TENNESSEE CONFERENCE REVIEW JUNE 30, 2006
Tennessee Conference Review June 30, 2006
In this issue of The Review
1. Count for Children of Kamina Offering reaches $52,230.06.
2. Commentary: Remembering one woman's faith, battle with ALS. Kathie Hormby’s story.
3. Faith: Sensings breathe sigh of relief as son returns from Iraq.
4. Rev. Louis A. Johnson and Mrs. Opal Ransom presented with Denman Evangelism Awards
5. Fourteen Persons Were Commissioned or Ordained at Special Annual Conference Worship Service.
6. New Clergy Appointments, Conference Year 2006-2007, chart of new ministerial appointments.
7. Kevin Marston Receives M.Div. from St. Paul School of Theology,
8. Jay Archer’s stewardship presentation at the 2006 Annual Conference, Consecrating Our Treasures to God.
9. We All, Like Calves, Have Gone Astray. Australian Amy Rayson reflects on God as shepherd.
10. Doyle Murphy Fish Fry in Historic Charlotte, Tennessee.
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Count for Children of Kamina Offering reaches $52,230.06
The preliminary count for the special Care for the Children of Kamina offering on Sunday afternoon of the 2006 Tennessee Annual Conference was $52,230.06. Additional gifts from local congregations will be added to this amount. The Conference is attempting to raise $100,000 for food and medical care for children in Kamina, North Katanga Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of the Kamina children have been orphaned because of war, and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Bishop Wills has announced that the offering will remain open for gifts submitted by churches and individuals after Annual Conference. Mark your gifts “Children of Kamina” and send to the Annual Conference treasurer.
Children from throughout the Tennessee Annual Conference were heavily involved in raising funds for the offering, and challenging the Annual Conference to keep the orphaned children of Kamina in our thoughts and prayers. Over 60 children from 21 different congregations participated in the Sunday afternoon worship service and a special hour-long workshop beforehand. Springfield First UMC and Seay-Hubbard UMC both had ten or more children involved in the Kamina worship experience. The Planners for the Kamina Offering expressed appreciation to Destiny Jackson (Key UMC, Murfreesboro District), Alexandria Churchwell (Seay-Hubbard UMC), and Alex Brack (Greenville UMC) who were liturgists for the worship service. Appreciation was also expressed to the persons who planned the participation of the children, and provided leadership on Sunday afternoon as children from 21 congregations gathered in Murfreesboro—Lisa Martin, Debbie Tyree, Jared Wilson, Emily Gentry, Jamie Powell, Nan DeAndrade, Rosemary Brown, and Bishop William Morris. The leadership team also received strong support from parents and others representing the 21 involved congregations.
Commentary: Remembering one woman's faith, battle with ALS
A UMNS Commentary By Randy Horick*
Every February for the past 15 years, about the time that preparations for Lent usually begin, the congregation at West Nashville United Methodist Church has observed another ritual. During the time of the worship service when members offer their joys and concerns, Dave Hormby would raise his hand, indicating that his wife, Kathie, had something to offer.
In February, everyone knew what Kathie would say. They'd wait quietly for 30 seconds or more until they heard a slightly metallic female voice from Kathie's laptop computer: "Pitchers and catchers report this week."
For Kathie, perhaps the most faithful baseball fan you could have ever met, sharing the joy of a new season wasn't just about her favorite sport. As everyone at West Nashville United Methodist Church understood, it was an affirmation of faith and hope and joy, a personal testimony like those of the old Methodist tradition.
Longtime members of the church remember how Kathie went from a walker to a wheelchair, then gradually lost her ability to work - she had been a federal public defender - to feed herself and to speak. But she never gave up. In some ways, she only seemed to get stronger.
Kathie died in April, the week before Easter, after a long battle with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. She was 56 and had lived with the disease for 18 years. Gehrig lived only two or three. Few people last five. Virtually no one with this illness lives as long as Kathie did.
She was diagnosed when her son Tom was very small. She said she was determined to see him graduate from high school.
There was a symmetry about Kathie's illness, her faith and her love for baseball. As a true fan, she understood that hope endures against all odds. Her beloved Los Angeles Dodgers reached the playoffs just twice in the past 20 years. But every spring brought another chance. Hope does not die. In baseball, as Kathie once wrote, as long as you can keep fouling off pitches, you're staying alive.
The strength of Kathie's faith hit home for her pastor, Dennis Meaker, during a Sunday service when worshippers could request their favorite hymns. Kathie requested the old standard that begins, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow."
"That hymn took on even deeper meaning for me," says Dennis, who is entering his seventh year at West Nashville United Methodist Church. "It was truly a statement of her faith. I can no longer hear that hymn without thinking about Kathie."
Kathie didn't call out her hymn request. She had lost her speaking ability years ago. But she had slight movement with her head and one toe. They outfitted her wheelchair with a laptop whose keyboard she could control with her slight movements. A fellow parishioner taught her Morse Code. She was so eager to communicate that she learned it in one afternoon.
Kathie could "type" messages that the computer's voice processor turned into spoken word. She corresponded with friends by e-mail. She wrote a column, "Kathie's Hot Corner," for the church newsletter. She would read up about the Dodgers on the Net. (Her last act before she died was to check the previous night's box score.)
"She didn't have a Pollyannaish sense of God's providence - that everything, including her illness, happened as part of a divine plan," Dennis says. "But she cherished God's gift of life and never viewed her illness as an excuse to retreat from it."
On Kathie's last Sunday, during joys and concerns, Dave indicated that Kathie wanted to offer up a joy. After half a minute, the computer's robotic voice intoned: "Life begins on Opening Day!"
From the congregation there was the kind of laugh you hear when people expect a familiar punchline and are rewarded. "Now Kathie," teased Dennis, holding up his Bible, "I missed where that's covered in here."
"Hope," said Dave. "That's in there."
Opening Day is about hope, and few things are more biblical than that.
On May 23, Tom Hormby graduated from Nashville's Hume-Fogg High School. When she was diagnosed, no one but Kathie had dared to imagine she might see it.
After his diagnosis, Lou Gehrig told the crowd at Yankee Stadium not to feel sorry for him. He said he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. They called him the Iron Horse because he played in 2,130 consecutive games - a record people assumed would never be broken. It's hard to say whether Kathie considered herself lucky. But she was the real iron horse. And those who had the privilege to know her and be inspired by her faith were very lucky indeed.
*Horick is a journalist and a member of West Nashville (Tenn.) United Methodist Church.
Faith: Sensings breathe sigh of relief as son returns from Iraq
Stoicism of pastor, wife springs from earlier experience in danger zones
by Kathrin Chavez, staff writer
Reprinted with permission from THE TENNESSEAN, Friday, June 16, 2006.
FRANKLIN — A son signing up for the Marine Corps in a time of war could be a scary situation for some fathers. But not for the Rev. Don Sensing, whose son, Stephen, started Marine boot camp a couple of years ago.
The enlistment was no surprise. Stephen had long talked of joining the military. At first, service at sea took his fancy and he considered the Coast Guard. But in high school he started thinking about the Army. Later yet, his father advised him to talk to a Marine recruiter he knew. The two men had daughters on the same soccer team and had become friends.
"I told Stephen to not make a decision until he talked to this recruiter. I wanted him to consider a broader range," Sensing said.
Sensing knew what he was talking about; he's not exactly a typical preacher.
After graduating from Wake Forest University, the Nashville native took a commission in the U.S. Army field artillery. During his military career, he served on four continents, attended the Defense Information School and spent time at the Pentagon and the U.S. Army Operations Center for the first Gulf War.
In Korea and Central America, Don Sensing experienced "low-intensity combat" conditions, which might not be quite the same as what as his son saw in Iraq, but nerve-wracking enough.
"The central threat was the North Korea Army. They were always blowing things up. When we were in Germany, the Red Army faction was extremely active in 1983-86. There were quite a few bombings there," he said.
After taking early retirement from the military, Sensing attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and became ordained by the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church. He now writes an online news and commentary magazine, One Hand Clapping, at http://www.donaldsensing.com/. It concentrates on foreign and military policy and religious matters.
This Father's Day, Sensing has a special gift: Stephen Sensing has returned home safely.
But while Stephen was in Iraq, Don Sensing recalled that a friend asked his wife, Cathy, how they endured their son's service there. "
'Aren't you glued to the television? How do you stand it?' " the friend wanted to know. "She said, basically, 'Don and I lived in places where they tried to blow you up. You just have to take it. You deal with it and go on with your life,'"
The stoicism with which they dealt with the danger in their own lives influenced how they dealt with their son's potential danger.
"I was not so much worried about Stephen's safety than his well-being. I knew that the IED (improvised explosive device) threat was real. Marines in his unit were injured — none killed, thank goodness — some of them badly. They included a good friend of his from Dickson. For myself, it was never glued on my mind. I wanted him to be OK, but I wasn't worried specifically that he would be wounded," Sensing said.
Despite his own military experience, Sensing said he did not push any of his children away from or toward serving in the armed forces.
"I wasn't pushing him to do it, or any of the kids. I want them to consider it as American citizens need to do. They need to serve their country in some way. It doesn't have be in the military," he said.
Participating in war and believing in the love of God are not mutually exclusive, he said. The Bible, he continued, talks against divorce more harshly than it does warfare.
"Still we have to go and grapple with the fact that men and women get married and get divorced. I have dealt with people who are coping with its effects or are going through it. I still have to minister within that context without endorsing it," he said.
The world is imperfect, he said, but while the imperfections may not be what Christians believe the world should contain, it still does.
"We live in a church world. We believe in a community of love, but we also have to understand the community of love is only partial, only fragmentary. And we find ourselves mostly in the community of justice with police, courts and prisons, not the community of love.
"What happened on 9/11 and in Iraq and other places … we are dealing with situations that are imperfect, that are not as they should be. But it is what we have. Is it correct to turn the other cheek and allow other Americans to be killed or to attempt to pursue actions to bring peace in the Middle East?"
Rev. Louis A. Johnson and Mrs. Opal Ransom presented with Denman Evangelism Awards
The Denman Evangelism Award was established in 1980 by the Foundation for Evangelism to recognize and honor pastors and lay persons who are doing the vital work of responsible evangelism in ways that are in keeping with United Methodist history and tradition. The Tennessee Annual Conference in cooperation with the Foundation for Evangelism has established two annual Denman awards, one for a lay person and one for a clergy person. (from last year). The awards in 2006 were presented by Glyndia J. Dodson on behalf of the Tennessee Conference Work Area on Evangelism
Rev. Louis A. Johnson, clergy
The Denman Evangelism Award for Clergy, 2006, goes to Rev. Louis A. Johnson, a man whom many of us have known, loved, respected, and admired for many years. The recipient has enriched the lives of many down through the years. His District Superintendent, Dr. James Clardy, states and I quote, "Reaching others for Christ has been the theme of this man's ministry for as long as I have known him." Rev. Johnson retired in 1992 but continues an effective ministry at Bell Springs United Methodist Church in the Murfreesboro District.
Opal Ransom, laity
The Denman Evangelism Award for Laity, 2006, goes to Mrs. Opal Ransom, a woman who is tireless in her evangelistic and outreach efforts. Her influence has been felt far and wide by those who are in need of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Her pastor, Rev. Daniel Hayes, states and I quote, "She works diligently to lead the church in out-of-the-box ministry that is truly inspiring, encouraging and uplifting." She attends Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church, where she has been a member for 44 years and continues to bear much fruit.
Fourteen Persons Were Commissioned or Ordained at Special Annual Conference Worship Service
On Sunday evening , June 11th, a service of worship was held at Annual Conference for the Presentation of Licenses for Pastoral Ministry, the Recognition of an Associate Member, the Commissioning of Probationary Members for Service, and the Ordination of Deacons and Elders.
Commissioned ministers
The following persons became commissioned ministers and entered a probationary period prior to ordination (front row from l to r): Charles Kevin Marston, Michael Lynn Welch , Araminta Lea Thornton , and Robert Austin Niles; (second row from l to r) Rebecca Ann Peeler, Brian David Gilbert , and David Wayne Hesson; (Back) Ted Wayne Hill and Peter Fredric Ellis Ferguson.
Ordained Deacons and Elders
Jacquelyn Lolita Clevenger (front, center) and Lucinda Ann Nelson (right) were ordained as Deacons and Full Members of the Conference. Ann Lenore Guinivan Cover (front, left), Helen Toner Morgan (back, left), and Steven Mark Youngman (back, center) were ordained as Elders and Full Members of the Conference.
Tennessee Annual Conference
New Clergy Appointments, Conference Year 2006-2007
Status Codes
AF Affiliate Member
AM Associate Member
FD Full Connection Deacon
FE Full Connection Elder
FL Full-time Local Pastor
HL Honorable Location
OA Associate Member of another Annual Conference
OD Deacon Member of another Annual Conference
OE Elder Member of another Annual Conference
OF Full Member of another Denomination
PD Probationary Deacon
PE Probationary Elder
PL Part-time Local Pastor
RA Retired Associate Member
RD Retired Deacon in Full Connection
RE Retired Elder in Full Connection
RL Retired Local Pastor
RP Retired Probationary
SP Student Local Pastor
SY Supply Pastor
Clarksville District
Appointment Name Status
Clarksville District Superintendent John W. Casey (6) FE
Bascom-Glenwood Joel Nulty PL
Cedar Hill-Porter's Chapel Joan Hubbard FL
Central-Mt. Pleasant Carolyn Nobling FL
Clarksville First Randy Mutter PL
Cumberland City Chg.:Spring Hill-Cedar Valley William B. Lyle SY
Cumberland City Chg: Cumb. City, Lockhart’s, Paul’s Chapel Associate Hunter Stapp SY
Greenbrier John W. Arnold, Jr. FE
Greenwood Chg. (Greenwood /Jackson's Chapel) David H. Lunsford FL
Hustburg-Ebenezer Donna Ann Parramore PE
Liberty Terry Wires SY
New Chapel Kevin Marston PE
New Chapel Associate Pastor,Youth & Mission Todd Kelly SP
Springfield Parish Associate Thomas Wayne Farmer PL
Walton's Chapel George M Adair PL
Wartrace Carl Hubbard RL
Yellow Creek Ct. Carol Miller SY
Retired Clergy-Clarksville Carl Hubbard RL
Retired Clergy-Clarksville Chester Towry RL
Columbia District
Appointment Name Status
Columbia District Superintendent Willie Burchfield (1) FE
Bon Aqua-Kedron-Nunnelly Jacqueline A. Sojourner FE
Caldwell Kimi Brown SY
Chapel Hill Mark Youngman FE
Craft Memorial Steve Blackwell FE
East Hickman-Little Lot-Mt. Pleasant Tom Pierce FL
Farmington Jay Hoppus SY
Franklin First Director Ministries for Youth Vona High FL
Hohenwald First Drew Brewer OE
Nolensville First Sandra Parrish Shawhan FE
Petersburg Circuit Donnie Morris FL
Promise Circuit Larry L. Parker PL
Riverside Gary Wedgewood FE
Thompson Station Charge T B S
Westview Edward Johnson Britt FE
CCOM Loyd E. Mabry FE
Cookeville District
Appointment Name Status
Cookeville District Superintendent Harold L. Martin (2) FE
Brush Creek-New Middleton William Floyd Massey PL
Clarkrange Daniel Lee Whitson FL
Crossville First John A. Halliburton FE
Crossville First Associate J. Carmack Johnson, Jr. FL
Forbus Circuit Matthew L. Long FL
Gainesboro Kathryn J. Bowles FL
Martin's-McDonald's: Martin's Ernest H. Lampley RL
Monterey-Bethlehem Carolyn May Bingham FE
Morrison-Bascom Shelby P. Newman RA
Pleasant Grove-Bethany: Bethany Jackie A. McMurry PL
Salem-Brotherton Rick L. Cross FL
Warren County Charge: Bybees-New Union Tim Lewis OF
Student Christopher A. Haynes FE
Cumberland District
Appointment Name Status
Cumberland District Superintendent Ronald Lowery (1) FE
Beech Grove Horace Wilkinson PL
Bethpage James R. Hewgley FE
Cross Plains James Michael Waldrop FE
Gallatin First Guy Carleton Thackston FE
Gallatin First Staff Deacon Ted W. Hill PD
Hermitage Allen R. Black FE
Key-Stewart Shirley Renee Franklin FE
Lebanon Circuit Annette Grace Zimondi OE
Lebanon First Staff Deacon David Hesson PD
Mt. Vernon Larry Cook Fletcher PL
Owens Chapel-Cedar Grove Clint Jones PL
Rehoboth R. Michael Potts FE
St. Andrew-Oakwood Lorin Pedigo FL
Walnut Grove Thad Nolen Brunson FE
Salvis Center Ted W. Hill PD
Diaconal Minister Thomas W. Lamb RL
Secondary Appointment Paul Van Buren OD
Murfreesboro District
Appointment Name Status
Murfreesboro District Superintendent Cathie Leimenstoll (1) FE
Asbury-Wesley Chapel Jacqueline R. Steubbel SY
Bell Buckle Elizabeth T. Ezell FL
Bethel/Cowan/Farris Chapel: Bethel-Cowan J. Kenneth Ervin AM
Bethel/Cowan/Farris Chapel: Farris Chapel Jason M. Arnold SY
Blankenship Dewey L. Smith PL
Cedar Grove Noreen I. Adams FE
Decherd Mosae Han PE
Eagleville-Concord David N. Martin FL
Emery Thaddeus Ashby PL
Fountain Grove-Mt. Carmel D. Eugene Green PL
Fredonia/Gilley Hill: Gilley Hill Janet D. Harlow FE
Key Memorial Graham Park Matthews,Jr FE
Lavergne First Lawrence E. Royston, Jr. FL
Lynchburg First William A. Mulroy OE
Missionary To Murfreesboro District Enrique Hernandez Vigil OE
Mt. Pleasant Janet D. Harlow FE
Pleasant Grove Matthew R. Trussell PE
Rover Charge: Maxwell Chapel Scotty D. Sorrells PL
Rover Charge: St. Paul Scotty D. Sorrells PL
Rover Charge: Zion Hill LeRoy Butler PL
Smith's Chapel-Singleton Christopher P. Harris PL
St. Mark’s Associate James C. Clardy, Jr. SY
Tracy City L.C. Troutt RM
Tullahom Associate Lea Thornton PE
Unionville Charge: Hickory Hill Susan T. Warwick SY
Wartrace/Mt. Olivet: Mt. Olivet James M. Gonyea SY
West End Carlos Uroza SY
Winchester First Randall T. Brown FE
Woodbury/Ivy Bluff Perry E. Whitaker FL
United Methodist Men David C. Adams FE
Nashville District
Appointment Name Status
Nashville District Superintendent Garry D. Speich FE
Arlington John Michael Jones FE
Belle Meade Associate Pamela C. Hawkins FE
Belle Meade Coordinator of Membership and Assimilation Regina Proctor SP
Brentwood Director of 'Tween Ministry William R Carey III PD
Centenary/New Bethel Michael Turner PL
City Road Raymond R. Newell FE
City Road Associate SungNam Kim FE
East End Diane L. Blum FE
Ernest Newman Gwen Brown-Felder PL
Hillcrest Paul Purdue FE
Jordonia/Monroe Street Associate Sherry F. Harrison PL
Nashville Korean Associate Mosung Eam PL
St. John's David M. Lay FE
Trinity Benjamin Jordan, Jr FE
Tulip Street Matthew Baldwin OF
West End Administration Pastor John Feldhacker FL
Student Tamara E. Lewis PE
UMPH Jo B. Reece FD
Transitional Leave Joaquin Garcia FD
GBHEM Rita Joel Stephens FL
Nashville Area Foundation Vincent Walkup FE
Wesley Foundation TSU T B S
Retired Clergy, Nashville Suzanne Glover Braden RM
Retired Clergy, Nashville Joe K. Shelton RM
Pulaski District
Appointment Name Status
Pulaski District Superintendent Bettye P. Lewis, 7, FE
Barnhill-Abrams Michael Beck OF
Blanche-Coldwater John L. Johnson FL
Campground-Eureka James Don Lee AM
Collinwood-Lutts Christopher Moore SP
Fayetteville First Thomas H. Ward FE
Lawrenceburg First James W. Gardner FE
Liberty-Rehoboth Bradley Smit SY
Loretto - Saint Joseph James Rucker FL
Trinity (Hardin) Jason Estes SY
Martin Methodist College Eun-Hee Cha PE
Secondary Laura Kirkpatric PD
Kevin Marston Receives M.Div. from St. Paul School of Theology
Kansas City, MO—On Friday, May 19, 2006 Kevin Marston of the Tennessee UMC Conference received his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Paul School of Theology during the seminary’s forty-fifth commencement ceremony.
Introducing a new Stewardship Education Plan
Consecrating Our Treasures to God
by Jay Archer, Chairperson of the Tennessee Conference Stewardship Committee.
I appreciate this time to introduce to you a stewardship education plan for our whole conference entitled Consecrating Our Treasures to God. This plan is launched with the Stewardship Resource Book available at this Annual Conference in the lobby, but the heart of the plan takes place in this coming conference year, and continues afterwards.
Why do we need this conference-wide stewardship education plan entitled Consecrating our Treasures to God?
Let me begin by quoting an excerpt from a letter written in 135 A.D.
In 135 A.D, a man named Aristides sent a letter to the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. In that letter Aristides had this to say about Christians:
“They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not among them. They love one another. They do not refuse to help widows. They rescue the orphan from violence. He who has gives ungrudgingly to him who lacks. If they see a stranger, they take him home and entertain him as a brother. When one of their poor passes from this world, any one of them who sees it provides for his burial according to his ability … Truly this is a new people and there is something divine in them.”
Here’s the point. I am not sure what non-Christians are saying about the United Methodist Church in Tennessee in the year 2006. I’d like for them to be saying things similar to what Aristides said to the Roman Emperor Hadrian---but I am not sure many folk would.
And the problem may be with our money.
Hear this insight by a fellow named John Wesley, entered into his journal on Oct 12, 1760: “On the following days I spoke severally to the members of the Bristol Society. As many of them increase in worldly goods, their grand danger, I apprehend, will be their lapsing into the spirit of the World, and then their religion is but a dream.”
There is the Rub! Our witness to Christ is tarnished by the worldliness that has a hold on us. In the United States we live in a culture captured by materialism---and the church, by and large, is captured with it.
And if losing our witness is not a great tragedy, than certainly losing our religion is. John Wesley said the danger with prosperity is that prosperity can turn a Christian’s faith into a dream. That’s the great sadness! We find many in our United Methodist churches whose religion is but a dream. They lack the confidence in the reality of the gospel we preach and they are not certain of the reality of the Lord we speak of. As a result, their religion does not truly transform their living. They have little “True Religion” as Wesley would speak of it. Worldliness has damaged their faith and impoverished their life of discipleship.
A stewardship education plan is needed to help us enter our spiritual struggle with money, materialism, prosperity and worldliness. If we don’t let God wrestle with us—we will be a culturally captured church---and the world doesn’t need a culturally captured church! Moreover, we will kill true religion in our Methodist churches instead of nurture true religion.
Let’s turn to Consecrating Our Treasures to God, the conference-wide stewardship education plan.
The prominent feature of this Stewardship Education Plan is Tithing!
Tithing is that biblical, tried and tested, discipline of giving 10% of your income to the work of the Lord as a sign that everything you have belongs to God.
I say “Tried and Tested” spiritual discipline not only because the discipline of tithing has been practiced by centuries of faithful Christians, but I have tried and tested it in my own life---Tithing liberates and frees. Tithing was essential to my faith and my wife’s faith to make our trust in God real. And thus to find out that God was real.
When my wife and I began our life in the local church ministry, we did not tithe. A layperson at our first appointment at White House taught us the practice, and we are forever indebted to that lesson. Tithing was a major player in seeing that our religion did not become just a dream.!
You can read more about our testimony to tithing in the Stewardship Resource Book.
So here the stewardship education plan in a nutshell.
The overall Goal of the stewardship education plan entitled Consecrating Our Treasures to God is to see that the Methodist Church gain the freedom from worldliness that promotes True Christianity and that gives the United Methodist church a powerful witness among a materialistic culture.
The Tactical Goal of Consecrating Our Treasures to God is to bring the concept of “Tithing” back into our conversation about essential disciplines of the Christian faith.
When you look at the plan, (it is before you on the Stewardship Committee Report and will be before you as a resolution before the conference) you will see that the core of this years action in the plan is to have each church set aside the month of march, 2007, to teach and preach about stewardship---Including the Discipline of Tithing.
However, there is an action you can do right now…laypersons, find your pastor today and say this to him or her, (whether you mean it or not)—I‘d love to have you preach on tithing.
We All, Like Calves, Have Gone Astray
by Amy Rayson*
I have made an important discovery: for too long sheep have been bearing the brunt of our judgement. It turns out that calves are every bit as stupid. Now, I’m referring to baby cows - not that part of your leg that aches if you take the stairs too quickly.
We didn’t get to see many cows in Australia, as sheep are the popular livestock of choice in most areas. Now that we live in Tennessee we come across far more cows than sheep. Our nearest neighbours raise cows, and their property borders our driveway.
This week I was sitting at the computer, supposedly working but actually gazing out at the Tennessee Spring finery, when I saw a glimpse of something wandering around. This is not too unusual. We often have deer wander through the yard which, you understand, is a terribly exciting thing for a bunch of foreigners like us! However, it soon became clear that this was no deer. No, it was a little baby cow. In its search for greener pastures it had found a way through the fence and was unable to get back through. And the neighbours were not home.
Between us the kids and I decided to shoo it back. Simple? No. The calf had two basic responses to our help. The first was repeatedly dashing itself against the wire fence. The second response was to run in the opposite direction and hide in the woods. Both options involved the calf completely ignoring the giant gaping hole in the fence that it could have been using to get back to its Mama.
In the end we had to abandon our attempts to help, and thankfully our neighbours returned home not long after. So all’s well that end’s well. Although it did get me thinking, how do we respond when we are being shooed back into our pastures? Do we throw ourselves frantically against the fence, hurting only ourselves? Do we run the other way and hide in the trees? Do we ignore the great gaping hole? The Shepherd God does know what He is doing, and we can trust in Him. Unlike this city girl from Australia!
*Mike and Amy Rayson and their children left Australia for Tennessee in August 2005, where they quickly discovered Wal-Mart and Chucky Cheese! They are missionaries to the local church in the United States of America. Mike recently performed at the 2006 Tennessee Annual Conference. To book Mike to speak or sing in your church, please call 931 362 1190, or email mike@mikerayson.net
Doyle Murphy Fish Fry in Historic Charlotte, Tennessee
Every year since 1993 Charlotte grocer Doyle Murphy (center) has brought out his secret fish batter recipe for the “Doyle Murphy Fish Fry,” a major fundraiser for Charlotte-Fagan United Methodist Church, Clarksville District.
In this issue of The Review
1. Count for Children of Kamina Offering reaches $52,230.06.
2. Commentary: Remembering one woman's faith, battle with ALS. Kathie Hormby’s story.
3. Faith: Sensings breathe sigh of relief as son returns from Iraq.
4. Rev. Louis A. Johnson and Mrs. Opal Ransom presented with Denman Evangelism Awards
5. Fourteen Persons Were Commissioned or Ordained at Special Annual Conference Worship Service.
6. New Clergy Appointments, Conference Year 2006-2007, chart of new ministerial appointments.
7. Kevin Marston Receives M.Div. from St. Paul School of Theology,
8. Jay Archer’s stewardship presentation at the 2006 Annual Conference, Consecrating Our Treasures to God.
9. We All, Like Calves, Have Gone Astray. Australian Amy Rayson reflects on God as shepherd.
10. Doyle Murphy Fish Fry in Historic Charlotte, Tennessee.
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Count for Children of Kamina Offering reaches $52,230.06
The preliminary count for the special Care for the Children of Kamina offering on Sunday afternoon of the 2006 Tennessee Annual Conference was $52,230.06. Additional gifts from local congregations will be added to this amount. The Conference is attempting to raise $100,000 for food and medical care for children in Kamina, North Katanga Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Many of the Kamina children have been orphaned because of war, and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. Bishop Wills has announced that the offering will remain open for gifts submitted by churches and individuals after Annual Conference. Mark your gifts “Children of Kamina” and send to the Annual Conference treasurer.
Children from throughout the Tennessee Annual Conference were heavily involved in raising funds for the offering, and challenging the Annual Conference to keep the orphaned children of Kamina in our thoughts and prayers. Over 60 children from 21 different congregations participated in the Sunday afternoon worship service and a special hour-long workshop beforehand. Springfield First UMC and Seay-Hubbard UMC both had ten or more children involved in the Kamina worship experience. The Planners for the Kamina Offering expressed appreciation to Destiny Jackson (Key UMC, Murfreesboro District), Alexandria Churchwell (Seay-Hubbard UMC), and Alex Brack (Greenville UMC) who were liturgists for the worship service. Appreciation was also expressed to the persons who planned the participation of the children, and provided leadership on Sunday afternoon as children from 21 congregations gathered in Murfreesboro—Lisa Martin, Debbie Tyree, Jared Wilson, Emily Gentry, Jamie Powell, Nan DeAndrade, Rosemary Brown, and Bishop William Morris. The leadership team also received strong support from parents and others representing the 21 involved congregations.
Commentary: Remembering one woman's faith, battle with ALS
A UMNS Commentary By Randy Horick*
Every February for the past 15 years, about the time that preparations for Lent usually begin, the congregation at West Nashville United Methodist Church has observed another ritual. During the time of the worship service when members offer their joys and concerns, Dave Hormby would raise his hand, indicating that his wife, Kathie, had something to offer.
In February, everyone knew what Kathie would say. They'd wait quietly for 30 seconds or more until they heard a slightly metallic female voice from Kathie's laptop computer: "Pitchers and catchers report this week."
For Kathie, perhaps the most faithful baseball fan you could have ever met, sharing the joy of a new season wasn't just about her favorite sport. As everyone at West Nashville United Methodist Church understood, it was an affirmation of faith and hope and joy, a personal testimony like those of the old Methodist tradition.
Longtime members of the church remember how Kathie went from a walker to a wheelchair, then gradually lost her ability to work - she had been a federal public defender - to feed herself and to speak. But she never gave up. In some ways, she only seemed to get stronger.
Kathie died in April, the week before Easter, after a long battle with ALS - Lou Gehrig's Disease. She was 56 and had lived with the disease for 18 years. Gehrig lived only two or three. Few people last five. Virtually no one with this illness lives as long as Kathie did.
She was diagnosed when her son Tom was very small. She said she was determined to see him graduate from high school.
There was a symmetry about Kathie's illness, her faith and her love for baseball. As a true fan, she understood that hope endures against all odds. Her beloved Los Angeles Dodgers reached the playoffs just twice in the past 20 years. But every spring brought another chance. Hope does not die. In baseball, as Kathie once wrote, as long as you can keep fouling off pitches, you're staying alive.
The strength of Kathie's faith hit home for her pastor, Dennis Meaker, during a Sunday service when worshippers could request their favorite hymns. Kathie requested the old standard that begins, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow."
"That hymn took on even deeper meaning for me," says Dennis, who is entering his seventh year at West Nashville United Methodist Church. "It was truly a statement of her faith. I can no longer hear that hymn without thinking about Kathie."
Kathie didn't call out her hymn request. She had lost her speaking ability years ago. But she had slight movement with her head and one toe. They outfitted her wheelchair with a laptop whose keyboard she could control with her slight movements. A fellow parishioner taught her Morse Code. She was so eager to communicate that she learned it in one afternoon.
Kathie could "type" messages that the computer's voice processor turned into spoken word. She corresponded with friends by e-mail. She wrote a column, "Kathie's Hot Corner," for the church newsletter. She would read up about the Dodgers on the Net. (Her last act before she died was to check the previous night's box score.)
"She didn't have a Pollyannaish sense of God's providence - that everything, including her illness, happened as part of a divine plan," Dennis says. "But she cherished God's gift of life and never viewed her illness as an excuse to retreat from it."
On Kathie's last Sunday, during joys and concerns, Dave indicated that Kathie wanted to offer up a joy. After half a minute, the computer's robotic voice intoned: "Life begins on Opening Day!"
From the congregation there was the kind of laugh you hear when people expect a familiar punchline and are rewarded. "Now Kathie," teased Dennis, holding up his Bible, "I missed where that's covered in here."
"Hope," said Dave. "That's in there."
Opening Day is about hope, and few things are more biblical than that.
On May 23, Tom Hormby graduated from Nashville's Hume-Fogg High School. When she was diagnosed, no one but Kathie had dared to imagine she might see it.
After his diagnosis, Lou Gehrig told the crowd at Yankee Stadium not to feel sorry for him. He said he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth. They called him the Iron Horse because he played in 2,130 consecutive games - a record people assumed would never be broken. It's hard to say whether Kathie considered herself lucky. But she was the real iron horse. And those who had the privilege to know her and be inspired by her faith were very lucky indeed.
*Horick is a journalist and a member of West Nashville (Tenn.) United Methodist Church.
Faith: Sensings breathe sigh of relief as son returns from Iraq
Stoicism of pastor, wife springs from earlier experience in danger zones
by Kathrin Chavez, staff writer
Reprinted with permission from THE TENNESSEAN, Friday, June 16, 2006.
FRANKLIN — A son signing up for the Marine Corps in a time of war could be a scary situation for some fathers. But not for the Rev. Don Sensing, whose son, Stephen, started Marine boot camp a couple of years ago.
The enlistment was no surprise. Stephen had long talked of joining the military. At first, service at sea took his fancy and he considered the Coast Guard. But in high school he started thinking about the Army. Later yet, his father advised him to talk to a Marine recruiter he knew. The two men had daughters on the same soccer team and had become friends.
"I told Stephen to not make a decision until he talked to this recruiter. I wanted him to consider a broader range," Sensing said.
Sensing knew what he was talking about; he's not exactly a typical preacher.
After graduating from Wake Forest University, the Nashville native took a commission in the U.S. Army field artillery. During his military career, he served on four continents, attended the Defense Information School and spent time at the Pentagon and the U.S. Army Operations Center for the first Gulf War.
In Korea and Central America, Don Sensing experienced "low-intensity combat" conditions, which might not be quite the same as what as his son saw in Iraq, but nerve-wracking enough.
"The central threat was the North Korea Army. They were always blowing things up. When we were in Germany, the Red Army faction was extremely active in 1983-86. There were quite a few bombings there," he said.
After taking early retirement from the military, Sensing attended Vanderbilt Divinity School and became ordained by the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church. He now writes an online news and commentary magazine, One Hand Clapping, at http://www.donaldsensing.com/. It concentrates on foreign and military policy and religious matters.
This Father's Day, Sensing has a special gift: Stephen Sensing has returned home safely.
But while Stephen was in Iraq, Don Sensing recalled that a friend asked his wife, Cathy, how they endured their son's service there. "
'Aren't you glued to the television? How do you stand it?' " the friend wanted to know. "She said, basically, 'Don and I lived in places where they tried to blow you up. You just have to take it. You deal with it and go on with your life,'"
The stoicism with which they dealt with the danger in their own lives influenced how they dealt with their son's potential danger.
"I was not so much worried about Stephen's safety than his well-being. I knew that the IED (improvised explosive device) threat was real. Marines in his unit were injured — none killed, thank goodness — some of them badly. They included a good friend of his from Dickson. For myself, it was never glued on my mind. I wanted him to be OK, but I wasn't worried specifically that he would be wounded," Sensing said.
Despite his own military experience, Sensing said he did not push any of his children away from or toward serving in the armed forces.
"I wasn't pushing him to do it, or any of the kids. I want them to consider it as American citizens need to do. They need to serve their country in some way. It doesn't have be in the military," he said.
Participating in war and believing in the love of God are not mutually exclusive, he said. The Bible, he continued, talks against divorce more harshly than it does warfare.
"Still we have to go and grapple with the fact that men and women get married and get divorced. I have dealt with people who are coping with its effects or are going through it. I still have to minister within that context without endorsing it," he said.
The world is imperfect, he said, but while the imperfections may not be what Christians believe the world should contain, it still does.
"We live in a church world. We believe in a community of love, but we also have to understand the community of love is only partial, only fragmentary. And we find ourselves mostly in the community of justice with police, courts and prisons, not the community of love.
"What happened on 9/11 and in Iraq and other places … we are dealing with situations that are imperfect, that are not as they should be. But it is what we have. Is it correct to turn the other cheek and allow other Americans to be killed or to attempt to pursue actions to bring peace in the Middle East?"
Rev. Louis A. Johnson and Mrs. Opal Ransom presented with Denman Evangelism Awards
The Denman Evangelism Award was established in 1980 by the Foundation for Evangelism to recognize and honor pastors and lay persons who are doing the vital work of responsible evangelism in ways that are in keeping with United Methodist history and tradition. The Tennessee Annual Conference in cooperation with the Foundation for Evangelism has established two annual Denman awards, one for a lay person and one for a clergy person. (from last year). The awards in 2006 were presented by Glyndia J. Dodson on behalf of the Tennessee Conference Work Area on Evangelism
Rev. Louis A. Johnson, clergy
The Denman Evangelism Award for Clergy, 2006, goes to Rev. Louis A. Johnson, a man whom many of us have known, loved, respected, and admired for many years. The recipient has enriched the lives of many down through the years. His District Superintendent, Dr. James Clardy, states and I quote, "Reaching others for Christ has been the theme of this man's ministry for as long as I have known him." Rev. Johnson retired in 1992 but continues an effective ministry at Bell Springs United Methodist Church in the Murfreesboro District.
Opal Ransom, laity
The Denman Evangelism Award for Laity, 2006, goes to Mrs. Opal Ransom, a woman who is tireless in her evangelistic and outreach efforts. Her influence has been felt far and wide by those who are in need of a relationship with Jesus Christ. Her pastor, Rev. Daniel Hayes, states and I quote, "She works diligently to lead the church in out-of-the-box ministry that is truly inspiring, encouraging and uplifting." She attends Gordon Memorial United Methodist Church, where she has been a member for 44 years and continues to bear much fruit.
Fourteen Persons Were Commissioned or Ordained at Special Annual Conference Worship Service
On Sunday evening , June 11th, a service of worship was held at Annual Conference for the Presentation of Licenses for Pastoral Ministry, the Recognition of an Associate Member, the Commissioning of Probationary Members for Service, and the Ordination of Deacons and Elders.
Commissioned ministers
The following persons became commissioned ministers and entered a probationary period prior to ordination (front row from l to r): Charles Kevin Marston, Michael Lynn Welch , Araminta Lea Thornton , and Robert Austin Niles; (second row from l to r) Rebecca Ann Peeler, Brian David Gilbert , and David Wayne Hesson; (Back) Ted Wayne Hill and Peter Fredric Ellis Ferguson.
Ordained Deacons and Elders
Jacquelyn Lolita Clevenger (front, center) and Lucinda Ann Nelson (right) were ordained as Deacons and Full Members of the Conference. Ann Lenore Guinivan Cover (front, left), Helen Toner Morgan (back, left), and Steven Mark Youngman (back, center) were ordained as Elders and Full Members of the Conference.
Tennessee Annual Conference
New Clergy Appointments, Conference Year 2006-2007
Status Codes
AF Affiliate Member
AM Associate Member
FD Full Connection Deacon
FE Full Connection Elder
FL Full-time Local Pastor
HL Honorable Location
OA Associate Member of another Annual Conference
OD Deacon Member of another Annual Conference
OE Elder Member of another Annual Conference
OF Full Member of another Denomination
PD Probationary Deacon
PE Probationary Elder
PL Part-time Local Pastor
RA Retired Associate Member
RD Retired Deacon in Full Connection
RE Retired Elder in Full Connection
RL Retired Local Pastor
RP Retired Probationary
SP Student Local Pastor
SY Supply Pastor
Clarksville District
Appointment Name Status
Clarksville District Superintendent John W. Casey (6) FE
Bascom-Glenwood Joel Nulty PL
Cedar Hill-Porter's Chapel Joan Hubbard FL
Central-Mt. Pleasant Carolyn Nobling FL
Clarksville First Randy Mutter PL
Cumberland City Chg.:Spring Hill-Cedar Valley William B. Lyle SY
Cumberland City Chg: Cumb. City, Lockhart’s, Paul’s Chapel Associate Hunter Stapp SY
Greenbrier John W. Arnold, Jr. FE
Greenwood Chg. (Greenwood /Jackson's Chapel) David H. Lunsford FL
Hustburg-Ebenezer Donna Ann Parramore PE
Liberty Terry Wires SY
New Chapel Kevin Marston PE
New Chapel Associate Pastor,Youth & Mission Todd Kelly SP
Springfield Parish Associate Thomas Wayne Farmer PL
Walton's Chapel George M Adair PL
Wartrace Carl Hubbard RL
Yellow Creek Ct. Carol Miller SY
Retired Clergy-Clarksville Carl Hubbard RL
Retired Clergy-Clarksville Chester Towry RL
Columbia District
Appointment Name Status
Columbia District Superintendent Willie Burchfield (1) FE
Bon Aqua-Kedron-Nunnelly Jacqueline A. Sojourner FE
Caldwell Kimi Brown SY
Chapel Hill Mark Youngman FE
Craft Memorial Steve Blackwell FE
East Hickman-Little Lot-Mt. Pleasant Tom Pierce FL
Farmington Jay Hoppus SY
Franklin First Director Ministries for Youth Vona High FL
Hohenwald First Drew Brewer OE
Nolensville First Sandra Parrish Shawhan FE
Petersburg Circuit Donnie Morris FL
Promise Circuit Larry L. Parker PL
Riverside Gary Wedgewood FE
Thompson Station Charge T B S
Westview Edward Johnson Britt FE
CCOM Loyd E. Mabry FE
Cookeville District
Appointment Name Status
Cookeville District Superintendent Harold L. Martin (2) FE
Brush Creek-New Middleton William Floyd Massey PL
Clarkrange Daniel Lee Whitson FL
Crossville First John A. Halliburton FE
Crossville First Associate J. Carmack Johnson, Jr. FL
Forbus Circuit Matthew L. Long FL
Gainesboro Kathryn J. Bowles FL
Martin's-McDonald's: Martin's Ernest H. Lampley RL
Monterey-Bethlehem Carolyn May Bingham FE
Morrison-Bascom Shelby P. Newman RA
Pleasant Grove-Bethany: Bethany Jackie A. McMurry PL
Salem-Brotherton Rick L. Cross FL
Warren County Charge: Bybees-New Union Tim Lewis OF
Student Christopher A. Haynes FE
Cumberland District
Appointment Name Status
Cumberland District Superintendent Ronald Lowery (1) FE
Beech Grove Horace Wilkinson PL
Bethpage James R. Hewgley FE
Cross Plains James Michael Waldrop FE
Gallatin First Guy Carleton Thackston FE
Gallatin First Staff Deacon Ted W. Hill PD
Hermitage Allen R. Black FE
Key-Stewart Shirley Renee Franklin FE
Lebanon Circuit Annette Grace Zimondi OE
Lebanon First Staff Deacon David Hesson PD
Mt. Vernon Larry Cook Fletcher PL
Owens Chapel-Cedar Grove Clint Jones PL
Rehoboth R. Michael Potts FE
St. Andrew-Oakwood Lorin Pedigo FL
Walnut Grove Thad Nolen Brunson FE
Salvis Center Ted W. Hill PD
Diaconal Minister Thomas W. Lamb RL
Secondary Appointment Paul Van Buren OD
Murfreesboro District
Appointment Name Status
Murfreesboro District Superintendent Cathie Leimenstoll (1) FE
Asbury-Wesley Chapel Jacqueline R. Steubbel SY
Bell Buckle Elizabeth T. Ezell FL
Bethel/Cowan/Farris Chapel: Bethel-Cowan J. Kenneth Ervin AM
Bethel/Cowan/Farris Chapel: Farris Chapel Jason M. Arnold SY
Blankenship Dewey L. Smith PL
Cedar Grove Noreen I. Adams FE
Decherd Mosae Han PE
Eagleville-Concord David N. Martin FL
Emery Thaddeus Ashby PL
Fountain Grove-Mt. Carmel D. Eugene Green PL
Fredonia/Gilley Hill: Gilley Hill Janet D. Harlow FE
Key Memorial Graham Park Matthews,Jr FE
Lavergne First Lawrence E. Royston, Jr. FL
Lynchburg First William A. Mulroy OE
Missionary To Murfreesboro District Enrique Hernandez Vigil OE
Mt. Pleasant Janet D. Harlow FE
Pleasant Grove Matthew R. Trussell PE
Rover Charge: Maxwell Chapel Scotty D. Sorrells PL
Rover Charge: St. Paul Scotty D. Sorrells PL
Rover Charge: Zion Hill LeRoy Butler PL
Smith's Chapel-Singleton Christopher P. Harris PL
St. Mark’s Associate James C. Clardy, Jr. SY
Tracy City L.C. Troutt RM
Tullahom Associate Lea Thornton PE
Unionville Charge: Hickory Hill Susan T. Warwick SY
Wartrace/Mt. Olivet: Mt. Olivet James M. Gonyea SY
West End Carlos Uroza SY
Winchester First Randall T. Brown FE
Woodbury/Ivy Bluff Perry E. Whitaker FL
United Methodist Men David C. Adams FE
Nashville District
Appointment Name Status
Nashville District Superintendent Garry D. Speich FE
Arlington John Michael Jones FE
Belle Meade Associate Pamela C. Hawkins FE
Belle Meade Coordinator of Membership and Assimilation Regina Proctor SP
Brentwood Director of 'Tween Ministry William R Carey III PD
Centenary/New Bethel Michael Turner PL
City Road Raymond R. Newell FE
City Road Associate SungNam Kim FE
East End Diane L. Blum FE
Ernest Newman Gwen Brown-Felder PL
Hillcrest Paul Purdue FE
Jordonia/Monroe Street Associate Sherry F. Harrison PL
Nashville Korean Associate Mosung Eam PL
St. John's David M. Lay FE
Trinity Benjamin Jordan, Jr FE
Tulip Street Matthew Baldwin OF
West End Administration Pastor John Feldhacker FL
Student Tamara E. Lewis PE
UMPH Jo B. Reece FD
Transitional Leave Joaquin Garcia FD
GBHEM Rita Joel Stephens FL
Nashville Area Foundation Vincent Walkup FE
Wesley Foundation TSU T B S
Retired Clergy, Nashville Suzanne Glover Braden RM
Retired Clergy, Nashville Joe K. Shelton RM
Pulaski District
Appointment Name Status
Pulaski District Superintendent Bettye P. Lewis, 7, FE
Barnhill-Abrams Michael Beck OF
Blanche-Coldwater John L. Johnson FL
Campground-Eureka James Don Lee AM
Collinwood-Lutts Christopher Moore SP
Fayetteville First Thomas H. Ward FE
Lawrenceburg First James W. Gardner FE
Liberty-Rehoboth Bradley Smit SY
Loretto - Saint Joseph James Rucker FL
Trinity (Hardin) Jason Estes SY
Martin Methodist College Eun-Hee Cha PE
Secondary Laura Kirkpatric PD
Kevin Marston Receives M.Div. from St. Paul School of Theology
Kansas City, MO—On Friday, May 19, 2006 Kevin Marston of the Tennessee UMC Conference received his Master of Divinity degree from Saint Paul School of Theology during the seminary’s forty-fifth commencement ceremony.
Introducing a new Stewardship Education Plan
Consecrating Our Treasures to God
by Jay Archer, Chairperson of the Tennessee Conference Stewardship Committee.
I appreciate this time to introduce to you a stewardship education plan for our whole conference entitled Consecrating Our Treasures to God. This plan is launched with the Stewardship Resource Book available at this Annual Conference in the lobby, but the heart of the plan takes place in this coming conference year, and continues afterwards.
Why do we need this conference-wide stewardship education plan entitled Consecrating our Treasures to God?
Let me begin by quoting an excerpt from a letter written in 135 A.D.
In 135 A.D, a man named Aristides sent a letter to the Roman Emperor, Hadrian. In that letter Aristides had this to say about Christians:
“They walk in all humility and kindness, and falsehood is not among them. They love one another. They do not refuse to help widows. They rescue the orphan from violence. He who has gives ungrudgingly to him who lacks. If they see a stranger, they take him home and entertain him as a brother. When one of their poor passes from this world, any one of them who sees it provides for his burial according to his ability … Truly this is a new people and there is something divine in them.”
Here’s the point. I am not sure what non-Christians are saying about the United Methodist Church in Tennessee in the year 2006. I’d like for them to be saying things similar to what Aristides said to the Roman Emperor Hadrian---but I am not sure many folk would.
And the problem may be with our money.
Hear this insight by a fellow named John Wesley, entered into his journal on Oct 12, 1760: “On the following days I spoke severally to the members of the Bristol Society. As many of them increase in worldly goods, their grand danger, I apprehend, will be their lapsing into the spirit of the World, and then their religion is but a dream.”
There is the Rub! Our witness to Christ is tarnished by the worldliness that has a hold on us. In the United States we live in a culture captured by materialism---and the church, by and large, is captured with it.
And if losing our witness is not a great tragedy, than certainly losing our religion is. John Wesley said the danger with prosperity is that prosperity can turn a Christian’s faith into a dream. That’s the great sadness! We find many in our United Methodist churches whose religion is but a dream. They lack the confidence in the reality of the gospel we preach and they are not certain of the reality of the Lord we speak of. As a result, their religion does not truly transform their living. They have little “True Religion” as Wesley would speak of it. Worldliness has damaged their faith and impoverished their life of discipleship.
A stewardship education plan is needed to help us enter our spiritual struggle with money, materialism, prosperity and worldliness. If we don’t let God wrestle with us—we will be a culturally captured church---and the world doesn’t need a culturally captured church! Moreover, we will kill true religion in our Methodist churches instead of nurture true religion.
Let’s turn to Consecrating Our Treasures to God, the conference-wide stewardship education plan.
The prominent feature of this Stewardship Education Plan is Tithing!
Tithing is that biblical, tried and tested, discipline of giving 10% of your income to the work of the Lord as a sign that everything you have belongs to God.
I say “Tried and Tested” spiritual discipline not only because the discipline of tithing has been practiced by centuries of faithful Christians, but I have tried and tested it in my own life---Tithing liberates and frees. Tithing was essential to my faith and my wife’s faith to make our trust in God real. And thus to find out that God was real.
When my wife and I began our life in the local church ministry, we did not tithe. A layperson at our first appointment at White House taught us the practice, and we are forever indebted to that lesson. Tithing was a major player in seeing that our religion did not become just a dream.!
You can read more about our testimony to tithing in the Stewardship Resource Book.
So here the stewardship education plan in a nutshell.
The overall Goal of the stewardship education plan entitled Consecrating Our Treasures to God is to see that the Methodist Church gain the freedom from worldliness that promotes True Christianity and that gives the United Methodist church a powerful witness among a materialistic culture.
The Tactical Goal of Consecrating Our Treasures to God is to bring the concept of “Tithing” back into our conversation about essential disciplines of the Christian faith.
When you look at the plan, (it is before you on the Stewardship Committee Report and will be before you as a resolution before the conference) you will see that the core of this years action in the plan is to have each church set aside the month of march, 2007, to teach and preach about stewardship---Including the Discipline of Tithing.
However, there is an action you can do right now…laypersons, find your pastor today and say this to him or her, (whether you mean it or not)—I‘d love to have you preach on tithing.
We All, Like Calves, Have Gone Astray
by Amy Rayson*
I have made an important discovery: for too long sheep have been bearing the brunt of our judgement. It turns out that calves are every bit as stupid. Now, I’m referring to baby cows - not that part of your leg that aches if you take the stairs too quickly.
We didn’t get to see many cows in Australia, as sheep are the popular livestock of choice in most areas. Now that we live in Tennessee we come across far more cows than sheep. Our nearest neighbours raise cows, and their property borders our driveway.
This week I was sitting at the computer, supposedly working but actually gazing out at the Tennessee Spring finery, when I saw a glimpse of something wandering around. This is not too unusual. We often have deer wander through the yard which, you understand, is a terribly exciting thing for a bunch of foreigners like us! However, it soon became clear that this was no deer. No, it was a little baby cow. In its search for greener pastures it had found a way through the fence and was unable to get back through. And the neighbours were not home.
Between us the kids and I decided to shoo it back. Simple? No. The calf had two basic responses to our help. The first was repeatedly dashing itself against the wire fence. The second response was to run in the opposite direction and hide in the woods. Both options involved the calf completely ignoring the giant gaping hole in the fence that it could have been using to get back to its Mama.
In the end we had to abandon our attempts to help, and thankfully our neighbours returned home not long after. So all’s well that end’s well. Although it did get me thinking, how do we respond when we are being shooed back into our pastures? Do we throw ourselves frantically against the fence, hurting only ourselves? Do we run the other way and hide in the trees? Do we ignore the great gaping hole? The Shepherd God does know what He is doing, and we can trust in Him. Unlike this city girl from Australia!
*Mike and Amy Rayson and their children left Australia for Tennessee in August 2005, where they quickly discovered Wal-Mart and Chucky Cheese! They are missionaries to the local church in the United States of America. Mike recently performed at the 2006 Tennessee Annual Conference. To book Mike to speak or sing in your church, please call 931 362 1190, or email mike@mikerayson.net
Doyle Murphy Fish Fry in Historic Charlotte, Tennessee
Every year since 1993 Charlotte grocer Doyle Murphy (center) has brought out his secret fish batter recipe for the “Doyle Murphy Fish Fry,” a major fundraiser for Charlotte-Fagan United Methodist Church, Clarksville District.
posted by TN Conference UMC @ 8:55 AM
