Tinney Chapel Today

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A Prophet Named Sue

It was Rev. Sue Gross' final Sunday at our church, and David Stanton was in the pulpit to allow her time to facilitate the move to her new appointment.

His sermon title was, appropriately, "So, Who Is Your Prophet Now!" His point was to emphasize that a church's pastor is also its prophet.

It was an emotional day for David, Pastor Sue and all of us, including the half of today's worship congregation who are Hispanic and whose loyalty to Tinney Chapel is tied to our church's pioneering English As Second Language (ESL) program, hailed throughout the North Texas Conference and singled out for special praise by the Bishop at the recent Annual Conference in Plano.

Our church's ESL program was Pastor Sue's idea as was our church's free Christmas Dinner program and other landmarks that she will leave with us, along with the memories.

Our gift to her was a scrapbook, organized by David Stanton & Angela Wylie, containing letters of gratitude from members of the congregation and a few pictures from her four years here.

We also send her to her next appointment with this final thought: Thanks, Pastor Sue, for the ministry and the memories.

We love you.

Labels: David Stanton, Order Of Farwell., Rev. Sue Gross, Tinney Chapel UMC

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Certified Lay Speaker David Stanton Celebrates His Birthday Today, June 20, & Prepares to Fill The Tinney Chapel UMC Pulpit Sunday, June 24, When He Will Preach & Conduct An Order Of Farewell To Pastor Sue

Labels: Certified Lay Speaker., David Stanton, Order of Farewell, Pastor Sue Gross, Tinney Chapel UMC

Click on arrow to view video of Part 1 of Pastor Sue's final sermon at Tinney Chapel, June 17, 2012. Part 2 is available via the next post on this Weblog.

Labels: Finding Our Way Home., Pastor Sue Gross, Tinney Chapel UMC

Click on the arrow of the video above to see a video of Tinney Chapel's Cheryl Newton leading a reception to honor outgoing Pastor Sue Gross, followed by remarks by Pastor Sue.

Labels: Cheryl Newton, Pastor Sue Gross, Perkins School of Theology, prayer., Rev. Sue Gross, SMU, Sue Gross, Tinney Chapel UMC, Wanda Hardin

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Bring A Fan To Tinney Chapel This Sunday


"Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one the least of these...you did it to me."
                                             ---Matthew 25:40

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Ice Cream Social To Kick Off Plans For a "Tinney Chapel UMC Summit,"
Inspired By The East District's Recent Small-Membership Church Summit

The idea started at our church's most recent Administrative Council meeting.

A Tinney Chapel Summit?

Yes, why not?

Kind of like the Small-Membership Church Summit held recently in the East District, where Conference Leaders, Rev. Jim Ozier and Rev. Keith Boone, guided a host of clergy and lay people in their plans to vitalize or re-vitalize their congregations.

The motion was made by Brandi Putman, our church's Recording Secretary, and one of those lay people who were motivated by the doings at the Small-Membership Church Summit. She believed the idea and the format could work just as well in a single church: Tinney Chapel, for instance.

She discussed it with others, some of whom remembered attending the historic Vision and Values Workshop at Tinney Chapel in 2000, an event which galvanized our church into rural ministry activities previously undreamed of. In just four years, by 2004, Tinney Chapel had been awarded the coveted Marvin T. Judy Award not once, but TWICE, as best in rural ministry for churches of our size in the entire North Texas Conference.

Pretty soon, Brandi was even more certain that her idea had real merit, so she called an informal planning meeting at Ganny's Pie Shop, owned and operated by Tinney Chapel's own Georgia Goggans. There, a small group of motivated lay members encouraged Brandi and shared their own ideas, with the result culminating in an agenda for further motivation.

That would be the Pre-Summit ice cream social, mentioned earlier.

It's scheduled for Thursday, June 7 at 6 pm in the Family Life Center and everyone should plan on attending. 

To help prepare for Tinney Chapel's future, Brandi suggests that each of us bring a tub of ice cream, a topping or cookies, or cake.

As a parting thought, to convince each of us to attend, she adds:

"We have a special activity planned!!!"

Be there. The future of our church is in our hands!

Labels: . Keith Boone, Brandi Putman, church revitalization, Ganny's Pie Shop, Georgia Goggans, ice cream social, Jim Ozier, Marvin T. Judy Award, rural ministry, Tinney Chapel, Visions and Values Workshop.

Rev. Carl Sterling To Become Pastor @ Tinney Chapel After June 24
When We Bid Farewell to Pastor Sue Gross

As part of Methodism's historic itineracy tradition, it's musical chairs or fruit-basket-turnover time again in the North Texas Conference (NTC), when many pastors pull up stakes lock-stock-and-barrel to move from one church to another, based on their gifts, graces and the assessed needs of individual churches as viewed by our Bishop and District Superintendents.

This means that Pastor Sue Gross' final Sunday with Tinney Chapel will be June 24, at which time Certified Lay Speaker David Stanton will actually be in the pulpit to allow Pastor Sue time for last-minute chores related to her move and that of her mother, Nyla Gross. However, Pastor Sue will be present with us on that final day, June 24, at which time our congregation will bid her farewell.

In her place, Tinney Chapel's SPR Committee has already welcomed Rev. Carl Sterling and his wife, Paulette Sterling, during a visit recently. However, no other congregants have yet met the couple, other than David & Mollie Stanton, who today joined the Sterlings at Annual Conference in Plano, where David kindly made the iPhone photos accompanying this report and forwarded them to Tinney Chapel Communications.

Rev. Sterling comes to us from serving two churches, pictured in the collage with this report: Williams Chapel UMC at English, TX and First UMC Avery at Avery, TX.

You may welcome Rev. Sterling via his e-mail address: revsterling@ymail.com 

Labels: David Stanton, First UMC Avery, Mollie Stanton, North Texas UMC Conference, Paulette Sterling, Rev. Carl Sterling, Rev. Sue Gross., Tinney Chapel, Williams Chapel

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To celebrate the return to regular attendance by long-time member of Tinney Chapel, Alice Deitering, who is famous for her love of, and excellent taste in, headdress, the ladies of our church, along with one brave gentleman, agreed to wear hats on this date, June 3, 2012. Even one of the guests was in on this "hat trick" of special mercy. 

This is the "official" photo of that wonderful day. 

Tinney Chapel Communications tips its hat to the ladies, who represent the heart and soul of our church.

Welcome back, Alice!

Labels: Alice Deitering., Hats, Ladies, Tinney Chapel UMC