• Christmas Eve Service: Join us Tuesday, December 24 at 7:00pm for a Christmas Eve service at FMC.

• New Years Reflection Service: Sunday, December 29 will be our New Years reflection service. There will be readings and poetry to help us reflect on how God has been with us in the past year and orient us toward God’s presence in the year ahead. For the service, we encourage you to send poems, readings, and scriptures to Pastor Alvis. During the service, there will also be a time of blessing and attendees are encouraged to bring an item from home which will receive a blessing for the New Year. Objects will be provided for those who do not bring their own.

• No Sunday School 12-29: Please note that the Sunday school classes will not meet on Sunday, December 29. Classes will reconvene in the new year.

• Church Life Meeting: Join us Sunday, January 12 after the worship service for a Church Life Meeting. During this meeting we will hold our official vote regarding our conference affiliation.

• Encounter Invitation: All Friendship Mennonite attenders are invited to “Encounter” on Sunday, Dec. 15th at 7pm at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights (parking is in the back). Encounter is a monthly gathering of prayer, singing, silence, and conversation. This intergenerational fellowship group welcomes Christians of all types, seekers, and other people of good will to build community with one another. Encounter is an effort to work against the fracturing of our world by creating a space of care and healing built around God’s love. See Anita or Ted with questions.

• Longest Night Service: Friday, Dec 20th at 7pm, FMC will host a joint longest night/Blue Christmas service together with Hope UMC and Southhaven UCC.

• Christmas Eve Service: Join us Tuesday, December 24 at 7:00pm for a Christmas Eve service at FMC.

• New Years Reflection Service: Sunday, December 29 will be our New Years reflection service. There will be readings and poetry to help us reflect on how God has been with us in the past year and orient us toward God’s presence in the year ahead. For the service, we encourage you to send poems, readings, and scriptures to Pastor Alvis. During the service, there will also be a time of blessing and attendees are encouraged to bring an item from home which will receive a blessing for the New Year. Objects will be provided for those who do not bring their own.

• No Sunday School 12-29: Please note that the Sunday school classes will not meet on Sunday, December 29. Classes will reconvene in the new year.

• Note from the Treasurer: November giving was $5,900 compared to budget of $8,300.  Year to date monthly average is $7,700 which isn’t too far off the budget.

• Cookie Crawl: Bedford, Ohio churches welcome you to come make new memories at the first ever Cookie Crawl! This event will take place on Sunday, December 15 from 2-4pm and is hosted by six different churches/service organizations in Bedford. Tickets are $10 (16 years+) and family tickets are $30. All proceeds from the event will go towards the local Meals on Wheels. Please see the flyer in the foyer for more information and for instructions on purchasing tickets.

• Longest Night Service: Friday, Dec 20th at 7pm, FMC will host a joint longest night/Blue Christmas service together with Hope UMC and Southhaven UCC.

• New Years Reflection Service: Sunday, December 29 will be our New Years reflection service. There will be readings and poetry to help us reflect on how God has been with us in the past year and orient us toward God’s presence in the year ahead. For the service, we encourage you to send poems, readings, and scriptures to Pastor Alvis. During the service, there will also be a time of blessing and attendees are encouraged to bring an item from home which will receive a blessing for the New Year. Objects will be provided for those who do not bring their own.

• Worship Nursery: Due to the holiday weekend, many of our nursery volunteers are out of town today, and the nursery is not staffed this morning. The nursery is open for any families who would like to utilize the space during the worship service.

• Cookie Crawl: Bedford, Ohio churches welcome you to come make new memories at the first ever Cookie Crawl! This event will take place on Sunday, December 15 from 2-4pm and is hosted by six different churches/service organizations in Bedford. Tickets are $10 (16 years+) and family tickets are $30. All proceeds from the event will go towards the local Meals on Wheels. Please see the flyer in the foyer for more information and for instructions on purchasing tickets.

• Longest Night Service: Friday, Dec 20th at 7pm, FMC will host a joint longest night/Blue Christmas service together with Hope UMC and Southhaven UCC.

• MCUSA: Join the Global Anabaptist Bible Read-a-thon! This is your opportunity to take part in a once-every-500-year moment of unity and faith! MennoMedia’s Anabaptism at 500 is collaborating with Mennonite World Conference in this extraordinary event as 500 voices will join together to read through the entire Bible – from Genesis to Revelation – in multiple languages. Register here: mennoniteusa.org/global-anabaptist-bible-read-a-thon

• MMN Prayer Request: Today, Mennonite Mission Network’s Anchorage (Alaska) Service Adventure unit is participating in a community performance of Handel’s Messiah. Pray for leader Samir Knego and participants Samuel Landis, Briana Nyveldt, Armando Perez and Aviva Setiawan as they worship and share the good news of Jesus’ birth, ministry and salvation offered to all people.

• Encounter: All Friendship Mennonite attenders are invited to “Encounter” on Sunday, Nov. 24th at 7pm at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights (parking is in the back). Encounter is a monthly gathering of prayer, singing, silence, and conversation. This intergenerational fellowship group welcomes Christians of all types, seekers, and other people of good will to build community with one another. Encounter is an effort to work against the fracturing of our world by creating a space of care and healing built around God’s love. See Anita or Ted with questions.

• No Sunday School next week: Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, there will not be Sunday school classes on Sunday, December 1.

• Cookie Crawl: Bedford, Ohio churches welcome you to come make new memories at the first ever Cookie Crawl! This event will take place on Sunday, December 15 from 2-4pm and is hosted by six different churches/service organizations in Bedford. Tickets are $10 (16 years+) and family tickets are $30. All proceeds from the event will go towards the local Meals on Wheels. Please see the flyer in the foyer for more information and for instructions on purchasing tickets.

• Missions Month: November is Missions Month at FMC. Each week there will be a special collection after our weekly offering that will go towards a mission organization that FMC supports. This year, all of our mission month donations will go towards Mennonite Disaster Services for hurricane relief. An anonymous donor has offered to match dollar for dollar donations made up to $10,000. Please consider giving to this important cause.  

• Congregational Meeting: Please join us today for a (provided) luncheon and congregational meeting following the worship service. We will be discussing the information presented to us by our recent guest speakers from Allegheny Conference and the Central District Conference.

• Encounter: All Friendship Mennonite attenders are invited to “Encounter” on Sunday, Nov. 24th at 7pm at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights (parking is in the back). Encounter is a monthly gathering of prayer, singing, silence, and conversation. This intergenerational fellowship group welcomes Christians of all types, seekers, and other people of good will to build community with one another. Encounter is an effort to work against the fracturing of our world by creating a space of care and healing built around God’s love. See Anita or Ted with questions.

• Mennonite Action Emergency Mass Meeting: Mennonite Action is holding an emergency mass organizing call on November 21st, 2024 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Last November, we gathered to pray, grieve, and organize on Mennonite Action’s very first virtual mass call. Over 800 of us came together because we needed this community space to help process our shock, horror, and deep grief as the genocide in Gaza unfolded. This year, in the wake of the election, we will gather to recommit ourselves to this movement for peace, justice and liberation. We will gather to process our fear and our grief about the future for our own communities and for Palestine. To sign up, visit mennoniteaction.org/call For more information about Mennonite Action, visit mennoniteaction.org
• Missions Month: November is Missions Month at FMC. Each week there will be a special collection after our weekly offering that will go towards a mission organization that FMC supports. This year, all of our mission month donations will go towards Mennonite Disaster Services for hurricane relief. An anonymous donor has offered to match dollar for dollar donations made up to $10,000. Please consider giving to this important cause.  

• Congregational Meeting: Please join us next Sunday, November 17 for a (provided) luncheon and congregational meeting following the worship service. We will be discussing the information presented to us by our recent guest speakers from Allegheny Conference and the Central District Conference.

• Missions Month: November is Missions Month at FMC. Each week there will be a special collection after our weekly offering that will go towards a mission organization that FMC supports. This year, all of our mission month donations will go towards Mennonite Disaster Services for hurricane relief. An anonymous donor has offered to match dollar for dollar donations made up to $10,000. Please consider giving to this important cause.  

• Missions Month: November is Missions Month at FMC. Each week there will be a special collection after our weekly offering that will go towards a mission organization that FMC supports. This year, all of our mission month donations will go towards Mennonite Disaster Services for hurricane relief. An anonymous donor has offered to match dollar for dollar donations made up to $10,000. Please consider giving to this important cause.  

• MMN Prayer Request: Join Mennonite Mission Network in praying that this Tuesday’s elections in the United States will take place without violence and that the leaders who are elected will lead the country in ways of justice and peace.

• MC USA: Join MC USA’s Climate Justice Coordinator Karla Stoltzfus Detweiler in imagining a sustainable future for ourselves, our children, and our planet by participating in an online book study of the compelling and timely book, “So We and Our Children May Live” by Sarah Augustine and Sheri Hostetler. Drawing from Scripture, science, Indigenous wisdom, and personal stories, the authors invite us to open our hearts and our culture to deep, Spirit-led transformation. Register here: mennoniteusa.org/climate-justice-book-study

• Guest Speaker Doug Luginbill: is in his 9th year as Conference Minister of the Central District Conference. He primarily works out of his home in Bluffton, OH where he lives with his spouse, Paula (Lehman) Luginbill. Doug graduated from Bluffton University with degrees in Religion and Sociology and from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary with an MDiv. They have two adult children, Jonathan and his spouse Kara, and Carissa and her spouse Wendell. They live in far-away places that are beautiful to visit; Colorado and Montana. Doug served for six years as executive director of Camp Friedenswald, 14 years in congregational ministry in Ohio and Kansas, and six years at Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio. In his free time, he enjoys gardening, hiking, singing, and long walks with Paula.

• Missions Month: November is Missions Month at FMC. Each week there will be a special collection after our weekly offering that will go towards a mission organization that FMC supports. This year, all of our mission month donations will go towards Mennonite Disaster Services for hurricane relief. An anonymous donor has offered to match dollar for dollar donations made up to $10,000. Please consider giving to this important cause.  

• Pastor Alvis Vacation Dates: Pastor Alvis will be on vacation from Oct 12 to Nov 2. During this time, the Tuesday Bible Study will not meet.

• MMN Prayer Request: Today, Mennonite Mission Network’s Mennonite Voluntary Service participants from Arizona, California and Colorado are concluding their five-day fall retreat in Salt Lake City, Utah. Pray that they may return to their learning and service placements inspired and energized by the renewal they experienced in worshipping together and in sharing their experiences.

• Guest Speaker Amy Yoder McGloughlin: is the Conference Minister with Allegheny Mennonite Conference.  Before moving to this Conference Minister role earlier this year, Amy served as Pastor at Frazer Mennonite Church in the Philadelphia suburbs and Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia.
• MMN Prayer Request: Praise God for continually carrying Laura Schlabach, of Mennonite Mission Network, through challenging situations in Mongolia, while she serves outside of her comfort zone on JCS International’s three-person executive director team — which is looking for a third person. Pray that JCS will find a full-time executive director and that Laura will find time for rest and renewal.

• My Coins Count: Next Sunday is our monthly My Coins Count collection. Please bring your change (or checks) to church. This collection goes towards the mission and ministry of the Mennonite Central Committee.

• Pastor Alvis Vacation Dates: Pastor Alvis will be on vacation from Oct 12 to Nov 2. During this time, the Tuesday Bible Study will not meet.