McFarland UCC | a church with heart
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Special Needs Ministry Team Launched

3/28/2015

 

Introducing the MUCC Special Needs Ministry Team!

Several members recently proposed a new ministry team.  Their goal is to provide resources for children with visible and invisible special needs to participate in church activities successfully, and to educate the congregation about special needs differences.  Thank you to Trish Bailey, Lisa Fernan, Amy Hanneman, and Megan Marten, for your leadership in bringing these issues forward.  Here's a word from the team:
  • If you or someone you know is struggling with a particular parenting issue please know that you may come to us for support at any time (whether you have a child with special needs or are just having a difficult time.)  If you can't catch up with us at church (or don't know us), call/email the church office and ask for our contact information.
  • We are happy to announce: the inclusion of new sensory tools to our sanctuary. These will be introduced to the kids at a special Messy Church taking place on April 12.   
  • Also, we will be talking more about our ministry at Accessibility Sunday, May 3rd.  

  - Trish, Lisa, Amy & Megan
Coming soon…  
Coffee break for parents. This will be likely held once per month at MUCC with childcare available. This will offer parents a forum to share, ask questions, and learn from others. Some months we will have a speaker from the community join us to share about a particular topic of interest.  Stay tuned for details.  Let us know if you're interested and we'll put you on our list.

OGHS - Ersi's Story

3/24/2015

 
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Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing help provide food for hungry people worldwide. According to the World Food Programme, one in nine people suffer from hunger and more people go hungry in Asia than on any other continent.

Ersi Biliu and her husband in Timor, Indonesia, could only afford to buy one packet of vegetable seeds at a time. They would divide the packet and grow the vegetables in two batches. Their meager garden barely produced enough for their family of six children. When the last of the vegetables was harvested, they would not eat any more vegetables until they could afford another seed packet...


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OGHS - Matee's Story

3/19/2015

 

Water Project - Matee's Story

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The bulk of the One Great Hour of Sharing offering goes to support water, hunger, disaster relief and empowerment programs.  Today we'd like to share the joyful story of Matee and how the OGHS-supported sand dam changed the lives and future of her village in eastern Kenya...


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One Great Hour of Sharing 2015

3/16/2015

 
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OGHS
The refugee, relief and development offering of the United Church of Christ - Working alongside our international partners, it transforms lives through health, education, agricultural, refugee and emergency relief initiatives in 138 countries.  Our UCC churches raised more than $2.32 million in 2013 for OGHS.


During worship on  March 15, Farrel Smith gave an invitation to give to OGHS, and told us how it fits in to his giving priorities.  Continue reading to see what he had to say!

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Meet Melissa!

3/10/2015

 
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The McFarland UCC office is growing!  We would like to welcome Melissa Mendl, our new Office Administrator.  Melissa will assist Pastor Kerri in preparations for Sunday services, manage our database, sign ups and communications, as well as help grow our online presence.  

Originally from Oklahoma City, Melissa has been a professional dancer performing around the world for over 8 years.  She recently moved to the area from Kansas City with her husband, Nate Mendl, who is the new choir director at McFarland High School.  Melissa has already become very involved in the McFarland community having choreographed the high school's musical Fiddler on the Roof  and Indian Mound Middle School's production of Honk! Jr.  

Here is a brief message from Melissa...

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Speechless:  A Parable

3/8/2015

 
We have been learning from the parables of Jesus, these past few weeks.  As he teaches, Jesus says to his listeners, “To what shall I compare the Realm of God?  To what shall I compare the Kingdom?”

And each week, instead of hearing a straightforward comparison, a basic lesson in similes and metaphors, we have been unpacking a deeper story.  Parables are not Aesop’s fables with a simple moral and life application that will make you a better person; parables mess with your head.

Instead of a direct comparison, they twist our thinking.  They help us explore more complicated questions such as, “What are the boundaries of forgiveness?” and “What if our central organizing principle was hospitality?”  Today, we receive another kingdom sketch that seems to tear both of these prior lessons to shreds.

Today’s parable comes from the 22nd chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew.  In our Bible study this week, we discovered that a similar story is told in Luke and in the Gospel of Thomas.  Matthew’s version gives George RR Martin a run for his money.  If you’re familiar with his novels, or the HBO series Game of Thrones, the storyline might seem familiar.

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Full Availability: A Parable

3/1/2015

 
There were not many jobs to be had.  Not many regular jobs, at least.  It was a bit easier to find a limited gig that would pay you for three days, or two days, or one day at a time.  The economy was based on full availability.  If there was a chance to work, and you turned it down…well, you might not get called again. 
 
That’s what happened the time my grandfather took a day job shoveling out a railroad car during the Depression.   At that time, you didn’t know when the next job might present itself, so you took a job when offered, and you were grateful for the chance to earn something, when the next guy might get nothing.  So he took the job shoveling out the railroad car.  He spent a hard day shoveling salt.   And by the end of the day, when they dished out the day’s wage?  Well, instead of feeding the family, it had to go to buying him a new pair of boots to replace the ones the salt had ruined.

That sort of deal didn’t end with the New Deal.   It’s just as prevalent here at the beginning of the twenty-first century.  Some call it ‘Working in Retail’.  Some call it ‘The Sharing Economy.’ Others call it On-Demand Staffing or 'Flexible Staffing Practices'.  Full Availability is a system where it seems the employer has all the rights to organize the employee’s time.  It is not uncommon in retail – and increasingly, in other sectors – to receive your schedule shortly before the week begins, and to be notified that you are “on call” in case of an unexpected surge in customers, expected to report on as little as two hours’ notice.  All of this for the extravagant wage of $7.25 to $10 an hour.

Of course, with your employer’s needs as your central organizing principle, you have precious little energy to devote to organizing anything else: child care, or a search for a better job, or your fellow employees.  It goes beyond paycheck-to-paycheck and ends up being more like hand-to-mouth.  

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Worshiping at 10 am on Sundays In person & Zoom
5710 Anthony Street, McFarland WI 53558

Can't make it to worship with us? Visit our Facebook page for prayer opportunities & links.
We are proud to be an Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ.
Whoever you are, wherever you are on life's journey, you are welcome here!
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​Contact Us

Office Hours: Wednesdays & Thursdays 9am - 1pm (Or by appointment) 

Office Phone:  (608) 838-9322  
​​Office Email: office@mcfarlanducc.org

Pastor Bryan Sirchio
Pastor Email: pastorb@mcfarlanducc.org
Pastor's Cell:  (608) 577-8716

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