First United Methodist Church

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Volunteers in a variety of outreach efforts have found exciting opportunities to serve Jesus by using their time and talents, fulfilling Christ's mission in the world. Members of the Missions Committee meet monthly to plan, organize and undertake mission initiatives outside of the immediate community. Members of the FUMCSB unit of United Methodist Women are a community of women in supportive fellowship who work individually and collectively in the global ministries of the church.

Below are some of the many mission activities undertaken by our congregation.

Mission Education: The Missions group has undertaken the responsibility of telling the story of Christ's mission through such means as news articles, guest speakers, studies, forums, "Mission Moments" in worship, and mission work team reports - all to raise awareness and involvement in the many ways the Church is at work responding to human needs and suffering throughout the world.

Missionary Support: Our congregation supports those on the front lines of mission work. We support all United Methodist Missionaries around the world by fully funding the United Methodist missionary support funds apportioned to all UM churches. FUMCSB continually goes beyond the minimum expectations by also giving special assistance to George Martzen and Chin Cheak Yu, missionaries in Singapore.

Mission Work Teams: One of the special characteristics in our congregation is its distinguished record of sending work teams to serve in special areas of need.

Arson Rebuild Partner Work Teams: For eight years team members have gone to areas in the Southeast United States to rebuild churches that have fallen victim to the burning of historically black churches. This outreach has been made even more meaningful by its joint collaboration with Santa Barbara's Temple B'Nai Brith . The 2006 summer work team traveled to South Carolina to assist in rebuilding a church in Summerville. The teams are organized in cooperation with the National Coalition of Burned Churches.
Hurricane Katrina Work Teams: By the end of 2006, our Church will have sent three work teams to New Orleans to join the national effort organized by UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) to clean out flood damaged houses and prepare them for rebuilding.

Groups Partnering in Mission Work: While mission outreach of the whole church is organized by Missions Committee, many groups within the congregation are also engaged in mission work; for example, the United Methodist Women, Youth Ministries and Children's Ministries. Missions committee partnering with these and other groups is strongly encouraged and undertaken wherever possible. For example, Missions has partnered with the church youth group on its work team to the Bahamas.

This year Missions was pleased to partner with the efforts of Children's Ministries in a project to gather supplies that assembled 100 Relief Supple Kits. In turn these added to kits from other Untied Methodist churches at this year's Annual Conference in Redlands. These in turn were added to collections from around the country and sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief that responds to national and global emergencies. So the connectional network empowers local churches as they join hands in partnership across the nation and around the world to meet human need.

Mission and Fellowship: The Santa Barbara unit of The United Methodist Women meets regularly to foster spiritual growth, undertake missions work, and cultivate and maintain fellowship. In addition to their monthly meetings, UMW also has a number of fellowship circles and special interest groups such as Women of Spirit that also meet throughout the month.
For more information: www.gbgm-umc.org/sb1umw/

Mission Support Activities: Missions Committee has sought to broaden support for mission outreach by several creative activities designed to raise financial support as it nurtures fellowship and indirect education of people throughout the local community. Such activities have included:

Treasure (rummage) Sales
Arson Rebuild Golf Tournaments
Fiesta Dinners

All are invited to explore options of fulfilling Christ's mission in the world. Look for information on upcoming events on this website or read the FUMCSB Carillion for new opportunities.

Mission Committee Chair: Dave Dwelley
Committee Meets: The second Monday of each month

United Methodist Women President: Dorothy Kendall
Committee Meets: First Thursday of the month at 9:30 AM