Good And Faithful Series Resources

Series Resources

Sept. 10 - Oct. 15

Join us as we explore Christian Ethics with musical theatre as our conversation partner. Below you’ll find resources referenced each week.

Week 1: "Life Well Done"

Introducing Christian Ethics
by David Gushee
The book upon which this series is based. An exploration of Christian ethics by a Professor of Ethics.

The Feast of Fools
by Harvey Cox
The 1969 book upon which Godspell was written and conceived.

Week 2: "Truthfulness"

Lecture by Dr. David Gushee on “Truthfulness”
from his book Introducing Christian Ethics

A Biographical Narrative of Eugene Francois Vidocq

“And remember, the truth that once was spoken: To love another person is to see the face of God.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables —

“Hamilton: An American Musical” on Disney+
“It’s Quiet Uptown” starts at 2:10:00
*A subscription to Disney+ is required to view this video*

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 17, 2023

This Privacy Policy describes Our policies and procedures on the collection, use and disclosure of Your information when You use the Service and tells You about Your privacy rights and how the law protects You.

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Changes to this Privacy Policy

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Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, You can contact us:

By email: info@hydeparkumc.org
By phone number: 813-253-5388
By mail: 500 W. Platt Street, Tampa, FL 33606

Merge Family Tailgate

Do you love football, playing games, food, or all of the above?

Then join us on Sunday, Oct 24 from 4-5:30 p.m. for our Merge Family Tailgate!

We’ll have all the fun of a tailgate!

All the yard games you can handle? Got em!

Pizza? Got it!

The Bucs vs the Bears? Got it!

So bring a chair, and your whole family if you want to, and have a great time with some great people!

Email Mac Charalambous with any questions!

Little Dresses for Missions Responds to a Call for Action

Little Dresses for Missions, a mission of Hyde Park United Methodist, heard the call from The Rev. Tamara Isidore, a pastor from Haiti who serves in Bradenton. In response to the recent earthquake and hurricane in Haiti, Pastor Isidore asked for first aid relief items to be shipped to Haiti. Little Dresses for Missions sent 200 dresses to Haiti through Faith United Methodist Church, Bradenton. The dresses were dropped off at Faith United Methodist in large plastic tubs. Billie Trocke, Hyde Park member and sewer for Little Dresses for Missions, reported the church “was delighted to receive the dresses and thrilled to get the plastic tubs. After the hurricane flooding, everything is sodden and they have no way to keep anything dry. That church works ongoing with two orphanages in Haiti, so they have need for the dresses”.

To donate other items toward this relief effort, contact Faith United Methodist Church, Bradenton, Michelle Millner, 434.770.0580 or support disaster response and relief recovery through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) who will assess the storm’s impact and respond to immediate needs.

Hyde Park’s Justice Ministry

This video series was recorded in 2020, an unprecendented year in so many ways. It provided an opportunity for us to examine racism, injustice and discrimination as we never had before. To gain a better understanding, we listened to the stories of people of color as they experienced these trials. We also listened to white people to better understanding how racism is learned in society. The videos provide a valuable insight into what must change for use to move toward the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Ann Pointer shares a poignant story of her life with a middle school friend. The two of them “got in trouble” and Ann remembers them being equally culpable in making the decision. Upon being discovered, Ann was given an out to place the blame on her friend. She said that to this day, she is haunted by this decision. Ann’s story illustrates how we are all infected by racism and demonstrates the need for us to strive to learn from past mistakes to make a better future for us all.

Anthony White shares an experience from his childhood that resulted in an interaction with the police. What happened and what he learned from it have caused him to caution his children that they might not be able to do what others do because of the color of their skin. He has helped them navigate through the society they live in and remains optimistic that good people outnumber those who fail to see the value in others.

Berton Newbill tells the story of being in the military and being denied the recognition of his rank due to the color of his skin. His initial reaction was anger because the men causing the problem were not looking at him from a military perspective, but judging him as a person who was not deserving of respect. Later, friends tried to deny his personal experience. Berton says it was even more hurtful that his friends didn’t believe him. Sharing his story allows for a broader conversation so we get to an acknowledgement that these situations exist.

Doretha Edgecomb shares the impact of growing up in the Jim Crow era and realizing the limitations placed on her hopes, dreams and aspirations based on the color of her skin. She relates the story of a college classmate who was brutally beaten simply for sitting in a bus station waiting room. In response, Doretha and her classmates organized a march to protest the attack. She realized that for things to be different, she would have to speak up, stand up and be a voice of change. Though progress has been made, we haven’t come as far as she had hoped. Change can come through legislation, but she believes that true change begins with changes in the human heart and mind.

Doretha Edgecomb is a lifelong resident of Tampa, apart from her years at a small college in Alabama. She was educated in the segregated school system during the Jim Crow years, then returned to education as a teacher, principal and member of the Hillsborough County School Board. Doretha shares her poem, “Being Black,” which speaks to her life experiences in segregated schools and society.

John Day shares a story from his youth where his mother explained the difference in describing white and black women. He accepted that as the way things were then. He also describes a current day event where he invited four men experiencing homelessness and a coworker for Christmas dinner. He shares concern for his grandson, who is black, and the need to have “the talk” with him as he gets older. John admits to not being very optimistic that we can make progress with racial injustice. For him, it begins with seeing each other as a human being then getting together to talk through these issues.

Rick Cabigas shares his experience of being on a business trip with two colleagues. At their hotel, the valets were of Filipino descent like Rick. He was approached by another hotel guest who mistakenly assumed he was a valet based on his appearance. He became very angry at the guest’s assumption. While his white colleague didn’t understand, his black colleague completely understood. Rick concludes by saying it’s everyone’s duty to make sure we move forward together.

Pastor Steve Nunn shares reflections of racial bias from his days in middle school and during a visit to the beach at Pensacola. In both cases, he was shocked at the interactions. His family was raised to be kind to others. In stark contrast, he tells the story of his great-grandfather, Julius Perry, who was lynched during the Ocoee (FL) election riots in 1920. Julius was wounded and arrested when white men came to his house. He was then taken from the jail in Orlando and lynched. Stephen’s hope is that we will be able to realize our prejudices are due to a lack of knowledge and that we can create change by educating future generations.

Kids Camp and Missions Fund

As the school year winds down, families are looking forward to fun, impactful activities for their children. You can help by donating to send a kid to summer camp, Vacation Bible School or on a mission trip! A special offering is being collected to help make a difference in the life of a child. The fund provides scholarships to children and youth with financial needs from our congregation and our missions partners. Donate: hydeparkumc.org/KidsCampGift

“A Valentine’s Day Prayer”

Dear Hyde Park Family,

With Valentine’s Day this Sunday, I wrote this prayer that you might join me in offering to God, seeking blessing on ourselves and those whom we love. Happy Valentine’s Day!

A VALENTINE’S DAY PRAYER

Eternal and Loving God,

In your very being we discover the essence of relational, triune love. You are the Lover, the Beloved, and the Love that Flows Between Them. As one created in your image, empower me today to be a person of deeper love, encompassing heart, soul, mind, and strength, both for you and for those around me.

Teach me to love those dearest to me, those with whom I am most vulnerable and most guarded. Help us to rebuild trust and authenticity with each other.
Enable me to forgive and to ask for forgiveness, that I may share in the reconciling work of Jesus. May the impact of hurtful memories wane over time, along with ill will and resentment of others.
Grant me deeper friendships with those who can help me be the best version of myself. May they help me be accountable for my actions, offer me godly advice, and speak the truth to me without judgment.
Sharpen my awareness of those who feel unloved and unlovable. Strengthen my resolve to be an agent of hospitality to the lonely, of comfort for the frightened, and mercy for the hurting.
Open my heart to a greater sense of your love for me. A love that is tenacious, patient, and unconditional. Remove the barriers that I have erected in my spirit that block the free flow of your love in my life. Work through my doubt, do not be deceived by my pride, and heal me of my guilt and shame.

Loving God, in you I find my truest and best self, as one created in your triune, relational image. Thank you for your grace, and thank you for your love.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

Magrey

The Rev. Magrey deVega
Senior Pastor, Hyde Park United Methodist

ASH WEDNESDAY NEXT WEDNESDAY

Join us next Wednesday as we begin our Lenten journey, titled “Cultivating and Letting Go.” Our online Ash Wednesday service will broadcast at 6:30 a.m., noon, and 6:30 p.m., on our Facebook page or website.

We will provide the imposition of ashes in person following each of those services, 7 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 7 p.m., at both The Portico location and the Magnolia parking lot of our Hyde Park location.

Support the Children’s Home

We share in the support of the Florida United Methodist Children’s Home, typically in months that contain a fifth Sunday.

The Florida United Methodist Children’s Home (FUMCH) is a refuge and haven for abused, neglected and troubled children. It has been serving residents of the state of Florida for more than 100 years. Children are provided a home-like setting at the main campus or the Youth Ranch. In addition to caring for children under the age of 18, the Home has an Independent Living program serving young adults 18– 26–years old and their families.

In the video below, Michelle speaks about her experiences at the Children’s Home. She came there as a result of an emergency placement, and was blessed with great house parents who worked hard to make them a family. She also worked with a counselor to help her work through challenges in her life. Because of the care and support she received, her life has changed in ways should couldn’t have seen years ago.

Next Fifth Sunday: May 30, 2021

To support their ministry, please make an online contribution. For more information, contact Pat Kelly.

Vision and Implementation Updates

Vision Implementation Team Final Report

Proverbs tells us that “where there is no vision, the people perish.” And the prophet Habbakuk calls us to “write the vision and make it plain.” Three and a half years ago, our church began a visioning process that resulted in a clear framework for claiming God’s future for us. We are called to deepen our commitment to Jesus, widen the reach of God’s love for others, unite together in common purpose, and make adaptive changes to accomplish our mission.

Little did we know when we adopted our vision plan in 2018 that the subsequent years of implementing that vision would prepare us to not only survive a pandemic but thrive over this past year. Even more remarkably, this vision is setting us on a trajectory to meet the needs of a culture that will continue changing far beyond COVID-19, and will enable us to deepen, widen, unite, and adapt for many years to come.

The following is the final report of the Implementation Team, made up of seven lay people and two staff, who coordinated the work of over eighty persons on 12 different initiative teams. This report details all that we have accomplished as a church since the vision plan was adopted, and further adaptations we will be making to live into God’s future for Hyde Park United Methodist. We give thanks to God for granting us this vision, and for the many people whose tireless efforts enabled us to write it down in the following pages, and make it plain.

Highlights

Worship Team:

Worship placed greater emphasis on technology which enabled us to accommodate our COVID reality on fully online offerings.
Ministry Leadership Council (MLC) approved reducing the number of worship services to four.

Organizational and Staffing Teams:

Revised Hyde Park United Methodist organizational structure aligned along ministry area lines.
Staff Parish Relations committee (SPR) hired an Executive Director, to ensure programmatic alignment, supervision of staff and overall communications strategy.
SPR hired a new Director of Discipleship, and expanded the scope of the position to better align with our seven spiritual practices and organizational structure.
SPR established stronger alignment between the Minister of The Portico and the Minister of Missions and Outreach to establish and advance the missional identity of The Portico campus.
SPR hired a technology assistant to better handle the increased scope of media production.
MLC Executive Team approved establishing a lay led, more empowered Small Blessings Advisory Team responsible to the MLC. The team will provide policy oversight.

Portico and Café Teams:

Launched several fresh expressions groups (Social Justice, Paddle with Purpose, etc.)
MLC Executive Team approved establishing a lay-led, more empowered Portico Advisory Team – responsible to the MLC – to provide policy oversight.

Communications Team:

Finance Committee funded a website revamp.

Discipleship Team:

Bible Project 2020 addressed the desire for diving deeper into the Bible.

Invitation and Connection Teams:

Adopted a digital/content strategy to produce a world-class online experience and outsourced the task under Executive Director oversight.
Adopted consistent protocols for posting, hashtag use, and identification of major social channels used (with links to Communications) and outsourced through Brand Minded.

Missions Team:

Updated Mission and Outreach funding criteria to more closely reflect Vision priorities
Consolidated the number of supported missions from 51 to 29
Sustained and expanded the Dunbar Elementary School initiative, providing opportunities to engage entire congregation and deeper individual involvement

Debt and Property Team:

A 2020 Church Conference approved purchasing the medical office for $1.04 million, and the sale of the Cedar Street property.
Finance Committee increased the Capital Reserve account to $473,000

Implementation Team Executive Summary

If you wish to receive a copy of the complete report as a .pdf file, please send an email to vision@hydeparkumc.org.

Vision Plan Implementation Team Update

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

God has uniquely equipped Hyde Park United Methodist for an exciting future: one where we are making God’s love real, in which people will be connected people into loving community, transformed to be more like Jesus, and equipped to teach others how to live life as God intends. Claiming that future involves adapting to the challenges of the present. Just like the early church did thousands of years ago, we must tailor our practices to reach an ever-changing population in Tampa and beyond. Our mission is the same; some of the ways we fulfill that mission must be adapted to the times.

Here is a reminder of where we have been over the last two years, and an update on where we are heading:

The Vision Team synthesized a year’s worth of information from meetings with hundreds of church members and visitors, staff and lay leaders; through ministry assessments; open-invitation visioning chats with more than 200 participants; and a congregation-wide survey with more than 700 respondents; among other outreach.
A long-term strategic Vision plan was voted on and unanimously approved at a Church Conference on Dec. 17, 2018. It sets the foundation for deepening our faith, widening our outreach, and uniting together in the love of God (read more). The Vision plan:
1. Names opportunities and challenges we face as we seek to fulfill our mission in a changing culture
2. Identifies facts bearing on the challenges we face
3. Sets the framework and rationale for what, in some cases, need to be major changes in our approach to ministry
4. Makes recommendations for next steps and follow on actions
An Implementation Team (seven volunteers and two staff members) was established by the Committee on Lay Leadership, as part of a decision at the Dec. 17, 2018 Church Conference, to shepherd the process and the work of the lay teams.
12 Initiative teams, made up of 77 volunteers and 10 staff members, were formed in February, 2019 and are focusing on each recommendation from the Vision Team:
- Worship
- Communications, Stewardship
- The Portico
- The Portico Cafe
- Organization
- Staffing
- Connection
- Discipleship
- Debt / Property
- Invitation and
- Missions
Each team is working on recommendations. Teams are considering a wide range of topics, including ways to enhance our worship services, easy ways for new people to connect with small groups and missions opportunities, better ways to communicate, and how to increase our biblical literacy. (Read more about each team’s focus) Teams have met an average of four to six times. Some teams will complete their work this summer, and others will continue working through November.
No decisions have been made yet. Proposals will first be reviewed by the Implementation Team. Depending on the nature and scope of the proposal, approval may need to come from the Ministry Leadership Council and, in some cases, by a called church conference. Initiatives will be implemented as the overall timeline develops.
Next steps in ministry together will be communicated along the way as things become clearer. Your Hyde Park staff and Implementation Team will share information via our website, bulletin, eNews and email.

If you’d like to offer comments or ask questions at any point in the process, you can email the team at vision@hydeparkumc.org.

Vision Team Update

Church Conference Approved Recommendations on Dec. 17

The congregation of Hyde Park United Methodist unanimously voted to adopt our long-term strategic plan. It sets the foundation for deepening our faith, widening our outreach, and uniting together in the love of God.

View Magrey’s statement on the “State of Religion and Culture Today”

Town Hall Gathering recap

Download “ADAPT” handout – This accompanies the Town Hall video and is referred to in the presentation below.
Watch Town Hall Gathering

For more than 14 months, a team of 16 people representing our congregation has been hard at work engaging all the members of this church, our staff, our programs, and our missions. We have undertaken this sustained Visioning process knowing we have a special and enduring calling in a dynamic and changing world: to make God’s love real in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, and to all the people we can.

The Vision Team has synthesized a year’s worth of information from meetings with hundreds of church members and visitors, staff and lay leaders; through ministry assessments; open-invitation visioning chats with more than 200 participants; and a congregation-wide survey with more than 700 respondents; among other outreach.

In July and August, the Vision team issued a church-wide survey, and your response was truly amazing. 710 people took part in the survey, a sample that well represents every cross-section of our congregation. We had proportionate representation from those who attend each of our worship services and perspectives from both those who are new to Hyde Park and those who have been here for decades. Survey participants provided literally thousands of written responses to open-ended questions, each of which has been thoughtfully read.

So what’s next in this process? The Vision Team is prayerfully reviewing content from the many Visioning Chats that were held in the spring; meetings with small groups; data looking at attendance, demography and community attitudes; and the survey. The team is synthesizing their findings from these efforts, which will result in recommendations to this church. Those recommendations will be widely shared via town-hall-style gatherings, after which we will all be invited to a church conference to vote on them. Please continue to keep this process in prayer.

Vision Survey Recap

Thank you! 720 people participated and responded with thousands of written responses to open-ended questions.

Vision Chat Recap

It is with deep gratitude that we express our appreciation to everyone who participated in a Vision Chat this spring.

Close to 200 members of our congregation contributed openly and generously in these important conversations as part of our sustained effort to discern how the Spirit intends to use Hyde Park United Methodist– its people, its service and its worship – to make God’s love real and make disciples, both today and in the future. We had congregation-wide open chats as well as focused meetings with specific groups (the youth, previous leadership, choir and Joyful Praise Team, 20s and 30s.)

We had chats open to the entire congregation as well as focused meetings with specific groups, including current and former leaders, our 20s and 30s ministry, our youth, small groups, and the Chancel Choir and Joyful Praise Team, just to name a few.

Together, we explored and wrestled with challenging questions about our high calling as Christ’s church in Tampa, asking:

How can Hyde Park United Methodist deepen its discipleship?
How can Hyde Park United Methodist extend its reach into the community and the world?
How can Hyde Park United Methodist adapt to cultural changes?

In response, you shared personal anecdotes, perspectives, meditations, observations, and revelations, all of which are shaping and being incorporated into the next step in our listening phase of this initiative: a congregational survey.

This online survey is being developed now and will be rolled out this summer in June or July. We’ll communicate the survey widely and look forward to deepening this conversation with you.

What are we doing?

Engaging a sustained effort to discern how the Spirit intends to use Hyde Park – it’s people, its service, and its worship – to make God’s love real (John 21:15-17) and make disciples (Matthew 28:19), both today and in the future

Why are we doing this?

God is calling Hyde Park UMC to an exciting future: one where we are making God’s love real in all the ways we can, in all the places we can, and to all the people we can

Why now?

The world is changing, and people think the world is becoming more separated and more divided.
Our mission to Make God’s Love Real hasn’t changed. Our goals of sharing the message of God’s grace and forgiveness, bringing healing to our city and the world, and inviting people to follow Jesus are as urgent as ever.
We can no longer assumethe church has the same stature, authoritative voice or appeal as it once did in our culture. The world is changing and Tampa is changing, too.
Hyde Park can play an important and practical role as repairer and restorer of the divisions we see in the world. (Isaiah 58:12)

What have we done so far?

Met with leaders of the church’s ministries
Met with the church’s elected committee leaders
Met with program staff
Asked for the congregation’s “headline” visions
Reviewed data on the demographics and engagement of our church members
Engaged in focused conversations with nearly 200 church members through Vision Chats

Where are we in the process now?

Listening mode and further data gathering – with a congregational survey being distributed in July. We’ll communicate the survey widely and look forward to deepening this conversation with you.

What do we need from the people of Hyde Park?

Be in prayer that our congregation hears and discerns the Spirit’s word to us
Participate in the upcoming congregational survey

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eNewsletter Archive

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