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SEPTEMBER 2025 |
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THE CROWS NEST |
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SPRINGDALE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH MONTHLY NEWSLETTER |
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INSIDE THIS MONTH'S ISSUE |
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Rebecca's Reflections September Birthdays and Anniversaries Upcoming Events August Worship West Branch Food Pantry VBS In Gathering Conference & Circuit News Reflection - We are the Church together Ministry Reports |
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REBECCA'S REFLECTIONS |
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Welcome to September! Time to start new things like school and activities. Time to shift priorities and try new habits. One of these might be to focus on worship and to consider attending church. Fall is a great time to begin anew and to restart. Join us for worship—you will be glad you did.
When I was in seminary in Washington, DC, the school had an artist in residence. She was a potter and sculptor, creating many beautiful pieces on her wheel and in her studio. It was always fascinating to walk by the door of the art studio and to see her at the wheel, molding and creating something out of nothing. There were times when a piece of clay would go from a blob to a vase in one smooth process but there were also times that something did not work, the clay quickly dissolving into a blob once again. She would then pick it up, mold it into a ball in her hands, plop it back on the wheel and begin again. Re-working the clay until it became a finished piece. Our theme throughout this month will focus on this image of being re-worked and re-formed by God. Take time this month to reflect on the image of God molding you and your life—what do you need to do to re-focus, to be re-worked by God?
It is good to take vacation and also good to come back. Thanks for covering everything while I was away. I am rejuvenated and ready for another fall and winter season.
Happy September!
Rebecca |
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BIRTHDAYS ANNIVERSARIES |
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2 - Ben Maxson 1 - Larry & Kathy Grace (53) 10 - Mckenzie Griffin 3 - Russell & Diane Heick (32) Jamie Kober 10 -Tom & Iona Reid (64) 12 - Dawn Johnson 25 - Christian & Courtney Laing (4) Amanda Budreau Mike & Amanda Tisinger (21) 13 - Gordon LeDoux 29 - Ben & Jenna Maxson (13) 14 - Maggie Grandt 15 - Shelley Barnhart 18 - Cole Lacina 19 - Leo Lacina Ann Nash Avery Rogers 20 - Troy Shanker 21 - Rhoda Barnhart 22 - Elian Dzangue Austin Richards 23 - Sharen Hartz 24 - Maddox Stoolman 26 - Stephen Blayer 22 - Jim Blayer 27 - Dawson Brick
29 - Phil Carver 27 - Mark Cook |
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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September 7 Grandparent's Day September 8 UMF Salad Supper Guest Night - 6 p.m. - WBUMC September 10 UMW Meeting 6 p.m. - SUMC September 12 Pre-Football Game Pulled Pork Dinner - 4:30-6:30 p.m. - WBUMC September 17 West Branch Homecoming Parade & Dinner Grab @ WBUMC - September 20 District UMW Meeting September 22 BINGO @ Crestview 2:30 p.m. September 28 Blessing of the Animals 5 p.m. - SUMC September 30 Ad Board 7 p.m. October 5 World Communion Sunday October 8 UMW Meeting 6 p.m. - SUMC October 12 UMW Soup Supper - SUMC October 16-19 Walk to Emmaus (Women) October 26 Pack College Cookie Buckets November 2 All Saints Sunday and Charge Conference @ St. Marks November 9 Veteran's Sunday November 12 UMW Meeting 6 p.m. - SUMC November 23 United Methodist Student Day Special Offering November 30 First Sunday of Advent December 13 Bake Sale at Cedar County Lions Expo |
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Adult Sunday School begins September 7 at 9 a.m. Wednesday Night Discipleship begins September 4 @ 5:30 p.m. - WBUMC |
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YOU'RE MISSED: |
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By Laura Buchanan
If you haven’t been to church in a while, that’s okay. We understand. With the changes and challenges we’ve been facing in the past half-dozen years, we all have needed to take time to process and reevaluate. While we understand, we also invite you to reconnect, rekindle your relationships and get involved once more. Chances are things are different than when you were last at church. Pastors have changed appointments, ministries have evolved or shifted their focus, and the community might have grown. Get curious about the new things God is doing and how God might be calling you to take part. All Christians are vital to the faith community. As Paul says in Romans, chapter 12, “In the same way, though there are many of us, we are one body in Christ, and individually we belong to each other.” Community nourishes faith While a strong faith is not dependent upon church attendance, being part of a body of believers is an essential aspect of mission, worship and celebration. Together, we pray, grow, celebrate communion and baptisms, and share joys and heartaches. Church families offer support in times of distress, refuge in times of fear, healing in times of pain and a place to anchor during life’s storms. They’ll also join you in giving thanks when you are celebrating good news or exciting life events. The outpouring of care that comes from your congregation comes directly from God. God moves among us and asks us to use our time and talents to serve each other. Don’t miss an opportunity to be the hands and feet of Christ – and to accept this gift when you are in need. Too much? Start slowly.
You belong here God calls us to lean on each other, to ban together in mission and to grow, both in personal relationships with Christ and as a faith family. These facets of God’s grace and love can only be found through communal worship, prayer and fellowship. Don’t miss out on the many blessings that God has waiting in a United Methodist congregation near you. |
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SEPTEMBER WORSHIP |
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Theme for the Month: Counting the Cost September 7 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Communion Scripture: Jeremiah 18:1-11 Sermon: “Re-working”
September 14 Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Sermon: "Life Changing" September 21 Scripture: 1 Timothy 2:1-7 Sermon: "Giving All"
September 28 Scripture: Luke 16:19-31 Sermon: "The Great Divide"
August 31 Steven Preaching |
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SONG OF THE MONTH |
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WEST BRANCH FOOD PANTRY |
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This year, the COME committee will be collecting non-food items for the West Branch Food Pantry. Collections will continue through the entire month and you can find the collection bin in the foyer of the church. Any items collected will be distributed to the pantry after the 4th Sunday of the month.
September - Baking Items Flour, Sugar, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, etc.
October - Back to School Snacks Goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, juice boxes, granola bars, etc.
November - Simple Meals Manwich, All-in-One Pizza Mix, Hamburger Helper, Canned Spaghetti, All-in-One Mexican Meals, etc.
December - Soups Chili kits (beans, tomato juice, hamburger, ground turkey, etc.), Beef Stew, Canned Soups, etc.
Total donated through July $1,134.47* |
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*Price determined by a Google search of average costs |
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EXPLORING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFTS |
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The 20 gifts below are those listed within the Pauline epistles to Rome, Ephesus, and Corinth (Romans 12, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12–13), and recognized by the first-century church. While all of life is a gift from God, these twenty gifts are lifted up within Scripture as the gifts of the Spirit, given specifically for the upbuilding of the body of Christ. Use our spiritual gifts assessment tool to learn about your gifts. ADMINISTRATION The gift of administration allows a person to organize people and resources for greater efficiency, effectiveness, and success. Read More APOSTLESHIP COMPASSION DISCERNMENT EVANGELISM EXHORTATION FAITH GIVING HEALING HELPING INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES KNOWLEDGE LEADERSHIP MIRACLES PROPHECY SERVANTHOOD SHEPHERDING TEACHING TONGUES WISDOM |
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WEDNESDAY NIGHT DISCIPLESHIP |
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Beginning September 4, WND will meet every Wednesday during the school year. The schedule has changed a bit this year as they are adding in a Family Worship time! Classes are held for PK-12th Grade- please encourage your children and grandchildren to participate. |
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5:30 p.m. - PK-6th grade classes meet in classrooms 6:10 p.m. - Family Worship 6:30 p.m. - Family Supper in Fellowship Hall No WND on September 17 for Homecoming Contact Katie or Paula to ride on the WBUMC/SUMC Float! Go Bears! |
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SUMC is looking for volunteers to help prepare, serve, and clean up for the Family Supper the Third Wednesday of every month. We also need volunteers to provide baked goods (6 dozen). Please contact Rebecca or Paula for more information and to sign up. |
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INGATHERING |
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STUDENT KIT SHOPPING LIST 3 Notebooks - 1 Subject spiral 8" x 10 1/2" 1 Ruler - 12" long with metric 6 Pencils - unsharpened 1 Pencil Sharpener 1 Pencil Eraser - 2" or larger 1 Box of 12 Colored Pencils 1 Box of 24 Crayons 1 Pair of Student Scissors 1 Handmade One-Handled Bag (pattern at midwestmission.org/patterns) |
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CONFERENCE, DISTRICT AND CIRCUIT NEWS |
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SE District Monthly Prayer List 7 - Iowa City, St. Mark's 14 - Kalona, Sharon Center 21 - North Liberty, First 28 - Solon and Springdale |
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PRAY AND GROW ALONGSIDE THE WESLEYS |
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By Laura Buchanan
“Prayer for the Wesleys is really the bedrock of the Christian life,” says Paul Chilcote, author, pastor, theologian and Wesley scholar.
“One of my mentors, Mark Gibbard, always said, ‘God is just always waiting eagerly to be with us.’ If we approach time with God not out of duty or obligation, but the idea that God just can’t wait for me to show up – he wants to be with me, to help, guide, forgive, reconcile and restore me – it becomes a place you really want to be.” Nearly 25 years ago, Chilcote began a journey to distill the essence of John Wesley’s sermons into accessible prayers. He brings the original 18th-century English into contemporary language so that readers can better engage with Wesley’s teaching and encouragement.
“Most of his sermons, Wesley never preached. They’re really sermonic essays and were meant to be read,” he explains. With the help of Chilcote’s books, Praying in the Wesleyan Spirit and Transformed by Grace, readers can pray alongside both John and Charles Wesley. Prayer is central to everything “I think if you were to ask John or Charles, 'Why is [prayer] so central?’, they would say that the essence of the Christian life is abiding in Christ,” says Chilcote. “And that abiding has a sense of intimacy connected with it. It has a sense of rest, as well as of resting in God and being in a direct relationship with God through the power of the Spirit in our lives. “So, prayer becomes for them the heartbeat of their faith. Everything they do is saturated with prayer.” The Wesleys learned prayer practices from their parents, Samuel and Susannah, who would gather their ten children for family prayer each morning and evening, using the Book of Common Prayer. “Maybe all of life is bookended in that way with prayer, but the middle is also surrounded and encouraged by prayer. I love the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the so-called breath prayer, where you pray with your breathing. I think this is how prayer was for the Wesleys, it was like their breath, and it was all related to intimate relationship with God,” shares Chilcote. Hymns invite a different connection While John Wesley’s sermons are vital to our denomination’s heritage, Chilcote didn’t want readers to forget about the important contributions of Charles Wesley, who wrote 9,000 hymns and poems. A related hymn accompanies each sermon in both devotional books. “Prayers provide a particular kind of medium to be in dialogue with God. Hymns, on the other hand, engage a different part of our brain. They’re more emotive, they’re poetic. They provide an opportunity to be with God, to walk with God in a way that’s different from reading or praying a prayer. “I think song is at the very heart of life. There’s a poetry to it that excites, challenges and inspires a part of us that the other doesn’t, and I wanted to provide something for different kinds of learners,” explains Chilcote. A growing focus on love Chilcote has been able to observe John Wesley’s spiritual growth through his research. He says, “The more I worked with this material, the more I discovered it seemed to be oriented increasingly toward love and happiness.” A Ph.D. student that Chilcote supervised at Cambridge University found that the five Wesley sermons in which happiness is most dominant come from Wesley’s later years. Chilcote observes, “The older John Wesley becomes, the longer he’s been engaged in his pilgrimage of faith with Christ, the more important love and happiness – meaning blessedness – becomes for him. “And if you’re going to summarize Charles Wesley’s huge body of poetic material, the central theme there from beginning to end is ‘love divine, all loves excelling.’ “I think [the centrality of love in Methodism] is increasingly unique. What if we made the decision to become known as the most loving community? So that if people who are struggling, and just need to be loved, knew the place to go is The United Methodist Church? “Part of my creating these kinds of resources is the hope that they might shift our trajectory in that kind of direction. That by praying, and by figuratively singing our story as Christians, love gets more and more deeply embedded in our lives.” The lifelong journey of faith While selecting sermons and hymns for the books, Chilcote saw confirmations of insights he’d made over the years. “Wesleyan theology is very broad, it’s drawn from multiple sources,” he shares. “There is nothing new, in a sense, in Wesley. It’s all old, solid spirituality and theology, but it’s the way he combines things and holds it together that makes Wesleyan theology unique. “The Wesleyan way is a both/and way, not an either/or way. Their theology, their spirituality, is holistic, it’s not segmented. Always holding things together and building bridges was a central theme.” Many Christians today see salvation as a point in time, a decision that was made, but that is not what the Wesleys believed. Chilcote explains, “For the Wesleys, the [Christian faith] is an adventurous journey. That’s what the Christian life is all about. And the destination is the fullest possible love of God.” |
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MINISTRY REPORTS |
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Springdale UMC Leadership Board meeting—8/26/2025
Full Leadership Board: 7 p.m. Attendance: Steven, Jessica G, Manda, Julie, Joe, Lynda, Paula
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