Top Ten - January 19

It’s a “Top Ten+” this week – there’s just a lot to let you know about!

With a new year comes new opportunities to get involved in ministry or small groups at Northgate. If you’d like to help out in some area in the church contact Pastor John at john@northgatefmc.com. If you’re interested in a small group, here are some that have started or will be starting soon…

1. Young Adult Lunch Good News!  On Sunday, January 29th at 12:15, Northgate is having a Young Adult Lunch in Room 2/3 after services.  If you are out of high school through early young adulthood, come and connect with others your age.  We will be serving pizza and pop. We would love to have you join us!  If you have any questions, contact DL at dl@northgatefmc.com.

2. Divorce Care and Grief Share A new Divorce Care group begins February 4 and is at 5:00 in Meeting Room 2 at North. And a new Grief Share group begins February 7, runs from 6-7:30, and meets at 22 Williams Street in Batavia. Both run for 13 weeks. If you are interested in either group or need more information, please contact Patti at patti.chadwick@juno.com or 585-297-3009.

3. Women’s Night of Worship There will be a special night of worship for women only on February 8 at 7pm. All women are invited, and this is a wonderful opportunity to invite a friend to Northgate.

4. Parenting Adult Children We are going to have another Parenting Adult Children class!  Debbie Vick will be leading the class at 9:30 on Sunday mornings beginning on February 19.  The first 6 weeks will be video sessions with Chip Ingram and Jim Burns called “Navigating Life with Adult Children.” Then 9 weeks of reviewing each chapter of Jim Burn’s book Doing Life with Your Adult Children (subtitled: Keep your Mouth Shut & the Welcome Mat Out.)  If you have any questions, please contact Angelique at angelique@northgatefmc.com.

5. Women’s Base Group On February 22 at 6pm a women’s group will begin meeting at South. This will run during the Teen’s Base time so is perfect for any moms dropping off their children for Base. Even if you don’t have a child attending Base, if you are looking to be part of a new women’s group, consider checking this one out. For more information contact Allison at allison@northgatefmc.com.

6. Young Ladies’ Small Group Starting Up A new group for young women is beginning on February 24. If you are interested in finding out more about that group, contact Angelique at angelique@northgatefmc.com.

7. Interested in Financial Peace? We’re ready to offer another Financial Peace University class and would like to know how many people would be interested in attending. FPU is a great way to learn about how to manage finances in a healthy, God-honoring and Biblical manner. If you’d be interested in taking FPU please email Angelique at angelique@northgatefmc.com and let her know. If we have enough people sign up we’ll arrange for the class to take place. Thanks!

8. Prayer Shawl Ministry  The Prayer Shawl ministry meets the first Saturday of every month at 10am at Northgate North (so there’s a gathering coming up on February 4). This group makes prayer shawls which are given out to people going through difficult times in their lives. All are welcome to come and join in; if you don’t know how to knit a shawl this is a great place to learn! Rosalina leads this ministry and was excited to tell me last week that they have about 12 people attending! There’s always room for more, if you are interested.

9. Next Centered Night of Prayer and Worship On the first Wednesday of each month at 6pm we hold a service of prayer and worship. While it’s a relatively small group of people who attend, we always enjoy this time of gathering together in God’s presence and midweek is a wonderful time to reset. Everyone is welcome to these, and the next one will be Wednesday, February 8.

10. PrimeTimers in March There is no Prime Timers for January or February. We take these months off due to the unpredictable nature of the weather this time of year! We look forward to resuming this gathering of Seniors in March and hope you’ll plan to join us if you consider yourself a “senior”! (Most attendees are 60+) Mark your calendar for March 9 at noon.

11. Monday Night Bible Study  On Monday nights at 6:30 Pastor Vern leads a Bible study in Room 2/3 at North. The group is currently studying the book of Philippians. Everyone is welcome and if you’d like to get on the email list and receive the notes that way just let Pastor Vern know at vern@northgatefmc.com. Some people attend this group via Zoom as well, so if that’s an option that works well for you contact Pastor Vern to get the Zoom link.

Here are a few opportunities to participate with others in ministry…

1. Flower City Work Camp Pastor DL is taking a group of youth to Rochester the week of April 3 to participate in service opportunities as part of Flower City Work Camp. At this point he is still in need of some adult help! He could use a lunch coordinator and also a few women to chaperone overnight. If you’d like to know more about these opportunities to minister to our youth, contact Pastor DL at dl@northgatefmc.com.

2. Tumaini Women Kenya TWK is a Free Methodist NGO that works with local churches and communities in Kenya. One of the programs TWK is involved with is Wunders.  Wunders provides girls and women in Kenya with the supplies they need during their menstrual cycles. Rob and Terri Noble, Northgate attenders, will be traveling to Kenya to work with TWK on a short-term mission trip in February and they’d like to deliver some supplies to TWK when they go. Specifically, they are asking for donations of Hanes JUST MY SIZE Women’s plus size cool comfort cotton HIGH BRIEF 6 packs, sizes 10, 12 & 14. If you bring these to the church, we’ll see that Rob and Terri get them. They will need these by Sunday, February 12.

3. Lighthouse Station Fundraising Dinner – Lighthouse Station is a ministry in Warsaw serving women experiencing an unplanned or crisis pregnancy. We have supported Lighthouse Station with gifts in the past and wanted to let you know that they are having a fundraising dinner in Depew on January 28. There is no cost for the dinner; donations will be received afterwards. The speaker for the event is Nicole C. Mullen. For more information call Sarah at 585-237-8644 or visit their website: https://www.thelighthousestation.org/events.

Please Let Us Know How We Can Pray For You – Email us at prayer@northgatefmc.com.

On Sunday mornings from 9:30 to 10:30 a prayer team meets in meeting room 4. During this time people pray for the services, needs of our congregation and other topics as God leads.  We would love to have you join this prayer team.

***********************************************************************************************
You Can Count on This – Galatians 3:26-27 – So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Read Galatians 3:1-29)


One of the blessings (and sometimes challenges) of being a Christian is that when we become followers of Jesus we are not only adopted into God’s family, but we all become brothers and sisters of one another. This can be a wonderful blessing, as our relationships with each other grow and become deeper and stronger and richer. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to travel on short-term mission trips to Peru, Hungary, Rwanda, Haiti, and Mexico and in each of those places I felt immediately connected to the Christians living there. Knowing that we are part of a large, world-wide family in Christ can be a source of great comfort, hope and encouragement.

At the same time, it can present a challenge to us. After all, what family doesn’t experience the challenges of getting along with each other from time to time or having to work through differences in the way we think or in our priorities. Do you know of any family where feelings haven’t been hurt? Where everything has been “smooth sailing” continuously?

The church family is no different, except that as Christians we have “clothed ourselves with Christ.” This means we are putting on (with the help of the Holy Spirit) the character of Jesus. We expect to grow in patience, love, kindness, etc. and as we do our relationships grow stronger. This should happen in the church, and in the home. Let’s seek God’s help to make it so.

When you’re not sure what you can count on in the world around you, know this: You can count on God keeping his word.  So read what God has to say in scripture!  And count on it.
Posted in

No Comments


Recent

Archive

Categories

Tags

no tags