SPPRC CHAIRLADY

Natalie Ambrose Philip is Gretna United Methodist Church's new Staff Pastor and Parish Relations Committee Chairlady. She replaces Melanie Robinson, who has served as the chair of the SPPRC for three years. She is now GUMC's interim director of Mosaic Worship. Natalie Ambrose Philips will serve for the remainder of the year.

Natalie Ambrose Phillips

She has been a member of GUMC for the past three years. She comes to GUMC with a wealth of knowledge of organizational leadership for both nonprofit and for-profit agencies. Natalie is a Licensed Professional Counselor who specializes in counseling individuals with mood disorders, substance abuse, and relationship issues. She is a Clinical Director of a mental health facility and is also in private practice. Natalie is currently writing her dissertation to obtain a Ph.D. in Professional Counseling. She looks forward to serving in this capacity with the hopes to provide a new voice to the church.

Discipleship Transformation Team

Discipleship Pathway Team

by Christi Emanuel

The Discipleship Pathway Team is actively working on developing a plan that will help guests and members become active thriving Disciples of Christ. This Pathway as expressed through GUMC could include Bible training, mentoring, mission opportunities to express and experience our faith, and group opportunities that would bring us into fellowship with each other. Our hope is to deepen our love for Christ and each other by intentionally creating an environment that would promote spiritual growth and

draw others into our community. The Discipleship Pathway Team of 12 members is representative of all generations and ethnicities and genders in our diverse congregation. We are hopeful that this micro cross section of our church body

will best represent who we are as a community of faith as we endeavor to develop an environment where all can thrive. We have begun our discovery of this Pathway by first engaging the question “Why do we exist?”. Here is the list of what we discovered together:

1. To make fishers of men

2. Seek out others

3. to make the world a better place, to bring the children of God alive

4. to provide a central place of worship and fellowship

5. to introduce others to God and Jesus

6. to provide a safe welcome place and get away from the harsh realities of life

7. to impact all of us and all of our visitors to influence ourselves and pass that influence

on to others. A tapestry interwoven. Impacting people’s lives on all different scales.

8. To provide a spiritual impact on the community through reaching out

9. The leadership and the people choose to be together. Our diversity allows us to welcome and include everyone. Spiritual reciprocity, inclusion.

10. As an image of God. We are image spreaders to project that on others and spread His Word. God created the earth, all things, and God created Gretna.

11. To love God and to love each other

We will meet again on July 11th and continue our discovery by discussing the next two questions: How do we behave? And What do we do?

Louisiana Vietnamese Church merges with Gretna United Methodist Church

Pastors Roger and Tu Huynh have met several times to evaluate if this is a good "fit" in terms of church practice and theology and have determined that it is a very good fit. We have also had an opportunity for Bob Kimbro and Clyde Butler to meet with two of their lay leaders and pastor to further the discussion. At the conclusion of that meeting, it was agreed that, though there are still details to be worked out, approval was sought from the Church Council for the Louisiana Vietnamese Church to be incorporated into the Gretna United Methodist Church becoming a ministry of our church. That ministry would be called “Gretna United Methodist Church, Vietnamese Language." The Vietnamese worship time would be at 8:30-10 in the Fellowship Hall (though this may change once Verbo moves into their new facility). An estimated 36 members of the Louisiana Vietnamese Church would become full members of Gretna United Methodist Church. Budgets would be combined to keep track of the income and expenses of the GUMC, Vietnamese Language ministry. Pastor Tu will become the Director of GUMC, Vietnamese Language Ministry and may become an associate pastor of GUMC depending on what formalized relationship he works out with the District Superintendent and Conference. The ministry has been approved and is scheduled to commence on Sunday, August 4.

Pastor Roger, Bob and Clyde are all excited about this new ministry venture for the GUMC congregation and believe that this ministry is in keeping with our vision "Connecting diverse communities to a