Greetings to you all!  As we near the end of our Lenten journeys and anticipate the celebration of Easter, I pray that you have gained new insight into your own spiritual life through the devotion booklet by Rev. Cody and the inspirational sermons from both of our pastors.  There is still time to reflect and seek to understand just how much the love of God is poured out for you!

Lay Leadership in small churches and larger ones is a very important part of our United Methodist heritage.  Every Sunday school teacher no matter what age of the students, every committee chair and member, every greeter and usher, or helper in the office, or whoever is helping the church family in some way, is impacting someone else’s spiritual journey.  Thanks be to God for each one of you!  Some of you might be looking for other ways to be an effective leader, and I have two possibilities:  Lay Servant Ministries is having spring classes on April 8 & 9 with a “Basic Lay Servant Course”, “Growing Spiritually through Daily Disciplines” and “Leading through Prayer” classes; or becoming an Equalization Member of our Rocky Mountain Conference and attending the Annual Meeting June 9-12 at The Westin in Westminster.

Lay Servant Ministries: classes at Brentwood UMC, 1899 South Irving St. in Denver; cost is $30 for 1 class; registration form in our church office or contact Melba Taylor, 303-246-6190, [email protected]; April 8th, from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm, and April 9th , from 8:30 am to 4 pm; I will be going to a class.

Be an Equalization Member to the RMC Annual Conference.  Each church can have an equal number of lay members to annual conference as they have pastors.  Sometimes there aren’t enough lay people from a smaller church so we ask for “equalization” members to attend and participate in Annual Conference activities, this year on June 9-12 at the Westin in Westminster. Contact Jeannie Prejean, 719-481-3193, [email protected] if you are interested.  80% of the registration cost is paid by the district via a voucher system. This is an opportunity to take part in legislation decisions of the conference.

You are blessed to be a blessing!

Ruth Wills, Lay Leader