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About Grief Share

grief share
GriefShare to begin another session at St. Paul’s

GriefShare is a network of 15,000+ churches worldwide equipped to offer grief support groups. It is designed for people grieving the death of a family member or friend.  GriefShare groups meet weekly to help you face challenges and move toward rebuilding your life.

You are welcome to begin attending the GriefShare group at any session. Each is “self-contained,” so you do not have to attend in sequence. You will find encouragement and help whenever you begin. You will be able to continue with GriefShare through the next 13-week cycle and view any of the videos you have not seen.Each GriefShare session has three distinct elements:

  • Video seminar with experts
  • Support group discussion with a focus
  • Personal study and reflection

Healing from your grief is not easy. It is a long, sometimes painful process.

The program is nondenominational and features biblical concepts for healing from your grief. St. Paul’s has been hosting this important program with tremendous success. Learn more about GriefShare at www.griefshare.org

Mid-Week Worship Every Wednesday Night!

Join us for a casual “coffeehouse” style service. Looking for a moment of peace in the midst of a hectic week?  Every Wednesday at 7:00 pm, we gather together in the youth room to pray, worship, and meditate on God’s word over coffee, tea, and sweet treats.  Everyone is welcome to attend!

March 2024’s Communion Offering Will Benefit UMCOR

According to the United Methodist Book of Discipline, UMCOR’s current responsibility is “to provide immediate relief of acute human need and to respond to the suffering of persons in the world caused by natural, ecological, political turmoil and civil disaster”.

UMCOR comes alongside those who suffer from natural or human-caused disasters – be it famine, hurricane, war, flood, fire or other events—to alleviate suffering and to be a source of help and hope for those left most vulnerable. We provide relief, response and long-term recovery grants when these events overwhelm a community’s ability to recover on their own. UMCOR also provides technical support and training for partners to address emerging and ongoing issues related to disaster relief, recovery and long-term health and development.

Unlike most relief organizations, UMCOR was designed so that 100 percent of all donations go directly to the intended projects. This goal was achieved by instituting the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) donation. The OGHS is an annual collection taken at United Methodist churches around the world in March. UMCOR receives enough support through OGHS each year to cover all overhead, administrative, and operation costs for the coming year. Excess funds received from OGHS are directed to UMCOR’s most urgent or least funded projects. Every dollar received in response to emergency appeals is spent on direct relief.

For more information, you’ll find a short, informative video on YouTube, outlining its mission at UMCMission.org/UMCOR

gods work our hands

From the Pastor – March 2024

Dear St. Paul’s family,

from the pastorAs I’m writing this, we are at the beginning of the season of lent. Lent is my favorite season of the church year, as I appreciate and contemplate the mechanics of the spiritual life, the “means of grace” as John Wesley termed it. As Christians, we need to be intentional about our faith development. Just as one would practice to acquire any new skill, one must do that with the spiritual life. Daily Bible reading, prayer, giving to others, music – these are all practices to engage in regularly, so that our spiritual lives become honed, healthy, and mature. The Lord is looking for mature believers who will represent him well in the world. If that is your desire, use this season wisely, and spend time with the one who wants to transform every part of you.

Pastor Evan

Publicize in News from the Pews

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Are you planning a church event that you’d like advertised in our weekly newsletter? Did you take some pictures at a past event that you’d like us to share in the newsletter and/or on our Facebook page? If either of these is the case, don’t forget to email us at media@stpaulsbrick.org.

News from Director of Family Ministries – February 29, 2024

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

For the entire month of February, the youth group has been discussing relationships. All different aspects and types of relationships.

We have covered Personal, Impersonal, Family, Technological as well as Romantic.

In all of these we have asked the question, “Does this particular relationship bring me closer to Christ?”

All of our relationships should center around Christ Jesus. He is who we should go not only by ourselves, but with others who also follow Him.

Blessings,
Melissa Jensen

melissa jensen

A Message from Pastor Evan – February 29, 2024

Rev Evan Dodge

Dear St. Paul’s family:

This Sunday will be the midway point of the Lenten season.
Periodically when we’re on a journey, like moving through lunch with Jesus on the way to the cross, it’s good to stop and take stock of where we are.

Now that we are nearing the halfway point of lent, where are things with you spiritually? Are you finding a return to simplicity and solitude, finding satisfaction in Jesus Christ? Are you attending to prayer and reading? Are you finding that the things of God become more and more a part of your conscience?

More than ever we need dedicated believers who are willing to go all the way with Jesus.

May that describe you this Lent.
Blessings,
Pastor Evan

St. Paul’s Podcast – A Conversation with Melissa Jensen

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A new episode of The St. Paul’s Podcast is available!

Melissa Jensen, Director of Youth & Family Ministries, talks about her long history and involvement with SPUMC and her hopes and dreams for the youth and family ministries.

Check out the link or find The St. Paul’s Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Be sure to subscribe!

The direct Libsyn link to the podcast:
https://sites.libsyn.com/481068/a-conversation-with-melissa-jensen

News from Director of Family Ministries – February 22, 2024

mel and mike

Being as the edition of News From the Pews is the same date as my wedding anniversary I decided to share a bit about my own family.

Mike and Melissa Jensen…
We are a family of 2. But we were united as 1 on February 22, 2014. That was 10 years ago!

What a difference a decade makes!

We have been through ups and downs as a family. We have received great blessings, and been through some very big struggles.
But through it all, we have had each other.

I do believe that the strength of our marriage comes from the Lord’s instruction. So I have added that below. This was the Scripture on the back of our wedding bulletin.

The instructions within this scripture to both me and my husband has led and strengthened our marriage.

What the Lord has brought together let no man put asunder.

Blessings,
Melissa Jensen

Ephesians 5:22-33

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body.

“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband”