Candler Conference to Focus on Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations

Come discover how your church can experience congregational health, vitality and fruitfulness by practicing radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, and extravagant generosity.

These will be the topics as Bishop Robert Schnase, author of Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, leads Candler School of Theology’s Fall Congregational Conference Oct. 11-13 at Gainesville First UMC and at Candler on the Emory campus in Atlanta.

The three-day conference features workshops and firsthand instruction by Schnase, who weaves theological insight, practical advice and exemplary stories to inspire pastors and laity. His goal is to help churches discover how they can demonstrate health by focusing on the five practices and how—by repeating and improving them—your church can fulfill its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

All events on Sunday, Oct. 11, will be held at Gainesville First United Methodist Church, where Schnase will also preach at the morning worship services. Monday and Tuesday’s events will take place at Candler School of Theology.

Schnase serves as bishop of the Missouri Conference of The United Methodist Church. He was elected bishop in 2004. In addition to Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, he has authored Ambition in Ministry: Our Spiritual Struggle with Success, and Achievement and Competition, and Testing and Reclaiming Your Call to Ministry.

For more information or to register for the event, visit www.candler.emory.edu. or
Contact: Candler School of Theology, Laurel Hanna, 404.727.4481, laurel.hanna@emory.edu

About Candler School of Theology

Candler School of Theology, Emory University, is an intellectually vital, internationally distinguished, and intentionally diverse university-based school of theology. Candler is committed to educating ministers, scholars of religion, and other leaders. Candler is dedicated to expanding knowledge of religion and theology, deepening spiritual life, strengthening the public witness of the churches, and building upon the breadth of Christian traditions, particularly the Wesleyan heritage, for the positive transformation of church and world. It is one of 13 United Methodist Church seminaries, and its enrollment includes more than 500 students from more than 50 denominations.

UMAC Annual Meeting

Register Online Now!

Join the United Methodist Association of Communicators (UMAC) Tuesday, Oct. 20 through Friday, Oct. 23 in Nashville, Tenn.!

We will be gathering at various locales, including the United Methodist Communications offices and the General Board of Discipleship offices. We are looking forward to enjoying the sights and sounds from Nashville, as well as being so close to many UM organizations and agencies.

Dear GBHEM Friends and Colleagues:

The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church is seeking candidates to fill the position of Associate General Secretary in the Division of Higher Education. The Search Committee is actively seeking a pool of qualified persons who might be interested in applying for the position. A position profile is attached for your reference.

Grace and shalom,
Jerome King Del Pino
General Secretary

JKDP/cls

A PDF for the position is linked below.

The Medical University of South Carolina's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is hosting a 3-hour workshop on October 10, 2009 that will assist non-medical professionals, such as clergy, recognize signs of mental illness.  This workshop, titled Recognizing Mental Illness for Non-Medical Professionals, will offer insight on neurological disorders, non-psychotic experiences and also sleep-paralysis to professionals such as clergy or pastoral counselors.  These professionals often come into contact with people that are seeking guidance.  With the information learned at this workshop, the clergy may be better equipped to recognize a mental illness or neurological disorder.  I have attached a flyer with more detail as well.

Do you have an email list that you could send this announcement to in order to help promote attendance?  We are really hoping to bring in a large group of professionals from the religious community so that we can have a very open and informative workshop that will benefit all attendees.  I would sincerely appreciate it if you could help spread the word to your ministers and staff.

Thank you so much for your help. If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact me or visit www.muschealth.com/psychevents.  

Have a great day! J

Heather Tyson

MUSC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Post-Graduate Professional Education Office

51 Bee Street; MSC 861

Charleston, SC  29425

(843) 792-7340 Phone

Read about the Rev. Lara Byrd, a member of the South Carolina Conference, in the September-October issue of Interpreter, the official ministry magazine for the people of The United Methodist Church. Byrd, associate pastor at Carteret Street United Methodist Church in Beaufort, is included in a story about young clergy. An expanded story of her call will be posted later in the month. Byrd is included in one of several features on developing new leaders. Read the story on-line at http://www.interpretermagazine.org/interior.asp?ptid=43&mid=13733. Read other stories about the need for developing new leaders for the church and about laity who are providing “principled Christian leadership” in the world and their workplaces.

Read, too, Dr. Bill Frist’s perspective on providing health care as a way of making peace, how fair-trade purchases improve life for producers and ideas for Laity Sunday and supporting laity throughout the year. As always, enjoy reading the popular "It Worked for Us" and "IdeaMart" departments as well as "Lighter Fare.".

Check out Interpreter OnLine at www.interpretermagazine.org. Then order your personal subscription by calling United Methodist Communications at 888-346-3862.

Change in traditional schedule

 Now January 29, 30 & 31, 2010 in Summerville

We need you to help us get out our change of date. As a State Committee member I have been asked to send you this information. Please help us channel this in your District.

Serving as the leader of The Greenville Convention & Visitors Bureau, I’m happy to lend some expertise and volunteer time to a tournament in which I’ve coached and participated in for many years.  We’re pleased to have assisted in putting together hotel packages for our visiting teams traveling to Summerville this January.

Visit the Tournament web-site (see below) for these selected packages and contact information.

In an effort to engage and involve more of our girls and boys, we’ve switched to the new dates in Summerville to hold a Winter State Championship Classic of Worship and Play!

Again, we will have two great scheduled worship services on Saturday and Sunday, planned by our Charleston District Clergy. These are always our high points and keep us in the true spirit of United Methodism. 

The new date avoids conflicts with the beginning of spring sports of baseball, softball, soccer, lacrosse, and track that kept many of our youth from participating in the traditional March timeframe. We appreciate you getting this note out to your district churches.  

Specific details on registering teams; deadlines; and motel room reservation information can be gathered from the Tournament website at www.scmethodistbasketball.org.   

Thanks so much for helping us get the word out.  If anyone needs additional information please email:

Bob Fowler             bobfowler@knology.net

Chris Stone            cstone@greenvillecvb.com

Sincerely, 

Chris Stone
President
Greater Greenville Convention & Visitors Bureau

Fall into Savings From September 1- October 31, 2009
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One of the questions I get most often is, "How do I make a website?" The truth is there is no easy answer. It's a lot like asking, "What car should I buy?" or "What camera should I get?" In 1998 there was only one way, you learned HTML and you coded it all by hand. However, the reality is that there are now so many ways to make a website and there are so many factors to consider when you make one, that building a website is a very personalized thing for every church. How much can we spend? What kind of skill do we have to manage a website? What information do we want, need, or wish for? All of these questions can lead to different answers and different ways for building a website. For example, if your church has $0.00 dollars to spend monthly on a website, going with an expensive content management solution like e-zekiel isn't a good choice. Maybe using a free Google webpage like the Charleston District website would be better for your needs.

Recently, I discovered a new website company called squarespace.com Squarespace is not United Methodist, it's not even a Christian company, but they are VERY good at providing people and companies with high quality, easy to build websites for very little money. A basic squarespace site can cost less than $8.00 a month and you get a lot of bang for those eight bucks. Even better is that you can try it free for two weeks and you don't need a credit card, just an email address.

I recently worked out a special offer for our United Methodist Churches. Sign up for any squarespace plan and use the coupon code UMCSC and receive 10% off the life of the account.

I've gone ahead and built a faily basic site using ONLY squarespace and some free easy to use google tools. Check it out. My Church UMC

It only took me about 4 hours to put it all together. Granted I know my way around and I'm familiar with the tools, but you should have the hang of all of that well within your first week.

I sat down with yesterday with a church that is reworking there website in squarespace. After a couple of quick tutorials they had the basic shell and navigation of there whole site done in less than a day.

If you are interested in using squarespace, would like for me to talk to you more about it, or come to your church to show a committe some options and ideas, give me a call or send me an email. Matt Brodie mbrodie@umcsc.org 803-786-9486

I am going to be posting more information on website and search engine optimization. We are very close to doing some very neat things here!

ANNOUNCEMENT:  The Council on Finance and Administration meeting on June 15, 2009 received the resignation of The Reverend James Knowles-Tuell as  Director of Administrative Services for the South Carolina Annual Conference / Conference Treasurer effective July 31, 2009.  The Reverend Knowles-Tuell will be relocating out of state for his wife's employment in the health care field.

Additionally, the Council announces the hiring of Mrs. Becky L. Buie as Interim Conference Treasurer and Director of Administrative Services effective July 1, 2009.  The Council graciously welcomes back Mrs. Buie who served most effectively in this position for many years. 

The Council will announce at a later day the search process for the hiring of a permanent Treasurer and Director of Administrative Services.  There will also be a time of appreciation and recognition for The Reverend Knowles-Tuell in the near future.  The Council is grateful for the ministry and contributions of Jim Knowles-Tuell to the life and ministry of South Carolina United Methodism.

The Reverend Edward H. McDowell, Jr. serves as President of the Council on Finance and Administration.  The Reverend David C. Surrett is Vice-President and The Reverend Dora Rogers Gafford is Secretary.

Tuesday June 16th 2009
 
Early this morning Robert W. Bedell, III President  of Southern Mutual Church   presented a check to the Rev. Willie  Teague Director of Connectional Ministries for $5,000.00. The check  will pay for the cost of the Hope For The Children of Africa Choir that will be touring the South Carolina Conference July 1st -12th. This means that all money received will go directly to the choir for its ministries.

The transportation for the choir is provided by Edisto Fork UMC of Cope, SC. Epworth Children's Home will host the choir. We are thankful for these acts of generosity.

We are also asking each congregation in our conference to receive an offering for the choir on July 5.