Come and join us for a great time of fellowship, music, food and fun!

It’s our 3rd Annual Community Block Party

Marshville UMC

310 Ross Street

Sunday, May 20th

4:00-7:00 pm

Join us for volleyball, storytelling, pony rides, petting zoo, jumping castle, spin-art, sno-cones, hot dogs, music and much more!  Learn more about our church and its ministries.

Bring a friend.  Bring your neighbors.  Bring your lawn chairs and plan to spend the afternoon with us.

Any questions, call the church office at 704-624-6562!

FOR THE SAKE OF A NEW WORLD, we see a new church.

WE SEE A NEW CHURCH. It is a church that is clear about its mission and confident about its future; a church that is always reaching out, inviting, alive, agile, and resilient.  We see a church that is hope-filled, passionate, nimble, called by God, and courageous.  It is a church that is passionately commit­ted to the mission and vision of the Wesleyan movement.  This church takes risks to serve the poor, reach new people, and search continuously for creative ways to help each person grow in grace, love, and holiness.

TODAY WE CALL YOU TO ACTION, to join with United Methodist sisters and broth­ers from around the world in the adventure of becoming a New Church.  The most important steps will not result from legislative action at General Conference or in annual conferences.  Instead, they will require different actions and patterns of leadership by bishops, clergy, and laity.  These changes must be grounded deeply in the spiritual disciplines of prayer and fasting.  These changes have already begun, and the Call to Action is already starting to be employed in many congre­gations and conferences.

WE ARE CALLED TO:

~ GROW VITAL CONGREGATIONS that will make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world;

~ DEMONSTRATE COURAGEOUS TURNAROUND LEADERSHIP that leads the church toward deep Holy Spirit change;

~ TAKE RISKS; experiment in ministry as we go to the margins of society to minister with the poor, immigrants, prisoners, and the homeless, as well as with the non-religious and nominally religious people in our communities;

~ UNITE AS ONE; develop deeper trust so that together we face our adaptive spiritual challenges;

~ SET VISIONARY GOALS and support one another as we eagerly experiment, innovate, embrace change, and regularly account for our ministries.

- The Council of Bishops, The United Methodist Church,  December 2011

United Methodist Church                                                     

For some, church obligations have now been fulfilled until Christmas.  For others who have worked hard to prepare such wonderful Easter Celebrations or taken time out of their busy schedules to attend extra services, we may feel like it is time to get back to normal.  But that’s just the point.  The Resurrection is our new “Normal.”  Easter is not the end of the story but only a new beginning as we move toward Pentecost when God poured out His Holy Spirit on all flesh, just as He promised through the Son, so that we might know the height and breadth and depth of His grace, mercy, and love.

Over the coming weeks, take time to consider how the Resurrection of Christ affects your “normal” life.  At first, even the disciples were dazed and confused and the women’s report of the resurrection seemed like an “idle tale.”  Yet Jesus was gracious and revealed himself to them in many ways over the next 40 days, that they might fully experience His resurrection power for themselves.

Join us as we walk with the disciples and Experience the Resurrection for ourselves, that God might transform our “normal” lives and that through us, the world might experience the glory of God the Father, through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ, by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit…

Sunday, April 15^th – Experiencing Resurrection through the Ordinary

Sunday, April 22^nd – Special Guest: Rev. Britt Hadley (Associate Pastor at Central UMC, Monroe)

Sunday, April 29^th – Experiencing Resurrection through our Doubts

Sunday, May 6^th – Experiencing Resurrection at the Table

Sunday, May 13^th – Experiencing Resurrection through Forgiveness

Sunday, May 20^th – Experiencing Resurrection in the Waiting

Palm Sunday, April 1

9:30 a.m. — Sunday School for All Ages

10:30 a.m. Worship — Sermon “Foolish Ways”

Holy Thursday, April 5

7:00 p.m.           Communion Service with Special Music offered by our chancel choir

Good Friday, April 6

12:00 noon       Lunch and Good Friday Devotions at First Baptist Marshville.

3:00-7:00 p.m.   Union United Methodist in Wesley Chapel will be hosting an interactive Journey to the Cross where you can experience the passion of Christ through sight, sound, smell, and touch.  Please see Craig for directions or more details.

Easter Sunday, April 8

7:00  a.m.          Sunrise Service with communion

8:15 a.m.           Breakfast sponsored by UMM

9:30 a.m.           Sunday School

10:30 a.m.         Second Service of Celebration

Everyone is invited to bring flowers to decorate the cross in the sanctuary. Flowers can be placed on the cross anytime during the

From Baltimore, Maryland, by way of Orlando, Gainesville, and DeLand Florida, and then through Wilmore & Springfield Kentucky, I have found my way by God’s grace to the beautiful state of North Carolina. My wife, McKenzie, and I married in June of 2000 and through the mentorship of several great pastors, we accepted our call to ministry as a clergy couple in 2005 while I was serving as a youth pastor in DeLeon Springs, Florida.  Though we had no idea what that would look like, we set out the day after Christmas in 2006 for the Bluegrass State, home of Asbury Theological Seminary, where we each earned dual masters degrees.  We served together for 4 years as co-ministers at Springfield UMC while in Seminary and upon graduation in the summer of 2011 we moved to Western North Carolina where we are presently serving and working through the Ordination Process.

We have no children except for two beagles, who are very much like children, and we have been serving together at Union UMC near Waxhaw since our arrival in July.  I am now blessed with the opportunity to serve here at Marshville UMC as interim pastor during an exciting time of transition in the life of the church.  I have already experienced a wonderfully warm welcome and look forward to what God will do in this amazing church family in the months ahead.  In His Image, Craig J. Sefa

Today’s Daily Devotional From The Upper Room

• Wanted: Ordinary People

  Read Matthew 14:22-33

  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.

  - Romans 12:2 (NRSV)

  Today’s Devotional

  What would you do if Jesus came to your church and said, “I’m looking for a few ordinary people”? Why would Jesus be interested in ordinary people?

  Yet these are the ones Jesus called to be his friends: fishermen, a tax collector, a teacher, a homemaker. I have related to Peter more than any of Jesus’ other followers.

  Peter was impulsive, like me. Seeing Jesus walking on the water, he said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you.” Jesus did and Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, something no one except Jesus had done. That is not ordinary. Then Peter looked around at the wind and the waves, and he fell. That is what I would do. That’s ordinary.

  After Jesus’ arrest, fear overcame Peter and he denied knowing Jesus. I hate to say it, but I probably would have done the same. I am grateful that Jesus loved and forgave Peter and commanded him, “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17). Peter later became a preacher in the early church. The longer Peter walked with Jesus, the more he was changed. And the more I walk with Christ, the more I realize how much he wants to help me become the servant God wants me to be.

  Sue Tornai (California, USA)

  Thought for the Day: God calls ordinary people to be extraordinary servants.

  Prayer: O God, help us ordinary people to be extraordinary workers for your kingdom. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

  Prayer Focus: Ordinary people

  The scripture quotation, unless otherwise indicated, is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

  Copyright ©2012 by The Upper Room, a ministry of GBOD. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission from the publisher.

5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

Pancake Supper sponsored by the United Methodist Men

Proceeds will go to benefit our Youth Summer Missions

Pancakes are a tradition for the day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.  In earlier times, the people were called to give up rich food during the season of Lent.  Those foods included, eggs, milk, meat and butter, and what better way to use up those items in your household than by making pancakes.

Invitation to the Observance of Lenten Discipline

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ;

the early Christians observed with great devotion

the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection,

and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration

there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation.

During this season converts to the faith who were prepared for Holy baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins

and had separated themselves from the community of faith

were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness,

and restored to participation in the life of the church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded

of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ

and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church,

to observe a holy Lent;

by self-examination and repentance;

by prayer, fasting, and self-denial;

and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word

To make a right beginning of repentance,

and as a mark of our mortal nature,

let us now pray before our Creator and Redeemer.