Beyond the Green Doors

Please enjoy our newsletter from Spring 2015.

See it prettified in the PDF, with links: Beyond the Green Doors – Spring 2015 Newsletter

Mark Your Calendars:

April 16: Family Forum 7 pm
April 17: Open Mic Night 7pm
April 18: Men’s Group 8am
April 19: Friend Day w/Hymn Sing
April 19: Native American Ministries Sunday
April 25: Fisher Cats Game
April 25: Lay Ministry Class
April 26: Visit from Bishop & Noisy Collection

May 5: Prayer Shawl Group 1 pm
May 9: Lay Ministry Class
May 14: Family Forum 7pm
May 15: Open Mic Night 7pm
May 16: Play in Boston – Mr G
May 17: Friend DayMay 30: Men’s Group 8am
May 31: Peace with Justice Sunday

Pastor Lourey Receives Young Alumni Award from Wartburg College

Pastor Lourey received recognition from her alma mater for all of her service.

“Wartburg College has traditionally encouraged its faculty, staff, students, and alumni to serve others in response to God’s grace. Alumni awards have been established to recognize alumni and friends of Wartburg College for their special achievements and contributions to the college, the church, their community, and the workplace. By recognizing these special achievements, we give living testimony to the goals and ideals of Wartburg College.”

INVITE A FRIEND

Remember, the 3rd Sunday of the month is Friend Day worship. Please consider bringing a friend or neighbor with you, calling someone to carpool to church, and wearing your nametag in worship! Don’t let another month go by without participating.

Invite a friend
Bring a friend
Be a friend

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

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

Helpers needed! We are starting a team of people to develop a VBS program for this summer. Anyone who is interested in assisting in the development of a VBS is invited to contact the Missions Team.

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.

MISSIONS TEAM MESSAGE

Mission projects for 2015 are taking shape.

In addition to the Chicken and Biscuit dinner to support MATS & Shelter From the Storm, we will be working to support Imagine No Malaria, World’s Children, Heifer International, and Gift Cards for the Hungry.

Monthly “Open Mic Night” is in the works, intended for youth and the young at heart. The first Open Mic Night will be held on Friday, April 17^that 7 pm, and will follow each month on the 3^rd Friday. 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 will put together a team to work on a Vacation Bible School this summer. Anyone that would like to work on this exciting project should contact the missions team. This is another project we are daring greatly with. Perhaps you can help prepare snacks or play games. Maybe helping with the musical aspect of VBS is your thing. Good at crowd control? Perhaps you can lead a small group of children or be the group assistant! There are many ways to make VBS happen. Dare greatly to step up!

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!

FAMILY FORUM at PETERBOROUGH UMC

The Family Forum is an informal discussion series of issues affecting the family and life in our area. Explore life in our community. Pose questions, present your views, and learn new things. Speakers on a wide variety of interesting, local subjects, not necessarily of a religious nature.

New subjects and speakers on the 3^rd Thursday of each month beginning at 7pm.

Stop by for coffee and conversation. Bring your questions, comments and curiosity for some interesting discussion and information.

Contact Pastor Lourey to help us plan future subjects and presentations.

PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY

The Prayer Shawl Ministry meets the 1^st Tuesday of each month.

Prayer shawl group meets on Tuesday, April 7 and May 5^th at 1 pm, in the red room at the church. All are welcome! Come and enjoy working together- conversation and helpful hints promised!

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN

The United Methodist Women will meet on Tuesday, April 14th, at the church at 7:00 PM. There will be a special program put on by Carol Owen and Barb MacInnes – a fun evening is promised, and all the women of the church are encouraged to contact either Carol or Barb to find out how they can participate.

The May meeting of the UMW will be announced later.

MEN’S GROUP

The Peterborough UMC Men’s Group will meet the last Saturday of the month. A free breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausage, bread, juice, tea, and coffee) for the group will be served just prior to the meeting. Cooking begins around 7:30 – 8 am. Although it is not necessary, all are welcome to arrive a little early to help set up.

Due to conflicts with other events, the next meeting will be held on April 18^th.

All men are welcome no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. You can be of any religion or none.

MORE TRAINING!

Lay ministry classes are coming to Peterborough. If you are interested in shaping your leadership skills for service, consider registering for the Basic or Advanced courses that will be offered locally this Spring. Participation in these classes does not obligate you for a particular ministry, but will offer you a springboard for greater service and discipling.

Hillsboro UMC and PUMC have been striving to schedule lay servant classes together for 2 years. Finally, we have found 2 Saturdays and the equipment necessary to make it happen.

The schedule for courses is Saturday, April 25 at Peterborough UMC and Saturday, May 9 at Hillsborough UMC. Class will begin at 9 and run until 4. Two classes will be offered: a basic course for people interested in lay servant ministry ($35 for two full days, book, and lunch), and an advanced course focusing on understanding the Wesleyan ideal of evangelism as missional and service-oriented ($50 for two full days, book, and lunch).

More information can be found on the UMC New England District website www.neumc.org. Registration forms can be found in our meeting hall.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

All is relatively quiet on the Trustee’s front, and that’s a good thing! It means we haven’t had any major facility issues, whether unexpected repairs or preventive maintenance. We do have needs we plan to address over the next few years but we’re hoping to “take this year off” from any major expenses.

We picked quite a winter to break in a new snowplow contractor, snow shoveler and new tenants! But it has all worked out pretty well. Thanks for everyone’s patience and help.

Special thanks need to go out to Eno Ogo and Steve Griggs for clearing snow off the roof of the fellowship hall after a small leak developed.

Be on the lookout for notices for a spring clean up day coming in the next couple months (hopefully!).

Respectfully submitted by: Matt Keenan – Chairman

A MESSAGE FROM THE MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY

Please remember to put PUMC on your “contact change list” if you ever find yourself with new contact information! Mailing, Email, or Phone information is kept by the church, so please contact Membership Secretary, Karen Keenan, should you have a change. Also, if you would like to change the way you receive newsletters or other communication, you may pass this along to Karen. She keeps track of who is emailed vs. mailed newsletters, for example. The church prefers to email these type of regularly sent items, so if you currently receive them by mail, consider making the change to email, if that works for your household. Karen can be reached in church or .

We were a little late in completing this issue of Beyond the Green Doors. So that we can keep on schedule for the next issue (June-July) we need to request that all materials for the newsletter be sent to our editors by May 27. Thanks!

There is a need for a chair or co-chairs for the church yard sale. A date has not been finalized so pick a date and volunteer. A folder of information on the recent sales is available. Please contact Ken Schultz or Carol Owen.

Finance Committee Report

as of March 22, 2015.

We are at 23.1% of the year and have received 23.1% toward our budget of $67,904 or $15,669. We have received 21.0% of the pledges or $9,163. A total of $43, 714 has been pledged. Total receipts (including non-budget items) come to $15,931.

We have received the following:

Special Sunday – Human Relations: $144.00
Chicken Dinner: $262.00

Adult Fellowship – PLAY!

On Saturday, May 16th there is a 3 o’clock performance of Wes Savick’s play Mr. G at the Central Square Theater in Cambridge, Mass.

We would like to get a group together to go. The play runs until about 5:45 so we will make dinner reservations for us and still get everyone home by 10:00 P.M. If you are interested in going, there is a sign up sheet on the bulletin board by the kitchen. The price will be determined by the number we have in our group. If you have any further questions contact Sue Norton.

Check out the website CentralSquareTheater.org for more information. Sounds like a fun time so please try to join us!

“The heavens declare that glory of God, and the skies above proclaim the work of His hands.” – Psalm 19:1

JOIN THE 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 are already doing this!). We are 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 Page or email .

If you subscribe you will get recent blog posts like these straight to your email:

Winner, Winner! Chicken Dinner!
PUMC Mission Team 2014 Report
PUMC Introduces Family Forum
Lent Cover Image
Exercises of Faith for Lent
Just As I Am – Music Ministry
PUMC Mission Statement
Men’s Group Meeting Review
I Saw the Light – Music Ministry
Friend Day Begins at PUMC
Cute Church Video, “I need a diaper”