This season, we invite you to prayerfully reflect on how God is calling you to live with greater intention and purpose. Using the provided worksheets, you’ll create your own Rule of Life—a simple, grace-filled framework to guide your daily rhythms, relationships, work, and rest. Pick up a copy at the welcome table or download it online, and take time this month to shape a life rooted in what matters most.
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The St. John’s Writer’s Group has created a daily Lent devotional featuring reflections from members and friends of the church. The readings begin on Ash Wednesday, March 5, and end on Easter Sunday, April 20.
A limited number of printed copies are available from the church office. If you would like to help offset the cost of printing, we are accepting a love offering with a suggested donation of $5.
Download a copy of the 2025 Lent Devotional to read on a screen (pages in order) or to print at home (pages in booklet format).
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Join Us for Service Sunday!
On Sunday, March 30, at 10am in the Family Life Center, we invite you to be part of Service Sunday -a unique worship experience where we will put our faith into action through hands-on mission projects.
We’ll begin with a short time of worship, including communion, before moving into our mission as an act of service. Our primary project will be assembling Cleaning Kits for UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief), which are essential for wildfire and hurricane relief efforts. The final Sunday of March is UMCOR Sunday, making this a meaningful and tangible way to support this vital outreach. Additional hands on service opportunities will also be available, with more details coming soon. This is a wonderful opportunity for all ages (including children) to come together and make an impact as we offer ourselves in service to God.
To support this effort, we are collecting items for the UMCOR Cleaning Kits throughout March. We also need volunteers who can deliver the completed kits to the UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, LA. A full list of needed supplies can be found online at umcmission.org/umcor-cleaning-kit, and printed copies are available at the church. Take a list with you when you shop and bring donated items to the church anytime this month. We will also share an Amazon Wish List soon if you’d like to buy those items online.
Service Sunday will also include plenty of time for fellowship, along with light refreshments. We encourage you to bring a Coffee Time-style snack to share. Please note that this 10am worship and mission experience will replace our regular worship services for the day, and Sunday School will not meet on March 30. Our regular Sunday schedule will resume the following week.
Come ready to serve, connect, and embody Christ’s love in action. Let’s worship with our hearts—and with our hands!
The St. John’s Writers’ Group is creating a 2025 Lent reflection guide, and we are seeking submissions. Our theme is Full to the Brim. The devotional spans the season of Lent, which begins on will begin on Ash Wednesday, March 2, and continue through Easter Sunday April 17, so we have plenty of pages to fill.
About our theme: The scriptures for this Lenten season are filled with parables and promises of God’s abundant and expansive grace. We’ve done nothing to deserve or earn this grace, and yet, like water, it spills over. Our Lenten theme, “Full to the Brim,” is an invitation into a radically different Lent – into a full and abundant life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, to pour out grace wherever it is needed. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over. It reaches beyond ourselves; like water, it rushes and flows, touching everything in its path.
Some questions and statements to spark your creativity:
Each submission should be no more than 300 (or 500) words plus a verse or short passage of scripture and a prayer. We’ve shared short stories and poems in the past – so you don’t have to stick to any format or strict word count. Find out more or send your submissions by email to Mari Walker at silvermari@gmail.com.
| Deadline for submissions is February 17. |
Dear St. John’s Church Family,
Each fall, as we budget and begin planning financially for the following calendar year, we invite you to consider how you will support the mission and ministries of St. John’s United Methodist Church through your financial giving.
The theme for this year’s stewardship campaign is “Our Mission & Money Story.”
This stewardship season, we will ask ourselves what new story God is inviting us to write that weaves together our mission and money into a narrative of hope and joy. In the weeks leading up to Commitment Sunday, we will have opportunities to reflect on the themes of remembering, releasing, and reimagining both in worship and through a weekly devotion.
Week 1 Devotion (October 4)
Week 2 Devotion (October 13)
Week 3 Devotion (October 20)
With the rising costs of printing and mailings, our campaign will primarily be digital this year. Each week of the campaign, we will email a Stewardship Newsletter that we invite you to read as you consider what you will pledge for 2025. We will provide a few printed copies for those who do not have digital access. If you are not receiving emails from the church, please ask Lynn Cooper (office@stjohnsbr.org), our Administrative Assistant, to include you going forward.
When you are ready to complete your 2025 pledge, please visit: stjohnsbr.org/pledge-2025.
We will also have printed pledge cards available in the Narthex and church office.
We will gather for one combined worship service on Commitment Sunday, October 27 at 10:00 a.m. followed by a Potluck luncheon. We hope you will make plans to join us that morning as we offer our commitments as an act of worship followed by a time of fellowship and celebration.
We give deep thanks for the ongoing story of St. John’s UMC and for your continued generosity of spirit, efforts, energy, and gifts. The mission of St. John’s is made possible only through your investment in it. We look forward to this special season in the life of our congregation and for the opportunities we will have to tell and create our story.
With gratitude and expectation,
Rev. Lane Cotton Winn, Lead Pastor, and Maureen Robertson, Finance Committee Chairperson
Pledges made during this campaign will be active during the 2025 calendar year. If you have any questions about making a pledge, please contact LeAnn Davis, our Manager of Finance and Facilities.
Looking to make a one-time gift instead of a pledge? You can do that here.
Thanks so much for all of your generous coffee time contributions over the summer! We all ate well!
In fact, we ate so well we are going to continue into the fall with this new concept!
| Last Name Starts With | Your Sunday to Bring Snacks |
|---|---|
| A-C | August 4 |
| D-G | August 11 |
| H-K | August 18 |
| L-N | August 25 |
| O-R | September 1 |
| S | September 8 |
| T-Z | September 15 |
| A-C | September 22 |
| D-G | September 29 |
Remember, this is just a much appreciated suggestion not an obligation. You don’t have to cook or bake – prepared foods from the grocery store are wonderful!
Please bring your snack to the FLC kitchen by 9:30. THANKS.
Join us on Sundays this summer for TED Talk Theology in the sanctuary from 9:55-10:45am, as we view TED Talks through the lens of our faith. As many of our adult classes take a break in the summer, this churchwide offering is a way to bring us all together for spiritual formation, fellowship, and great conversation. Each week we will watch a different TED talk, read a corresponding passage of scripture, and discuss what they say to each other and to us about our faith and life.
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics from science to business to global issues and more. TED Talks are designed to stir your curiosity, make great ideas accessible, and to spark conversation, which is also what a life of faith shared in community is all about, too!
TED Talk Theology starts on May 26 and concludes July 28. A team of facilitators will rotate leading each eek. Whether you’re a regular Sunday School attendee or haven’t tried Sunday School out yet, this is great opportunity to build relationships – with one another and with God. Come weekly or come when you can! All are welcome.
