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Christmas Eve fills services, results in impressive giving

When you went to the Christmas Eve service at your church this year, you probably had to get there early if you wanted your usual seat. Churches across the Conference have reported some amazing attendance numbers, and in many cases some extravagant generosity went along with those large crowds. The following stories are just a small sample of some of the many remarkable worship experiences that happened around the state. Faithbridge UMC Faithbridge UMC at Lake Ozark ran out of chairs on...

Joplin churches continue to give throughout 2011

Last May Saint Paul UMC in Joplin lost several members, its surrounding neighborhood and its sanctuary in the tornado. The tornado did $3 - $4 million worth of damage to the church. The church has been built in stages, and the destroyed sanctuary was the newest part. “We are just back to where we started,” Brown said, referring to worship in the multipurpose room, the older part of the church. “We’re a healthy church, poised to grow.” The church was able to...

Mo. Conference partners with UBL in Costa Rica

The Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana (UBL) campus in San Jose, Costa Rica, is the headquarters of a seminary program with 19 study centers in 14 countries. The UBL is widely recognized as one of the main centers of theological education in Latin America and the Caribbean, training pastors and lay leaders for the growing Christian communities involved in witness and service throughout the region. The Missouri Conference has had a relationship with the UBL since 1998. Teams have...

Conferences take different approaches to publications

Newsprint isn’t dead in United Methodist Conference publications, but it is in a constant state of change, and approaches to communications between the Conferences and local churches varies widely between Conferences. Last fall Missouri Conference communications asked other United Methodist communicators to complete a short online survey regarding information about their Conference publications. Responses were received from 40 Conferences. A few outliers jumped out of the spreadsheet...

Growing Deeper helps faith development in congregations

A special task force in the Missouri Conference has been working on developing a resource to help congregations improve their discipleship processes. This resource is now available on the Missouri Conference website on a new page called Growing Deeper. There has been a lot of conversation in the Missouri Conference recently among local churches and people involved in the Healthy Church Initiative regarding the need many churches have to improve their discipleship process. The Missouri...

Empowering children's ministry with technology

Most churches want to provide children with great Christian education. One way to encourage spending time focused on Jesus is to use technologies readily accessible in many homes and libraries. Encourage quality learning at home. Engaging resources make it easier to capture the attention of both parents and children. The more sensory areas that are engaged, the more retention and attentiveness. An example is http://www.simplychristian.org, which provides online augmentation for...

College students work for Joplin

After the holidays are over, most college students find themselves in the unique position of having another week or so off before they need to return to campus. This year nearly 100 college students put that week to good use by volunteering their time to help rebuild Joplin through an effort organized by the Missouri Conference. People participating included individuals, groups from local churches and campus ministry groups. They spent the week helping to take down houses, dig trenches for...

Nominations committee continues to wade through leadership pool

The first week of 2012, the Missouri Conference nominations team was hard at work on finding people to fill leadership positions for Missouri for the next four years. The team plans to meet about  twice a month from now until Annual Conference Session in June. In previous years, the team has depended on the knowledge of the team members to make nominations. This year they have taken a new approach, encouraging everyone in the Missouri Conference to nominate gifted leaders into a...

Sarah Bollinger named new Mozambique Initiative Coordinator

Sarah Bollinger, a member of the Gathering UMC in St. Louis, will be the next Mozambique Initiative Coordinator. Bollinger will begin the job part time while Carol Kreamer continues to work full-time, and will be full-time beginning in June. Kreamer will retire at the end of June. Bollinger grew up in St. Louis, and was a double major in jazz piano and religious studies at Webster University. She then earned a Masters of Social Work from New York University, and worked for a hospice program in...

CMU Softball: Highest team GPA in NAIA

The Central Methodist University softball team played a lot of smart ball en route to a 41-15 record last spring. That should come as no surprise, given the team’s overall grade point average (GPA) was 3.627. That earned the Lady Eagles of Coach Pat Reardon recognition as having the highest team grade point average in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), and the third highest GPA among all university and college softball teams in the nation. Reardon and the Lady...

Haiti water project takes shape

Nearly two years after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, there is still a lot of work to be done. Some things remain eerily similar to the time immediately following the January 2010 earthquake. The Presidential Palace still stands just as it did right after the quake. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in tent communities and food and water are still scarce. However, there have been many positive changes. Haiti has a new president. The city is cleaner and policemen direct...

Sikeston recognized as one of the fastest growing churches

First United Methodist Church of Sikeston received some exciting news Dec. 14! Lifeway Research confirmed that First United Methodist Church made the list as one of America’s fasting growing churches in the category of churches under 1,000 in worship! Lifeway is the leading research organization on church growth and planting. Their president, Ed Stetzer has written dozens of books to help churches around the globe, explains First UMC Worship Coordinator Brad Aycock. Each year, Stetzer...

Connect print with mobile media via QR codes

So our church wants a direct and quick response from a program flier it has created and distributed to the community? You wait for the recipients to read your URL, go to their computer and find your site. However, chances are, many will forget. Solution: QR codes. QR codes are an excellent way to connect print with mobile media and generate an immediate and measurable response. More than 35 percent of Americans own a smartphone; this is a great incentive to use this technology for effective...

Church relies on faith to provide lunch for children

Winter’s here, but it’s not too early to consider how your church can engage it’s community when summer comes back around. One church in the Mark Twain District spent last summer making a real difference for local people in need. When summer school is over, so are the free lunches at school. That can make for a long six weeks for some families who are living in poverty. When the churches of Palmyra met to discuss continuing to provide “buddy packs” of groceries...

Doctor driven to help homeless teens

Dr. Randy Christensen climbed behind the wheel of a big, blue RV and guided it through the streets of Phoenix, giving new meaning to the term “house call.” “I tell everybody that I have the best job in the world. I love coming to work and taking care of homeless kids,” said Christensen, medical director of Crews ‘n Healthmobile, a mobile unit for homeless teens. Once parked, Christensen and his team of nurses, caseworkers and medical residents got to work. A few...

Head speaks at Sikeston

Amid a standing room only crowd in the Family Life Center of First United Methodist Church on Dec. 11, lives were changed and God’s presence was felt during the testimony of Brian “Head” Welch, a tattooed hardrock legend who with God’s help overcame drug addictions. Welch spoke for about an hour to a mesmerized crowd of about 780 people during the 11 a.m. Journey service. (That church service is averaging 228 people this year.) In addition to those seated on chairs and...

Churches urged to use new tool for goal setting

It is the time that people start considering what their goals are for the coming year. Many people will decide to exercise more, eat less, drop bad habits or start good ones. But what about the church? Does your church have goals set for improvement to help guide it through the coming year? There is now a tool available on the Internet to help every United Methodist church do just that. The Vital Congregations website, found at www.umvitalcongregations.org, already contains specific...

Marble announces retirement plans

After serving for 17 years as the director of the Office of Creative Ministries, Max Marble has announced that he intends to retire at Annual Conference Session in June 2012. At that time he will focus his ministry on his new role as executive director of the Ludhiana (India) Christian Medical College U.S. Board. The board voted on December 8 to name Marble the new director. “I am not really retiring, but rather starting to draw the available pension to sufficiently support the next step...

Container Project continues to serve

The Container Project is a non-profit organization established to serve both the local and global communities through the distribution of new or gently used items. Founded in 1995 by Rev. Mel West, the organization has sent many forty- foot sea containers of donated clothing, shoes, linens, non-battery operated toys, school supplies, sewing machines and other items to those who need them most. Leadership is now provided by a group of United Methodist volunteers from multiple congregations. In...