Dear PVUMC, Grace and peace to you and your family on this beautiful August day. Remembering that this is the day the Lord has made, and so, we will rejoice and be glad in it. I want you to know that I am enjoying getting to know the church and the people who make up this congregation. There is a sweetness, a strength, and a passion to follow God in this place. The strength of leadership at PVUMC has held us together through a difficult pandemic period. The sweetness (also known as kindness) has infused all our actions. And the passion for following Christ has led us forward even when the way ..read more

Last Friday, we received news that an important step has been made towards the future of the United Methodist Church. A proposal, crafted and signed by a diverse group of United Methodist leaders, has been created titled “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation.” It identifies a way to end the painful national and international conflict around the inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ people. Here are some important points about this proposal: This agreement would allow same-sex marriage in the Methodist church and for LGBTQ clergy members to serve openly. What makes this agreeme ..read more

Dear PVUMC, Grace and peace to you this warm and beautiful day. I come to you today with news of an upcoming change in our pastoral staff. We wanted to let you know this in advance of Sunday. Our District Superintendent, Rev. Susan Brims has sent us a letter (click here) to announce this change. Please take a moment to read it before you go on. Pastor Christopher has been central to our ministry at Paradise Valley UMC. Many of you have been stirred by his preaching and influenced by his friendship. He has married, baptized, buried, sorrowed, and celebrated with you. Pastor Christopher, Ingrid ..read more

Dear PVUMC, Grace and peace to you and your family on this beautiful August day. Remembering that this is the day the Lord has made, and so, we will rejoice and be glad in it. I want you to know that I am enjoying getting to know the church and the people who make up this congregation. There is a sweetness, a strength, and a passion to follow God in this place. The strength of leadership at PVUMC has held us together through a difficult pandemic period. The sweetness (also known as kindness) has infused all our actions. And the passion for following Christ has led us forward even when the way ..read more

Last Friday, we received news that an important step has been made towards the future of the United Methodist Church. A proposal, crafted and signed by a diverse group of United Methodist leaders, has been created titled “Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation.” It identifies a way to end the painful national and international conflict around the inclusion and affirmation of LGBTQ people. Here are some important points about this proposal: This agreement would allow same-sex marriage in the Methodist church and for LGBTQ clergy members to serve openly. What makes this agreemen ..read more

Welcome to The Church Co. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging ..read more

A Noisy World, a Silent Church Acts 2: 1-8, 14, 22-24 Why share our faith? Mission field is around each one of us; in church, in the pews around us. There are shifts in our culture and attitudes about religion. Old assumptions that no longer hold about why people go to church. We want to see through eyes of the unchurched or those who have not attended in many years. We share our faith so the church has a future. Talking about faith comes naturally for some of us. And for many of us having conversations about faith is dauntin ..read more

Evangelism or sharing our faith has been challenging and difficult for mainline Christians. We have become much more private about sharing our faith. We fear offending people. We fear saying the wrong words so we do not tell others about the good news of Jesus, or about how God has made a difference in our lives or even about our church life, what we do, what it gives to us.  Join us in the month of September as we look at some less threatening and easy ways in our day to day lives that we can share about what faith means to us ..read more

Binge Reading the Bible: Epistles Seven Sundays this summer, from July 7-August 25, 2019, we’ll follow a worship series called, Binge Reading the Bible. This series takes its cues from our social obsession with binge-watching shows on Netflix and instead focuses on reading large chunks of the Bible all at once. ________________________________ As we move into the New Testament in our Binge Reading the Bible series, we are on more familiar ground. I know all of us like to get a card or a letter. It is so unusual! There was undou ..read more

Binge Reading the Bible: Gospels Seven Sundays this summer, from July 7-August 25, 2019, we’ll follow a worship series called, Binge Reading the Bible. This series takes its cues from our social obsession with binge-watching shows on Netflix and instead focuses on reading large chunks of the Bible all at once. The Gospels share the story of Jesus’ life and ministry. They are a kind of biography, but more than just telling us what Jesus did and said, they tell us who Jesus is, the promised One of God, the messiah who most reveal ..read more