Year End Notice

January 5, 2003 is the final date on which the conference treasurer’s office may receive payments for credit on the 2002 apportionments. Church treasurers should mail contributions to the usual lockbox address:

Memphis Conference Treasurer

United Methodist Church

Post Office Box 10667

Jackson, TN 38308-0111 

Payments received after January 5 and marked for 2002 can be credited as paid for a prior year, but will not appear as such on the 2002 statistical report. Please call James Finger or Ava Jean Wildes at (731) 664-5540 if you have any questions.

Lambuth now accepting applications for Bishop’s Scholarships for pre-ministerial students

The Bishop’s Scholarship was established in 1999 for pre-ministerial students who demonstrate a vision for a call into professional ministry in the United Methodist Church. Each year, two full-tuition scholarships are awarded to applicants who meet the criteria and have been recommended by a Review Committee designated by the University.

The applicant must evidence a serious level of discernment toward the “call of God” in one’s life; have a minimum 2.50 GPA and a minimum score of 20 on the ACT; and the applicant must have exhibited an involvement in his/her local church and be recommended by his/her pastor. Applicants should be accepted for admission to Lambuth University by Feb. 1, 2003 to be eligible for consideration.

The recipient must maintain a minimum of a 2.50 GPA while enrolled at Lambuth and be an active participant in the Lambuth Religious Life Program.

Candidates will be interviewed on campus February 22, 2003.

For more information, call (731) 425-2500.

Madge Lawrence honored at Paris District Laity Banquet for service

At the recent Paris District Laity Banquet, Madge Lawrence was presented with the outstanding service award. Lawrence is very active in the Antioch United Methodist Church as a lay leader and also fills in for pastors in the Paris District. In addition to “filling the pulpit,” Lawrence volunteers with the Helping Hands fund-raiser, Meals on Wheels, The Outreach Center, Damascus Road, West Tennessee Emmaus Walk, is the representative for the Fifth Sunday Cluster Meeting, and is a member of a birding group.

Enjoying Christmas less?

As we approach the coming holiday season, there is a remedy to your dissatisfaction. It’s one that provides food for thousands of hungry Americans and blesses the people on your “gift” list. When you make a donation to the Society of St. Andrew to feed the hungry in the name of special people in your life, SOSA will send your honorees an exclusively designed Christmas card announcing your gift. The Christmas card was designed exclusively for the Society of St. Andrew by Annis McCabe, a prominent Virginia artist. Minimum gift donation for each card is $10 and each donation results in 1,000 servings of food to hungry people. Orders can be placed by phone (800-333-4597), fax (434-299-5949), or online via email (cardnews@endhunger.org), or secure web site (www.endhunger.org/cardnews). Or mail orders with donation to the Society of St. Andrew, 3383 Sweet Hollow Road, Big Island, Virginia 24526. Orders should be received by November 27 to ensure delivery by Christmas.

Reelfoot Day Care to close Dec. 20

By Cathy Farmer

Unless Reelfoot Rural Ministries receives $60,000 by December 20, both day care centers will close, says the Rev. Dale Mills, Reelfoot Executive Director.

“Our board voted on Tuesday, November 19, that, unless some major gifts are received before December 20, we will temporarily close both day care centers and stop our home-delivered meals,” Mills said.

“We’re also going to have to temporarily lay off 11 out of 20 employees until the funding situation stabilizes.”

Reelfoot serves Lake, Obion and Dyer counties in Tennessee and Fulton County in Kentucky. Lake County, according to Mills, has the lowest per capita income in the state of Tennessee. “It’s poorer than Appalachia,” he said.

Mills said the closure of the day care centers and cessation of home meal delivery for seniors and the disabled will leave Reelfoot with its Emergency Services, Christmas Toy Store, Thrift Store, Volunteer Services and Senior Center.

The day care centers serve 34 children who have nowhere else to go. Reopening at least one center will be Mills’ first priority if the funding emergency is averted.

“We really hope we can raise at least the $50,000 we need to keep one of the centers open,” Mills said. “If the parents have nowhere to place their children, some of them will have to quit high school while others will have to give up their jobs.”

Many of the families who bring their children to Reelfoot’s day care centers make less than $500 per month even though both parents work at minimum wage jobs.

Mills said if the worst happens and the centers have to close, he plans to announce to the parents that Reelfoot is taking a “long holiday,” closing the doors on December 20 and reopening on January 6.

“But if we aren’t able to reopen by January 6, the parents will have to look elsewhere,” he said.

An announcement of the impending lay off has already been made to the 11 employees who will be affected.

“We’ve warned them to anticipate a lay off on December 20,” Mills said regretfully.

Reelfoot’s problems began on September 11, 2001. The stock market’s dive after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon is still reverberating in northwest Tennessee.

“We’re receiving smaller gifts,” Mills explained. “The $100 to $200 at a time are still coming in. In fact, those gifts might have increased slightly. But the larger donors who gave from their investments in the stock market are the ones who have been the most affected. They simply don’t have the money to give.”

To keep the day care doors open at Reelfoot, please send donations immediately to:

Reelfoot Rural Ministries

6923 Minnick-Elbridge Road

Obion, TN 38240.

RRM is a Conference Advance Special.

Holy Community area targeted by City of Memphis for revitalization, redevelopment

Uptown Alliance all about economic justice

Pictured above are: (front row, L-R) Barbara Davis, Freddie Moore, Eddie Blackmon, James Luvene. (Back row, L-R) Amy Moritz, Rick Kirchoff, Jeff Blackledge. 

By Amy Moritz

Director, Uptown Alliance

To know God is to work for justice” rings true with the Uptown Alliance, a ministry of Holy Community United Methodist Church. For nearly two years now, the alliance, a coalition of pastors, members and friends of United Methodist churches, has been advocating for and with low-income households.

The community surrounding Holy Community Church is targeted for revitalization by the City of Memphis. It is estimated that over $135 million of public and private monies will be used for  Uptown redevelopment and revitalization (“Uptown” is the area more commonly  called Greenlaw and Manassas). 

The Uptown Alliance supports this revitalization but recognizes that such efforts often result in the displacement of the existing low-income residents of the targeted community. 

For all the benefits revitalization can bring, it can also impose great financial and social costs on the very families and business owners who are least able to afford them.

Alliance members believe a Christian’s personal faith cannot be separated from contemporary problems and issues. One director said, “I see our religion not only as a force to mobilize against things as they are, but as a force capable of aiding and guiding the transformation of things as they are changing.”

This is at the heart of the Uptown Alliance mission. Things are changing. The Uptown Alliance asks, “How can we, as Christians, be agents of God’s Kingdom during this time of change?”

The Uptown Alliance has discerned that its role should be about economic justice. Its vision is for an economically inclusive Uptown Memphis. For the lower income residents of this vision, it means:

• jobs at wages that can support families;

• it means access to decent, affordable housing;

• and it means opportunities to repair one’s financial situation when debt burden threatens all hope of building assets.

Jobs and housing are a necessary component of any ministry dealing with extreme poverty. The Rev. Freddie Moore, pastor of Holy Community Church and president of the Uptown Alliance, has built his ministry on caring for the whole person. Moore says, “The people of this community need something that gives them hope. And as they see the churches of the Uptown Alliance working together to help them have the opportunity for decent housing and jobs, it gives them a tangible sign of hope.

“It even has an impact on the children,” he added. “We’ve talked with the children about this and we see their eyes brighten and a smile come across their faces. We can’t let them down.”

The Uptown Alliance is unique, not only as a faith-based economic justice ministry, but also as a ministry in partnership with diverse congregations. 

From day one of this emerging ministry, its founders believed social transformation reflective of God’s peace and justice must be done shoulder-to-shoulder. The Uptown Alliance truly brings together many of the divisions in the culture – black and white, rich and poor, clergy and lay people, urban and suburban, church and public policy – engaging the spirit of the times.

Commitment to economic inclusiveness not limited to Uptown area

This ministry is just the beginning.  Jeff Irwin, Director of Urban Ministries, says, “The more we engage in the process of social transformation, the more we learn about the forces that threaten economic inclusiveness. The more we consider how our life together in community is a measure of God’s love, the more we are committed to this endeavor. Not just for Uptown,” he said, “but for all of the Memphis area.”

The Uptown Alliance invites everyone to learn more about their specific programs and to become active in this ministry through volunteer support. For more information, call (901)523-2485.

Alliance Participants

• Eddie Blackmon (board of directors), member of Holy Community Church, home owner in Uptown

• Jeff Blackledge (board of directors), Archimania

Laverne Cooper (board of directors), president of the Lauderdale Courts Residents’ Association

• Edith Eley (board of directors), Administrative Council of Holy Community Church, Internal Revenue Service

• Vearlean Gibson (board of directors), member of Holy Community Church, president of the Hurt Village Resident Association

• Jeff Irwin (treasurer), director of Urban Ministries for the United Methodist Church, pastor of Everett Memorial UMC

• Rick Kirchoff (board of directors), pastor of Germantown UMC

• James Luvene (vice president), member of Germantown UMC, president of U.S. First Financial Group

• Frank Markus (secretary), member of Germantown UMC, retired from the University of Memphis

• Freddie Moore (president), pastor of Holy Community Church

• Amy Moritz (director), member of Germantown UMC, Community economic development specialist

 • Sarah Murdock, mission director at Bartlett UMC

• John Taylor, member of Germantown UMC, City of Memphis Real Estate Department

• Martha Wagley (board of directors), pastor of Memphis First UMC

• Steve Woodyard, member of Germantown UMC, president of Woodyard Reality

• Norma Hobbs, Missions Staff, Colonial Park UMC

Igniting Ministry campaign boosts awareness of UMC, exceeds set goals

The United Methodist Church’s 2-year-old national advertising campaign has significantly increased the public’s awareness of the denomination.

The Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, head of the Igniting Ministry campaign at United Methodist Communications, said new Barna research conducted for the church shows awareness of the denomination has increased 15 percent among adults 25 to 54 years old in the two years since the campaign began.

Research by Barna, a respected firm based in Ventura, Calif., shows that 46 percent of people who saw the ads expressed willingness to attend a United Methodist church, Horswill-Johnston said.

“These people are searching for deeper meaning in life and are finding a word of hope in the messages we show on television across the country,” he said. “Our messages are resonating with people looking for a place to live their faith.”

The campaign had set goals of 20 percent viewer recall of the United Methodist denomination and a 10 percent increase in willingness to attend a church. “We’ve reached three-fourths of the awareness goals in just half the time and have far surpassed the willingness goal,” Horswill-Johnston said.

The Barna research dovetails with data showing increases in worship attendance at United Methodist churches across the country in 2001, he said. Total attendance increased by 7 percent compared with 2000, almost double the 4 percent increase objective set for the entire 2001-04 quadrennium.

“First-time attendance has also dramatically risen,” Horswill-Johnston said. “We are on track to meet and exceed our goal of a 5 percent increase in first-time worship attendance.”

The percentages are based on attendance figures at 153 United Methodist churches, representing each U.S. jurisdiction.

Igniting Ministry’s new evangelism tools combine modern technology, including national cable network commercials, to raise public awareness of the denomination.

The effort premiered just one week before the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. As the disaster unfolded, the Igniting Ministry team transformed the Council of Bishops’ pastoral message of healing and call for prayer into a new television spot.

The Commission on Communication, UMCom’s governing body, recently approved a proposal paving the way for the agency to ask the 2004 General Conference for $41 million to sustain and expand Igniting Ministry through the 2005-08 quadrennium.

The plan includes additional airings between the three annual established flights of commercials; a media presence, including church communications projects and consultation, in Africa, Asia and Europe; and a grass-roots, youth-oriented expression.

United Methodist News Service