A message from our Pastor
Welcome!
With the congregation of The First United Methodist Church of Melrose, I welcome you to our web site! If you are searching for ways to strengthen your connection to God and Jesus Christ, if you are hungering for a deeper and richer spiritual life, I hope that you will come to visit our church. We are easy to find in the center of the city of Melrose, on Main Street between Upham and East Emerson Streets across the street from Melrose Co-Operative Bank. Ours is a warm, welcoming, and friendly congregation. We are always overjoyed to welcome visitors to our uplifting and inspiring Sunday morning Worship Services, and our many opportunities for service, fellowship, study and learning . . . and fun!
Some information about our Worship and Sunday School – from September through June, we generally schedule two Sunday morning Services: a 9:00 a.m. Service in our little Chapel, which offers a more intimate, informal setting for worship; and a 10:30 Sanctuary Service, designed for a larger congregation, with a rich variety of sacred music. Our Sanctuary Service also includes a Children’s Worship segment, after which our Sunday School is dismissed for classes. Our Sunday School facilities provide a warm, bright, and happy environment for children and youth. We employ a trained Nursery coordinator for the “littlest” disciples, and celebrate their presence with the same joyful spirit in which Jesus welcomed and encouraged all children. I encourage families with children to “visit” our Sunday School and youth pages on this web site. During the high, holy seasons of the church year, Advent/Christmas and Lent/Holy Week, we schedule many special services and fellowship activities. Again, I invite you to visit our Calendar and Special events page(s) on this web site.
Here at First UMC, Melrose, we consider it an honor and a joy to strive always to be true and faithful to the advertising “motto” of the United Methodist Church – we share our spiritual life as a congregation of Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors. We celebrate diversity in all its richness: theological, cultural, political, gender and gender-orientation. All are welcomed here!
We are very proud of our beautiful facilities. Those who enter our magnificent sanctuary bejeweled with glorious stained-glass windows, a majestic pipe organ, and splendid altar and sanctuary appointments, feel the presence of God. Whether you enter to sit alone and pray, or come to join in the fullness of congregational worship, when you pass through our doors, which we open to you with love, you will surely feel that this is a holy and sacred place.
As you move among this congregation and share the loving and caring embrace of the people of God, you will likewise experience God’s presence in the people who grace this church with their presence – their faith, hope, and love.
As a congregation, we seek to be open to God’s holy presence and guidance as we strive together in the joyful task of being, making, and growing disciples of Jesus Christ. And we are a growing church! We are striving with new resolve and energy to open our doors wider – not only to our local community to love and serve where we are – but also to our global community, as we endeavor to build a new and exciting and expanded world-missional program. Please take the time to “wander” around in the “halls” of our web site. View the delightful and inspiring photos, read about our worship, study, service, and fellowship opportunities – and consider those places that might be calling you into a richer, fuller life of faith and discipleship.
Thank you for visiting us here – and please come to visit us in person, for by your presence here, both you, and we, will be blessed!
Pastor Chuck Hartman
The Pastor's Message: Summer 2010
Practice Makes Perfect -- Are We Going On to Perfection?
Dear Church Family:
Discipleship is not an achievement. It is a way of life that is rooted and grounded in the One who actually described himself as "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The mission of every United Methodist, which begins in the local church and then stretches across the world, is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. When you and I took our vows of membership, we promised that we would live as disciples, and that we would do our part in making disciples of others who are longing to be connected with God. Discipleship is a funny thing. We never, ever quite "arrive" at a final destination. It is a whole life-time of discovery, growth, and empowerment.
I would like to pose a question that is uniquely Wesleyan in nature. John Wesley would ask of United Methodists: Are you going on to perfection? For those who stand outside of the Wesleyan spiritual experience, this seems to be a very strange question indeed. We all know that no one is perfect. But Wesley's question indeed suggests that we never truly "arrive" at a state of perfection. It is a question about the journey of discipleship, which really asks if you and I are moving towards perfection, if we are growing in grace toward that holy state of "sanctification," which John Wesley described as coming to a place, a state of being, not where we are perfect, but where "the perfect love of God is spread abroad in our hearts."
It seems apparent that there is only one way to journey, to move, to go on to perfection. We have all heard -- and said -- that "practice makes perfect." Faith, hope and love are gifts which need to be practiced.
All this is by way of introducing the next phase of our year-long congregational study of The Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. On Sunday, August 1, we will gather together at the Barnum home for our annual All-Church Family Picnic & Planning Day. We will gather for fellowship and a barbecue lunch at 1 p.m. There will be time for dipping in the pool and games. Then, at 3 p.m. we will begin our planning for ministry for the coming year. Our planning will be based upon the Five Practices.
Before we begin the planning session, you will be asked to join in a small group, choosing one of the Five Practices that your group will focus upon as you set goals and make plans for the year ahead. You can only choose one group, so it will be important to choose wisely. Your choice should be rooted in the area about which you feel most passionate. So please -- during the next month, be thinking and praying about the area where you will be focusing your dreams and visions for the small group exercise of setting goals and making concrete plans.
There are many new and creative ideas that came out of the three weekly study groups which met during the year -- a summary of their findings and suggestions will be available as a resource for each small group on planning day. After the five small groups have spent about an hour doing their work, we will all convene together as a Church Council, and then procedurally vote for the recommended goals and action plans that are brought forward.
Remember -- you can only pick one of the Five Practices for your small group focus. The practices are:
1. Radical Hospitality
2. Passionate Worship
3. Intentional Faith Development
4. Risk-Taking Mission and Service
5. Extravagant Generosity
Remember -- practice makes perfect! Are you -- are we -- going on to perfection? Pray for your church this Summer! Ask God to bless our Planning Day. May God's Holy Spirit be present with us as we continue the process of practicing our faith!
In faith, hope, and love,
Chuck Hartman, Pastor
