Top 5 @ SPUMC

#1 MESSAGES THAT MATTER!

We continued our new worship series this past Sunday and lots of people showed up in T-shirts that shared a message that was important to them throughout the morning. Rev. Carissa (AKA, “the dumb carpenter”) preached on the parable of two men who built houses – one on the rock and one on the sand. She helped us to consider the importance of good foundations — they are unglamorous but oh-so important, everything is at risk without a good one, and they have the potential to last for a really long time (like Herod’s palace or the remnants of ancient foundations in the city of Jericho from 9000 BCE!) — and how important it is to build our lives on the foundation of Jesus’ words & teaching. We had some great music to inspire us — Will Keuthe sang a beautiful piece by Dvorak, a bell quartet played at 8 & 11, 12 year old violinist Mason Flemming treated us to Bach at 11am and in between at 9:30, Meg Moore blew us all away with “It Is Well.” This coming Sunday we’ll move on to “Sacred Markers” and you are encouraged to wear (or bring) a T-shirt that has great sentimental value to you even if it is old and tattered (and your spouse doesn’t want you to). Beginning this Sunday, you can also purchase the new SPUMC “Love-Serve-Follow” T-shirts available in kids ($5) and adult ($10) sizes and in a variety of colors.

#2 VBS WEEK 1 KICKS OFF!
This Monday begins two weeks of chaotic joy as we will be welcoming 300 children from our community to SPUMC! Please keep all of our kids, families and volunteers in your prayers, especially our Children’s Ministry Director, Erica Benjamin. These are two of the best weeks of the year at SPUMC! You can experience some of the joy and energy of VBS in worship this coming Sunday at 9:30am and again on Sunday, July 28 at 11am.

#3 GARDEN WORSHIP NEXT WEEK
Last week, April Doss led the Wednesday night Garden Worship and we were treated to a thoughtful message on “Justice, Mercy, Judgment & Forgiveness” and 3 original songs that April had written and had help performing with Ashley Cuzzart & Emmett Ward. Make plans to join us next week, Wednesday, July 24 at 7pm when Tim Kraus will be providing the message. Other upcoming dates include August 14 & 28 and we’ll even be spilling into September this year!

#4 SACRED WORTH GROUP
We had a great turnout at our June meeting to hear our guest speaker, Rev. Dr. Frank Trotter, share his testimony. Join us for our next meeting this Tuesday, July 16 at 7pm. Sacred Worth is a group for LGBTQ+ individuals, family members, friends and allies seeking a place for support, resources and safe conversation within the SPUMC community. All are welcome to join us. Contact Rev. Ron if you’d like to know more.

#5 ASP TEAM RETURNS
Our team of 82 youth, college students and adults recently returned from a week of joyful serving in and around the community of Appalachia, VA. This was SPUMC’s 39th year of serving with Appalachia Service Project (that’s really the name of the town and the Center they really did stay on LEE Street!). You can visit our church Facebook page to see some of the scenes of our youth hard at work and having a great time as ambassadors for Christ. And you won’t want to miss ASP Sunday, August 11 when our youth will share their testimonies of how they got to experience holy ground repairing roofs, building ramps, digging trenches, installing windows, hanging drywall, building relationships with their residents and more.