Professional Documents
Culture Documents
VITALITY
A TOOL
SCD SCHOLARSHIPS
NATIONAL TREASURES
LARCM
PRAYERS
SCHOLARSHIPS
There are five categories of vitality which include: Passionate Worship, Radical
Hospitality, Risk-Taking Service and Mission, Extravagant Generosity, and
Faith-Forming Relationships. Click here for the Assessment Tool. This tool can
be used for churches of any size. Please consider making the church's
responses to these categories part of the church's annual reporting.
John Gilmore is the Past President of the West Ohio UMRA. He is currently serving Faith Crossing UMC in Walker,
LA.
AN UPDATE ON POTSDAM UMC
Five Years Later
As I read the last sentence of the next-to-the last paragraph [of the article in
the June UMRA bulletin], I realized that it was prophetic, because God did
exactly that. He brought Michael to PUMC, because of the hams (and the
New Testaments) we gave out. Michael has been to Emmaus, is part of our
Sunday prayer team, and on our Leadership Team now. His wife Jessica is
spearheading our Children's Church which started last September (2016) and
she will soon be our Lay Delegate to Annual Conference (she went as a guest
this year to "try it out" and loved it!).
Our little church is growing. Last year we baptized nine, adults, teens and
children included. Our average attendance last year was around 31 and this
year we are at an average of 37 (35 was our 2017 breakthrough goal), with
many weeks of 40 or more. God has brought families with young children
because of the Children's Church, and we now have nine children who attend
with their mothers semi-regularly.
God has been very good and I realized that it truly did begin with the hams! If
Michael hadn't been reached by that outreach event, Jessica wouldn't be with
us either and neither would Michael's two sisters and their husbands and
children.
Potsdam Steve, the one who suggested the ham to every home, has been a
certified Lay Speaker for several years now and is my go-to person to fill the
pulpit when I am gone. He also started a Sunday school class this past year.
His teen sons were baptized at PUMC last year and they are active in the
Centerville Young Life program (they live with mom). They are going to give
us a testimony about their summer retreat with Young Life on June 25th.
God has brought many new faces to PUMC and one, another Steve, told me
last week that he didn't want worship to end, because he felt the Holy Spirit
there and he and his wife had been looking for a Spirit-filled church since
2009.
Thanks again--this has truly blessed me with remembrance of how this all
started!
Blessings,
Pam Hitchcock, Pastor Potsdam UMC
The scholarship award will provide you with a discounted registration fee
of $50, all material,two boxed lunches and refreshment breaks.
NATIONAL TREASURES
from Randy Wall, UMRA Chair
For those of us living in the United States, one of the things that summer often brings
is a time of vacation. My wife and I are preparing for vacation with family in a matter
of days. One of the ways we have prepared is getting an annual pass from the
National Park Service. With this pass, one does not have to pay admission to any of
our national parks. Our national park system recently celebrated its 100th birthday.
Despite its age, our national parks are certainly places of beauty. Places like Acadia,
Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon are national treasures.
One of the things that most of our national parks have in common is that they are in
rural areas of our nation.
I believe there is another national treasure in the rural areas of the United States and it
is rural churches and communities. Rural churches are not trouble for United
Methodism but a wonderful treasure. They are places that bred and raised some of
the great leaders of our country and denomination, past and present. As it is
important for people to see what a treasure are the national parks of these United
States, so it is important for the United Methodist Rural Advocates to remind all what
a wonderful treasure are the rural communities and rural churches that are across this
land.
RURAL OPPORTUNITIES
by Carl Ellis, Membership Chair
Expanding Educational Opportunities without comprising integrity of CLM Educational experience!
Registration now open for Online CLM Classes. The Lay Academy program helps lay
persons discover their call to ministry and focus on the area they are called to serve. It has
trained over 300 lay persons to serve the local church. We offer two courses which meet the
requirements set out by the General Board of Discipleship for Certified Lay Ministry.
However, we are a web-based program, which allows students freedom to study and write at
times that work into their schedule, while also providing the opportunity for interaction with
instructors and other students. The two course offerings are:
Have fun!
Embrace the mistake! Tell them that if it looks like you don't know what you're
doing it's probably because you don't. I like to tell them that if they're not into
"organized religion" then I'm their guy. If you laugh at yourself you'll find they
can be very forgiving and willing to help.
To read the remainder of this insightful and engaging article, please click here.
PRAYERS
by Peggy Jeffries
I've been watching a Peter, Paul, and Mary retrospective. It is part of the song-tapestry
of
my life, and I'm enjoying listening to them sing
together again. Mary Travers died a few years
ago, so their singing together is now impossible.
Music affects us in ways nothing else does. When
I hear a song, a hymn, or a piece of music that I
know, I am instantly transported to another time
and place, and am surrounded by people I haven't
seen in many years. I think this is one of the
reasons that Pastors are often criticized for not
picking the hymns that people know. They want to be transported. They want mom or
dad or grandma standing beside them again. They want to be in a time and place in
which their lives were simpler, and they felt safe and protected. They want to feel what
they felt the first time they sang this or that hymn. Never mind that every song was
once new, they want to feel the old feels.
Jesus told his followers that he didn't come to
make them feel good, but he came to bring
dissension and division. He came to shake
things up. He came to challenge the powers that
be. He came to upset the status quo. He came
not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to
fulfill them. To fulfill means to bring a thing to
its conclusion. Once it has concluded it is time
to move on to something different. Different is
hard. Different is scary. Different sometimes
makes people angry. Different doesn't feel as good as same feels. Whether it is our
hymnody, our theology, or any others of the multitude of changes that occur in our
lives, sometimes we just must step out in faith and go where the Spirit calls.
Loving God, we often experience you as a loving parent, pulling us onto your lap and
holding us close when life becomes too difficult for us. In our hymns we talk about a
rock of ages that is cleft for us that we may hide, a mighty fortress that protects us
from our enemies, or an eagle lifting us up and carrying us when we are unable to fly
on our own. Life is hard sometimes. Change is hard sometimes. Different is hard
sometimes. Wrap your loving arms around us and give us grace to face the days
ahead, no matter what they may bring.....Amen.
IGNITE! INITIATIVE
Help Us Reach Our Goal
from Rev. Peggy Paige, Vice President UMRA
We would like to thank everyone who has participated to date and would invite
those who have not to consider a gift this Advent/Christmas.
It is easy to give by visiting our
website: www.umruraladavocates.org (IGNITE).
We are seeking gifts to support and train rural ministry leaders and churches
by:
1) Hosting Webinars and podcast
2) Providing scholarships to rural trainings, consultations & conferences
3) Connecting rural ministry leaders
4) Offering seed grants for new Program Development
For more information and how you can donate, go
to: www.umruraladvocates.org/ignite.
Or you may make a check out to West Ohio Council on Development with
Memo: UMRA Ignite! and mail it to:
Ignite! Initiative
West Ohio Conference
Council on Development
32 Wesley Blvd.
Worthington, OH 43085
NETworX INFORMATION
Submitted by Debbie S. Rice, Ph.D., MSW
Director of NETworX USA
NETworX-Securing Well-being Together
NETworX is a Wesleyan informed faith-based ministry with the poor,
recognized by the 2016 General Conference and now operating 17 sites in
four states in the USA. Due to the advocacy of the National UMRA Board,
during the 2016 General Conference, a resolution passed stating:
Therefore, be it resolved that General Conference encourages bishops,
annual conferences, and agencies to support local groups of United Methodist
congregations to work or be in ministry with the poor and to consider NETworX
initiatives.
Increase in assets,
If you are interested in hearing more, contact Alan Rice, a member of the
UMRA Executive Committee at 336-239-1526 or visit www.NETworXUSA.org
Please contact Treasurer Judy Hill to learn more. Contact information is listed
below.
Email: judyh@plainstel.com
Cell Phone: 970-630-0320
http://form.jotform.us/form/51087588857170
Membership Secretary
5. Network and collaborate with other rural groups and agencies around issues of concern for
the rural church and rural places.
4. Utilize technologies which will help us build relationships, share information and resources,
and connect rural leaders.
2. Be part of an organization which creates and advocates for General Conference legislation
that has had a positive effect on the rural church; such as NOW (Nurture, Outreach, Witness)
leadership format, development of "Born Again in Every Place," and the Certified Lay
Minister. An Organization which will continue to create and advocate for General Conference
legislation that may affect ministry in town and churches and their communities.
1. Together we can make a difference as we advocate for the work of Jesus Christ in rural and
town and country communities.
UMRA membership provides not only voice and vote in the organization, but also includes a
subscription to the UMRA E NEWSLETTER.
Michele Holloway, Editor
chele101953@gmail.com
971.225.8402
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