SW District E-alert, December 2, 2015

For our Calendar of Events and the Fine Print about this publication, please scroll to the end of this email.

This e-alert and past e-alerts are available on the SW District page of the Conference website.

The next e-alert will be sent on December 16, 2015

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes…and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theologian, 1906-1945

New! Bishop Johnson will be praying for the SW District the week of December 6. Please send your joys and concerns to with SW Prayer Request in the subject line.

The End Is Near! Of Charge Conference Season, that is. Please remember that your Charge Conference Minutes should be submitted to the District Office one week after your Charge Conference. If you have not already done so, please scan and attach the minutes (which, of course, will bear the name of your church, those in attendance [remember: “pastor” is not a proper name], and the signature of the individual who took the minutes) to an email and send to . Or snail mail to PO Box 271, Bird-in-Hand, PA 17505-0271. Church budgets for 2016 are due to the District Office by December 31, 2015.

Reminder! Open Enrollment for 2016 Health Benefits ends this Sunday, December 6. You must complete the on-line enrollment to receive benefits in 2016. Even if you are waiving coverage, you must still enter that information on-line. Click here for FAQs, and click here for BSWIFT. New! Correction: Prior information stated that dental coverage was available for dependents to age 23. Please note that the UCCI dental insurance will cover eligible dependents to age 26 regardless of student status to align with our health care insurance. If you would like to cover your dependent children to age 26, please log in and edit your enrollment prior to December 6, 2015.

Reminder! December 7, Deadline to Register for the Bishop’s Mid-Winter Retreat for Elders, Deacons, Local Pastors, and Their Spouses. Enjoy fellowship and renewal from January 12 to 14, right here at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Willow Street. The guest speaker is retired Chaplain (Brigadier General) Charles R. “Ray” Bailey. He will share from his experiences and talk about ways to reach outside our walls to share the Good News. Click here for complete info and to register.

Reminder! The beginning of 6 Months of Intentional Prayer for General Conference. Our conference is joining together for 6 months of intentional prayer before General Conference. Six churches on each of our six districts are setting aside a specific date and time to pray, and they invite you to come and join them. These prayer meetings are not meant to be partisan but humbly surrendered to the movement of the Holy Spirit. Nor are they intended to be geographically exclusive; that is, there's one on each district for convenience, but if the date of YOUR district's prayer post is one you can't make, anyone can attend ANY of the prayer meetings if you're willing to travel there. The first prayer meeting is this Sunday, December 6, on the Southeast District, 6:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary of Thornton: Bethlehem UMC, 4 Westtown Road, Thornton, PA 19373. Other dates and locations are as follows:

Northeast District: Wednesday, January 6 at 7:00 p.m. at Bowmansville: Faith Alive UMC

Northwest District: February at Lebanon: Church of the Good Shepherd UMC

Southwest District: March at Manheim: Ruhl’s UMC

Central District: Saturday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m. in the Main Hall of the Community Center (101 Woodside Ave. Reading, PA 19609) behind West Lawn UMC

East District: Sunday, May 1 at 6:00 p.m. in the Worship Center of Washington Crossing UMC

Classifieds

New! Ephrata First Church is seeking an enthusiastic leader to fill the part-time position of youth pastor for our students in grades 7-12. This person should love Jesus and teens and be especially excited at the possibilities of combining the two together. In order to lead the youth spiritually, this person should have a solid scriptural foundation and a growing relationship with Jesus Christ; we are looking for someone who shares our conservative, evangelical theological beliefs. He/she must be able to maintain a good balance of relating well to teens while maintaining a leadership role. Some of the responsibilities of this job are:

Encouraging and mentoring students to grow in Christ

Leading the youth ministry volunteer staff

Oversee the youth Sunday school program

Organize and participate in youth ministry events besides Sunday mornings

Be a presence in area schools

Communicate with other adults: lead pastor, staff, parents, and church membership

Qualified applicants with prior youth experience should apply with a resume sent to: Lead Pastor, First UMC, 68 N. Church St., Ephrata, PA 17522 or via email to

Reminder! Wesley UMC in Strasburg has a full-sized bus and is looking for a church that would benefit from having a bus to use for ministry. The bus was given to us several years ago, and our bus driver transported the donating church’s kids and our children here at Wesley. We no longer have a driver, and the bus has been sitting idle since July. The inspection has run out (August), but the registration and insurance are current. Wesley would be interested in paying it forward, and would like to entertain a similar idea that the receiving church could possibly bus our children from Lampeter/Strasburg school district to our church on Wednesday evenings. If the receiving church is too far out of the area, we would entertain the idea of a donation to our children’s ministry programs here at Wesley as we seek to promote God’s love in the Strasburg community. Please contact Dave Alderson to discuss possibilities for this great opportunity: , (717) 687-6392 (office); (717) 926-2997 (mobile).

Calendar of Events

For a schedule of Sexual Ethics Workshops, click here

For information about the Changing Racism training, click here

2016

January 8-10 Pen-Del Youth Rally, Ocean City, MD

January 12-14 Midwinter Retreat for Clergy and Spouses

March 5 Tools for Ministry, Lititz UMC

March 19 Faith-Sharing Event, New Hanover UMC, Gilbertsville, PA

May 10-20 General Conference, Portland, Oregon

June 5 (Tentative) District Conference, Location TBD

June 16-18, 2016 Annual Conference, The Marriott, Lancaster City

July 10-15, 2016 Northeast Jurisdictional Conference, The Marriott, Lancaster City

The Fine Print

Editorial Policy of the Southwest District E-Alert.The Southwest District E-alert is published on an as-needed basis on Wednesdays. Articles will appear once as New information; thereafter, they will be Reminders or Calendar Items. Spaghetti dinners, fundraisers, concerts, VBSs, bazaars, etc. are included only on the Local Church and ConneXion Events page.

The E-Alert is sent to Pastors and Church Offices on the Southwest District and to lay people who have requested having their names added to the distribution list. Please feel free to copy any article for your church’s bulletin or newsletter. To unsubscribe, please send an email to ith the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject line. Appointed clergy may not unsubscribe.

All articles and announcements should be sent to District Resource Assistant Chris McLaughlin y 3:00 Tuesday afternoon for consideration. Articles should be in the body of an email or an attached Word document (please no PDFs). Submissions made by telephone willnotbe accepted. Articles may be edited for clarity and space. All decisions regarding publication are made by the District Office.

Past SW E-alerts are available on the SW District page of the Conference website: click here.