Future and Hope

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

This scripture is one that we see placarded in many places. It is very common to walk into a Christian bookstore and see novelties with this promise engraved on them. This scripture is one that truly reminds us that just as God knows the plans for the people, Israel, God knows the plans of welfare and a future with hope for each of us and for First United Methodist Church Whitesboro.

FUMC lives out this promise through several happenings:

• 
  We witnessed the love of Christ for our children during our celebration of Children’s Sabbath with Celia Whitler. We remembered our responsibility for nurturing God’s children, giving them a future with hope.
  
• This past Sunday we remembered those who passed on to glory in the previous year, when we celebrated All Saints Sunday. We remembered the legacy of friends and loved ones in the faith and remembered the plans of a future with hope God calls us to live out and pass on to others
  
• We will celebrate the ministry of the church in the past year, and make decisions for the future with hope that God calls FUMC. We gather this coming Sunday, November 9, 2008, during both services and Sunday School at our annual Church Conference. We will celebrate how God led us on his plan and where God’s plans will take us in the future.

The annual Church Conference is open to all persons who attend FUMC. Each full, professing member of FUMC may exercise their right to vote on reports and decisions brought before the body. Dr. Clara Reed, our new District Superintendent of the Sherman-McKinney District will preside over our conference.

For those of you not familiar with this process, each year the local congregation of the United Methodist Church meets to discuss what the church accomplished in mission and ministry in the past year, and provide the mission and vision of the church in the year(s) to come. Various program directors and coordinators will present this information to the conference during both worship services.

During the Sunday School hour, the administrative items are presented and/or voted on by the members of the church conference. The administrative items include presentation of the annual cost of ministry (budget); approval of pastor’s compensation report; approval of the Lay Leadership’s nomination report of leaders of the church; approval of continuance of Lay Speakers, and candidates for Ordained Ministry; first reading of members who are inactive and have not responded to contacts in regard to their continued membership; and other items deemed necessary. Dr. Clara will preside over the proceedings of the church conference.

Prayer: O Lord Jesus, thank you for the people of First United Methodist Church, and for the opportunity to be in Christian conference through our annual Church Conference. May we discern your future with hope. May we pray together:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily
bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever. Amen