Join us at Downers Grove First United Methodist Church for our Holy Week Services.
Maundy Thursday
Thursday, April 17
11:00 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Sit Down Communion Service
Good Friday - Tenebrae Service
Friday, April 18
7:30 p.m.
We will observe Good Friday with a service of song, candlelight, and scripture as we remember the last hours of Jesus’ life.
Dear Church Family,
As we anticipate trees quietly beginning to blossom and flowers stretching towards the emerging sun, we are reminded that Easter will soon be here. On Sunday, April 20th, we will worship with full hearts, proclaiming to the world that “Christ is alive!”
Easter is a wondrous celebration of Christ’s Resurrection and the promise of eternal life. And it is a time to remember that Jesus came to heal and provide hope to all. Each year we invite our congregation to help carry out this mission of hope and healing by participating in our Special Easter Offering.
This annual offering helps fund the outreach of our congregation’s Missions Work Area which takes seriously its role as stewards of your generosity and compassion. This year we are asking that you consider enhancing your Easter giving so that, as a church body, DGFUMC can increase its outreach in a more impactful way. The resources gathered on Easter Sunday will make a critical difference in the lives of individuals in DuPage County, as well as in national and international missions programs.
Once a year, United Methodists everywhere participate in this special offering to provide administrative support for the United Methodist Committee on Relief as it responds to disaster survivors and people in need in the U. S. and internationally. These foundational gifts help UMCOR keep its promise that 100 percent of every other gift you make to a specific UMCOR project can be spent on that project - not on home office administrative costs. Offering gifts over and above those used to cover administrative costs at UMCOR are channeled where they're most needed, often to support under-funded programs. UMCOR ministries include: responding in places where natural disasters, war, or conflict have done so much damage that communities are unable to recover on their own, fighting hunger, alleviating poverty, providing relief supplies, and offering hospitality to immigrants and refugees.
Offering envelopes for One Great Hour of Sharing will be available in this Sunday's bulletin.
The 43rd Annual Chapel Choir Tour will take place June 12-20 with a destination of Myrtle Beach, SC. You are invited to help the choir Reach the Beach by sponsoring a bus seat for $25. You can direct your sponsorship to a particular student or have it applied to the tour fund.
Just click on the "Give Now" button, or make checks payable to DGFUMC and write Bus Seat Sponsorship on the memo line.
Thank you for your support of this program!
The Caring Connections Ministry of the Health and Wellness Work Area continues to care for our church family; from our newest members with delivery of a basket filled with many special items, to the infirm or homebound with visits delivering prayer shawls, food, or flowers. If you know of any members that might benefit from any of the caring connections services or are interested in being a part of the Easter flower delivery and visits, please leave a message for Pastor Greta (630.968.7120).
All are invited to start the Lenten season by attending our Ash Wednesday service from 7pm-8pm on March 5. This service will be held in the Sanctuary.
Youth Director JJ Mannschreck will be preaching, and the Connection Choir will be singing.
There is a lot of fake out there. In a culture of manicured online profiles, electronically altered images and relentless deception in advertising, it is difficult to know who our friends are and who to trust. It is too easy to buckle under the pressure and try to become the images we see. We all must seek our own real identity from a trustworthy source. Get Real teaches campers that we are not created in the image of the popular culture - we are created in the image of God, who loves us just as we are and asks us to love others in the same way.
DGFUMC is offering this summer camp experience for children and youth from 2nd to 9th grade at the Wesley Woods Conference Center, Williams Bay, WI from June 23 to June 27. The grade listed is the grade the student will be entering in the fall of 2014.
Please note that all meetings at the church tonight have been cancelled due to the weather. The church building will be locked early.
Ever think about taking a mission trip somewhere? Giving your time and energy to others in a new and meaningful way?
The Missions Work Area is offering its third annual Adult Mission Scholarship, matching up to $1,000 in mission-related expenses, to a member of our church who wants to embark on a Christian mission trip in the coming year. Guidelines are specified on the application form found below.
Applications are due to [email protected] by April 1, 2014.
For most of us I expect, our relationship to meat and its relationship to us was fairly elemental growing up in the Midwest. Farmers raised it, and we ate it. We weren’t likely to ask probing questions such as what the livestock ate, what the conditions were on the farms they inhabited, or how they were slaughtered. We certainly weren’t interested in the water, energy and other resources that were required to sustain these livestock.
DGFUMC is getting ready to create a new photo directory and we need everyone to help make it complete!
According to recent data, nearly nine percent of children in DuPage County are living in poverty. The figures are alarming, but you can help. The Missions Work Area is coordinating with Downers Grove elementary school social workers to support school-age children.