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!!!!!

Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World

January 2015 Volume 6, Issue 1 Published Monthly

Dyer United Methodist Church 2016 Church Street

Dyer, IN 46311 219.865.8947

www.dyerumc.org

NOAH Team

The past few months have been jam-packed with wonderful events and an outpouring of Christian love and fellowship from the people in our congregation. Nurturing, Outreach, Adult Ministries and Hospitality covers

a lot of ground. If we’re doing this right, then all the activities this team promotes, organizes, or assists with will simply be a reflection of you as the face of Christ in our community. This quarter DUMC hosted our annual Fall Fest and Hayride, a holiday concert by the Dyer Wind Ensemble, and a special performance of “A Christmas Carol” by professional storyteller Grant Fitch. We reached out to our college students with

cards, personal notes and lots of cookies. A few of you have made a special effort to reach out individually to those students. Thank you so much! It means a lot.

Several members of our choir represented DUMC at Dyer’s annual tree-lighting ceremony. And Invitations to our Christmas Eve services were given to our food pantry and Angel Tree recipients. Our Couple’s Ministry continues to grow. The last event was a “Taste of Italy” dinner party hosted by Carl & Lorrie Lisek. Seven couples made it to that event. Awesome! Then as we wrap up 2014, poinsettias will be delivered to our shut-ins and we will head over to Dyer Nursing & Rehabilitation Center for our monthly service & sing-along. That’s the 4

th Sunday of every month at 2 p.m. Please join us!

Can’t wait to see what 2015 has in store for DUMC!

R

ead and learn more about our “Good News” inside this edition.

Good News Edition!

Our leaders in the

church continue to

share great things

that are going on

with their teams in

this edition.

Thank you for being

so faithful to our

church by supporting

it with your Prayers,

Presence, Gifts,

Service and Witness.

Fall Fest and Hayride

Dyer Wind Ensemble

“I” WITNESS NEWSLETTER Page 2

Look what happened last month

Sacrament of Holy Baptism Desmond Ramirez

Christmas Shopping for Angel Tree Participants

Fruitful Congregations Journey

“To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the

transformation of the world”

Guest Preacher on January 11:

Herb Buwalda “The Church that Jesus Built”

Scriptures: Proverbs 29:18, Matthew 16: 13-18.

January 27 @ 7:00PM: Core Values Workshop

February 17 @ 7:00PM: Vision Workshop

March 10 @ 7:00PM:

Vision Teams Reporting

Friday, February 6, 2015 St. Maria Goretti Church

Casa Maria Hall (500 Northgate Dr, Dyer)

@ 6:00PM.

We ask for prayers and support

as we plan for this event.

If anyone is interested in helping,

please contact the office at

219.865.8947.

Save the Date!

Annual Youth

Pasta Dinner,

Auction &

Talent Show A fundraiser supporting

youth camp ministries

“I” WITNESS NEWSLETTER Page 3

Good News Stories, Continued

STAFF PARISH RELATIONS COMMITTEE

SPRC has continued working toward filling our Youth Ministry Director position. This has been a lengthy process, but we are confident through prayer that we will locate an ideal candidate to serve at DUMC. The position is included in the 2015 DUMC operating budget. A Job Description for this position was finalized in November and has been sent to the North District, area schools, Garrett Seminary, Olivet Nazarene and other potential sources. We also ask for the congregation to “keep their ears open” for any strong candidates.

We are very pleased to continue our support of Courtney Myers’ calling into Ministry as she continues through the various procedural steps. Courtney met with a District representative in August, and then was interviewed by our committee at our September meeting. We then proudly nominated Courtney at the October 26th Charge Conference, where she was introduced by the D.S. to the district members.

SPRC has customized a “generic” Employee Performance Evaluation form to be used by DUMC for future staff reviews. We plan to have a member of SPRC present at most reviews along with Pastor Jim. All annual staff reviews are to be completed by year end.

SPRC made a proposal to the Finance Committee to increase the Church Secretary position from 16 hours per week to 20 hours per week beginning in 2015. This increase is necessary due to the current requirements of the secretarial position.

As a part of Pastor Appreciation month, we recognized Pastor Jim and his family on October 26th for their commitment to serving God and DUMC in so many ways. Thanks again for all their continuing service.

Lastly, we are proud to share that Pastor Jim has been invited to participate in the Bishop’s Leadership Academy, which is a leadership development program led by Bishop Coyner. Pastor Jim will have the opportunity to travel to Africa University in March with the group. Congratulations Pastor Jim!

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FOOD PANTRY TEAM

In 2014, 102 individual guests made a total 715 visits to our food pantry. We average 23 guests for each

distribution during the warm months, and 39 during cold months. Most of our guests visit us regularly; 22

individuals were present for at least half of our 24 distribution days.

Thanks to the crew who painted the room we use; to Lake Central, Grimmer, and the Stardust bowling leagues

who provided us with donations of food items, turkeys and cash at Thanksgiving; and the people who served at the

donation table at Jewel during the two holidays. We provided each guest with a turkey or turkey dinner at

Thanksgiving, and a turkey or a ham dinner at Christmas. Dinners were also provided for Campagna Academy

and Aliveness families.

We currently have food inventory to take us into early February. Our efforts as we start 2015 are to secure food

items to sustain this ministry to the Spring postal workers food drive. Volunteers are welcome to join us the first

and third Monday morning of each month!

“I” WITNESS NEWSLETTER Page 4

Good News Stories, Continued

Missions Team Angel Tree 2014: God blessed our Angel Tree ministry at every turn this year. Every time we turned around there was something else we were thanking God for whether it was the continued financial support from the A.B.A.T.E. group or the way the Lake Central School Corporation helped so many families find us and how they got physically involved by taking several Angels themselves or by the amazing way this church (the people) allows God to use them for this ministry. We are overwhelmed by all of you and your willingness to sacrifice your time and resources to help the neediest families in our communities have a merrier Christmas than they would have had otherwise. You are all so appreciated. And finally, we want to thank God for His continuous and obvious involvement in this ministry; He is good.

CHILDREN’S MINISTRY TEAM

The KIDS JAM MISSIONS UNLEASHED children have been busy making blankets for the St. Jude House and name tags for the Angel Tree project. They also got the chance to go to Walmart and help with the shopping for the remaining Angel Tree families.

We had a successful Parents Night Out event in December where we had pizza, popcorn and the movie "Arthur Christmas".

We are looking forward to launching our newest Children's program KIDS JAM WORSHIP this February. This will take place during the regular Worship service and it will give the children their own Worship experience, with music and a message designed just for them. There will be a kick off event for this new program in January. Keep a look out for more exciting news regarding KIDS JAM WORSHIP and other Children's Ministries opportunities in the coming year or contact anyone on the Children's Ministries Team.

FINANCE TEAM

Receipts for 2014 general operations expenses are about $5000 more than expenses, which has built up our reserves to more than one month of expenses. In addition, all donations for designated initiatives such as food ministry, scholarships, missions, and memorials are kept for those specific functions. Conference tithes have been paid in full, and we continue to pay additional principal on our facilities loan each month.

We have approved a budget that is $9000 higher for 2015. Our healthy finances allow us to upgrade the sanctuary computer, add a part-time youth leader, fund Fruitful Congregations, and undertake more missions initiatives in the new year. Thank you for your extravagant generosity!

TRUSTEES TEAM

The Trustees have more Good News to report since our last letter! In the fall, with the help of many hands, the entrance to our church received a new look with the addition of fresh sod. The efforts of two persons in particular do not go unnoticed. Thank you Carol Beezie and Angie VanDeursen, for your continued the maintenance and care of our landscaping and other outdoor areas throughout the summer and fall.

Inside our church, many hands helped give the food pantry a facelift with some de-cluttering and a fresh coat of paint. This will aid the Mission team in their continued ministry to those nearby.

We continue to work with the Worship and Finance teams as we transition our audio-visual equipment into a reliable, up-to-date system that will be user friendly. We will then have the ability to use media in today’s current formats.

The Trustees look forward to working with the FCJ team during this coming year. And we thank those Trustees who are leaving our group and also look forward to new faces joining our team.

“I” WITNESS NEWSLETTER Page 5

A brand new year has begun; 2014 is in the books and 2015 awaits. I always get excited when a new year

begins; not because I have some naive confidence that all of my "resolutions" will be successful, I have come to

realize that is just not true. I get excited when a new year dawns because I see it as a blank canvas for God and

me to paint on; I also see it as a blank canvas for God and the people of Dyer United Methodist Church to paint

on. God used our church in so many ways in 2014 to bless His children in our community and around the

world, including those who call DUMC their home. I am as confident as I can be that He has plans to do that

again in 2015; the plans will be different, some of the people He uses us to reach out to will be new, changes

will be necessary for us to follow Him where He leads us; but my prayer is that we will still faithfully commit to

seeking Him and His plan for us in 2015. I love what Jesus said and John recorded in the book of Revelation,

chapter 3 verse 20, "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I

will come in and eat with him, and he with me." That is a promise Jesus continues to make to each of us; if we

will open the door for Him, He will come in and have fellowship with us, love us, lead us, help us and show us

what plans He has for us this year. We may not know exactly what those plans are, but we can know without a

shadow of doubt that they are good because He is good. My prayer for each of you and for our church, is that

we will hear Him knocking and open the door and follow Him into the brand new year that awaits us. Happy

New Year!

Through Christ, Pastor Jim.

A note from Pastor Jim

Upcoming Sermon Series

The Methodist Movement was founded by John and Charles Wesley in 18th century England. The Wesley's understanding of God and the Christian faith has followed the movement through the years and over thousands of miles. Eventually the movement came to Dyer, Indiana and to this community of faith, the Dyer United Methodist Church. Through this series I hope to share the timeless staples of our faith; the beliefs, ideas and scriptural interpretations the Wesley's used to help what became millions of people around the world, understand how to follow Jesus. These are some of the ways we are United in Christ, by Methodism.

January 18-February 15, 2015

January 18 The Graces

Ephesians 2:1-10

January 25 The Means of Grace

Colossians 2:6-7 & Psalm 105:4

February 1 Christian Perfection

Philippians 3:10-14

February 8

Faith and Good Works

James 2:14-19

February 15 Movement

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

“I” WITNESS NEWSLETTER Page 6

Upcoming Events

Sign up for email event reminders at www.dyerumc.org. Go to the calendar page.

At Your Service Pastor Jim Clark .................................... �..james.clark@inumc.org

Music Director Juanita Jarecki���������...juanitaj88@gmail.com

Office Administrator Diane Sinish���������...��office@dyerumc.org

Nursery Coordinator/Custodian Angie VanDeursen���.��..vandeursen@sbcglobal.net

In Our Prayers Eileen Beil Wynter Rose Travis Beil Caren Ross Shirley Cearing Brad Schwent Linda Crowder Jackie Smith Melba Fixter Lorraine Warmelink Donna Glittenberg Journey Church Amy Hoch Our Service Members Gloria Johnson The Cearing Family Jackie Mauch

If you have a prayer need that you would like to add to the prayer chain, please call the church office, Cathy Millard at 219.365.3954 or send an email to Roseann Piercy at rr_piercy@comcast.net.

From Diane Sinish, Church Secretary:

Happy New Year!!!

How time flies! It’s hard to believe that I have been working in the

church office for over nine months now! It has really been a good year working in this position and getting to know many of you.

Beginning January 2015, my office hours will increase an additional four hours per week.

My new office hours will be: Monday-Friday, 9AM-1PM.

I look forward to working with all of you in the New Year! And thank you so much for making me feel like part of the Dyer

United Methodist Church family!

News from the Office Calling All Couples!!

Join the Couples Ministry at Dyer United Methodist Church!

All couples welcome!

SAVE THE DATE

Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 6:00 p.m.

We are planning a Fiesta Night! Plan on joining the FUN! Watch for more details,

Want to help plan the evening or need more information??

Contact: Lorrie & Carl Lisek (219)765-4776 or Bob & Nancy Forsythe (219)322-5532.

Thank You! The Clark family would like to thank all of you for your prayers, cards and phone calls. You have all been so helpful to us as we begin to heal from the loss of Megan’s mom, Dixie. We love you and thank God for such a wonderful church family.

2015 Confirmation Class

Our next confirmation class will begin very soon for kids from 6th-12th grade who are interested in learning more about Jesus, the Christian faith and the United Methodist Church. Confirmation is also the final step for young people to become full members of the church.

We will continue to use the CREDO Confirmation program, but the formatting will be different this year. Instead of meeting on 36 Sunday mornings, we will be meeting for 18 two-hour sessions on various Saturdays and Sundays. A final schedule will be shared soon. If you have youth who are interested in confirmation, please contact Pastor Jim or Diane Sinish in the church office at 219.865.8947 or via email at office@dyerumc.org.

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Weekly Service Times

Sundays 9:00 a.m. Worship Service 10:15 a.m. Fellowship Time

10:30 a.m. Sunday School (All ages)

Prayer Gathering

7:15 a.m. Sunday Mornings

www.dyerumc.org 219-865-8947

January 2015 Meetings

Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors 2016 Church Street Dyer, IN 46311

Children’s Ministries Monday, January 5 6:30PM

Worship Team Monday, January 5 7:00PM

N.O.A.H Tuesday, January 6 6:30PM

Trustees Tuesday, January 6 7:00PM

Mission’s Team Monday, January 12 7:00PM

Staff-Parish Monday, January 19 7:00PM

DUMC Staff Tuesday, January 20 10:00AM

Finance Team Tuesday, January 27 6:00PM

Ad Council Tuesday, January 27 7:00PM

Join us for Youth Group Sunday Evenings at the ARK 13501 109th Ave, Dyer, IN