Quote of the Day

     “The thing which I resolved to use every possible method of preventing was a narrowness of spirit, a party zeal, . . .—that miserable bigotry which makes many so unready to believe that there is any work of God but among themselves. . .We think and let think.”                               -John Wesley, Founder of Methodism

July 12th Garfield UMC Youth Group

Garfield United Methodist Church Youth Group will be going to Airway Hills Miniature Golf Course on Friday, July 12th. The group will be meeting at Garfield UMC at 5:30 pm, to leave by 5:45 pm. and will return to the church at 9 pm. Cost will be $2.50. Please remember to bring money if you wish to get snacks, etc.

Permission slips will be going home tonight, since the group is not meeting next Friday.  If you can't make it tonight, but wish to go on the 12th, please stop by the church to get a permission slip.

About Airway Hills--The Airway Hills Miniature Golf Course is not your typical putt-putt golf. There are no windmills or clowns. These holes are challenging and built for beauty. The 18-hole course is built around two spectacular water features and giant boulders.

Youth Group Reminder--Bowling Tonight

Garfield United Methodist Church Youth Group will be leaving to go bowling at Zeppoz by 5:45pm.  Please arrive no later than 5:30, so we can get the carpools sorted out and leave on time. Our lanes are reserved, so please do not be late.  Have a wonderful time tonight--it's really going to be fun! 

Future of the Church

By Amanda Tobey  
My name is Amanda Tobey and I am a youth member from the Tacoma District. Through my 16 years, I have had to deal with many things. I have had multiple friends contemplate suicide and on more than one occasion this was because they were lesbian or gay. I am a person who is very involved in church events. All of my friends know that.
I had a friend in eighth grade call me one night to ask if she could tell me something – if I promised not to judge her. I said of course. She said that she was a lesbian. I said that was cool and that I didn’t really care. She was shocked; she thought that because of my association with the church that I wouldn’t be willing to accept her. I said of course I would but after another incident similar to this, I started to question my faith; not quite my faith, but it did cause me to question my view of God. I grew up in a community that talked about how you had to be or else you were doomed, God would hate you, and you would go to Hell. I always had a different view than that.
During this last year I went through confirmation and really discovered who the God I believed in was. He was someone who loves everyone. Personally, I could never believe in a God that hated people, because if God was perfect, he wouldn’t judge people based on their flaws or differences. In my mind, if you are a person hating/judging people on sexual orientation, you had better be hating on everyone that eats bacon or divorces their significant others. Otherwise you have no foot to stand on. I realize these things are commonly accepted, but this is like saying that we ban people from the church if they have an affair. But we don’t! We are a church that markets ourselves as having “Open hearts. Open minds. Open doors.” That is one of the reasons that I enjoy being a United Methodist.
I can happily say that I am part of a community of Christians that don’t need to judge because we know that God loves everyone equally. We shock people regularly when they hear that. They say that it’s weird and doesn’t make sense. Honestly, if we are a church condemning the LGTBQ community, we are a church no different from any other and should be changing our motto, and we will lose a lot of the youth members. The Bible talks all the time about not judging one another, yet we do it constantly. It is time that we need to change. For many of the youth I have talked to, homosexuality isn’t an issue, and WE are the future of this church.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day
Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD." Jeremiah (9:23-24) RSV
Wisdom, power and riches are not negatives. But they do not determine our value in God's eyes. God's love for each and every one of us is unchanging. God longs for us to be people who devote ourselves to seeking God and understanding God's ways.

Scriptures for Sunday, June 30, 2013

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14

1 Now when the LORD was about to take Eli'jah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Eli'jah and Eli'sha were on their way from Gilgal.

2 And Eli'jah said to Eli'sha, "Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me as far as Bethel." But Eli'sha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.
6 Then Eli'jah said to him, "Tarry here, I pray you; for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.
7 Fifty men of the sons of the prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan.
8 Then Eli'jah took his mantle, and rolled it up, and struck the water, and the water was parted to the one side and to the other, till the two of them could go over on dry ground.
9 When they had crossed, Eli'jah said to Eli'sha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Eli'sha said, "I pray you, let me inherit a double share of your spirit."
10 And he said, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if you do not see me, it shall not be so."
11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Eli'jah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
12 And Eli'sha saw it and he cried, "My father, my father! the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.
13 And he took up the mantle of Eli'jah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
14 Then he took the mantle of Eli'jah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Eli'jah?" And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other; and Eli'sha went over.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another.
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
15 But if you bite and devour one another take heed that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.
17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you would.
18 But if you are led by the Spirit you are not under the law.
19 Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit,
21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Luke 9:51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.

52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him;
53 but the people would not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to bid fire come down from heaven and consume them?"
55 But he turned and rebuked them.
56 And they went on to another village.
57 As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."
59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
60 But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."
61 Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home."
62 Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God"

Quote of the Day

“Rather than having ended the racial class system, we have simply revised it by targeting black men through the war on drugs and decimated communities of color in the United States. … I believe a movement will emerge in the United States, and the question is will people of faith be leaders or will they be on the sidelines waiting for others.” Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, speaking to the American Baptist Churches USA national meeting on a budding movement to end mass incarceration.