SW District E-alert, November 18, 2015
For our Calendar of Events and the Fine Print about this publication, please scroll to the
end of this email.
This e-alert and past e-alerts are available on the SW District page of the Conference
website.
The next e-alert will be sent on December 2.
“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.” -- Karl Barth, Theologian, 1886-1968
Happy Thanksgiving from the SW District Office!
Deadline has passed! Regardless of when your Charge Conference is or was, the following
forms should have already been submitted to the District Office:
Clergy Compensation Form
Clergy Advisory Form
SPRC Advisory Form
Pastoral Evaluation
Covenant Between SPRC & Clergy
Church Profile
Updated Safe Sanctuary Policy
Accountability Agreement between EPA UMC and Boy Scouts (if applicable)
Trustees, Finance, Parsonage Inspection, and Safety & Accessibility Forms (were due
August 31)
Please submit all outstanding forms ASAP. Remember: all forms must be signed! You may
submit scanned forms via email to swdistrict@comcast.net or mail copies to PO Box 271,
Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505-0271.
New! District Lay Leader Sue Grimm Mattox has a new email: sgrimm1028@gmail.com.
Please update your address book accordingly.
New! November 20, Go the Extra Mile for LUMINA. LUMINA is Lancaster County
Methodists in action! Join us, as we change lives by:




Providing school uniforms to Lancaster City children and proper clothing to jobseeking men and women
Sharing nutritional information, food, and cooking skills to low income families
Teaching peace and discipleship to children and youth in the city, where 85% of the
families with kids are living below the poverty level
Offering full scholarships to Gretna Glen camp to underprivileged urban children
and youth
There is still room for you at our Annual Celebration at Lititz UMC on November 20
at 6:30 pm! The LUMINA board of directors is making you a delicious dinner of baked
potatoes with a variety of side dishes/toppings and desserts. There is no charge for dinner.
A free will offering will be collected, with all proceeds going to LUMINA ministries.
Please remember to support LUMINA through the ExtraOrdinary Give on Friday,
November 20 at https://extragive.org/#npo/lumina. Every donation will be stretched with a
pool of funds donated by local businesses.
Reminder! Six Months of Intentional Prayer for General Conference. Our conference is
joining together for six months of intentional prayer prior to General Conference. Six
churches on each of our six districts are setting aside a specific date and time to pray, and
they invite you to come and join them. The first prayer post will be at Thornton: Bethlehem
UMC on the Southeast District on December 6 at 6 pm. Rev. Tim Kriebel will be the host
Pastor. Rev. Kriebel had the vision for these prayer posts throughout the conference. Rev.
Kriebel shares: "For a few months now I've had the conviction that given all the tensions,
divisions, and problems not only our annual conference but also the entire UMC is facing
right now, none of us can truly expect any good outcomes from General Conference apart
from prayer. And so the Lord led me to the idea of having six months’ worth of prayer
meetings spread out over our annual conference, one per district per month. These prayer
meetings are not meant to be partisan but humbly surrendered to the movement of the
Holy Spirit. Nor are they intended to be geographically exclusive, that is, there's one on
each district for convenience, but if the date of YOUR district's prayer post is one you can't
make, anyone can attend ANY of the prayer meetings if you're willing to travel there."
Dates and Times for the Intentional Prayer Meetings Prior to General Conference:
Southeast District: Sunday, December 6 at 6:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary of Thornton:
Bethlehem UMC
Northeast District: Wednesday, January 6 at 7:00 p.m. at Bowmansville: Faith Alive UMC
Northwest District: February at Lebanon: Church of the Good Shepherd UMC
Southwest District: March at Manheim: Ruhl’s UMC
Central District: Saturday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Hall of the Community Center
(101 Woodside Ave. Reading, PA 19609) behind West Lawn UMC
East District: Sunday, May 1 at 6:00 p.m. in the Worship Center of Washington Crossing
UMC
Classifieds
New! Wesley UMC in Strasburg has a full-sized bus and is looking for a church that would
benefit from having a bus to use for ministry. The bus was given to us several years ago,
and our bus driver transported the donating church’s kids and our children here at Wesley.
We no longer have a driver, and the bus has been sitting idle since July. The inspection has
run out (August), but the registration and insurance are current. Wesley would be
interested in paying it forward, and would like to entertain a similar idea that the receiving
church could possibly bus our children from Lampeter/Strasburg school district to our
church on Wednesday evenings. If the receiving church is too far out of the area, we would
entertain the idea of a donation to our children’s ministry programs here at Wesley as we
seek to promote God’s love in the Strasburg community. Please contact Dave Alderson to
discuss possibilities for this great opportunity: dralderson@verizon.net, (717) 687-6392
(office); (717) 926-2997 (mobile).
Calendar of Events
For a schedule of Sexual Ethics Workshops, click here
For information about the Changing Racism training, click here
November 20
2016
January 8-10
January 12-14
March 5
March 19
May 10-20
June 5 (Tentative)
June 16-18, 2016
July 10-15, 2016
LUMINA’s Annual Celebration, 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Lititz UMC 201 East Market Street, Lititz
RSVP to office@luminaoutreach.org
LUMINA is part of the Extraordinary Give
Pen-Del Youth Rally, Ocean City, MD
Midwinter Retreat for Clergy and Spouses
Tools for Ministry, Lititz UMC
Faith-Sharing Event, New Hanover UMC, Gilbertsville, PA
General Conference, Portland, Oregon
District Conference, Location TBD
Annual Conference, The Marriott, Lancaster City
Northeast Jurisdictional Conference, The Marriott, Lancaster City
The Fine Print
Editorial Policy of the Southwest District E-Alert. The Southwest District E-alert is published on an
as-needed basis on Wednesdays. Articles will appear once as New information; thereafter, they will
be Reminders or Calendar Items. Spaghetti dinners, fundraisers, concerts, VBSs, bazaars, etc. are
included only on the Local Church and ConneXion Events page.
The E-Alert is sent to Pastors and Church Offices on the Southwest District and to lay people who
have requested having their names added to the distribution list. Please feel free to copy any article
for your church’s bulletin or newsletter. To unsubscribe, please send an email to
swdistrict@comcast.net with the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject line. Appointed clergy may not
unsubscribe.
All articles and announcements should be sent to District Resource Assistant Chris McLaughlin
at swdistrict@comcast.net by 3:00 Tuesday afternoon for consideration. Articles should be in the
body of an email or an attached Word document (please no PDFs). Submissions made by telephone
will not be accepted. Articles may be edited for clarity and space. All decisions regarding publication
are made by the District Office.
Past SW E-alerts are available on the SW District page of the Conference website: click here.