Tag: Kits for Conference

Upcoming Events for Laurel Hill UMC

by laurelhillumcMissions / Upcoming Event / Weekday School

LaurelHillUMCYou are invited to come join us every week for worship and Sunday School at 1919 New Market Rd in Varina, VA. Our early service starts at 8:45 AM. Sunday School begins at 9:45 AM and our traditional service starts at 11:00 AM.

  • May 17th – Join us for a time of prayer and seeking the Lord in our sanctuary. The service starts at 7:00 PM.
  • campoutMay 25th – We will be having a Pre-Registration Dinner for Vacation Bible School at Four Mile Creek. The dinner will begin at 5:30 AM. Print out and fill out the registration form and bring it with you as we get ready for a fun filled Bible School “Camp Out” weekend, June 23 – 25. We are looking for volunteers to help prepare food on May 25 and o help out with our preschool class. There is also still an opening for the game station.  Please contact Angela Ragland if you are interested in helping with VBS at  ourragland@gmail.com. or 432-4179.
  • May 29th – There will be Memorial Day Program at the Fort Harrison National Cemetery.  This is the third year we have participated in this program planned by the Richmond National Battlefield Park and each year the program has been very meaningful. The speaker at the program will be Al Barnes, who currently is the historian for the Virginia National Guard.  His short talk is intended to be World War One-themed, since this is the centennial year for America’s entry into that conflict. We will be joined by the Honor Guard of the Henrico Division of Fire, as well as the Division of Fire Quartet, who will sing the national anthem.  For anyone who wishes to sing with the choir, we will be practicing at 10:45 am that day, in the sanctuary and travelling together to the cemetery by church bus around 11:30 am.  Guests are welcome to ride the church bus to the cemetery, or meet us there.
  • June 3rd – Celebrate Varina is at Dorey Park from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM. If you would like to serve as a Laurel Hill Church or Weekday School witness that day, contact Margo Keeles or Barbara Wendel (795-2772).
  • June 4th – Is our Graduation Sunday. During our 11:00 AM service, we will recognize our graduates and consecrate them for their future plans. We will also be sharing 1st Sunday Lunch together!
  • June 16th – 18th – The 235th session of the Virginia Annual Conference will meet at  Hampton Roads Convention Center (HRCC) in Hampton VA. We rejoice that we can take 160 Kits to Conference this year!

If anyone needs a copy of our Lay Leadership list, they can pick one up in the office. Thanks.

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Thoughts on Annual Conference

by laurelhillumcUncategorized

2014ACLogo “Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me” – fall afresh on us – was the recurring cry of this Annual Conference. Oh, that it indeed might happen and happen again and again. This is our prayer as we move forward into the remainder of 2014.

For what do I give thanks as I think about this year’s Conference? I think of our Bishop Young Jin Cho. I give thanks for his leadership and his spirit of encouragement and exhortation. I give thanks for our Bible study and worship and the speakers who provoked us to love and good works as they shared. I give thanks the Virginia Annual Conference is #1 in giving support to missions! I give thanks for the testimonials we witnessed of churches growing and being revitalized. I give thanks for the four and a half tons of food that was shared through Cans 4 Conference, for the $145,000 raised towards the Initiatives of Hope, for the exhortation to partner in the fight to Imagine No Malaria, and for the 41,218 Kits they were brought to Annual Conference. Most of all, I give thanks for the brothers and sisters in Christ with which I could see and speak as we gathered together in Hampton.

What concerns me as we move forward in fidelity to Jesus Christ? I am concerned we could move away from the call to prayer and renewal given by our Bishop as we spend time talking about issues of sexuality. I am concerned the big picture of God’s redemption in Jesus could be overshadowed by our snapshot on sexuality. Let me be nostalgic for a moment. I long for the day (like when I was converted) when we call the lost to be saved and sinners to become saints. For those struggling to obey the commands of Christ, I am concerned we will call them to be receptive to the spirit of the age rather than receive the Spirit of Holiness that provides greater inward pressure for wholeness to our soul than any other resolving measure we take for the appropriate use of our passions.

I am concerned about us acting on the basis of stereotype and narrowly focused social concerns that help one while hurting another. I am concerned we push for the enactment of laws to substitute for the grace and the liberty of the Spirit. We approved a resolution for a “living wage” while voting down the opportunity to apply the standard to ourselves first. The maker of the motion insisted we needed to take this action to reflect the Jesus he knew. But, the Jesus I know doesn’t force everyone into the same mold but does call the 2/3 of business owners cited by the maker of the resolution who are in favor of raising the minimum wage to act in good faith on what they believe. We have stereotyped business owners as all rich and self-serving when that is just not the case.

Mostly, I pray for grace and liberty to abound and that each of us and all of us can abide in a place of repentance and alignment with the Truth. I give thanks knowing God will be at work in Jesus Christ through the indwelling Spirit to bring us there!

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