I came across this USA Today article that says 'Hospitality has found a home in the world of worship--and there's a lesson in this for the nation at large.'

Have you seen this John Wesley Clayride? It has 'confirmation' written all over it.

We had a great event at Reinhardt yesterday focusing on how to leverage Public Relations and Facebook for your congregation.

Bill Burch from Sam Jones UMC in Cartersville shares some good sermon material for creation, light of the world.

There are some great upcoming online workshops offered by BeADisciple.com. The website is a ministry of the Richard and Julia Wilke Institute for Discipleship.

Two congregations, one from Indianapolis and another just outside of New Orleans, harnessed the energy surrounding Super Bowl XLIV with a friendly challenge: Which church can assemble the largest number of health kits for Haiti?

I enjoyed watching the Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics 100-91 last Friday night. Both teams played well but the Hawks held strong late in the fourth quarter to maintain the lead. The result is a 4-0 sweep of the Celtics this season.  No small feat. You just don't beat a team like Boston that often.

The Hawks played Orlando the next night after the fourth win over the Celtics. And the Magic dominated as they have all season long against Atlanta. How can you have one good team's number and then on the other hand be "owned"by another team?

But life is like that, isn't it?

You win some and you lose some. No matter how strong you are in one area there is another aspect of life where you are weak. A reminder that we are not really self-sufficient. We need others. We complement each other. No one is the complete package. And we need God. Even when we join with our brothers and sisters we still fall short at time.

It is comforting to know that even giants in the faith like the Apostle Paul struggled. He acknowledged that there were places where he did not measure up. "I want to do the good but I cannot do it" (Romans 7:19). He also understood that God's grace was sufficient and that "there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).

So we celebrate our victories and continue to work with God's help to learn from our defeats- and overcome them.

Rev. Bill Burch at Cartersville UMC recently did a two week sermon series on the Old and New Testament. His sermon plan and resources he developed are available in this post.

Check out this satire on how many churches seem to visitors

About 15 years ago, I had the privilege of helping "birth" a new Upper Room devotional magazine for youth. It has been a blessing to watch devozine grow and mature over the years, always with the mission of helping young people grow in their relationship with God. Now devozine has added something new  that is especially for adults who are in ministry with youth - www.devoted2youth.org. You'll want to check it out!

Active clergy of the North Georgia Conference are invited to a Pre-Retirement Seminar on Thursday, January 7, at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. This program is targeted to those nearing retirement eligibility. If you are 58 years old or older or have 26 years of service or more in the United Methodist Church, you may be eligible to retire soon.

 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS NOW FOR FEBRUARY 27, 2010. . .

 Check out Rev. Mark Westmoreland's posts on his new blog!

 Sometimes we see the same thing over and over but miss what is right there in front of us.

Michael Stewart from North Alabama conference suggested Following the Star . . .

 A forum on Contemporaneous Worship as held at Northside UMC. Robin kicked off the conversation with these ideas.

Twenty six years ago, the conference decided Gwinnett needed a new church. The Lawrenceville-Suwanee area was chosen. McKendree had just had its 100th anniversary. They had never had more than 50 in worship, usually averaged in the 30’s. The pastors were usually students at Candler who came up on Sunday (no parsonage), they were on a circuit.