The Worship Committee invites you to remember or honor a loved one with a poinsettia this Christmas season. The poinsettias will be used to adorn the Sanctuary and Hinton Hall on Sunday, December 21st, and on Christmas Eve. The cost per poinsettia plant is $20. You may pick up your poinsettia/poinsettias following the worship services on Christmas Eve. Printed copies of the poinsettia Remembrance/Honor listings will be available at the worship services on Sunday, December 21st, and at the three worship services on Christmas Eve.

All proceeds go to Seeds of Hope, whose funds are used to help meet the needs of God’s people living in Duluth and Suwanee--often strangers, widows, orphans, homeless, those who are lost, and those who are without hope--who come to Duluth First United Methodist Church seeking assistance. In 2025 the number of assistance requests has been much higher than in the past. If you would like to contribute extra above/beyond the cost of your poinsettia(s), we thank you for your additional support of Seeds of Hope.

You can place your order for poinsettias with

• Credit or debit cards – please click on POINSETTIA ONLINE ORDER FORM;
• Check or cash – please click on POINSETTIA ORDER FORM to download an order form.

NOTE: All orders must be received by Sunday, December 14th, by 5 p.m.

Students in the 6th through 12th grades are invited to join us on Sunday nights for Sunday Night Gatherings from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”), located on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. Sunday Night Gatherings include great dinners, fun games, amazing worship, inspirational and relevant messages and life-changing small groups.

Our schedule for the month of December is:

• Sunday, December 14th: Christmas Party at 5:30 p.m. in Hinton Hall;
• Sunday, December 21th: Ice Skating from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Atlanta IceForum (2300 Satellite Blvd, Duluth, GA 30097).
  
• Sunday, December 28th: No Sunday Night Gathering.

Sunday Night Gatherings schedule for January 2026:

• Sunday, January 4th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, January 11th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, January 18th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”);
• Sunday, January 25th: Sunday Night Gathering at 5:30 p.m. in the Youth Center (“The Fish Tank”).

Please click on YOUTH MINISTRY for more information.

Questions? Please contact Rev. Min Lee, Director of Youth Ministries, by e-mail at mlee@duluthumc.org.

All are invited to attend our Christian Beginnings Preschool & Kindergarten’s Christmas Program on Thursday, December 18th, beginning at 11:30 a.m. in the Sanctuary. Church members are invited to join our students’ families to come and see each grade put on a holiday show. We look forward to seeing you there!

Would you like to help make a difference in a child’s life this Christmas? Duluth First UMC will be partnering with the Hands of Christ Duluth Co-Op this year in a toy drive to help stock the Hands of Christ Christmas Shop. The Christmas Shop will help families in need provide gifts for their children this Christmas.

If you would like to help us provide Christmas for all of these children in our community, your generosity can make sure that happens. Beginning Sunday, November 23rd, you can bring in unwrapped toys and place them under the Christmas tree in the Veterans Memorial Gathering Room, or under the Christmas tree in the back of Hinton Hall. We will be accepting toy donations from Sunday, November 23rd, through Wednesday, December 18th.

We hope that you will prayerfully consider helping to make Christmas a joyous day for all the families that Hands of Christ assists every day and every year. Thank for your generosity and your faithfulness!

Noon - Family Christmas Eve Service

• The Family Christmas Eve Service, with candlelight to close the service, will be held in Hinton Hall.
• Music, featuring Christmas carols, will be led by the Contemporary Worship Praise Team.
• The service will be live streamed on the Duluth First UMC Contemporary Worship page on Facebook.

• If you are planning to attend the Family Worship Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve - Wednesday, December 24^th at noon in Hinton Hall - we invite you to wear your favorite Christmas sweater or outfit. You are also invited to bring a plate of your favorite Christmas cookies to share with others during a time of fellowship before the worship service. Our time of fellowship will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the worship service will begin at noon. Hot cocoa, juice, and bottles of water will be provided.

4:00 and 6:00 p.m. - Candlelight Services

• The Christmas Eve Candlelight Services will be held in the Sanctuary.
• Music, featuring Christmas carols, will be led by members of the Ministry of Music & Worship Arts..
• The services will be live streamed on the Duluth First UMC Worship page on YouTube.

NOTE: Children, newborn through pre-Kindergarten, are eligible for childcare at Duluth First United Methodist Church’s Childcare Corner.

The wonderful volunteers of our church library, The Louise McDaniel Memorial Library, have put together an Advent Devotional Calendar for everyone to use during their journey this Advent season. The Advent Devotional Calendar will be available:

• In worship handouts on Sundays, November 30th and December 7th;
• For download by clicking on ADVENT DEVOTIONAL CALENDAR;
  
• At the Information tables located in the Narthex (the main entrance to the Sanctuary) and in the back of Hinton Hall on Sunday mornings.

The season of Advent is underway, and students from our Youth Ministry are excited to share their Advent devotional videos with you! Every Wednesday during Advent, we will post a short devotional video from one of our students on our Youth Ministry’s YouTube channel - dfumcstudents. We’d love for you to journey with us by watching and sharing these videos with others. And don’t forget to subscribe so that you will be notified whenever we post new content.

Our Youth Ministry students have created Advent Prayer Stations to help you engage more deeply with God this season. Advent Prayer Stations are located:

• In the cul-de-sac area near the offices on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center;
• Outside of the main entrance to Hinton Hall;
• In the Veterans Memorial Gathering Room
  

Each week of Advent you will find a new Advent Prayer Station designed to inspire and help you draw closer to God. We invite you to come experience it with us. May this Advent season overflow with hope, peace, joy, and love!

Wednesday Night Dinners in Hinton Hall will resume on January 7, 2026. Have a blessed and safe Christmas and New Years holiday!

The Wednesday Night Food Drives for the Hands of Christ Duluth Co-Op will resume on January 7, 2026. Have a blessed and safe Christmas and New Years holiday!

Do you participate in Sunday School, Small Groups, or Fellowship Groups at Duluth First UMC? Please let us know more about them and what other types of studies you would like to participate in! Don’t participate in any groups? Let us know a topic or type of group you would be interested in participating in.

Please take a moment to fill out the survey by clicking on ADULT SMALL GROUP SURVEY. Print outs of the survey can be found on the 1st floor of the Sheldon Family Life Center. If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Dr. AnnaKate Rawles, Associate Pastor, by e-mail at arawles@duluthumc.org.

What is it that allowed Mary to say, “Let it be?” Do you remember a time when you received a blessing that helped you be present to a change that arrived? The United Women in Faith invite all women to join them on Saturday, January 10th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. to take time for one day, after Christmas and during Epiphany, to find a place where other women see you, welcome you and help you to be there for what comes next.

This casual retreat is an opportunity to relax after all the Christmas activities. Lunch, drinks, and snacks will be provided. We will meet from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Dorothy Rainey Fellowship Hall. Please sign-up during December at the United Women in Faith information tables located around the church to help us prepare for handouts and lunch. Please bring a pint size clear glass jar/Ball jar to use for one of the art projects.

The retreat will include readings and art from Jan Richardson’s book How the Stars Get in Your Bones. You may bring a donation of $7 to be sent to Jan Richardson for “Sanctuary of Women” to be shared with the A21 Campaign, an organization devoted to ending human trafficking and providing sanctuary and healing for those rescued from slavery.

Look at the stars of your world, your life, your family and see how they get into your bones. Look around to see another who might need a blessing from you.  We will come together with art, readings, comfort, and a challenge to find something of sabbath rest to find the stars of your life. Perhaps there will be something that stretches you to a new place or invites you to think in a direction of an uncharted sky for your spirit. We will delight in blessings and prayers, share in a meal and in conversations of laughter, concern, sighs, and joys.

Blessings and joy for advent as you prepare the way for the Christ child to shine in your heart, to see the stars and count your blessings.  Celebrate all you have done with a retreat together on January 10th to find your blessing. For additional information contact Terrie Adkins by e-mail at ttadkins@sprynet.com.