WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED!
The District Council on Ministries is working to
coordinate several training events for both laity and clergy on our
district. PLAN TO ATTEND BY SAVING THESE DATES FOR YOUR TEAM:
Jan 23, 2010 A Rethink Church Workshop
will be led by Marilyn Kasperek at Penn Yan UMC. More details are to
follow soon.
Feb 26th & 27th, 2010
A Healthy Congregations Workshop with Richard Blackburn will be
held at the Geneva UMC. More details to follow soon
April 10th, 2010 the Conference
Educational Resource Ministry will bring the Rev. Dr. Robert Pierson,
author, pastor, and founder of Leadership Nexus to the Clifton Springs
UMC to conduct a workshop on Workable Evangelism.
"HERE I AM LORD" MISSION RALLY
Can anyone resists
God's nudge as they sing the inspiring hymn "Here I Am Lord" or read
Jesus's admonition to feed the hungry, give the "cup of cold water' to
the thirsty, clothe the naked, or minister to the sick or imprisoned?
That's what has inspired and driven me (and many others, I'm sure) to
respond to God's call to get involved and committed to missions.
Mission commitment, whether it's local, national or international,
changes lives.
I sincerely believe
that in every church, as the congregation sings "Here I am Lord, Is is I
Lord" that at least one person feels that little nudge that says, "Yes,
Here I am Lord"; but then doesn't
know how to fulfill
that call. Fortunately, most all of our churches, large and small, have
wonderful local community mission projects in which all can be
involved. Few churches offer the opportunity to participate in
missions, as Jesus put it, "on the other side of the boat" or "in deeper
waters". There isn't enough personnel to make up a team , enough
information to find a team or leadership to organize a team. And so,
the call and the dream dies.
The Finger Lakes
District Council wants to address and solve these problems. We would
like to bring neighboring churches together, so that multiple church
involvement can produce teams and leadership for state, national and
international mission teams.
We invite EVERY
church in the district to send at least one mission-minded
representative to our
"Here I Am Lord"
Mission Rally at the Geneva UMC, Sunday afternoon January 10, 2010 (Snow
Date-Jan 24) to learn the... Whats, Wheres, Whens, Whys and Hows of
mission teams. There will be testimonies and displays by those who have
been there. There will be power point presentations and open time to
answer questions; so that anyone sensing that call to missions can find
how their skills and gifts can be put to use in Christ's commission to
take His Word to the ends of the earth. Age is not a limiting factor,
as there are opportunities for all; youth and seniors and everyone
between. We invite all churches or individuals with mission experience
and stories that they would be willing to share at the rally to contact
the Finger Lakes Mission coordinator, so we can put you in the program.
Let's make 2010 a new start in growing missions in the Finger
Lakes District.
Don Snyder, Missions Coordinator
6081
Unionville Rd.
Bath, NY 14810
Phone (607) 776-3781
e-mail dgsnyder@linkny.com or
dongrace52@hotmail.com
Our team will offer
two courses this fall, both related to Basic Lay Speaking and Local Lay
Speakers.
Basic Lay
Speaking
- Description: Learn what Lay Speaker’s
roles are as defined by the Book of Discipline. Delve into the
concept of “call”. Explore how we are all called by God to use our
gifts and graces in proclaiming the Gospel. Students will use the
newly developed course for Basic Lay speaking with
emphasis on leading, living and witnessing by the Spirit rather than
preaching. This reflects the new membership vows which say that we
will support the church with our prayers, our presence, our gifts
and our witness. There are excellent sessions on
our Wesleyan heritage, Spiritual gifts, servant leadership, caring
ministries and communication.
- Instructors: Rev Babs Steinert and
Donna Crouse
- Where: Seneca Castle
- When: Nov 7 and 14; 9:00AM - 3:30PM
- See below for registration information *
The 2004 General
Conference made a significant change relating to the ministry of lay
speaking. In addition to completion of the Basic Course, Local Church
Lay Speakers are now required to take a refresher course once in each
three-year period. Our first offering of a Basic Refresher course in
the southern part of the Finger Lakes District will be offered this
fall.
Concepts in
Leadership I
·
At the end of this course the participant will be able to:
o
Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of prayer
in the life of a spiritual leader.
o
Formulate a prayer appropriate for a group and lead prayer
in a group.
o
Prepare an agenda for a meeting to ensure time for
Christian conferencing.
o
Demonstrate the use of small group dynamics, including use
of conflict transformation principles.
·
Texts (provided with course)
- What Every Leader
Needs to Know about Leading in Prayer
- What Every Leader
Needs to Know about Leading Meetings,
·
Instructors:
Rev. Mark Flandreau and CLS Vida Johnson
·
Where: Painted Post UMC
·
When: Saturday, November 21, 2009; 9:00AM - 3:00PM
Any Lay Speaker who
has taken the Basic Course may take this refresher course. It will NOT
fulfill the Advanced Course requirement for District Certified Lay
Speakers, but may be taken for informational purposes. This course may
also be used for leadership development for anyone.
Less than 14 percent of
churches updating Find-a-Church profile in New York West Area
United Methodist Communications reports
that less than 14 percent of churches in the New York Area update their
Find-a-Church profile and Bishop Marcus Matthews is encouraging all
congregations to change that statistic.
Fifty-six out of 386 churches in North
Central New York Conference and twenty-nine out of 256 churches in
Western New York Conference have updated their profile.
Find-a-Church is a key component of www.10thousanddoors.org,
a seeker-oriented Web site featured prominently in The United Methodist
Church’s $20 million Rethink Church advertising and welcoming campaign.
Find-a-Church does more
than simply list churches, addresses and phone numbers. Newly enhanced,
it now offers the opportunity for churches to list their ministries,
including event schedules, locations, and special notes. Visitors to
www.10thousanddoors.org are able to search for local churches based
on these offerings.
To that end, the value of the Find-a-Church database relates directly to
the breadth of information that churches self-report on the site. For
the past six months, United Methodist Communications has launched a
major effort to ask churches to update their profiles and keep them
current. “Because a large number of churches still have not done so, I
am sending you this message, encouraging you to update your church’s
profile,” Bishop Matthews notes.
With easy-to-use templates that make entering and updating information a
breeze, it has never been easier to highlight your church’s programs and
unique points of entry from daycare to basketball leagues. Also
available are opportunities to personally welcome visitors to your
congregation, introduce your members, add details about your worship
schedule, and link to your church’s Web site.
Go to
http://archives.umc.org/Directory/login.asp?mid=222&fac to find out
how to update and enhance your church’s Find-a-Church profile. If you
have questions about updating your Find-a-Church information, contact
United Methodist Communications at
FAC@umc.org or
1-800-251-8140.
Annual Conference which will come
into being in 2010.
Name suggestions for the new
Conference – which brings together United Methodists in the New
York State portions of Troy and
Wyoming Conferences and North Central New York and Western New York
Conferences – were solicited in email blasts, on Conference
websites, at Annual Conference sessions, and in Conference
publications earlier this year.
The suggestions were reviewed by
the Communications Planning Team, which includes members from all
four of the existing conferences. Some proposed names included
metaphors touching on the theological and the geological, including:
Mighty Waters, Living Waters, and Koinonia. Others were more
descriptive geographical names, such as Upper New York, Upstate New
York, and Adirondack.
The Communications team
recommended to the New Area Conference Team that the conference
adopt a geographic name, which does not “lock in” one metaphor, but
leaves open the possibility of attaching ministry-focused tag lines
in keeping with vision and mission. In other words, a simple
Conference name allows for statements such as: Upper New York
Conference - Rethinking Church Together; or
Upper New York United Methodists:
Being God’s Love, Living in the Way of Jesus.
New ACT agreed with the team’s
recommendation and asked the communications team to announce Upper
New York as the possible new name and to solicit comments.
You are invited to send your
comments to
uppernewyorkarea@gmail.com, to share them with others on
Facebook,
http://facebook.com/uppernewyork or on
blogspot.
The Episcopal
Area to be created from the New York West Area and parts of the
Albany Area has already been named the Upper New York Area. The
College of Bishops of the Northeast Jurisdiction, meeting in July
2008, had the responsibility for naming the Area. The Annual
Conference name, however, will be adopted by the uniting session of
the new Annual Conference, meeting June 19, 2010 at the ON Center in
Syracuse.
The World
Wide Web is Our Parish!
Global
listeners agree,
"Common Good Radio is the Internet radio station that combines faith,
music and scripture for our family's faith centered lifestyle." We are
pleased to announce that new music is added each week.
Just
click on the above radio
player, and after the page loads place the commercial free radio
station on
your desktop as background for fruit of the spirit centered music,
scripture
and stories reaching out in love to all members of your family, 24
hours a day.
Click Here
for Online Calendar!
You may post your
own entries! Click
here for details
Teens: Click
below to interact with other UMYF members!
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