Staff Parish Relations Committee Report

Earlier this month, Bishop Mike Watson appointed Decatur First UMC's senior minister, Dr. David S. Naglee, to be Superintendent of the Rome/Carrollton district as of July 1, 2013. David will serve in a supervisory position over the Rome/Carrollton churches, providing spiritual and administrative leadership to those churches and their pastors. While we are all saddened to see David move on, his skills and abilities are needed at the district level, and this is a great endeavor for him. We wish to thank him for his ten years of leadership and service here and wish him success at his next appointment.

The United Methodist process of the bishop appointing ministers to congregations is a long-standing practice. Appointments are made with prayerful consideration to both the needs of the congregation and the incoming minister.

At this time, we do not know who Bishop Watson will appoint as Decatur First UMC's next senior minister. However, rest assured that the appointment process is well underway, and as soon as we have official notification the Staff Parish Relations Committee will promptly share the information with you. Typically, this announcement is officially released in May. In the meantime, please find time to wish

David and Cindy well. If you have any questions, please contact anyone on your Staff Parish Relations committee. Dr. Naglee's last Sunday in our pulpit will be June 9. The Decatur First family will send David and Cindy off with a reception following the 11:00 a.m. worship services that day. More information regarding the reception will follow..

Callanwolde Band Concert June 2

You may not know that the Callanwolde Concert Band rehearses at our church weekly throughout the year. In order to give back to us, they offer two concerts a year in our sanctuary. One is a Christmas concert. The other is a pops concert in June, and it is coming up on June 2 at 3:00pm. The program will include Broadway favorites, patriotic offerings, and a few surprises. This concert will also feature guest conductors John Cowden and Mitch Weisiger! Admission is free, though donations to support the band will be taken at the door.

"The Dining Room" Drama Auditions June 8 & June 11

Believe it or not, it has been 15 years since the first Dessert Theater production. As a celebration of this milestone, the Drama Action Team is bringing back our first play, The Dining Room, by A.R. Gurney. The Dining Room is a brilliantly conceived and richly humorous theatrical tour de force in which six or more performers portray a wide array of diverse characters as they delineate the dying lifestyle of the now neglected room which was once a vital center of family life.

For this production, and for the first time, Sharon Brewer and Melinda Mobley will be co-directing the various scenes in the play. Auditions will be Saturday, June 8, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and Tuesday, June 11, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. We are looking for both men and women and youth over the age of 13. You do not have to have anything prepared. Just come and have fun with others interested in drama. The number of actors to be cast has not been determined at this time.

We are excited about celebrating this milestone within our Drama Action Team! We hope to see many of you on one of the audition days. If you have any questions, you can call either Sharon Brewer at (404) 408-5771 or Melinda Mobley at (404) 354-1421.

Patriotic Concert June 30

The Chancel Choir will offer its annual Patriotic Celebration concert in the sanctuary at 3:00pm on June 30. Come and join us for music and fun as we celebrate the birthday of our great nation!

Decatur First Goes Wireless!

Yes, we have had wireless before in certain areas of the building, while standing on one foot and touching the wall with your right hand... Let's just say that coverage wasn't very good! But now we have a seamless wireless network on the north side of Ponce de Leon, from the gym to the Fellowship Hall and all floors in-between. When you use a wireless device at the church you will see the network: DFUM Church – this is the network for the congregation to use. The password is like our old password but with Jesus capitalized: Jesussaves. Once you are on the network you can move around in the church and not lose connectivity. There are a few caveats: We do have several concrete firewalls which sometimes interfere with the signal; be patient if the signal is not as strong as you would like as you move around. We are not initially upgrading our internet pipe so be courteous and don't use all the bandwidth to view those YouTube videos! We will be upgrading Internet access later in the summer. Please say a BIG thank you to our trustees who funded this work and Paul Petersen who shepherded this project to completion. Now if we can just get the south side of Ponce wireless!