Home

Home

News (The 20 most recent)

Can't find what you're looking for? Use our news search

For Complete Information on Joplin
Written: 2/3/2012
For Complete information, ways to help and news on the Joplin area please click here....

Christmas Eve fills services, results in impressive giving
Written: 2/2/2012
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 ...

Joplin churches continue to give throughout 2011
Written: 2/1/2012
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 wh...

Mo. Conference partners with UBL in Costa Rica
Written: 1/25/2012
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 ...

Conferences take different approaches to publications
Written: 1/24/2012
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 c...

Growing Deeper helps faith development in congregations
Written: 1/23/2012
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 Mi...

Empowering children's ministry with technology
Written: 1/23/2012
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 o...

College students work for Joplin
Written: 1/20/2012
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 organiz...

Nominations committee continues to wade through leadership pool
Written: 1/20/2012
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 d...

Sarah Bollinger named new Mozambique Initiative Coordinator
Written: 1/12/2012
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...

CMU Softball: Highest team GPA in NAIA
Written: 1/12/2012
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 t...

Haiti water project takes shape
Written: 1/9/2012
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 thous...

Sikeston recognized as one of the fastest growing churches
Written: 1/6/2012
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 organizat...

Connect print with mobile media via QR codes
Written: 1/6/2012
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 co...

Church relies on faith to provide lunch for children
Written: 1/5/2012
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...

Doctor driven to help homeless teens
Written: 1/5/2012
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 ...

Head speaks at Sikeston
Written: 1/4/2012
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 sp...

Churches urged to use new tool for goal setting
Written: 1/4/2012
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 ...

Marble announces retirement plans
Written: 12/30/2011 12:10:01 PM
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 Colle...

Container Project continues to serve
Written: 12/29/2011
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-batt...