We spend most of our Christmas season searching— searching for the perfect gi, searching for bargains, searching for that just-right decoraon, searching for a parking spot. Many people, at the very first Christmas, missed the Christmas because they were too busy. They were looking for other things. The policians missed the first Christmas. The business community missed the first Christmas. The inn- keeper missed the first Christmas. Even the religious establishment missed the first Christmas. They were all busy and looking at other things. The only people who enjoyed the very first Christmas were the people who were looking for it. “The angels told the shepherds, ‘You will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And the shepherds said, ‘Let’s go and see!’” (Luke 2). They found Jesus because they were searching for Him. Later on, another group, the WISE MEN, found Jesus because they were seeking Him. They said, “We have come from the east and we have come to worship Him.” What are you going to find this Christmas? A recent arcle entled, “The Search for the Sacred” says: “Maybe it’s just a crical mass of Baby Boomers in the contemplave aernoon of life. Or, may- be it’s general dissasfacon of materialism of the modern world. For these reasons, and more, millions of Americans are embarking on a search for the sacred in their lives.” The boom line of this arcle is saying people are simply asking, “Is there any meaning to my life? Does my life count? Is there a God? And if there is a God, can we get to know Him?” That’s what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about your geng to know God. God says, “I know everything about you. I know you are good, your bad, your ugly, your past, present, future.” God knows everything about you. Now God wants you to know Him. So He sent Jesus at Christmas. Pastor Thom FORT MYERS, FLORIDA VOLUME 32, ISSUE NO 12 DECEMBER, 2014 Home of Bright Beginnings Early School Cypress Lake Unit- ed Methodist Church 8570 Cypress Lake Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Phone: (239) 482-1250 FAX: (239) 482-6366 Web: cypresslakeumc.com Christmas Eve Services, December 24 3:00 pm Traditional worship with Choir, organ, instrumentalists and soloists 5:00 pm Family service with the Children’s Choirs presenting Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies. 7:00 pm Contemporary worship with our Praise Band. 9:00 pm Traditional worship with Choir, organ, instrumentalists and soloists
Transcript
We spend most of our Christmas season searching—
searching for the perfect gi�, searching for bargains,
searching for that just-right decora�on, searching for a
parking spot.
Many people, at the very first Christmas, missed the Christmas because they
were too busy. They were looking for other things. The poli�cians missed the
first Christmas. The business community missed the first Christmas. The inn-
keeper missed the first Christmas. Even the religious establishment missed the
first Christmas. They were all busy and looking at other things.
The only people who enjoyed the very first Christmas were the people who
were looking for it. “The angels told the shepherds, ‘You will find the baby
wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And the shepherds said,
‘Let’s go and see!’” (Luke 2). They found Jesus because they were searching
for Him.
Later on, another group, the WISE MEN, found Jesus because they were
seeking Him. They said, “We have come from the east and we have come to
worship Him.”
What are you going to find this Christmas?
A recent ar�cle en�tled, “The Search for the Sacred” says: “Maybe it’s just a
cri�cal mass of Baby Boomers in the contempla�ve a�ernoon of life. Or, may-
be it’s general dissa�sfac�on of materialism of the modern world. For these
reasons, and more, millions of Americans are embarking on a search for the
sacred in their lives.” The bo6om line of this ar�cle is saying people are simply asking, “Is there any meaning to my life? Does my
life count? Is there a God? And if there is a God, can we get to know Him?”
That’s what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about your ge;ng to know God. God says, “I know everything about you. I
know you are good, your bad, your ugly, your past, present, future.” God knows everything about you. Now God wants you to
know Him. So He sent Jesus at Christmas.
Pastor Thom
FORT MYERS, FLORIDA VOLUME 32, ISSUE NO 12 DECEMBER, 2014
Home of Bright Beginnings Early School
Cypress Lake Unit-ed Methodist
Church 8570 Cypress Lake Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33919 Phone: (239) 482-1250 FAX: (239) 482-6366
Web: cypresslakeumc.com
Christmas Eve Services, December 24 3:00 pm Traditional worship with Choir, organ, instrumentalists and soloists
5:00 pm Family service with the Children’s Choirs presenting Angels, Lambs, Ladybugs and Fireflies.
7:00 pm Contemporary worship with our Praise Band.
9:00 pm Traditional worship with Choir, organ, instrumentalists and soloists
December, 2014 ~ Chronicle ~ Page 2
MISSION TEAM
Note
Please leave clean, dry plastic grocery bags at the Wel-come Center. They can be any color. Tice United Meth-odist Church is using them for their food pantry ministry. Thank you and God bless you.
Cypress Lake UMC is Mission Focused!
The Mission Leadership Team vision statement is: To engage the entire congregation in missions by praying, giving, or going. Following Jesus’ com-mand to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.
The following are our local outreach minis-tries that the congregation supports:
*Gladiolus Learning and Development Center for low-income families.
*Dunbar High School Girls’ Basketball Team.
*Our Mothers’ Home helps pregnant teens from 13 to 18 as long as they stay in school or have a job.
*Rescue Mission in Fort Myers for homeless men.
*South Fort Myers Food Pantry
*Kairos Prison Ministry at Desoto Correctional Institute in Arcadia.
*The Heights Foundation Center.
*Young Life at Dunbar High School to share Jesus Christ with un-churched teens.
*Fellowship of Christian Athletes at two area high schools.
The following are our global mission pro-jects:
*Sister Church—Moa, Cuba.
*Sister Church—Santa Fe, Cuba
*Orphanage in Angola
*El Salvador
*Church building in Ghana
The following are other mission projects that the church supports:
*Florida Methodist Children’s Home—2 campuses
*Operation Shoe Box
*Florida Bishop’s Fund to Stop Hunger Now
*Cuba/Florida Covenant
*CLUMC Pastor’s Discretionary Funds
*Imagine No Malaria
*Church World Service for Blankets + Program
*Nations Association for Feeding Families in East Fort Myers
*United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)
*Underwear and socks for El Salvador children
*United Methodist World Hunger Fund
The United Methodist Women’s Christmas Lunch-eon will be held on Tuesday, December 9.
The group will meet at the Sunshine Seafood Café at Winkler & Gladiolus at 11:30 am.
Our December local mission project is Toys for the Gladiolus Learning & Developmental Center (preschool through upper elementary). This will be a pleasant time of sharing and fellowship.
Please contact July Green (433-3410) for further information.
Mission Notes Opportunties to Serve
Gladiolus Learning and Development Center
10320 Gladiolus Drive
239-481-2100
Read stories to children, lead songs and games, interact with the children during activities.
Faith United Methodist Church Clothes Closet
15690 McGregor Blvd.
239-940-1101
Sorting and giving out clothing
Tuesday and Saturday - 9:00am—Noon
Thursday - 9:00am—3:00pm
South Fort Myers Food Pantry
Cypress Lake Presbyterian Church
8260 Cypress Lake Drive
239-834-9794
Unpack, shelves, and give out food
Mondays - 9:30M—1:00PM
5:50PM—8:00PM
Esther Dick, President
December, 2014 ~ Chronicle ~ Page 3
YOUTH NOTES Jay Tucker, Youth Director
NOTES FROM OUR LAY LEADER Jim Luther
It is with great joy that we can celebrate Cypress Lake United Methodist Church as one of the Vital Congregations of the Florida Conference in 2014. We had 20 professions of faith for the year. Our av-erage worship attendance grew from 708 to 751. With Pastor Thom’s vision of L.I.G.H.T.S., we can see Cypress Lake doing the Kingdom work for God in our community and globally.
Since November of last year, our membership has grown by 169 members. That percent of increase puts our congregation in the top four percent of all United Methodist congregations in the United States.
Pastor Thom is interested in these increases only because 70 percent of Americans don’t attend church. We are dedicated to doing all we can to bring in new believers.
Please welcome ANN SELL as your new Lay Lead-er for 2015.
L ove for those who don’t know Jesus
I ntentional spiritual formation
G enerosity
H ospitality to our community and the next generation.
T hanking God in passionate worship
S ervice
Our annual Caroling event will take place on Sunday, De-cember 14, from 3-6 pm. We will be visiting local adult care facilities with Christmas carols and smiles! This is not a “youth only” event. All who are interested in at-tending are welcome to join us. Please be able to provide your own transportation to each site we visit.
Our youth group has been serving the church in some pretty special ways! Each Wednesday night, a group of youth meets to clean up the kitchen after our Wonderful Wednesday meals. The youth have been hard at work at this ministry since the restart of our Wednesday night meals.
Our youth group packed 40 boxes for Operation Christ-mas Child on November 9th during our Sunday evening meeting time.
Every Sunday morning, we are blessed to be a part of our Children’s program, J.A.M. Our youth are leading groups, teaching, and being role models for our children!
Joey DeShong is an active part of our 9:30 am Con-temporary Worship team. Joey has been playing bass in the band for a couple of years now, and he definitely en-joys the opportunity to help lead our congregation in wor-ship. Lastly, we want to issue some “Thank-You’s” to some very special people:
Thank you to Caitlin Bowling for all of your hard work with our youth!
Thank you to Karen Liddle for all of your hard work during the Pumpkin Patch!
Thank you to James Barritt for three years of service as the youth representative to Church Council!
Thank you to Kelly Welborn for agreeing to be our new youth representative to Church Council!
Thank you to Josh Losey for helping to build and tear down the Imagine No Malaria “hut”!
Thank you to all of you for your help during Pumpkin Patch!
Christmas Mission Giving
The Christmas Offering Envelope supports our local outreach ministries and international mis-sions. With your gifts, we are the hands and feet of Jesus in our community and in the world.
The EARLY CHURCH did not depend on dedicated build-ings to thrive and form a community of worshippers. Christians would meet their fellow believers in their homes, gathering together to share meals, sing hymns, read scripture, discuss their individual revelations, and pray. The epistles (letters of Paul) were delivered to the houses, the people read them to each other, copying them over before sending them on to other house churches.
House churches are first mentioned in Acts 1:13, when the apostles and their followers meet in Jerusalem to pray in an “upper room” following Jesus' ascension. Typically, several church members would meet in the most affluent member’s house, which was usually the largest; the mem-bers would confer a leadership role on the homeowner. Meetings in house churches would take place around the banquet or dining room table, with each person donating a gift for the “fellowship meal” - some food, song or pray-er, perhaps a prophecy. Early Christians also crossed so-cially, and eventually religious barriers, by permitting Jews and Gentiles to gather together under one roof.
Not limited to the conventional family, the household, which customarily took on the religion of the household’s head, might include slaves, freed persons, tenants, arti-sans, and other relatives. Though the culture was pre-dominately patriarchal, women did, in reality, head many households. Early Christianity seemed to attract wealthy, independent women, who were often widows. Although life in the center of the empire was definitely more re-strictive, it was not uncommon for these women to travel freely and run businesses in outlying Roman colonies.
As new house churches formed, the strongest leader in a district would take on the supervision and management of multiple churches. One of Paul’s overriding concerns was the possibility that these multi-church congregations might break of into cliques, thus diminishing chances of unity among the flock as a whole.
Source: The Bible Companion
Those Ancestors
“A Thanksgiving Story”
The Taylor’s were proud of their family tradition. Their ancestors had travelled to America with the Pilgrim Fathers on the Mayflower. They had included Congressmen, successful entre-preneurs, famous sports people and television stars. They decided to research and write a family history, something for their children and grandchildren.
They found a specialist genealogist and writer to help them. Only one problem arose - how to handle Great Uncle Jefferson Taylor who was executed in the electric chair. The writer said she could handle the story tactfully. When the book appeared, the section about Jefferson read: Great Uncle Jefferson Taylor occupied a chair of applied electronics at an important government institution, he was attached to his position by the strongest of ties, and his death came as a great shock.
From the aBs publication
December, 2014 ~ Chronicle ~ Page 5
Spiritual Giving eNewsletter—Nov. 18, 2014
These words were heard by E. Stanley Jones one day as he was praying and listening to God. “You are Mine. Life is yours.”
What an incredible sentiment from God to us. It roots us and it gives us wings to fly.
We are each God’s posses-sion. Not in the sense of a thing owned by someone, but more like a part of God, ensconced in God’s very be-ing, and totally possessed by God. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) No surer a foundation exists for us as God’s chil-dren. So God reminds Rev. Jones and us. “You are Mine.”
CHRISTMAS CANTATA TO BE PRESENTED DECEMBER 14
The Chancel Choir has been diligently rehearsing, preparing for the presentation of A Candlelight Christmas by Benja-min Harlan, on December 14 at both the 8:00 am and 11:00 am services. Our 35-voice choir, plus instrumentalist and narrators will illuminate the familiar Christmas Story with both traditional carols and newly written songs. Pastor Thom will be presenting a sermon in both services. This will be a great opportunity to invite your friends and neighbors to at-tend church with you.
AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIENCE HANDBELL RINGING
It is not too late to sign up to learn how to ring bells. We start at the very beginning and proceed at your own level. All participants will be beginners. Make plans now to add this fun and rewarding activity to your schedule. Call or email Karen Shafer at 239-482-1250,ext. 230, or email [email protected] for more information.
DO YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT?
We have need from time to time for pianists and instrumentalists in the worship services. Please contact Karen Shafer if you’d like to be included. [email protected] or 239-482-1250.
There are two gifts we should give our children: one is
ROOTS, and the oth-
er is WINGS.
God not only provides a place for us to stand, but also sets us free to explore the gift given to us by God. We have freedom to use our lives in any way we want. If we live our lives like our deepest God-made desires want, we will continue to stand within the light of righteousness. Yet, we have the ability to stray. Even then God still holds a spot for us as God’s child. We cannot stray far enough to lose sight of God’s love. We may blind ourselves to it but it is always there for us. “Life is yours.”
“You are God’s. Life is yours.” How well we re-member these two thoughts can determine the wholeness of our lives.
From the United Methodist Church Foundation Team.
Music Notes Karen Shafer
Music Director
December, 2014 ~ Chronicle ~ Page 6
12/2 Charlie & Jean States
12/3 Jack & Barbara Braun
12/4 Foster & Linda Pound
12/16 Jim & Sharon Luther
12/18 Gary & Colleen Sharp
12/19 John & Bobbie Nack
12/21 Kurt & Nanny Laderer
12/24 Walt & Barbara Keene
Richard & Shirley Kitt
12/27 David & Phyllis Crumbo
12/28 Gene & DiAnne Carpenter
John & Terri McGowan
12/30 Ruth & Tom Kiesel
Jack & Sheila Turregano
Happy Birthday
12/17 Diana Byers
Betty Johnson
Fred Snyder
William Stitt
12/18 Joan Humphreys
Eva Knight
Matt Lewis
Ann Sell
12/19 Grey DeMello
Sandy Gribaudo
12/20 Kasee Lamphere
Carol Leonard
12/22 V. Deetscreek
Jerod Edgington
Sharon Siggs
12/23 Deborah Burgman
12/24 Jessica Clark
Pat Geis
Wayne Slockbower
12/25 John Dulmer
James Holley, Sr.
Charles Kissick
12/26 Chris Krein
12/27 John Campbell
John Dick
12/28 Susan Hull
John Rumble
Jay Tucker
12/29 Betty Baldwin
Rebecca Mendes
Henrietta Speth
12/30 Becca Spear
12/31 Roz Case
Judy Green
Mary King
Tia Landrum
Happy Anniveary
CIRCLE OF CONCERN—December, 2014 To add a name to our Prayer List, Please call Pastor Patty at 482-1250
12/2 Donna Ebright
Otto Fore, Jr.
Kathryn McGonegal
12/3 Colleen Sharp
12/4 Jessica Bays
Katy Berdolt
12/5 Preston J. Armstrong
Audrey Cowsert
Jerry Hesse
Kirk Riley
12/6 Peg Andrews
Lisa Hanson
Norman Krause
Bill Skillmand
12/7 Brian Potter
Peggy Rosenfeld
12/8 June McCoun
12/9 Freddie Gomez
12/10 Jim Osborn
Jim Thomas
12/11 Carlene Still
Renee Webb
12/12 Carol Clem
Dick Edwards
Peggy Graham
Ruth Morgan
Patricia Randolph
12/13 Herb Anciaux
Judy Bethke
Val Campbell
Chuck Place
12/14 Charrie Dennard
Brett Jackson
Emily Speas
12/15 Jeff Armsworth
Diego Gomez
Theresa Monroe
Megan Reusch
12/16 Carolyne Childress
Judy Krein
Don Spaulding
Charlie States
Mary Barnes Tom Bernardo Katherine Bluey Brenson Dahl Carole Damion
Wyatt DeArmond Bill Dormer
Melissia Douglas Capt. Sean Duggan Helen Eppelsheimer L. Cpl Craig Henry Clinda Jordan Eleanor Knapp
Lt. Michael Knight Ed Krein
Kevin Livingston June McCoun Darwin McVay Trinity Moreno
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