"I will put my teaching in their minds and write it on their hearts..."
Jeremiah 31:33
| | | Calendar of Upcoming Events | | |
Below are the weekly programs. Brief descriptions of these weekly programs are on our website.
Clickable links are in blue, underlined, and italicized.
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SUNDAY Choir Practice, On hiatus for summer
Contact Tom Ludwig, if interested.
| | Below are the upcoming non-weekly events on the calendar happening at McFarland UCC for about the next month. All events are on the McFarland UCC calendar with Zoom links and additional information in the details/description area. Click the event on the McFarland UCC calendar to see the details. | | |
Saturday, July 19, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, Car Wash Fundraiser for Youth in the parking lot
July 22-28, Teen Trip
Wednesday, July 30, 6:00 - 8:30 pm, Farewell Potluck and Cookout for Pastor Bryan, Outside & Fellowship Area
Sunday, August 3, Communion and Birthday Sunday
Sunday, August 3, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, NO Teen Meeting
Tuesday, August 5, 6:30 - 8:00 pm, Social Justice Collective Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
Thursday, August 14, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, SaLT Monthly Meeting (In person & Online), Multipurpose Room
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Thank you to this weekend's volunteers!
Greeters/Ushers: Bob & Carol Naylor
Hospitality Hosts: Amy & Peter Cavi
| | Resolve to get involved at McFarland UCC! Volunteer on Sunday. Join a ministry such as Racial Justice, Creation Care, Befrienders Care Team, SaLT, Youth ministry, Building & Ground Team, or others. Find out more by clicking here. | | |
News at McFarland UCC
Note: Clickable links are blue, underlined, and italicized.
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TOMORROW - Saturday, July 19
9am-1pm
In our parking lot
Kwik Trip Car Wash cards - 5 elite car washes for $36
($16 goes toward trip)
First free car wash on us
Accepting donations if you don't want a gift card
Select Here to print out an order form for the Kwik Trip Car Wash cards. Fill out the form and bring it, along with your payment to church anytime or email Cody DeWayne.
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Sound Bath Update
The sound bath originally scheduled for July 20 at MUCC has been CANCELED.
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A Humanitarian Surgeon's Voice
On July 25 at 7 pm, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa (FerozeSidhwa.org) will speak at Christ Presbyterian Church in Madison on his work in Gaza hospitals. This presentation is sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace/Madison, Middle East Studies Program/UW Madison, the Havens Center for Social Justice, Madison-Rafah Sister City Project, WORT FM, and World Beyond War. The program will also be available on Zoom. Look for more information and a Zoom link in next week’s Pulse.
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Jean Sheild Celebration Information
As most of you know, our beloved church member Jean Sheild recently passed. Her Celebration of Life service will be held at Gunderson Funeral Home at 11 a.m. on August 9th. Here is a link to more information.
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Huge Thanks To Art & Dawn Shegonee
And Bill Miller!
There is no way to adequately express my gratitude to Art and Dawn Shegonee for arranging the Bill Miller concert on July 12th. The church was packed and Bill was amazing and Art inspired us all with his dancing. And I (Pastor Bryan) was stunned and surprised when Art honored me with an Eagle Feather. Again, thanks so much. I was and am humbled by this tribute. Eventually there will be some video of this to share.
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Farewell to Pastor Bryan
Join us in sending Pastor Bryan off on his next adventure! There will be a cookout/potluck at the church on Wednesday, July 30th, from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. The main course (burgers, hot dogs, etc) will be provided. Please bring a side or dessert to share if you are able.
RSVP is not required, but would be appreciated for planning purposes. Volunteers will be needed for setup and cleanup.
Please contact Judy Taber at 608-215-4161 or judy...@gmail.com with questions, to volunteer, or to say you are coming. Hope to see you there!!!
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Salt Spot
Highlights from July 10, 2025 Meeting
- Reviewed proposed Funeral and Immigration Policies
- One-year Music Convergence Membership is secured thanks to Pastor Bryan.
- Media Policy approved.
- SaLT started planning Sunday service coverage over the next weeks as we wait for an interim pastor. If anyone feels moved to share a message, music, or testimony, contact a SaLT member.
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McFarland United Church of Christ
Media Policy (Photography/Videography/Social Media/Print)
There is a new Media Policy developed and recently approved by the Servant and Leadership Team (SaLT). The policy intends to provide guidelines for using various media formats to visually and positively share the work of our congregation.
MUCC offers an “opt-out” media policy. It means we agree to be photographed, videoed, etc. unless we make it known that we do not wish to be. Therefore, images and other media of any adult individual may be taken and published unless a written statement (Adult Opt-Out form is completed) or statement provided. For example, someone in a group photo wants to opts out, we will use our best efforts to honor such requests.
Parents are encouraged to complete a Minor Media Form for minors (under age 18) to signify if their child/children may or may not be photographed. This form is available on the MUCC website and with the link below.
The purpose of the policy explains that…
“At McFarland United Church of Christ (MUCC), we value how photography, videography, and other media (i.e., voice) are used on our website and disseminated through social media and other avenues of communication. They provide opportunities to tell our story and share the work of those who serve MUCC and our communities. They give us important ways to connect, flourish, and celebrate God’s unconditional love and affirm the work God is doing in our lives. Photography, videography, and other media are to be used positively to connect and bring us together, communicate our mission, and highlight God’s work amongst us. We believe using images and other media of members and friends across all ages in various forms of media features and displays MUCC’s “a church with heart” faith community."
The Media Policy can be accessed with the link below and on the MUCC website, along with the adult and minor forms There are also a few forms in the Fellowship Hall on the table by the entry doors. If there are questions or suggestions regarding the policy please contact, Ginger Hummer in the office or Donna Grossman, the Moderator of Salt. We hope the policy is helpful and not burdensome. Thank you!
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Will You?
Do you have a message to share with our congregation? It could be your own spiritual journey, on a specific topic, or a piece of scripture. We are going to need people to give the message on Sundays to fill the gap between Pastor Bryan leaving and the start of our interim pastor. Please prayerfully consider if God is nudging you to step out in this way. Contact anyone on SaLT if you have questions or want to say yes.
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Lost and Found
Three water bottles are in the "Lost and Found" basket in the coat area in the Fellowship Area. If you recognize one as yours, it has been "Found." If they are still "lost" on August 20, they will be donated.
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Weekly Creation Care Topic
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle
This week’s tip: Is regular news bugging you? Take a break and learn to love bugs and why we need to help them survive. Tune in to a Bug Banter Podcast (wherever you get your podcasts) from the Xerces Society to explore the world and the mysteries of native insects, and how and why to share the earth with wildlife. Learn about butterflies, how to build a pollinator habitat, or how hedgerows/living fences are havens for insects. Little things count (the bugs and our actions).
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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
One Last Time...
Well, we’re finally here. The end of my time with you as pastor is upon us, and my goodness what an emotional time it’s been for me to bring things to a close. This past week has been full of moments when I’ve done something and thought to myself, this is the last time I’ll do this. And yes, this is my last “Few Words From Pastor Bryan” article.
This Sunday as you all know is my final Sunday in church with you as well. Then I’ll be gone with the older youth group for a civil rights pilgrimage through a number of deep southern states. I’ll be back late on Monday the 28th, and then we’ll wrap things up together with the evening cookout on Wednesday, July 30th. Hard to believe.
But you know what is just off-the-charts beautiful? What I feel more than anything as this chapter of our life together comes to a close is some of the deepest gratitude I’ve ever experienced. I’m just plain stunned at what a wonderful experience being your pastor has been for me.
I’m going to say more in my message in church on Sunday about why I’m so grateful for the privilege it has been to be the pastor of McFarland UCC. But here’s what feels most important and significant. I find myself believing more deeply than ever in the depth and power and importance of this thing we call Church.
Like many of you, I’ve been all too aware in my life of the countless ways in which local congregations and the Church as an institution has failed to live up to the teachings of Jesus in the past 2000 years. You’ve heard me talk openly and honestly about some of the failures of "Churchianity" in my sermons. It’s been important for us to be honest about all the ways the Church has been on the wrong side of history on so many occasions, and how fear-based expressions of Christianity have terrorized and excluded and hurt so many people.
I’m reminded of a story in a wonderful book called Blue Like Jazz written by a man named Donald Miller who was a campus minister at a very liberal college called Reid College in Oregon. He said that each Spring there was a “pagan” festival celebrated at this campus, and that spiritual traditions of all kinds were welcome—EXCEPT for Christianity. There was a clear disdain at this very progressive college for all things Christian, because so many people had been turned off by the history of the church and by the churches they grew up in and the Christians they knew who were always trying to convert someone or "scare the hell out" of someone or point out how sinful and worthy of God’s wrath others were.
Don was a very creative person, and he decided to set up a “confessional booth” at this pagan festival. BUT there was a twist. It was not a confessional in the traditional Roman Catholic sense. You know—where “sinners” would come and confess their sins to a priest and receive absolution as a result. Instead, in this confessional, the concept was reversed. People from the festival would enter the booth, and then a Christian (Don or some other member of their small campus Christian group) would confess the sins—the failures throughout history--of the Church to anyone who would listen, and ask for forgiveness. Evidently it was a very powerful thing for Christians to just admit what followers of Jesus had so often gotten wrong, and to apologize and ask for forgiveness. Period.
Well McFarland UCC hasn’t exactly been a “reverse confessional,” but I think part of the power of our way of being Church is that we have named and owned so many of the ways in which Christianity has been a problem historically—and then called ourselves and invited ourselves back into a fresh discovery of the Unconditional Love and Extravagant Welcome that has always been the true heart of the Gospel. As your favorite teacher (ha!) Richard Rohr so often has said, “the best critique of the bad is the practice of the better.”
And that’s why I’m so grateful. You all have given me the profound privilege and joy of being able to practice and teach and proclaim and nurture a “better way” of what it means for a Church to try to follow the Path of Jesus. And you’ve welcomed what I felt led to offer. You’ve been wide open to everything I’ve had to share—you’ve even “egged me on!” When some of you have disagreed with me (it must have happened at least once or twice), you’ve done it with so much grace and kindness and respect that there’s never been anything other than mutual learning, growth, and a deepening of community.
It’s never been about trying to be perfect or better than others or about trying to “get it right.” We’ve simply tried to take the LOVE of God, of Christ, seriously—without taking ourselves too seriously. That means we’ve loved each other, served each other, listened to each other, laughed together, cried together, grieved together, sung together, prayed together, shared the sacraments together, and given God thanks together. We’ve studied Scripture, listened for God’s Word, responded to the Word and done our best to put it into action in ways that serve the world and make it more loving and just and compassionate. We’ve encouraged each other and challenged each other and we’ve stood together for justice and spoken Truth to power in Love. We’ve respected each other and worked through differences of opinion with love and kindness and maturity. We’ve watched God bring healing and hope and new life and spiritual vitality to so many people who’ve found their way to our sanctuary, and we’ve reached out with love to people in faraway places who need to know that they are not forgotten.
In other words, we’ve shown each other and anyone watching us just a glimpse of what it means to be a healthy congregation and a thriving and active member of the Body of Christ in this world.
So what more can I say, but thank you my friends. Because of you, I KNOW how beautiful and powerful the Church, despite all its failures and shortcomings, can be. Thank you God. Being pastor of McFarland United Church of Christ has been one of the greatest joys of my life.
More on Sunday. I hope to see you there.
Grace, Peace, and Gratitude,
Pastor Bryan
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