Peoples United Methodist Church
Checking the Course
Intreat Proposed Course Changes
On Saturday, August 25, members and friends of Peoples Church participated in an Intreat designed to lo
ok at where we are as a church and where we feel we should be heading.
Those in attendance were Pastors Jamie and Gwyneth Arrision, Lay Leader Earle Harvey, Church Council leader and Worship Committee Chairperson, Chris Ward, Rosemary Herd, Art and Marlene Tordoff, Dan Doughty, Betty Splettoesser, Sally and Betty Smith, Linda Wade, Claralee Street, Susan Angell, Kathy Brann, Becky Gotlieb, Fred Wade, and Barbara Nelson.
The Intreat began with a meaningful worship service at Thomas Knight Park in Knightville led by Pastor Gwyneth. Returning to Ellis Hall we indulged in coffee and sweets prepared by Rosemary Herd and Chris Ward, before beginning the three watches that made up the program. Art Tordoff, Pastors Jamie and Gwyneth shared leadership with the assistance of Earle Harvey and Chris Ward. All in attendance were actively engaged in the proposals that came from the groups on Worship, Fellowship and Evangelism/Outreach.
From the Crew on Worship:
This group included Chris Ward, Pastor Jamie, Linda Wade, Sue Angell, Claralee Street
Discussion centered on restructuring committee work. During monthly meetings for September, November, January and May all folks holding positions related to worship will be expected to be in attendance as a "committee of the whole". The committee of the whole would include the chairperson, the Pastors, music officials, communion stewards, altar preparers, ushers, greeters, follow-up team members, representatives from other worship experiences related to the church and others, at times, deemed a part of the worship team.
During the months of October, December, February, March and April a Subset of the whole committee will continue to work as a worship design team. This team membership is yet to be determined and sh
ould be finalized at the next Worship committee meeting. Its specific duties should also be defined at the next meeting. Changes should be reported out at Church Council.
From the Fellowship crew:
This group included Rosemary Herd, Dan Doughty, Kathy Brann, Betty Smith and Pastor Gwyneth
This group proposed that a number of social –fellowship events be planned over the course of the coming year. The purposes of such a thrust would be to provide a variety of appealing activities for a variety of parishioners and friends. At least one event needs to be planned in each season.
Activity One: Mystery Ride is already scheduled for Sunday, October 21. This would be primarily a church family building event. This group would be instrumental in developing the particulars including communication.
Activity Two: Resurrection of the Saturday Niters The first reinstatement of this program will take place on Saturday, January 26, 2008. Fellowship committee responsibility to fill in the specifics.
Activity 3: Spring might be either a Calendar Dessert for all or a Church Barbecue. More later. The focus will continuously be on Church Family development.
Ongoing activities that will be encouraged to continue include the Men’s Monthly Breakfast, Girl’s Night Out, Bean Suppers, Shawl Ministry, Knitting/Crocheting Group, Mom’s group, Connections with SMCC, Walking Group, Update of the telephone tree.
Possibility of starting a Visitation crew was mentioned. This would involve training to be good visitors in a number of situations.
From the Outreach/Evangelism group
This group included Earle, Marlene and Art Tordoff, Fred Wade and Pastor Gwyneth.
Evangelism: The main thrust in this area centers around two events that will take place in the Greater Portland area this fall. The first of these events is the Casco Bay Cluster sponsored event, "Hope In A Hurting World" that will take place at Beech Ridge Speedway on Saturday, October 6, 2007 from Noon to Six PM. Pastor Jamie is the "front man" for our involvement with the following assisting for Peoples Church (and anyone else that is willing to help) Art Tordoff, Marlene Tordoff, Earle Harvey, Fred Wade and Sue Angell. In a real sense with advertising this event is well underway.
The duty of the local committee will be to advertise in print and will develop a telephone tree to develop the necessary personal touch. The advertising and work of the committee will be in part responsible for encouraging and getting folks to the event. The goal in the form of statistics will to be responsible for 75 to 100 folks from church and our friends and families to the event. We will need 5 to 10 people to serve as telephone contacters. Marlene indicated that she would head the telephone folks. Art will get the word out and enlist folks to serve as ushers and children’s activity folks for the event. Earle and Fred will collect materials for the Peoples table in the "Big Tent" and will acquire folks to serve at the table during the open period. Gwyneth will acquire business cards and check on magnets with Peoples information on them for a giveaway. The team will be responsible for reviewing the existing visitor packets and update them for this event as additional handouts. Earle also indicated that he would be responsible for acquiring Spiritual counselors who will volunteer to offer consolation and advice at the end of the Revival presentations as well as set up our own local follow-up with information provided from the Revival.
Discipleship members will assist in the follow-up process with the establishment of new member groups and invitations to already existing learning functions of the church.
The second major Evangelism activity in the Fall will be to have as many people attend the E3 Conference to be held by the New England United Methodist Conference at Woodfords Congregational Church on November 1-3. More on that to come.
Outreach:
The group discussing this area was without the rightful leader who will be Merrill Kaiser who was on vacation at the time of the Intreat. Other folks who should be strong advocates in this area would be The Folleys, Art Tordoff, Earle Harvey, Rosemary Herd and the Pastors.
The program that we are emphasizing most already is part of the Mission support program for the Heifer Project. This church will continue to raise money through the Sunday school and the local church to "Fill and Ark". In order to do this the goal in financial support is to raise $5000. This committee set a goal to have at least 75 members and friends of the church supporting the project financially, spiritually and through participation in the events of the church that are related. Two events that will be related would be to sponsor a Variety Show in October (assigned date is October 12), proceeds of which would go to Heifer. The other major event would be to have a field trip to the Heifer sponsored farm in Massachusetts possibly to assist the caretakers in some way and to see how the farm operates. This event needs to take place by June of 2008. Continuation of the money collection boxes in and out of Sunday school is urged and that there should be a day periodically (every three months) in church where the boxes are collected and totals announced. In addition to what the children are using for an Ark to fill should be duplicated or brought to church on a regular basis for others to witness.
More brochures on Heifer should be made available and another occasion to show Heifer videos could be arranged.
Two other hands on activities were discussed and would like Missions to investigate possibilities. One would be to form a work party to Mechuwana in the Spring and the other would be to investigate the local Habitat for Humanity program and whether we would have enough people to serve on a work party or not and whether HH could use us.
Continuing in the spring of 2008 we feel that another International Missions Night should be encouraged and would fall under Discipleship, Missions, Fellowship and the Lay Leader for development. Likewise another Community Awareness Fair should be considered by the same group but to consider moving it to a more logical time to garner volunteers such as early fall.
Other local missions such as the Root Cellar and Wayside Soup Kitchen should also continue as well as other "regular" or traditional mission activities. The thrust should be to not only support missions financially, but to also have active involvement in those missions.
In the closing minutes of the Intreat, Pastor Jamie asked us to submit in three words or less to the group as a whole what we felt the church should be emphasizing. The following is a way that those suggestions could be put together.
"Where God is----------------there is----
Teamwork
Invitation, Welcome, Fun
Agenda communicating action
Supporting small miracles
Sharing family
Love for others
October 14 following the church service the following church folk gathered to hear Gary Melville from the United Methodist Foundation of New England, Jeff Inman from Hobbs Funeral Home and Pastor Jamie present useful information on end of life needs and preparations. Put together by the Discipleship 
team, this event was designed to assist folks of all ages handle some of the questions that are often most difficult regarding loved ones or ourselves. Understanding our options and why preplanning is a gift to those we leave behind was a portion of what was covered. Additionally Gary and Jeff covered why having the proper legal documents saves time, money, protects assets and helps provide for those we love. Those in attendance also discovered ways to increase our current income and provide meaningful and charitable gifts at the same time. Jeff Inman, one of the funeral directors at Hobbs funeral home gave all in attendance a comforting look at their services and how the Hobbs family are there to assist with the needs that they specialize in. Closing the two and one half-hour program was Pastor Jamie covered the area of funerals that are sacred and why planning services in advance is both a responsibility and ministry to our familes. Kathy Brann, Claralee Street, Sally Seidl, Chris Ward, Jody Fyles, Janice Huelen, Doreen Gay and her mother in law, Earle Harvey and Art and Marlene were in attendance. All seemed to find the information useful. All who attended received follow-up material from the Foundation that also will prove useful.
October 14 following the church service the following church folk gathered to hear Gary Melville from the United Methodist Foundation of New England, Jeff Inman from Hobbs Funeral Home and Pastor Jamie present useful information on end of life needs and preparations. Put together by the Discipleship 
team, this event was designed to assist folks of all ages handle some of the questions that are often most difficult regarding loved ones or ourselves. Understanding our options and why preplanning is a gift to those we leave behind was a portion of what was covered. Additionally Gary and Jeff covered why having the proper legal documents saves time, money, protects assets and helps provide for those we love. Those in attendance also discovered ways to increase our current income and provide meaningful and charitable gifts at the same time. Jeff Inman, one of the funeral directors at Hobbs funeral home gave all in attendance a comforting look at their services and how the Hobbs family are there to assist with the needs that they specialize in. Closing the two and one half-hour program was Pastor Jamie covered the area of funerals that are sacred and why planning services in advance is both a responsibility and ministry to our familes. Kathy Brann, Claralee Street, Sally Seidl, Chris Ward, Jody Fyles, Janice Huelen, Doreen Gay and her mother in law, Earle Harvey and Art and Marlene were in attendance. All seemed to find the information useful. All who attended received follow-up material from the Foundation that also will prove useful.
The children quickly gained their "train legs" and were admiring the view of Casco Bay along the way.
