PASTOR JEREMIAH’S JUNE 2023 MESSAGE
| Psalm 100:1-2 1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing. Every year, a few weeks before Annual Conference begins, the clergy of our Annual Conference gather for “Clergy Session.” Now clergy session isn’t always fun. Sometimes there are difficult matters that need to be discussed; like all aspects of life, it’s not always happy. However, there are real times of celebration and joy that are also part of this yearly meeting. For me this year it was a joy as the clergy celebrated with the many retiring clergy, including Malta’s former pastor, Pastor Noah. Even more joyful was the approval for candidates for ordination. I felt great joy as I saw two people I’d helped prepare for their interviews, and two others I’ve had a great joy to work with, get approved for ordination. One of my colleagues even raised her certificate of ordination and let out a whoop of joy that she had come so far. It was a beautiful moment. Celebration when people achieve great things, is wonderful. We should feel joy when people do things that bless others and will share Jesus’ love in this world. We also need to celebrate because it’s good for our hearts, souls, and even health. This season of late spring has many celebrations; graduations, confirmation, ordinations, often many weddings, and more. What do you have to celebrate right now? There are any number of things we can and should celebrate and let us thank God as part of the celebration. God invites us to sing, to dance, or to make music, literally or in our hearts in celebration. To feel this joy is a gift from God and that joy can continue for for a very long time, but the joy and peace from knowing God loves us is forever. It is true we all face struggles, but let us not forget to celebrate and show our joy when we have something to celebrate! Let us make a joyful noise and thank God! Pastor Jeremiah _________________________________________
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Marcia Hueber, Chair of SPRC, received a call from our Dist. Superintendent on Friday, April 21st and Brian asked her to make this announcement in church on Sunday, April 23rd.
As of July 1, 2023, Malta will become a 2-point charge for Pastor Jeremiah Thompson.
He has accepted the position as half-time Pastor with Maple Park Grace United Methodist Church (16 miles from Malta). Pastor Jeremiah will continue to live in the Malta U.M.C. Parsonage. Maple Park U.M.C. will pay half the housing cost, half the utility expenses and half the health insurance. Malta’s Treasurer will pay the total amounts and then bill Maple Park U.M.C. for their half.
Both churches have 9:00 a.m. Worship Services. Bishop Schwerin and the Cabinet asked Malta U.M.C. to move their Worship Service time to 11:00 a.m. Malta’s Administrative Council will be working out several of these changes. Their next Church Council Meeting is Monday, June 5th.
We are praying this transition will be a Blessing for Everyone. Our first 11:00 a.m. Worship Service will be Sunday, July 2, 2023.
Marcia
Staff Parish Chair
| Greetings from our District Superintendent, Brian GilbertMarcia Hueber, Chair of SPRC, received a call from our Dist. Superintendent on Friday, April 21st and Brian asked her to make this announcement in church on Sunday, April 23rd.As of July 1, 2023, Malta will become a 2-point charge for Pastor Jeremiah Thompson. He has accepted the position as half-time Pastor with Maple Park Grace United Methodist Church (16 miles from Malta). Pastor Jeremiah will continue to live in the Malta U.M.C. Parsonage. Maple Park U.M.C. will pay half the housing cost, half the utility expenses and half the health insurance. Malta’s Treasurer will pay the total amounts and then bill Maple Park U.M.C. for their half.Both churches have 9:00 a.m. Worship Services. Bishop Schwerin and the Cabinet asked Malta U.M.C. to move their Worship Service time to 11:00 a.m. Malta’s Administrative Council will be working out several of these changes. Their next Church Council Meeting is Monday, June 5th.We are praying this transition will be a Blessing for Everyone. Our first 11:00 a.m. Worship Service will be Sunday, July 2, 2023.Marcia Staff Parish Chair |
Other changes may be less noticeable, but will include the following. Two days a week I will be at the office at Grace Church in Maple Park during the day, and I will work from here in Malta 2 days a week, and I plan to continue to have my Sabbath on Fridays. As for Saturdays I expect both churches will sometimes have activities on that day and I will seek to split my time between. I won’t be able to teach our Adult Sunday School as I did before, so we will be moving towards a lay leader for adult Sunday School. I will miss that time with you all, and hope we can still do occasional short term small groups together. We hope that our two churches can have some activities together to get to know each other. We also hope that our youth, children, and families can do some joint events. Long term, perhaps we could even have a joint mission trip, but we will have to see if that’s feasible.
You may have questions, concerns, or other feelings about all this. I ask you to please be in communication with me and our Staff Parish Committee, ask your questions please, share your feelings, and let’s talk. I can’t promise you that we can do what you might want, but I promise to listen! I believe long term, this will strengthen our congregation. Over a full year this new situation will save us about $35,000. That will be a great ease to our budget, and that will free up some money that I hope and pray we can use to do good ministry sharing the Love of Jesus with Malta, and with our world.
In Christ,
Pastor Jeremiah