Hello, Beautiful People!

You have made me feel so welcome here in Mary Esther that I do believe I will stay awhile. I have enjoyed working with your outstanding and creative staff as well as your enthusiastic and fun laity. If this is a honeymoon, then I’m enjoying it!

Our initial worship series, “This I Believe” has been well-attended! We have averaged 166 persons in worship over the first three Sundays. Who can you invite to join you for the next series?

Speaking of which, our August worship series is titled “…in Love” and will focus on the teaching of Ephesians 4-6. The apostle Paul stresses concrete actions that have their foundation in the love of God. In the first week, Paul stresses the need for unity — not that all will be the same, but that all people have different gifts that complement each other and can be used in building up the entire body in love. In the second week, we are called to a very difficult task: “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph. 5:1-2, NRSV). What does it mean to imitate God? Week three encourages a return of love from the people to God by giving thanks and being filled with the Spirit. Lastly, the well-known passage related to the “whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:11, NRSV) even has its groundings in love.

As a part of this series, it will be just as important to focus on “community” as “unity.”

So, I encourage you to ask yourselves and each other…

What is MEUMC doing to:

Build one another up in love?

Live in love?

Give thanks in love?

Move in love?

School will resume around this time. As we prepare for worship, please plan to join the community at the Blessing of the Teachers hosted by Trinity UMC on Wednesday, August 8, 2018, at 6:00 p.m. We will pray for our teachers and community getting geared up for another school year! Dinner will be served at 5:00 p.m. Everyone is invited and reservations are required at (850) 862-4169.

See you on Sunday!

Sam