About - Brazil First United Methodist Church

Worship

We offer both traditional and contemporary worship services each Sunday morning. At both services you will hear a biblically based message and inspiring music. Nursery care for infants and toddlers is provided for both services. Preschoolers and elementary aged children are invited to attend “Children’s Church” after the children’s message during each service. We’d love to have you join us as we worship God and experience community at Brazil First UMC.

Our traditional service is at 9:00 am. It includes hymns, liturgy, children’s moment, and biblical teaching presented in a way to help you grow closer to God in a warm and welcoming atmosphere.

Our contemporary service is at 11:00 am. It includes modern worship music, children’s moment, and a message from scripture that can be applied to today’s life. It is a time to gather as a family and come to worship and know Jesus better.

Children’s Ministry

A Church Made for Children

What are you looking for in a church for your child? Do you want your child to ask to come back to church? Brazil First United Methodist provides creative and active learning, christian character building, bible based learning and fun activities for your child. If this is what you are looking for in a church then Brazil First United Methodist is for you! Let’s break it down to see what we have: Sunday School and Children’s Church– your child will participate in fun activities while learning about Jesus and God Children’s Moment– a time when your child will worship in the sanctuary during adult worship to learn about God and Jesus on their level

Open Hands Preschool– a preschool for children ages 3-5, Open Hands offers high academic standards and Christian Character Building

Vacation Bible School– an action packed, creative filled week of fun in the summer with Christian learning; your child will not want to miss this!

Everything that you and your family may want or need in a church is at Brazil First United Methodist Church!

Open Hands Preschool

Learn, Grow, Achieve… Be Ready for Kindergarten!!

Open Hands Preschool was established as a ministry by First United Methodist Church in 2004. Open Hands serves the Clay County area to provide students with academic learning, Christian values, free tutoring, and hands on learning- all in a church setting. The Open Hands curriculum has been designed using Indiana State Standards and teachers collaborate with Clay Community Schools to plan the best learning program for the 3-5 year old student.

Chris Pestoff, a graduate of ISU, has been the director of Open Hands for 16 years and has 38 years of teaching experience. Charla graduated from Northview in 2004 and attended ISU, studying social work. She built and directed a non-profit children’s theater in LA, California, where she devoted her life to building a strong community for children and families. Charla has recently moved back home with her sweet and spunky 5 year old daughter, Lela Lynn. She enjoys working with students of all ages and is looking forward to working with the youth of Clay County. Charla continues working in the production industry and loves staying busy and involved in all things creative! Chris and Charla will provide a safe, loving, and creative preschool environment for your child.

Are you looking for a preschool to prepare your child for kindergarten?

We offer: Preschool -half day- ages 3-4 (Tues. and Thurs.)

Pre-Kindergarten- half day & full day- ages 4-5( Mon. Wed. Fri)

Classes begin on August 24th, 2020!

Call today to register for the 2020-2021 school year! off, Director- (812)-691-5303

Something’s Brewing

Something’s Brewing is Brazil First United Methodist Church’s small version of a coffee shop. The brewing starts around 9:30 with the intent to serve both first and second worship service guests. The excitement of all who attend has been overwhelming! Many have donated financially as well as volunteering to bring snacks-which has been amazing. There is a relatively new chalk board in the north west corner of the Pine room where Somethings Brewing is held. We would like to encourage everyone to write on the board. The goal is for the board to become a communication to the congregation of upcoming events in the church as well as the community. This time of coffee and fellowship has proven already to connect people, and that was the idea…to encourage personal relationships with others in a relaxing, fun environment.

So please continue to join us in the Pine room every Sunday from 9:45 to 11:00 and invite a friend.

Chancel Choir

The Brazil First United Methodist Chancel Choir is an integral part of the worship life of the congregation. The choir’s main purpose in the worship service is to spread the story of Christ through song, help prepare the congregation for worship prior to the Pastor’s message and allow the members to share their gift that God has given them. The Chancel Choir is a part of the Sunday Worship Service during September through June. The choir has a current membership is 19. Four members of the choir are members of other churches in the Brazil area. Membership is open to ALL. Choir rehearsals are held on Wednesday evenings from 7:00 – 8:00 in the Pine room.

The Chancel Choir is presently directed by organist/choir director Shaun Short. Marilyn Rush serves as the choir accompanist.

Praise Team

The praise team leads worship for the 11:00 am contemporary service each week. Our purpose is to lead people to worship our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and communicate the life changing message of Jesus through music. Practices are held on Thursday evenings from 7:30-9:30 pm. We are always looking for qualified musicians to add to the praise team. If you love singing, play an instrument, or would like to be a part of leading in worship, check with Randy Koehler or the church office for more information.

Bell Choir

The Brazil First UMC Bell Choir got its start thanks to a random conversation between Doris (our first director) and Roberta (one of our founding members), back in 2007. They were discussing music and the comment was made that wouldn’t hand bells be a beautiful addition to worship. From there, they took the idea to the minister and were told we didn’t have the money in the budget, but if they could raise the funds, that they could start a choir. The two put a small article together for that months news letter saying we would have a dinner to raise money to buy the bells. The very next week the church received a phone call from a parishioner several states away asking how much we needed. In that moment we had a bell choir and a new patron. Colonel Edwin Withers forwarded the funds to buy not only a three octave set of bells, but also enough to order a matching set of chimes and tables to play from.

In the early days there was a lot of interest in the bells. It takes 11 people to play the 3 octave set. Under Doris’ guidance we sat up 2 full choirs, Belle Canto and Carillon. One was a beginning group for players who couldn’t read music, the other was a moderate group for people who already possessed some musical education. Our first “real” performance was at the band shell in Forrest Park. Live at 5 was doing a tour of cities in the Wabash Valley and Brazil was one of the stops. As part of the festivities they were looking for local points of interest and somehow they heard that our church had bells. We were added to the list of guests and bravely met the challenge.

In the years since, we have been invited to numerous local Methodist churches, a few district events, midnight mass on Christmas Eve at Annunciation, next door to the Presbyterians, the community theater, and annually we welcome Santa Claus to Riddell Bank for Christmas. As the years have passed we’ve had several members who had to stop playing for health reasons and a few who have moved away, we’ve partnered with other churches at times to keep enough people to play and had two directors. We’ve been blessed to have amazing accompanists at church on the piano, organ, and synthesizer which has allowed us to continue playing in those times when numbers are down. Currently the bells play for special Sundays from the balcony on the east side of the church. We practice Wednesday evenings from August through May. If you would be interested in playing with us or sitting in on a few practices to see what we do please feel free to join us any time. We often joke about if you can count to 4 and know your left from right, then you can play the bells. It’s not really quite that simple, but it’s pretty much that simple, we’ll show you which 2 notes are yours and help you get the count. The current bell choir while small is mighty in spirit and fellowship. There’s never a practice that ends without everyone laughing and smiling. Come join us.

UNITED METHODIST HANDBOOK/MAKING DISCIPLES OF JESUS CHRIST

Let’s Go Fishing

This is the title of the handbook describing what it is like to be a Methodist and what their beliefs are.. This booklet is filled with 49 pages of United Methodist beliefs and many other additional facts.