The Bible says a lot about what it means to be a church. The Book of Acts was written by Luke and is the history of the early church. In Acts 9 we read about Saul's conversion to Paul, and after discussing the conversion of a man who was persecuting those who followed "the Way", we talked about how and what God used this same man to do to form the early church. (One student in class explained that the story of Saul's conversion is important because it shows us how God can use anyone to do anything He needs and that He can make us new. I love that this student said that because our next lesson will be on "New Creation".) In the books of Roman - 2 Thessolonians, Paul, the writer of these books, gives advice through his letters to specific churches about theology and how to live in communion with one another. In the books of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul writes letters to give specific church leaders advice on caring for their congregation. He also writes about what kind of person should be pastoring and overseeing a congregation. We read 1 Timothy 3:1-7 as our scripture lesson on what exactly the Bible says in regard to those that oversee our congregation and for justification on those who are set apart to oversee.
Our church lesson continued with some brief discussion on a history of Kingwood United Methodist Church. KUMC was the 2nd church built in Kingwood. The church was started on Jan. 26th, 1972 with 6 couples in attendance and was called Trailwood Methodist Fellowship. They started by meeting in someone's home and did this until membership grew to 30 people. They then moved to Forest Cove Civic Center. On Nov. 26, 1972, KIMC had their charter service and 59 people joined on that Sunday. Jack Shelton became the first minister on Jan. 1, 1973 and remained at KUMC for 10 years. On July 21, 1974 we had a ground breaking ceremony for the original 8,000 square foot building which is now known as the gym. The first service was held in the new building on Dec. 31, 1974. The School for Little Children and Mother's Day Out started in 1975. 1976- 2nd building was proposed - Administration Building and completed in 1977. 1977- 2nd minister was hired as an associate - Wayne Middleton was hired to help grow the youth department. 1978- Church membership was almost 1,000 members and there was standing room only in the gym and every room was being used as a Sunday School room including the kitchen. 1979- ground breaking for the Sanctuary, G-building and E-building. All were completed in 1980. The first service in the sanctuary was held on July 13, 1980. 1979- the first music minister, Charles Tucker, was hired. 1981 - Society of St. Stephen was started and Wayne Middleton was replaced with Assoc. Minister and Christian Ed director, Don White. 2005- Renovation on the sanctuary to expand capacity and ground breaking for the K-building. Both were completed in 2006. Presently we have over 4,000 members, 7 buildings, 4 ordained pastors and a total church staff of 30 people not including the teachers of SLC.
So with a church this size, how many ministers do we have? How many people does it take to put a worship service together? After naming all the parts and details of the worship service such as ushers, the minister who preaches, acolytes, choir members, organist, greeters, and many others not mentioned, we concluded that it takes more than just the church staff to do all the different things to run the church and church services. All of us are called to minister. All of us are the church and are called to do the work of the church.
Table Groups:
Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
How does this passage relate to our discussion about the people involved in planning worship and the other ministries of the church?
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