GENESIS - FUMC Austin

Here are the two powerpoints from the last 2 weeks.  The slides are probably useless to you at this point, but the notes section might have some minimal value.

Brooks

great-awakening

great-awakening-part-2

  In the next two weeks, we’ll be looking at Jim Wallis’s new book, The Great Awakening.  For those of you that don’t know, Mr. Wallis is coming to speak at FUMC on Tuesday, May 13.  You can order tickets through the Texas Freedom Network.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Mr. Wallis, here’s a recommendation by some guy that knows a little about these kinds of things:

“Jim Wallis is compelling, provocative, and inspirational, with the kind of faith that can move mountains and can certainly move people and communities. God be praised for Jim Wallis.”
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu

For those of you that don’t make it to class, I’ll try and post whatever minimal materials I might conjure up, but I’m making no promises that will get done.

Just a reminder that the class camping trip is the weekend of 4/25 through 4/27 so there won’t be any class on Sunday, April 27.  During May we will study Jim Wallis’s new book, The Great Awakening, in preparation for his May visit to our church. 

This is just a reminder that John McMullen will be leading class this week, and next week Mimi Raper will be finishing her spiritual gifts class.  During week one of her class we filled out a spiritual gift questionnaire.  For those that didn’t make Mimi’s first class, I’ll try and scan the test and post it here.

The Camping Trip is set for April 25 & 26 at Inks Lake.  More details to follow.

The March Pickle Book Sale has been confirmed for March 20.  Please mark your calendars to volunteer. 

Thanks to all that attended the U2-3D movie event.  What a great time! 

Stewart is leading class throughout Lent. That will obviously continue through Easter, March 23.  On March 30, John McMullen is coming to lead the class.

Because of conflicting schedules, there will be no women’s dinner in February or March.  They’ll start back up in April. 

And other items of note.  The next Pickle Elementary book sale is March 20.  We’d love all the volunteers we can get.

And we think the camping trip will be the last weekend in April, but we’ll confirm that later. 

We hope everyone is having a great new year.  We had a great discussion last week based on the Amazing Faiths of Texas.  We may go back to that at some point.  For the last three Sundays of the month, we are doing a study by the Sojourners group called Christians and Democracy.  It is very timely, and it should inspire great discussion among the group.  The reading was sent out to the listserve.  If you didn’t get it, please contact Brooks, and he’ll get it to you.

The women’s dinners also return this month on January 22nd.  If you need more information on that, you can contact Heather.

Finally, thanks to everyone that helped with December’s Pickle Elementary book drive.  By our best calculations, we distributed over 1,000 books to the kids on that day alone.  Our next date is in March so we’re ginning up for that.  We’re also talking to the school about the church volunteering for a mentor program so we’ll have more updates on that as it approaches.

As mentioned on the listserve, we’ll be starting an advent series this week.   We’ll cram in two weeks this Sunday since we went to see the immigration presentation last week.  The readings will be posted on the listserve. 

Thanks to Paula for coming and speaking to us last Sunday about raising the “Calm and Compassionate Child.”  Next week, we’ll have class in the sanctuary to hear John’s presentation, and then the following week, we’ll meet in the Family Life Center to hear Pastor Vera from the church in Vologda, Russia talk about our church’s support of their church.  Plans for Thanksgiving weekend are still a bit up in the air.