First Connections Spring 2024

SPRING 2024

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IN THIS ISSUE page

By Forrest White

New Beginnings

That’ll Preach

Awakening Our Souls With his family on the road from Tampa to the South Carolina coast for summer vacation, teenage Charley Reeb found himself in the way, way back of the station wagon, munching on Twizzlers and listening to cassette tapes on his Walkman.

A Writer at Heart

There’s no doubt about which tapes were playing. Def Leppard. Dokken. Motley Crue. Famous Preachers.

Our Ministry Partner VISTE

Famous Preachers? Unlike the other three, that’s not a heavy metal or rock band.

Reeb began immersing himself in the art of preaching before he was old enough to drive the family station wagon alone. “At 15, I was reading books on homiletics, books on the art of preaching, books of sermons of master preachers,” he said.

“I would listen to tapes of sermons over and over again. I was all about the craft of it and the call to it.”

Bringing People Together Over Food

Looking back, Reeb sees God planting the seeds of his call to preaching in elementary school, when he listened intently to the Rev. Dr. Bill Self’s sermons CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

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First Things First

A publication of First United Methodist Church 72 Lakeland Morton Drive Lakeland, FL 33803 Church office 863-686-3163 firstumc.org

Rev. Charley Reeb Senior Pastor

New Beginnings Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? -Isaiah 43:19 We celebrate a new year of ministry at First UMC, thanking God who is able to make all things new. Our belief that God can make all things new is really a call to action. It is an invitation to be co-creators with God, agents of God’s love, healing and transformation bringing hope to this world. The light we shine shows the world that no matter how dark or hopeless circumstances may be, God has the power to make all things new.

Speaking of new, you can see that our First Connections magazine has a new look.

PASTORS Charley Reeb SENIOR PASTOR

Andy Whitaker-Smith ASSOCIATE PASTOR

Nicki Taylor ASSOCIATE PASTOR

Another new thing is that Forrest White, our Director of Mission Ministries, will now be providing the content for the magazine.

If you’ve read his stuff, you know what a blessing this is for our church! In addition to being a valuable asset to the mission ministries of our church, Forrest has over 10 years of experience as a journalist. He has a special gift of capturing a story and he will be providing many compelling stories of ministry for us to enjoy.

I hope you will take time to enjoy this latest issue of First Connections and share this publication with a friend.

With Great Expectations,

Charley

HAVE AN IDEA FOR A STORY? Contact Forrest White at fwhite@firstumc.org

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PHOTO BY FORREST WHITE

From the Editor

Forrest White Director of Mission Ministries

A Writer at Heart Back in the fall of 1997, I was passed over for a promotion at the Charleston Post and Courier, the newspaper where I’d worked for nearly eight years. I thought I’d earned the promotion.

The boss men and women in the newsroom disagreed.

They hired someone from another paper.

All these years later I vividly remember dropping both envelopes into one of those big mailboxes outside the post office and praying, “God, it’s in your hands. ” Where else would it be?

The Times wrote back and said they liked my work but they were promoting from within. Of course, I respected that decision.

Trinity called to set up a phone interview. From there, I traveled to Richmond for a weekend of interviews and meetings and eventually took a huge pay cut to accept the job. It meant giving up my dream of being a newspaper columnist.

I began working with the Trinity youth on April 14, 1998.

Sometimes in the months following the career change people asked me why I left the newspaper business.

Almost immediately I began searching for another job.

“I had been writing other people’s stories for years,” I applied for two – a columnist job in the Clearwater I would say. “I want to write my own now.” bureau of my favorite newspaper ever, The St. Petersburg In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Times (now The Tampa Bay Times) and Years, Donald Miller writes, “The truth is if the director of youth ministry position “I had been writing what we choose to do with our lives won’t at Trinity UMC in Richmond, Va. make a story meaningful, it won’t make a other people’s I had wanted to be a newspaper life meaningful either.” stories for years. columnist for years. As a child growing There have been times when I have up in Western North Carolina, I would I want to write my wondered how well I’ve lived my story. get up early on summer days to walk own now.”

Mostly, I am happy with it, though there across the street to my grandparents’ are some chapters I would edit if given a house and get their Charlotte Observer chance to live it again. out of the box. I’d sit down outside and read the sports pages and the comics.

I’ve met some amazing characters along the way, and I’m thankful to have been given the chance to play a As for youth ministry I had run from that calling for role, however minor, in the unfolding life stories of so years, though I served a 1,500-member church in many others.

Charleston as a volunteer youth leader for almost the entirety of my time at the newspaper. With a fairly Now here at First UMC, in addition to my role in missions, flexible schedule as a reporter, I did everything a paid I’ve taken on the role of writing content for the church youth worker would do and loved it. magazine. So, once again, I find myself telling the stories of others.

Disillusioned by my personal (job) Passover, I addressed two large envelopes, one filled with newspaper clippings I’m grateful for this chance to serve First UMC in another of my work as a reporter and one filled with my history way. I know its people. I know there are so many as a volunteer youth worker, which included a fact no meaningful stories to share. one at First UMC knows about me … I could slurp massive amounts of Jell-O in mere seconds.

All the best,

Forrest

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Awakening Our Souls CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

at Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Atlanta.

When his family moved to Tampa, they found their way to Lake Magdalene United Methodist Church where the Rev. Brad Dinsmore served as senior pastor.

Reeb sent tapes of his sermons to Self for feedback shortly before arriving at First UMC, where he served in the associate role from 1999-2003.

“He said, ‘Listen, the content is good, but Charley I know your heart, how passionate and “I couldn’t wait to get to church and convicted you are. People come Charley and his twin Nancy listen to him,” Reeb said. “While the to church to hear the convictions rest of the youth were bored or of the preacher. You seem to be passing notes or not going to church I would be holding back your passion. Throw your head back and on the front row. I couldn’t wait to hear him. I was let it go.’” He took the advice to heart. mesmerized by his preaching, not only his skill, but “The secret sauce to great preaching is conviction,” the message of his sermon.”

Reeb said. “A convicted preacher is a compelling Dinsmore noticed. “One day after church when we preacher. You can’t fake that. I think that’s always were going through the receiving line, he shook my been at the core of my effectiveness. It’s real and hand, looked me right in the eyes and said, ‘I want to people sense that.” know what you want to do with the rest of your life,’” Count First UMC member Muriel Kuhn among those Reeb said. who find Reeb’s sermons compelling. She speaks of Over lunch soon thereafter, they talked a bit about how he raises “real life, difficult issues” for daily living, ordained ministry in general, but mostly about of how he chooses just the right verses of scripture, preaching. “His passion was preaching,” Reeb said. of how he offers a “step by step plan” for action and “Through his sermons I felt called to preach.” change. She likes how he mixes in humor without diminishing the “significance of the issue.”

Now 35 years later, at age 50, he’s the Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb, First UMC’s senior pastor since July 2023, author of six books on preaching, and as passionate as ever about the impact a 20-minute sermon can have on congregation members, old and young.

The Rev. Riley Short handpicked Reeb out of Candler School of Theology in 1999 to be an associate at First UMC. Word had gotten back to Lakeland about this red-headed seminary student who earned a religion degree at Florida Southern College. Short took a flight to Atlanta to meet with him and his girlfriend (now wife) Brandy.

On the way back to Lakeland, he prayed for God’s guidance and felt strongly that he should request Reeb’s appointment to First UMC, without ever having heard the young man preach. That would come a few months later. “It was obvious Charley was a gifted preacher from the very beginning,” Short said. “I knew he was destined to be a pastor of a large church because people are hungry for preaching.”

Rev. Riley Short and Paul Reeb 4

Charley Reeb

“I look forward to his sermons every week,” Kuhn said.

“Pastor Charley awakens our souls!”

come across to the listener, how they are going to receive it.

“One of the reasons why preachers are ineffective is they have the curse of knowledge. They’re preaching sermons they want to hear or only from the perspective of how they’re going to receive it. As a preacher you have to kind of unlearn all you’ve learned and think about the average person in the pew and how it’s going to make sense to them where they live. I’m constantly “A convicted thinking about that as I’m preparing preacher is my sermon.”

Short believes Reeb’s sermons flow naturally from his theology. “Charley’s theology is simple – Jesus is the help and the hope of the world,” he said. “It comes through in his preaching.”

After preaching three sermons on Sunday, Reeb takes Monday as his Sabbath. On Tuesday, he’ll focus on the scripture text for the coming Sunday, with the goal of crafting a clear, compelling sentence which will be at the core of the message.

a compelling preacher. You can’t fake that.”

“I teach other preachers this … ‘A mist in the pulpit is a fog in the pew,’” Reeb said.

He did his doctoral dissertation on sermon form and structure, “how you form a message, rhetorically and persuasively,” he said. Reeb primarily uses a hybrid preaching method he calls AGAPE, which combines aspects of all the approaches – deductive, three point, inductive, expository, etc.

On Wednesday, he will think about and pray the core message for the coming Sunday, then spend Thursday morning putting the sermon on paper. “My perspective as a preacher is to always think about the listener which is a step most preachers don’t take,” Reeb said.

“I’m always thinking about how the sermon is going to

Within each sermon, he will share some of his life’s struggles. “Without empathy your message has no credibility,” Reeb said. “The people have to first sense you’ve struggled, too, which I have.

That’s key to getting them on board.”

Like any great story, sermons need to build tension.

“The relief of the tension is the point of the sermon,” Reeb said. “Build the tension. Explain the text. Reveal the answer. That relieves the tension. After you proclaim the message, why it’s important, you give the listener a handle on how to apply it. Then you end with a powerful illustration and close the curtain soon after.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

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Charley Reeb CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

At some point on Friday, he will go back over the sermon and make any revisions. “I’m a big believer that a sermon is twice born, once in the study, once in the pulpit,” Reeb said. “Just because a sermon is prepared doesn’t mean it’s ready to preach.” On Saturday, he memorizes the script, which isn’t as difficult for him as you might think for two reasons. First, it’s an oral manuscript. “I’m speaking it out as I’m writing it. Writing for the ear is different from writing for the eye. That makes it easier to memorize.” The second advantage, like his calling, is rooted in his childhood.

Reeb’s mother Jane was an actress in California. She was offered a movie contract when she was 16. Later, she taught public speaking and drama.

Reeb rarely glances at his notes while preaching. “I allow for rabbit holes. I’ll constantly say things I didn’t plan to say,” he said. “But discipline in the study means freedom in the pulpit. You know the path but you can go off when you feel led, but you know how to get back on the path.

If you lose eye contact with people, if you just stare at your notes, you’ll lose them.”

As Kuhn noted, he won’t hesitate to break script to interject a little humor into his sermons. It’s not something he writes in advance to memorize. It’s spur of the moment, improvisation. “That’s when humor is the best,” he said.

If he gets a good reaction from an ad lib at an early worship service, he’ll make note of it to include in a later one.

“I try to balance challenging sermons with affirming sermons,” Reeb said. “Dessert sermons as Brandy calls them. Churches need a balanced diet. In a given year for example if I’ve preached a hard series on the tough sayings of Jesus I need to preach a series on the love of God.” After preaching three times on Sunday morning, Reeb finds himself dead tired on Sunday afternoon.

“Riley would often say, ‘If you’re not tired on Sunday afternoon you didn’t do it right,’” he said. “When you take it as seriously as I do it’s exhausting.”

Looking back across decades to his childhood and teen years, when God used Self to plant the preaching seed in him and Dinsmore to water it, Reeb never doubted his calling or the awesome responsibility that comes with it each Sunday.

Dinsmore died in 1993, Self in 2016.

Charley, Brandy and Paul “She had a real gift for public speaking,” Reeb said.

“From early on, she would coach me and coach me and coach me on memorizing poems, on giving speeches in class. She would make me memorize it. I’d have to rehearse it in front of her. I enjoyed it. When I preached my first sermons she would do the same thing.”

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Reeb believes a part of them lives on through him, every time he rises to preach.

“From the beginning I realized what preaching can do for somebody,” he said. “It can transform their life because it transformed mine.”

Our Ministry Partners

By Forrest White

VISTE and the Power of Us Even now, all these months later, Steve Bissonnette finds himself marveling at the impact of one man’s dedication.

This man had no family. He lived alone in a small apartment.

He was still learning to read into his 80s.

The world at large looks upon such folks as easily replaced.

But Robert Smith was irreplaceable.

For a dozen years until his sudden death in March 2023, Smith showed up every weekday – sometimes before sunrise – to volunteer all morning in the warehouse at Volunteers in Service to the Elderly, known across Western Polk County simply as VISTE.

Steve Bissonnette VISTE President

“Robert was a man who didn’t have much in the way of means,” said Bissonnette, VISTE president since January 2015. “And it has taken us an entire year since he passed and multiple people to try to make up for his loss.”

A framed picture of Smith hangs in the corner of the VISTE warehouse where he faithfully served all those years, often loading heavy boxes of food into cars for delivery, always offering a good word or two and a smile. He is smiling in the picture, his face as bright as the VISTE shirt he’s wearing.

The caption on the picture reads: “You will always be in our hearts.”

“We were his family,” Bissonnette said.

Many assumed Smith was a staff member when he was actually a shining example of a true servant.

“If you want an example of someone who was able to meet some great needs without having the resources to fund them, that was Robert” Bissonnette said.

“It’s hard to imagine CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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Cookin’ it Old School Bill and wife Cristi

Bringing People Together Over Food Bill Moore, Director of Kitchen Ministries

Amid America’s sizzling backyard arms race, as others bring home the latest and greatest high-tech grills and griddles, you’ll find Bill Moore cooking over a worn out $98 charcoal grill from Wal-Mart.

“It’s held together with spit right now,” he said.

“Probably got another six months. Then I’ll toss it and get another one.”

If he’s in the mood for burgers, Moore will drop his “$40 slab of metal” on the grill to form a makeshift griddle.

“Not only does Bill care about the church, he’s just a caring person.”

Mike Stasiak

“Burgers are better on a flat top,” he said. “All the juices stay in and you can crisp ’em up good on the outside.”

Whatever he cooks, whether in the kitchen at First UMC or in his backyard, Moore will be happy to share it with you. Don’t expect him to share many recipes, though.

Sharing isn’t the issue. He’s just not big on recipes.

“That’s why I don’t do much baking,” he said. “It’s too precise. It’s like a science project. I cook a lot by feel.”

Moore began as Director of Kitchen Ministries at First UMC on Aug 1, 2023, handpicked by Mike Stasiak who spent 19 years in that role.

Bill’s backyard happy place..

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by Forrest White

When he decided to retire, Stasiak was looking for one thing above all else in someone to take over his position.

“I had to find someone committed to the church and Bill was,” he said.

Stasiak first approached Cristi Moore – First UMC’s Director of Children’s Ministries – about her husband taking over the church’s kitchen ministry. “My reaction? Bill would love that,” Cristi said. “That is exactly what he was created for.”

Soon thereafter, with a transition plan in place, Bill Moore was working alongside Stasiak, learning the business side of the kitchen ministry.

“Not only does Bill care about the church, he’s just a caring person,” Stasiak said. “I told him, ‘Even if your meals stink they’re going give you a lot of slack because they like you as a person.’”

Bill Moore

Moore shook his head. “That’s not cooking.”

People often ask how he got to be such a good cook.

“Two reasons,” Moore said. “One is because I’m old. I’ve been doing it a long time. Two, I’ve been around people who know how to cook.”

That’s the secret ingredient. Experiment with your cooking and hang around the kitchen with friends and family to learn from them, Moore said. And try not to be overly critical of what you prepare, something that’s easier said than done for him.

Fired up!

Moore had one requirement when Cristi accepted the job at First UMC in 2016: they had to move from Tampa to Lakeland. “I want to be a part of the community,” he said to her.

During Cristi’s time serving on staff at a church in Tampa, Bill established himself as the go-to cook for monthly men’s group breakfasts, quarterly church dinners feeding 250 or more and even Thanksgiving fundraisers.

It wouldn’t take long for him to be immersed in similar roles at First UMC, giving his time to cook Sunday evening meals for the children’s ministry (and eventually the youth as well) and for church events and fundraisers.

Moore is as old school as it gets when it comes to cooking. He quit entering contests on the BBQ circuit when technology began to encroach upon tradition.

“To me, it was about staying up all night with the stick (wood) burners trying to keep the fire going,” he said.

“I’m never satisfied,” he said. “I’m my worst critic.”

Since he began learning to cook alongside his mom – described by him as a “good Southern cook” – nearly 50 years ago, Moore has embraced cooking for others and with others, not simply to feed them, but for a greater purpose.

“The kitchen is a social area,” he said. “That’s what they’re for.”

Stop by the First UMC kitchen and hang out sometime.

You have an open invitation directly from Moore. He’ll tell you about cooking for huge events like Pigfest and Sun ‘n Fun and all the commercial cooking equipment he has in the backyard. Maybe he’ll even tell you why he opted for cooking over ordering pizza while in college.

When asked about her husband’s greatest gift, Cristi didn’t mention his BBQ pork or his fried fish.

“It’s hospitality,” she said, without hesitation. “Bringing people together over food.”

Who doesn’t love a smashburger?

On a November night several years ago, when it was about 40 degrees and drizzling, Moore manned his Pitts and Spitts smoker, working through the night to get the meat inside just right for the next day’s competition. His neighbor was entered, too.

“The guy across the way had two pellet cookers on the back of his trailer,” Moore said. “He came out at four in the morning, fired up a cigarette and waved at me.

He put in a couple of scoops of pellets, finished the cigarette, waved again and went back to bed. I didn’t see him the rest of the night.”

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Our Ministry Partners CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

someone more recognized by our volunteers or staff. He never spoke in public. He was embarrassed if we recognized his birthday.

He was just the opposite of what this world would say is an influencer. Yet, we’re still trying to fill the void he left.”

In many ways, Smith illustrates to the extreme what drives VISTE, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023.

It is a legion volunteers coming together with a staff of 26 (nine full-time) to form the power of us with funding sources that range from massive corporations to annual fundraisers, from grants to faithful individuals, some who give much and others who give a little.

VISTE accepts no money from the federal government.

“We’ve not been federally funded for lot of reasons, mostly because we don’t have the bandwidth to keep up with all of the red tape and administration,” Bissonnette said. “But also because we wanted to be able to respond to needs as they came and not have constraints on what we could and could not do.”

Simply put, VISTE’s mission is to help seniors stay independent in their own home for as long as it’s safe to do so.

While you’ll find other nonprofits doing components of VISTE’s many services, you aren’t likely to find one doing all of them. It is, as best as anyone can tell, one of a kind anywhere, not simply in Florida.

It began in 1983 as a grassroots effort when about a dozen volunteers stepped up to meet a great need –

Donations to VISTE may be made through our church earmarked VISTE. To serve with VISTE: Contact Bethany Masters (Bethany@viste.org) 10

taking shut-ins to doctor’s appointments, the grocery store, beauty salons, etc. Those earliest volunteers began to ask their riders about other needs.

“Pretty quickly people started to identify lack of food as a major obstacle to staying in their own home,” Bissonnette said.

These days VISTE serves about 4,100 clients age 70 and older, though the number fluctuates as some move to care facilities and some die. That reality takes a toll on volunteers and staff who build relationships with those they serve and often have personal stories of why it’s important to give back to seniors.

VISTE averages about 75 applications per month from individuals who need help or their families.

Half of the staff works in transportation to cover 1,200+ trips a month for around 500 clients.

Additional services include: twice weekly hot meal and monthly supplemental grocery deliveries; weekly reassurance and wellness

VISTE

check phone calls; and Thanksgiving meal and personal care box deliveries.

“What we do is important for the community’s quality of life,” he said.

Outside agencies provide bathing services and light housekeeping, but VISTE makes the connection and covers the cost.

“By engaging young people and families in these acts of service as well as our older volunteers, we’re passing on that culture of giving back to others that is not inherently learned in our society today where everybody seems to be about themselves.

There’s a team of volunteers building ramps (500 over the last 10 years) and another company providing panic buttons for clients who are a fall risk.

“We’re teaching them that no matter what our circumstances there’s something we can do to make a difference in someone else’s life.”

“We’re living a universal experience,” Bissonnette said.

“We’re all getting older. We all have parents. We all have grandparents. We’ve all seen what happens as people get older. In some way every one of us can relate to (the needs VISTE meets) on a personal level.”

It’s one of life’s most important lessons, a lesson Robert Smith lived so faithfully.

45% 45% 45% 45%

$

are considered high-risk. areare considered are considered considered high-risk. high-risk. high-risk.

13,000 Reassurance Calls Made to 4,160 Clients

from from 70-107 70-107 years years of age of age

73 Hours of Respite Care Received by 2 Clients

368/year

*total operating budget divided by # of clients

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Average Average age age 45%31% Male

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What makes a senior high-risk?

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932 Hours of Light Housekeeping Received by 80 Clients

14,106 Transportation Trips for 485 Clients

Morningstar

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DID YOU KNOW?

24/7 Emergency Monitoring Services 24/7 Emergency Provided for 36 Clients 24/7 24/7 Emergency Emergency Monitoring Services Monitoring Monitoring Services Services Provided for 36for Clients Provided Provided for 36 Clients 36 Clients

368/year 368/year 368/year 108,086/year

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What makes a senior high-risk?

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from 70-107 years of age

34,900 Hot Meals Delivered to 34,900 Hot Meals 635 Clients 34,900 34,900 Hot Hot Meals Meals Delivered to to to Delivered Delivered 14,106 Transportation 635 Clients 635 635 Clients Clients Trips for 485 Clients

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2,000 Thanksgiving Meals Delivered

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CLIENT SERVICES CLIENT SERVICES CLIENT CLIENT SERVICES SERVICES CLIENT SERVICES

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49 Ramps & 12 Stairs / Handrails Constructed for 61 Clients

$ $ 108,086/year 108,086/year 79108,086/year years old ‡

453 Hours of Bathing Service 453 Hours offor Provided 453 453 Hours Hours of 12 of Clients Bathing Service 932 Hours of Service Bathing Bathing Service Provided for 12 Clients Light Housekeeping Provided Provided for for 12 Clients 12 Clients Received by 80 Clients

49 Ramps & 12 Stairs / Handrails Constructed 4949 Ramps & 12 Stairs / / / for 61Ramps Clients Ramps 49 & 12 & Stairs 12 Stairs Handrails Constructed 24/7 Emergency Handrails Handrails Constructed Constructed for 61for Clients Monitoring Services for 61 Clients 61 Clients Provided for 36 Clients

2,000 Thanksgiving Meals Delivered 2,000 Thanksgiving 2,000 2,000 Thanksgiving Thanksgiving 800 Personal Care Meals Delivered Meals Meals Delivered Delivered Boxes Delivered

9,773 Boxes of Supplemental Groceries 9,773 Boxes of1,100 Provided to 9,773 9,773 Boxes Boxes of ofHouseholds 34,900 HotGroceries Meals Supplemental Supplemental Supplemental Groceries Groceries Delivered to1,100 Provided to to 1,100 Households Provided to Households Provided 1,100 Households 635 Clients 24/7 Emergency Monitoring Services Provided for 36 Clients

Limited Income: $28,380/year or less

453 Hours of Bathing Service Provided for 12 Clients

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69% Female

Average cost of VISTE’s services per client*: Median cost of nursing home facility in in in Average cost of VISTE’s Median Median cost cost of nursing of nursing home home facility facility Average Average cost cost of VISTE’s of VISTE’s $ $nursing ‡ * facility in Average age of entry into a Median cost ofservices home : ‡: ‡: : *: *: Lakeland area forfor a for semi-private room services per client 108,086/year 368/year Lakeland Lakeland area area a semi-private a semi-private room room services per per client client † : nursing home in the USA Lakeland area for a semi-private room‡: $ $ Median cost of nursing home facility in

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DID YOU KNOW? DID YOU KNOW? Average age of entry into a DID DID YOU YOU KNOW? KNOW?

82

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Average cost of VISTE’s services per client*:

Among VISTE’s 4,160 clients from 70-1074,160 years of age Among VISTE’s clients Among Among VISTE’s VISTE’s 4,160 4,160 clients clients Among VISTE’s 4,160 clients from 70-107 years of age

73 Hours of Respite Care Received by 2 Clients 7373 Hours of of Respite Care 453 Hours ofRespite Hours 73 Hours Respite of Care Care Received byby 2 Service Clients Bathing Received Received 2byClients 2 Clients Provided for 12 Clients 13,000 Reassurance Calls Made to 4,160 Clients 13,000 Reassurance Calls 13,000 13,000 Reassurance Reassurance Calls Calls 49 Ramps & 12 Stairs / Made to to 4,160 Clients Made Made 4,160 to 4,160 Clients Clients Handrails Constructed for 61 Clients

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9,773 Boxes of Supplemental Groceries Provided to 1,100 Households

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PAID

Lakeland, FL Permit No. 30

72 Lakeland Morton Drive Lakeland, FL 33803 Church office 863-686-3163 firstumc.org

WORSHIP SERVICES

Just a few ... OF THE CONTINUING WAYS TO SERVE AT FIRST UMC: Philip O’Brien Elementary - student mentoring and teacher support KidsPACK - first Wednesday of each month Sunday Food Collection- first Sunday of each month ROAR Florida - Tuesday mornings at 10am for games and fellowship VISTE - needs volunteers to help serve the elderly Lake Parker cleanup - quarterly

Just a few ... OF THE UPCOMING EVENTS AT FIRST UMC:

8:15 am SANCTUARY The best of traditional worship is presented with a fresh approach to time-honored hymns with a variety of music.

9:30 FELLOWSHIP CENTER A contemporary, relaxed atmosphere with the worship music of today.

ASL interpreter in person.

11:00 SANCTUARY Traditional hymns with organ accompaniment are featured along with various fine arts music groups.

11:00 FELLOWSHIP CENTER The Current is a unique, contemporary worship experience. Communion is offered each Sunday.

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Please reach out to ministry area leaders for details.

Spring Fling, 10am-1:30pm at Higgenbotham Rocking H Ranch

April 27

Nehemiah Action for Polk County Peace at Resurrection Catholic Church

April 29 , 6:30 pm

Hurricane Ian Recovery Teams Costa Rica Mission trip (registration open)

April, May, Sept., Oct., Nov. Jan. 4-11, 2025

Handbell Ringers & Singers concert Kids Praise Musical

April 21 May 8

Confirmation Service, Sanctuary Youth Sunday Graduation Sunday

April 14, 5 pm April 28 May 19

Camp Neighborhood

June 17

Easterific VBS

March 23, 10-Noon June 10-14, 9-Noon

JOY (55+ ministry) luncheons April 19, May 17, June 21 General Conference, Charlotte, NC April 23-May 3 Annual Conference, Florida Southern College June 6-8

FIRSTUMC.ORG > GET INVOLVED > EVENTS