The UMW's "Chick Flick" movie night is scheduled for Tuesday, February 28. Come to Chili's for dinner at 5:45; we will decide which movie to see and proceed to the Rave after dinner.

Children’s' Sunday School is in need of some volunteers.

We need a floater to cover Preschool and K&1 Sunday School each week. The floater will serve as a helper -- helping kids complete crafts, taking kids to the bathroom, etc. It's a great opportunity to get to know these terrific kids without being responsible for teaching a lesson. If you would be willing to serve in this way for one or two Sunday's, please fill out the Connection Card in this week's bulletin.

We also need a teacher for Preschool Sunday School for the month of April. We have a terrific curriculum and a great group of kids, but no teacher! If you are interested in serving in this way, please contact Dorothea or fill out the Connection Card in this week's bulletin.

Join us for a VeggieTales Premiere

Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men

on Friday, March 9 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Robin Good and his band of not-so-merry men are fundraising from the rich to give to the poor! However, when a disagreement arises over what is right and wrong, the friends separate. Can Robin overcome his own hurt, rescue his friends, and restore the town’s peoples hope? Find out in this fun Veggie story where kids learn that there's no hurt too big for God!

Concession stand will open at 6:00 pm, and the movie will start at 6:30 pm. Proceeds from the concession stand will go to Imagine No Malaria. PLUS, one lucky attendee will win their very own copy of "If I Sang a Silly Song", VeggieTales latest music DVD.

The UMW will be using a Texas theme for the spring brunch this year.

We are in need of ladies and children’s cowboy/cowgirl boots to use in our decorations. If you have cowboy boots you can lend us, please contact Sandy Payne at 940/497-3489 or Susan Anderson at 940/497-2707.

We need these as soon as possible. We promise will take good care of them and return them after the brunch. Thank you for contributing.

Would you like to take advantage of a unique opportunity to learn more about serving God and/or enhancing your spiritual life? The North Central District Lay Speaking Ministries is offering training on March 24 and 31 from 9:00 to 3:30 at Vista Ridge UMC, Lewisville, TX.

Many people don’t realize that lay speaking does not equate with preaching but with serving. Some lay speakers do bring the Word of God to people, but that is only a small part of what we do. You may also not realize that lay speaker training is open to anyone, even those not desiring to be lay speakers. In a nutshell, lay speaker training develops leaders for the church and enhances spiritual life.

The following courses are offered in March:

Lay Speaking Ministries (required as a first course for those desiring to become a lay speaker as well as to anyone), text is Basic Course. This course is the foundation for all the other learning and leading courses. You are encouraged to discover and employ personal spiritual gifts as God intended. The course offers guidelines for best practices as a church leader and in mission and ministry in the community and in daily life.

Lay Pastoral Care Giving (a new advanced course for lay speakers, open to everyone), text is Lay Pastoral Care Giving. This course offers insights into the life span and the dynamics of contemporary life to help church leaders reach out with God’s love and care to others.

Teach Adults (an advanced course for lay speakers, open to everyone), text is Start Here. This course is designed to help provide church leaders with a basic understanding of the ways in which adults learn and grow.

For more information about Lay Speaking Ministries or leadership training, contact either Susan Anderson at 940-497-2707, cda.sra@gmail.com. or Virgil Aldag at 940-321-5852, virg.aldag12@centurytel.net.

This Sunday, February 26, (after the 11AM service) in the Sanctuary

This is for people wishing to help distribute the 'elements' to home-bound and hospitalized members (outside The Vintage and Autumn Oaks). All Lay Speakers are invited as well as other members interested in helping this ministry. The training will instruct us how to handle and distribute the elements, as well as speaking instructions.

Spend spring break learning how to glorify God through singing, liturgical dance, drama, bells, photography, flags, stage building and much more!

Our Worship Arts Camp is designed for kids ages 4-18 years of age and is offered free of charge as a ministry of Lake Cities United Methodist Church

For more information call Rev. Dyan Dietz @ (940) 206-6658 or send her an email.

To sign up please fill out the application and either mail, email, or turn into the church office.  Please click the button below for more information.

More Easter Season Activities

Join us on Wednesday, February 22, at 7:00, Lake Cities UMC as we celebrate our traditional Ash Wednesday service with the imposition of ashes.

This is a solemn day in the Christian year, marked by fasting and pilgrimage of Lent. The service will be followed by our annual “break the fast” soup and bread supper.

Ash Wednesday is an important day for Christians because it is the first day of the season of Lent. Ash Wednesday falls on the seventh Wednesday before Easter (usually around February 9), and begins a season of fasting and repentance (commonly known as Lent) in preparation for the Easter Triduum, which begins on Maundy Thursday and ends at sunrise on Easter morning.

Ash Wednesday's origins are tied to its history and the time of year during which it occurs. It follows the season of Epiphany which culminates with Shrove Tuesday, also known as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). The solemn rites that occur on Ash Wednesday bring the focus back from that of feasting, celebration, and ‘epiphany,’ to the sacrifice of Christ and the mission of the Church. The observance most likely comes from the biblical ‘Day of Atonement.’ In Leviticus 16, the Lord establishes an annual day of repentance for the Israelites, that is to be a lasting ordinance for all their generations. Since the blood of Jesus represents atonement for Christians, the heart of Ash Wednesday is a humbling of oneself through fasting, repentance, and prayer.

On this day, Christians come to church to receive the sign of the cross, marked in ashes on their foreheads. As they receive them, they are reminded that they are mortal and sinful, as they hear the words, “remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” or “repent and believe the gospel.” Over the next month, they are encouraged to fast, pray, and seek to live a holy life. Reflection upon one's life during the previous year receives extra attention, and a greater commitment to God and the Church is often the result.

This ceremony observed on Ash Wednesday originated around the eighth century and extends back to the custom during biblical times of people humbling themselves with sackcloth and ashes. The prophet Daniel spoke of seeking the Lord for the release of his people from Babylonian exile with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (Daniel 9:3). Jonah 3:6 states: "When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust."

In looking at the history of Ash Wednesday, ashes are often considered to be a symbol of man's mortality and represent an attitude of humility, sorrow, and repentance. The ashes used in the Ash Wednesday ritual come from burning the palm branches used in worship the Palm Sunday of the previous year.

One of the major tenets of the Christian faith is that of living a life of humility and repentance. For many Christians, the origins of Ash Wednesday are the annual reminder of where our hearts ought to be in regard to their relationship to God, and of the reason Jesus became our atonement.

More Easter Season Activities

Be sure to stop by and celebrate with us at Lake Cities UMC’s first annual Shrove Tuesday celebration.

Festivities will run from 5:30-7:30, and will include a pancake supper with sausage and fruit, the burning of the ‘shroves’ (pieces of paper that we have written our sins on, which will be mixed with palm ashes for Ash Wednesday), ‘the rolling up of the alleluias’ (a symbolic reminder that we do not sing ‘alleluia’ during Lent), making Lenten decorations for your home, and walking our labyrinth which will be lit up with luminaries. This will be a wonderful opportunity to learn about these historic traditions of the Church, as well as participate in them. All activities will be supervised and child friendly. 

It will be a great way to prepare for Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, so bring your friends and families! Shrove Tuesday is the day before Lent starts: the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is a day of repentance as well as a day of celebration. It is a day of repentance as we purify our hearts in preparation for Lent, and it is a day of celebration because it is traditionally the last chance to feast before Lent begins.

Shrove Tuesday is often called “Fat Tuesday,” and sometimes called Pancake Day after the fried batter recipe traditionally eaten on this day. But there is much more to Shrove Tuesday than filling up on pancakes. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.

Shrove Tuesday gets its name from the ritual of shriving that Christians used to undergo in the past. In shriving, a person would confess their sins and receives absolution, or forgiveness, for them. When a person receives absolution for their sins, they are forgiven for them and released from the guilt and pain that they have caused them. It is a way to start over, with a clean slate. In Protestant traditions, pastors do not grant “absolution” for sins, but they do offer God’s grace to those seeking forgiveness for, and release from, the sins they have committed. The tradition of shriving (or confessing your sin) on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is very old.

Shrove Tuesday is a day of celebration as well as penitence, because it's the last day before Lent. Lent is a time of abstinence, of giving things up. So Shrove Tuesday is the last chance to indulge yourself, and to use up the foods that aren't allowed in Lent.

During Lent there are many foods that some Christians - historically and today - would not eat: foods such as meat and fish, fats, eggs, and milky foods. So that no food was wasted, families would have a feast on the shriving Tuesday, and eat up all the foods that wouldn't last the forty days of Lent without going off. The need to eat up the fats gave rise to the French name Mardi Gras ('fat Tuesday'). Pancakes became associated with Shrove Tuesday as they were a dish that could use up all the eggs, fats and milk in the house with just the addition of flour.

More Easter Season Activities

Come and worship at Lake Cities UMC this Sunday!

It is Transfiguration Sunday, when we celebrate Jesus’ mountaintop experience with his disciples. Pastor Dyan Dietz will be bringing the message using the account from the Gospel of Luke 9:28-36, 51. The children will also be presenting a drama called, “Wow! What just happened?” At the 8:30 and 11:00 services, the chancel choir will be singing “Many gifts, one spirit” and at the 9:45, our praise band will lead our contemporary worship. This will be the last Sunday before Lent, and will be a great way to prepare for the Holy Season that is upon us.

Transfiguration Sunday is not only the last Sunday before Lent, it is the final and climactic Sunday in the Epiphany season. Since the Epiphany season itself is actually the culmination of the Advent and Christmas seasons, Transfiguration Sunday is actually the culmination of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. It is the ‘mountaintop’ experience of our own liturgical journey that began with a sense of ‘waiting,’ ‘longing,’ and ‘yearning.’

On Transfiguration Sunday, we celebrate Jesus' transfiguration (literally, his metamorphosis) on the mountaintop, where Peter, John, and James watched in shock and awe as the radiant Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah (Mt 17.1-6, Mk 9.1-8, Lk 9.28-36).

As you may remember, the Epiphany season has been defined by its many and varied "epiphanies" of Jesus' Sonship and Messiahship. It began with the Magi's visit, followed by Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, then by Jesus' baptism where God proclaimed “You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.” This Sunday we will celebrate Christ's transfiguration on the mountaintop, which is the crowning "epiphany" of the season.

In our Gospel readings for this week, Jesus' identity as Son of God is revealed unmistakably when God physically glorifies Jesus and then announces, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!" (Lk 9.35). And so as we commemorate the brilliance and glory of our transfigured Lord, we cannot help but to identify him as "Son of God … Light from Light, True God from True God" (Nicene Creed).

One of the other epiphanies that we celebrate during the Epiphany season is the Baptism of Jesus, which runs parallel to the Transfiguration of Jesus. At Jesus' baptism, God declared, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased!" (Lk 3.22), while at Jesus’ transfiguration, God likewise declares, "This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!" (Lk 9.35). In each of these epiphanies, God identifies Jesus as the messianic chosen one spoken of by the prophets.

As we compare these two ‘epiphanies,’ we can see that the glory of Jesus' baptism heralds the glory of his transfiguration on the mountaintop. That which we heard and saw quietly and intimately in the story of Jesus' baptism, we now hear and see gloriously in Jesus' transfiguration.

What we cannot forget is that as Jesus moves from glory to glory during the season of Epiphany, he is also moving closer to his death on the cross. His ‘true epiphany,’ and ‘true glory’ can only be seen in his suffering, death and resurrection, which will be the greatest testaments that he is indeed the Son of God.

Transfiguration Sunday, then, is not only the consummation of the Epiphany season, it also points forward both to Good Friday and to Easter. In fact, it points to the glory beyond the resurrection and to Jesus' ascension, to his coming in glory which we await.

More Easter Season Activities