ST. JAMES UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

2945 Main Street, East Troy, WI 53120 642-7642

Rev. Nhia Wahn Her

Following the Cross

June 2017

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am sure you are all aware that the United Methodist Church including our Conference has experienced declining membership for several decades. Therefore in order to reverse this trend, on his first term five years ago, Bishop Hee-Soo Jung had cast a bold vision for our conference to Imagine Wisconsin Anew and he urged us all to be passionate about rebuilding the church and inviting new people into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Our church is also experienced similar decline and therefore with the Ministry Planning Taskforce, we have prayerfully crafted a new mission statement for our church: love God, love one another and serve the world. We have been and will continue to implement several discipleship systems like Assimilation, Worship, Evangelism, Small Group and Stewardship to help us accomplish our mission.

Furthermore, I would like to first urge our whole congregation to be in prayer, exam ourselves and focus on these questions that John Wesley had asked: Is there faith? Is there fire? Is there fruit? In other words, our church will grow only if we partner with God and have faith in Him, if we are on fire to evangelize our community for God and bear much fruit for Him! And second I like to ask those of us who are leaders in our church: administrative and committee members to commit ourselves to explore together what God is calling us to do. As leaders we need to lead the way, setting examples, seeking to follow the mandate of Scripture to "bear good fruit and helping support the discipleship systems as we begin to implement each one.

We are blessed to have four young adults from Servant Ministry in our parsonage this summer. This is a ministry that prepares young people for future ministry and has been supported by our Annual Conference. They are willing to help us lead worship on June 11 and on June 25th, they will be leading the whole worship service and concluding with a presentation on what they are doing and how to reach out to the younger generation. I pray that they will be able to inspire many of you to walk away with passion on reaching out to young people in our community.

Just to keep you updated on a different note, after several months of discussions and negotiations, Caldwell and St. James UMC finally had an agreement on this shared ministry between the two congregations and had been announced on April 28. This new ministry is called The Good Samaritan Share Ministry and will supposedly begin on July 1, 2017. Caldwell had moved their worship time to 10:30 AM and our Administrative Board has approved our service to move ten minutes back to 8:50 AM beginning on July 2nd.

Finally, I want to thank God for the opportunity to serve together with you all at St. James UMC and I want to thank all of you for your faithfulness and support.

Have great summer!

Pastor Nhia Wahn Her

EAST TROY MANOR

WORSHIP SCHEDULE

JUNE

June 1st Pastor Nhia Wahn Her

June 8th Brad Balgord

June 15th Joyce Reed

June 22nd Brad Balgord

June 29th Brad Balgord

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SECOND HELPINGS

We were delighted Monday evening, May 15, 2017, when 93 guests came and enjoyed the meal. We served BBQ, coleslaw, potato chips, pickles and apple pie. Our heartfelt Thanks to all who donated food/money, set-up, wrapped silverware, cooked, helped serve and clean-up.

The United Methodist Women will be serving the meal in June.

Blessings from the Second Helpings Committee

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EAST TROY FOOD PANTRY

Dont forget to bring your items for the food pantry each Sunday! These items are always needed no matter what month or season, they are: Laundry soap, dish soap, sugar, flour, and cookies. The theme for June is Paper Products, items needed are: Toilet Paper, Paper Towels and Kleenex.

PRAYING FOR OUR SOUTHEAST DISTRICT CHURCHES

We continue with the practice of the Southeast District praying for local churches and their pastors each week throughout the year on a rotating basis. During the month of June we pray for the following churches and their pastors in the Southeast District of the Wisconsin Annual Conference:

May 29 June 4: Brown Deer, Ellen Rasmussen

(7-1-2017), and their 242 members, Brown Deer is located at 5736 W Brown Deer Rd. Brown Deer, WI 53223

Jun. 5 11: Burlington, English Settlement, their pastor Ebenezer Insor, and their 173 members, Burlington is located at 857 W State St. Burlington, WI 53105 and English settlement is located at 28215 Plank Rd. Burlington, WI 53105.

Jun. 12 18: Caldwell, their pastor Barry Watson, and their 48 members, Caldwell is located at 8504 Caldwell Rd. Mukwonago, WI 53149.

Jun. 19 25: Cambridge Regional Shared Ministry (Cambridge: Willerup, Jefferson: Immanuel, Servant Community), their pastors Marvin Singh (4-1-17) & Kevin Niebuhr, and their 119 members, Cambridge Regional Shared Ministry is located at 414 W Water St., Cambridge, WI 53523.

Jun. 26 Jul. 2: Cedarburg: Community, their pastor David Blackmer, and their 358 members, Community is located at W68 N563 Evergreen Blvd. Cedarburg, WI 53012 (PO Box 617).

FRANKS PIGGLY WIGGLY SHOPPERS

We received $143.96 for the first quarter ending on March 31, 2017. Please continue to bring your receipts to the church kitchen container that is near the microwave. Many thanks to everyone saving and collecting all receipts. Second quarter will end June 30th. No late past due receipts can be used.

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THANK YOUS

I would like to say a big thank you for all the cards, calls, and prayers, while I was in the hospital and since Ive been home. Thank you to Pastor Nhia Wahn for his call. I would also like to thank the ladies for the beautiful prayer shawl. You are all greatly appreciated. I have missed my church family.

Love and Blessings,

Ruth Howard

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St. James Congregation,

Thank you very much for allowing our Girl Scout troop to use the Fellowship Hall this year. We are truly grateful to be able to meet in such a wonderful space. (The new paint looks beautiful).

Troop 4020

OPEN DOORS, OPEN HEARTS, OPEN MINDS

We extend a warm welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor and knuckleheads. We extend a welcome, too, to those who are crying newborns, skinny as a rail or could afford to lose a few pounds.

We welcome you if you can sing like Beyonc or like our pastor who cant carry a note in a bucket. Youre welcome here if youre just browsing, just woke up or just got out of jail. We dont care if youve been sprinkled, dunked or if youre afraid to wade in the water.

We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome single moms, distant dads, starving artists, tree-huggers, latee-sippers, vegetarians, and junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still-using addicts. We welcome you if youre having problems or youre down in the dumps or if you dont like organized religion, weve all been there.

If you blew all your offering money at the casino, youre welcome here. We offer a welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, dont work, or are here because grandma conscripted you to come.

We welcome those who are inked, pierced or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now. We welcome tourists, seekers, doubters, bleeding hearts..and you!

Worship in June

June 4

Standing By Our Promises (Nehemiah 13:1-31)

June 11

Is Jesus the Only Way (John 14:1-14)

June 18

Diane Garvens Preaching: Fathers Day

June 25

Epworth League Discipleship Servant Community doing worship

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SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN LAY SERVANTS, LAY SPEAKERS

Effective January 1, 2017, legislation by the General Conference of the UMC took effect, making significant changes in what we referred to in the past as Lay Speakers. The legislation includes a description of Certified Lay Servants, Certified Lay Speakers, Certified Lay Missioners and Certified Lay Ministers. Our old definition of Lay Speakers and Certified Lay Speakers is gone and cannot be grandfathered in.

Those who elect not to follow this new path can still serve our local church, including sermons, if requested by Pastor Nhia Wahn Her.

The new legislation creates 3 categories, Certified Lay Servant, Certified Lay Speaker and Certified Lay Minister. The first 2 categories require at least 10 approved hours of advanced Lay Servant Ministry courses every three years to renew certification.

These changes will improve our literacy as a United Methodist as we become part of a lifelong culture of learning to improve our skills and knowledge about ourselves and United Methodist Heritage and policy. I believe it is an exciting way for a lay person to enter a serious commitment to the Church, to Christian ministry and service.

This past year there have been only 2 regional classes offered that I am aware of for Lay Servants: one in Watertown on a weekend and one in Bristol, every Monday night for a month. There is an effort under way to offer classes in our area