News

By Darby Jones If you click on a link to this article and share it on social media, should we think that you have actually read it? That’s what previous best practices would lead us to believe. Google was founded on the...

By Bob Farr The Missouri Conference has a 30 year history of new church planting. Most people date the modern day church planting movement from 1990. That’s the year Bishop W.T. Handy appointed four pastors to plant ...

By Hal Knight We’ve been looking at “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” an alternative to historic Christianity that Kenda Creasy Dean has shown is the dominant belief of American teenagers and their churches in mainline ...

That’s what an older adult told me when I was 18 and about to start college. A few years ago. Well, maybe a lot of years ago. Looking back, I don’t really think they were the best years, although they were very memorable...

Chair of Camping and Retreat Ministries Board provides detailed information about process that led up to recent changes in camping ministries in Missouri.

By Fred Koenig “Let’s leave this one to the professionals.”      It’s a call everyone makes at some point. Sometimes it is for easy things, and you go with the pros because even though you may not have much money to ...

An Open Letter from the Camping and Retreat Ministries Board September 18, 2014 Dear Sisters and Brothers of the Missouri Conference, Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ! As events have unfolded in the past couple ...

Most local congregations in Missouri have made great progress in internalizing the church’s mission of creating disciples for the transformation of the world, yet according to a recent survey conducted by the Core ...

The KOA campground at Branson looks like a busy holiday weekend this week, with spots filled and people sitting up camp in an overflow parking lot. A closer look reveals that most of the vehicles there are sporting a ...

After two years of information gathering, conversations, visits to all camp sites, a financial and property analysis and prayerful discernment, the Missouri Annual Conference Camping and Retreat Board will be shifting ...

Dear friends, People have asked about what the United Methodist Church is doing in response to the events in recent days in Ferguson, Missouri, and so I’d like to lift up a few significant points of engagement and ...

When Joy and Elliot Gonzalez came to Liberty UMC as youth directors a few years ago, their job description included one line about young adult ministry. When they turned their attention to that area, they found an ...

By Fred Koenig In early spring, Terri Williams announced she would be stepping down as the Festival of Sharing Coordinator to enter into a new phase of personal ministry. Terri had served as the coordinator for seven ...

By Brian Hammons It’s summertime! Annual conference is over, the fall activities haven’t started yet (including charge conferences), and some folks are still on vacation. While the pace is maybe a bit slower around most...

By Jeremy Steele If you followed our advice to get your podcast up and running, it's time to listen carefully and make sure you are recording great audio. Here is what you need to consider.  Recording Device Deciding ...

By Neil Richards On April 5, the Belgrade UMC, in conjunction with the Missouri Baptist Breast Health Care Center Mammogram Van practiced mission outreach as they offered free mammogram screenings to women without ...

By Fred Koenig When Joy and Elliot Gonzalez came to Liberty UMC as youth directors a few years ago, their job description included one line about young adult ministry. When they turned their attention to that area, they...

By Fred Koenig There will be United Methodists camping ministries in Missouri next summer. They will not be conducted at the four sites owned by the Missouri Conference. The future of those sites moving forward will be ...

By Fred Koenig Bible Kickback at Normandy | Linda Settles | Serving:  University of Missouri St. Louis | Saturday’s 6:00 p.m. at 8000 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO. 63121 | Normandy U.M.C. | Contact Information:  ...

By Barry Baugh Under the leadership of Pastor Baugh, Smith Chapel entered the Small Church Initiative process in 2010. The consultation team  of Bob Farr and Kotan gave the church three prescriptions, which the Church ...

By Fred Koenig It can be very discouraging listening to the news these days. Stories about civil wars, border disputes and the thousands who are fleeing their violent and impoverished homelands seem to dominate the news...

By Fred Koenig John Miller’s entry into the United Methodist Church was not uncommon: he grew up Baptist, and he married a Catholic. “We split the difference,” he said.       While they both may have thought they were ...

By Fred Koenig A group of 70 people coming together for worship on a Wednesday night is doing pretty well for any church. But when that group of 70 is made up entirely of the group that is noticeably absent from worship...

By Emanuel Cleaver the Third One of the most fundamental elements of any successful organization is leadership. However, it is also one of the most misunderstood qualities as it relates to congregational development and...

By Fred Koenig I’m an expert at boys ages 10 and under. Aside from having 10 years of experience at being one myself, I’ve also, together with my wife, raised two. If you need to know something about boys, from about ...

By Fred Koenig Three years after an F5 tornado ripped apart the core of Joplin, the town is recovering well. In the heart of it all, Saint Paul UMC maintains a focus on disaster response, for past, present and future ...

By Karen Hayden My family has come to expect “Dave’s famous pico de gallo” at every large family event.               My husband, Dave, likes to make pico, but he doesn’t have a hard recipe for it. Often, as he ...

By Hal Knight In her book Almost Christian Kenda Creasy Dean draws on the National Study of Youth and Religion to present a disturbing portrait of American teenagers in mainline Protestant denominations like the United ...

The landscaping at Saint Paul UMC is maturing and has filled in nicely. The surrounding neighborhood resembles a big-city suburb boom town – all new houses and only young trees. Three years after F5 tornado ripped apart ...

By Pam Ekey Open yourselves to the possibility of the difference you can make in worship if you focus a little more, if you improve a little more, Bishop Robert Schnase told those who assembled for the clergy session ...

By Susan Sneed Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase once again welcomed all to the 2014 Annual Conference. He lifted up this year’s count of 850 congregations, 1,000 active and retired clergy 170,000 members and 80,000 in ...

By Pamela Dilmore Rev. Garrett Drake is the new director of Catalyst for Next Generations Ministry, and two words resonated again and again in his report. Discipleship and local churches. He gave an overview of how ...

By Laura Blevins Central Methodist University is beginning a new ministry program this fall to incorporate a cross-disciplinary opportunity for students who want to connect their faith with their everyday life.  The ...

By Fred Koenig Some people started their conferencing a little early in Springfield this week. Missouri Conference Director of Congregational Excellence Bob Farr, along with consultant Cathy Townley, led a New Church ...

By Susan Sneed The support of clergy can be a complicated matter, but Rev. Nate Berneking, director of Conference Finance and Administration, Tom Ventura, June Deweese, and Rev. Steve Pinnell, chair of the Clergy ...

By Fred Koenig The historic Paul H. Linn Memorial United Methodist Church at Central Methodist University, one of CMU’s and the region’s most iconic and beloved structures, is about to get some well-deserved attention. ...

By Pamela Dilmore Rev. Bob Farr, a Director of Congregational Excellence, stirred conference enthusiasm with his presentation of the work and efforts of creating excellent congregations in Missouri. The strategies ...

By Fred Koenig The United Methodist clergy appointment is one of the most important processes the denomination engages in, but it is often misunderstood. In an attempt to bring understanding to how clergy end up where ...

By Fred Koenig The Missouri Conference now has nine districts rather than 12, approved by a nearly unanimous vote with no debate.       “I wonder if there has ever been a time in the history of United Methodism that a ...

By Fred Koenig When Adam Hamilton was ordained in Missouri, Annual Conference Session was at Central Methodist University in Fayette, and ordination was at Linn Memorial UMC. That was 27 years ago, and he was 22 years ...

By Pam Ekey Karen Hayden, Director of Pastoral Excellence, was asked to count the number of exterior doors to her church a number of years ago. She recalls that her congregation was humbled to learn all the ways that ...

By Pamela Dilmore The report from Imagine No Malaria given by Jill Wondel and Jennifer Long, Coordinators of the Imagine No Malaria campaign, was essentially an expression of gratitude. The opening video noted that the ...

By Fred Koenig Missouri Conference Lay Leader Brian Hammons opened the laity session on Friday afternoon by offering appreciation and encouragement. “You are key people in God’s plan in your communities.       We’re ...

By Pat Marsh In his 6th annual Laity Address, Conference Lay Leader Brian Hammons not only reported on the goals of the laity team and development of a simpler training program, he also offered challenges and ...

By Laura Blevins Rev. Adam Hamilton began his first session of “Leading Beyond the Walls” with the Missouri Annual Conference Saturday afternoon by helping clergy and laity understand how important it is for leaders to ...

By Fred Koenig A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Why the long face?” I walk into Annual Conference. A pastor asks, “Why the long hair?” I reply, “I’m growing my hair long to appear more relevant to a ...

By Fred Koenig Making disciples of Jesus Christ is at the core of the mission of the United Methodist Church. But what is a disciple, and how is one made? The Missouri Conference Core Practices Team invited those ...

By Pam Ekey “The best is yet to come,” Mark Sheets declared at the Sunday morning service of worship and remembrance. He suggested that sometimes we set our expectations too low and forget that God has promised the best...

By Laura Blevins In the third and final teaching session of Annual Conference Rev. Adam Hamilton, senior pastor and founder of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection discussed how  United Methodist Churches ...

By Linda Gastreich While it came near the end of his report, Tom Hilton, Chair of Conference Finance and Administration, delivered some welcome news to delegates on Saturday morning. Conference Finance and ...