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Combined Worship on June 4th To celebrate Pentecost Sunday, we are going to combine our worship services and have just one at 10:00. There will be no Center Crew, Youth, or Adult Sunday School classes that day. Children’s Church will extend to the younger elementary aged children, who will actually have their Sunday School during Worship. Worship will be a great celebration with lots of singing: old classic gospel songs and contemporary ones too. Together we will celebrate the birthday of the Church, and reclaim the power the early Church received when the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles. Following Worship, we will move to the gym. Hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided, and we hope you will help furnish the side dishes and desserts. We want you to experience true fellowship on Pentecost Sunday, as we celebrate being one in Christ.

WITNESS: YOU ARE NOW ENTERING YOUR MISSION FIELD Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John 14:15 NRSV All of us who love Jesus are His missionaries and His witnesses. He has given each of us a mission field defined by wherever we are and wherever we go. It’s our family, our neighborhood, our work place, our weekly errands, the larger world. It’s not limited by the four walls of any building. Now hear Jesus’ very next words: “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. John 14:16-17a NIV We’ve already talked about planting seeds by dropping a word of faith into a conversation. When we pay attention to the verbal and nonverbal responses that follow the word of faith, we might have an opportunity to go further. Then it’s possible to use a “connector” in a conversation. A connector is an insert into conversation about a topic or activity that’s relevant to both you and the potential believer, and which carries an opportunity for your witness. It might be about a great movie you’ve seen, such as Woodlawn, or an author, such as John Ortberg. It might be a statement about how you schedule your family’s activities around your worship schedule. It might be something about an event at church. Rely on the Spirit of Truth, God’s Holy Spirit, for the timing and for your words. There isn’t a recipe for what to say. Instead, it’s most important to truly listen to the other person, both what is said and what is not spoken. Here are some principles to guide you as you join God in His work: • Pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. • Listen to the other person, aka, your friend, and to the Spirit. • Match your words to your friend’s need. • Slowly and to the point, tell why and what you believe, not what your friend should believe. • The pacing and depth of your sharing is based on your friend’s interest. Remember that your only agenda is God’s agenda. “You did not choose Me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask Him in my name.” John 15:16 NRSV Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

WITNESS: PLANT SOME SEEDS Now that you’ve outlined your story and you’re holding in your heart Jesus’ commands and our basic Christian beliefs, it’s time to plant. PRAY for a love of the lost. Pray for the willingness to share. Pray to see the opportunities God brings our way. Pray for an obedient heart to share when opportunities arise. Pray Mt 5:16; Ps 40:8-10; Eph 5:1-2. BE WATCHFUL for opportunities. Allow the Holy Spirit to make you sensitive to others’ needs. When an opening arises, “drop a comment” that signals your empathy and Christian view. (Example: When I had a similar problem, my faith helped me cope.) Maybe the person will ask for more; maybe you will be ignored. The idea is to drop a comment (seed) for the person to hear and for the Holy Spirit to use within that person. BE THANKFUL for your salvation and for your relationship with the Lord. Be thankful for the opportunity to serve him and to point others to Jesus. BE FULL OF GRACE when you deal with others. You earn the opportunity to be an influence when you sincerely care about others and truly listen to their words. Listen more than you talk, show respect and be pleasant. Think “fruit of the spirit”: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Tips to be a witness for Christ: • It’s important that your daily thoughts, words and actions match your Christian beliefs. • Sometimes less is more. Showing grace and dropping one seed may be the next step for someone being drawn to Christ. • Remember that Jesus chose ordinary people to be his closest followers. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be ready and willing to trust the Holy Spirit to use your best efforts. Consider the honor given to us: We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 2 Cor 5:20 CEB All who are thirsty should come to me! All who believe in me should drink! As the scripture said concerning me, “Rivers of living water will flow out from within him.” John 7:38 CEB Look for opportunities each day to let Christ’s living water flow through you and into others. Go! Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

Please mark your calendars. Christmas Brunch, Sunday December 11, 9:30 a.m. Bring a favorite dish to share, while the members of the congregation bless us with Christmas songs! Children's Christmas Musical, Sunday December 11, 6:00 p.m. "The Next Noel" Christmas Cantata, Sunday, December 18, 11:00 a.m. Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24 5:00 p.m. Contemporary 7:00 p.m. Will feature our Chancel Choir 11:00 p.m. Acoustic Christmas Morning, Sunday, December 25 We will have ONE SERVICE at 10:30 a.m. We will not have child care, and the service will be very child friendly and casual.

WITNESS: PREPARE YOUR SOIL When preparing for a new task, it’s important to get into the right frame of mind and, sometimes, to do a little research. Let’s start with the Bible: Read Mt 22:37-39 (Love God; love others) and 1 Cor. 13 (Love is patient …). When we witness for Christ, our state of mind must be defined by Jesus’ greatest commandments and Paul’s definition. Easy to read but tough to do. Now let’s review some of our foundational Christian beliefs. You can probably recite from memory John 3:16, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. If not, a computer or your Bible and a Methodist hymnal have these three. Break each one into phrases and think deeply about the meanings and how they define the Christian heart and mind. Here is an example: God so loved the world – God is Love, He loves us beyond understanding, He loves every one of His children that He gave His only Son, - He sent God the Son, in human form, to suffer and die in our place for our sins for all time so that everyone who believes in Him – How can every one believe in Him if they don’t know Him? Who will introduce every one to Jesus? won’t perish but will have eternal life. – Eternity begins today. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven! If, like the disciples, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” sing the hymn again, “Are Ye Able,” and focus on the chorus. Then spend time with these two scriptures related to our responsibility as witnesses for Christ: Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mt 28:18-20 NIV (emphases added) God revealed His hidden design to us, which is according to His goodwill and the plan that He intended to accomplish through His Son. This is what God planned for the climax of all times: to bring all things together in Christ, the things in heaven along with the things on earth. Eph 1:9-10 CEB (emphasis added) The Son is in heaven now; we are his hands, feet and voice on earth. Each of us is part of God’s “hidden design.” Go! Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

Stewardship of Time Imagine waking up each day to discover someone had put $1,440 into your bank account. That would be $10,080 per week simply given to you. You didn’t have to earn it; it was just a gift; and if you didn’t use it by the end of the day, it would disappear. Imagine what could be done with such a gift in your life! It would be hard to handle such a gift. Many would leave it unused in the bank. Many others would waste it, spending it on things that had no lasting value. Realizing you had a seemingly endless, continuous gift, it would be tempting to take it for granted. In reality, that is what you receive each morning, each week. You’ve been given the gift of 1,440 minutes per day, 10,080 minutes per week. There are no directions on how to use such a gift; but at the end of the day, the gift disappears if unused. How would you invest your time if you looked at it as a gift? Do you imagine God feels the same about our time as God does about our money? Is there an expectation that we tithe our time each day? What would it look like to tithe our time? How could we give God 144 minutes per day? That’s two hours and 24 minutes per day. Reading Scripture Listening for God to speak Praying for Others Serving the Marginalized Personal Worship Time Listening to Hurting People Would that change the way your life looks? Would that transform your priority in life? Would that change your relationships? Would that transform who you are at work? Imagine how life could be different if you saw time as a gift to be invested, a gift to be tithed back to God. Maybe God does expect us to tithe our time… Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

Stewardship of Possessions A woman entered her favorite coffee shop, along with a bag of her favorite cookies and a magazine to read while she enjoyed her coffee. All the chairs were taken, except one, where there was a man reading his newspaper. She quietly sat down at his table, not wanting to disturb him, or be disturbed by him. She took out her magazine, sipped her coffee, and reached for one of her cookies on the table. To her surprise, the man at the table also reached in and took a cookie. She couldn’t believe the nerve this man had. It made her angry every time he reached out and took another cookie. She didn’t say anything; she just kept reading her magazine. But every time she took a cookie, he took one. She finally glared at him as to say, “How dare you?!” He just smiled and kept reading his paper. When it was time for her to go back to work, she stood up and walked angrily past the man and on to the elevator. It was on the elevator she opened her purse, to discover her bag of unopened cookies. She had been eating HIS cookies all along, treating HIM like a thief. When you look at the possessions you have in life, it is important to always remember Whose they are. We really are incapable of having anything that is completely ours. It will either be loaded into a dumpster someday, or it will belong to another when we are gone. God is the Provider of all we possess. God created the resources out of which they were made; God provided us with the means to purchase or inherit them; God will possess them long after we are gone. So, if everything we possess is really God’s, how should we be utilizing our possessions for God? Should we keep obtaining more and storing things away in storage buildings; or should we be re-gifting our possessions to those who are in need? The one with the most toys when he dies, doesn’t really win. He just dies. And the toys go to someone else, or are naturally recycled back to God’s creation. What might happen if we saw our possessions as a way to bless others in God’s behalf? What would that look like in your life? What was it about the man in the coffee shop that made it possible for him to share his cookies with the woman who thought they were hers? Why was he smiling while she was angry? He is who I want to be. What about you? Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

Photos from Bixby First United Methodist Church's post

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Timeline Photos

Advent Celebration November 27 is the first Sunday of Advent this year. Join your church family in the gym at 5:00p.m. as we begin this season of anticipating the coming of Christ. Please bring a finger food to share with others as each family makes an Advent wreath to take home. (Supplies for wreath will be provided.) We will then move to the sanctuary to hear about the traditions of Advent and to have a short time of worship together. We hope you will come.

Stewardship of Money My parents raised me with a strong work ethic. I started working when I was in 5th Grade. I’ve always worked very hard, been conscientious, arrived early and left work late. It never occurred to me that my income was mine to spend, because my parents also raised me with a strong awareness that God was the provider. God had made me; God had provided me with strengths, abilities, talents, and the desire to be productive. God had put me in a position to get hired, and taught me much through every work environment I encountered. It was a no-brainer when my parents taught me that God wanted me to use the 90% of my earned income to meet my needs, and to use the other 10% to acknowledge that God was the most important one in my life, giving that 10% to the Church where Christ was at work. Remember the parable Jesus told about the three men who were given substantial money to use for the Master, based on their varying abilities? The first two doubled their Master’s money while he was out of town; the third man buried his money to protect it for the Master. In today’s world there would have to be another man in the story who spent all the Master’s money on himself. The Master was not pleased with the one who buried his money to protect it. Imagine how the Master would feel about those who spend it all on themselves! The stewardship of money is becoming a lost art in our world. We no longer seem to view the money in our lives as belonging to God; so we no longer view God as generous when God meets our needs through the 90% we get to keep; and it makes it hard to give God the full 10% God asks from us. Some like to argue that 10% is not really biblical. They are right. In the Old Testament people were to give 10% in year one and year two. In the third year, they were to give 30% to the Temple. In the New Testament, Jesus didn’t focus on 10%; he encouraged people to give all they had. Remember the one Jesus held up as an example was the poor widow who gave her last two coins. Reflection: When you look at your spending habits, who is Lord of your life? Who gets the 10% that people of faith have traditionally given to God to acknowledge his Lordship? Think about it… Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team

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Stewardship of Life Once there were two men who were neighbors. The first one wanted to bless his wife and children, and even his neighbors with fresh fruit. So he planted the trees, cared for them as they developed, pruned them to make them productive, and the trees produced wonderful fruit. Faithfully, the first man tended his trees, and the trees produced generously each year. Each generation that followed continued caring for the trees, and the trees were faithful in their giving, providing all the family could hold. Some of the tree branches extended over the neighbor’s fence, and the fruit fell into the neighbor’s yard. They really enjoyed the fruit, even though they had never put out any effort to care for the trees. The second man said, “My neighbor has fruit trees that give abundantly. It’s good living next to these trees, where I never have to care for them.” Each generation that followed also enjoyed the fruits of the neighbor’s labor of love. Followers of Jesus serve the Kingdom of God, producing the fruits the world so desperately needs. The world is not here to serve us; we are here to serve the Kingdom and provide for other people in the world. When you look at your life, are you serving the Kingdom, or is the Kingdom serving you? The Tree (the Kingdom of God) never resents giving its fruit; if it stops giving, it dies. It doesn’t demand that we serve it, but when we do, more fruit is produced by it. The same is true of us. If we stop giving, we die. As Church, we urge each other to serve the Kingdom in all we do. That is what it means to be a good steward of the life we’ve been given. Reflection • Do you ever want to be known as the guy who just ate his neighbor’s fruit? • What fruit is your life producing? Disciple’s Journey provided by the Grow Team