Annual Garage Sale Offers Help ... And More:

Wesley Church's Annual Garage Sale, a favorite event, will be no different this year. Saturday, September 30th promises to be a day of fellowship and fun, dispatching "old junk," and finding new treasures.

The Garage Sale also gives us a time to remember our commitment to the Connectional Ministries Fund.

The Connectional Ministries Fund (CMF), sometimes known as the "apportionment," is our denomination's basic monetary unit of missional giving. Money collected by the Annual Conference through CMF is used to support the ministries of the General and Annual Confer-ences. The CMF makes ministry happen as a denomination, globally, na-tionally, and locally.

On the global and national levels, giving to CMF supports the bishops' area expenses and the several general agencies that perform ministry, like world missions and the deployment of mis-sionaries, justice and educational ministries, evangelism and publishing, interfaith dialogue and pensions.

On the local level, CMF supports the administrative expenses of our Eastern Pennsylvania Annual Conference, as well as benevolent giving to various ministries such as camping, higher education, youth, neighborhood services, child-care, eldercare and much more.

Wesley Church's pledge of $42,700 to the Connectional Ministries Fund is determined by a formula that takes into account the grand total of moneys we pay out each year in ministry and other expenses. Our pledge has been added to others from churches on our district to meet a district CMF goal.

To date, our giving to the overall 2000 Ministry Budget at Wesley Church has not been strong enough to support our CMF pledge 100% through envelope giving. Consequently, we have had to support it with additional fund raising like the Annual Garage Sale. The more committed our stewardship becomes, the less dependent we will be on supplemental fund raising. Those supple-

mental dollars could then be used to support local ministries like Victory House Men's Shelter, New Bethany Ministries and the Interfaith Coalition on Poverty.

Did you know that on average, one Sunday offering out of four each month through the offering plates is needed just to meet our CMF pledge? Because our annual giving typically does not reach 100% of the money needed to fully fund our ministry expenses, and because we are committee to reaching 100% of our CMF pledge, we use 25% of our offerings to meet the 8% of our budget that represents our CMF pledge.

As your pastor, I pray often that God will open our hearts as a people of faith to the reality that giving is a fundamental way to show our connection to God and those who need our help. Our giving is an outward sign of the inward spiritual value that all that we have is a gift to us from God. I had hoped that we would pay 100% of our CMF pledge by the end of October, thus giving us two months to make gifts to local ministries. At this moment that hope is in jeopardy. At the end of July we were $3,500 behind in payments to CMF, and we've gotten farther behind in August, due to reduced cash flow in the summer months. We'll spend the rest of the year making this amount up...unless... .

If you are motivated to help, may I suggest that you make a special offering to CMF sometime before the end of the year? In fact, an offering to CMF before the September 30 Garage Sale would be most helpful. Look over what you've been given by God and write your check to Wesley Church and mark CMF on the memo line, or on your regular envelope, if you give cash.

No matter how you support CMF or our Annual Garage Sale on September 30 (whether by donating items for sale, purchasing items you like, or giving your time and talents), you'll be helping us to do great ministry in the name of the Risen Jesus.




Adult Faith Matters

Join us in Fellowship Hall on Sunday mornings at 9:00 am for a time of Adult Christian Education. All adults are invited to come and grow in faith!


September: Faith Outside Our Sanctuary

Sept. 24: The American Red Cross: Disasters Close to Home


October: Faith Inside the Walls

Oct. 1: Exploring what the Bible says about killing and revenge

Oct. 8: Viewing first part of film Dead Man Walking, and discussion

Oct. 15: Viewing middle part of Dead Man Walking, and discussion

Oct. 22: Viewing last part of Dead Man Walking, and discussion

Oct. 29: Forum Open Discussion: The Death Penalty is necessary -- true or false?


November

Nov. 5: Pre-election Sunday -- What Drives Our Voting Booth Choices?




Inquirers Ministry

The next class, Inquirers XX, will begin on October 8th. If you are interested in learning about the mission and ministry of Wesley Church, and an overview of United Methodism, please call the church office at 610.865.5715. These seven weekly sessions will engage you in a faith journey and enable you to discover if God is calling you to ministry at Wesley Church.




Fall Clean-up Day

Please save Saturday morning, October 14th, 9-12, to help clean up our church property. Pick-up trucks will be needed to take tree limbs to the city compost center. Jobs will include trimming bushes, weed-ing beds, etc.

For more information call Don Swigart of Men's Fellowship at 610.868.7879, or Ken Niewoehner at 610.867.8404




Book Discussion Group News

The next meeting will be on Thursday, October 12th, at 7:30 pm. in the Library. The book is One Thousand White Women, by Jim Fergus. He is a field editor and monthly columnist for Sports Afield maga-zine , he and also writes a monthly feature on the AllOutdoors.com web site.

This book is fiction -- but "the seed that grew into a novel was sown in the author's imagination by an actual historical event: in 1854, at a peace conference at Fort Laramie, a prominent Northern Cheyenne chief requested of the US Army authorities the gift of one thousand white women as brides for his young warriors. Because theirs is a matrilineal society in which all children born belong to their mother's tribe, this seemed to the Cheyennes to be the perfect means of assimilation into the white man's world -- a terrifying new world that, even as early as 1854, the Na-tive Americans clearly recognized held no place for them. Needless to say, the Chey-ennes' request was not well received by the white authorities -- the peace conference collapsed, the Cheyennes went home, and, of course, the white women did not come.

In this novel, they do."

Call Barbara Reimers at 610.694.0767 to find out how to get a copy of the book; read it; and come to the discussion!




Disciple Classes:

DISCIPLE I: Becoming Disciples through Bible Study will be held on Monday eve-nings and DISCIPLE II: Into the Word Into the World will be held on Thursday eve-nings. A Thursday morning group is forming -- and will be held if there are twelve participants. Call me at the church office: 610.865.5715 if you have ques-tions. Or, stop by the table in the Atrium and pick up one of the flyers that explains the series.

Classes will begin in the first week of October.




United Methodist Women News:

Worktime for Hand Crafted Cards
Bring your own Brown Bag Lunch!
10 am Monday, September 25th, 2000

General Meeting for All Women!

12 noon Wednesday, October 18th, 2000
Program: TBA
Devotions

Discussions on business issues
Bring your own Brown Bag Lunch!

Church Wide Harvest Bazaar Craft Show on Saturday, October 28th, 2000




United Methodist Youth Fellowship:

Calling All 6th through 12th graders!

Beginning in October --

Junior & Senior Youth Group will meet together on the 1st and 23rd Sunday of every month, from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. All are welcome! Please contact Brian Gray-beal at 610.867.0294 for more informa-tion!

The October activity will be participation in the 2000 CROP walk.

Date: October 15, 2000
Time: 1:00pm registration (bring lunch to second service and eat as a group)
Return: Approximately 4:30pm.




Parenting Support Group:

Thursdays, October 5, 12, 19, 16 & Nov. 2
6:30 - 8:00 pm
Deadline: Tuesday, Sept. 26th

· Are your children driving you crazy?

· Do you want to get out of the "nagging" trap and learn to set appropriate limits and conse-quences with your kids?

· Do you want to help your child develop self-control, learn to take responsibility for their own be-havior, values and lives as they grow in maturity on the road to becoming healthy adults?

Come join other committed parents for a five-week series on effective parent-ing. Cost is $50 for the five evening series.

The group facilitator, Patience D. Stev-enson, M.A. has been helping families in the Lehigh Valley for over 14 years have richer, more fulfilling family lives. She is a clinical Member in the American Association of Marriage and Family therapy, a Fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and National Certified Counselors.




Day of Marriage Enrichment is Offered:



This is a day that enriches a good marriage, and makes it more fulfilling and stronger.

Bring your marriage relationship to the top of your priority list and join us for a fun, stimulating, enriching day together ! If you want to understand your mate better, improve communication, increase intimacy and reaffirm your commitment, then this day's program is designed for you.

Marriages require intentional care and effort in order for them to grow and prosper. It is often hard to fit "couple time" into a busy schedule of juggling work, children, church, community and volunteer activities.

The cost is $65 and includes lunch and childcare. You can register by phone 610.866.6647 or fax 610.865.7909, or email at info@ marriagematters.net. Or go to my web site at www.marriagematters.net