Bogata to Burkburnett: Book of Discipline is candidate for burning

  BY RICHARD B. HEARNE NTC Board of Laity, Chair I doubt any readers of this column supported the threats of the pastor of a 50-member Florida church to burn Qurans on 9/11. I clearly remember as a young teen watching film of Nazi storm troopers throwing books into a fire in the 1930s, and it struck me as one of the most disgusting forms of protest. I know I would be very displeased if someone burned a Bible. As I watched the report on the pastor on TV, I wondered if I could ever...

Prayer Garden Planned for FUMC Sachse

  First UMC Sachse will celebrate its 25th anniversary at 11 a.m. Oct. 10. Rev. Mark T. Moore, the first pastor of the church, will preach, and donations will be raised to begin the construction of the Heritage Prayer Garden....

Meet the Core Leadership Team

Introducing you to the Core Leadership Team, the 14-member group of clergy and lay persons working to bring the Strategic Plan to life. This week meet: Linda Parks Church: Floral Heights UMC, Wichita Falls District: Northwest Occupation: Retired educator Education: B.A. in English and History, Texas Tech University, and M.Ed. in Special Education, Texas Tech University Home Life: Married to Larry for 34 years and have two daughters, one married and living in Little Elm, one single...

Bishops step boldly to leading edge

BY BISHOP W. EARL BLEDSOE North Texas Conference This past week, several bishops, including me, had the opportunity to be with senior pastors of leading edge UMC congregations in the United States. All active bishops were invited to the event in Deer Park, Utah, and 32 responded to the invitation by Rev. Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kan. The leading edge congregations consisted of 86 of the largest United Methodist churches...

Plain talk: Tell us what you really think

By Sheron C. Patterson UMR Editor At the August Core Leadership Team meeting, I presented a report entitled “Reaching Them Where They Are,” assessing where our communications are and where they need to go. Here is a portion of it: The Strategic Plan reminds us that “the mission is not about us, but about those who have yet to experience the transformative power and love of God. Decisions must be based upon the needs of the mission field and Jesus’ compassion and...

Church planting coach sows ideas for growth

BY NTC STAFF Rev. Jim Griffith of Griffith Coaching Network conducted a three-day boot camp for about 60 clergy and lay people on how to plant churches. What he told them opened some eyes on what church planters need to do to make congregations thrive and where they often go wrong. Griffith, who has planted six churches himself, has assessed more than 1,900 potential church plantings, trained more than 7,000 planters and coached more than 1,500 sprouting churches. Through that experience, he...

Once transformation begins, it'll keep rolling, pastor says

The Church Transformation Program helped members of First UMC Van Alstyne envision change and achieve even more than they first hoped, says Rev. D. Glen Blackman Jr. His congregation of 520, almost 50 miles north of Dallas, started the program in 2009 and has launched initiatives including a renovated sanctuary and livelier signs.   “We went to special training sessions, brought the information back to the church and had a considerable amount of time, prayer and discernment over...

UMCOR to hold global AIDS conference in Dallas

UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, will be busy in Dallas over the next month, with an international conference on AIDS in October and an appearance by the official in charge of Disaster Response for the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America at the Plano ministry center this month. Dallas will host Lighten the Burden III, the third annual global meeting and part of the denomination’s effort to combat HIV/AIDS, Oct. 14–16 at the Radisson Central Hotel. Dallas’ own...

From Bogata to Burkburnett: Thanks, and an update from Africa

BY RICHARD B. HEARNE NTC Board of Laity, Chair The church, for some reason, seldom thanks people for gifts of money and time, and we do a poor job of providing follow-up information about the projects we support. It seems that once we have raised the financial goal, which to our credit we normally do, we check that project off our to-do list and move on to the next.   This hit me several weeks ago when I realized that we were moving forward with the Imagine No Malaria campaign and, as...

Meet the Core Leadership Team

Introducing you to the Core Leadership Team, the 14-member group of clergy and lay persons working to bring the Strategic Plan to life. This week meet: Levy E. Laguardia Church: Umphress Road UMC District: Metro Occupation: Senior Pastor Education:  Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English Literature from Philippine Christian University; Bachelor of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary, Philippines; Master of Divinity, Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of...

Addiction and recovery writers recruited

Do you have a biblically-based reflection on addiction and recovery that you want to share with the world? The United Methodist Special Program on Substance Abuse and Related Violence (SPSARV) is creating a Bible study entitled, Hope, Healing, Health and Wholeness, to provide a biblical basis for our denomination’s compassionate response to substance abuse in our global community. SPSARV is a general church initiative that works to raise awareness and equip church leaders to effectively...

Around the Conference

Rev. Alan Hitt has launched a new church, Journey of Faith, this month in Rhome and is asking for the prayers of the Annual Conference. UM Men’s president to speak at benefit for deaf Gil Hanke, new president of the General Commission on United Methodist Men, will speak on Haiti relief efforts Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Seventh Annual Silent Night Benefit Dinner & Auction at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas. He has led over 20 mission teams to Haiti for deaf...

That tattooed biker? Yeah, she's a pastor

  BY SHERON C. PATTERSON UMR Editor Pink hair, tattoos and a biker — does that describe a United Methodist pastor? You bet! Meet Rev. Katie Klein, part-time pastor at Cooper Creek UMC in Denton. “People see me on my bike, and they approach me. We’ll be talking for 10 minutes or so, and they’ll ask what I do for a living. I tell them that I am a UM pastor and they say, ‘That’s so cool,’ ” she said. “I am who I am,”...

Methodism's Breadbasket founder has kept a full plate

BY JOHN A. LOVELACE Special Correspondent Occasionally during his 40 years as founder and director of the North Texas Conference Methodism’s Breadbasket, Rev. John W. Tatum Sr., would take a sack of emergency food supplies home from work. Not that he and his wife, Marian, needed it, but because someone else might. All it would take was one middle-of-the-night phone call. From Day One, preparedness and personalized response were the keystones of his ministry. In 2009, those keystones...

A berry good project

From left: Emily Pierce, Hope McAfee, Sara Tweedle, Youth Minister Brian Dierolf and Sydney Birge of First UMC DeSoto gleaned — picked — blueberries in a field near Athens. The fruit was donated to area food pantries Helping Hands Gleaning Ministry hosts the ministry. For information on fall gleanings, e-mail director Betty Cordell at hhgleaning@sbcglobal.net. ...

The kid behind Vacation Bible School

“La pastora, why do I have to go to another church for VBS? Why can’t we have VBS at our church?” That question from 11-year-old Aranza Barragan inspired Kirkwood UMC to hold Vacation Bible School this summer, says Rev. Terry Ann Moore, pastor of the Irving church. It had been eight years since the congregation last had a VBS. The Kirkwood congregation, which has Sunday services in Spanish and English, teamed with a neighboring Lutheran congregation, Good Shepherd, in the...

Lay speakers recharge and rededicate

BY CYNTHIA B. ASTLE Certified Lay Speaker, Metro District Lay speakers in the North Texas Conference gathered Aug. 7 at First UMC McKinney to celebrate the successes of lay speaking ministries and to prepare for the future under the new Strategic Plan. About 150 lay leaders and guests attended the daylong program, organized by Betsy Schenk and John Bodnar, certified lay speakers of the former Dallas-Denton District. The event began with greetings from several conference leaders including...

From Bogata to Burkburnett: Rising to your role with God

BY RICHARD B. HEARNE NTC Board of Laity, Chair At the recent meeting of the Core Leadership Team, I had the blessing of being chosen by Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe to lead the devotional. It is somewhat intimidating to lead such worship before a meeting comprised of clergy and lay leaders of the North Texas Conference. I use to think of these devotions as a waste of time—we had come together to work, so let’s just get to it. But I have learned that a time of refocusing ourselves from...

Meet the Core Leadership Team

Introducing you to the Core Leadership Team, the 14-member group of clergy and lay persons working to bring the Strategic Plan to life. This week meet Name: Alfred White Church: First Coppell District: North Central Occupation: Associate Commissioner, Conference USA Education: Bachelor of General Studies, Texas Tech University, Broadcast Media Operations Home Life: Married to Judy for 18 years. Raising a 12-year-old granddaughter, Cassi.  Annual Conference involvement: ...

Leaders celebrate the past and plan projects for the future

Leaders celebrate the past Lay speakers celebrated the significant ministries conducted in the previous six districts of the North Texas Conference. They included: Regular skills training in “leading, caring and communicating.” Providing toiletries, linens and personal support for Dallas AIDS House. Promoting participation in Laity Sunday. Leading worship in local congregations and nursing homes, along with Vacation Bible Schools and campus ministries. ...