Please enjoy our newsletter from January – February 2015.
Beyond the Green Doors – January/February 2015 Newsletter PDF
A Message From Pastor Lourey Savick:
Choose to Serve!
We continue to seek people to help with some aspects of our worship and fellowship:
Sunday School Teachers – We all love to work with our youth! We are looking for more teachers for our growing class of students. You will have help with the lessons as needed. Please volunteer, even if you are available on a rotating basis. We encourage you to consider the call to serve our youth in our expanding congregation.
Vacation Bible School – We are looking for anyone who has experience with VBS to help the Missions Team explore our options.
Nursery – We are seeking someone to help provide care for infants in the nursery during service. You may know someone in another denomination with a different service time who may feel the call to serve in this way, without missing their own worship service.
Fellowship – We encourage all to sign up for fellowship roles. We all enjoy our wonderful service, and should take our turn serving during worship. We need volunteers for liturgists, ushers, greeters, parking lot ushers, flowers, and coffee hour helpers. The sign up sheet is on the table under the name tags.
What’s Happening? emails – We need someone to sign up to handle the What’s Happening weekly email. This involves compiling submissions and sending a message to our mailing list, once a week.
Leadership Update:
Several new people have taken on new leadership roles in our church recently. Here is the full list – many thanks to our all-volunteer leaders!
Pastor: Lourey Savick
Lay Leader and Member: James Poplin
Alternate Lay Member: Laura Nerz
Pastor/Staff Parish Co-Chair: Kristel Gatcombe
Pastor/Staff Parish Co-Chair: Deane DeHotman
Ad. Council Chair: Julia Bartlett
Christian Education Chair: Lourey Savick
Congregational Care Coordinator: Gladys Bugler
Equalization Member: Laura Nerz
Fellowship Coordinator: Sue Norton
Finance Secretary: Ken Schultz
Membership Secretary: Karen Keenan
Missions Committee Chair: Linda Wallenstein
Sunday School Superintendant: Andrew Dunbar
Treasurer: Greg Robidoux
Trustee Chair: Matt Keenan
UM Women Representative: Barbara MacInnes
Web Manager: Melissa French
Worship Committee Chair: David Ladeau
Please consult your church directory if you
would like to get in touch with any of our leaders.
This note was composed with the help of Melissa French.
And speaking of the church directory… an updated digital edition will be distributed in February. Do you have any changes or additions since the December distribution of the phone directory? If so, please email Karen Keenan.
Coming soon to a Church near you:
FAMILY FORUM
Join with us to explore family and other issues in our community. This will be an open discussion of your suggested issues with local speakers when available. The Peterborough Police will be at our initial forum to discuss law enforcement, safety, security, and any other concerns. Help us plan future subjects and presentations. Watch for future announcements and schedules as information becomes available.
A Message From the Trustees Chair Matt Keenan
What is the Board of Trustees?
A group of very dedicated volunteers from our church who are charged with the “stewardship” of the church’s assets. Primarily this means ensuring that the church’s facilities as well as the trust fund investments are in good condition in order to continue to support the mission of the church.
Who are the Trustees?
We are fortunate to have our entire board (and more) back for 2015. They are: Wendy Dunning, Ron Crowe, Mark Welty, Greg Nerz (Treasurer), Pat Woodward (Secretary), Steve Gatcombe (Vice Chair) and me. We are pleased to welcome our newest member; Steve Griggs who has agreed to join our ranks this year and is looking forward to more involvement.
The church has been blessed with many different trustee members and leaders over the years that may have largely gone unnoticed. Trying to name them now would result in an unfortunate omission so I will not attempt that. They and their works have been very much appreciated and we hope to continue to uphold their legacy.
The trustees completed another busy year in 2014. Most recently Mark Welty persisted in completing the installation of additional speakers in the two back classrooms so that Sunday School teachers and/or child care providers can enjoy worship music and sermons while tending to others. We installed a new aluminum overhead garage door at Wesley House prior to the new tenants arrival. A new baby changing station was purchased and installed in the larger bathroom off the hall thanks to Steve Gatcombe, and a new baby gate was donated and installed by Mark Welty by the stairs leading to the balcony.
We express our sincerest gratitude to John Banks for his many years of service to the church with his plowing and salting services. John has stepped back from that duty and we have now contracted with the Mathewson Company.
Andy Dunbar has agreed to expand his role beyond the custodial duties and will be our new Facilities Coordinator. He will be the contact point on site for church events and facility rentals as well as taking over the responsibility for shoveling and salting of the walkways. Andy has a passion and drive for recycling and for ensuring the facility has been properly shutdown and secured, so you may be hearing from him with gentle reminders of the importance of these things from time to time!
Submitted by: Matt Keenan – Chairman
Men’s Breakfast
Saturday Jan 31, 2015, PUMC 8:00 am
Gathering and support for men of all ages and situations.
Please RSVP to Andrew Dunbar if you can make this initial meeting.
Thanks and God Bless,
Andrew Dunbar
“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” – Corrie Ten Boom
A Message From Our Missions Team:
We have big plans for 2015! We are deep in planning our missions for the coming year.
We will continue with our efforts with the following groups:
MATS & Shelter From the Storm
Imagine No Malaria
World’s Children
Heifer International
Gift Cards for the Hungry
NH Food Bank
We are planning a dinner in March to support MATS and Shelter From the Storm. We are asking anyone who has experience with these dinners to come help. The success of this dinner will depend on people who actually know what they’re doing helping us!
We are hoping to organize a monthly Open Mic Night, intended for youth and the young at heart. Anyone who has any sound experience, or is excited about this project, please feel free to let us know. This is one opportunity to help where you get to have lots of fun!
We are exploring doing a Vacation Bible School this summer and would greatly appreciate feedback and advice from anyone who has experience with VBS. This is another project we are daring greatly with.
We will once again have a booth at Peak Into Peterborough and continue our outreach in the community, and have a good time with the local kids.
If you feel strongly about a mission that you do not see here, come to a missions meeting and talk us into it! We are all on the Missions Team!
Wreaths:
Since 1982 we have enjoyed live Christmas wreaths from Vermont. This year, they were made by a college student. Her mother passed down the opportunity to keep the home business alive.
The profit for our church budget was $531. Thank you again to everyone who purchased wreaths to add to your Christmas enjoyment. “A wreath is a circle of unending love and faith.”
-The Crowes
New Life Home:
782 N. River Rd. Manchester, NH 603-624-8444 http://www.newlifehome.org/
The generosity and creatively wrapped gifts to 14 children and 9 mothers were delivered Dec. 19th to the lively home in Manchester. Also gratefully received were a goodly amount of paper goods, kitchen staples, Bibles, a children’s book series and a large frozen turkey.
Please know the importance and thankfulness of being a part of helping these troubled mothers with their children to change their lives in this very positive Christian home.
Thank you for whatever part you played.
-The Crowes
Liberty House for homeless veterans 75 W. Baker St. in Manchester was the recipient of the warm outer clothing we collected.
Prayer Shawl Ministry
The Prayer Shawl ministry meets the 1st Tuesday of each Month. The next two meetings are February 3rd and March 3rd. Knitting time is at 1PM at the church in the red room. Join us there!
PUMC Web Presence
Lots of wonderful things are happening on the web, and PUMC is there!
Subscribe – Our new site is up and running, with tons of new content. If you aren’t very active online, but want to see the updates from the site, subscribe to our blog and you will receive updates in your email https://www.peterboroughumc.org/about_us/contact_us/#subscribe.
YouTube – There are all kinds of fun things on our YouTube – There are videos of our worship service, special music, and great playlists of Christian music https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyMjKfOcUdlBre4lUhAZ7aw/playlists.
Social Media – We have opened several social media profiles, so you can follow us on the platform you prefer:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peterboroughunitedmethodist
Google Plus: https://plus.google.com/102483185988404254932/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pumcnh
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peterboroughunited-methodist-church
Street Team – Join the PUMC street team and help keep our social media active! Find fun things to share like great Christian music, inspirational images, funny church jokes, and quotes (you know you’re already doing this). I am looking for things that would be helpful, entertaining, or uplifting for people who might want to attend our church. When you find something message it to our Facebook, email it to Melissa French (), or Pin it (http://www.pinterest.com/melissadfrench/churchstuff/). I can schedule items to post and keep our Facebook wall fresh.
Stories – I am looking for stories and testimonials about our church. In order to share our wonderful church family we need to show people why they should visit. I would like a short paragraph I can share on the site and social media.
What funny stories do you remember from the church in the past?
What brought you to PUMC?
What struggles have you overcome with the help of your church family?
Why do you keep coming?
Why would you recommend us to a friend?
How is Pastor Lourey the best?
Reviews – On a related note, I am asking our congregation to submit reviews/recommendations for the church online. I can shout until I’m blue in the face about how awesome we are, but I’m the web manager so that’s practically my job. I need some more people tooting our horn. This is one way people gather information when “shopping” for churches. (Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/peterboroughunitedmethodist?sk=reviews & Google – https://plus.google.com/113775123890804227294/)
I welcome your feedback, suggestions, questions, and help!
~ Melissa French
This newsletter is compiled by Melissa French and Karen Keenan. Any concerns with content can be addressed with Pastor Lourey.