Rockledge UMC Company Murfreesboro Website from Portfolio of Andrew Kauffman



Finished May 2015

rockledgeumc.com

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The swift growth of membership leveled off in the 1990s as the slowing of the space program and economic difficulties came to our area. The completion of the sanctuary’s stained glass windows in 1995 was a major accomplishment of the congregation. In 1994, we began a strong program of Vacation Bible School with “Almost Heaven” and have continued almost every year to run a well-respected community wide VBS. The first Disciple Bible Study was completed in 1996 and for many years, we had a strong program of Disciple studies 1 through 4. In 1999, the first Stephen Ministers were commissioned and the program continues today under the leadership of Janice Long. We expanded into “Saturday Night Live”, the first contemporary service on Saturday night. The contemporary service moved to Sunday morning as a second service for several years before the church returned to one worship service on Sunday mornings.

The start of the millennium brought a renewal of our relationship with our Sister Church “La Ceiba de Yareyal” in Holguin, Cuba when Dr. Manuel Garcia paid a visit there. We started some strong outreach programs where we went monthly into the local prisons and begin Prison Fellowship Angel Tree. 2004 brought us the life changing “40 Days of Purpose” with almost every member in a small group and reading the same book “The Purpose Driven Life”. In 2007, “Sisters of the Vine” began and put on yearly retreats and issued a cook book. We began the children’s bus ministry in 2008, where we went to local neighborhoods for crafts and also brought kids in every Sunday morning for breakfast and church. King’s Kids started in 2009 at Andersen Elementary with a weekly after school program and continued successfully for several years.

Our mission support work began in 2009 with Lynn and Dori Cazier, missionaries with CMF, International in Kenya, Africa. They have visited us twice and work with the Maasai tribes to build Christian churches and ministries there. Guy Wickman and Mary Ann Dierdorf visited our Sister Church in Cuba in 2012 and we have sent church members yearly since then plus monetary and medical support. We paid off our sanctuary mortgage in 2009, a happy occasion! We did several years of Back to School Bashes where we gave away hundreds of backpacks and school supplies to our community’s children. In 2009, a Wednesday evening prayer time was introduced and the sanctuary continues to be open every Wednesday for prayer.

In 2012, we participated in the ambitious “Celebrate Jesus” project where in the month of July we visited several hundred houses around our church and culminated in a huge Block Party. In 2014, we joined “Family Promise” where our church hosts homeless families four times a year on our campus. We have a thriving Senior Fellowship group meeting monthly for over 10 years, as well as yearly visits from the traveling NOMADS who have blessed us with countless church and parsonage projects.

We celebrated 50 years of ministry in February 2015 and had a Golden Anniversary weekend with many former Pastors, charter members and friends attending the party and the worship service.

-Connie Maltby, Rockledge UMC Historian