Quick-Step Guide (PDF) for setting up your account and making your first donation.

 

Thank you for giving to McCormick Methodist Church. Your gifts enable us to fulfill our mission of “Reaching Up and Reaching Out”.

 

from Rev. C. Nels Ledwell

 

 

In his book, Letting God Bless You, John Killinger concludes with the challenge:

 

Permit God to bless you. Don’t look around you and think how hard life is. Look around and see how filled with mystery and goodness it is. See how wonderful the world looks when you know God is at work redeeming it and setting up the anti-structures, so that humility and purity and compassion and longing for justice and peace will all be fulfilled and rewarded in the eternal scheme of things.

 

Give thanks to God for the richness of existence. Then look around to see who you can share it with. That will make you even richer.

 

If you will learn to live this way every day, you will always have a song in your heart and the path before you will be lined with flowers. Joy will spring up inside you like a fountain, and you will lie down to sleep at night with peace in your soul. And you will say, “Blessed be the name of our God forever and ever, who calls us to a new rule where righteousness will be the order of the day forever!”

 

After reading this book by Killinger, another author John Cline proclaimed. This Advent season, my friends, let us make the critical choice of permitting God to bless us and to fill us with a new sense of hope and purposeful living. Let us live in the assurance that the present darkness is not our final destination, that there is indeed much more yet to come. Along the way we will begin to experience joy springing up within us like a fountain. Thanks be to God, who blesses us with love and grace beyond measure.

 

See you in Church or online this Sunday for the Huge Cantata!

 

Your Pastor,
Nels

 

Third Sunday of Advent
Lighting Candle of Joy

Scripture Lesson: Isaiah 61: 1-4, 8-11

Cantata: “Come and Adore Him”

 

We are all familiar with singing The Twelve Days of Christmas – it’s usually pretty easy to remember the words until you get past “five golden rings” – then we become confused matching the higher numbers and descriptions! Our kindness entry this week comes from my cousin who sent me an email the other day about the religious meaning behind this song. I went online to check it out and found the following that is reprinted from the God Updates website. It was news to me, and I thought it might be to you as well!

 

The song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, is an old English Christmas carol. From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England weren’t allowed to openly practice their faith. So someone wrote this carol during that era so they could sing publicly to the Lord without non-believers knowing.

 

The song on the surface held one meaning to those who heard it. But for members of the Church, there was a much deeper, hidden meaning known only to them. Each number in the carol stands for a different item of spiritual significance!

 

The “True Love” one hears in the song is not a smitten boy or girlfriend but rather, it’s Jesus Christ, because Love was truly born on Christmas Day. The partridge in the pear tree also represents Jesus, because partridges are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect its young by faking an injury to draw predators away.

 

Here’s a rundown of the rest of the numbers in the Twelve Days of Christmas:

• 2 turtle doves – the Old and New Testaments
• 3 French hens – faith, hope and love
• 4 calling birds are the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John
• 5 golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of …the Old Testament
• 6 geese a-laying – six days of creation
• 7 swans a-swimming – sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit–Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy
• 8 maids a-milking – the eight beatitudes
• 9 ladies dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit–Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control
• 10 lords a-leaping are the ten commandments
•  11 pipers piping stand for the eleven faithful disciples
• 12 twelve drummers drumming symbolizes the twelve points of belief in the Apostles’ Creed.

So, it seems especially appropriate at Christmas – on Jesus’ birthday – to think of Him as our “True Love” – the world would be a much better place if we live every day like we believe this in our hearts!

 

Have you seen God today? If you see God at work this week, there are two ways you can share what you saw!

 

1) Be a blessing to others by sharing your Act of Kindness (no names please) on our website, or use this link! Then check back each week to learn how others are passing on acts of kindness! The link is https://www.mccormickmc.org/acts-of-kindness

 

2) There is a Kindness box in the library on the window sill, along with paper and pencil. Share your God-Wink, perhaps someone else will be inspired!

 

 

If you are experiencing any type of difficulty and you need someone to listen to you, with whom you can share your feelings and receive acceptance and Christian love, please consider being in a relationship with a Stephen Minister at MMC.

 

Start by calling Pastor Nels or one of the Stephen Leaders and begin a ‘fellowship’ with a Stephen Minister. We may be reached through the church office at (864)852-2394.

 

The Congregational Care Committee wants you to know they are there to help you if you ever need transportation, meals or a visitor! Please contact Kim Jackson if you or someone you know needs help or if you would like to be added to the list of volunteers.

 

 

 

Worship Service -10am
Come & Adore Him … a Christmas Musical
By MMC Chancel Choir (Lindy Stahlman, Director)

 

Christmas Eve Service – 3pm
Candlelight and communion service celebrating the Birth of Jesus Christ

 

Mary Thompson shared this note from Linda at Forest View Manor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carol Tummons reported everyone had a good time decorating their cookies! This might be an annual event, so keep an eye out next year for the announcement and join the fun!

 

To see more pictures, go to https://www.mccormickmc.org/cookie-exchange-2023

 

Connie Tremsky arranged for a tour of the Epworth Children’s Home and Rev Nels, Kim Jackson, Sue Yerdon, Marge Radosevich, and Connie attended.

 

We suggest you ask any of them about the Home and its programs! They all came back extremely impressed with the facilities, the programs (especially the new young adult programs), and the staff! Any of them would be happy to share!

 

2024 Directories are ready to picked up!

 

Thank you to our membership Chair for keeping us up to date!

 

If your contact data changes, please let Wendy Kvale know.

 

 

The McCormick Chapel Corporation is a South Carolina Domestic Non-Profit Corporation that was established in 1994. McCormick Methodist Church has had a member on the board for the last twenty-nine years. This board was established to build a chapel inside the fences of the McCormick Correctional Institution to work with inmates in counseling and situations, to provide learning opportunities, to schedule the volunteer programs of the numerous religious organizations. The McCormick Chapel Corporation is supported by donations of people who understand the value of a chapel inside a prison.

 

The Chapel Corporation works with the Chaplain to oversee the care of the building by furnishing cleaning products. It also helps the Chaplain collect donations for the Indigents’ hygiene supplies. There are some inmates who have no means of receiving funds into their state accounts.

 

There is a clear plastic container in the Fellowship Hall to collect any of the following items. Those with an asterisk are needed at the present time.

   *Bath size bars of Irish Spring or Palmolive
     Toothbrushes
   *Toothpaste
   *Antiperspirant – sold stick
   *Bic disposable razors for men
     Shampoo

 

If you have any questions, please text, email or call Polly Prather.