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June 2025

June 2025 Newsletter

Sonora United Methodist Church

90 Yaney Avenue, Sonora, CA 95370

(209) 532-4850 office.sonora@gmail.com

From Pastor Kevin Campbell,

On Sunday, May 25, I shared 12 questions which were adapted from Harold Percy, Good News People: An Introduction to Evangelism for Tongue-Tied People (Forward Movement Publications, 1996). They are worth keeping before us:

The challenge for today’s congregations is how to move beyond maintenance — simply keeping things as they are — and into mission. One writer seeking to teach church members the difference between maintenance and mission came up with 12 points of comparison between these two types of churches. The list has made the rounds on the internet. The answers to these questions help determine whether a church is a maintenance or a mission congregation:

In measuring effectiveness, the maintenance congregation typically asks, “How many pastoral visits are being made?” The mission congregation asks, “How many disciples are being made?”
When contemplating some form of change, the maintenance congregation says, “If this new project proves upsetting to any of our members, we won’t do it.” The mission congregation says, “If this will help us reach someone on the outside, how can we not do it?”
Again, when thinking about change, the majority of members in a maintenance congregation ask, “How is this change going to affect me?” The majority of members in the mission congregation ask, “Will this change increase our ability to reach those outside our walls?”
When trying to articulate its vision for ministry, the maintenance congregation proudly declares, “We have to be faithful to our past.” The mission congregation says, instead, “We have to be faithful to our future.”
The pastor in a maintenance congregation says to the newcomer, “I’d like to introduce you to some of our members.” In the mission congregation, it’s exactly reversed. The members say to the newcomer, “We’d like to introduce you to our pastor.”
When confronted with a legitimate pastoral concern, the pastor in the maintenance congregation asks, “How can I meet this need?” The pastor in the mission congregation asks, “How can our people meet this need?”
If there’s one thing the maintenance congregation is afraid of, it’s conflict. The maintenance congregation seeks to avoid conflict at any cost (but rarely succeeds). The mission congregation is different. It understands that conflict is a natural by-product of growth and is willing to pay that price.
The leadership style in the maintenance congregation is primarily managerial. Leaders see themselves as successful if everything is in order and running smoothly. The leadership style in a mission congregation is different. It’s primarily transformational, casting a vision of what could be, and marching right off the map, if necessary — maybe even as far as Macedonia — to make the vision reality.
The maintenance congregation focuses on its members. The mission congregation focuses on the culture. It strives to understand how unchurched people think and what makes them tick. It tries to determine their needs, and to identify what in their lives makes them open to the gospel.
When thinking about growth, the maintenance congregation asks, “How many people of our denomination live within a 20-minute drive of this church?” The mission congregation asks, “How many unchurched people live within a 20-minute drive of this church?”
The maintenance congregation looks at the community and asks, “How can we get these people to support our congregation?” The mission congregation asks, “How can the church support these people?”
The maintenance congregation burns a lot of energy thinking about how to save their congregation. The mission congregation spends its energy thinking about how to reach the world.

As we remember we are in the Christianity business and not the church business these are the kinds of questions that will drive our thinking as we strive to discover the future the Holy Spirit has in store for Sonora United Methodist Church. It is worth reviewing the 12 questions on a regular basis.

The scripture readings for June are.

June 1: "Keep the Change"

Revelation 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20-21

June 8: Pentecost

"The Future Is No Longer Dark"

Romans 8: 14-17

June 15: Trinity Sunday

"It's Hard to Be Humble"

Psalm 8

John 16: 12-15

June 22: "It's Not All About You"

1 Kings 19: 1-15a

June 29: "Should I Stay or Should I Go"

2 Kings 2: 1-2, 6-14

Shalom,

Pastor Kevin

Women’s Fellowship

Greetings All,

I would like to start with a big thank you to all who helped in any way with our rummage sale. We had many generous donations, 17 helpers and made over $1600! Special thanks to Lynn Whitlach for lining up many donations and helping the grandfather who needed baby items for his grandchildren.

Our cooking group will meet on Saturday the 14th at 9:00 am. In July we will meet on Saturday the 12th.

We have talked about resuming social lunches and have penciled in Saturday, July 19th to meet. Be thinking about where we might want to go and let me know.

Blessings to all,

Karla Wasson

Notes from Lorraine:

Mary Lou Nuzum,

We received this message from Wendy Buckman, daughter of Jim and Mary Lou Nuzum on Saturday, May 31st: “ I wanted to let you know that my mom passed away peacefully early Saturday morning.” Mary Lou had been in Hospice care and had been mostly sleeping the last few weeks. Wendy said they are thinking about a service in August.

This picture of Jim and Mary Lou is from the going away party we held for Pastor Lisa Brown in 2015.

Mary Lou was a wonderful needlewoman and quilter and a member of the Sierra Quilt Guild of Tuolumne County. We have some of her needlework that we use on the pulpit at Christmastime. Many years ago we held a quilt fair, where she and others of our congregation displayed their treasured quilts. She also displayed her quilts at a Talent show we held.

She was a long time member of our Sonora United Methodist Women and was part of the group that transitioned us to be the Women’s Fellowship in order to pay closer attention to our local community. She and Jim had already been members of the church when I first began attending, so they have been members for more than 40 years. She was active in committees, choir, fundraisers, and was such a vital member of the life of the church. I am sure others of you have wonderful memories of her also.

Notes from the June 1, 2025 Church Council Meeting,

We had been notifying the Central Valley District of our Conference about the neglected state of the closed Jamestown United Methodist Church for several months. It was closed in October of 2022 and has not been taken care of since then. On Sunday morning a couple of us drove by Jamestown church and we were delighted to see that the stairs have been swept, the tall grass was cut back and the old sign was gone. It finally looked cared for. We are hoping that the Conference will sell the property and we and Tuolumne/Soulsbyville Church can use some of the money for revitalization efforts, as our expenses have exceeded our income in the last several months.

District Superintendent Mary Maaga will be with us in worship and at our Church Council Meeting on Sunday, August 24. She is an inspiring person.

Interfaith Community Social Services, the group the county churches support to help people with food, clothing, showers and legal help, is organizing a church tour for this Fall as an Interfaith fund raiser. So we and the other churches will give tours of our historic churches and talk about our programs. Interfaith is working to find a Saturday that works for most churches. Hopefully some of you can act as docents for our church that day. More information to come.

Our next Church Council meeting will be June 22.

Birthdays

June 4 Alice Townsend

June 5 Iain Williams

June 6 Wendy Buckman

Anniversary

6/25/85 Wendy & David Buckman

Sonora United Methodist Church

Office Phone: (209) 354-4850

e-mail - office: office.sonora@gmail.com

Website: www.sonora-umc.org

Worship Services - Sunday 11:30 am

Pastor: Kevin Campbell

Email: revkev835@gmail.com

Administrative Assistant: Juliet Simerley