Church Briefs: Highland First Congregational to host VBS | Belleville News-Democrat

First Congregational to host VBS

Join First Congregational Church, 801 Washington St. in Highland, for an exciting vacation Bible school, “The Maker Fun Factory,” July 17-21 from 6 to 8:15 p.m. each eventing.

The VBS is for children ages 4 years old to ones entering fifth grade. There will be light meals served nightly. Kids will enjoy games, singing catchy songs, making crafts, enjoying yummy treats, watching cool skits, and experiencing Bible adventures, where they will learn that God made them and for a purpose, and more. They will have fun with the science gizmos. Plus, kids learn to look for evidence of God all around them through something called, “God Sightings.”

Then on Sunday, July 23, at the worship service at 10:15 a.m., where the kids will share from VBS some of the songs at this “It’s all About the Kids” family service. This is a fun service where puppets will be leading the service, and you can enjoy skits, pictures from VBS and cookies afterward.

First Baptist to host “Global Leadership Summit”

First Baptist Maryville, 7110 State Route 162 to Maryville, will be a satellite location for The Global Leadership Summit on Thursday, Aug. 10 and Friday, Aug. 11, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. each day.

TGLS is a two-day event telecast live from the Willow Creek Association to more than 300 locations in North America. The summit exists to transform leaders around the world with an injection of vision, skill development, and inspiration. The summit is for anyone in a leadership role — supervisors, teachers, parents, etc.

This year’s speakers include:

▪ Bill Hybels, founder and senior pastor, Willow Creek Community Church

▪ Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer, Facebook

▪ Marcus Buckingham, best-selling author and founder of The Marcus Buckingham Co.

▪ Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director, Equal Justice Initiative

▪ Juliet Funt, CEO, Whitespace at Work

▪ Marcus Lemonis, star of CNBC’s “The Profit” and CEO of Camping World and Good Sam

▪ Sam Adeyemi, founder and senior pastor, Daystar Christian Centre in Nigeria

▪ Angela Duckworth, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a best-selling author

▪ Laszlo Bock, senior adviser at Google and a best-selling author

▪ Immaculée Ilibagiza, advocate for peace and forgiveness and a best-selling author

▪ Gary Haugen, founder and CEO, International Justice Mission

▪ Fredrik Härén, author and business creativity expert

▪ Andy Stanley, leadership author, communicator and pastor

The cost for an individual or for teams of up to nine people is $209 per person. Cost for teams of 10 or more is $189 per person. Student/faculty/military rate is $89.

Registration fees include all conference materials as well as refreshments. Meals are not included. For more information or to register, visit register.fbmaryville.org.

UMC church to welcome new pastor

The Rev. Dr. Andy Adams will be the new senior pastor at Troy United Methodist Church. A welcome party is planned for Sunday, July 9 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the church, located at 407 Edwardsville Road in Troy. The outdoor welcome party follows the regular Sunday morning worship services.

Adams grew up in Bloomington, Ill. and began attending church in fifth grade at the invitation of his best friend, whose father was a United Methodist pastor. After surrendering his life to Jesus at East Bay Camp in July of 1990, a passion for God’s Word grew in his heart. Camping ministry was his primary spiritual formation through high school and while attending college at the University of Illinois, he became involved at New Horizon United Methodist Church in Champaign, where he served three years as a part time youth pastor. This is also where he met his wife, Amy Jo.

Sensing a call to full-time ministry, Adams enrolled at Asbury Theological Seminary after completing a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering at the U of I. Andy and Amy Jo were married in 2000, and both worked full-time at the seminary while taking classes. Andy graduated in 2003 with a master of divinity degree and was appointed to start a new church in Champaign-Urbana. Subsequently, he has been the founding and lead pastor of Quest United Methodist Church since it launched in 2004. In 2016, he oversaw the merger of Quest and Urbana Grace United Methodist Church, which together have grown to an average weekly worship attendance of 240. He represented the Illinois Great Rivers Conference as a delegate to both General and Jurisdictional Conferences in 2012 and 2016.

Amy Jo holds a bachelor’s in health information management from Illinois State University and a master’s in pastoral counseling from Asbury Theological Seminary. Amy Jo, originally from Arcola, Ill., has worked in various health fields over the years, as well as in the church and as a home-schooling mom.

Their son, Andrew, was born in 2007, and the Adams’ adopted Anna, now 7 years old, from China in 2010. They also have an 11-year-old Welsh Corgi dog named Mighty. Among many other activities they enjoy camping as a family.

For more information, contact Troy United Methodist Church, 618-667-6241 or troyumc.org.