Youth Coffee House and Opportunities to Volunteer with Youth

This is a busy weekend for our youth program at Northaven. While writing this post, I'm also getting ready for our second lock-in of the year, which is the last event of the "Our Whole Selves" program with Cathedral of Hope.

This Sunday, April 25, at 6pm in the Sanctuary, the Youth are hosting a Coffee House for the Northaven community in an effort to raise part of the $3,500 they need for their summer mission trip to Dulac, Louisiana. Dessert and coffee will be provided while you enjoy catching up with your fellow Northaveners and enjoy a night of entertainment provided by the youth and confirmands.

Also this Sunday, 10 minutes following the end of Sunday morning worship we will be hosting an orientation meeting in the Youth Room for anyone who is interested in volunteering with Northaven Youth. We have a variety of volunteer needs, including providing food, supervising Sunday evenings and other events, and helping provide transportation, especially for our monthly mission projects. If you have any interest in helping the youth over the Summer or the coming year, please come to this brief meeting to provide information for background screenings as well as obtain more information on how you can be part of enriching the spiritual lives of our youth.

Hope to see you this Sunday,
Chris

Strategic Plan for the North Texas Conference

The North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church has been engaged in a process of strategic planning for more than a year now. A broad-based group of laypersons and clergy have listened to the feedback of many persons in the Annual Conference during the past calendar year.

They have held a series of district meetings to share their results. Their work and the work of the Bishop and Cabinet, have resulted in a new "strategic plan" for the North Texas Conference.

Delegates to the Annual Conference will be asked to consider a dramatic and creative restructuring to our annual conference agencies and to the "Cabinet."

The Strategic Planning Committee has created a website where folks can learn more about the plan. It's called "Holy Conferencing," and you can find it here.

You can download and read a copy of the entire strategic plan here. (pdf format)

The plan would establish Four Areas of Focus of The United Methodist Church as the Strategic Priorities of the North Texas Conference

1) Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world.
2) Creating new places for new people by creating new churches and renewing existing ones.
3) Engaging in ministry with the poor.
4) Combating the diseases of poverty by improving health globally.


To do this, the Vision Team and Cabinet Suggest Four Specific Strategic Changes:

1. Establish the four areas of focus of The United Methodist Church as the strategic priorities of the North Texas Conference.
2. Re-vision the role of the District Superintendents and reduce the number of districts of the North Texas Conference.
3. Streamline and realign the conference structure and staffing to address these priorities most effectively.
4. Realign our financial resources to reflect these priorities.

Northaven members are encouraged to become familiar with this proposed plan, and to offer feedback to our elected delegates to Annual Conference who will vote on this proposal.

Eligible voting delegates from Northaven are:
Shirley Cooper (lay delegate)
Eric Folkerth
Shannon Hamrick
Karan Marshall
Robin Lovin
Bill McElvaney
Ben Marshall

Give Your Input on the Mission Statement

Authorized by our Leadership Council, and facilitated by Church in Society Commission, the Northaven Community is invited to engaged in a process of discernment which could lead to an expansion of our church's mission statement.

Specifically, the idea is to ask: "Does our statement need to say more about our mission to the world, specifically to the poor and the oppressed? And, if so, what should it say?"

This process does not seek to replace the current statement, approved in the 1990s, but to expand on the question "What are we called to *do* in the world?"
Therefore, for four weeks the congregation is invited to provide input and feedback on what that mission statement should include.

To "prime the pump" Church and Society has drafted four sample statements to get you to thinking and to praying about what it should be. They are:

* "Northaven seeks to extend God's love to the world through ministries of compassion, peace, justice and reconciliation."


* "Northaven understand our mission to embody God's love and justice in the world with special preference for those who are most vulnerable and marginalized."


* "Jesus described his mission in Luke 4 as being anointed, "to preach good news to the poor, te proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord". Jesus' mission is Northaven's mission in the world."


* As one body of Christ, we pray that God's Holly Spirit will empower us for the awesome and challenging task off spreading God's love and justice throughout our community and world.

Leave comments below about these statements, or about another statement of your own choosing. Or, on Sundays, leave a comment on at large display in the Atrium.

What Should We Do This Summer?

Last summer, Northaven engaged in a powerful "Chautauqua" series that was heralded by many.

Your hardworking Worship Commission will soon be contemplating this summer, and perhaps yet another "Chautauqua" series, but perhaps around a different set of issues.

Are there some theological, social justice, or spiritual issues that might lend themselves to a powerful summer study?

What do YOU think would make a good summer series?

We can't promise to use all your ideas, but we'd love to hear them.

Leave your thoughts in the form of a "Comment" below.
(Note: you don't have to have a username and password. You may leave a comment using the "anonymous" method. If you like, you may sign your name at the end of your comment...)

Almost $14,000 Raised at Connections Show!

Here are pictures from last Friday night's show at Northaven, via the Connections Band website.

The following is reposted from the Connections blog:

We’re all still pinching ourselves this morning, after last night’s show at Northaven.

More than 360 people packed the house to hear our “SuperHits of the 70s” show to benefit the United Methodist Committee on Relief’s work in Haiti.

And the response was nothing short of amazing.

Last night our assembled crowd raised $13,883!!**

Good Lord! (and we mean that literally...)

For perspective, we’ve now done over 25 shows in almost four full years. Before last night, the greatest single fundraising night to date was just over $7,000, and that was with a crowd of 500. Another crowd of 500 donated $5,000 on another occasion last year.

But no crowd has ever been as generous as our audience last night. There was cleary an incredible energy. We are very clear that it wasn’t US who caused this response. It was the “kairos moment” of many in the audience wanting to make a difference, wanting to find a way to “connect” in mission, combined with a show that we already had on our schedule when the earthquake hit.

We know that there were many pictures taken during the night, so very soon we’ll post some photographs as they come our way.

We are deeply grateful to the generosity of all those who came, and to the kind people of Northaven Church for hosting us.

The situation in Haiti continues to be tragic, almost beyond comprehension, in terms of its misery.

200,000 dead.
2 million now homeless.

Yesterday also marked the funeral day for the head of UMCOR, Rev. Sam Dixon, who was among those killed in the earthquake. He joins Rev. Clint Rabb (whose funeral is today in Austin) who was the head of UM Volunteers in Mission, and Jean Arnwine, a volunteer with the HPUMC Eye Clinic Team, as those who have died trying to bring healing to Haiti on behalf of the UMC.

While the reality of the pain and suffering are immeasurable, we are so humbled to be able to say...
Thank you to all who came
Thank you to those who tuned in to the live, web-streaming feed, or gave to UMCOR directly on our behalf
Thank you for doing what you can to help Haiti, and for allowing us to be a part of your response.

Connections Band

ps: if you would still like to donate directly to UMCOR, please go here. You’ll find information about the UMCOR response to Haiti overall, and also a link where you can give online right now.

** This is an updated total, with more funds continuing to trickle in still. We’ll update from time to time.

Acoustical Panels in the Atrium

The Atrium Committee, aided by an anonymous donor, is supervising the installation of acoustical paneling in our Atrium. It's hoped that this will help lessen the sound issues that many people experience.

Pictures of Christmas Eve Snow

Several members took pictures of the incredible Christmas Eve snow we had this year.

Here is one of the pictures:




Click here to see all of them.