The trustees and the Long Range Planning Committee will prioritize the projects that require mostly time and attention.  These projects include: showing movies outdoors, recording the entire worship service for the website, repairing the cold water tap in the men’s restroom, cleaning the trail and garden, inviting more people to Sunday School, cleaning and sprucing up the shelter, building our membership by inviting others, improving our phone system, setting up the ceiling fan, trimming trees to increase visibility, moving the wi-fi, setting up an account with PayPal.

The second category contains projects that we believe can be accomplished with reasonable effort.  The projects in this category, in the order prioritized by the council are:

1.  Moving forward with the Building Entrance
2. Replacing the fellowship hall floor
3.  Replacing the kitchen floor
4.  Paying our apportionments in full
5.  Installing a safety gate

To guide us in our progress completing these major projects, the council has decided to form a building committee.   The top priority identified by the council is our new building entrance!  We have plans for a visible, obvious, accessible, welcoming entrance for our church building!  Jim Adair has agreed to serve as the chair of this new committee.  Many, many thanks, Jim!

For the Pie In the Sky category, in no particular order, we have listed a new building, a new sanctuary, following the original master plan for building and expansion, increasing curb appeal, giving back more, establishing an endowment, adding more staff, establishing a soup kitchen, building a retreat facility, adding a viable child care center with its own wing, adding a large kitchen with an island and two sinks, adding showers and laundry so we could host Room In The Inn, adding a women’s restroom.  These projects are for Long Range Planning to address.

Please let your council members know of your hopes and dreams for HBUMC.  We can work together to make all of these wonderful ideas come to life.

Emalie

January 4 Epiphany Sunday

Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12

January 11 “Who said that?”

Scripture: Revelation 1:1-12a

January 18 They did WHAT?

Scripture: Revelation 2:2-4, Revelation 9-10, Revelation 13-15, Revelation 19-25

January 25 “Oh, for crying out loud!”

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-4, Revelation 8-11, Revelation 15-20

Luke 2: 41-52

The discussion in the Temple:  a child of promise

• Others might not know who Jesus is, but He does.
• Only of Jesus is it said that God’s grace was on Him.
• Jesus says about Himself what the heavenly voice will say at His baptism.

The reader sees the chronological transition between infancy and ministry.  Also, we see a transition between revelations about Jesus by others and the revelation that Jesus Himself will proclaim.  Here, Jesus speaks for the first time.  What do we “hear” Him say?  And, how are we sure?

Luke 2:1-7, Luke 2:21, Luke 2:25-35

The birth: and his name shall be called Jesus, Son of God.  The Lord is with you.

The blessing in the Temple:  the Nunc Dimittis

• Christ is “the glory of Israel.”
• Christ is “the light for all people.”
• Christ is a Presence that will bring about human resistance and rejection.
• Christ offers a “future with hope.”

The birth and the blessing allow us to contemplate the person of the Savior Himself.  Here is found the Messianic hope at its highest.  Old Testament prophecy finds New Testament fulfillment.   The careful reader will discover all kinds of hints as to what the future holds for this One whose Presence cannot simply be ignored.  A response is demanded.

Luke 2:8-20

The Shepherds and the Angels: the Gloria in excelsis Deo

• Finding God in the midst of fear.
• Celebrating God’s peace.
• Enabling us to glance at the significance of this event.

Now, we are beginning to gain some insight into an answer to the eternal question:  Why did God become one of us?  It is not only important to know that God became man, it is also important to know what kind of man He became.  To begin to understand the answer to this is to begin to understand what we might become in Christ.  

Luke 1:46-59

Celebrates the fulfillment of all the expectations and all the promises made by God, giving us a –

·         a new look at God,

·         a new look at the world, and

·         A new look into ourselves.

We see what salvation “looks like” when it enters into history.  “Behold, I am doing a new thing.  Can you see it?” [Isaiah 43:19].  What do we see?  What do we hope to see?  What “blinds’ us?

Luke 1:67-79

Zachariah’s Prophecy:  the Benedictus

With the naming of John the Baptist – meaning “God is gracious” – we begin to see and to understand God’s intentions.

• God has set His people free.
• God has sent a deliverer.
• God is fulfilling His promises.