News
August 21, 2018
Pastoring in Partisan Times
By Fred Koenig “They are my people. It’s where I came from,” Sample said. Sample grew up in Mississippi. His father had a fifth-grade education. His mother completed school through the 10th grade. His dad worked various...
August 21, 2018
This Is My Body: Embracing the Messiness of Faith and Motherhood
By Fred Koenig Hannah Shanks always loved writing, and had a childhood dream of being a writer, but this isn’t the book she would have dreamed of. She wrote it out of necessity. “This is the book that I needed that didn...
August 21, 2018
Three Priorities
By Amy Thompson While at Annual Conference, the Bishop introduced to us the three conference priorities that have been affirmed by the Mission Council and Cabinet. During my laity address, I provided a brief ...
August 21, 2018
Tuesday Night Worship Express
By Fred Koenig Lawson UMC recognized that sometimes attending a Sunday morning worship service does not work out for people. They wanted to try to give the people who couldn’t come on Sunday morning an opportunity to ...
August 21, 2018
Wesley on Prayer
By Dr. Hal Knight Recently there has been a public debate over prayer. Persons have been criticized for offering “thoughts and prayers” for victims of things like gun violence while taking no action to address the ...
August 13, 2018
GC2019 Hospitality Leadership Team Announced
In preparation for the called session of General Conference February 23-26, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Missouri and Illinois Great Rivers Conferences has assembled their hospitality leadership team. Both ...
July 27, 2018
5 Cups of Coffee
By Amy Thompson We are all called to be in relationship with God. We are called to be active in the world sharing God’s love with others. Sometimes it is difficult to respond to the second call. We sometimes do not know...
July 27, 2018
Advance Planning For Advent
By Fred Koenig It’s hot outside, and there’s still more than a month of summer ahead. Even though back-to-school time is closing in, that doesn’t mean it’s a bad to begin to think about ... Advent. Some Missouri ...
July 27, 2018
Gift Annuity Rates Are Going Up
By Fred Koenig For the first time since 2011, the American Council on Gift Annuities (ACGA) has recommended an increase in gift annuity rates for all new gift annuities, effective July 1, 2018. This is great news for ...
July 27, 2018
Keep Families Together
By Fred Koenig Francis Street First United Methodist Church in St. Joseph hosted a rally on June 30 on behalf of the Interfaith Alliance to show support for children and families who have been separated at the border. ...
July 27, 2018
Licensed To Lead
By Fred Koenig The licensed local pastor is a critical part of the United Methodist Church in the Missouri Conference, and the percent of clergy in this category is growing larger each year. A key step in becoming a ...
July 27, 2018
Meetings That Matter
By Cody Collier It’s August, and I have a feeling that many church leaders are looking at their calendars, working to find out through email or Google e-vite the best date/time for a meeting in the fall. Some of you, ...
July 27, 2018
Parting Shot
By Eric Mattson A God can reach into our brokenness if we sit prayerfully even if we can’t put our finger on what our need for healing is. Romans 8:26 tells us “… the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know ...
July 27, 2018
Summer Lunch Program at Saint Luke’s Goes into Neighborhood
By Fred Koenig Saint Luke’s United Methodist Church in St. Louis has a long history of doing acts of mercy to help the less fortunate. Often, this was collecting donations of things like books and coats that were then ...
July 27, 2018
The Role Of The Acoustic Guitar
By Ryan McLouth So, you’re a strong singer, you’re pretty good at accompanying yourself or others from the guitar or keyboard, and you have a gift for leading a congregation in song. That’s awesome, but do you know what...
July 27, 2018
What is a church?
By Dr. Hal Knight The New Testament is filled with many images of the church: people of God, body of Christ, temple of the Holy Spirit, household of God, bride of Christ and many more. It would be beneficial for local ...
July 26, 2018
Transition
By Fred Koenig I found this note on the back of an offering envelope in church one morning. My first thought was perhaps it had been written by Senior Pastor Fred Leist and passed to one of the acolytes. It was his ...
July 12, 2018
Bishops seek declaratory decisions on three plans submitted to General Conference
WASHINGTON – The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church is asking the Judicial Council for declaratory decisions on the constitutionality of the petitions submitted by the Commission on a Way Forward to the ...
July 09, 2018
UMC Bishops amend call for 2019 Special Session of General Conference
WASHINGTON, D.C. _ The Council of Bishops (COB) has amended its call for the Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) to be held February 23-26, 2019 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in ...
July 02, 2018
Mozambique Initiative Announces Leadership Change
Rev. Tina L. Harris, Director of the Office of Mission, Service and Justice Ministries, announced today that after three years of service, Craig Stevenson, Associate Director of the Mozambique Initiative, resigned in ...
June 25, 2018
20 Years of Partnership
By Susan Sneed Craig Stevenson, the coordinator of the Mozambique Initiative, lifted up the 20 year partnership with Mozambique and celebrated that in a recent trip. The bishops of both areas renewed the memorandum of ...
June 25, 2018
50 Years, $100 Million in Assets: Foundation Celebrates Half a Century of Supporting Ministry
By Fred Koenig David Atkins, executive director of the Missouri United Methodist Foundation reported on the work that continues to grow the United Methodist church in Missouri on many levels. In 2017 the Foundation ...
June 25, 2018
A Church Alive
By Fred Koenig Each year Annual Conference session opens with the singing of the hymn “And Are We Yet Alive?” This year during Sunday morning worship, Rev. Jim Preisig answered the question in a quiet moment at the ...
June 25, 2018
Approaching the Way Forward
By Pam Ekey Remember the mission of the church as we consider how to move forward as a United Methodist Church, Bishop Bob Farr encouraged the Missouri Annual Conference. Friday afternoon he presented an update on ...
June 25, 2018
Celebration of Ministry
Commissioning, Licensing Retirement
June 25, 2018
Conference Gives to Festival of Sharing
By Fred Koenig Festival of Sharing would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who brought hygiene items to Annual Conference. "We nearly filled up the crates before lunch on Friday," says Sidney Owens, "We had to...
June 25, 2018
Connected
By Fred Koenig This issue misses the mark. I tried – I really did. I even had a lot of help from my loyal daily journalists, Susan Sneed and Pam Ekey, and this year we were joined by a new kid, Ken Rosenhauer, who did ...
June 25, 2018
Developing Leaders Follows the Example of Christ
By Pam Ekey Recruiting and developing leaders is vital to the success of the congregation, said Rev. Mike Schreiner, lead pastor of Morning Star Church in O’Fallon. Not only that, the process of developing leaders is ...
June 25, 2018
Difference Makers
By Ken Rosenauer Amy Thompson, in her second year as conference lay leader, launched the laity address on the second morning of the 2018 Annual Conference and told lay members gathered that their presence acknowledges ...
June 25, 2018
Fierce Conversations
By Fred Koenig Fierce conversations may sound like a rough way to go at a topic, but you must consider the definition of fierce that Susan Scott uses in her book Fierce Conversations: robust, powerful, authentic, eager,...
June 25, 2018
Freed-2-Lead
By Ken Rosenauer Rev. Dr. Antonio Settles started by inviting the 16th Missouri Annual Conference to put their hands together in praise. He finished by inviting each district to stand up because the Holy Spirit has ...
June 25, 2018
Full Connection
Provisional Members Welcomed into Missouri Conference as Ordained Elders
June 25, 2018
Generosity Puts Conference in Strong Position
By Fred Koenig Rev. Sheri Swanson, chair of the Missouri Conference Finance and Administration Team, presented a report to the session that indicated the Missouri Conference remains in a financially strong position. ...
June 25, 2018
Lending a Hand to Puerto Rico
By Susan Sneed Rev. Lucas Endicott, mission strategist, presented the Global Connect website, a resource for learning about mission opportunities and planning for a trip. Churches can share information on this ...
June 25, 2018
Meaningful Volunteer Training: What It Takes & How To Do It
By Fred Koenig Volunteer training is something that cuts straight to the mission of the church. “Volunteer training is important because when it works, you are making disciples,” said Melissa Baum, literacy ...
June 25, 2018
Missouri Conference Moves Forward In Ministry
By Fred Koenig Missouri Bishop Bob Farr began the 16th Session of the Missouri Annual Conference with a nod to history, noting that the United Methodist Church have existed for 50 years, as has the Kansas City Royals. ...
June 25, 2018
MSJ Celebrates Partnerships & New Endeavors
By Susan Sneed Rev. Tina L. Harris, director of the Office of Mission, Service and Justice, introduced her team and lifted-up 20 years of partnership with Mozambique as well as the partnerships with Festival of Sharing,...
June 25, 2018
New Initiatives with UMM
By Pam Ekey Bill Mooney, president of the Missouri Conference United Methodist Men, announced two new initiatives at the Saturday morning session of Annual Conference. The first, an initiative to end domestic violence ...
June 25, 2018
New Places for New People
By Fred Koenig Director of Congregational Excellence Roger Ross has now had a year to survey what’s going on in his area in Missouri. He liked what he saw. Now he wants to multiply it. Ross visited all new church ...
June 25, 2018
Next Generation Continues to Grow, Find New Paths
By Ken Rosenauer Were there a single word to describe how staff and supporters of Next Generation Ministries feel about their programs right now, it might be “outtasight.” At least that seems to be the message ...
June 25, 2018
Parting Shot
By Eric Mattson Photographers often attempt to capture decisive moments which have an element of no turning back. This is true of my sports photos, much like my earlier picture of the hurdler. No turning back; when that...
June 25, 2018
Pastoral Excellence Transforms to Leadership Excellence
By Pam Ekey The Missouri Conference is expanding its focus on the development of church leaders by transforming the Center for Pastoral Excellence into the new Center for Leadership Excellence, according to Director of ...
June 25, 2018
Remembered: Clergy, Churches Memorialized for Faithful Service
By Ken Rosenauer The bell tolled 36 times. The first 18 were for Missouri United Methodist clergy who died in the past year. The next 13 were for clergy spouses. Then, four for clergy and one for a spouse from ...
June 25, 2018
Sunday Morning Learning Time
By Ken Rosenauer “Welcome to the largest Sunday School class in the state of Missouri.” With that, Bishop Bob Farr opened the Sunday morning Bishop’s Learning Time. In short order, he turned over the mic to the Rev. ...
June 05, 2018
Obvious Wisdom Offers Pragmatic and Poignant Lessons on Ministry
COLUMBIA, Mo. – June 4, 2018 – Bishop Bob Farr’s latest book, Obvious Wisdom: 52 tips for effective ministry, is now available for purchase. Published by Market Square, the book provides succinct, practical advice ...
June 01, 2018
Quilts Cover Hurricane Survivors in Florida
By Fred Koenig As the Missouri Conference is beginning to assist local churches that want to send mission teams to Puerto Rico or support recovery projects there financially, some United Methodists in the Missouri have ...
May 24, 2018
Bishops, The Upper Room launch Phase 3 of Praying our Way Forward
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops in partnership with The Upper Room is launching Phase 3 of Praying our Way Forward. Phase 1 involved 84 members of the Council of Bishops praying for The United Methodist Church...
May 22, 2018
1968: Church Unites, Country Divided
By Fred Koenig Fifteen years ago the United Methodist Church celebrated John Wesley’s 300th birthday. It’s been 278 years since the first Methodists society formed. The 50-year celebration of the United Methodist ...
May 22, 2018
1968: History Converges, A Church Comes Together
By Heather Hahn On April 23, 1968, two bishops followed by two children, two youths, two adults, six ordained ministers, two church officers and finally all 10,000 people present joined hands and repeated in unison: “...
May 22, 2018
1968: Those To Be Merged
By Fred Koenig In Missouri the formation of the United Methodist Church wasn’t too significant for most Methodists, but it was more life-changing for the clergy of the Evangelical United Brethren who were about to ...