One-on-One with Pastor Jerry is a weekly report on family news and church and community activities, events, ministries and missions. Visit this page each week or sign up to receive it weekly in your inbox. Archive issues can be viewed at NoblesvilleFirst.com/one-on-one-archive.
November 23, 2021
Book 7, Volume 32
The One on One is coming out early this week because I assume you will not be checking your email as often come Thursday or Friday with your Thanksgiving celebrations taking place. Nancy will be transporting her granddaughter Ava from her mother to her dad Thanksgiving morning and then we will have a quiet Thanksgiving together. Our large family gathering will take place at my daughter Kelsey’s house in Evansville on Saturday. I believe we have 26 people coming for that get together. Anyway, I will be back for Sunday which is the first Sunday of Advent and for the Hanging of the Greens on Sunday afternoon from 4:00 to 6:00 pm.
I noticed on Monday Carol Miller had a team of people getting the Christmas trees in the worship spaces and hallways in place for us to decorate on Sunday afternoon. I hope you can make it because this is a great way to get in the Christmas spirit. We will have some Jimmy John sandwiches available to eat. We will sing some Christmas carols and learn about the historic Christian symbols which will be placed on our Chrismon tree.
If you were not in church Sunday, you missed our announcement that David McKenzie has been hired as our new Student Ministry Director. David is 36 years old and has been married for seven years and has two children, ages 4 and 7. He grew up in Old Bethel UMC and started out in sales as he is a natural entrepreneur. When his mother died from cancer in 2018, he noticed the impact she had on so many people which made him decide to switch to a more people-oriented career path. He went back to school at Indiana Wesleyan for Pastoral Care and there discerned a calling to work with youth and has been working with the YMCA on the east side of Indy most recently. David will wrap things up with his YMCA position in the next month and will officially start at Noblesville First in January.
We are grateful for the message Bryan Mills brought to us last Sunday, continuing our Seeds of Hope generosity campaign. He reminded us that our generosity is motivated by the amazing opportunities God gives us to serve. He shared how his career has led him down a path he would have never chosen on his own. And yet now he leads 16,000 employees at the Community Health Network. We continue to track our fourth quarter giving which is currently at $160,364 toward of goal of $425,000 for the fourth quarter. We are encouraging everyone to up their usual giving by at least 10% to help us finish the year strong and keep our ongoing ministry on solid financial footing going into 2022.
On the heels of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, please remember Noblesville First as next Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, a national effort by non-profits to encourage each of us to offer a gift to others while we are buying gifts for our loved ones. Any giving will be added to our Seeds of Hope generosity effort. View giving options at ... NoblesvilleFirst.com/give.
Our Student Ministry team will be available after the 9:45 Worship to launch their Gift Card Fundraiser. If you plan to buy gift cards as Christmas presents, then buy them from our youth group. For example, buy a $50 Kohl's card for $50 and Kohl's pays a percentage to Student Ministry. We'll use the funds for the youth mission trip this spring to Give Kids the World.
The United Methodist Women’s Priscilla Circle is grateful for all the support they received for Bags, Baskets and Blessings. As of Sunday, they had made $8,500 for this year’s UMW missions.
They had a few baskets left over and they will be available for sale at the Christmas Tea which is a week from tomorrow on Wednesday, December 1 at 9:30 in Celebration Hall. Please bring items for newborns for the Layette Project which will be donated to Birthright of Cicero and Touch of Love at Riverview Hospital. The program will feature Great Joy Revival singing gospel and Christmas songs.
The UMW Grace Circle is now asking for names and address for their Fries for Friends effort. They'll be sending $5 McDonalds gift cards to the congregation's college students, trade school students, and young people in the military. These will be sent out via “snail mail” so we would like the name of the student and BEST mailing address (preferably home if living in a dorm or some kind of temporary housing). Please send your information to Karen Staton at kstaton6@yahoo.com no later than Sunday, December 12.
Respite Night will be offered Saturday, December 11 from 6:00-9:00 pm. This is a free opportunity for parents and caregivers of children with mild to moderate special needs and their siblings to have a night of relaxation. Hanna Rose launched this ministry a while back and verified the need for it in our community.
To make this ministry happen we need caring adults willing to undergo training on Tuesday, November 30 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. If you cannot make that training it will be recorded for you to watch later. Go to NoblesvilleFirst.com/respite to register or volunteer. Thanks to Ally Hall for bringing this important ministry back.
You are invited to Starting Point where you'll hear from some of our key staff about the unique opportunities we have to connect and to serve. You will hear a little about our unique Methodist theology and the vision we have at Noblesville First for our community. We are offering two ways to experience Starting Point. We will offer a Zoom session on Wednesday, December 1st from 7:30 to 8:30 pm or you can come on Sunday, December 5 to the Rairdon home at 125 Lansdowne Drive, Noblesville, from 4:00 to 5:30 pm. We will share some dessert and get to know one another while hearing what Noblesville First has to offer for your spiritual walk. Email me at jrairdon@noblesvillefirst.com to RSVP for both opportunities.
Confirmation is a time to connect, learn and grow in your faith. If you have a student 6th grade or older interested in joining the 2022 Confirmation Class, contact Pastor Jill Moffett jmoffett@noblesvillefirst.com or call the church office at 317-773-2500. Confirmation will start in January.
Let’s also get the Christmas Festival of Music & Art on your radar, which will be held in partnership with Janus Developmental Services. This special concert which begins at 7:00 pm with Pre-Service music at 6:40 pm and the Art Sale beginning at 5:30 pm, but also available afterwards. This has become a gift to the Janus community and provides an opportunity to connect their clients with the community and showcases their artistic skills. You will find many of these make great Christmas gifts and it will provide an opportunity to experience our Chancel Choir and orchestra along with the Janus Choir.
Here is a list of upcoming Student Ministry events (6th-12th grade) events:
- Sunday Funday on November 28 (following Hanging of the Greens) from 6:00 to 8:00 pm with food, games, dinner provided.
- Youth Christmas Party on December 19 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm with a white elephant gift exchange, games, food, hot chocolate bombs, and a gingerbread house competition.
- Outside In on January 16 from 5:30 to 8:00 pm with outdoor games but inside, as well as food, fun & fellowship.
The office will be closed tomorrow, Wednesday, November 24, because our electricity will be turned off by Duke Energy to replace the transformer next to the church. The office is also closed Thursday and Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.
This Sunday, Pastor Jill and I will go different directions with our Advent Worship Series. In 8:30 Early Worship and 9:45 Traditional Worship, I will be looking at the unique Greek word pleroo which means to complete or fulfill. It is a word used to describe salvation and the abundant life God desires for each of us. The inspiration for the series comes from John 15:11, “I have said these things to you so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete (pleroo).” We will look at the relationship of this word (pleroo) to the Advent themes peace, hope, joy and love which we recall each year as we light the candles of the Advent wreath. We will discover how to find complete peace, complete hope, complete joy and complete love.
In the 9:45 Family Worship and the 11:00 Contemporary Worship, Pastor Jill is going to have some fun with the classic movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Jill says, “We don’t know why the Grinch hated Christmas. We just know he did. In this series, we will explore the faith themes in this Christmas classic. This will include wrestling with questions such as: How did the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes come Christmas morning? How did Christmas save the Grinch? Could it be that the very thing we think we hate is the one thing that changes our lives? This Advent and Christmas season, we will look at a familiar classic through the lens of faith and see how Christ speaks to us through our culture.”
Thursday Worship, led by Pastor Matt Hantelman, will be held at 6:30 tonight on Zoom only. Find the link at NoblesvilleFirst.com/ThursdayWorship. Also note that Thursday Worship will be held on Zoom only for the remainder of the year. For more information contact Matt at mhantelman@noblesvillefirst.com.
This Sunday, our Noblesville Kids program which runs from 10:00-10:45 will continue its series on contentment. This week, we head to something Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5. The believers in Corinth had an opportunity to really help the people who were struggling in Jerusalem. Paul highlighted how the church in Macedonia donated freely, even though they were very poor. This is a great reminder for the Corinthian church and for us—that no matter what we have or what we’ve been through, we can always find something to give. Bottom Line: You can always use what you have to help someone else. When we talk about giving, kids might feel like the concept doesn’t apply to them. After all, most of them don’t have extra money laying around that they can share with others. However, when kids start to look at the way God has wired them, they’ll discover ways they can use their time and talents to help others. We pray that kids will get inspired to be content with what they have in order to serve and help those around them.
Share prayer requests and check out the week's opportunities to get involved and stay connected on the Next Steps page at NoblesvilleFirst.com/NextSteps or on the Noblesville First mobile app. And share your pastoral needs by emailing care@noblesvillefirst.com or calling the 24/7 Care Line at 317-773-2590.
See you tonight or Sunday,
Pastor Jerry Rairdon