This past All Saints’ Sunday, I shared about one saint in my life — my great-grandmother, Grandma B. She passed one of the most amazing recipes down to me: Heavenly Vegetable Casserole. Peas, limas, and green beans topped with cream, mayonnaise, and parmesan. Bake it until it’s golden brown and bubbling, and the smell fills the whole house with a wonderful aroma.
I’m sure you have recipes passed down to you — dishes that will soon grace your Thanksgiving and holiday tables. When those familiar tastes and smells fill the air, they bring us home again. They remind us of laughter, togetherness, and the quiet holiness that lives in ordinary moments. In that way, food becomes grace, something that nourishes more than our bodies.
Paul writes, “We are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15). Every saint who ever stirred a pot, folded a napkin, or called the family to the table left behind that fragrance of grace, a reminder of love embodied in everyday life.
John Wesley taught that grace is not confined to the church or the altar but is found in the ordinary, what he called the “means of grace.” Yes, we meet God in prayer and communion, but also in the small, daily sacraments of life: a shared meal, a word of kindness, a familiar song, a recipe made from memory. “There is no holiness but social holiness,” Wesley said, reminding us that faith is something we practice together, in fellowship and thanksgiving.
As we enter this season of gratitude and gathering, may we give thanks for the saints whose love still lingers in our kitchens and in our hearts. And may our own tables, this Thanksgiving and beyond, give off that same sweet aroma, the fragrance of grace rising to God.
Andrew Chappell
Camp Glisson is 100 years old! Wow!
We've been planning 3+ years for the year of celebrations - one in April, June, and July - and have had so much fun watching it unfold. The final celebration at camp is Saturday, November 22, with worship services, camp fires, Singing on the Porch (SOP), creek hikes, crafting activities (tie dyed tee shirts anyone?), and so much more! It will be a special time of sharing old memories while making new ones! Register on our website Glisson.org.
The fun started back in March when Glisson was honored for 100 years of ministry with a proclamation at the State Capitol. We were honored with another proclamation at the Dahlonega City Council meeting in April. Glisson was also highlighted at NGUMC Annual Conference in June in Athens on the final day. Russell Davis, our camp director, preached the closing service and we closed out conference with camp songs. It has been a special time to thank God and celebrate.
We have published a coffee table book to commemorate these 100 years. It’s available for presale now on our website and will be released before Christmas. The title of “100 years of Belonging” says it all; if you’ve ever been to camp you know that sense of belonging.
Join us on November 22! Plan for your child to be a camper next summer and start their Glisson journey. There’s nothing like it! If I can ever answer any Glisson questions, feel free to reach out. --Elaine Sharp, elainesharp1@gmail.com
Our children’s Sunday School classes are full of happy faces and joy (looking for more teachers, by the way!), our Wednesday Night Prayer Services and Suppers have been meaningful and vibrant, and our stewardship series was a wonderful celebration of our commitment to supporting what God will be doing through our church in 2026. It is an honor and a privilege to serve alongside you all in God’s service.
Below you will find information on a special opportunity that I wanted to highlight- our Rise Against Hunger meal packing event. On Sunday, November 16th, we will gather in the Parish Hall from 9:45-Noon to pack meals for the hungry. In one Sunday morning together, we will gather to pack meals that will feed thousands of people, answering our biblical call to feed the hungry in our community and the world.
RSVPs are required, use the QR code here:
Connor Bell, Associate Pastor
P.S. This is a great opportunity to invite a friend who hasn’t been to church in a while, or a neighbor who is new to church. We hope to serve alongside some new faces that morning!
Lisa Dempsey
Interim Associate Pastor
ldempsey@NewnanFUMC.org
770.598.5066
Anticipation!
Yes, we have so much to look forward to. And not just a season, but a time of God on the move in our church life! Last week, our Wednesday Women’s Bible Study, reflected on Stephen’s stoning, burial, Phillip preaching, followed closely by an unusual statement: “…and there was great joy in that city” Acts 8:8.
How can there be joy even in the midst of such trauma? The proponents of the gospel were on the run (and spreading the gospel!) from Saul. People were fearful of being arrested, a faithful man killed in a brutal manner. And still…there was joy.
As we struggled with the extremes the community was experiencing, we found some lasting takeaways: first, God turns our difficulties into good! Then, it seemed important to learn to be aware of joy even in hard times. We began to name ways we can readily identify joy: answered prayer, unexpected answer to prayer, young people and families coming to church, seeing children learning about God, sacred music, baptisms, the triple baptism a few Sundays ago, preaching, Connor and Andrew, family, friends and church, helping others, hearing “I Wuv You!”…. What became obvious was that these joy moments often come out of our engagement in the life of our church!
The list is longer, but you get the idea! One precious soul said, “I just get uplifted, anticipating what God will do in our worship each Sunday as I enter the building!” I join her in that! Joy out of an undefinable presence of the Holy Spirit, moving in and through our thoughts and actions and preparing us for a one-on-one with God. In worship, in serving in community, in studies and in outreach, in unlimited sacred times in and out into the world. It often begins at NFUMC, but it doesn’t stop there! Whether it’s, meditative music, choir or bells, prayers or preaching, we can anticipate God’s speaking to our heart and soul. Perhaps take a moment to make a list of the joys you find in life.
Prepare the way of the Lord, dear ones. The road is being made straight for us in this community. Come, bring your friends, neighbors and strangers to this holy place made rich with love, peace, promise and joy. The presence of the Lord is upon us.
I
YOU ARE a Mission Team Member!
Where Will You Serve?
HOW TO VOLUNTEER FOR MISSIONS
Contact Peter Sheren peterandivonne@gmail.com, Lee Berry lee@leeberry.com, OR the Church Office churchoffice@newnanfumc.org
Art Ministry Outreach (AMO) Inaugural Exhibition Opening | November 21 - Our newest and exciting new Art Ministry Outreach, AMO, will have its inaugural exhibition on Friday, November 21st at the Annex Hall from 5-9 pm. Come, bring friends and family and support all the artists that have contributed for this occasion. It will be an evening to remember with music, refreshments, and Christian fellowship. Looking forward to seeing all of you! Thank you to the AMO committee members: Shannon Shepherd, Randy Reese, Linda Johnson, Greg Oothoudt, Connor Porras and Ivonne Torres Sheren. You can reach them at newnanfumc.artministryoutreach@gmail.com.
One Roof Donations | November 9 - Thank you to everyone who generously donated in October! We provided 328 pounds of food, 119 more than last month! We also had a generous donation that allowed us to also provide fresh meat last month. This month our collection will be a week early. Thanksgiving is coming, so let’s show our gratitude by FILLING THE PANTRY! Please contact Ivonne Sheren if you’d like to make a monetary donation for perishable items which One Roof can purchase at ivonne.sheren@gmail.com.
Munchkin Masquerade | October 31 - Thank you to everyone who donated time and candy to make this a special event for our community ‘munchkins’. They were so cute and loved all of their goodies. We gave out 800 bags of candy with an insert about our upcoming events for Advent and Christmas.
Rise Against Hunger | November 16 - There are volunteer opportunities for ALL members, all ages, all abilities! This church-wide event, in place of the Sunday school and late service, is a great way to lead us into Thanksgiving and the Advent season. Last year was awesome! If you have never done this before, ask around and you’ll find out that there are a wide variety of tasks to do, some standing, some sitting. To register, please USE THIS LINK or the QR code on the poster on the opposite page. If you prefer paper registration forms, they will be available in the church office and on the credenza outside the church office. Please return the form to the office by November 13th.
Joy Tree | November – For many years our church has participated in our community JOY Tree program which helps to provide gifts of toys and clothing for Coweta County foster children at Christmas. Joy Tree is just around the corner! Tree will be up in the narthex on Sunday, November 16. The tree will also be in the Parrish Hall lobby on November 16 during the Rise Against Hunger packing event. Drop off will again be on the third floor of the Annex Building.
Drop off dates to return gifts:
• Saturday, 11/29 10:00 am - 12 noon
• Sunday, 11/30 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
• Friday, 12/5 4:00 - 6:00 pm
• Saturday, 12/6 10:00 am - 12 noon
• Sunday, 12/7 9:30 am - 12:30 pm FINAL DROPOFF!
9:45am-Noon | Parish Hall
Join us as we worship with our hands by packing meal kits together as a congregation in an effort to fulful the Biblical call to feed the hungry (Matthew 25)
Ages 4-104 are invited to join the packing! Children <11 will need to be accompanied by a guardian Nursery open for 0-3 years
We invite Sunday School classes to forego meeting and join us in service
Sunday, November 16 missions@newnanfumc org 770 253 7400
Look For Joy Trees starting Sunday, November 16!
Joy Tree
Providing gifts of toys and clothes for Coweta County’s foster children at Christmas.
We are sponsoring 100 children this year and invite you to participate by selecting a tag from the Joy Tree All the information you need is on the tag!
WHere: Church Narthex and in the Parish Hall
What: Shop the items on the tag, them bring gifts to the 3 floor of the Annex Building rd
When: Drop-off days for gifts are: Saturday, November 29 from 10am-Noon
Sunday, November 30 from 9:30am-12:30pm
December 5 from 4:00-6:00pm
December 6 from 0:00am-Noon Sunday, December 7* from 9:30am- 2:30pm *FINAL DAY TO RETURN GIFTS For more information, please contact Lindy McCurdy - lindarmccurdy@numail org
You’re invited to the annual November 20, 2025 5:30pm | Parish Hall
Newnan First UMC women of ALL AGES are invited for an evening of fellowship, food and music Plus, a visit from a surprise guest we Ho-Ho-Hope you ’ re excited to see!
A highlight each year is seeing how each group decorates their table Grab your group of 8 (or ask to be paired with a group) and purchase tickets ($25) by Nov 12!
Chicken, Peas, Rice,
Salad with
Ranch Dressing *For special dietary needs please email Patty at phall@newnanfumc org
Contact LynnMcKibbin46@gmail com or ChurchOff ice@Newnanfumc org to purchase your tickets
Paul Mosley
Youth Director
pmosley@NewnanFUMC.org
770.253.7400 (x219)
2025-2026 UTH Ministry
Photo Album
We have been having an awesome fall semester. Lots of great learning and fun has been happening inside and outside these walls. On Sunday nights, we finished our second series of the semester, Anything Goes, focused on how freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. This was a really cool topic to explore alongside young people who want more freedom but also seek to use that freedom well. Biscuits and Bibles, our Wednesday Morning bible study, is going strong. We had twenty one join us on Wednesday morning. This is at 7am before school starts. These students are awesome, y’all.
We also had our Fall Retreat this month. If you haven’t checked out the video with clips and photos from our trip, you definitely should. We had some awesome food and even better fun at Great Wolf Lodge’s waterpark, and more importantly we grew our understanding of God and our relationships with one another. Our spiritual focus for the trip was on resiliency, getting back up after life knocks us down and growing from the challenges in life. It was a great topic, and the students seemed to really connect with it. Thank you to Danika Ford, Scott Harlan, and Kristy Rossey for joining us as retreat shepherds for this trip!
In the month of November, we have our final series of the semester called Give & Take. This series is all focused on forgiveness, both giving and receiving, which are both hard in their own ways. We also have a couple more fellowship events: our Small Group Scatter (student-led activity where each small group decides their activity for the night) on November 30 and our UTH Christmas Party on December 7.
We have so much we have accomplished this semester and so much more still to come. Thank you, Newnan First UMC, for your support of these students and the work we are doing alongside them and their families! This church, these families, and all of you are how we can do all the awesome things happening. We are so thankful!
UPCOMING EVENTS
November 23: No UTH or Confirmation (Thanksgiving Break)
November 30: Small Group Scatter
December 7: UTH Christmas Party
December 14: O Holy Night
December 29-31: Xtreme Winter Conference
GIVE & TAKE SERIES - BEGINS NOV. 2
Let’s be honest—life can certainly feel like a game of give and take, can’t it? From school to sports, hobbies and responsibilities, but then there’s forgiveness. We love taking and accepting forgiveness when we need it. But we struggle to GIVE forgiveness when someone has hurt us. Forgiveness is hard work. In fact, it’s some of the most difficult experiences we might have throughout our lives, whether you are a student or an adult. Thankfully, as followers of Jesus, we don’t do this on our own. We have three truths from the Bible to help students unpack this big idea of forgiveness in our “Give & Take” series.
As the crisp air finally settles in and the trees burst into their colorful autumn display, I can’t help but give thanks for this beautiful season. Fall always feels like a gentle lesson from God’s own paintbrush – a reminder that letting go can be beautiful, and that through release, we make space for new joy to grow. What a fitting prelude to Advent, when we prepare our hearts for the arrival of Christ and the renewal He brings!
November is a lively month in the music ministry as we rehearse for O Holy Night and our upcoming Advent offering, Meditations at the Nativity: From Stillness to Joy. The building is already buzzing with sound and anticipation as our choirs, musicians, and directors prepare to share these gifts of worship with you. It’s one of our most inspiring (and joyfully busy) times of the year!
Our Youth Choir is hard at work raising funds for their spring tour. Through November 16 (Rise Against Hunger Sunday), they’ll be selling delicious Butter Braids and Cookie Dough, perfect for stocking your freezer with ready-to-bake treats for the holidays! Orders will arrive on December 6, just in time for Christmas gatherings. If you’d like to place an order, follow the QR code to to the left.
Mark your calendars for these two special December celebrations:
December 14, 2025 – O Holy Night
A cherished church tradition, O Holy Night will be presented at 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. by our entire music ministry. Come experience the joy, beauty, and power of this beloved Christmas worship event.
December 21, 2025 – Meditations at the Nativity: From Stillness to Joy
Join us in worship as we journey through stillness and wonder to the joy of Christ’s birth featuring choir, piano, and violin in a moving service of reflection and praise.
Finally, I’d like to end this letter by saying a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Gathering Choir for Commitment Sunday! Your voices, enthusiasm, and joyful spirit made this one-weekend choir experience truly special. It was inspiring to see people from different walks of life come together to worship, connect, and make beautiful music in such a short time. Your willingness to share your gifts and lift your voices in praise brought warmth and energy to our worship service and reminded us of the power of community through song. I am so grateful for your participation and hope this experience filled your heart as much as it blessed mine. Be on the lookout for another opportunity in the future!
Soli Deo Gloria, Caitie
Susan Mitchell
Preschool Director
smitchell@NewnanFUMC.org
770.253.1237
Our Fall Festival was a wonderful day filled with laughter, fellowship, and the joy of community. Families enjoyed eating together while children ran from game to game with smiles on their faces. It was a beautiful reminder of God’s goodness and the blessings that come from gathering together as a church family.
Our Pre-K and Kindergarten students will give a heartwarming performance to kick off our Thanksgiving Feast celebration in November. After the program, families will share a delicious meal of turkey, dressing, and rolls. It will be a wonderful time of fellowship and gratitude celebrating both our children’s accomplishments and the many blessings God has given us.
Our Pre-K classes will sing at Barnes and Noble on December 5th for a fundraiser benefiting the Carnegie library. On December 11th our Kindergarten class will sing at Wesley Woods. Just as the changing leaves remind us of renewal, Advent invites us to slow down, reflect, and rejoice in the promise of God’s love made visible in Jesus. May this season be one of hope, peace, joy, and love!
THANK YOU!
To everyone who’s helped in the nursery during Sunday worship. We appreciate your support!
The Children’s Ministry is also in need of Sunday School teachers. Please reach out to Andrea if you’re able to help approx. 1x every 2 months.
We had such a great month of October, and we are looking forward to November! As we enter the month meant for giving thanks, we will be talking about and doing a lot of thanking God in the Children’s Ministry. If you need prayer, please join us upstairs at our wall of prayer, and feel free to write your need on the wall. Then, pick a prayer request off the wall to pray over. You can leave your request anonymously! We will be praying over these names for the entire month of November.
The next several weeks are going to be packed full of fun for our 4-year-old to 2nd-grade Sunday School class. We will be wrapping up all the lessons about Moses. We love learning our Faith Word of the Week! This is a fun and innovative way to learn great words from the Bible and use them. Our lessons coming up this month will be about where to look for God. We will start with the Ten Commandments and venture out from there. We’ll spend our time working on activities, reading stories, and doing cute and fun crafts!
In our Older Sunday School class, they are continuing to travel down Route 66 and dive into the fun and exciting lessons in the Bible. They are touching on all 66 books! They have made stops all the way through Proverbs, but don’t worry, we can catch you up if you want to join! We’ve had lots of new friends lately, and we welcome even more.
This coming month in Wiggle and Worship and Children’s Worship, we will talk about serving God. We will learn that not only do we want to serve God, but God also wants us to serve others! We will explore what it means to serve and give to others. We’ll get to play games, engage in activities, have fun in interactive lessons, and create super cute crafts!
During the 11 a.m. service, our younger kids have fun in the Wiggle and Worship Class (2- and 3-year-olds in the Preschool) and Children’s Worship (4-year-olds to 2nd grade). Wiggle and Worship meets in the nursery on the lower level of the Parish Hall in the Preschool. Children’s Worship is on the Children’s Floor and is released from the Main Sanctuary (Big Church). You can pick your children up upstairs on the Children’s Floor. We play, pray, wiggle, praise, and have the best time ever!
P A R E N T S P A R E N T S
N I G H T O U T N I G H T O U T
SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 22 SATURDAY , NOVEMBER 22 4:00-8:00PM 4:00-8:00PM
ROOT345 is for any 3rd, 4th, and 5th grader! Last month, we started talking about being leaders in faith and what that looks like for each of us. We’ll continue this series and explore how we can be good leaders, live as Jesus wants us to live, and practice that in our daily lives. We explore Scripture, play games, and take on many fun challenges to help us learn how to use Scripture in our everyday life. ROOT meets on the Children’s Floor on Sunday evenings from 6:00 to 7:45pm. We have dinner together and then go into our lessons, which are packed full of games and activities. If you have a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade child, we’d love to have them join the fun! Bring a friend and get a treat!
We’re looking forward to our first year with this
morning during the holiday season.
If you weren’t able to get a spot, contact
or
Meditations
In The Life of Our Church
Baptisms
Sarah Mae Hadaway | October 5, 2025
Daughter of Mary Margaret and Bryan Hadaway
Clara Kelly and Elizabeth Noor Taylor | October 5, 2025
Daughters of Campbell and Sam Taylor
Scarlett Bridges Byrum | October 19, 2025
Daughter of Lori and Dylan Byrum
Extending our Christian Sympathies
Bonnie Krider and Jeanne Peoples on the death of Richard Krider, Bonnie’s dad and Jeanne’s husband.
