May Church Calendar6 JHYG last meeting before summer break20 Graduate recognition 9 am worship service Last day of Sunday School before summer break22 Little Lambs Circus - 6 pm Family Center

23 SHYG last meeting before summer break25 Last day of school for Little Lambs28 Joplin Service Trip Presentation 10:15 am Family Center

Volleyball Monday 6:00 pm See Kris Bridgers for info

Youth GroupsJr. High - Sunday 5:00 - 6:30 pmSr. High - Wednesday at 7:30 pm

Sunday Worship ServicesMorning Worship 9 am - 10 amChildren’s Church 9 am - 10 am 1st & 3rd SundaySunday School 10:30 am - 11:15 am

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Andy’s Letter • First United News • Spotlight on Renovate Milestones • Attendance • First U News • Church Calendar

May 2012Andy Huette, Sr. Pastor Brett Monge, Jr. High Youth Director 407 W Seventh Street, PO Box 280, Gridley, IL 61744 309-747-2299 www.1stu.org

Easter Egg Hunt 2012

When Grant Stauter got a phone call at 3:30 in the morning on Sunday October 10th, 2010, it wasn’t good news. It’s never good news at 3:30 in the morning. I was calling him from my bathroom floor after a bout with the flu (I’ll spare you), and if things kept up the way they were going, I was not going to be able to stand up and preach six hours later. Grant had just begun preaching in our high school youth group at the beginning of the 2010 school year on a once a month basis, which meant that he had only preached twice in his life. Nevertheless, I told him at 3:30 a.m. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to preach and you’re on deck.” Our call was cut short, but when I called back around 4:30, he picked up and said, “I’m willing, but can’t you call Duane Otto or something?”

The next thing I remember was lying in bed at 9:30, listening on my laptop to Grant preach a marvelous sermon and thinking, “God gave me this flu because he wanted Grant to preach today.” Since that morning, we have continued to give Grant more preaching responsibility and ministry at First United. His gifting to communicate truth from God’s Word and desire to serve the church have become evident to many in our congregation.

As we sat down to consider the staffing component of our Deep and Wide plan, the Leadership Council discussed our preference to hire someone within our congregation who we

already trust and who is familiar with the culture and values of our church. Grant was someone we identified who is a man of Christ-like character, who had demonstrated competency in the Scriptures, and who had evidenced a desire to serve the church. Yet, his lack of ministry experience and training made us realize that an apprenticeship, rather than a full-time position would be the best first step. An apprenticeship makes for an excellent opportunity for Grant to “get his feet wet” in ministry while serving the needs of the church. As an apprentice, Grant will gain formal seminary education,

hands on ministry experience, and feedback in his ministry efforts, while simultaneously serving the church by helping to meet some of our ministry needs. The initial commitment for the apprenticeship is a one year commitment with a day and a half each week devoted to ministry. It is our hope that in time Grant will be prepared for an expanded role in the church.

I am excited for the opportunity to invest in a man from our own congregation and to continue to see God’s work in his life as he leads in

various roles. As Grant begins his first seminary class in a mere two weeks under the teaching of Dr. Van Gemeren from El Paso, please commit his cause to prayer. One of the best ways we can serve Grant and Jil is to pray for them and verbally encourage them as they make this step of faith. Grace and Peace,Andy

102 children, along with parents and grandparents participated in our Easter Egg Hunt on April 7.

Dear Church Family,

Eden, Jil, Grant, and Sam Stauter. Grant will begin his duties as Pastor Apprentice in the middle of May.

“Grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.” — Saint Augustine of Hippo

Our Core Values Open Bibles One Another Beautiful Feet Spiritual Growth Authentic Worship

Spotlight on . . . Renovate 2012

2 3

Attendance & Offering4/1 282 $ 8,857 4/8 1st 314 $ 7,945 2nd 84 4/15 325 $ 5,888 4/22 275 $ 6,8194/29 309 $ 5,009

May Milestones Birthdays

1 Teron Fairchild4 Steve Liggett5 Susan Buchanan5 Stacy Ludy6 John Krone8 Cory Cooper8 Lucy Cooper8 Max Foor11 Todd Palmer15 Brady Sanders16 Alexis Yoder19 Collin Buchanan19 Marcia Mool20 Addison Benedict21 Noah Ludy23 Scott Edwards23 Grant Stauter24 Ian Hall25 Tony Palmer25 Calvin Riggs26 Micah Meiss27 Brad Neal29 Logan Mallory31 Mattie Buchanan31 Duane Guth Anniversaries4 Kathy & Tom Hany15 Trent & Erin Kaupp16 John & Pat McKey18 Melvin & Ruth Grace25 Chris & Julie Blair27 Mike& Janet Rosenberger28 Todd & Jennifer Morrison31 Ron & Marcia Mool

Sunday School Offering Offering Kids Fed

4/1 $ 20.05 66 4/8 no Sunday School 4/15 $ 37.42 1244/22 $132.06 4404/29 $ 20.40 106

Buried with Christ in BaptismsApril 15, 2012

The Local Outreach Team is now planning our 3rd Annual Renovate Mission Project. During Renovate, we help our neighbors with work projects, simple jobs, or errands. JobsWe line up jobs ranging from washing win-dows, to yard work, to carpentry, to painting. Our biggest job at Renovate is to Love Our Neighbors! How You Can Help We need help finding jobs to complete and finding the manpower to do the jobs. If you have a job or know someone with a job, please complete the Renovate Volunteer and Job form. The form is available from Todd Mor-rison or the church office.The ScheduleRenovate is an all-day event starting with breakfast at 7:30 a.m., working through the day, and ending with dinner and devotions at 6:00 p.m. The detailed schedule and work as-signments will be posted as we near June.

Scheduling Work TeamsWe will send teams to job sites on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It’s OK if you can only work one of the days or part of a day—just tell us on the Renovate Volunteer form the days and times you’re available. Childcare and MealsChildcare and meals are provided. We’ll serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Depending on the job, some teams will come back to the church for lunch; others will have lunch deliv-ered to their job site. Crafts, games, and other activities will be provided for your children and supervised by adults.Why Renovate?Renovate exemplifies our core values of One Another, Beautiful Feet (to our communities), and Authentic Worship. Please join the Body of Christ at First United as we seek to be a bless-ing to our communities.

Renovate June 7, 8, 9

Christ has renovated our hearts.We want to renovate our community.

College GradsDo you know a First U

college graduate? Please contact Keri in

the church office with the graduate name.

We will recognize our graduates on May 20.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

On April 15, First United was privileged to hear the testimonies and witness the baptisms of Bob Wettstein and Chris Gentes. We rejoice with them and with their families.

Joplin Service Trip PresentationSunday, May 27

On Sunday, May 27, the Joplin team will give a presenta-tion of their trip experiences. The presentation will be in the Family Center after Coffee Fellowship. Everyone is invited.

2011 Painting Crew

2011 Lawn Crew

Deep & Wide NewsThe Deep and Wide Steering Team and CLC have received feedback and spent much time in discussion about the possibility of moving to two

worship services. We all value having just one service and have decided that we will stay with one service as long as possible. But in order to accommodate our guests, we need to make changes to fit more seating into the sanctuary. We are currently researching ways to do this and gathering the costs of the viable options.

The Steering Team is also considering possible foyer updates to provide more space for fellowship and for a Welcome Center. Additionally, we are looking at ways to better accommodate the number of children during Coffee Fellowship.

Thank you for your prayers and continued support as we look for ways to solve this exciting “problem” of finding more space for our growing church body.—Steve Barnhart for the Deep & Wide Steering Team.Other team members: Jeff Benedict, John McKey, Bev Nelson, Dave Zeller

Happy May Day!The Little Lambs 3-year old class made May Day baskets and surprised Keri with a basket and card.