Dear Friends,

Our April Lunch & Learn was a wonderful success! In addition to enjoying the great food made by our Youth Adult Class, we also work as individuals and teams to define our Core Values. With about fifty people and eight Tables participating, we worked towards a consensus on our shared Values as a congregation. We took the top five answers then added additional related comments to them.

• Mission—serving the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of our mission field. (8 Tables)

• Hospitality—making the stranger feel welcomed, accepted, and a part of our community

• Gathering—joyfully coming together as a community for worship and fellowship

• Love—showing compassion and kindness

• Spiritual Growth—fostering a system of discipleship through prayer, study of Scripture, and stewardship that leads to becoming more like Christ

If you want to know exact results, check out the graphic in this newsletter.

Core values can change over time. On Tuesday morning, former associate pastor and youth director, David Eaton, stopped by the church office on his way back to Indiana from Magnolia. It had been at least 15 years since I had seen David. I gave him a tour of the church since he was here when the sanctuary was yellow and before the Great Hall was built. David was the Associate Pastor under David Prothro and the Youth Minister under Ralph Hale. I did ask David if our church was as mission orientated as it is now and he did not remember that it was. It was the commitment of people who were devoted to the Food Pantry and people like Lula Sue Silliman and the team that made Sue’s Table work that overtime, reoriented our church to community service. Well done, good and faithful servants!

Please pray for our Bishop and our delegates to General Conference that begins Tuesday, April 23rd in Charlotte, North Carolina. This newsletter has a link to an article by Heather Hahn called a Beginner’s Guide to General Conference. Heather was at one time the head of communications at the Arkansas Annual Conference. Amy Ezzell, our current communications director, sent out an email this week promising an unbiased and accurate report on each day’s activities. We will post is on our Facebook page. Please pray that the Holy Spirit be at work and that all of our delegations are treated with dignity and respect.

May 12th will be our Senior Sunday and our Mother’s Day Luncheon. As per our tradition, we will provide the meat dish and bread while the congregation will choose between bring a salad, vegetable, or dessert. Yes, you are always welcomed to bring more than one. Please let us know if you have a grandchild or child graduating from college or high school. We will serve Communion on the first Sunday of May.

Have a great weekend and hope to see you Sunday!

Grace and peace,

Beth