastorEd Priestaf, Pastor pastorEd@mcmannenumc.org

919-274-8061

Calvin DickensonCalvin DickensonCalvin DickensonCalvin Dickenson Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries & Outreach calvind@mcmannenumc.org

Jackie BolenJackie BolenJackie BolenJackie Bolen

Director of Children’s Outreach and Ministries

jackieb@mcmannenumc.org

Anggie Thompson Anggie Thompson Anggie Thompson Anggie Thompson Office Administrator

anggiet@mcmannenumc.org

John BentonJohn BentonJohn BentonJohn Benton Director of Music Ministries johnb@mcmannenumc.org

Floalice Reaves Floalice Reaves Floalice Reaves Floalice Reaves Organist