Parish Messenger Christ Community United Methodist Parish

Including Allerton, Corydon, Lineville, Millerton, & New Zion

Ponderings of a Wayward Follower of Jesus

Blessing my Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This past week I spent time in class talking about the Book of Psalms. A

beautiful collection of prayers and songs. Prayers of lament and prayers of praise

and adoration. Part of our discussion of the Psalms centered around imagery or

what pictures come to mind that express the Psalmist’s words and thoughts. Dur-

ing a break, I was talking to a colleague I attended School of Lay Ministry with. We

started talking about our call into ministry and what that looked like. This image emerged; a mother

bird perched over a nest full of baby birds, all with their mouths wide open waiting to be fed. As the

feeder, one must determine what to feed, how much to feed, and how often to feed. And that must be

determined for each chick. There is a parallel here, the mother bird must provide food to the chicks for

them to live until they can survive on their own. As a Pastor, I must provide spiritual food for whatever

length of time is needed to help a person grow spiritually. Unlike the mother bird, I have help in the

feeding process. First, I do not supply the spiritual food, God does. Second, following Jesus’ lead, it is

not I who delivers the food. Many times, Jesus remarked that what he did was not His own work; John

7:16, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.”

One would think having God supply the food and direct the work that life would be easy. But as

my colleague and I discussed, it is not. We get impatient, and we question if we are truly following

God’s direction. Are we adding things to the food that do not belong? When we think, we are doing

everything right, someone does not thrive or does not grow. We ask why? What did we/I do wrong?

On the flip side, we both agreed that we do not take the credit when things go right. We humbly thank

God for being able to participate in His plans.

I have missed talking about one crucial factor, we do not do this alone. Our imagery above was

a mother bird perched over hungry chicks. But, while she is on the nest, her mate is off gathering

more food or on patrol protecting the nest against predators. I do not do ministry alone. I have or had

others to help. They include, Pastor Diane, Rev. Larry Prosser, Rev. Ellie Foster, our Certified Lay

Speakers, clergy peers, and all of you, the flock God has asked me to shepherd. Thank you.

Over the past month or so, I have felt like the baby bird in the nest with my month wide open,

and you came and fed me and Laurie. And all God’s people said, Amen!

Pastor Buck

Next Parish Event on June 4

The next parish event will be hosted by Lineville UMC. It will be held on June 4 from 2:00-4:00

at Moore-Gosch Park just north of Lineville. Come for snacks, fun and games. Bring your lawn chair.

Cookies at Corydon UMC The United Methodist Women are re-

sponsible for cookies in May. This includes

drinks and clean-up after.

Men’s Breakfast

Men’s Breakfast Group will

meet at Corydon UMC on the 2nd and

4th Wednesdays at 7:00 for breakfast and Christian fel-

lowship. Breakfast continue through the summer.

April Attendance

Church attendance figures are listed in alpha-

betical order: Allerton, Corydon, Lineville, Millerton

and New Zion.

April 2—21, 47, 21, 18, 32 = 139

9—24, 50, 17, 29, 53 = 173

16—25, 59, 30, 27, 27 = 165

23—18, 34, 16, 19, 25 = 112

Average parish attendance for April was 147.

May Birthdays

3—Pastor Buck

4—Jack Pershy, Phyllis Wolfe

7—David Ewing

8—Harold Hysell, Mike Mattly

10—Ann Shelton

13—Doris Moore, Mark Moorman, Gwen

Neely

15—Neal McCart

18—Chester Judd

20—Dawn Boggs, Barb Danielsen

23—Janice Duerksen

24—Charlie Hickie

25—Amanda Wood

26—Marilee Johnston, Harrison Roe

27—Jeanette Kelly

28—Gloria August

30—Heidi Jones

May Anniversaries 5—Steve & Karen Yakovich

14—Garrett & Heidi Jones

16—Gary & Rita Muilenburg

21—Bob & Virginia Fuller

22—Larry & Joyce Jennings

25—Gary & Susan Henderson, Charlie &

Eileen Hickie,

26—Al & Susan Pyner

2nd Sunday at Corydon UMC There will be no 2nd Sunday lunch at Cory-

don UMC on May 14 due to Mother’s Day.

May Mission News Change a Child’s Story is launching

one last campaign to collect new books for

children before the initiative makes a for-

mal closure in June.

It’s easy:

• Bring new books to Annual Conference

• Get credit for your church for bringing

books

• Books will be distributed to United

Methodist centers in Iowa that work with

youth in poverty

If you want to help with this, bring

your books to your local church by June 4.

Then they can be taken to Annual Confer-

ence when our Parish Lay Members go in

June.

Wayne Comm. School Graduation Activities

Senior Awards Night - May 16

Graduation - May 21 at 3pm

Baccalaureate - May 21 1:30pm

Senior Recognition Day at Corydon UMC

High School Senior Recognition Day at Cory-

don United Methodist Church will be Sunday, May 7

during regular worship service. A reception celebra-

tion will follow.

Christ Community Parish UMW

We ended March with a District Spiritual Retreat – “Gutsy Gals of the Bible”. It was a wonder-

ful day of learning, fun, and fellowship. We were please to share the day with former parish

Christ Community UM Parish pastor Rev. John and Brenda Boatman. Brenda was a part of

the group doing the music for that day. It was enjoyed by all who attended. See pictures be-

low.

May Circle meetings will be:

Joanna Circle – May 1 @ 7:00 a.m. with Doris Pollock as hostess & Martha Hoch giving the program.

Martha Circle – May 5 @ 9:30 a.m. with Eula Henderson as hostess & Sally Donald giving the pro-

gram.

Our next meeting will be May 23 @ 9:15 a.m. at the Corydon Church. Joanna Circle will be host-

ess. The program will be “Mother’s in Action” with Geri Gardner presenting the program.

All women of the parish are welcome to join us – we’d love to see you at a meeting!

Geri Gardner, UM President

Gutsy Girls

At

UMW District

Meeting

Top Left: Corydon UMC

children at Sunrise Service

Top Right: New Zion UMC egg

and pretzel making

Middle left: John Poston and

crew serving Wayne Academic

Breakfast

Middle right: Men’s group serv-

ing sunrise breakfast at Cory-

don UMC.

Bottom left: Sunrise breakfast

at Corydon UMC

Revitalizing Rural Churches:

How Can Congregations Keep the Faith in an Era of Consolidation?

(I received permission from the author Lisa Foust Prater to reprint her article in part. It

was originally published in November 2016 Successful Farming.) According to a statistical review

from the UM Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination, membership in the U.S.

dropped by nearly a half million people between 2009 and 2015. In that time, 1,798 UM church-

es closed their doors.

One facility that closed last year was Green Plain UMC in rural Warren County. The Rever-

end Amy Johnson was pastor for [that church] and 3 others in the Southeast Warren Parish. She

says the congregation made the painful decision to close because declining attendance made it

difficult to pay the bills and still do mission work. In July, 2 more churches were added to the 3,

forming a new parish.

Johnson says, to succeed, parishes like hers need to reimagine the meaning of church and

embrace change. “Unfortunately for so many in rural settings, change and death are synony-

mous. The truth is, though, they do not have to be,” She says. “The world will always need farm-

ers… and rural life…and Jesus.”

Once a merger happens, she says the congregations need not only to accept the situation

but also to accept their new connectedness. For rural communities, it doesn’t necessarily mean

being in frequent contact; it means sharing a culture. In a world growing smaller, she says, “…no

one is better equipped to understand our new smallness like rural America. No one does small

better than we do.”

The Rev. Dr. Jaye Johnson helps small rural churches deal with declining membership and

potential mergers or pastor-sharing agreements. He is married to Rev. Amy Johnson. Jaye says

vital congregations have 3 things in common: 1) they embrace the reality we’re all connected to

God and each other; 2) they encourage people to embrace one another and others more fully;

and 3) they evoke action by making the most of people’s gifts and building a network of relation-

ships.

Jaye says while communities were once connected through schools, churches, business,

and local government, the connection has been damaged over time so each entity must compete

for resources rather than work together. “The church needs to go out and provide the connec-

tions and resources and give the people a sense of purpose. That’s revitalization,” he says. Also

the notion of one pastor per church is outdated, and congregations need to think about what

church is. “In post-Jesus Biblical times, there was no physical place for a church. The building is

not as important as relationships.”

As nice as it is for a church to feel like a family, he warns that families are closed units—

you’re either born into them or marry into them. “The question is, how do we intentionally adopt

people in?” One way: challenge the norms and expectations. “What do you want people to say 50

years from how about how we made faith possible in 2016?” He says when congregations make

that shift in mindset, “The sky’s the limit.” He suggests that, when struggling to accept consolida-

tion or closure, to open the hymnal to #558, “I Am the Church,” which goes “The church is not a

building. The church is not a steeple. The church is not a resting place. The church is a peo-

ple.’ (What do you think? Relevant food-for-thought for small churches?)

Pastor Diane

S u n d a y M o n d a y T u es d a y W e d n e s d a y T hur s d a y F r id a y S a t ur d a y

1

Joanna Circle

7:00 am

Allerton Board

7:00 pm

2

Bell Practice

5:15 pm

3 4 Mobile Food

Pantry

9:00-11:00 at

Corydon UMC

A, L, & NZ to

Women at the

Well

5

Martha Circle 9:30 am

6

St. Francis Mass 6:30 pm

7 Communion &

Aid & Assistance

Honor Seniors at

Corydon UMC

Buck—C & M

Diane—A, L & N

8

Blood Drive at

Corydon UMC

1:00-6:00 pm

9

10

Men’s Breakfast 7:00 am

Bible Study at Karen Quick’s

10:00 am

11

12

13

St. Francis Mass 6:30 pm

14

Buck—C & M

Diane—A, L & N

15

16

17

Corydon Ad Council at 5:30

18

19

20

St. Francis Mass

6:30 pm

21

Wayne Graduation & Baccalaureate

Buck—C & M

?—A, L & N

22

HCI and Parish

Council 6:00 pm

at Corydon UMC

23

UMW 9:15 am at Corydon UMC

24

Men’s Breakfast 7:00 am

Bible Study at Karen Quick’s

10:00 am

25

Pastor Diane

chapel at CSC at

11:00 am

26

22

St. Francis Mass

6:30 pm

28

Food Pantry

Buck—A, L, & N

Diane—C & M

29

30 WIC at Corydon

UMC

31

Pastor Diane vacation May 15-21

Parish Office

Hours: 8-2 Tuesday—Thursday Telephone: 641-872-1569

Web: www.christcommumparish.com Facebook: Christ Community United

Methodist Parish Corydon, Iowa

Senior Pastor

Pastor Buck—James Buckhahn buck.buckhahn@iaumc.net

Home: 641-523-1027 Cell: 712-303-8812

Associate Pastor

Diane Olson Schroeder schroed@iowatelecom.net

Home: 641-877-8851 Cell: 641-203-6060

Parish Secretary Becky Fetters

coryumc@grm.net

Worship Times Allerton

Worship 8:30 ~ Sunday School 10:00 Corydon

Sunday School 9:30 ~ Worship 10:45 Lineville

Adult Sunday School 9:00 ~ Worship 9:45 Millerton

Worship 9:00 New Zion

Sunday School 9:45 ~ Worship 11:00

Non-Profit Organization

U.S. Postage Pd. Permit # 19

Corydon, Iowa

United Methodist Church

213 W. Jackson Street

Corydon, Iowa 50060

ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED