Here are a few of the Articles from our recent bulletins. Each of these have to do with our Charge Conference and the future of our congregation. let me know if you have any ideas:

I have heard many of you say how special this years Charge Conference was. I agree! This was a great time of sharing together our past and looking to our future. Thank you to all of you who took the time to make Sunday night a priority. If you were here I hope you heard a vision for the future as we talked about last years goals and accomplishments, the goals and leaders for the coming year, the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, and the Bishop Lowry's 3 P's. Over the next several weeks I will be outlining each of these in this section of the bulletin.
To start, let's look at the goals that were set for 2008 and how we have done with them.
Build strong relationship with residents of the community ( The congregation visited door to door in 2008, Fish Fry and Fall Festival, Quilters group, Ladies exercise class, youth and children activities, all reach out to the community.)
Have a VBS (We did not have a VBS in 2008 but are committed to having one in 2009)
Continue to be committed to mission outreach (the Charge has given over $2500 to UMCOR, we have and continue to give to the Food Pantry, we have a presence each week at the Nursing Home...)
I look forward to a great year ahead.


As promised we continue to look at where we have been and where we are going as a follow up to our recent Charge Conference. A large part of the Conference was focused on the 5 Practices book by Bishop Schnaze. This is a little excerpt from what was mentioned about it:
In the year ahead I see God leading us further and further into the community as we seek to offer Christ to a world full of unchurched people in need of God’s grace. In order to do this we as the people of God must make the following steps a priority:
We must get serious about our own faith development. In a sense, we must become intentional about our faith development. We can’t offer what we don’t have. We can’t give what we don’t know that we have received. To focus on our own spiritual growth and faith development we will offer a mid-week Bible study beginning in February in addition to our already developed Sunday School program.
We must make our stewardship of the resources God has given us a priority. You may want to call it Extravagant Generosity if you have studied the 5 Practices book. This Spring we will begin a time of focusing on our giving, what it means to give, why we give, why a tithe is important,…
This covers only 2 points of the book. We'll look at more next week.


...Continued from last week!
Below is the rest of the excerpt about the 5 Practices book that was discussed at Charge Conference.:
We must do better at inviting and receiving newcomers to the church. Some may call it radical hospitality, others may call it just being friendly but we need to take it to the next step. How we will do this is up for debate but we can begin on the streets here in Wortham and continue right here in the pews of the church
We must become passionate about our worship. Bill, Linda, and the pastor cannot do it all. You must come to worship prepared to encounter the risen Christ. We must all come to church ready, willing, and expecting change to take place in our lives and in the lives of those in the community.
We must step out of our comfort zone in ministry to others. You might hear of Risk-Taking Mission and Service or you might be asked to go on or receive a group for a mission trip. What ever it is you and I must be willing to reach out beyond the walls of the church, beyond the confines of our property, outside of our community, across the state and national boundaries, and into the world where Christ has called us to make a difference.

Here's to a great year behind and a wonderful year ahead!!!!
Jay