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September 2019

September 2019

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Features

Get A Life

August 19, 2019

Get A Life

Pastors are generally driven by a sense of duty to answer calls for help. But research shows that in many cases they rarely find time for themselves. Members of the clergy suffer from higher rates of depression, obesity and high blood pressure than the rest of the population, and many are ...

News and Updates

7 Steps to Reshape Your Church's Future

August 19, 2019

7 Steps to Reshape Your Church's Future

To reshape the future of your church you must set aside old assumptions, fears, and stereotypes and embrace new experiences and methods. In the new book Blank Slate, Lia McIntosh, Jasmine Smothers, and Rodney Smothers explore generational transition, design thinking, and successful private...

Celebrando Esperanza Celebrating the Recovery Work in Vieques, Puerto Rico

August 19, 2019

Celebrando Esperanza Celebrating the Recovery Work in Vieques, Puerto Rico

On February 8-9, 2020 we will celebrate the good work God has done! Bishops Farr and Ortiz of the United Methodist Church of Puerto Rico will be traveling to the island of Vieques to celebrate our connection and the completion of the church in Esperanza. Festivities will begin on Vieques ...

Celebrating Our Progress

August 19, 2019

Our vision for the Missouri Annual Conference is to relentlessly lead our churches to become outwardly focused and spiritually centered Christ followers. The primary ways in which the Conference seeks to live out this vision is through our three conference priorities —developing new ...

Life Is Precious

August 19, 2019

In the wake of yet two more mass shootings, in El Paso and Dayton, we are reminded again of the preciousness of human life. As people who are called to love, as John Wesley put it, “every soul which God hath made, every man on earth, as our own soul,” we share in the pain and grief of ...

Looking Through the Lense

August 19, 2019

After years of photography through personal projects and an education at the Missouri School of Journalism, I’ve found that I experience life differently when I’m looking through the lens of my camera. I pay more attention to lighting, space, textures and, most importantly, faces.  This ...

Love Well

August 19, 2019

Love Well

2019 has been a record year for Methodist conferences in Missouri! July 10-14 United Methodist Discipleship Ministries hosted its quadrennial national youth conference, Youth2019, in Kansas City. The theme was Love Well. This event started in 1988. Youth and their leaders from all over the...

MI Moto Rally

August 19, 2019

MI Moto Rally

Join Bishop Farr as he travels to across the Missouri Annual Conference in support of the Mozambique Initiative. The purpose of the ride is to raise money to purchase motorcycles for United Methodist pastors in Mozambique. In remote areas that lack good roads motorcycles are the most ...

Parting Shot

August 19, 2019

Parting Shot

"We know we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death [1 John 3:14].” God’s love poured into my heart by the searching and refining fire of the Holy Spirit is not about me alone. Google the song lyrics of “Hero” by the Christian rock ...

Servanthood Behind Prison Walls

August 19, 2019

Servanthood Behind Prison Walls

April 16 was a monumental and historical day for the Southeast Correctional Center, Cape Girardeau’s La Croix United Methodist Church and the Missouri Department of Corrections. On the Wednesday before Easter, 159 offenders, 19 SECC staff members, 12 members of La Croix’s Prison Ministry, ...

The Bigger Offering Plate

August 19, 2019

“Will the ushers please come forward…”  That single phrase used to be the primary (if not the only) way the church gathered the gifts of the faithful and funded the ministries of the church. While the offertory remains a meaningful part of our worship, the practical ways that devoted ...

Youth Music Opportunities

August 19, 2019

“Will the ushers please come forward…”  That single phrase used to be the primary (if not the only) way the church gathered the gifts of the faithful and funded the ministries of the church. While the offertory remains a meaningful part of our worship, the practical ways that devoted ...

Letters from the Editor

Doing Good

August 19, 2019

Hebrews 10: 24: Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.  If you’ve had the opportunity to visit us at the Missouri Conference Center at 3601 Amron Court in Columbia, when you started getting close you may have found yourself behind a slow-moving car. If it ...

From Bishop Farr

Rocks Everywhere

August 19, 2019

I don’t know about you, but I needed a renewal break this summer from all the events of 2019. The issues and theological polarization within our church and the political polarization within our world can become overwhelming. The pointing of fingers toward each other over contradictory ...

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