Trinity Church United Methodist - Trinity Church, United Methodist

Trinity Church United Methodist
                        2505 Boomer Lane ~ Yorkville, IL 60560
                                  (630) 553-7645
                                 www.trinityum.net

                                                                                 March 2021

   Now that we are back to in-person worship, it’s an opportunity to get those scrip
   cards again. Tracy will be at both services if you would like to purchase then or
             you can stop by the church office Monday-Friday from 9-2.
    A percentage from each card sold will be donated back to the church. This is a
                   wonderful way to support ministries at Trinity.
                   For questions, see Karen Klatt or Tracy Riskus

                                 EASTER FLOWER TIME
                           Easter Lilies can be ordered to decorate the worship area
                             for the Easter Worship service and may be given in
                                      memory of or to honor a loved one.
                                 We are offering 6 1/2 inch lilies with up to five
                                               blooms for $14.00
                           Orders are due by Sunday, March 7th. Please look for the
                             order forms in your email and turn them in by placing
                           them in the mailbox outside of Trinity or drop them off to
                            Jennifer in the office Monday through Friday from 9-2.
                            Money MUST accompany order with EXACT change if
                             paying with cash. Checks are to be made payable to
                                         Trinity Church. Thank you!

March 2021
       Sun              Mon        Tue                Wed                Thu        Fri        Sat

                   1          2               3                     4          5          6
                              Faith Circle-   Special Finance/
                              6:30pm          Council Mtg Zoom-
                              Narthex         7pm
                              Trustees-
                              6:30pm

7                  8          9               10                    11         12         13
8:30am Worship
Service
10:00am Worship
Service
Communion Sunday

14                 15         16              17                    18         19         20
8:30am Worship                Staff Parish    Happy St. Patrick’s
Service                       Meeting-7pm     Day!
10:00am Worship
Service

21                 22         23              24                    25         26         27
8:30am Worship
Service
10:00am Worship
Service

28                 29         30              31
Palm Sunday
8:30am Worship
Service
10:00am Worship
Service

Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Although we study the passion of Jesus, his death on the cross, throughout Lent Easter is a celebration of his
Resurrection: God brought Jesus back from the dead, proving he’d broken the power of sin and death.
After Jesus died, they took his body down and put him in the tomb, and a giant millstone was set in front of
the cave. The religious leaders, worried that Jesus’ body might be stolen, asked for Roman guards to be
posted in front of the tomb. They didn’t want him coming out!
But of course, he did.
You know the story. But it’s important to remember that Easter is not some memorial to a nice, good
religious teacher who lived 2,000 years ago. It’s a celebration of the fact that he is alive today!
I’m living proof — and so are the approximately 1 billion Christians who celebrate Easter. Jesus “was shown
to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ
our Lord” (Romans 1:4 NLT, second edition).
Easter is the Good News about God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who came to Earth as a human baby, born
into King David’s royal family line. Four historical records say that after his Resurrection he showed himself
to 500 people at one gathering.
Can you imagine witnessing his death and then seeing him walking around Jerusalem three days later? What
an amazing thing!
When Jesus was hanging on the cross, the skeptics and critics mocked him and said, “If you’re the Son of
God, why don’t you just pull yourself down from that cross? Why don’t you just come down and show that
you’re really God?”
Jesus had something more spectacular planned. He said, “I’m going to let you bury me for three days, and
then I’ll come back to life to prove that I am who I say I am.”
Peace,
Pastor Mike

Each year the season of Lent gives us an opportunity to experience the passion of Christ as we prepare
for the celebration of Easter. Unlike many non-denominational churches, as United Methodists we
follow a liturgical calendar which provides opportunity through Ash Wednesday, Palm/Passion
Sunday, Maundy Thursday (service of the Last Supper), Good Friday (service of the crucifixion) and
the Holy Saturday Prayer Vigil to walk the agonizing journey to the cross. To fully experience the joy
of Easter it is critical that we each walk the journey to the cross. Please join us for all the worship
services of Lent, Holy Week and Easter.

The Language of Lent: Repentance
Of the many words associated with Lent, “repentance” may qualify as one of the more underappreciated and
misunderstood words. The conversation about repentance with the larger culture and, for that matter, conver-
sations with people within the church often begin and end with the observation, “God (or the church) is just
trying to make me feel badly about myself.”
In an effort to communicate with people and blunt that criticism, the church has increasingly turned to the
language of “apology” as a way of communicating what the church means by “repentance.” We all find our-
selves apologizing, after all and (so the logic goes) the language of apology is more familiar. The word apol-
ogy also focuses on errors in judgment or behavior and so it is more likely to engender shame. To apologize
is no more than the act of expressing regret or sorrow for an act or pattern of behavior. Unlike the word,
“repent,” it doesn’t necessarily imply a change of mind and it certainly doesn’t promise a new way of being.
We may doubt the sincerity of someone who says they are sorry, but goes on doing the same thing that hurt us
in the first place. When we apologize, we simply register our regret and the way forward is another matter.
The word “apologize,” lacks the depth, texture, and history of the word, “repent.”
What is repentance?
Repentance is often described as turning from sin and it certainly may involve doing that. But the Greek be-
hind our Latin-based word, “repent,” means to change one’s mind. Repentance, then, is about a fundamental
change in the way we think about our lives-their purpose, focus, and conduct.
That process may entail “turning from sin,” from specific behaviors or actions, particularly if those behaviors
or actions are at odds with the this new change of mind. Repentance may also involve regret or sorrow over
having lived our lives under the mind’s old regime.
But, like a person who undergoes surgery for cataracts, the point of repentance is not to make us ashamed of
what we couldn’t see. The purpose of repentance is to allow us to see: to see God, to see ourselves as made
in the image of God, to see ourselves as God’s beloved children, to see others as God’s children, and to see
that we are meant for glory that we can’t imagine without God’s help.
Shame is not the goal of repentance, nor is regret or sorrow the point. We may feel sorrow for having de-
layed getting “spiritual cataract surgery” earlier, but God is not trying to make us sorry for the delay. We
may feel shame, if we try to cling to our old ways of seeing, but God does not want that from us either. In
fact, those feelings can slow the process of transformation that repentance is meant to begin if we stay in that
place.
Repentance, then, is the beginning of healing, transformation, new found, God-given, and deeply rooted
strength. Repentance is not meant to destroy us. It is meant to free us.

Servant Leadership Call
Is the Spirit calling you to leadership at Trinity Church?
In the following paragraphs Open Positions for Leadership and Service are briefly described.
“Let Pastor Mike know if the Spirit is calling you to serve in any of these positions.”

Members of Nominations and Leadership Development
Responsibilities:
       Identify, recruit and support servant leaders for our multiple ministries.

Evangelism and Outreach Servant Leader
Responsibilities:
       Form and Lead Servant Team
       Coordinate efforts to welcome and follow up with guests and new attenders at Trinity Church
       Creatively establish outreach efforts to the larger community as we seek to expand the visibility and impact of
       Trinity Church

Evangelism and Outreach Servant and Team Members
Responsibilities:
       Support and participate in our outreach and inreach ministries.

Finance and Stewardship Servant Team Leader
Responsibilities: Lead Servant Team
       Provide direction and creative input to increase the financial support at Trinity Church.
       Offer leadership for the annual stewardship campaign.
       Provide accountability and clear communication regarding budget and spending.
       Establish long-term goals for debt retirement and expansion.

Mission Team Servant Leader
Responsibilities:
       Form and Lead Servant Team
       Mission Education that will help the congr egation become better infor med, mor e knowledgeable, and
       more motivated to support the mission outreach of the church
       Mission Experiences that addr ess the needs we identify in our local community, countr y and global
       community.
       Mission Support that help fund local mission outr each and the global mission wor k of the United
       Methodist Church.

Lenten Mission Offering to support Hesed House & Local Food Pantry
Challenge: “Give up a meal out during Lent”
Give up one meal that you would normally eat out during Lent and give what you would spend to our mission
fund here at church. We are going to use it to support our work at Hesed House, and the Food Pantry. For a
family of four going out to someplace like Chili’s it would mean making a $50.00 donation marked Lenten
Mission Offering. If you can’t do that right now do what you can in the weeks ahead. Let us make this Len-
ten Season a spiritual journey and offer support for the hungry and homeless.

Worship Life
Big God or little god, which have you chosen to worship?
Our Winter preaching series moves into Lent as we continue to center around the simple but profound
question, How big is your God? I am convinced that the way we live is a consequence of the size of our God
and the problem that most of us have is our God is too small. We will explore this question by looking at a
number of unique biblical characters. Join us in person or online for this powerful series.
To fully experience the joy of Easter it is critical that we each walk the journey of the cross. Please plan to
share in all the worship services of Holy Week beginning with Palm/Passion Sunday (March 28), Maundy
Thursday (April 1), Good Friday “service of the crucifixion” (April 2), Holy Saturday Prayer Vigil (April 3)
and the Glorious Celebration of Resurrection on Easter Morning (April 4).
May we move together towards the Joy of Easter by inviting others to join us in preparation and celebration
of the promise of eternity we have received through our Savior’s Victory over death.

March 7th      Third Sunday of Lent
               Message: God Is….Bigger Than My Sin
               Luke 18:9-4
               Communion Sunday
March 14th:    Fourth Sunday of Lent
               Message: God Is….Bigger Than My Fear
               Exodus 4:1-5, 4:10-17
March 21st:    Fifth Sunday of Lent
               Message: Assurance Granted
               Luke 23:32-43
March 28th:    PALM SUNDAY
               Message: Great Expectation
               Mark 10:33-34
April 4th:     EASTER SUNDAY
               Message: Easter Hope 2021
               Luke 24:32-34
               John 20:1-18

Plan Ahead….
Special Worship Services - Let us share together the road of Passion -

March 28th:    Palm Sunday
               Message: Great Expectation
This is a worship experience for all ages that will prepare our hearts and minds for the glorious celebration that
awaits us on Easter Sunday.

April 1st:     Maundy Thursday
               7:00 - 7:30 Holy Drive-Up Holy Communion
Drive up to the front entrance and receive communion as we prepare for the walk to the cross on Good Friday.

April 2nd:     Good Friday (Service of Darkness)
               7:00 Worship Service (all ages)
               Message: Victory
               Childcare provided

April 4th:     Easter Sunday - two worship services -
               8:30am and 10:00am
               Message: Easter Hope 2021
               “Join us for the resurrection celebration and invite family and friends.”

United Methodist Women
All women are invited to attend any of Trinity’s UMW meetings or events. Contact Tr acy Riskus at
triskus@yahoo.com (630-201-0358) or Jenna Shaw at jshaw8809@gmail.com (630-864-7455) if you have any ques-
tions or need more information about UMW.

Twice a year United Methodist Women like to have get-togethers in which all women at Trinity are invited. It is under-
standable that at this time many prefer not to gather with a group whether large or small, so we would like to offer a
chance to get together electronically. Keep an eye out for an invitation.

Women’s Ministry would like to say a heartfelt thank you for all of your support with missions in 2020. It was a year of
uncertainty, yet the wonderful congregation that you are have helped us to support women, youth, and children both
local and around the world. Some of our missions are ones that we support every year; Operation Shoebox, Hesed
House, Kendall County Community Food Pantry. Some missions we might have supported in the past, like Mutual
Ground, Northern Illinois Food Bank, Heifer Project, Life Springs at Wayside Cross, and I am sure many others that I
cannot recall at this time.

This Lenten season we would like to help support Mutual Ground in Aurora. Mutual Ground is safe haven for women
and families who are looking for a temporary shelter to help them escape from physical and/or sexual abuse. There are
many programs offered for women and their children, if you would like to see what this wonderful organization is all
about, I have included a link to their website. https://mutualground.org/ Listed on their site are items that are needed to
support guests while they are staying at Mutual Ground, as well as items needed when these families find housing.

If you would like to help us help them, please consider donating items from the list below. You can choose to purchase
items and bring them to church on Sunday or drop them off at the church during the week from 9-2. If you would like
to help but prefer not to shop you give a monetary donation which will be used to purchase items on their wish list.
          Women’s pajamas-new, size XL and larger
          Women’s t-shirts, long sleeves- new
          Women’s cardigans-new
          Children’s clothing sizes 10-16- like new
          Toddler & children’s athletic shoes/sneakers, all sizes-like new
          Diapers size 4,5,6
          Pull-ups all sizes
          Boxes of tissues
          Toilet paper
          Paper towels
          Cleaning supplies & disinfectant
          Plastic cleaning gloves
          Outdoor garbage bags
          Gallon Bottles of Drinking Water

If you have any questions Tracy is usually at both service on Sunday. Items may be placed on the UMW table in the
narthex. Thank you for your continued support.

Glory Circle: If you would like infor mation about this cir cle please contact Janet Gr oner at 630-553-5151.

Faith Circle infor mation can be obtained fr om Dor is Dick at 630-553-6926.

UMW board
President: Tracy Riskus                           Vice President: Jenna Shaw
Secretary: Rogene Kugler                          Treasurer: Lorrie Jackson
Spiritual Growth Coordinator: Beth Warren

Easter Mission
Although our Easter Basket mission will look different this spring, we are once again collecting items to fill
baskets. The Easter Baskets will be distributed to clients of the Kendall County Community Food Pantry.

Our Children’s Ministry typically fills approximately 50 baskets. This year we have a goal of 25.

We are looking for donations of the following:
        Individually wrapped candy
        Books
        Coloring Books
        Crayons
        Puzzles
        Bubbles
        Flash Cards
        Small Stuffed Animals

If you would like to participate, please drop off donations by Sunday March 21st.

Sunday School Update
One-Room Sunday School is in session. Remember to register online each week, so we know to expect you
and have your seat and supplies ready!

Contact Information
Looking to contact Children’s Ministry?
Contact Melenie at :
        trinitykidsum@gmail.com
        Follow us on Instagram: @trinitykidsum
        Check out Facebook posts and videos: Trinity Church United Methodist