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Downloadable versions: 8 page bulletin insert ~ 4 page bulletin insert ~ 4 page newsletter ~ 2 page newsletter Community centers make positive difference
INDIANAPOLIS - The Rev. Jessi Langlie got a call from a security company back in 2004 about local youth breaking into a vacant building and shooting off bottle rockets. It was the former site of the United Methodist-related Fletcher Place Community Center, now located at State and Prospect, southeast of downtown Indianapolis. Langlie, executive director of the center, saw the vandalism as an opportunity. "I was beginning to think of these kids as hoodlums," Langlie said with a chuckle in her office at the new location near Fountain Square. "I decided what we needed to do was make summer plans for them." Thus began Fletcher Place's summer program, called "Art in the City."
Langlie began talking with the children who hung around the building and found out they wanted to paint it. "These kids had so much energy," she said. "And some needed community service hours. So we said next year we'd do it again and get money for the project." Fletcher Place's "Art in the City" is funded through the Marion County Summer Youth Program Fund, specifically from the Indianapolis Foundation and the Lilly Endowment. The United Methodist-related Brightwood Community Center's "Summer Fun and Frolic" summer program also is funded through the Summer Youth Program Fund. Brightwood also receives funds from churches, United Methodist Women, individuals and a few businesses, according to the Rev. Debra Grady, executive director for Brightwood Community Center. Both centers are in partnership with MetroMinistries of the two Indianapolis districts. The mission statement reflects just that - it connects congregations with people in need. As this summer approaches, both community centers are utilizing the time and space available to create educational and creative opportunities for kids in Indianapolis. Fletcher Place also provides for the neighborhood year-round with meals, a thrift store, food pantry and skills training to break the cycle of poverty.
Grady said summer is a critical time to engage young people. "We don't want them to lose their academic progress and we want them to be safe," she said. "At the center, children have a sense that someone cares for them." Brightwood's program, "Summer Fun and Frolic," is not solely arts-based like the programs at Fletcher Place, but allows for a potpourri of experiences, including African-American heritage, service projects and field trips. To learn more about Brightwood visit www.brightwoodcc.org. To learn about Fletcher Place visit www.fletcherplacecc.org. Glass, Chalstrom named interim superintendentsINDIANAPOLIS - Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner recently announced that the Rev. Ann Glass and the Rev. Marianne Chalstrom have agreed to serve in retirement as part-time District Superintendents for the Indianapolis East and Warsaw Districts, respectively, from July 1 through December 31. Coyner said, "Their service in this interim six months will allow us to launch the new 10-District model on January 1, while providing the needed district leadership and pastoral care until that date." Both Glass and Chalstrom are former District Superintendents, so they bring a wealth of experience to this ministry. They will be serving part-time, and their work will include:
Mission staff person to join Red Bird MissionGina Riendeau, North Indiana Missions staff person, will end her work in Indiana July 1 and head for a new position as Director of Clinic Operations at Red Bird Mission in Southeast Kentucky. Red Bird provides primary health services with a staff of physicians, nurse practitioner, and nurses, a laboratory, x-ray, dentist, dental lab, and home services. The position allows Riendeau to be in mission ministry, as well as to bring together a background in hospital management, university faculty, grant writing, community services and United Methodist mission. She told Together, "I will be part of the senior leadership team of the Red Bird Mission, which encompasses extensive programs in community development, education, health care, housing, and human services in Southeast Kentucky. I anticipate a transition to Kentucky by August 1." Riendeau has been on the North Indiana Conference staff as the Associate Director in Mission and Ministry Outreach since Dec. 2000. During those years the North Indiana Conference has seen a significant increase in the numbers of mission volunteers serving around the world; training for mission leadership, disaster response, and leading work teams; involvement in the Jurisdictional and General Church mission efforts; and created an efficient and effective leadership model that moves well into the new Indiana Conference. Riendeau said, "I have been blessed to serve the wonderful people of the North Indiana these nine years. First Indiana Conference to follow Rethink Church theme
MUNCIE, Ind. - RETHINK CHURCH was endorsed by Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner and the 13-member Indiana Conference interim sessions committee as the theme for the first Indiana Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church scheduled for June 25-28 at Ball State University in Emens Auditorium. More than 3,000 lay and clergy conference members from Indiana's 1,200 congregations are expected to attend the four-day event. Here is an abbreviated edition of the Annual Conference session agenda. All sessions will be held in Emen Auditorium on the campus of Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. unless otherwise indicated. A more complete agenda is available online. Visit www.inumc.org, click on Annual Conference in left column then click on 2009 Annual Conference Agenda draft Thursday, June 25 - Day of Teaching
Friday, June 26 - Day of Organizing and Remembering
Saturday, June 27 - Day of Outreach and Mission
Sunday, June 28 - Day of Celebrating Ministry and Sending Forth
New Indiana Conference Web site now online at www.inumc.orgThe new Indiana Conference is now online at www.inumc.org. The current Indiana Area Web site as well as the North and South Indiana Conference sites will continue to be online as materials are migrated to the new conference site. Much of the Indiana Area Web site contents (www.inareaumc.org) has been transferred to the new site including information about the upcoming annual conference sessions at Ball State University in Muncie June 25-28 and more than four years of past issues of Together newspaper. Coming to the new site will be a Laity Links. The site features a search engine, a calendar with information on upcoming events, plus information about new conference staff members as they are named by Bishop Coyner. Coming this summer will be ten new district pages. The home page will feature current news stories and upcoming events. The site will continued to be built the rest of the year. Church walks in Jesus' footsteps
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (UMNS) - The Rev. Nancy Nichols is sporting tennis shoes and a winter coat under her cleric's robe. Other church members arriving to attend Broadway Christian Parish-United Methodist Church's Good Friday service are braced for cold weather, too. "We are here to commemorate the Via Dolorosa, the walk of Jesus from the point of conviction to the point of death," explains Nichols. Many churches observe the tradition of tracing the final footsteps of Christ, known as the Stations of the Cross, but Broadway members actually carry a cross to 14 "stations" around their neighborhood. "During the year, I keep track of what's happening in the neighborhood then design a route around where we need to go," Nichols says. "At each of the locations we'll stop and share a prayer, sing and anoint the business or place with oil." Each year, Nichols, who lives in the neighborhood, borrows a six-foot wooden cross from another church and leads participants along a circuit that includes a fire station, community college, abandoned homes and recent crime scenes. On Friday, April 10, the group stopped at the home of Minerva Barnes, a woman slain recently by her tenant. None of the church members knew Barnes personally, but a few know her suspected killer. Then, a member of the group anoints the site by dipping a finger in oil brought along for the occasion and drawing the sign of the cross. The group has met every year for 18 years, even in extreme conditions. Two years ago, Nichols and her group walked the two-mile route braving a wind chill temperature of 20 below zero. U.M. Children's Home Auxiliary raises funds, confirms officers
LEBANON, Ind. - The Annual Program of the Indiana United Methodist Children's Home Auxiliary was held at Gress Memorial Chapel on the Home's Lebanon campus in April. The gathering brought Auxiliary members and guest from across Indiana, representing several United Methodist congregations. The Auxiliary was organized more than 40 years ago and sponsors several meaningful projects which benefit the youth. Through annual dues of $3, the Auxiliary helps fund flu inoculations, orthodontia needs, educational and recreational supplies and much more. This past year The Auxiliary gave $4,500. The Auxiliary confirmed its officers at the organization's annual meeting. The Rev. James Allen, minister of Thorntown UMC, conducted the installation service. Officers include: Nancy Beesley of Thorntown UMC, president; Mary Leitch of First UMC, New Castle, secretary; Martha Parr of Otterbein UMC in Lebanon, membership chairperson, and Peggy Enos of Covington UMC, treasurer. Making a difference in New Orleans
By Sharon Dunten
For more than three years, the disaster recovery teams of Indianapolis' Southport United Methodist Church-The Journey have helped the Gulf Coast recover from the devastation of 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Until April 2009, this group had only renovated and was not part of new Gulf Coast construction. As a member of a New Orleans Habitat for Humanity team, these returning team members now have the distinction of placing their feet in both worlds - one in hurricane recovery and one in new construction designed to remain standing after the next major hurricane. Traveling more than12 hours to Mississippi or Louisiana, either with a trailer in tow, bulging truck beds or overflowing SUV backseats, a core of six volunteers continue to return to the Gulf, which remains incomplete in disaster recovery. After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the first place the Southport volunteers reported to was D'Aberville, Miss., then on to a long-term com in New mitment at Trinity UMC's recovery station in Gulfport, Miss. In 2009 New Orleans, the work, though still back breaking, requires the pinpoint accuracy of a speed square and hitting thousands of nails without blistering a thumb with fatal attempts. The mosquitoes, this time, are not visiting the crew. Little green lizards are curious but have not claimed the new construction as a permanent residence. New characters to the home site include: local cats confiscating volunteers' sack lunches and roosters at 20-minute intervals two doors down from the build. Whether it is starting from scratch or making the damaged home new again, this is about a partnership with the Gulf Coast. Habitat for Humanity has been a new opportunity for the team to serve in missions. For others, it is about stretching their wings in a new state with new flavors and customs. Either way, the Southport UMC-The Journey recovery team will take the long trip down I-65 South for as long as they are needed - swinging a hammer into fresh wood or maybe to scoot into a crawl space that hasn't seen a human being for 40 years. Monticello churches to replace veteran's homeMONTICELLO, Ind. - A local veteran will soon be living in a new home on Bluewater near the Tippecanoe River in Monticello. Six local churches are joining together to build a new home that will replace one badly damaged by the January 2008 flooding. The six Monticello churches are the Christian, United Methodist, First Baptist, LifeSong, New Hope Lutheran and First Presbyterian congregations. Carl Reid and his grandson have continued to live in the home on Bluewater, even though it was damaged beyond repair and has since been razed. The new home shell is being purchased by Disaster Assistance for Northwest Indiana (DANI) through another non-profit organization - New Hope Construction of Tennessee. "If it weren't for DANI and these churches, I don't know what I would have done. God's been good to me," said Reid, who is a Vietnam-era veteran who is mostly confined to a wheelchair. During May, volunteer crews from each congregation will assemble the house, construct and finish the interior, as well as finish the exterior. The construction crews will be supervised by Jess Vandergraff, construction coordinator for DANI and an employee of Habitat for Humanity of Lafayette. Donations toward the flood recovery work are also welcome. Additional information is available at the DANI Web site, http://daniflood.org. Hoosiers celebrate mission, advocacy at summitBy Sharon White Sharing and celebrating mission projects and advocacy ministries, more than 300 Hoosier United Methodists from across the state gathered March 4 for a Mission Advocacy Summit in Carmel. The two-hour, noon luncheon was a time to look ahead and be excited about the endless possibilities of what can happen in Indiana and beyond as Hoosiers are mindful of the Four UMC Foci:
Participants heard reports on global ministries as well as mission and advocacy in the new Indiana Conference from Sam Dixon, director of the United Methodist Committee on Relief based in New York City; the Rev. James Bushfield, new director of Connectional Ministries; the Rev. Cindy Reynolds, superintendent of the Warsaw District, and Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner. Corner also introduced four rules for us to live by as we grow into the New Indiana Conference. He said:
Huntington District cluster raise funds, awareness of campingWhat do you do when you have a group of churches that historically have had very few kids attend camp each year? You get creative! That's exactly what happened when three churches in the Huntington District (Faith Chapel, Pleasant Chapel and Roanoke Seminary UMCs - all part of a newly-formed cluster) recently worked together to produce a dinner theatre they called "Letters from Camp." The March 22 presentation at Seminary UMC drew 100 people and raised more than $800 for camp scholarships for the children and youth of the three churches. In addition to hosting the event, Seminary UMC took lead in planning and preparing a traditional "camp supper," while other members of Seminary took responsibility for publicity, and others handled the audio-visual aspects of the program. Pleasant Chapel did clean-up, and also provided some of the youth actors for the program. Faith Chapel decorated the tables in keeping with various camp themes, while another Faith Chapel team designed, built and painted the set. Help seekers find church through Web directoryNASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - Find-A-Church is much more than a directory of churches. For starters, it is a powerful online tool for evangelism and a modern take on a timeless way to communicate. Find-A-Church connects United Methodist congregations with busy people, in communities across Indiana and the United State, on their terms, on their time and in their comfort zone. The newly enhanced version of Find-A-Church helps congregations to:
Find-A-Church at www.umc.org lists more than 35,000 United Methodist churches. Almost 300,000 people a month already go to Find-a-Church to learn more about congregations just like yours. More visitors are on the way. To add to or change your church's information, visit www.umc.org and click on Find-a-Church on the home page top navigation bar and go to "Personalize your Find-a-Church Page." |
