Welcome to First United Methodist Church Bridgeport

The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people of all faiths to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. This year there are plans underway to spend some time at our courthouse in prayer. To this end, I share the following letter:

"It's almost here!

The day is drawing near.

Christ-followers from all across Wise County are coming together for National Day of Prayer on the Wise County Courthouse lawn. 

We hope you will be a part of it!

Thursday, May 2, 2013 is the National Day of Prayer. This has been a part of our Nation's make-up for many years, but there may not have ever have been a time as desperate for our people to come together to seek the Lord's face and favor right now. 

We are asking our church, ministry, business, or group to join us in covering the courthouse with prayer from 7 am May 2nd until 7 pm by signing up for a one hour time period in which your group will be on the courthouse lawn praying for our county and our country. 

At noon we will have a Prayer Celebration, and we ask everyone to join us. If you can come, we would love to have you here during this time. We will have a short word and several of our pastors and leaders from the area will lead us in prayer over specific prayer-points set out by the National Day of Prayer organizers. 

This is to be a great day of the celebration of freedom as well as a petition to see the Lord move in our Nation. Please join us!"

For more information, a copy of the NPD Prayer Points, or to let us know you will cover an hour, please contact:

Connie McCrary
Psalms 51 Ministries, Wise Co. NPD Coordinator
940-577-5151

See you Sunday in the place where prayer makes a difference!

Yours in Christ,

For a number of months some of us have been discussing some changes in our second service and we have implemented a few minor changes. Now we are ready to make a major change and it will all begin on Sunday, April 14th.

First, we are changing the name to reflect that we are doing something new. So, I introduce you to “The Bridge.” Why “The Bridge?” We chose the name because we want the service to be a bridge to connect the living God, to connect with one another in the love of Christ, and to prepare us to connect to the community in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The service will be less formal and more inviting to people that are unchurched. We will meet in the Fellowship Hall, which will give us maximum flexibility in the setup and the content and the use of visual images. We will be able to use the TV to project songs, scriptures, images and illustrations. We will have lots of music with the volume set appropriately for the room, prayer and a relevant message. We will minimize things like announcements, the children’s message and the doxology.

Our order may change from time to time according to the season, the theme for the day and the feedback from attendees. I hope you will give this serve a try and remember to invite your friends who are unchurched and especially young families to this service.

Please be praying for both of our services. The reason for having two distinct services is to give people a choice of style and music. I am still convinced that we can reach more people when we have options than if we only had one service.

See you Sunday in the place where God is reaching out to us!

Yours in Christ,

Bro. David
home: 940-683-1724
davidrucker@fumcbridgeport.org

A couple of months ago, Camille and I received word that the church where my father and step-mother have been members for nearly thirty years was closing its doors and the Trustees were dispersing all of their usable equipment to churches that could use any of it. Among the equipment was a set of handbells originally donated by my parents. So we wrote to the trustees and requested the privilege of receiving them. We suggested that they could expand our range of bells, we could share them with a neighboring church, or perhaps donate them to the Denton State School, which has expressed interest in starting a bell choir.

We figured that would be the last of it we would hear. After all who ever heard of a Baptist Church giving a Methodist Church such a significant gift. A few weeks ago, I received a phone call that the bells had been awarded to our church with no strings attached—we could do whatever we wanted to do with them. The only condition was that we had to come pick them up.

So three weeks ago, I rented a van and drove to Houston, spend a couple of nights with family, celebrated our daughter’s birthday a week early, and picked up the bells…and six tables, and pads, and music stands, and table cloths! We were only expecting the bells, so this was a huge bonus.

Since then, our bell players have inventoried the bells and inspected them. There are 4 ½ octaves—we only had three, so it expands our range on both ends. Since the bells have been in storage for a decade or two, they are in need of professional polishing at about $7 a bell, and some need some minor repairs to the hard rubber that holds the clappers.

This gift would have been valued at several tens of thousands of dollars new when it was purchased. I don’t even want to think about how much brand new bells would cost these days. So say a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessing.

For the next step, we could use your help in two ways, if the Lord is directing you. First we could use some donations to help pay for the polishing and refurbishing that needs to be done on the 49 bells. Second, we could use some more bell ringers! They practice at 5:45 on Wednesdays and now have some contemporary music, so playing at the first part of the second service can become a reality…all we need is people.

Yours in Christ,

Bro. David
home: 940-683-1724
davidrucker@fumcbridgeport.org