Beginning March 7, our Sunday evening service will move to a more intimate, less formal worship format. In recent years, attendance has migrated from the evening service to the morning services, leaving the evening service too small to sustain a full-scale traditional worship service.

So we’re going to use this as an opportunity to offer a different kind of worship experience. Sunday evening worship will begin at the same time (6:00 pm), meet in the same space (the sanctuary), and still be led by Jeff and Melody. However, we will get to know each other at a deeper level. The service will begin with sharing and prayer. Then we will watch a recording of the Sunday morning sermon together, after which Jeff or Melody will lead a lively discussion of the sermon, challenging us to wrestle with the key concepts.

Some will love this more interactive form of worship, while those who want a more traditional worship format will have the option of shifting to Sunday mornings. These changes will take effect on Sunday, March 7!

Jesus MCC is looking for a part-time Piano Accompanist who has excellent accompanist skills and is able to sight-read classical and contemporary music. The accompanist will work 10 to 12 hours per week, at our worship services and rehearsals. It’s important that this person be on a meaningful Christian journey and understand the responsibilities of a spiritual leader and role model. You can download the full job description.

Historically, Jesus MCC has had a part-time accompanist to supplement and support the work of our Worship Arts Minister. The position has been vacant for the past two years due to the deep economic recession and associated budget shortfalls. In recent months, however, giving has begun to return to pre-recession levels. So, at our January 31 Congregational Meeting, a budget was approved that restores funding for the accompanist position.

If you know someone who might be interested, please download the Position Posting. The deadline for application is March 14, 2010. Let’s pray that God will bring us the right person!

Jesus MCC will mark the beginning of Lent with an Ash Wednesday service on February 17 at 6:30 pm. Lent is a 40-day season that begins with Ash Wednesday and concludes at the Great Vigil of Easter. Ash Wednesday is named for the practice of imposing ashes, which many of us have found to be very meaningful.

The service will be a time of reflection and prayer with the imposition of ashes. If you can’t make it to the church you are encouraged to set aside some time for reflection and prayer in your own sacred space.

Because of everyone’s extraordinary generosity in last Sunday’s offering, we were able to donate $3,412 to Haitian relief efforts!

Specifically, $1,250 was sent to a sister congregation, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church (Indianapolis), to purchase medical supplies for their medical missions trip to Haiti. They left Friday, February 5 and expect to treat 5,000 patients at a clinic near Port-au-Prince this week. Another $2,162 was sent to Partners In Health to be used exclusively to provide medical and health services for the poor in Haiti. Thank you so much for your overflowing generosity!

If you’d like to make additional, individual contributions to help in Haiti, you can find more information here:

• Partners in Health
• Doctors Without Borders
• American Red Cross or text “Haiti” to 90999

Next Sunday, January 31, 20% of everything you put in the offering plate will automatically go to relief efforts in Haiti. Our Missions Board has conducted extensive research and has identified two organizations who are doing exceptional work in Haiti.

Chapel Hill Medical Missions Trip
The first $1,250 of our relief funds will go to support a medical missions trip being coordinated by a sister congregation here in Indianapolis, Chapel Hill United Methodist Church. They will be sending 17 medical missionaries to Haiti from February 5-13. They have made similar trips to Haiti for years. These medical missionaries will be stationed at a clinic about an hour north of Port-au-Prince, where refuges from Port-au-Prince are fleeing to seek medical assistance.

The Chapel Hill team expects to treat about 5,000 Haitians during their two week stay! Our funds will be used exclusively to purchase medical supplies for this trip, including antibiotics, bandages, suture kits, braces, splints, and medications. If you would like to help prepare handwritten notes of encouragement for these medical missionaries, join us at the church this Tuesday, January 26 at 7:00 pm in Room 6.

Partners In Health
Amounts collected in excess of $1,250 will go to Partners In Health. Our Missions Board is very impressed with the work PIH is doing. For the past 20 years, PIH has employed a number of native Haitians to provide medical and health services for the poor in their local communities — as well as water, food, and shelter. All of the funds we donate to PIH will go directly to their relief work in Haiti.

When you give next Sunday, there is no need to designate your giving for Haiti. We will automatically set aside 20% of every dollar donated next Sunday. This approach has worked well for us in the past when we responded to the tsunami in Asia and starvation in Africa. Our 80/20 formula allows us to make a very sizeable donation to relief efforts without falling too far short in funding the ongoing ministries of our Church.

So, we encourage all who can to plan to give a little extra next Sunday, as an expression of God’s love for Haiti. Thanks!

Our Sanctuary Choir and Instrumental Ensemble are ready to kick off the spring season. Please join us!

• The Sanctuary Choir rehearses every Wednesday at 7:00 pm. We sing every other Sunday in both morning services, and in the evening service on opposite weeks.
• The Instrumental Ensemble rehearses on Thursday evenings at 7:00 pm and/or Saturday mornings at 9:30 am. They also perform every other Sunday in the morning services, and in the evening service on opposite Sundays.
• We have one major presentation during Holy Week. This year the choir will perform a three-part musical to chronicle the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection of Jesus. We’ll work with the Theater Arts Ministry.
• If you’re a soloist, the Music Ministry invites you to audition for Mark Brown, our Minister of Worship Arts.

The Sanctuary Choir and Instrumental Ensemble are not “official” Oasis gatherings, but many of our members find this is a meaningful part of their spiritual development and service. It is a time that those called to serve as church musicians can be of one spirit and offer their talents to God and allow the Spirit to touch lives through the music that is presented.

For more information please email Mark C. Brown, Minister of Worship Arts, or call (317) 722-0000 × 104.

Exciting things are happening with Found Pearl Press, our church’s publishing ministry.

• Our new website, FoundPearlPress.org, is fully operational. All of our current products can be purchased there, and there’s lots of room to grow. Many thanks go to Hiroki Chalfant for his expertise and many hours of work with this project!
• As you may know, we’ve just launched our second book, Quench! refreshing devotionals by gay, trans, and affirming Christians. It’s available on Amazon.com and ­FoundPearlPress.org.
• A few of the Found Pearl Press team members will be attending the Gay Christian Network conference in Nashville, TN, January 7-10. We’ll network with the 300 attendees, and have a table in the vendor’s area.
• In February, we’ll release To Have and To Hold: Spiritual Insights on Commitment and Marriage for Lesbian and Gay Couples. It’s a set of five sermons on CD with a study guide.
• Coming in 2010, new versions of The Children Are Free: a Spanish translation, an audiobook, and a print run of the English version in Nigeria. We’re doing this in cooperation with House of Rainbow MCC in Lagos, Nigeria, for distribution in Africa.

If you’d like to be part of Found Pearl Press or you’d like to get more information, contact team leader Lynne Kaminiski via the church office.

This is the exciting time of year when the Jesus MCC Gospel Choir kicks off their 2009-2010 season.

We recently sang inspirational songs as part of the annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner. The audience was also invited to share their testimony. Several youth and adults from Indiana Youth Group joined us. They and others graciously shared their stories and what they were thankful for. Upon closing, everyone sang Nobody Can Do Me Like Jesus, filling the room with the Spirit.

On Christmas Eve, the Gospel Choir will help bring Christmas cheer as we delight in song along with Deacon Robert Ferguson, who will deliver the sermon. Please join us and partake in a wondrous, God-loving event.

On January 9, we will begin rehearsing for our annual Black History Month Celebration. We invite anyone who is interested in being a part of the gospel choir to join us in this exciting new year! Please contact Mark Brown for more information, or fill out the form in Sunday’s Weekly News.

After reading our Church’s draft 25-Year Plan, she just knew she had to become more involved in what we’re doing here at Jesus MCC. So Lavonda Henry met with Pastor Jeff and offered to donate 20 hours per week to our Church! Lavonda and her spouse, Charlene, run the Indianapolis franchise of Tradebank International — helping organizations trade goods and services in barter arrangements. They decided Lavonda would continue working 20 hours per week, while donating the rest of her time to the Church.

Lavonda comes to us with a deep business background. Before connecting to Tradebank, she spent years managing in Kohl’s and Lazarus Department Stores. Initially, Lavonda’s work for the Church will include:

• Office management (including coordination of office volunteers).
• Management of building and grounds.
• Help with marketing strategies for Found Pearl Press.
• Database management.
• Payroll and HR.
• Purchasing agent.
• Budget compliance and trend tracking.
• Constituent service enhancement.

When you see Lavonda and Charlene, be sure to thank them for this incredible act of generosity! Lavonda has been on the job for 5 weeks now and is already making a huge positive difference!

We also want to thank all those office volunteers who give one to five hours per week doing critical clerical tasks. If you would like more information about being an office volunteer, just email Lavonda.

This list will be updated as more information becomes available. For information about any of these events, please call the church at (317) 722-0000 or email the office.

Traditional Giving Tree items…
…will be available to take from the tree in the social hall on November 29. We’ll purchase gifts for Indiana Youth Group and the Damien Center. Complete instructions will be on the gift tags.

Parent’s Day Out
Parents, do you need a day to yourselves? Need time to do that holiday shopping? The JMCC Nursery Team will host our annual Parent’s Day Out on December 5 for any child between the ages of 1–12! You can drop off your kids at the church for a day full of fun activities! Email Melody Merida if you want to take part.

Couples Social Event!
The Eighth Annual Couples’ Social Progressive Dinner is this Saturday, December 5. Tickets have sold out, but you’re welcome to contact Stan or Skip Lyford-Jones via the church office to check on possible availability.

Simply Divine Tour of Churches
Tour five Near-Eastside churches in full holiday trim, enjoy refreshments and seasonal entertainment. An interchurch concert at the final stop includes Jesus MCC’s Choir and Instrumentalists.

The “Tour of Churches” begins at 2:00 pm December 5, at Shepherd Community Church, 4107 East Washington Street. Tickets for the tour and concert are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. Transportation, refreshments and concert included in ticket.

If you want to attend just the concert, join us at Woodruff Place Baptist Church, 1739 E Michigan St, at 7:00 pm. Concert tickets are $10.

Tickets are available from Mark Brown or Zach Adamson at church on Sunday, or email Mark.

The Christmas Letters: Drama and Music Production
Written and directed by our own Jim Thorp, musical direction by Mark Brown. December 11 and 12 at 7:00 pm, here at the church.

The Christmas Letters follows the lives of 16 people during the Christmas season. The letters are written to family members, God, and friends.

There are some poignant moments of love, love lost, and heartbreak, as well as frivolity, humor, and hope. Join us as we ponder, How do we rejoice at Christ’s birth during times of stress in our lives?

Birthday Party for Jesus
On December 20, Children’s Church will celebrate with a Birthday Party for Jesus, complete with gifts and cake.

Christmas Eve Service
Join Deacon Robert Ferguson and our Gospel Choir for a warm and wonderful Christmas Eve! December 24, 7:00 pm.

Christmas Day Open House
Join us at Pastor Jeff and David Zier’s home for our traditional Christmas Open House from 2:00 to 10:00 pm. Dinner, dessert, and hors d’oeuvres will be served all day. This is not a pitch-in, so please don’t bring any food or gifts. Their home is on the far-east side of Indianapolis. Maps are available at church, or contact the office.

Jesus MCC’s traditional Thanksgiving Day Dinner will happen on November 26 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Please join us if your schedule allows! It’ll be a great time with good food and church friends. You’re welcome to bring board or card games.

The church will provide the turkey and ham. Please bring a side dish or dessert to help complete the meal. If you plan to attend, please email Melody Merida so we can plan appropriately.

Have you met Rev. Keith Phillips? Professionally, he is a full-time hospice chaplain. But for several years, he has also been an active member of our Church serving in a variety of volunteer leadership capacities, including Discipleship Teacher, supervisor of our current clergy intern (David Zier), and Found Pearl Press Board member. Keith is also editor-in-chief of the second book our Church will publish — a daily devotional by gay, trans, and affirming Christians called Quench!. Quench! is at the printer now and will be available for distribution within a couple weeks!

So, though you personally may not yet know Keith, he is already doing so much to bless our Church community and, as a hospice chaplain, the broader central Indiana community.

Keith holds a Master of Divinity degree from Earlham School of Religion, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from McCormick Seminary. For all of his 30 year career in ministry, Keith has been ordained in the American Baptist Convention. But Keith wants to serve in a denomination that openly welcomes and celebrates LGBT people. So, over the past two years, he has gone through a process for transferring his ordination to our denomination, the Metropolitan Community Churches.

At regional conference in June, an ordination panel approved the transfer of Keith’s ordination credentials to MCC. In the November 1 worship service, we made that official with a Rite of Ordination. Please be sure to congratulate Keith!

At Jesus MCC, we’ve just launched a 25-year planning process. Our goal is to define more precisely what we feel God is calling us to do, as a congregation, over the next couple decades, then focus like a laser beam on those objectives.

The document below is a rough draft of a 25-Year Plan prepared by the Board and staff. We would welcome your comments — please email them to Pastor Jeff. Jeff will share your comments with the Board and staff. Several forums will also soon be scheduled.

25 Year Plan

For several years, Jesus MCC’s Singles Ministry has had a Yahoo! group that helps keep us in touch. With the advance of technology, we are now making the shift to Facebook. Check out our new Singles Facebook page and become a fan. The Yahoo! group has been discontinued.

Also new: a Steering Committee for the Singles Ministry. For a long time, the Ministry has been led by one person, Les Prout, who is now taking a much-needed break. We are deeply grateful for his leadership. Now it’s time for others of us to step forward.

Those who serve on the Steering Committee will be responsible for planning monthly dinners or social outings that keep MCC Singles in fellowship. The Committee will also actively manage the Facebook page and be empowered to develop additional sources of support for our singles. If you would like to know more about the Steering Committee, please contact staff liaison, Melody Merida.

Recently our Church’s financial reserves have been declining at an alarming rate. The prolonged economic downturn, coupled with rising unemployment, has taken a toll on giving. The Board of Directors met on October 13 and decided to make the following painful, but necessary cuts:

• Eliminate our part-time Administrative Assistant position. Mark Shoup has filled this position with great distinction. Mark has now taken a full-time position elsewhere, and wishes to transition out of his position here. Although we would dearly love to refill this position, we have decided to bite the bullet and leave it open until giving returns to normal. That means clerical and administrative tasks will fall back on pastoral staff, reducing the amount of time they can devote to core ministry.

• Reduce our support for MCC outreach. We normally invest about $650 per month in special MCC outreach projects in Africa and Latin America. These investments have been suspended.

• Reduce contributions to the MCC clergy pension plan.

• Renegotiate contracts with various service providers — phone, trash collection, payroll processing — to achieve small savings here and there.

Taken together, these cost cuts should save about $1,693 per month. The Board will review the situation again next month. If further cuts are necessary, remaining staff will be directly affected.

If you have a job, and if you’re not yet a regular giver, please consider becoming one. Your generosity will make a huge difference in this time of economic stress. Also, next Sunday we’ll begin a Spare Change Drive to help close the budget gap.

We also want to say a special thanks to new givers who have stepped up in recent weeks. Without you, the crunch would be much worse!

Together, we will get through this. If you have questions or suggestions, please email the church office, or call (317) 722-0000.

Is it time for you to quit smoking? If so, then the Smoking Cessation Support Group may be the right fit for you.

We’ll begin this journey on Monday, October 26  at 7:00 pm, and together we will support each other as we seek to eliminate smoking from our lives. We’ll discover strategies, plans, and tips to help in the quitting process, share the challenges we face when we quit, and offer encouragement to stay the course together.

If you are interested in being a part of the support group, please contact Melody Merida. Together we can do this!

Hello from all of us in picturesque Gallup, New Mexico. For those of us returning, arriving at Sacred Heart felt much like coming home. It’s also been exciting to see and hear the reactions of those who are experiencing the trip for the first time.

Although we’ve only been here a few days, we’ve settled in and hit the ground running — so here’s the latest from the southwest.

We arrived on Saturday and were invited back to the MCC of Albuquerque to share a meal and conversation. It was a fabulous time of fellowship and feasting, and they even sent us on our way with goodies!

When we started our week at the Southwest Indian Foundation (SWIF) warehouse, there were three houses under construction. We helped prepare one house to be transported, installed insulation throughout another, installed drywall, and there is always lots of painting to be done. In addition to continuing to work on the two houses that are in process, we are hoping to get a new house started this week.

Click to enlarge. More photos on our Facebook page.

As we continue building our relationship with SWIF, we are having our SWIF family over for dinner and fellowship on Thursday. We are hoping to have even more than the nearly 40 that joined us last year. We’ll find out soon.

Thank you to everyone back at Jesus MCC for all the prayers, support, well wishes, and goodies we’ve received. We want to extend a very special thank you to the Children’s Church for the wonderful cards and pictures prepared for us. We’ll be home soon with lots of pictures and stories!

The AIDS Walk supports services and programs that help more than 10,000 Hoosiers with HIV/AIDS. Funds raised will provide assistance with shelter, utilities, food, medicine, and other daily living needs. The funds are managed by the Greg Powers/Direct Emergency Financial Assistance Fund (DEFA).

Won’t you sign up today to be part of Team JMCC? Your participation can make a huge difference to people right here in Indiana. The walk is Saturday October 10, 1:00 pm at University Park. You can join the team or make a donation online, or sign up and get details at church on Sunday.

If you can’t walk (or don’t want to) you can participate by gathering pledges or sponsoring someone else. You’re even welcome to join the team on Saturday for the team picture, turn in your pledges, and not walk, if that’s what you’d prefer. Our goal is to raise funds to help those in need!

As you may know, Fred Phelps and the Westboro Church have announced plans to picket at North Central High School’s production of The Laramie Project, a play about how the brutal slaying of University of Wyoming student Matt Shepard impacted an entire community.

You can read North Central Principal C E Quandt’s letter to students, families, and the community here.

He has requested, “all parents and community members to ignore the protesters, if you see them. Do not draw attention to them, do not engage with them, and do not give them any undue publicity.”

The best way we can counter this protest is to attend the play. Performances will be this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (September 24-26) at 7:00 pm at the North Central High School Auditorium. Tickets are $7 at the door.

The Jewish Community Center has also been mentioned as a possible site of a Phelps protest. They have also requested that there be no counter-protest or interaction of any kind with protesters.

We’re going to make available (for free) a directory of the professionals who attend our church and wish to make known their areas of expertise. Basic listings are free; paid display advertisements are also available.

To be part of the professional directory, please download this form or pick up a copy from the info kiosk. For more info, email Sheryl Holko.