Friday, July 31, 2015
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Joy, restored
Volume 6, Edition 2
Join us this weekend as we begin our sermon series “Dog Days of Summer.” We look forward to seeing you!
“….and with my song I will praise Him” Psalm 28:7
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hat restores the joy in your life? Shaunna Fuller is convinced that music is a joy replenisher. One look into the eyes of White’s Chapel’s Executive Director of Music and Worship is enough to persuade anyone of that statement as fact. “Life is so depleting,” she sighed last week. “There are so many demands on our time. Yet often we forget to ask what we do to replenish ourselves—how we refill our personal tanks.” Opportunities abound. Though choir anthems have continued through the summer, weekly rehearsals were suspended during July in order to give members a bit of vacation. But like air conditioning in August, the time has come to crank things (back) up. Wednesday, Aug. 5, is the first all-call for those who wish to join the White’s Chapel Chancel Choir—new and veteran members alike. The weekly rehearsal, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., is held behind the chancel area of the sanctuary. New participants (welcome at any time) should enter through the main entry doors of Evans Hall to the rear of the sanctuary. The Music Rehearsal Hall is to the left, just past Circuit Riders Bookstore. The choir is completely comprised of volunteers. Fuller encourages all, and states that an overwhelming number of members don’t read music.
“Whether you can sing five notes or five octaves; whether you read music or don’t read music. There are no auditions, no prior required experience needed. We have people who have never sung in a choir before.” Supplemental rehearsals, held each Sunday before the 11:00 service, give confidence to those who feel the need for extra practice. The group is happily diverse: The youngest members are in high school, and currently the elder member is a WWII veteran. Members are single, married, widowed, parents, nonparents, and empty nesters. “We are a warm, loving group, a supportive group,” said Fuller. “We take care of one another, and support each other through all types of situations and crisis. I always say once you’re a member of the choir, you don’t lose us! We have people who have moved away and will come back and sing with us when they’re visiting in town.” Music is diverse as well, with a smattering of classic, gospel, old-time religion, and “just plain fun” music to balance some of the praise-and-worship style that is more contemporary. Composers range from Mozart and Beethoven to works by John Rutter, Mack Wilberg (writer/director for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir), Joseph Martin, and Mark Hayes. JOY cont’d on page 2
We truly seek to create an amazing worship experience for everyone.
Wizard of Oz
WC Arts Academy delighted audiences last week with their performance of “Wizard of Oz.”
Communion Offering targets School Supplies, Food Backpacks Every year thousands of children begin the academic school year without school supplies or the resources to obtain them. This year White’s Chapel will be assisting area school districts with basic school supply kits and other items needed for the students. Kits will be delivered to schools that have the greatest need in the Grapevine-Colleyville, Keller, Birdville, and Carroll Independent School Districts. Additionally, basic kits will be delivered to our adopt-a-school (T.A. Sims Elementary in southeast Fort Worth) and our partner church El Buen Samaritano UMC. “We believe in supporting our own community while extending support outside our area,” explained Rev. Dara Austin, FaithWorks Director. It is really important to reach both inside COMMUNION cont’d on page 2
A day in the life of Jordan Candler By Katelin Brekken
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hen it comes to building an impressive high school resume, students will oftentimes seek out extracurricular opportunities to set themselves apart from peers. The rigor of high school and the stress that comes with the highly competitive environment takes away from the joy of community service. I made it my goal to find someone who defies this. Recently, I sat down with Jordan Candler, an incoming high school senior at Carroll High School. When I first asked WC Students about their thoughts, there was no hesitation before Candler was suggested. As I got the opportunity to converse with her, I could see why they were as enthusiastic as they were. This girl is awesome, and here’s why: Six mission trips, two visits to the annual “Two Is Better” Conference, one Church lock-in, two camp counselor jobs for Middle Schoolers, small group leader for Crave students (grades 7–8), a regular Sunday attendee, and a long-time participant of all of WC Student sponsored events, it was very evident that Candler has no intention of slowing down anytime soon. “It’s what I really love to do!” Candler added as she described her experiences with WC Students. Candler enjoys being able to exercise her own faith, as well as teaching those younger about theirs. She has often aided WC Students staff with leading Crave—a weekly worship experience for 7th and 8th graders—and can be seen teaching a small group or helping out with worship. “I really love being with the middle
schoolers,” Candler added as she explained her time with this age group. In addition to a very philanthropic heart, she bears a challenging academic and extracurricular schedule. Her schedule consists of multiple advanced placement classes, and, if possible, plans to balance PALS, a peer mentor program, and choir. Each of the activities has its own set of demands, but no hard work comes without its rewards at the end. Earlier in her summer, Candler crossed the globe with her fellow choir members to explore Italy. As she embarked on her journey, she was presented with some once-in-a-lifetime moments: “We drove up through Italy and got to sing in a lot of really cool places.. We had two actual concerts [one in a Venice church and the other in a different church] and the other times we just sang in places we were touring. We were just walking through the Pantheon and they told us: You have five minutes, sing.” Candler and I laughed as she finished describing the confusion of the crowd at their surprise concerts. It appeared to me that she was not afraid of any kind of challenge. Apart from touring and performing, her favorite thing was hiking to a volcano-top village. “We had to climb up the side of it, but once you got to the top, it was the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.” Her plans for the later summer include preparing for her senior year and participating in the high school mission trip. WC Students will be taking students in grades 9–12 to New Orleans in effort to aid residents DAY cont’d on page 4
Stewardship—We hope you have a wonderful time relaxing and traveling this summer! While you are away please don’t forget us! We have many ministries that are operating at full capacity during the summer and your tithe or offering helps make it possible. You can give on-line or text 41444 to complete your tithe! Support Groups—NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Aug. 3—7 p.m. in room 2130 of Evans Hall. COAP— Aug. 4—(Children of Aging Parents)—7 p.m. in room 3201 of the Adult Ed. Building. Life After Loss Support Group—Aug. 12—1:30 p.m. in the Center for Spiritual Care. Alzheimer’s Support Group—Aug. 13—6:30 p.m. in room 3201 of the Adult Ed. Building.
The White’s Chapel Herald
Friday, July 31, 2015
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Communion Offering Cont’d from page 1
and outside our communities. While we have asked the congregation to help bring actual school kits, we have committed to a minimum of 850 basic kits. The funds raised through the communion offering will be used to help purchase construction paper, manila paper, and other large items not included in the kits.” The August offering will also be shared with the “Filling the Gap” food ministry, a program that provides weekend food to at-risk students at T.A. Sims Elementary for the weekend. The program provides backpacks of food for 100 children every Friday during the school year. The food will be bought locally, packed, and delivered to the school. “We have been providing ongoing ministry efforts to these two initiatives for the last three years,” said Austin. “Every dollar given will be used to support these endeavors.” For more information, please contact Rev. Dara Austin in our FaithWorks ministry. Dara Austin | daustin@whiteschapelumc.com
Joy Restored ‘Thankful and Inspired’ Cont’d from page 1
by Dr. John McKellar
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have been inspired this week by the young adults in our church. Pastor Todd and I spent several days in New Orleans visiting our mission trip work teams and worshipping with our students and adults. To see their hard work in tremendous heat and humidity was inspiring. They rebuilt houses, worked with children in a day camp, helped mentally challenged adults with their fund-raising project, built roofs, chicken coops, and many other projects. Everywhere we went the other adults bragged on our youth—their work ethic and their friendliness. I returned home to watch our children I see kids who are helpful and put on a production of the Wizard of Oz. supportive, dependable and In a two-and-a-half-week camp, they did an incredible job of putting on this play strong, and willing to go the with great music, dance, costumes, and dramatic performances that were just extra mile to improve the lives amazing! I am so proud of the way that of both friends and strangers. our students are embracing life and faith! It seems that so often I hear people complain that the youth of today are lazy and entitled. I have to say that after what I saw this week, I do not worry about the next generation. I see kids who are helpful and supportive, dependable and strong, and willing to go the extra mile to improve the lives of both friends and strangers. I know that while they may have weak moments, don’t we all? They are becoming the citizens to whom we will one day turn over the reins of life in our homes, our schools, our churches, and our workplaces. I am thankful that I saw spirit and gumption from our young people this week. They inspire me to not sit on the sidelines of life bemoaning what is wrong, but to get in the game and start doing something to make this world a better place. I hope you are having a great summer! As always, Todd and I are honored to be your pastors!
Next week we will not publish an issue of the Herald. During the summer we will publish the Herald every other Friday. Enjoy your week!
attendance Week Worship Ending July 26
3,530
Christian Education 2,682
financials
July Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
2015 $140,805 $168,749 $115,578 $166,682
MTD Actual $591,814 MTD Goal $653,103 MTD Variance $ (61,289) YTD Actual $4,711,358 YTD Goal $5,287,191 YTD Variance $(575,833)
2014 $145,177 $148,241 $113,964 $ 89,679 $497,061 $542,460 $ (45,399)
$4,200,852 $4,274,690 $ (73,838)
Church office—(817) 481-4147
Editor Debbie McKellar Managing Editor Derek Bennett Copy Editor Cathy Watson Graphics and Design Susanna Cunningham White’s Chapel Herald USPS 25541 is published weekly except for the second week of March, and then changes to alternate weeks beginning the Friday after Memorial Day, changing back to weekly the Friday after Labor day, and skips the week between Christmas and New Year, by White’s Chapel United Methodist Church, 185 S. White Chapel Blvd, Southlake TX 76092-7308. Periodicals Postage is paid at Grapevine, TX and additional mailing offices. Subscription rate: $10 for one year. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to White’s Chapel UMC, 185 S. White Chapel Blvd, Southlake, TX 76092-7308
Though numbers vary weekly, a typical Sunday hosts between 75-85 participants, a number Fuller would love to see increase. “We are so very fortunate to have this incredible orchestra to accompany us. The orchestra is comprised currently of about 35 members. Optimally, we need a ratio of three
singers per instrumentalist, so we have a real need for expansion.” “Our core statement is to ‘Create unforgettable worship each week.’ We truly seek to create an amazing worship experience for everyone.” “If you love to sing, please come join us!” smiles Fuller. “We will welcome you with joy!”
Next Steps Workshop on the Exodus Project Before departing on a vacation to Ireland, Bishop Lowry invited Mike Bonem to be a guest blogger. Mike, the consultant leading the Exodus Project evaluation, met on June 17 with the CTC’s Core Team and the Bishop’s Cabinet to discuss next steps. Dear Friends in Christ, My purpose here is to recap key points from the workshop with Central Texas Conference’s Core Team and Cabinet held on June 17, 2015. This blog and the one that follows are not meant to be a comprehensive set of notes, and they represent my perspective, which may at times differ from the group. I am also including some follow-up thoughts and recommendations for next steps that were not discussed in our meeting. Accordingly, this is intended to foster further conversation among CTC’s leaders as we move forward. The purpose of the workshop was to define the “next steps” to be taken in the implementation of the Exodus Project. My evaluation of the Exodus Project introduced the recommendations with this statement: CTC can accelerate its progress in the Exodus Project and improve its results by narrowing its focus to the highest value activities and collaborating more actively at all levels. The seven recommendations that followed are: • Develop a new process to guide programming decisions. • Formalize resourcing to leverage local expertise. • Focus disproportionately on “selected” churches. • Invest in leadership development. • Create transparent evaluation processes that align with Exodus. • Re-emphasize peer learning. • Clarify the role of the District Superintendent Recognizing the need to focus on a smaller number of recommendations, the leadership team prioritized three of these as having the greatest potential impact for CTC. Those three are highlighted in bold above. Of the three, leadership development is the highest priority. This is the first of two blog posts in which we will more fully explore the recommendations the group initially has selected to emphasize. Each of the three prioritized areas has a person who will lead in developing specific recommendations. That person will assemble an ad hoc task group to work with them in that process. The task group should include lay members as well as clergy and is not limited to the Core Team and Cabinet. The teams are to develop preliminary recommendations for discussion at a meeting in the fall. As part of their recommendations, each task group should propose milestones/goals for the first and second years. Since top priority was given to Investing in Leadership Development, I want to address this recommendation first. The recommendation for leadership development was refined considerably during the workshop. We discussed three key ideas: leadership development for clergy, leadership development for laity, and clergy recruitment—with the majority of the time spent on the former. Leadership development for laity is important, but the current efforts that are already under way are seen as addressing this need. The overarching concept for clergy leadership development was shaped by the “High Octane Preaching” class that has been offered for several years. The content (preaching) was chosen because of its importance for pastoral leadership, and participants are hand-selected based on their future potential. A weakness of this class is that it is not part of an integrated and intentional process for leadership development and has lacked follow-up accountability. As envisioned in our workshop, key components of CTC’s future leadership development include: Selectivity. Participants should be screened and should be chosen based on their future potential and the benefit of this development for their careers and churches. An intentional process for this selection will need to be created. Focused content. CTC should not try to teach everything that a pastor might need to know, but instead should choose/design content based on the needs of the target participants and churches. Values-driven. Content selection and design should reflect the conference’s values for effective pastoral leadership. Mentoring and accountability. Because content is only a small portion of an individual’s development, it is important for the design to include mentoring and accountability. Individuals who are not diligent about practicing skills that they have learned in one class should not be allowed to take future classes.
The White’s Chapel Herald
Friday, July 31, 2015
High Schoool Mission Trip New Orleans 2015
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Kids and Crayons Our back to school efforts are well under way and we need your help. WC has committed to a minimum of 850 basic school supply kits; both elementary and middle/high school kits in schools where the need is greatest. These kits will be delivered to some of our own schools with greatest need in Grapevine, Keller, Birdville, Colleyville and Carroll. In addition, we help our adopta-school in southeast Fort Worth, T.A. Sims Elementary with kits and the members of our partner church El Buen Samaritano UMC. This year we have made it easier to donate by clicking on the WC website and making a minimum donation of $10 which buys one kit and includes shipping, it goes on your giving record and you are finished. Or if you want to buy, there is a complete list of what is needed in the kit and the date to return them. Volunteers are needed to distribute and deliver the kits so contact FaithWorks for more info!
Men’s Fall Mission Trip October 2015 ATTN. MEN: Be an agent of God’s Kingdom and a source of hope to the people of San Antonio this October! On October 22–25, WC Men’s Ministries is partnering with Blueprint Ministries to serve the poor of San Antonio by making homes safe, warm and dry, as well as by building relationships, in a city recognized as having the highest percentage of substandard housing of any major city in the U.S. Men (18 yrs. and up) of all skill levels are encouraged to attend this three-day experience in one of the most beautiful cities in Texas. Cost is $220 per person, and a T-shirt is included. So, dust
The White’s Chapel Herald
Friday, July 31, 2015
off those work boots, grab a hat and join us! To register & pay go to whiteschapelumc. com and click on Payments & Registrations. For more information contact Jay McMeans at jay@mcmeans.us or Jim Stalder at jim@ stalder.com. For more information about Blueprint, visit www.blueprintministry.com. DFW Christian Business Summit Tuesday, August 4 from 6:30–8 p.m. in The Bridge The 2nd Annual DFW Christian Business Summit will be held at Whites Chapel on Tuesday, August 4th in the Bridge from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The purpose of the DFW Christian Business Summit is to encourage, educate and engage men and women whose God-given assignments and giftedness are primarily in the marketplace, the community, or at home. Doors will open at 6 p.m. for hor d’oeuvres and refreshments. We encourage you to register online. This year’s speaker is Bob Doll as he has a well-earned history of being a successful Christian businessman in the marketplace. Bob is Chief Equity Strategist and Senior Portfolio Manager at Nuveen Asset Management. Bob manages the Large Cap Equity Series, consisting of nine strategies. He has 34 years of portfolio management experience, received a B.S. in Accounting and a B.A. in Economics from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Financial Analyst. Bob appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business News discussing the economy and markets. Midweek Mediation Take a break and join WC for a Midweek Meditation at noon on Wednesdays. Worship with us in person or online at whiteschapelumc.com/ media/live
Stephen Ministry
Dixie Hubbard and Liz Foster attending a Stephen Ministry Leadership Training in Dallas.
A day in the life Cont’d from page 1
with cleanup, build relationships with the community, and serve the Lord. Candler is no novice when it comes to mission trips. Returning for her sixth mission trip, she is eager to see what experiences this one will yield for her. Candler has been an active participant in the trips, as well. Her positively outgoing spirit makes any tough situation better and she gladly serves as a leader in whatever situation calls her. She can be seen cracking jokes in the morning or in the very front of the group worship sessions. Candler sets an example for all who surround her. It was apparent that she was very eager to begin her next adventure and explore the many opportunities that the world will present. I was enthralled that I had the opportunity to meet Jordan, and wish her nothing but the best in all that she does.
“The Lord is in His holy Temple. Let the earth be silent before Him.” Habakkuk 2:20
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f you have read the devotional study of Habakkuk, you will recall how the prophet first was upset by the flagrant sinfulness of the people of Judah and he cried out to God, pleading that something be done about the wickedness in the land. God then responded by announcing His intentions to do something that would absolutely astound His servant. He was going to send the Babylonians against Judah. This evil army would come and bring all their might and cruelty to bear against the people of God. Thusly would God show His displeasure with a people who had turned away from Him. Well, Habakkuk was in shock! What must God be thinking by sending the Babylonians, a people more wicked than they, to inflict judgment upon the chosen nation? God, in grace, responds by calming His prophet with the assurance that He indeed was still in control of the situation, and that all would be done just as He had purposed, with all events leading up to the Day when He would be revealed before the nations and the knowledge of His glory would fill the earth, even as the waters cover the sea (verse 14). Consider these words from Psalm 73:25– 28: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail me, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever. Behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all Your works.” Is not this the response God desires to see in each of us? Right now, in the silence before the storm, you and I have the same opportunity to turn our hearts away from our natural infatuation with all things earthly and temporal, and give unto God the whole of our affections. Right now, even while still faced with the troubles and crises of the day, we have the chance to display a calm assurance in God, a holy reliance upon His power and grace. To be still before God is not easy. It is not a position towards which we are naturally inclined, for it necessitates a humility that is foreign to our fallen natures. We are more comfortable with the touting of our own accomplishments than waiting upon the mighty deeds of God. We love more to sing our own praises than the praises of others, especially God. And so, grace is required by us for an obedient response to this call. But may He who called us by His power from deadness unto life, may He also give us a daily measure of grace that will enable us to look beyond ourselves, beyond our troubles, beyond the unbelief of this wicked world, to behold the conquering nature of our God and live in awe-filled anticipation of His appearing! May God bless you all.
My flesh and my heart may fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.