Fresh Expressions Thriving at
New Hope UMC, Brandon
Fresh Expressions have been a part of New Hope United Methodist in Brandon since 2016 when the church began its Dinner of Hope. Associate Pastor Vicki Harrison also meets weekly with a group called Runners Church.
If two are good, more would be better. So, this summer, the church decided to build on that and dramatically expand its outreach. Beginning in late May, New Hope added four new ministries to its Fresh Expressions lineup: a food co-op, Basketball Church, Meet and Walk and a student-led Caffeine and Christ that meets at a local Starbucks.
Fresh Expressions are designed to introduce the church to people who might not necessarily attend services on Sunday mornings. Fresh Expressions are working at New Hope. Approximately 50 people attend the weekly Dinner of Hope, and about half of those are homeless. Many are repeat visitors as the church has tried to make this more than just a meal.
“We knew at Dinner of Hope that we were reaching people who would never walk through the door on Sunday morning. For them, this their church. And, honestly, this has energized our church,” Pastor Harrison said.
Shelly Wilson, who leads the family ministry at New Hope, said it is inspiring to see members of the congregation take the lead in the newest ministries. “It’s great because the people themselves are taking charge,” she said. “Like the basketball crew, they own that. They organize it; they create the program and the devotional.” Wilson runs the Meet and Walk outreach, where people from inside the church and outside gather five days a week at 9:30 a.m. for a short devotional followed by a 45-minute walk through the surrounding neighborhood. About 31 different people have participated so far. “We have people from all different age groups,” Wilson said.
It’s the same story with Basketball Church. Basketball? As a ministry? Well, why not! It grew out of the new Life Center that opened on the New Hope campus on May 19. The center includes a full-sized gym. “We decided that on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we would use the gym for a ministry of some sort, then rent it out to area organizations that have a need to practice volleyball or basketball,” Wilson said. “We wanted our Life Center to be a place where people could connect not just with the church but with each other.” That’s how Basketball Church came to be. Once the word got out that the church was considering the idea of hoops as an outreach, three members stepped up and said they wanted to be involved. A mission that started with less than a dozen participants has grown to more than 30 each Thursday evening.
Click on this link to learn more about the Fresh Expressions Ministries at New Hope UMC in Brandon.
Look Forward to a Churchwide Workday
Thanks to generous contributions from our congregation, we now have almost $700 in the bank to pay for exterior paint and supplies. The trustees are looking ahead to plan a churchwide workday in late September or October to paint the outside of many of our buildings—eventually including the Sanctuary and the fellowship Hall. A committee has been chosen to select a new exterior color, and we are hoping for drier weather in weeks ahead. Stay tuned for more information.
Prayer and Connect Cards
If you or someone you know needs prayer, please fill out the yellow Prayer and Connect Card located on the back of each pew. These cards are passed along to the Prayer Warriors of RUMC. Our Prayer Warriors meet every Sunday in Room #8 immediately after the service for 15 minutes of prayer. It is their honor to pray for you and your concerns.
Also, Prayer and Connect Cards can be used if you want the church to know that you are interested in becoming a member, or if you would like to receive more information about our church
If you would like to be added to our church directory, included in our church email blasts, or have your birthday and anniversary included in our monthly newsletter, please complete a Prayer and Connect Card and include in the Sunday offering plate. You can also visit the church office on most business day mornings, or you can contact us by phone or email.
Our Consolidated Information Source
The white cabinet in Crichton Hall is our church’s news, information, and resource center. Posted there are our calendar of future events, church request forms, community resource lists, bulletins, prayer trees, volunteer sign-up sheets and more. Please stop by the cabinet—and prepare to be amazed at the resources you can find there.
8002 U. S. Highway 301 South, Riverview, FL 33578 813-677-5995
Normal Weekly Recurring
Events at RUMC
(Call the church office at 677-5995 for more information about these or other events sponsored by the church.)
SUNDAY
8:00 AM Early Worship Service--Fellowship Hall
9:00 AM Sunday School for All Ages
9:00 AM Children's Choir
10:00 AM Refreshments & Relationships
10:30 AM Worship Service
11:45 AM Prayer Warriors--Rm 8
12:00 PM Hispanic Congregation Service
5:00 PM Adult Praise Band
6:00 PM Youth Band Rehearsal
7:00 PM R.U.S.H. Youth Group—Youth Building
MONDAY
7:00-9:30 PM Southern Company Chorus Rehearsal —Fellowship Hall
7:00 PM Cub Scouts Meet--Classrooms
TUESDAY
10:00 AM--Noon RESTORE Food Bank and Thrift Store Open*
6:30 PM Boy Scout Troop #83—Fellowship Hall
WEDNESDAY
6:30-7:30 AM AA Meeting—Rm 8
6:00 PM Fellowship Supper—Fellowship Hall
6:45 PM Children & Youth Activities
6:45 PM Hispanic Church Bible Study —Fellowship Hall
7:00 PM Ladies Bible Study—Rm 6
THURSDAY
6:30-7:30 AM AA Meeting—Rm 8
10:00 AM--Noon RESTORE Food Bank and Thrift Store Open*
6:30 PM Chancel Choir Rehearsal
FRIDAY
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SATURDAY
9:00 AM RUMC Book Club, 9720 Lorrayne Avenue, Riverview
11:30 AM--12:30 PM Metropolitan Ministry Free Lunch Program, Fellowship Hall
*RESTORE is an equal opportunity provider and is open to the public.
Combatting Angola’s
Health Crisis
In my arms is Salvador Alberto Dáurio. He died in 2018 at 3 years of age from malaria, a curable disease. Because of Angola’s health crisis, many children like Salvador die every year from preventable and curable diseases like malaria, intestinal parasites, upper respiratory infections, decaying teeth, typhoid fever, malnutrition, and others.
With support from churches and individuals in the United States, volunteer groups from Florida take several hundred pounds of prescription medications every year to the Quessua Methodist Mission in Angola. Over 2,500 children in the area receive medical care at the Mission station’s hospital at no cost to their farmer families.
These medications include anti-malaria, anti-parasites, vitamins, antibiotics, as well as drugs to manage high blood pressure and a host of other maladies. They make, literally, a life and death difference. There are people dying for lack of medicine!
The Alumni of the Quessua Mission (AEAQ), our partners on site, provide all the logistics and accountability for the proper use of these valuable resources and ensure that help gets to the most needed and vulnerable communities.
Until December 31 this year, Global Missions of the Florida United Methodist Conference is making available a matching grant of up to $4,000 towards the purchase of medicines for the Quessua Mission hospital in East Angola.
Please consider this opportunity to support a life-transforming ministry. For more information on the East Angola/Florida Partnership, visit www.flumc-missions.org.
Make check payable to “Florida Conference Treasurer” and send it to:
FLORIDA UNITED METHODIST CENTER
Attn: Icel Rodriguez
450 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue
Lakeland, FL 33815
(Write “Adv# 102040 - East Angola Health Initiative” on the memo line)
Cornerstone Ministry in Tampa
“A lot may dream when you dare to happen.” That inverted phrase could be the motto for Tampa-based Cornerstone Family Ministries. Cornerstone is an outreach ministry of the Florida Conference and a National Missions Institution of United Methodist Women. The organization is motivated by reverence for the past, goals for the present and dreams for the future of children living at-risk or unchurched.
Cornerstone was founded by the foremothers of The United Methodist Church. Executive Director Cathy Stone traces the organization's lineage to 1892, six years after the first cigar factory opened in Tampa and seven decades before segregation was declared illegal in the United States.
"That was a time when the settlement movement started moving across the country within The United Methodist Church, and so there was a lot of interest in the Tampa Bay area because of the immigrants who were coming through here," Stone said.
Cornerstone dared to happen more than a century ago so that many may dream.
Today, Cornerstone provides accredited early childhood instruction to nearly 100 children at the Rosa Valdez Center & Lab School in Tampa. The organization's impact on children goes well beyond the classroom. Cornerstone sponsors a network of 177 mostly small childcare centers in five counties—Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk and Manatee (during the 2018-19 school year).
Children receive breakfast, lunch and a snack through a program run by the Florida Department of Health. Cornerstone doesn't prepare or deliver the food. It trains the center directors, provides technical assistance and follows up. More than $6.2 million was reimbursed to these privately-owned childcare providers during the 2017-18 fiscal year, allowing nearly 20,000 children to receive almost 5.5 million nutritious meals. About 75 percent of the children live at or below the poverty line.
There is a small, but important, religious component. Four times a year (usually religious holidays) nearby churches provide children weekend care packages that include invitations for their families to drop in on Sunday.
"The majority of what we do is out in the field," Stone said. "There is a great potential for United Methodist churches to come around those children and their families (in the five counties) and to actually invite them ... to come be a part of their church." A little outreach can bear fruit. When families are invited to local churches through the 150 childcare centers, the children may help grow the Methodist church when they are older. "It's a huge opportunity," she said. "There are 20,000 children, and we would assume that a good number of them may not have a church home and may find the Methodist church right for them.
"We certainly know, if nothing else, that members of the Methodist church are very generous with mission, with volunteering, with loving on children and families. We would love to see that connection be stronger and for the Methodist church to look at Cornerstone for those opportunities."
To learn more about the outreach efforts of Cornerstone Ministry in Tampa, go to this link.
