Welcome to a faith filled church practicing a religion filled with grace
Searching for a place where you'll feel loved, inspired, and challenged? Then H.U.M.C. may be for you. Come check us out!
One Church- Two Services
Our Church
A church can be an intimidating place. We want you to know you're welcome here. Hospitality is a big thing for us. We want to to assist you with any questions you may have.
I want to personally invite you to come experience God's presence at Hartford UMC. Our goal is to impact the world we live in by making disciples. We do that by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Come and be a part of life at Hartford United Methodist Church.
In Jesus name, Pastor Stephanie
On-Line Service on YouTube
This is temporarily suspended while we make a transition to a new pastor.
This on-line worship experience starts with watching a prerecorded message on YouTube or on this website. Then we have a live streamed discussion on this topic on Facebook at The Bridge at Hartford UMC which is at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning.
10:00 A.M. service
The 10:00 a.m. service is an indoor, in-person worship service in the sanctuary.
Gifts and Giving
Your support and contributions will enable us to further our mission as a church. You can give through PayPal below, Venmo, Give+ app on your phone, Vanco, or your bill pay at your financial institution
August Sermon Scriptures
August 1st - Forgiveness
July 25th What is Community III - Sin in the Church
July 25th What is Community III - Sin in the Church
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[a]
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[b] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[c] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
(Matthew 18: 21-35)
July 25th What is Community III - Sin in the Church
July 25th What is Community III - Sin in the Church
July 25th What is Community III - Sin in the Church
15 “If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Photo Gallery
The Church's flowers along the drive away.
The Church's flowers in the spring of 2021
Spring flowers
The flowers on the corner of the driveway.
Karen Williams cleaning the Memory garden
The flowers we planted last November in Memory of those who passed are coming up just in time for Palm Sunday & Easter.
What a wonderful tradition and honor to those who have been here before us.
This way their memory will be with us every time we see the flowers in bloom.
When they are in full bloom they will be gorgeous. Thank you again to Becky and Larry Woodley for planting these lasting memories.
Food Truck came for a visit on March 4, 2021
We served over 166 families
That means we gave out 9316 pounds of food
We are very grateful for Feed America and for all of the volunteers that helped to make this a successful give away.
The winter clothing drive for the last two weeks was a great success.
Pastor Stephanie, Nick McGlothin, and Brittany Vanlandingham delivered the coats and winter gear to the Gospel Mission
Packing the cars with the winter took some skill.
With the donations that came in we were able to purchase even more items
We appreciate Miller Thermometer for their help in supplying these materials.
The Backpack Mission received a $2,700 grant from the Pokagon Fund.
Cooperating Ministries gave out over 230 boxes of food on December 17th.
And hopefully every year afterwards the memory of our love ones will continue to bloom for us to enjoy. The bulbs were planted in memory of the following people: Jim Brummit; Jean Walker; Bob Kling; Genevieve Conklin; Shirley Anchor; Richard"Dick"Smith; Bonna Vanderlyn; Helen Norden. Also other's that passed Matthew Efting, The mother of Dan Fitch
So Larry and Becky Woodley took the morning and planted them in our memory garden.
They worked with the Catholic Services, Hartford Lions Club
Also Hartford Hardings
and the Pokagon Fund.
They had people lined up starting at 1:30 and went until
7:00 p.m. Thursday night.
We continue to supply food to families of our youth at Redwood Elementary School for the weekend.
Instead of cut carnations for All Saint's Day it was decided that we plant bulbs in memory of those who passed this past year.
So in the spring we will have a constant memory of those who passed.
All Saint's day - Nov 1st -
Social Distancing but a good service.
Pastor Stephanie on Nov. 1st
Preparing for the Food Pantry distribution on October 29th.
The last few weeks we have had between 60-75 families each week.
The Cooperating ministries team had to restock after last weeks distribution.
Unloading the truck so that we can get ready for this week's distribution.
Oct. 28th the last tailgate get together with Joanne Evans as the host.
Even though it was a typical fall day for Michigan the spirits of these church family members were happy.
It was great how everyone chips in and brings the snacks and enjoys each others company.
It will be great when they can worship together this Sunday Nov. 1st inside for the first time.
The group gathered together for coffee and conversation.
It was a pleasant morning for everyone to enjoy a few minutes together.
Rev Wayne and many others enjoyed the time to just chat and reconnect over some yummy snacks.
Our hostess(Joanna Evans) finally taking a break to enjoy some food and conversation.
Our hostess - Joanne Evans
Pam Ward making her selection of homemade snacks by Joanne and Bernice Lightner.
Bernice Rudell and Bernice Lightner enjoying some of the shade
Even the guys enjoyed the break and able to talk with each other.
Pastor Stephanie continues to do her roll of serving others -- but now it is snacks and coffee.
It is great to see people and just catch up with each other.
Moon Flowers in our memory garden.
August 2nd - service
The team figuring out the spacing to bring us in to ADA requuirements.
The finished project looks great.
These gentlemen had it stripped in no time.
new stripping going down.
parking by the west side now has been updated to be ADA compliant
These new four spaces give us more choices for parking for those with disabilities.
Four more handicapped parking spaces in the back by the new ramp.
Black top was redone on July 29 & 30, 2020
Back ramp for easier access to the church and alternative to the steps.
The Electric fireplace gives it a warmer feeling.
With new accents a few pieces of new furniture to bring it together. ( Also paid for with grant money)
A new paint job for the room and hallway -- volunteer labor and using the grant money that we had.
Updated the Social hall using some of our grant money.
Pastor Stephanie accompanying Nick and singing for the service on July 19th.
Nick leading the singing for the service
July 19th - outdoor service
June 28th 7 pm
June 28th 7 pm service
June 28th 7 pm service
Some of the volunteers that worked the food pantry and Feed America Food truck on June 18th
Workers - getting all of the food together as the cars pulled through
Workers planning the process
Ready to distribute the food
Assigning the duties
The crew in full swing-- as cars pull through
Pastor Stephanie and Nick on June 14th Sunday 7 pm Service
June 14th - Worship service
A great turn out for the 7 pm service
It was a beautiful evening
People were happy to be back at service.
What wonderful music -- and sermon
It was a great time
God's beauty
What a change --with a lot of hard work.
Lois and Wayne beautifying the front of the church
Lois and Wayne removing the weeds before making it new again.
Social Hall has been cleaned and waxed
Nursery was cleaned and waxed
Halls were cleaned in preparation of hopefully reopening soon.
Jeff Anchor and Justin Cardenas and crew worked hard to clean our floors.
The Weekend Backpack Project is still serving our community.
Each week we have volunteers who are here on Sunday taking in donations at 12:00 .
The food provides meal for the two days on the weekend for breakfast and supper.
The food is ordered from feed America from monetary donations from you.
Also on Sunday they pack roughly 120-140 bags of food for our school families.
The food is then transported to the school-- again by volunteers on Thursday morning.
we would like to thank these people for their support:
Businesses: Burnette Foods Inc., Richter Insurance, Kellogg Hardware, Mann Metal, L.E. Barber Inc. (Benton Harbor, MI), Pokagon Fund (Pokagon Grant)
Associations: Hartford Foundation for Quality Education(Grant) , Lions Club, United Methodist Church - Greater Southwest Conference (Engage Grant)
Public Institutions: Hartford Public School/Redwood Elementary
Other: Congregational Kitchen (Allegan, Mi).
Pastor Stephanie helping with the food give away on the 21st.
CM food pantry and Feed America Truck give away.
CM food pantry give away
CM food Pantry give away
CM Food Pantry give away on June 21st-- The feed America truck was here as well.
Feed America June 21st Cooperating Ministry Food Pantry give away
Gardening in the prayer garden
Gardening in the prayer garden
Our children in Junior church
Boy Scouts collect food every Tuesday night from 6:30- 7:30 p.m.
Our youth in Junior Church.
Our Backpack Mission when we first started. We are now up to 140 families per week.
The high school students collected food for Cooperating Ministries Food Pantry back in November 2019.
This is the stain glass in our sanctuary that was brought over from the original church.
Feed America Truck was here on April 30, 2020
We gave food out from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.
They fed 153 families.
Help the church while you shop
iGive is part of the UMC Market
Help they Hartford United Methodist Church every time you shop online, it's all free and so easy to be socially-conscious. Join me and start Giving #AllYearRound.
The stores make this possible because they want you to like them and shop at them over and over again. There's 2300 socially-responsible stores helping to make donations happen.
I hope you'll give it a try. To learn more or sign up now, use this link:
Another way you can help
While you are shopping at our local Harding's stores
Also if you shop at Harding you can sign up for the Harding’s rewards and a percentage will come back to the church as well. If you don’t want to sign up just use the church’s phone number at the register: 269-621-4103 and the company will give us a percentage of what you spend. Just click on the FIND OUT MORE below and it should take you to their website where you can register.