Waffles for Teachers
September 4th, 2024
The Boomers met this week to start back their "Mailbox Motivations" for the teachers at Bannerman Learning Center. With it being the first of the school year, they went with "No Waffling Around". We want to give a big shout out to Waffle House for donating these coupons for waffles and hashbrowns, along with everyone from the church who donated waffles. The team is placing the frozen waffles in t...
Why Wednesday Nights
August 29th, 2024
Starting in 2 weeks, September 11th, we're holding groups for all ages on Wednesday nights. We'll do this for 5 weeks during the Wesleyan rooted series. Why? Multiple reasons: Sunday isn't enough. If the only place you're getting your spiritual growth is in worship on Sunday, you aren't getting enough. Sunday is designed to be an amplifier for what we're doing independently and in small groups. It...
Wesleyan Rooted Preview
August 22nd, 2024
I'm so excited to be preaching this next series called Wesleyan Rooted. Churches all across the Florida Conference will be participating in this same series some time this fall which was developed by pastors within our conference.This series will help us do all three: love God, love others, and share Christ. For those of us who have been United Methodist for a long time, it will recenter us on the...
Bannerman Year 1 Complete
June 5th, 2024
I want to share that the year ended strong with the Boomers and Bannerman. They delivered 11 months of mailbox appreciations along with something in the workroom for the teachers. Along with these items, the Boomers also provided breakfast multiple times and an appreciation bar for Teacher Appreciation week that was "grab and go" style. We also started to work with businesses in our community to h...
Story Arc Preview
May 22nd, 2024
A Story Arc is one or more consecutive comic book issues that define a story with a beginning, middle, and end.The Bible is not just a collection of stories but a saga that intertwines with our own lives. It's the tale of Yahweh and Adam, the prodigal son and his ever-gracious heavenly father, humanity in its rebellion and God in its grace. This narrative begins with Eden and concludes once creati...
Friends Unleashed Launch
May 8th, 2024
I am so excited about the number of new families joining the church in the past year. These new families have brought many new children, and Katie has done a fantastic job in Kid's Club. I'm trying an experiment to connect our new families with a group called Friends Unleashed. Over the summer, we're going to do some fun weekend outings that are family-friendly so you can bring the kids with you. ...
Seeds of Support
April 17th, 2024
From Karen: The Boomers met on April 2nd and prepared the monthly mailbox motivations for the Bannerman (BLC) faculty and staff. Hagan Ace Hardware in Green Cove donated flower seed packets. We attached notes to each packet and placed them in faculty and staff mailboxes (pictured above). This week, Pizza Hut of Green Cove provided the staff with pasta trays and breadsticks for lunch, and the Boome...
8 Days and Over 500 People Fed
April 4th, 2024
Over eight days, March 16-23, we participated in 3 events and helped feed people across Clay County. Thank you to everyone who helped, either by volunteering, donating items, or giving financially. A team of us went to Jacksonville to pack food at a table our church sponsored. This event was the 2nd Annual Faith in Action that Hunger Fight has put on. Churches sponsored all the tables. It was so ...
Showing Love
March 14th, 2024
Every month, our Boomers focus on a project to show love to the teachers at Bannerman Learning Center. Here are some pictures from their recent meeting where they were putting together the mailbox motivations. For February, the Children's Ministry helped create Valentine cards. The Boomers took these cards and set up a candy bar in the teachers lounge as a small way of showing the teachers they ar...
Holy Week - At Home Livestreams
February 28th, 2024
Holy Week is the week of Palm Sunday or the week leading into Easter. As early as the 4th century, we have seen Christians take extra fasts, go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and attend special services as they approach the remembrance of our Lord's most challenging days on earth.To aid in your Holy Week practice, I am preparing a set of pre-recorded services that will be about 15 minutes e......
Visions for a New Year
February 1st, 2024
The women started the year off by reflecting now where they want their energy to go and how they want to improve their lives. How did they do that? They created Vision Boards. Deborah shared her Vision board and how it helped focus her after retirement. She then guided everyone through the process of setting our goals for the year. Everyone had a great time not only thinking about our goals, but p...
2023 in Review
January 11th, 2024
This past Sunday, the above video was shared in worship as a celebration of all God did in 2023 I thought I woud take a moment and expand on these numbers a bit more, sharing some stories behind them. We had 3 baptisms in 2023, 2 new-believer baptisms and 1 infant baptism. This is paired with our 28 new members. Both of the new-believer baptisms were new families who came to us, not from any oth.....
Visit to Bannerman
January 9th, 2024
For their December meeting, the Boomers (our older adults), went and toured Bannerman Learning Center. The Boomers are our newest group on campus and chose Bannerman to be their mission focus. Normally, they meet at the church, have brunch together, then put together something to show love to the teachers at the school. On this occasion, we took a trip to the school to learn about their programs. ...
One Year Chronological
December 20th, 2023
I'd love for you to join me in reading the Bible through next year, Chronologically. This is my favorite way to read the Bible because you get to see how the books overlap.It can be daunting to try and read the Bible in a year, so let us help. Choose whatever format you like. Do you like to hold a book? You can read the Bible like a devotional book. You just open to the date and there's your readi...
New Hands Helping
September 16th, 2023
Volunteering at The Kitchen of Clay County this morning... 5 members of the More 2 Life small group were out of town, but 8 church friends stepped in to volunteer for the first time with us! We had a great time making and serving 87 soup & sandwich lunches to those in need.......
Top of the Evening
September 13th, 2023
The men went out to Jacksonville this week to hit some golf balls. Why? Because spending time together and doing something you enjoy is what it means to fellowship!Church is about more than worship. If we're to grow closer to God together, we need to build relationships with one another. When we have friendships, we can support each other in our work, family, and spirit lives. Our men's ministry r...
Boomers for Bannerman
September 6th, 2023
It's always exciting to receive new members to our church. If you haven't had a chance, check out the recent postings that share our new members. What's even more exciting is when those new to our church family jump in and share their gifts, talents, and passions with the church family. As I write this, I'm listening to one of these new members pounding away as he repairs a closet in the church......
MOM UP
August 30th, 2023
FIUMC MOMS is hosting a five-week Bible Study using the book "MOM UP" by Kara-Kae James. Because we know mom-life can be crazy and we want to include as many moms as possible, we are hosting this Bible Study both online and in-person. How will this work you may ask? The book is broken into five parts with 3-4 chapters in each part. Each week, starting Wednesday, September 20, we will cover one ...
Women Help a Stranger
July 18th, 2023
The women of Fleming Island (with some of their male counterparts) banded together to cook, make sandwiches, and serve our community. With only 7 sets of hands, this quick working group of ladies served soup, sandwiches, and pulled pork to our community through the Middleburg location of the Clay County kitchen. Their results? 150 lunches served!Did you know that older children and youth are welco...
Wellness Challenge
July 5th, 2023
At Annual Conference this year, the clergy were invited to a year-long challenge to improve our health. What better way to help us lead from a healthy place than to make it a competition? Even better, they invited us to bring our congregations into it to help increase our chances of winning prizes in the efforts...so by completing this work, you can help Pastor Faith possibly win something at Annu...