Pastor Malinda's musings ...
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Music Ministry Update
Dear Church Family and Friends, One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 100 because it calls us to sing praises to God and to come into worship with thanksgiving in our hearts. Music feeds our souls and enhances our worship of God whether we come in praise or in sorrow
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The Rhythm Is Gonna Get You
Dear Church Family and Friends, I’m excited to welcome YouthServe back to our church campus for their first overnight camp since 2019. This is a great organization – led by our church member Jennifer Hatchett – that brings teenagers together from all walks of life to teach them about community
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Celebrating our Past + our Future
Dear Church Family and Friends, Happy birthday, church!!! When I say “church” I’m not talking about our local church here at Avondale UMC … I’m talking about the church universal. This Sunday we, the church, celebrate what’s known as Pentecost Sunday. It’s the Sunday we remember how the Holy Spirit
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Finding Connection
Dear Church Family and Friends, The District Superintendent recently tasked the pastors under his care to come up with one word and one picture to describe how their congregation has emerged from the pandemic. When I first read it, I was like, “What???? One word? One picture? That’s crazy talk!” (No
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Capital Needs & Improvements
Dear Church Family and Friends, Many of you were drawn to our church because of our wonderful hospitality and emphasis on loving everyone without exception. In addition, you truly appreciate and love our beautiful, historic building. You also understand that with an almost 100-year-old building come capital improvement and maintenance
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Worship, Pray, Serve — Holy Week & Easter at Avondale UMC
Dear friends, The season of Lent is drawing to a close, and I can’t wait to celebrate Easter with all of you … but as you all know, we can’t celebrate Easter without first going to the cross. We have some meaningful opportunities next week designed for you to meditate
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Meet Our New Staff Members
Dear Church Family and Friends, I’m very excited to introduce you to some new additions to our Avondale UMC Team! We’ve had hiring teams for Music Ministry, Nursery, and ASP who’ve worked diligently over several months to interview candidates for several positions that we had open. Their dedication paid off,
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We’re All in this Together!
Dear Church Family and Friends, This Sunday is Pledge Sunday. This is the time of the year when everyone is invited to prayerfully consider what they can commit to giving to the church for 2022. The phrase “We’re all in this together!” is especially true in the life of Avondale
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Giving Thanks
Dear Church Family and Friends, We may never appreciate the power of gathering together in person more than we do today. Although the pandemic has filled our lives with challenges and concerns, one good thing it has done for us is that it made us all thankful for things that
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A Future with Hope
Dear Church Family and Friends, I’m starting to feel like the fog is lifting, and I am seeing bright glimmers of light. For so long I’ve felt as though we were all walking blindly through this dense COVID fog. When we first went on lockdown, I didn’t think the isolation
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Update: COVID Protocols
Dear friends, Throughout the pandemic our church has worked hard to keep our congregation and community as safe as possible from COVID. We’ve sought and continue to seek to follow one of John Wesley’s (our Methodist founder) simple rules which is to “Do No Harm.” Given the spike in COVID
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Return to Sanctuary
Dear Church Family and Friends, The week has finally come for us to return to in-person worship in the sanctuary. We’ve been through a long winter since the beginning of the pandemic, and in many ways, I’ve felt like the apostles of the early church as we’ve sought to find
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Garden Refresh
Dear friends,The Great Garden Refresh of 2021 is underway on our street corner, and it’s looking quite lovely. Several folks had been talking for a few years about needing to replace some plants in the beds that had long since seen better years and were starting to wane. Plus, we’d
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Worship – New Location
Dear Church Family and Friends, If COVID has taught me anything, it’s to be flexible. For the most part, I’ve always been a “roll with it” kind of gal … but throughout the pandemic, I’ve had to roll-with-it more than ever before. This past Sunday was another roll-with-it kind of
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ReOpen Update
Dear Church Family and Friends, I’m writing to keep you updated on a timeline for returning to worship in the sanctuary. Some of you may be wondering how the decisions are made about Virtual Worship, Worship on the Lawn, and Worship in the Sanctuary … is Pastor Malinda making these
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Easter Worship & Reopen Update
Dear Church Family and Friends, Monday marked one year since COVID-19 forced us to suspend in-person worship in the sanctuary. I remember that weekend well as I agonized with church leaders over whether to suspend worship or not, and then ultimately realizing on Saturday evening that it was the only
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All Our Losses, All Our Griefs
Dear friends, This week has been a tough one in the life of our congregation. Complications from COVID-19 took the life of our second oldest member, Bill Copeland. Just last summer, his beloved wife of 72 years, Betty (our third oldest member), died as well. Compounding our grief is the
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What Love Looks Like
Dear friends, Christmas will be different this year, but it can still be meaningful. There were no holiday traditions on that first Christmas when Emanuel was born in a stable and cradled in a manger … no figgy pudding, no tinsel, no presents underneath a tree. And yet, it was
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You May Say I’m a Dreamer … But I’m Not the Only One
Dear friends, It’s hard to believe that it’s already the Second Sunday of Advent. Some days I struggle to believe that we’re in December. Since March, time feels like it has slowed down in many ways, but because most days feel like Groundhog’s Day (a repeat of the day before)
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Those Who Dream
Dear friends, Today marks the first Sunday of Advent. It’s the season that begins the Christian year as we wait with great hope for the celebration of Christ coming into our world. This year we wait in a different posture than we’ve done in previous Advent seasons. Pre-pandemic many of
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Giving Thanks
Dear friends, Worship is at the heart of who we are as followers of Christ. These past few months have definitely been a challenge as we’ve had to pivot to find new ways to worship outside our beautiful and beloved sanctuary in the midst of a global pandemic. I’m thankful
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Stronger Together
Dear friends, During this very strange and unprecedented year, I am extremely thankful that I serve a congregation that is both flexible and supportive as we navigate this uncharted wilderness together. While there have been many challenges along our path, there have been many more opportunities before us to serve
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Thin Spaces
Dear friends, It’s been a strange week in our nation … a presidential election unlike any other, anxiety and uncertainty as we await the outcome, concerns about unrest and violence from people who may not be happy with whatever the outcome may be. Add to all this the fact that
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Living with Hope
Dear friends, This year has felt like we’re living upside down. Our whole world has changed in a way that most of us never imagined possible. We have experienced turmoil, tension, and loss and, as a result, we have experienced the deep grief that comes with these. One scripture that
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Gather ’round the Table
The first Sunday of October has been observed since the 1940s as World Communion Sunday. This year, it promises to be more poignant than ever before. Because of the pandemic, most of us have not been able to receive communion together; and those of us who have been able to
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