For 174 years, Newport-Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church has been a cornerstone of the Newport community. Though our world has experienced many changes since the church’s founding in 1850, our striving to reveal the love of God and neighbor remains a constant.
It is our vision to be a welcoming community that provides opportunities for spiritual growth for people at all stages of Christian faith. We invite you to join us as we share Christ’s love for the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
We live by two kinds of faithfulness:
Personal & Social
We follow three simple rules:
Do no harm.
Do Good.
Stay in love with God.
“‘What then is the mark? Who is a Methodist, according to your own account?’ I answer: A Methodist is one who has ‘the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him;’ one who ‘loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength.’ God is the joy of his heart, and the desire of his soul; which is constantly crying out, ‘Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee! My God and my all! Thou art the strength of my heart, and my potion for ever!'”
John Wesley-“The Character of a Methodist,” in Works, Vol. 8; pg. 341.
Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Understanding of the Christian Life
Founder of the Methodist movement in England, John Wesley was determined to foster the disciplined practices that would lead to faithfulness in the way of Jesus. These practices were outlined in the “General Rules,” and instructions in them and accountability to them was centered in the classes that formed the United Societies of the early Methodist movement (The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church-2004 (The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004).
1) Do No Harm
“By doing no harm, by avoiding evil of every kind,especially that which is most generally practiced.”
-United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2004.
When we agree that we will not harm those with whom we disagree, conversation, dialogue, and discovery of new insight become possible. When our words and actions are guarded by this first simple rule, we have time and space to think about consequences before a word is spoken or an action taken.
“It may easily be believed, he [Jesus] who had this love in his heart would work no evil to his neighbor. It was impossible for him, knowingly and designedly, to do harm to any man. He was at the greatest distance from cruelty and wrong, from any unjust or unkind action. With the same care did he ‘set a watch before his mouth, and keep the door of his lips,’ lest he should offend in tongue, either against justice, or against mercy or truth. He put away all lying, falsehood, and fraud; neither was guile found in his mouth. He spake evil of no man nor did an unkind word ever come out of his lips.”
John Wesley-“Sermon 4, Scriptural Christianity,” in Works, Vol. 5; pg. 41.
2) Do Good
“By doing good; by being in every kind merciful after their power; as they have opportunity; doing good of every possible sort, and, as far as possible, to all….”
-United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2004
The words of Jesus and of Wesley suggest that doing good is a universal command. That is, doing good is not limited to those like me or those who look like me. Doing good is directed at everyone, even when those who do not fit my category of “worthy” to receive any good that I or others can direct their way. This command is also universal and no one is exempt from it.
“There is scare any possible way of doing good, for which here is not daily occasion…. Here are poor families to be relieved: Here are children to be educated: Here are workhouses, wherein both young and old gladly receive the word of exhortation: Here are the prisons, and therein a complication of all human wants.”
John Wesley-“Journal from August 12, 1738-November 1, 1739,” in Works, Vol. 1; pg. 181.
3) Stay in Love with God
“By attending upon all the ordinances of God….”
-United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2004
While the word “ordinance” is strange to our modern ears, John Wesley used it to describe the practices that kept the relationship with God and humans vital, alive, and growing. Wesley names public worship of God, the Lord’s Supper, private and family prayer, searching the Scriptures, Bible study, and fasting as essential to faithful life.
Worship
Our primary weekly worship celebration is every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. The sacrament of Holy Communion is typically celebrated on the first Sunday of each month and at other times throughout the year.
Children Are Welcome in Worship
Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes a child … welcomes me” (Matthew 18:5). Children are our present and our future, our hope, our teachers, our inspiration. They are full participants in the life of the church and in the realm of God.
Following United Methodist tradition, children are welcome to fully participate in Holy Communion on the First Sunday of each Month. Children’s Worship Bulletins and Sanctuary Sacks are also available as you come into the Sanctuary. These Children’s Worship Bulletins have a secret code that unlocks hours of fun learning at home. This secret code is unique to our church and allows safe and secure access to online games and activities that reinforce our weekly Scripture focus.
NMO-UMC has been recognized as A Church for All God’s Children by the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church and has a Safe Sanctuaries policy for the protection of our children and youth.
Invitation to Holy Communion
The United Methodist Church celebrates an open Communion Table. According to The United Methodist Book of Worship: All who intend to lead a Christian life, together with their children are invited to receive the bread and cup. We have no tradition of refusing any who present themselves desiring to receive the bread and cup. All ages are welcome to come and receive these gifts of God’s grace.
Does Jesus really offer you enough to make it worth investing that much—your whole life? Do you tend to give God what is left over from your time and energy after giving the lion’s share to everything else? Do you ever wonder if perhaps God desires and deserves more from you, given what God has done and promises to do for you according to our faith? These aren’t new questions. Our sisters and brothers in the first-century house churches faced them all and struggled just as we do with staying the course they began when they first put their trust in Jesus. The early Christian teacher who wrote the “Letter to the Hebrews” confronts these questions head-on with one of the most theologically rich reflections on the person and work of Jesus and one of the most robust pictures of what faithful discipleship, lived in response to this Jesus, looks like in action. In Hebrews, we find a source of encouragement to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and with our full lives, in the spirit of gratitude for all that God has provided and promised.
4/7* Second Sunday of Easter
An Exact Imprint
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:1-4
According to the preacher, God brought the world into being through the Son, governs the world through the Son, and will bring the world to its consummation through the Son. What, then, could be more important and more urgent than how we continue to respond to this Son?
4/14 Third Sunday of Easter
Tried & True
Hebrews 2:5-18
Urging his congregants to keep their eyes on Jesus, the preacher desires his audience to not see the Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Galilee, but rather on this side of his Resurrection and Exaltation. He reminds us that whatever losses we might incur as we respond to God’s redeeming grace in Jesus Christ, the eyes of faith, looking to Jesus, perceive “glory” in the presence of God at the end of the journey.
4/21 Fourth Sunday of Easter
An Anchor of the Soul
Hebrews 6:10-20
Father Richard Rohr helps us understand that “hope is not primarily for the future, it’s for now! Hope is a way of seeing time and understanding the present. It’s a way of tasting and receiving the moment. It gives us the capacity to enter into the future in a new way.” Encouraging the Christians to whom he was writing, the author of Hebrews describes hope in God as “a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.” What does it mean for our souls to be “anchored” in the provisions and promises of God? What does this kind of hope look like to you?
4/28 Fifth Sunday of Easter
Once and For All
Hebrews 9:23-28
The essence of the message of Hebrews is that those who remain faithful in their commitment to God, enjoy the great gift of being connected with the mediator—Jesus, the Son of God—who by willingly laying down his own life precisely to bring us such great gifts, has inaugurated the new covenant that God has promised. Jesus has done what was necessary to accomplish the covenant’s promises and has made it possible at last for God’s people to cross formerly impassable boundaries in their approach to God.
5/5* Sixth Sunday of Easter
Provocative Behavior
Hebrews 10:19-25
Most people are willing to invest a great deal, expend significant effort, and endure substantial hardship in order to hold onto relationships or pursue goals they value highly. Throughout Hebrews, the preacher seeks to help his hearers remember the value of their connection with Jesus. With the gift of the knowledge of the truth about God and God’s Messiah comes the awesome responsibility of living in light of that truth.
5/12 Seventh Sunday of Easter
Persevering in Gratitude
Hebrews 12:1-2; 14-15; 13:1-6
In the conclusion of his sermon, the preacher surmises: “Since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude.” Gratitude moves us to endure for Jesus’ sake what he endured for our sake. Ultimately, it is gratitude that impels us to move from the comfortable places and the embrace of our society into whatever spaces obedience to Jesus and loyalty to our sisters and brothers in Christ as part of this new family.
May 19 Pentecost Sunday
The Advocate
John 15:26-27; 16:4-15
In his farewell discourse to his disciples, Jesus reassures them that he will not abandon them and that, after his departure, God would send the Paraclete (Greek meaning “Advocate”). This is the Spirit of truth who will guide each generation to uncover the grace and beauty in life, to see life as Jesus taught us to see, and who speaks in our hearts the very presence of Jesus.
May 26 Trinity Sunday
Into the Mystery
John 3:1-17
The Trinity is a name for the multifaceted and dynamic God who is with us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our God is a present, revealing God who is also uncontainable. Against the backdrop of Nicodemus’ night visit with Jesus, we will enter the mystery of faith and discover that we, too, have a place in God’s purposes in the world.
June 2* Second Sunday after Pentecost
Sabbath Struggles
Mark 2:23-3:6
In calling us back to the original intent of the Sabbath commandment, Jesus reminds us that our loves are meant for God, not for getting and spending. In both word and deed, Jesus proclaims that God is not confined to our rules about God or our way of perceiving God. The difficult truth of the cross is that we would rather kill Jesus than be transformed by his love.
June 9 Third Sunday after Pentecost
Out of His Mind
Mark 3:20-35
When people heard Jesus preach, some concluded that he was “out of his mind.” To be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, is to be given the grace to think about God, the world, and ourselves in a different way—the way of Christ.
June 16 Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
A New Creation
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
Barbara Brown Taylor speaks of that moment in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper when the minister holds up a whole loaf of bread as a reminder of the whole, perfect presence of God among God’s people. But then that loaf is shattered, broken, torn, and the crumbs fall onto the table. It is a reminder that our perfect wholeness, that peace for which we yearn, is not behind us but up ahead yet. Wholeness is coming, but the broken loaf reminds us that it is coming not through what we’ll do but through what Jesus already did. His brokenness is what will one day put our lives back together whole and complete, relationships and all.
June 30 Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Interruptions!
Mark 5:21-43
In his book, Turn My Mourning into Dancing, Henri J.M. Nouwen reminds us: “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted; then I realized that the interruptions were my work.”
* Worship includes Holy Communion
If Christianity is about anything, it’s about forgiveness. Not forgiveness as merely an end in itself or a legal means of escaping punishment, but forgiveness as reconciliation and total restoration. When Jesus teaches about forgiveness, he pushes us to the extreme, indicating that our practice of forgiveness should be unconditional. But that kind of forgiveness is a tall order! Can we always forgive? Should be always forgive? Does forgiveness simply enable evil? Do we sacrifice justice when we forgive unconditionally? Beginning Sunday, July 7, we will embark on an eight-week journey into the healing and liberating power of forgiveness.
July 7* Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
The Question of Forgiveness
Matthew 6:9-15
Whether we look to the Lord’s Prayer or Jesus’ death on the cross or his resurrection or the great creeds of the church, we are never far from the theme of forgiveness—for if Christianity isn’t about forgiveness, it’s about nothing at all.
July 14 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
The 490 Principle
Matthew 18:21-35
When Peter suggests sevenfold forgiveness, he is being generous and going well beyond what most are willing to do. Forgive the same person for the same offense seven times? Who would dare ask any more of is. And yet, Jesus does. He calls us to push the boundaries of forgiveness far beyond all that seems reasonable.
July 21 Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
Who’s Your Ali Agca?
Acts 7:54-60
On May 13, 1980, Mehmet Ali Agca approached Pope John Paul II as he traveled in an open motorcade through St. Peter’s Square in Rome and shot him four times before being apprehended. Two years later, John Paul II would visit Ali Agca in prison and offer him forgiveness. This invites a question: Who is our Ali Agca? Given a similar situation, would we escalate the violence and perpetuate the cycle of revenge, either in action or attitude, or would we absorb the blow, forgive the perpetrator, and end the cycle of revenge?
July 28 Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
No Future Without Forgiveness
Genesis 50:15-21
The story of Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers comes at the very end of the Book of Genesis. Here, when Jacob has died and Joseph has the upper hand, we find Joseph telling his brothers , “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.” Without forgiveness, the Bible doesn’t get past Genesis. Without forgiveness there really is no future.
August 4* Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
Forgiveness that Transcends Tragedy
Matthew 5:43-48
Only forgiveness has the capacity to rescue human society from the destructive vortex of violence and vengeance and provide us with a healing alternative. Ultimately, it is the cross that liberates the imagination to discover how forgiveness transcends tragedy and how good triumphs over evil.
August 11 Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Forgiveness & Justice
Romans 12:17-21
A world bent on the justice of giving people “what they deserve” is a world that is endlessly cruel and marked by alienation, violence, and war. The cross is where justice is reinterpreted by mercy in order to be redefined as reconciliation. This alone is what God calls justice.
August 18 Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Putting an End to Hostility
Ephesians 2:13-22
In the hostile world of hate, war, and genocide, the cross appears. The cross is God’s peace project designed to end the hostility and achieve reconciliation. The cross not only achieves peace between God and the sinner but is also the place where God forms a new humanity.
August 25 Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The Prince of Peace
Colossians 1:15-20
As we draw to the conclusion of our worship series on forgiveness, we find that it is Christ who is at the epicenter of our relationship with God and our relationships with one another. As his disciples, we are called to accept the Prince of Peace who rejects the warhorse and chooses the donkey on Palm Sunday, the One whose crown was made of thorns, whose throne was an instrument of capital punishment, whose acclamation was scorn, and who calls his followers to take up the cross and follow him.
Contact
311 Blue Grass Trail P. O. Box 133 Newport, VA 24128 (540) 544-7183
Children Are Welcome in Worship
