As we journey through this Lenten season, we intentionally and willingly practice surrendering to God our time, talents, gifts, and more. We intentionally sacrifice those things that are precious to us in order to draw closer to our Savior, to walk more closely with Him, and to be humbly brought to the throne of grace and touch the hem of His garment.

There are so many of you in our church who model this life of humble servitude every day, not just during Lent. I would like to spotlight one of our very precious ladies for you. Donna Kelly quietly and joyfully shares her time and talent with us in many ways. For Easter, she has made by hand over 40 of the most gorgeous, keepsake Easter eggs to give to our church! This time-consuming project is a rare talent, and every egg is made with delicate care and precision. Donna shared with me that she started making these eggs 50 years ago! And she gives away EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! In her words, she “wants them to be in the hands of those who wouldn’t otherwise be able to have one of these.” That alone makes them priceless!

Of course, Donna doesn’t want recognition for this, but I wanted to share her example as just one of the many, many people in our congregation who have helped us in the last 10 months and who have shown God’s love in so many various ways. You all are the “hands and feet of Christ!”

Thank you doesn’t even begin to express our gratitude to Donna and to all of you for allowing God to use your time, talents, and gifts each and every day for Christ Methodist Church of Auburn. You are so loved and cherished!

Philippians 1:3- “I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you…”

We look forward to joyfully worshiping with you this Sunday. We are thrilled to welcome back to our 9:30 service Dr. Karl Stegall. Brother Karl will bring us a sermon entitled, "A Hero's Welcome" based on Scripture from Matthew 21:1-11. Dr. Stegall and his wife, Brenda, have served together in the Methodist church for over 40 years. Brother Karl was the Senior Pastor at First UMC of Montgomery for 24 of those years. During that time the Stegall Seminary Foundation Scholarship was formed which has raised over $10 million to help defray the cost of seminary education for candidates for ministry. In June of 2022, Brother Stegall courageously wrote a statement revealing the truth of what was happening in the UMC. That letter went viral and he was criticized by some, but praised by many for his stance. Most recently, Dr. Stegall, showing much dignity and grace, departed from the UMC. And most importantly, Dr. Stegall is the father-in-law of our first pastor, Dr. Tony McCullough! 

Come and be blessed and let's give Brother Karl a big Christ Methodist Church welcome back!

Calling all children! The children will process waving their palm branches at the beginning of the 9:30 service during the opening hymn. Please gather in the front lobby before the service. Mrs. Debbie Bagwell and Mrs. Joanna Reaves will be there to help you line up and walk in with you at the appropriate time. Parents of little ones are asked to walk in with their children.

After the processional, the children's choir will sing. If your child is not in the choir, they may be seated up front on the floor beside the choir. 

After the children's choir sings, Mrs. Joanna will lead the children in the Children's Moment. All of the children are welcome to stay for this.

After the Children's Moment, the children may go to the nursery, go to Children's Church, or go be seated with their parents. 

In case you haven't heard yet - we at Christ Methodist Church have a Senior Pastor!! We are beyond thrilled, excited, and blessed to be able to welcome Dr. Tony McCullough to our church family as our pastor and shepherd. Brother Tony's first day with us will be March 25, the Monday of Holy Week. He will be with us for our Maunday Thursday and Good Friday services at Lee-Scott and his first Sunday will be Easter Sunday. The following is the letter that was sent to everyone from Bob Dumas, Chairman of the Pastor Search Team:

"On behalf of the pastor search team, we are thrilled and honored to introduce our new senior pastor. The pastor search team worked diligently and cohesively to bring forward the best senior pastor for our church. We are immensely blessed to announce Dr. Tony McCullough as our new senior pastor.

This afternoon, the leadership team received the recommendation from the pastor search team and unanimously affirmed Dr. Tony McCullough as our senior pastor. 

As the senior pastor at Christ Methodist Church of Auburn, Tony will lead worship, preach and teach. He will also provide pastoral care and help lead the congregation in outreach, mission and ministry. He will have full sacramental authority and will provide leadership in ordering the life of the church.

Tony graduated from Auburn University with a B.S. in civil engineering. He completed seminary at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and he earned his Doctor of Ministry degree in church leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. 

Tony is married to the former Carmen Stegall of Montgomery, and they have three children – Arden, a senior at Auburn University, and daughter Adeline and son, Holt, who are in the 10th and 8th grade at Trinity Presbyterian School in Montgomery. Currently serving as Senior Pastor at Prattville First Methodist Church, Tony is an ordained elder in the Global Methodist Church."

We are so very grateful to our Pastor Search Team for their tireless and selfless effort and for the great amount of time and energy they put into this process. We want to name them for you one more time so that you can thank them when you next see them. They are: Kate Ham, Cissy Yarbrough, Liz Kenemer, Pete Miller, Bill Dyas, Gary Klarenbeek, and Bob Dumas. Thank you so very much!

Since we were not able to compile and print a Lenten devotional for Lent, we are recommending that you subscribe to “Wake Up Call” from Seedbed Publishing for your daily devotional during Lent. Simply click on the link provided, scroll down to “Wake Up Call”, and submit your email to get this daily devotional in your inbox every morning.

https://seedbed.com

Holy Week Schedule

 Sunday, March 24 - 9:30 a.m. - Palm Sunday service at Lee-Scott, Dr. Karl Stegall, guest preacher

Monday, March 25 - 7:35 a.m. - Pastor and Church Spotlight, WANI 1400, Dr. Tony McCullough will discuss our Holy Week plans. You may listen on the radio or online.

Thursday, March 28 - 6:30 p.m. - Maundy Thursday Communion Service at Lee-Scott, Dr. Tony McCullough

Friday, March 29 - 6:30 p.m. - Good Friday Service at Lee-Scott, Dr. Tony McCullough

Saturday, March 30 - 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. - Easter Egg Hunt for our Christ Methodist Church Children at Greystone

Sunday, March 31 - 6:30 a.m. - Easter Sunrise Service at Greystone, Dr. Tony McCullough

Sunday, March 31 - 9:30 a.m. - Easter celebration of worship at Lee-Scott, Dr. Tony McCullough

Preschool music program, "Jesus, Music, and Me" is in full swing at Greystone Mansion led by our own, Jacquie Cruz. What a blessing to see and hear these precious children, ages 18 months to three years old, learn about music, rhythm, and most of all JESUS! The Second Session is available now for registration. Classes will be Monday and Thursday mornings at Greystone. Space is limited. For further information about upcoming classes contact Gary!

We have many special dates to get on your calendars for the upcoming Lenten and Easter Season.

Sunday, March 24 - 9:30 Worship Service - Palm Sunday with the Christ Methodist Chorale, Genesis Children's Choir, brass and percussion. You don't want to miss "The Holy City"!

Thursday, March 28 - Maundy Thursday Communion Service - 6:30 PM at Lee-Scott. This is a special communion service commemorating the Last Supper Jesus shared with His disciples. Communion will be served at a table of 12 with the Christ chair left vacant. Dr. Tony McCullough will give a Communion meditation. 

Friday, March 29 - Good Friday - 6:30 PM at Lee-Scott. Join us for this moving service as we retrace Christ's footsteps to the cross. Special music will be presented by the Chorale and guest cellist, Michael Knowles, performing Heather Sorenson’s, "Tenebrae." You'll be moved in a powerful way!

Sunday, March 31 - Don't miss our first Easter Celebration of Worship at 9:30 at Lee-Scott featuring triumphant music by the Christ Methodist Chorale, Brass and percussion with musical highlights including the "Hallelujah Chorus" and the Widor "Toccata.” Also, we'll have glorious floral displays by Stanley Sistrunk and the Flower Store. Bring your family and friends for this service of triumph!

Please join us as a family of faith to celebrate the joy of our first Easter together as Christ Methodist Church. We'll be welcoming Dr. Tony McCullough and his family on Easter as part of this joyous celebration. The gymnasium at Lee-Scott will be transformed in a Cathedral filled with the glory of Spring flowers by the artistry of Stanley Sistrunk of The Flower Store. You can contribute by honoring someone special or remembering a loved one. A special booklet of gratitude will be prepared listing all those being honored and remembered. Following the Easter worship service there will be time and photographers available to have family pictures in front of the flower cross that will be decorated. After pictures, those who have contributed the flowers are welcome to take home a selection of flowers to enjoy. Orders are due by Palm Sunday, March 24th. Each order ($30.00/each) will be billed by the The Flower Store. If you would like to do multiple orders, please use a separate for for each order.

 This Sunday will be the last time that the order forms will be inserted into the worship bulletin. You may complete the form and place it in the offering plate or a basket at the entrances to the gym.

Saturday, March 30, 3:00-4:30 p.m. - Greystone

Please join us for our first ever Easter egg hunt for our Christ Methodist Church Children on the lawn at Greystone. Please invite your friends!

We will have age-appropriate egg hunts, special activities, photo opportunities, light refreshments and more!

We look forward to making memories with you then! Fellowship is Fun!

Please contact Patti Robinson to RSVP since we're trying to get an idea for how many to plan for. Please contact Patti also to volunteer to help with this event - pattiwrobinson@icloud.com or 770-241-6669

Needed

Nursery Workers for Easter Sunday to share and show their love for Christ. No special talents needed except to love and play with toddlers. You will be blessed!

Contact Joanna Reaves at thereaves@gmail.com 

In an effort to acquaint our new pastor, Dr. Tony McCullough, with all of us at Christ Methodist Church, and also for us to get to know him and his wife, Carmen, we will be having neighborhood gatherings beginning in March and going through the summer months as needed. These gatherings will also be for us to learn more about our church and all that Brother Tony is envisioning for us. We would like to have these gatherings in the homes of our members in each neighborhood around Auburn. We would like to see around 30 or so people at each gathering. Light refreshments are optional and these gatherings will last about and hour and a half and typically begin around 6:30. They will probaby be held on Monday or Tuesday nights.

We need host families to volunteer to have these gatherings in your home. If you would be willing to be a host family, please contact Debbie Smalley at debbiens7654@gmail.com or 334-444-2383 to let her know. We will schedule these gatherings with each host and with Brother Tony. Then the host family will be responsible for inviting those people in and around their neighborhood to attend the gathering. The idea is to invite those whom you know attend Christ Methodist or who would be interested in hearing more about our church. 

Thank you for considering to be a host family and we look forward to hearing from you soon!

Opportunities for Giving

We now have offering envelopes available at the entrances to worship at LSA. It is not necessary to place checks in an envelope unless you prefer that. Please note in the memo line of your check, if you are paying for name tags or giving to any fund other than General.

Are you giving from a QCD? It is very important that I know if you are giving from a Qualified Charitable Distribution account because the IRS requirements for acknowledgement are different than non-QCD gifts. Unfortunately, not all check remittances let me know that. If in doubt, I will contact you to double-check.

Our online giving platform is Tithe.ly at https://get.tithe.ly/download-tithe.ly-app. Or you can text-to-give. Text the word "give" to (855)-645-3493

For those who are giving through Tithe.ly, we encourage you to consider setting up recurring giving. It's easy to do - just follow the instructions when you login to Tithe.ly! Thank you!

The amount received from March 4 – March 10 was $23,933.23. Thank you for your faithfulness!

Facebook – Christ Methodist Church of Auburn

YouTube – Christ Methodist Church of Auburn

https://www.youtube.com/@ChristMethodistChurchAuburn

Website – christmethodistauburn.org 

The link to our Facebook page, YouTube channel and Instagram are on the upper right side.  Just click on the icon  

App – Download the app from the App Store (either iphone or android). Search for Church App- Tithe.ly. Once you down load it, it will ask you for the church name. It is Christ Methodist Church of Auburn.  You can switch to our logo as your icon.

There is an icon on the front page of the website that will take you to the appropriate App Store  ( iPhone and android)

If you have any questions or would like some information  email dbagwell@charter.net

Great Need

People to help with the mission of media. All levels of experience to no experience. 
contact Debbie Bagwell at dbagwell@charter.net

Please pray for these brothers and sisters in our family of believers 

The Congregation Care Team is adding another way for us to help serve the needs of our people. The Transportation Team will be a group of folks who can be called on to bring and take home those in our congregation who have no way to get to church services on Sunday mornings. If you would like to be a part of the Transportation Team please contact us.

Also, if you are aware of someone who needs this transportation help on Sunday mornings, please let us know.

You may email Melanie Flynt at memflynt@icloud.com or Laura Braswell at lkbraswell@gmail.com

Those who wish to order a permanent plastic nametag (with magnetic clip), may email sherrie@christmethodistauburn.com or call 334-559-2229. She will also have a sign-up sheet available this Sunday at church. The cost is $15.00 per tag and can be paid by cash or check. Offering envelopes are available at the entrances to worship. Please designate "nametag" on the front if paying by cash. These will be slightly larger than the sample that you may have seen Sherrie wearing.

Sunday Schedule