Ways to Become Involved

We welcome people of all ages to get involved in any of our events and ministries to benefit our extended church family and the community needs, both near and far.  Here are a few ways you can participate in our ministries, missions, worship services, and community.

Missions and Community Outreach – Faith In Action – 40 Years of Service

Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink?
Or a stranger and helped you? Or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you
sick or in prison and visit you? And the Lord said, “When you did this for one
of the least of these followers of mine, you did it for me!” — MATTHEW 25:37-40

The members of the United Methodist Church of Monroe have answered individually and together, with their inspired and enthusiastic service to the local and global communities.  Several of our community activities over the years have included the following:

• Bible Studies
• Bishop Wicke Health Center at Wesley Village
• Boy Scouts
• Choir: Bell/Chime, Adult/Children’s
• Christmas Caroling to the homebound
• Church World Service (Blankets+)
• Community Ecumenical Worship Services
• Community Outreach
• Council of Churches
• Covenant to Care
• CROP Walk
• Emmaus Youth Ministry
• Girl Scouts
• Harvest Festival
• Heifer Project
• Holy Week Services
• King’s Pantry
• Ladies’ Groups
• Mini-Missions
• Monroe Food Pantry
• Mozambique
• Music Ministry: Homebound Sing-a-longs
• Paper Shredding and Scholarship Bake Sales
• Pivot Ministries
• Souper Bowl of Caring
• Sunday School
• Trim-A-Tree Luncheon
• United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)

If you are interested in learning more about any of these missions activities, or if you know of other missions activities that may need our support, please contact our church office. We welcome volunteers of all ages from within our church or others in the community to join us in these activities.

We also have some special ministries described in more detail below and, again we welcome your feedback and participation in these activities …

Music Ministries

The United Methodist Church of Monroe has a strong music program as the church has been blessed with many talented musicians.  Through the years we have enjoyed the musical gifts of our adult choir that sings during Sunday worship services and has performed several beautiful Christmas cantata services.  They frequently provide special music at funerals and weddings along with our wonderful church organist.

In addition to the choir, we have several people who have shared their musical talents with vocal and instrumental solos.  We’ve had a youth/adult Easter orchestra as well as youth musicians who’ve shared their talents during the Trim-the-Tree luncheon and on other occasions.  Our children also participate in our annual Christmas pageant and often join in Christmas caroling and shut-in singalong visits.

Our church has a lovely set of hand chimes that have been used during services and occasionally we’ve gathered a group to perform a few bell choir songs.

In addition, we host an annual summer music concert, coordinated by some of our UMCM college students, featuring area high school/college student bands.  The event is held in our church and all proceeds from the event go to our church missions.

Our musicians are dedicated, talented, and loving people who use their talents in a variety of ways to help others know and praise God.

Visitation Ministries

The Visitation Ministry is a ministry of love and compassion to those who are homebound.  This ministry allows us to keep in touch with the needs of our people, to share the love of Christ in difficult circumstances, and serve as a connection line within our church community.  In addition to pastoral visits, we also have a “care team” who can assist with meals and/or other services to assist those in need.  We also organize Christmas caroling as well as other musical sing-a-long events through the year to cheer up our homebound (as well as those who participate in the singing/visits.)  If you’d like to be included in the visitations or become part of the visitation team, let us know!

Opportunities to Share Gifts and Talents in Worship

We invite you to get involved in our Worship Ministries as a greeter, user, acolyte or liturgist.  We’ve identified the duties for each role below.  You can sign up to participate in a future service on the sign up sheet on the Narthex bulletin board.

If you have any questions, please contact the church office, Pastor Martha or Patti Early.

Greeters

The duties of a greeter include:

• • Arrive at the church by 9:40 am for the 10:00 am service and wear your name tag.

• • Greet visitors and give them the bulletin and welcome packet.

• • Greet all members. Give Sunday worship bulletins and any extra things, such as newsletter, etc. Encourage people to wear their name tags.

• • Close doors at back of church when service starts.

• Stay in back until 10:10 am.

Ushers

The duties of an usher include:

• • Arrive at the church at 9:40 am for the 10:00 am service and wear your name tag.

• • Ask where visitors would like to sit.  Seat them near people, introduce them and make sure someone takes them down for fellowship time/coffee.
    • Have visitor sign in on attendance sheet.

• • Take offering at appropriate point in service.

• • Remain at the back of the sanctuary during service so that if anyone comes in late or needs assistance (ie. wants to know where Nursery or bathroom is) you can help.

• • Count the number of people attending the service and record in book at back of church (count should include everyone in attendance including infants and children, except the pastor).

• • On Communion Sundays, provide direction for people approaching the altar for communion; chor goes first.

• • At end of the service, tidy up the sanctuary by replacing books to proper places, recycle papers, throw away trash, etc.

• Head user/captain is responsible for getting any substitutes needed.

Acolytes

The acolyte ministry originated from Old Testament times.  This ministry provides children and youth with a meaningful opportunity to be involved and serve in the Lord’s House as helpers and attendants in the Worship service.  Since ancients times, light and fire have reminded people that God is here with us.  When the acolytes bring the light into the sanctuary, they are minding people that God is with us in our worship service.

The duties of an acolyte include:

• Children (2nd grade and older) and youth who have had acolyte training are encouraged to sign up as acolytes.
• The acolytes light the candles on the altar and the Christ candle, when it is used, during the playing of the prelude.

Liturgists

The word liturgy comes from the Greek meaning “work of the people.”  Working together with the Pastor, the liturgist leads the congregation in worship.

The duties of a liturgist include:

• • Review/practice the scripture lesson(s) which will be sent to the liturgist in advance of the service for review and practice.

• • Arrive at the church at 9:45 am for the 10:00 am service and wear your name tag.  Review the bulletin at the lectern and check that the microphone is at the appropriate height with a sound check.

• • Lead the congregation in the Call to Worship, invitation for opening hymn, Opening Prayer, invitation for Passing of the Peace of Christ, Unison Prayer of Confession, Words of Assurance and First Scripture reading.  Other responsibilities may be assigned as agreed between the liturgist and the pastor.  Pastor will provide a “script” giving you suggested words to use for transitions, passing of the peace, etc.

• After the service, remain at the back of the sanctuary near the Pastor to greet and talk with the worshipers as they leave.

Youth Involvement in Our Church’s Life

In addition to Sunday School, our youth have been very involved in youth service and other activities throughout the years. Depending on the number of youth and the distribution of ages, we’ve had different activities to appeal to the different interests. A few of the youth activities are highlighted below:

• • Youth Group — Youth group meetings were held on Sunday afternoons to primarily focus on fellowship and relationship building. Activities included setting up a youth Facebook page, a pizza party, and a trip to a corn maze.

• • Confirmation class activities — The confirmation class often included several high school youth and their mentors within the church, led by the pastor, to explore their own faith as well as learn about other faiths and service within the church and our community. “Field trips” included visits to other churches, synagogues, and places like King’s Pantry and service activities such as serving sandwiches under the bridge in Bridgeport.

• • Music involvement — Our youth have been involved in a wide variety of worship music activities.  For many years, our youth play piano and other band instruments during the Christmas Trim a Tree Sunday, while others were decorating the tree.  The youth are also often leading the music for the Christmas Pageant. Other youth music activities have included a mixed (youth and adult) Easter orchestra as well as traditional (band instrument solos) and contemporary (rock guitar, et al) instrumental music during our worship service.  We’ve also had children and youth participate in our singing groups and even participate in our adult choir on occasion.

• • Church Sponsored Events/Activities — Our youth (especially middle school and high school students) are very active in helping out with a variety of church-sponsored service activities, including the annual Easter egg hunt, Souper Bowl of Caring, Covenant to Care giving and many church work day events (including yard work, garbage collection, and even window washing) et al.

• • Community Service events — Our youth have also been actively involved in several community service events where they have taken leadership roles, our high school students acting as team captains for both the Relay for Life and the Crop Walk; our middle school class driving a scholarship bake sale during the church shredding event fundraiser; and even our elementary youth participated several years ago in a Monroe-wide “Take a Stand” (town-wide lemonade stand) event where they set up at our church where 50% of the proceeds went to Monroe-designated charities and our kids gave their 50% to our church-sponsored charities.

• High school/middle school Sunday School programs — Over the past few years, our middle and high school Sunday School classes have increased in both attendance and participation in the broader church community. In addition to the service activities mentioned earlier, our middle and high school classes have engaged in faith building activities in Sunday School and have also been very active in our worship services. The middle school students are especially known for their worship skits and readings and our high school youth have participated as worship and communion ushers, liturgists, greeters as well as playing the roles of Joseph and Mary in the Christmas pageant each year.

Overall, our youth are an active and vibrant part of our church family and we encourage and are proud of their participation in our church and community service activities as they set an example for other youth in the extended Monroe community.