Grand Valley United Methodist Church
February 2021 Newsletter
In this newsletter:
1. What’s Happening
2. Upcoming Events
3. Birthdays
4. Notes and Reminders
5. Calendar
6. Event Details
7. Church Reports
8. Just for Fun
We will be continuing our online worship for now, until the COVID-19 numbers in our area can improve.
We invite you to watch the service live every Sunday on Facebook Live or after the service on YouTube.
We also invite you to Worship through Phone at 970-233-0048 if you do not have access to a computer, or if you find it easier to do.
Whichever option you choose, please join us on Sundays.
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New website
We would like to thank Sara Francis and JR for working hard in getting a new website up and running. We invite you to check it out!
If you have any pictures of current and/or past activities that we can put on the website, please send them to the church office, [email protected],. or to Sara Francis, [email protected].
Our new website address is: grandvalleyumc.com
Ashes to Go
We will be offering “Ashes to Go” on Ash Wednesday, February 17th. This will be a drive-thru with Pastor J.R. Atkins offering ashes, a prayer and a blessing. “Ashes to Go” will be offered between 3:00-6:00 on that Wednesday. We hope to see you then!
Everyone’s a Planter: Lay Planter Training
Free orientation meeting March 6; course begins March 20 continuing through June 17
Submitted by the Rev. Jeff Rainwater
Superintendent of Congregational and Community Vitality
Mountain Sky Conference
“You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. [Y]ou are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light.” (1 Peter 2:5,9)
Who among us doesn’t like to take in the beauty of a spring garden blooming to new life after a hard, long winter? Many of us don’t just want to see a garden. We want to plant one to plot out where the tomatoes and beans will go, buy the seeds, and get our hands deep into the fertile soil. I believe that the instinct to plant something new goes beyond the garden. It’s a needed instinct within our churches and communities. So I am inviting you, the laity in the Mountain Sky Conference, to consider how you can become a new ministry planter. Maybe that new thing is a ministry within your congregation, or perhaps it is even an emerging faith community. Join us on March 6, 10 a.m., for an orientation about ‘Everyone’s A Planter: Lay Planter Training” offered by Path1 and Discipleship Ministries for the Mountain Sky Conference.
It has felt like a long, hard winter for our church. Many of our congregations are experiencing decline, our denomination division, our world distress. So, now is the perfect time to begin plans to plant something new — a new ministry to reach new people in our communities and bless them with the love of Christ Jesus. After all, only the amateur gardener waits for the warm days of Spring to begin their work. Have you dreamed of ways to expand opportunities for people to engage in faith-building activities? We offer you tools to help with creating new ministries. Laity as well as clergy can be empowered to grow new faith communities within our conference as we reclaim our commitment to the priesthood of all believers. Several of our congregations have devoted, spiritually-minded lay persons currently serving as their pastoral leaders, while many others have laity leading their churches in other ways. We are reminded of the roots of the Methodist movement, where many laity and a handful of clergy planted Methodist societies across England and the United States of America.
“Everyone’s A Planter: Lay Planter Training” is a self-paced online course where participants watch videos, read short articles, respond to questions, and enter into a learning dialog with each other and with a moderator — someone with planting experience chosen as a guide and mentor to respond to questions, invite participants to consider more profound questions, and help with creating a ministry plan for the new ministry or new faith community being dreamed. Participants are expected to:
- participate in the FREE orientation on March 6 to learn more about the training program,
- pay $100 registration fee to begin the course (the conference will reimburse half upon completion of the training),
- complete the online lessons and discussion between March 20 and June 19,
- meet at least twice with your cohort and mentor, and
- via Zoom, briefly present a ministry plan at the end of the course, on June 19.
Are you interested in learning more about the course? Register for the FREE orientation on March 6, 10 a.m. Do you have questions you want to be addressed before March 6? Please email your questions to [email protected], and we will try to respond promptly. Let’s plant something new for God’s world and God’s church together.
February Birthdays:
2 – Bruce Knuth
3 – John Koning
5 – Deb Penrose
6 – Steve Shaw
8 – Carol Lamb
11 – Anne White
15 – Thom Hamick
15 – Bobbie Prentice
15 – Grace Reuter
17 – Joyce Landrum
20 – Sarah Orona
27 – Sue Knuth
Memorial Garden
Did you know we have a “Memorial Garden” in the front of the church? There are memorial stones for deceased congregation members in the garden area to the right of the front doors. The following are memorialized in this garden:
Bill Baer Frelon Mardick
Sue Baer Charles Morgenthaler
Betty Baldwin Ruth Morton
Kay Bolles Maryan Pharo
Guy Botkin Rev. Joe & Ruth Puchek
Janie Crisp Arthur Rinker
Jo Crutcher Ron Schelling
Frank Gnatek Miriam Slocum
Jim Harris Bubbles Starbuck
Hazel Hulstine Jim Taylor
Ken Kovaks Louise Trainer
Betty Letson Joe Trujillo
Jody Lindauer Peter Wahlman
Val Maisch Louise Winter
The next UMW meeting will be held on Thursday, February 4th at 10:00 in the Fellowship Hall. Please wear a mask and practice social distancing. We hope you can join us!
Prayer Partners meet the 2nd and 4th Thursdays at 10:00. If you have anyone that you would like to add to the Prayer Partner list, please contact the office at (970)285-9892 or send an email to: [email protected]
Our Emmaus Reunion Group meets on the 2nd and 4th Monday at 9:00. If you have ever gone on a Walk to Emmaus, you are welcome to join us! Please be sure to wear a mask and practice social distancing.
Our Bible Study group meets every Wednesday at 10:00 in the Fellowship Hall. Lively discussions usually occur! We welcome anyone who would like to join us on Wednesdays. Please wear a mask and practice social distancing.
Our Bell Choir and Choir have rehearsals on Wednesdays – Bells at 4:00 and Choir at 5:00. We are always looking for participants, so if you would like to join either of these wonderful musical groups, please contact the office at (970)285-9892 or by email: [email protected]
UMW Report
The January UMW meeting provided a time for fellowship and considering opportunities to continue our mission commitments.
Officers were elected for 2021: President – Michelle Foster, Secretary – Debbie Penrose, Treasurer – Penelope Olson.
A UMW pin was presented to Michelle in recognition and appreciation of her continued and valued leadership in our local unit as well as UMW District officer.
Next meeting: Thursday February 4, 2021 at 10AM.
Church Council Report
MINUTES OF THE JANUARY 19, 2021
CHURCH COUNCIL MEETING
The ZOOM meeting of the Grand Valley United Methodist Church Council was called to order at 2:10 p.m. by president Ron Olson. Pastor J. R. Atkins led us in prayer. In attendance were Michelle Foster, Fred Inman, Al Reuter, Grace Reuter, Penelope Olson, and Ron Olson.
Grace moved and Al seconded to accept the minutes of the December 8, 2020 Council meeting as printed in the newsletter. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report – Penelope reported that the statements handed out actually overstated Dividends and Interest by $78 and understated Unrealized Gains and Losses on Investments by $78. She found this when preparing the audit work. We ended the year with a $18,400 surplus.
$4,000 has been transferred from the Alpine money market account to the checking account in January. In December, $15,000 was transferred from the Alpine money market account to the checking account and then to the long-term investments as had been approved.
Penelope requested that she be allowed to transfer the low balances in the Flo Rinker Memorial Fund and the Betty Wooley Memorial Fund to the General Memorial Fund. These had not been designated for any particular purpose. Al moved, and Fred seconded that these funds be moved to the General Memorial Fund. Motion carried.
Finance Committee – Penelope explained that the Conference has gone back to a flat 13% for tithe instead of 10% for apportionment and billed amount for mission shares. She corrected that amount on the proposed budget handed out. She also added in a $600 line item under Worship for Special Music. J. R. had requested $1,200, but she only gave half. Al moved and Grace seconded to accept the budget as printed. Motion carried. The deficit budget is ($13,190.)
PPP loans are again available but the Church does not qualify as total revenue was actually up over 2019. If we find that the first quarter revenues are down 25%, we might be able to apply. We shall revisit it in April.
The books are ready for audit.
Trustees – The ignition switch on the furnace at the parsonage went out, so Fred authorized the repair of it. It came to $646.25. Penelope moved, and Al seconded to ratify this expenditure. Motion carried. Penelope mentioned that the vacuum cleaner keeps plugging up again. Fred will go down and clean it out.
Missions Committee – They are working on burning the garden trash. They had no meeting last month so no further report.
Worship Committee – They took down the Christmas decorations and got them put away. Fred will put away the Advent pedestal. The committee hopes to get back into Church during February. J. R. and the committee need a two-week lead time to be able to get ready for in-church service.
Our Bishop has stated that the area needs to be at a 4% or less positivity rate before we go back. It was suggested that we do a survey, and when the majority of our congregation has had their second shot, we could go back. It is a waiting game.
UMW – The group is still cruising with 4-5 members attending. Hopefully, attendance will increase once Church reopens. Deb Penrose has agreed to be secretary, Michelle Foster is President, and Penelope Olson is treasurer.
Pastor’s Report – J. R reported that two-thirds of those watching on Facebook are non-members. This is an opportunity for us. Our way of doing worship, by asking people to say “Hi” and asking for prayer requests engages people, which a lot of churches do not do. He suggested we continue this even after we are back in church.
We now have worship by phone. We need to figure out how to get the word out. It was suggested that BMSA might put it up on the marquee.
Chris Portell works about ten hours a week on the services, editing, getting videos, ensuring that copywrite laws were not broken, and other things. Palisade has suggested paying him $15 per hour, or $600 a month, and splitting it with us. Penelope made the motion and Fred seconded to add a budget line under Worship called Technical Assistance, in the amount of $1,800, to pay Chris Portell $300 per month for a maximum of six months. A discussion ensued. This would only be until we purchased our own equipment, which we will do with grant or capital improvement money, and someone is trained how to do what Chris does. It was suggested that we put these funds for Chris in our grant application. J. R. will do that. Motion carried.
The new website, www.GrandValleyUMC.com is operational. It is asked that we look at it and make any suggestions. Also, Sara Francis is looking for pictures to add. Leave them with Karen in the office.
Old Business – The grants are ready to be sent in.
New Business – None
The meeting was adjourned at 3 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Penelope E. Olson, Acting Secretary
Treasurer Report
THANK YOU FOR A GOOD YEAR
By now, you should have received your giving letter, the books are closed for 2020, pledge cards for 2021 have been received, the budget (which is a deficit one) has been approved, and we continue on. Thank you for a very good 2020.
For 2020, pledges – at $82,850 – came close to budget (98%) and unpledged giving of $14,300 was $9,200 over budget, so revenues come out well over budget. Expenditures were well under budget (13%) and we ended the year with an $18,445 surplus. This is wonderful and will be useful for 2021.
Our investments also grew. The return on long-term investments was 18.12%. With an addition of $15,000 from our Alpine money market, and the income received and growth, this account increased from $138,150 to $178,575.
Also, there was substantial giving to special projects and are as follows:
Grand Valley Givers $2,880
Shoes for Kids 3,069
Family Resource Center 2,305 (plus donations to Laurel)
5 on the 5th (Pastor’s Fund) 5
UMCOR 400
Special Sundays 225
Memorials 300
Lift Up 630
Bell Choir 75
$ 9,889
So, when you add the special giving and capital campaign giving of $10,432, to all types of giving, all of you gave a total of $118.090. Wow! Thank you. No wonder GVUMC is known as a giving Church because we are.
2021 will be harder financially since we have lost some major pledgers. But I know that we will make it. God blesses us with resources which we have been using well. He will continue to guide us in the use of our resources, so we will be okay.
Things you didn’t know you had to know!
– An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain
– Babies are born without kneecaps. They don’t appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.
– Butterflies taste with their feet.
– Cats have over 100 vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
– “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt”.
Church Contact Information
PO Box 125
Parachute CO 81635
(970)285-9892
[email protected]
www.GrandValleyUMC.com