To provide life-giving, inspiring, cooperative,
and Gospel-based opportunities for
Spiritual growth.
Last year we held 8 weekly small groups where an average of 90 people gathered to fellowship, seek God's wisdom, pray, share their challenges, and grow in their relationship with Jesus!
Our children’s ministry relaunched in person meetings with Sunday Nights at Church for Kids (S.N.A.C.K.). To ensure safety, we created new check-in procedures that included taking temperatures, sanitizing hands, wearing masks, staying 6’ apart marked by circles that our children’s director outlined in chalk. Items we had to purchase were touchless thermometers, sanitizer, gloves, masks, extra cleaning supplies, individual containers for each child with their name on them so we did not share germs.
The Children travelled through Egypt to learn about Moses, the Exodus, and the Passover. Then leading up to Easter the children walked through Jerusalem and learned about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Every child in our church has been gifted a Bible which they made a habit of bringing with them every week they went to SNACK.
Because of the envelope fundraiser where each congregant paid the amount on their envelope, we raised enough money to send ten campers to TANAKO without them having the pay anything out of pocket. This was a fantastic time for our children and our youth who learned about Jesus, a lot about themselves, and many life lessons about following God.
We also were able to send six of our young students to Confirmation Camp at TANAKO without them paying anything because of a generous donor in our church. This was a one-day camp that thought our young people what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, what the doctrines and foundations of our faith are, what the sacraments are, and what is meant by making a profession of faith.
This last summer we had an outdoor Vacation Bible School. We met outside in the parking lot on a Saturday where students travelled from tents and rotating throughout the parking lot doing crafts, playing games, signing songs about Jesus, and learning lessons about making friends with God and being a good friend to others. We welcomed 50 kids to our church that day—giving them both food for their bodies and for their souls!
The children took over Sunday service and showcased all the exciting things they had done during the year. Many took leadership and spoke or performed in front of the congregation. Our children also put on a Christmas Play for the church in December that was well attended and was full of music and joy!
Our youth met throughout the pandemic. They had initially met online but were able to come back to in person last year. They also began eating meals together before lessons. Five of our youth were able to attend TANAKO camp without having to pay because of the generosity of our church.
Our adults have continued meeting on Sunday mornings, evenings, and during the week. There's a class before worship in the parlor that is attended faithfully by many members. They study the Adult Bible Studies provided by the church. Many of our members also read the Upper Room daily devotionals that are provided by the church every quarter.
In the Spring we had a Sunday Evening adult study that was in person and streamed on Facebook for those at home. This study was on Moses and corresponded with our Sunday morning series and our children’s study during SNACK.
Sunday evenings also had a small group of mother’s meeting while the nursery staff watched our littlest disciples. On Wednesdays our women met to study. They were able to go out to eat and fellowship, discuss their lessons, throw axes, and have a fabulous Christmas party!
This year we are continuing our SNACK program and Wednesday night youth group. We are sending students back to TANAKO. We are planning to have another large Confirmation class, and to see more of our young people choose to make their profession of faith on Pentecost Sunday! We are hosting another VBS this summer that we are hoping will be our biggest one yet! We will have children’s Sunday in October and our Christmas play during Advent. Hopefully we will be able to take more trips with our students in the van this year, do more outreach events like our Back-to-School Bash, and participate in conferences like Veritas and Assembly, which are weekend long youth conferences of Methodist students for all over the state.
We will be developing laity leaders to take on teaching roles, mentoring roles for our new members classes, and we will continue to utilize our candidates for ministry gifts by having them preach, teach, and lead. We will soon be starting a heavy stream of new online content including a weekly live interactive telecast on Facebook with some of our church staff to discuss various topics of faith.
Pastor Doug will be meeting throughout the year with our most recent confirmands and our newest class of confirmands. In March, due to a generous grant from the Methodist Foundation of Arkansas, Pastor Doug and four of our church staff will head to the Exponential conference in Orlando, FL to learn new skills and brainstorm ideas to enhance our discipleship programs and help us find creative ways to develop more laity for serving and making disciples!
Our children’s ministry relaunched in person meetings with Sunday Nights at Church for Kids (S.N.A.C.K.). To ensure safety, we created new check-in procedures that included taking temperatures, sanitizing hands, wearing masks, staying 6’ apart marked by circles that our children’s director outlined in chalk. Items we had to purchase were touchless thermometers, sanitizer, gloves, masks, extra cleaning supplies, individual containers for each child with their name on them so we did not share germs.
The Children travelled through Egypt to learn about Moses, the Exodus, and the Passover. Then leading up to Easter the children walked through Jerusalem and learned about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Every child in our church has been gifted a Bible which they made a habit of bringing with them every week they went to SNACK.
Because of the envelope fundraiser where each congregant paid the amount on their envelope, we raised enough money to send ten campers to TANAKO without them having the pay anything out of pocket. This was a fantastic time for our children and our youth who learned about Jesus, a lot about themselves, and many life lessons about following God.
We also were able to send six of our young students to Confirmation Camp at TANAKO without them paying anything because of a generous donor in our church. This was a one-day camp that thought our young people what it means to have a relationship with Jesus, what the doctrines and foundations of our faith are, what the sacraments are, and what is meant by making a profession of faith.
This last summer we had an outdoor Vacation Bible School. We met outside in the parking lot on a Saturday where students travelled from tents and rotating throughout the parking lot doing crafts, playing games, signing songs about Jesus, and learning lessons about making friends with God and being a good friend to others. We welcomed 50 kids to our church that day—giving them both food for their bodies and for their souls!
The children took over Sunday service and showcased all the exciting things they had done during the year. Many took leadership and spoke or performed in front of the congregation. Our children also put on a Christmas Play for the church in December that was well attended and was full of music and joy!
Our youth met throughout the pandemic. They had initially met online but were able to come back to in person last year. They also began eating meals together before lessons. Five of our youth were able to attend TANAKO camp without having to pay because of the generosity of our church.
Our adults have continued meeting on Sunday mornings, evenings, and during the week. There's a class before worship in the parlor that is attended faithfully by many members. They study the Adult Bible Studies provided by the church. Many of our members also read the Upper Room daily devotionals that are provided by the church every quarter.
In the Spring we had a Sunday Evening adult study that was in person and streamed on Facebook for those at home. This study was on Moses and corresponded with our Sunday morning series and our children’s study during SNACK.
Sunday evenings also had a small group of mother’s meeting while the nursery staff watched our littlest disciples. On Wednesdays our women met to study. They were able to go out to eat and fellowship, discuss their lessons, throw axes, and have a fabulous Christmas party!
This year we are continuing our SNACK program and Wednesday night youth group. We are sending students back to TANAKO. We are planning to have another large Confirmation class, and to see more of our young people choose to make their profession of faith on Pentecost Sunday! We are hosting another VBS this summer that we are hoping will be our biggest one yet! We will have children’s Sunday in October and our Christmas play during Advent. Hopefully we will be able to take more trips with our students in the van this year, do more outreach events like our Back-to-School Bash, and participate in conferences like Veritas and Assembly, which are weekend long youth conferences of Methodist students for all over the state.
We will be developing laity leaders to take on teaching roles, mentoring roles for our new members classes, and we will continue to utilize our candidates for ministry gifts by having them preach, teach, and lead. We will soon be starting a heavy stream of new online content including a weekly live interactive telecast on Facebook with some of our church staff to discuss various topics of faith.
Pastor Doug will be meeting throughout the year with our most recent confirmands and our newest class of confirmands. In March, due to a generous grant from the Methodist Foundation of Arkansas, Pastor Doug and four of our church staff will head to the Exponential conference in Orlando, FL to learn new skills and brainstorm ideas to enhance our discipleship programs and help us find creative ways to develop more laity for serving and making disciples!