Lent & Easter 2015

All-Church Study - My Journey with Jesus

Through sermons and small group study we will focus on Jesus’ journey to the cross, as well as key aspects of our own journeys of faith.

Sermon Titles & Scriptures

• Lent/Easter Offering

  Lent/Easter Offering Contributions will support two needs. Give Online Children in Zimbabwe (orphans and children who are related to our Zimbabwe congregation) - Money will fund school tuition and other school expenses.      Stop Hunger Now bagging event on April 19 - Money will purchase ingredients to bag 142,500 meals of rice, soy, and vitamins to be distributed to schools, orphanages, & refugee camps in depressed places in our world.   All ages, from 4 years up, can be involved. 100 people are needed for each Stop Hunger Now shift on Sunday, April 19. I'll help bag! Please arrive 15 minutes prior to shift start time to receive instructions. 8:30-9:45 am  9:30-11:00 am  11 am -12:30 noon 1-2:30 pm *  2:30-4 pm *  4-6 pm *Childcare is available by reservation only for children 4 years and under from 1-4 pm. Call Liz at 972.996.0120 by noon, Thursday, April 16.

• Devotional

  Lenten Devotional, Week of Mar 22 Read Romans 12:3-8 daily Practice: Look for opportunities to make someone else’s life better or brighter, through your actions, generosity, or both. Daily Prayer: A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition (Contemporary Version)       I am no longer my own, but yours.      Put me to what you will, place me with whom you will.      Put me to doing, put me to suffering.      Let me be put to work for you or set aside for you, praised for you or criticized for you.      Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing.      I freely and fully surrender all things to your glory and service.      And now, O wonderful and holy God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer,       You are mine, and I am yours. So be it.      And the covenant which I have made on earth, Let it also be made in heaven.  Amen.

• Lenten Journey

  Lenten Journey A Guided Pathway of Prayer: Bringing Faith Into Focus Wed, Feb 25, 10 am - 8 pm, Sanctuary Thur, Feb 26, 7 am - 8 pm, Sanctuary A time of prayerful meditation, journaling and reading that will help you move through the season of Lent anticipating the resurrected Christ in your life. Eight new meditation settings featuring Jesus' last seven statements on the cross and the resurrection will be created in the sanctuary to offer insight on your faith journey. Walk at your own pace for this self-directed time of prayer. Appropriate for ages 9 and up. Sign up in Shawver Welcome Center to receive a reminder via email or phone call.

• Easter Egg Hunt

  Easter Egg Hunt Mar 28, 10 am - 12 noon Bring your friends for games, face painting, bounce houses, petting zoo, photo ops and more. Egg Hunt begins at 10 am. A $5 donation per family or new children's books for the summer Read With Me program would be appreciated. Event Contact: , 214.403.4953

• Holy Week

  Palm Sunday March 29 Bishop Michael McKee will preach at traditional worship services, 8:45, 9:45, 11 am.     (See Guest Speakers tab) Noon at First Mar 30 - Apr 1, Bartula Family Life Center Lunch service begins at 11:45, $7 per day, $20 for all 3 days or bring your own lunch Reserve lunch online by noon, Fri, Mar 27, or in Shawver Welcome Center Mar 22 or 29. Live Streaming 12:15-1 pm. Videos will be available after the live streaming. Monday, My Journey with Jesus, John & Diana Holbert     (See Guest Speakers tab) Tuesday, My Journey to the Garden, Dr. Becky Bruff Wednesday, My Journey to the Cross, Panel Discussion: Dr. Clayton Oliphint, Rev. Rich Rindfuss, Rev. April Johnson Bristow Maundy Thursday Service Apr 2, 7 pm, Sanctuary A family service in a beautiful garden setting in the sanctuary in the style of Taizé with communion.  The Chancel Choir will lead us in magnificent music.  Child Care available: 4 years and younger. Good Friday Service Apr 3, 7 pm, Sanctuary The Seven Last Words:  A service of darkness as we remember this holiest of days in our Christian faith.  Child Care available: 4 years and younger. Easter Eve Service of Baptism and Joining Saturday, April 4, 5 pm, Chapel If you have not been baptized and are interested in joining the faith community of FUMCR, we welcome you to participate in this intimate service. Please contact , 972.996.0134, or register online.

• Easter Sunday

  Easter Celebration Worship, April 5 *7:30 am Easter Worship with Communion, Chapel, Rev. Marilyn Dickson *8:30, **9:45 & 11:00 am, Sanctuary, Dr. Clayton Oliphint 5 pm access Contemporary, Sanctuary, Rev. Rich Rindfuss * Special time ** Live Streamed at fumcrlive.com  Parking at the YMCA and shuttle service will be available all morning. Children's and youth Sunday school will not meet. Childcare will be available for 3 and younger.

• Guest Speakers

  Bishop Michael McKee Preaching Palm Sunday, March 29, Traditional Services Michael McKee is a native of Fort Worth, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin (1973), a Master of Theology from Perkins School of Theology of Southern Methodist University (1978), and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Texas Wesleyan University (2005). He was ordained deacon in 1975 and ordained elder in 1979 in the Central Texas Annual Conference, where he served several churches, including most recently 15 years as the senior pastor of First UMC, Hurst. He has held numerous offices including chair of the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Mid-Cities District Committee of Ordained Ministry. He was a delegate to three Jurisdictional Conferences and two General Conferences. In 2012, McKee was elected to the episcopacy by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference and assigned to serve as the resident bishop of the Dallas Area effective September 1, 2012. McKee chairs the Justice and Reconciliation Leadership Team and is a member of the Council of Bishops Executive Committee. He serves on the Boards of Trustees of Southern Methodist University, Texas Methodist Foundation, Southwestern University, and Methodist Health System, Dallas. He also serves as chair of the Executive Board of Perkins School of Theology and co-chairs the Campaign Steering Committee of Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Mike and Joan (Craig) McKee have been married since 1975 and have two adult children: Erin, who lives with her husband, Darin, and sons, Knox and Ford, in California; and Meredith, who lives in Dallas.

  Diana Holbert Speaking Monday, March 30 Holy Week: Noon at First The Rev. Dr. Diana Brown Holbert is a retired, ordained Elder of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, Dallas, Texas. In June 2008 she became the Senior Pastor of Grace United Methodist Church, a Reconciling Congregation. Grace, built in 1903 in the French Gothic Revival style, is two blocks north of Baylor Hospital and houses a health clinic, a legal clinic, a neo-monastic community for seminary students, “alley’s house,” a non-profit helping teen mothers, and the Open Door Preschool for the working poor. In 2007-2008, Diana spent a year as Minister of Education and Spirituality at Custer Road UMC in Plano, Texas. From 2005-2007 she served as Associate Pastor for Hamilton Park UMC, a predominantly African-American congregation in Dallas, Texas, during which time she won the North Texas Conference “Inclusiveness Award” with Rev. April Bristow, for their work with “Sisters in the Spirit: Breaking Down Racial Barriers One Friend at a Time.” In 2005 she completed her Doctor of Ministry degree, writing about her experience as a General Board of Global Ministries missionary and founding pastor of ArtSpirit, a United Methodist ministry in the arts community of Dallas in which she served from 1999-2004. Dr. Holbert was raised in Kansas, received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Grinnell College in Iowa, and a Master in Music from SMU in 1971. She developed liturgical dance ministries in many churches around the country, and was on the music staff as one of the children’s choir directors for First UMC, Dallas for 12 years. In 1993 Diana graduated Magna cum laude from Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, during which she served as an intern at Hamilton Park UMC. She won the awards in academics, homiletics, worship, and time management. After seminary graduation Diana pastored four British Methodist chapels in northwest England for a year, and came back to be pastor-in-charge at Trinity UMC, Duncanville for nearly five years. From 2002-2009, Diana was an adjunct professor at Perkins School of Theology, where she worked with all the preaching and worship students to develop their performance skills. Diana is married to John Holbert, the Lois Craddock Perkins Professor Emeritus of Homiletics at Perkins School of Theology. Together they have written the first chapter in Celebrating Covenant: A Resource for Worship, edited by Linda McKiernan-Allen. You may recognize Diana and John who danced and sang the Psalms on the video of the Disciple IV Bible Study. They have two, married children. Darius is a studio musician and film composer, living in Los Angeles, and Sarah works in Los Angeles as an Entertainment Media Manager for ABC. Darius and his wife have a darling daughter, born in New York City in December 2012, and another daughter on the way! Diana is spending most of her retirement traveling to Los Angeles and on a writing project of her first year of solo ministry in the Alderley Edge/Knutsford Circuit, England, entitled Living on the Edge. To read her blog, click on http://thespaceswebreathe.blogspot.com/

  John Holbert Speaking Monday, March 30 Holy Week: Noon at First John C. Holbert was born in Indiana, raised in Arizona, and educated in Iowa and Texas, receiving a Ph.D. in Old Testament in 1975. He has been a local church pastor in Louisiana, professor of religion at Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, and is Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics Emeritus at Perkins School of Theology, where he taught from 1979-2012. John is married to Diana, who is a professional musician and liturgical dancer and a retired ordained minister of the United Methodist Church. They have two children: a son, Darius, and a daughter, Sarah. All four of the family are artists; John and Diana have extensive vocal solo experience, Darius has sung with the Texas Boys' Choir, and is now composing for films and television. He and his wife, Caroline Wilson, have a daughter, Saiorse, now 2 years old. Sarah is a graduate of the University of Redlands in California, with majors in theater and women’s studies. She lives in Los Angeles, has acted on stage and screen, and now works for ABC in their Standards and Practices Department. She is married to Kyle Pfister, an LA architect. John has authored eleven books, including the recent novel, King Saul, and numerous articles in scholarly and church journals. He was the editor for the Psalms and Canticles material of the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal. He has served as Interim Senior Minister of two large United Methodist churches, 1st UMC in Fort Worth in the Fall of 1994 and 1st UMC, Dallas, March to May, 1997.