Third Quarter Celebration Newsletter by Natalia Fomin

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” —Acts 1:8 (NIV)

July/Aug/Sept/Oct 2015 OUR VISION: To become a disciple making church

OUR MISSION: To make disciples by Loving God, Growing in Christ, and Reaching Out to Others University City United Methodist Church

OUR CORE VALUES:

3835 W WT Harris Blvd. Charlotte, NC 28269 phone: 704-369-8000 fax: 704-369-0481 www.ucumc.org facebook.com/ucumc1 Twitter: @UC_UMC Instagram: @UC_UMC Worship Times: 9:45am - Traditional 11:00am - Contemporary Office Hours: Monday - Thursday 9:00am - 5:00pm Friday 9:00am - 12:30pm

Table of Contents To explore the Celebration Newsletter, click on any of the categories below to go to that page. On each page of the newsletter there is a link on the bottom that says “Back to top”; click that link to return to this page.

Time Together 1 Worshiping Together 2 Serving Together 3 Fall Kickoffs 4 2015 Highlights 4 REACH 2015 6 For Your Calendar 8

Watch UCUMC Publications for the next Celebration Newsletter publication date. Do you have information you would like to include in the next Celebration Newsletter? We’d love to hear from you! Please contact the head of the ministry area that corresponds with the information you would like to share

Time Together Celebration Sunday - Sept 13th On Sunday, September 13, 756 people gathered for a combined Celebration Sunday Worship Service. We received new members, enjoyed video celebration of summer mission trips and ministry, shared Holy Communion, and were blessed by the singing of guest soloist, Becky CookCarter, Director of Opera at CPCC (pictured above).

Chick-Fil-A Davis Lake Fall Festival, October 29th (Trunk or Treat) – UCUMC’s Children’s ministries participated alongside fifteen other vendors in a Fall Festival and Trunk or Treat (sponsored by Chick-Fil-A Davis Lake). We had multiple games for the kids to play, prizes and candy to give away and information about our church service times, small group opportunities and children’s programming. The UC Kids CREW came out, were a friendly face, speaking to hundreds of area folks and inviting them to church.

UCUMC Movie Event - Our first UCUMC Movie event held on August 29th sold out quickly! We filled the theater for the showing of the prayer-focused “War Room” movie. Afterwards a group dinner was held at Los Arcos for a time of discussion and fellowship. We followed up the movie with the “War Room” study which was offered in a short term group, a Women’s group and a Sunday school class. Another movie event will be coming up in 2016. Don’t miss it!

VBS – July 20-24 was Summer Vacation Bible School: Hometown Nazareth “Where Jesus was a Kid”. We had 211 children, 70 teachers/volunteers, & 25 youth volunteers. 73 children made either a first time commitment or recommitted their lives to Christ! It was an exciting week of fun, games, crafts and learning about Hometown Nazareth, where Jesus was a kid! During the week our kids collected $952.68 to buy sustainable food animals through Samaritan’s Purse, hundreds of stuffed animals (to send to Honduras), and hundreds of pounds of canned food (for UCUMC’s Backpack Ministry). A HUGE thank you, again, to all of our volunteers and families that participated. Events like this take an army rallying together but the payoff is eternal, planting seeds in the lives of our children. Weekday School Family Night - WDS held Family night on October 22nd. Approximately 250 WDS children and families attended. Families visited classrooms, we held our art auction and the WDS kids sang. It was a night of food, fun and fellowship!

FUSION Fall Retreat - November 13th-15th marked our annual Fall Retreat, Tsunami. 106 of our youth and adult leaders packed onto buses and headed to Ridgecrest Conference Center for a weekend of worship, fellowship, and deepening their relationship with God and with each other, along with 1200 other youth and adults from many other churches. This year’s theme was “Carpe Diem” (Seize the Day) and we learned about seizing the opportunities God has for each of us!

Celebrating our UCUMC Seniors! The Good Times Group meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month (Aug - May) at 10:30am in the Hospitality Suite. What to expect at a gathering: This vibrant 50+ group offer a time of care, prayer, fellowship, speakers, celebrations, games and good food! Questions? Call Patti Welch at 704-660-9544 or e-mail patti.b.welch@gmail.com. The next gathering will be on December 9th – a wonderful way to get into the Christmas Spirit. Come, bring your appetite, a side dish or desert to share, sit back, relax and have fun!!

Worshiping Together July-October were months that featured many times of Uplifting, Passionate Worship at UCUMC! We had Themed Sundays at the 9:45 Worship during July:

Sermon Series

July 5 was Red-White & Blue Sunday, which featured Patriotic music.

On the Sundays of June 28 July 19, Pastors Ron and Chad presented messages in their sermon series Rescued. During this series we were reminded that sin separates us from God, and learned of God’s plan of Salvation to rescue us from sin.

July 12 was Bluegrass Sunday, with music presented by the QuarterHouse Bluegrass Band. July 19 was Southern Gospel Sunday, where the King’s Herald Quartet presented special music. July 26 was T-Shirt Sunday, and our VBS Children shared musical selections from their week with us.

Chad began the month of August with a twopart mini series, Misfits and Dreamers, where he taught us that followers of Christ are often called misfits and dreamers by the world, but are used by God to do great things for His kingdom.

On Sunday, October 4 we celebrated World Communion Sunday. We used Pita Bread in remembrance of the persecuted Christians in Syria and elsewhere in the middle east.

On Sundays, August 16 - September 6 we experienced the sermon series Hooked, where our pastors warned us of the dangers of being controlled by our own desires instead of being controlled by the gospel. We were encouraged to become hooked on Jesus rather than the things of this world.

Patriotic Musical 2015 On Friday, September 11, the Celebration Choir, CrossTraining Children’s Choir, Exaltation Ringers, Psalm 150 Orchestra, and Scottish-American Military Society with bagpiper Dave McKenzie presented God Bless The USA: A Musical Experience. We honored our active and veteran Military, Police, Fire, and EMS personnel and their families at this event. We were able to share $1000 with the Wounded Warrior Project to be used toward helping returning soldiers who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

On Sundays September 13 - Oct 4, Pastors Ron and Chad presented a sermon series 5 Dysfunctions of the Family, which outlined five different pitfalls that produce an unhealthy family and church family environment.

Serving Together FUSION Youth served in lots of places over the summer: Mexico Mission Trip – July 10-16

Summer Serve – July 19-23

Ten youth and 2 adults traveled to Mazatlan, Mexico, in partnership with Back2Back Ministries, to serve several children’s homes through construction projects, interactions with the children and more!

Over 30 middle school students participated in a week of service called Summer Serve. We partnered with organizations like Love, INC., Urban Ministry Center, Camino del Rey Community Center, Aldersgate Retirement Community, Crisis Assistance and more to serve the Charlotte community.

Vacation Bible School Over 30 high school students served at VBS as assistants in classrooms, music, crafts, art, serving snacks and more!

Western North Carolina Preschool Conference - The Weekday School hosted the Western North Carolina Conference Weekday workshop November 5th & 6th. The Reverend Dawn Hand and Mr. Al Rasso were the keynote speakers. Approximately 650 preschool directors and teachers from across North Carolina attended the conference. A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers that helped out each day!

Boy Scout Troop 13 puts greenway litter in its place (by RHaag | Nov 3, 2015 | www.universitycitypartners.org) Fifteen Scouts and adults from Troop 13 spent several hours recently in University Research Park, sloshing through Mallard Creek and digging through underbrush in search of trash. The Scout Troop, sponsored by University City United Methodist Church, filled a dozen trash bags and also hauled out four tires and an old orange construction barrel. “We wore our uniforms that day, and we had quite a few people thanking us for what we did,” said David McKenzie, chair of the Troop 13 Committee. Parent volunteer Kami Keeley, among several women leaders in Troop 13, led the greenway “treasure” hunt as part of her own Boy Scout leadership training. Before the Scouts began the creek cleanup, Scout Ethan Ivey gave an overview of the Seven Principles of Leave No Trace, particularly No. 3: Dispose of waste properly. Click Here to read the rest of the article and learn more about Troop 13 at UCUMC.

Fall Kickoffs 2015 Highlights - It has been an amazing year at UCUMC! The Lord has truly blessed us in many ways. Thanks to all of you who have faithfully contributed with your prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. 2015 highlights include but are not limited to: • Eliminated almost one-half of the churches debt. • Increased the morning enrollment at the Week Day School by 30%. • Launched extended day care at the Week Day School and filled 50% of capacity. • Funded support staff to the growing children and youth ministries. • Upgraded the fire and security systems campus wide. • Installed the new electronic road sign. • Upgraded the Week Day School playground. • Patched and sealed the parking lot. • Paid full apportionments for the first time in 15 years. • Began funding the UCUMC Endowment. • Held a very successful first Missions Faith Promise week - REACH 2015. • Increased Children’s Summer Camp participation by 16% with 50 first time commitments for Christ. • Have a plan to be debt free by 2022. • On path to our largest membership growth year in the last 7 years. We are very well positioned to build on this foundation and impact the Kingdom and our community with life changing transformational ministry for many years to come. Praise the Lord!

Promotion Sunday & Backpack Blessing - August 23rd. This was an exciting Sunday where 70 of our children brought their backpacks to be blessed by the church. They had the opportunity to come to the altar along with teachers and other school staff, where they were prayed over by our pastors. Then the fun began! Students were “promoted” to their new classes, received Backto-School Survival Kits and had fun meeting their new teachers and doing icebreakers with their classmates.

Church-wide Fall Picnic at YMCA From babies to senior adults—everyone enjoyed the church picnic at the YMCA on September 13th. 250 UCUMC members participated in the activities which included swimming, inflatables, playground, football, games, food and fun. We loved having all generations together in fellowship.

Orange Room Updates – The Disciple Center Gathering Room, 602/603 (aka “The Orange Room”) has undergone an overhaul. Neatly tucked away in the back cabinet is a complete AV System with the capability to run all of our programming through a laptop using the same software that our tech team uses in the sanctuary! This helps us to make our time with the kids seamless which is priceless in keeping their attention. Also, as one child told me “it sounds awesome in here!” Come by and check it out!

Fall Kickoffs (cont.) Fall Small Groups FUSION Youth Fall Kick-off

Our fall short-term groups kicked off in September with groups studying “Love Dare for Parents”, “12 Women of the Bible”, the “War Room” Bible study and our first online group studying Philippians. Our Sunday school classes, men’s, women’s and mom’s groups continue to meet for study, fellowship, prayer and service. Look for information in December on all of our small group opportunities for the new year.

In August we held two adult leader training sessions for our 33+ youth leaders and Sunday school teachers. We spent time looking forward and planning for the school year.

Our theme for the year is “Unique” and our theme verse is Romans 12:2-5, which says, “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.”

So far this year, we have learned about how we have been uniquely made in God’s image, how we have been given a unique call to serve others, and how we are called to stand out and look different from the world around us. We have focused on Jesus’ call on us to be the light of the world and to share that with others. We are working on welcoming guests and sharing our faith with others.

W.O.R.K.ZONE Undergoes updates! W.O.R.K.ZONE 9:45 – We introduced brand new curriculum for all of our grades with the exception of our 3’s/4’s who loved the Li’l K curriculum. • K-3rd classes are using Deep Blue Kids – diving deep into our faith, which uses sequenced bible stories, videos, arts/crafts, movement activities, worship, music, games, small group discussion, and more to give a learning experience that has something for every child’s learning style. • 4th/5th classes are using Grapple – which is built around helping preteens to “grapple” with their faith. It’s about helping them to ask the hard questions and get answers to them, instead of shying away from them and in turn away from the church. Sample questions include: ºº How Do I Know if the Bible Is True? – The Bible is Alive and Powerful ºº Why Do My Parents Always Say No? – God’s Direction to Parent: Boundaries = Love ºº Is God a Party Pooper? – God Encourages Celebration (Fun!) ºº Is It Okay if I Don’t Get Caught? – Integrity: Who I Am When No One’s Looking W.O.R.K.ZONE 11 has gone full time and is growing! We are using a “children’s church” model where the children stay in service and worship with their families until after the offering and then are dismissed to the Orange Room for a lesson and game/craft of their very own. We have been doing a series based on character strengths and have covered “respect”, “knowledge”, “gratitude” and are now working on “cooperation”. Thank you to the 14 people who have stepped up and volunteered! We could not have made this happen without you!

REACH 2015 - Around the Corner | Around the World University City UMC’s first ever REACH event was a great success! We had 30 missionaries join us for 5 days of fellowship, food, conversation and sharing. These missionaries came from Around the Corner and Around the World. Many of our missionary guests came from the Charlotte area – serving in ministry to the hungry, the homeless and the hopeless among us. Additionally, several of our missionary guests came quite a distance to be with us: Kentucky, Indiana, Nicaragua, Mexico and even Russia. These folks are sharing God’s love and Word with people in other parts of the world every day. On Sunday, October 18th we had a special speaker for worship: Wes Griffin, with the International Leadership Institute. He challenged us to examine our financial gifts and our gifts of time and service to mission, and to find new ways to REACH Around the Corner and Around the World. The response from our church was amazing! Over 180 people responded with a Life Commitment of over 30,000 hours in 30 areas of serve. In addition, we received 190 Faith Promises totaling $311,600. These hours and dollars will be used to share God’s love with our neighbors Around the Corner AND Around the World. The Missions Committee will use the Faith Promise funds to support many of the missionaries and missionary agencies so they can continue their great work. Funds will also be used to support many of the great mission projects UCUMC does: Room in the Inn, English as a Second Language (ESL), Backpack Ministry, short-term mission trips and other new missions that our UC folks may be called to. We are sending the various missionaries and agencies a list of folks who expressed an interest in serving alongside them. They will be reaching out to the folks on their lists to find ways to help engage them in their ministry. We look forward to sharing many stories of celebration with you over the upcoming year. As you serve or perhaps begin a new mission, please keep your Missions Committee informed so we can share these successes with our church family and we can celebrate them together. Click Here to fill out the Missions Survey and share your story with the Missions Committee. 2015 Missions Committee Kip & Andrea Reed – co-chairs | Ray McKinnon – staff liaison Cindy Leap | Linda Serrett | Matt Summers | Sally Ropp | Kevin Gedney – adjunct member

REACH 2015 (cont.) FUSION On Saturday, October 17th the youth held a free soccer clinic for children in the community, as our part of the REACH event. We invited neighbors from 4 locals schools to join us and the Urban Eagles for a soccer clinic to learn soccer skills and how we can use sports in ministry. Over 65 neighborhood kids attended the clinic that was partially led by our own UCUMC youth. It was a great opportunity to reach out to our neighbors! As a continuation of the REACH event, October 18th was “Service Night” at FUSION. Each youth small group took on a project that served or partnered with ministries connected to the REACH event, along with other organizations in the Charlotte area. They made sandwiches for the homeless served by Urban Ministry Center, put together health kits for UMCOR, packed stoplight packages for the homeless, wrote letters to soldiers, made cards for local nursing home caregivers, made blankets for homeless children served by A Child’s Place and baked muffins for David Cox Elementary School teachers.

Children’s Ministry The Children’s Ministry supported the church wide REACH 2015 Event by hosting two children’s programs. Wednesday night, Jonathan Dulin, missionary to Russia, came and gave a presentation to the children (they loved the part about lambs head stew!) and then lead the children in making friendship/prayer bracelets. The kids made two bracelets each, one to keep and one to send with Jonathan. The one they kept they were to use to remember to pray for their friends in Russia and the other went to a child in Russia. Friday night there were two presenters. First, Ms. Suzy gave a presentation on her mission trip to Kenya and then Johnathan Edwards made a presentation on Operation Christmas Child and their mission to serve children around the word. The children’s mission project for the night was to fill nine Operation Christmas Child boxes for children around the world.

For Your Calendar Nov 16-23 - Operation Christmas Child Relay Center Nov 19 - Prayer Shawl Ministry, 10am Nov 22 - Operation Christmas Child Shoebox dedication Nov 22 - Help decorate the church for Advent, 3:30-5:30pm. Contact Matt Guild to sign up - mguild@ucumc.org. Nov 22 - BINGO Bake Sale, 5pm Nov 25 - No Wonderful Wednesday Meal Nov 26-27 - Church Office Closed (Thanksgiving) Nov 29 - Advent begins Dec 3 - Prayer Shawl Ministry, 10am Dec 4 - UCUMC Christmas “Worship Musical,” 7pm - Join us for this FREE Concert to begin the Christmas Season with Worship. Childcare available by reservation; call (704) 369-8027 or email ljones@ucumc.org Dec 6 - Feed My Sheep Sunday - please bring non-perishable food items to be donated to Loaves and Fishes pantry that help local Charlotte families in need. Dec 9 - Good Time Club (UCUMC Senior Adults), 10:30am in the Hospitality Suite Dec 9 - Last Wonderful Wednesday meal for this year. See you in the Spring! Dec 10 - Prayer Shawl Ministry, 10am Dec 12 - FUSION Christmas Store Dec 13 - Last Day to bring Angel Tree gifts. Please pick an angel from the tree located near the Connecting Center and sign your name on the list next to the child’s name. Choose gifts from the child’s needs/wish list and bring the wrapped gifts back to UCUMC by Sunday, Dec. 13th. Dec 16 - Children’s Christmas Concert, 6:30pm in the Sanctuary Dec 20 - Children’s Nativity - combined worship at 10:30am. We will have our annual Children’s Nativity to conclude our morning worship service. Click Here for more information on how you can participate Dec 20 - Christmas PRE-EVE - 6:30pm | This is a perfect experience if you are traveling on Christmas Eve! Dec 24 - Family Christmas Eve Service - 4pm | Something for all ages as our Children’s Ministry engages us all with the story of Jesus’ birth. Traditional Christmas Eve Service - 6pm | Join our full symphony, choir, and bells as we remember the real gift of Jesus at Christmas time. Dec 25 & 28 - Church Office Closed (Christmas) Jan 1 - Church Office Closed (New Year’s Day)