FLUMC - November 2016 District News

When reading through our newsletter, be sure to click on the blue underlined links to get more information.

Message from the District Superintendent

If you have been keeping track, Jay has visited almost all of the churches in the district. He only has four more left. During each visit, he has taken wonderful photos, which we hope to display in the District Office in the coming months.

We are grateful for everyone's safety during Hurricane Matthew last month. If you have yet to make your insurance claims, please do so by calling 855-CAT-FUMC. Even if you think your damage is below the deductible, please call and report it.

Our district officially has the most famous pumpkin patch. First UMC in St. Augustine was featured in the Washington Post and on numerous social media sites after the hurricane for their floating pumpkins around town due to the excessive flooding.

The District Office will be closed on November 11 in honor of Veteran's Day and also November 24 & 25 for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

The message for November focuses around being thankful. You can click here to read his message.

Clergy Health Benefits - Message from HR

Open Enrollment begins November 1, 2016. Be sure to read the final message from the HR department in regards to clergy health benefits.

As we move into the final weeks of charge conference, the District Office would like to thank everyone for their patience during this season that has been full of changes. We did change a few things this time around and there were a few things we found out about mid-stream. There will be some changes for next year and we will roll those out as soon as we can so everyone is made aware ahead of time. But as we move into the next season, please know that we appreciate you and we are in this together. It is His grace that conquers a multitude of flaws and in that grace, there is only favor.

Just a reminder if you still haven't had your charge conference:

The church is responsible for giving the presiding elder the charge conference packet to be approved. The District Office will not be distributing the packets to the presiding elders. - We understand this is different from last year. We will be sending the DS with the packets of the charge conferences he is presiding over. However, if you did submit your original and need it back for your charge conference, please let us know.
Once you conduct your charge conference, you must submit all fully signed documents to the District Office as soon as possible. (No later than one week after the charge conference.) If you submitted something that had full signatures on it, you do not need to resubmit those documents.

Installation Service Reminder

Jay Therrell's Installation Service will be held on November 6, 2016, 3 p.m. at Mandarin UMC. Click here to view the Formal invitation. All are welcome to attend. All clergy attending are invited to be part of the processional and should wear black robes. All elders/deacons should also wear a red stole. Clergy - please RSVP so we can get a head count for the processional.

During the service we will be collecting an offering which will support our Campus to City Wesley ministry.

Retiree Luncheon RSVP's Needed

Just a reminder that the District Superintendent, Jay Therrell, is hosting a retiree luncheon in November. If you are interested in attending and have not yet RSVP'd, please email Pam Mullay and confirm which date you would like to attend:

November 10, 2016, 12-2 p.m.
November 15, 2016, 12-2 p.m.

Both luncheons will be held at the District Office.

District Office Staffing Change

Our beloved Jim Young, community outreach minister, will be departing our district staff as of December 31, 2016. For those of you who have worked with Jim over the past years, you know that he has a heart for Jesus that is deep and compelling. He truly seeks to expand God’s kingdom by meeting people at their point of need and offering them Jesus.

Jim’s departure occurs as the source of funding for his position comes to an end in December. As many of you know, the Cabinet made the decision last year to reduce the sizes of our district offices in response to the changing financial reality of many of our churches. We know that churches are dealing with financial struggles and the Conference and Districts have tried to respond to those struggles by reducing staff and costs.

We have planned several ways to honor and celebrate Jim’s ministry, but one of them will be to encourage you to send notes of appreciation and encouragement to Pam Mullay in the district office. Pam will be assembling those notes in a format that we can present to Jim. Please either email or snail mail those notes to Pam no later than November 28, 2016.

Be sure to stop by and visit us on December 16, 2016 from 10-12 or 2-4 for our District Holiday Open House. We will be sharing Christmas cookies and other snacks with all who visit. We would love to meet you and have some help decorating the tree at the office. If your church has an ornament that has the church name on it, we would love to add it to our tree. Please bring it with you when you visit. This time will be all about fellowship. We hope you can stop by.

Messages for the District

We receive many requests from folks within the district and the conference asking us to reach out to our district about a certain event or ministry. In an effort to be able to give you as much information in a limited space, we have put their messages into PDF documents or included a direct link to their website for you to easily review and share with others in your churches. Please click on the blue underlined links for more information.