By GLENN HANNIGAN
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will be featured speaker at the Laity Luncheon, Friday, June 18, at Annual Conference.
Reed, who was sworn in as Atlanta’s 59th mayor in January, is a long-time member of Cascade UMC. He was first elected to the Georgia General Assembly in 1998 and served two terms as a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Education Committee and Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Committee.
The Laity Luncheon, held on the last day of Annual Conference, features a buffet for $20. Tickets are available online at www.ngumc.org. A limited number will be sold on site. The event is sponsored by the Conference Board of Laity
The 2010 Annual Conference, June 16-18, will held in Athens, at the downtown Classic Center. For the second year in a row, in an effort to cut costs, Conference will be a three-day event instead of four. Hotel rooms, typically in high demand, are still available.
Application for display space at Conference, which is limited, must be filed no later than Monday, May 3. Display tables are an extension of reports presented at Conference and priority is given to Conference commissions, boards and councils. For more details, go to www.ngumc.org.
The 2010 theme — “Ordinary to Extraordinary: Wake Up and See Where God is Moving” —takes inspiration from Jacob’s dream, the concept that heaven has come to earth to make all things extraordinary. God is with us, and goes before us, as “fear” gives way to “fear not.”
When Jacob wakes up, he realizes that God has been in this place the whole time and that God’s promise remains intact.
It is a thread that runs through the Annual Conference sessions: to dream of new ways of reaching people, to revitalize or transform what has been done previously.
Annual Conference officially begins with the Laity Orientation and Clergy Executive Session, 10 a.m. on Wed., June 16. It ends at 5:15 p.m., Fri., June 18.
For the first time, lay and clergy members are able to register online. Go to www.ngumc.org to register, or for more information. Each member who attends Annual Conference is responsible for his or her own lodging reservations.
Members of the Annual Conference will find a variety of restaurants and shopping within walking distance. Tickets for the Laity Luncheon will be sold at the Conference, with other meal tickets being sold prior to the conference by the sponsoring group.
This article recently ran in the April 16th edition of the North Georgia Advocate. For more information about the North Georgia Advocate, or to subscribe, please visit www.ngumc.org/advocate or call 678.533.1376.