The Abilene First UMC 2021 Church Conference will be held with other churches in our cluster at Salina Trinity UMC at 4 p.m. on November 21, 2021.

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at abilenefirstumc.org/onlineworship/.

For the second year in a row, we find ourselves commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in the midst of the wildfires, hurricanes, a worldwide pandemic, and other disasters large and small. United Methodist Discipleship Ministries has an excellent prayer from Rev. Jeremy Pridgeon.

Link: http://bit.ly/2eYITAb

During the time I spent in retreat, I encountered this prayer from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The United Methodist Hymnal (689).  I have updated some archaic language and I plan to use it before going to bed. I wanted to share it with you.

O Lord my God, 
I thank you that you have brought this day to its close.
I thank you that you give rest to body and soul.
Your hand has been over me, 
guarding me and preserving me.
Forgive my feeble faith 
and all the wrong I have done this day,
and help me to forgive all who wronged me.
Grant that I may sleep in peace beneath your care,
and defend me from the temptations of darkness.
Into thy hands I commend my loved ones,
I commend this household,
I commend my body and soul.
O God, your holy name be praised. Amen.

The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), 689.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be preaching on John 6:53-69 and the necessity of Jesus. Carson Woodworth will provide the special music. You can find a bulletin at abilenefirstumc.org/bulletin/ and (hopefully) stream the service online at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.

The livestream didn’t work this morning (Sunday, August 15, 2021). We’re working on it. We hope to have a recording up later today or tomorrow morning.

It looks like the livestream of the 8:15 service didn’t take this morning. We also had some tech issues at the 10:30 service. Above is a one-camera recording of this morning’s service. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week.

If you want to follow along with bulletin you can follow this link or the link in the menu above.

If you’re having trouble streaming our worship videos, you may want to simply download the entire video to your device and then play it. You can do so with this link.

You can make a contribution online via tithe.ly. Other options can be found here.

Previous worship services can be found at vimeo.com/abilenefirstumc.

VOICES: BENEDICT OF NURSIA — In my preparatory work, I found a prayer attributed to Benedict of Nursia (c. 480–547). I didn’t have room for a place for it in this Sunday’s service, but I wanted to share it with you nonetheless:

O gracious and holy God,
give us diligence to seek you,
wisdom to perceive you,
and patience to wait for you.
Grant us, O God,
a mind to meditate on you,
eyes to behold you,
ears to listen for your Word,
a heart to love you,
and a life to proclaim you,
through the power of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
— Benedict of Nursia

I’ll be extending the church office hours this afternoon (August 5, 2021) through the end of the parade. Feel free to come in and use the bathroom, get a drink, or just cool off. The church yard on seventh street is not technically on the parade route, but you will get to see most of the entries and it’s early on in the parade so they’re all fresh, bright-eyed, and bushy-tailed.

Karen Rice Ratzlaff will be formally installed as the new District Superintendent of the Hutchinson and Salina Districts on August 15, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. at First UMC in Salina. Bishop Saenz will be there and all United Methodists in the two Districts (including all of you) are invited to attend.

The Covid-19 policy and the signs on the doors of the church remain unchanged. But I wanted to share this letter from the Bishop with you:

“Sisters and Brothers of the Great Plains Conference,

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, Redeemer and the Great Physician.

As many of you no doubt have noted, the infection rate from the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has surged in recent weeks. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week issued a new recommendation that all people — including those fully vaccinated — wear masks when indoors in areas where infection rates have soared. This includes the eastern third of Kansas and some areas of Nebraska, including Omaha and Grand Island.

This reversal of previous guidelines reflects the growing caution surrounding the resurgence of the virus, and it requires our collective attention. In this new season of the COVID-19 pandemic, I urge leaders in our local churches to pay close attention to their local health departments. At this point, health officials are not urging the suspension of in-person worship or other in-person activities. But in many cases they are urging residents to wear masks when indoors, even if fully vaccinated.

As I have shared in the past, you must make the decision that makes the most sense for your context for ministry. Some areas in both of our states are among the least impacted in the entire country by the delta variant. But others are among the most at risk.

Please educate your congregations about this risk. Consider wearing masks when inside the church building. Ask those who have declined thus far to prayerfully consider being vaccinated. And, of course, continue to serve the mission fields to which you have been deployed to show the love, grace and hope found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Peace, Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr.”