This newsletter has been prayerfully prepared for:

Office Hours: M-Th, 8:30 am-4:00 pm

Friday 8:30 am—12:00 pm

Dr. Doug Tofteland, Lead Pastor

Jay Anderson, Missions Pastor

Roy Pumphrey, Executive Minister

Carrie Holler, Youth Minister

Rita Kirkpatrick, Administrative Assistant

Beverly Stigge, Choir Director

Barry Fulmer, Praise Team Leader

Karen Kaufman, Organist

Mary Beth Davies, Organist

801 North Main

Newton, KS 67114

FI RST UNIT ED MET HODI ST CHURCH

Phone: 316-283-2150

Fax: 316-283-1544

E-mail: info@firstchurchnewton.org

Return Service Requested

We’re on the Web

www.FirstChurchNewton.org

The church is collecting toothbrushes, toothpaste

and dental floss that will be donated for dental kits

for GraceMed. UMW will assemble

dental hygiene kits and take them to

Wichita.

The wise men

followed the star

to find Jesus and

bring gifts.

January birthstone is the garnet.

Symbolism of the garnet is:

Purity, truth, faithfulness, regenera-

tion, insight.

January flower is carnation.

Symbolism of the carnation is:

Love, fascination and distinction.

InspiringInviting

IncludingInstructing

First United Methodist Church

Growing disciples to reach others for

Christ

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Volume 142—Issue 1

January 2014

All of us have gifts and talents to be used serving the church.

See Spotlight on Ministry and Service on page 3.

Ring in the New Year! Did you make your New Year’s resolutions yet?

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”

― Brad Paisley

Page 2 T HE V OI CE

NEWS ABOUT MISSIONS

The new year that is approaching is an opportunity to

make some new decisions and commitment. Whatever your

involvement in missions in the past, listen for what God

would have you do in the year 2014. Not everyone can go

on a mission trip, more can support a missionary financially,

but all of us can pray for missionaries.

In almost every missionary letter I receive is a request for

prayer. When they meet difficult situations they realize they

need God's help and the only thing they can do is pray. If

you don't know who to pray for take the missionary name

listed in the bulletin each week and pray for them.

Here are some encouraging words about praying for mis-

sionaries.

"If you are ever inclined to pray for a missionary, do it at

once, wherever you are. Perhaps she may be in great peril at

the moment. Once I had to deal with a crowd of warlike men

in the compound, and I got strength to face them because

someone was praying for me just then."

Mary Slessor in Africa

"Just a word of warning. Passionate prayers not only

change the world, they have a way of transforming the peo-

ple who pray...God's goal is to recruit every one of us for his

search and rescue teams."

Debbie Meroff

"Therefore I say to you, 'all things for which you pray and

ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall by

granted you.' "

Mission Moments ~~by Jay Anderson

Connect, Serve, & Grow

By Roy Pumphrey, Executive

Minister

""20

But that’s not how you

learned the king!— 21

if indeed

you did hear about him, and

were taught in him, in accord-

ance with the truth about Je-

sus himself. 22

That teaching

stressed that you should take

off your former lifestyle, the

old humanity. That way of life

is decaying, as a result of de-

ceitful lusts. 23

Instead, you

must be renewed in the spirit

of your mind, 24

and you must

put on the new humanity,

which is being created the

way God intended it, display-

ing justice and genuine holi-

ness. Ephesians 4:20-24 (The

Kingdom New Testament)

January 2014, a new year

begins, a time to reflect and con-

sider what we could do differently

or try to accomplish during the

year ahead. Some of us may even

make New Year Resolutions.

A profound goal we all could

pursue in 2014 is to become better

disciples or apprentices of Jesus.

One way of conceiving this is to

consider a disciple of Jesus as

being one whom increasingly

places all of her or his life under

the lordship of Jesus Christ. Prac-

tically this means that the appren-

tice lives daily, moment by mo-

ment, in faithful obedience to all

that Jesus taught and did. (This by

the way is what Jesus commands

his followers to do in Matthew

28:20.)

To achieve this goal we will

need to engage in behaviors and

practices Paul wrote about in the

verses above. For example, we

need to learn, to hear and to be

taught Jesus. Paul also writes

about leaving a “decaying” way

of life and shedding our pre-

Christian lifestyles. We then re

place the old with a new way of

being human with a life given to

us by Christ. God creates a new

person, as we become the way he

intended us to be. Being renewed

we will exhibit justice and holi-

ness in our lifestyles. This is truly

a profound goal for 2014.

One final thought. Let’s agree

to encourage and cheer each other

in the pursuit of this goal of be-

coming better disciples and ap-

prentices of Jesus.

“SPOT LIGHT ON MINISTRY AND SERVICE”

by LaRita Claassen

Spotlight on Ministry and Service

When we go to a service at church we really like to hear what is going

on, what is being said and being sung. If you can’t hear or it sounds

bad it really is a distraction and you can’t enjoy your time there or get

much out of it. So who is responsible for our sound? Shaun Bartel is

our sound technician and does his job quietly back in the sound booth,

mixing and adjusting sounds, making sure we can hear the speakers,

the choir, whoever might be doing a children’s sermon or announce-

ment, and balancing the instruments and vocals in the praise team.

He’s been doing this at our church for at least five or six years but got

his start back in college days at Bethel learning about mixing sound

from friends. Here he learned from Josh Ribble and helped him out

until Josh left and then Shaun took over the job. He loves music and

has a passion for sound. That, he states, is his reason for doing this

ministry. Yes, it has it’s downside – he never gets to sit with his fami-

ly, he gets things thrown at him last minute and doesn’t always have

time to do appropriate sound checks for guests and soloists, and he

can’t sleep in on Sunday mornings. But his driving motivation is to

provide a pleasing sound to the congregation so they can hear in the

best possible manner to get the most out of their worship service expe-

rience.

Shaun is also in ministry to the youth that come on Wednesday nights,

leading the middle school boys. But that’s another whole story. Bad

sound to him is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Good sound is a big

“Yes!” For this sound gig – let’s give him a “job well done”.

********************************************************

Direct Deposit

Are you tired of writing checks? Did you know that you can set up a

direct debit from your account to go directly to the church on the 5th

or the 20th of the month? Contact the church office for a form if you

are interested.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Scholarships for Spring of 2014

Scholarship awards from the funds of Velma Shepler, Edith Whitted,

Sara Danner, Clara Morris, Jim Dody and Dorothy Hermstein are be-

ing send to schools on behalf of

Kim Benson

Carl Folkerts

Abbie Holler

Wesley Morgan

Gannon Morgan

Congratulations!

V OLU ME 1 41—ISS UE 1 2 Page 3

Save the Date!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

9:00 to 12

Celebrating our Spiritual Roots

Stories!

Listening!

Food!

Fun!

“The Way and Grace of Jesus ”

I wish you all a happy New Year! May 2014 be

filled with the love of grace of God in your lives

and all situations. May you grow in your love for

Christ and your desire to know Him through pray-

er and Bible reading. The greatest power in the

universe to renew sinners is the endless grace of

Christ — grace upon grace, moment by moment

from start to finish. Whatever may come / our

gracious Christ will be with us.

We must pray and remember the teachings of the

Lord’s Prayer. (Prayer is most about asking for

intimacy with Him, grace and mercy with our

most basic needs and the ability to serve His good

purposes.) These are the prayers that our Father in

heaven most delights in answering.

May the Lord who commands us to “pray and not

give up.” answer your prayers and lead you in the

Way and grace of Jesus

Pastor Doug