Bill Kemp opened up the conference with a sermon on Ezekiel's Dry Bones. The United Methodist Church has many issues today, and needs the new life of God's Spirit to make these bones live again! Art Tordoff attended a seminar on Communication - within the church and to the community. Pastor Karen Munson advised the group on how best to use newsletters, websites, blogs, email, and also how to establish a relationship with the press to get the church's name into the public domain.
Art also attended a seminar on small membership churches, which revealed that since most United Methodist Churches are small (78% are less than 125 in membership within the USA) that we need to use the strengths inherent in a small church to grow the church. Reasons given for failure to grow included poor leadership, low spiritual passion, poor structures, lack of passionate worship, dead meetings, lack of missional clarity and failure to deal with conflict.
Earle Harvey attended a seminar on "The Agile Church: "Creating a Congregation geared for change" and "Passionate Spirituality for a Cold Climate, Resurrecting the Lifeless Congregation". Earle found that spiritual passion is the fuel that keeps a congregation active and excited about the faith that it has to share with the world.
Principal speaker Vance Ross, gave a dynamic presentation on the love of Christ for us and sharing this love with our neighbors. This was followed by a lively concert by Marty Magehee, former member of the 4-Him Christian rock band. The evening was topped off with a musical concert that featured Marty Magehee, former member of the 4Him Christian Rock Band. Most if not all of the music he played was of his own design. Marty displayed a singing range of several octaves. Periodically he would pause while changing his music and give brief sermonettes about where the Lord Christ was in his life and how he came to love the Lord.
Earle concludes his remarks with the following words: The revival at Beech Ridge Speedway and the E3 Conference have given us tools to go forth into our neighborhoods to share Christ’s message of love and redemption. Our church can accommodate about three times the number of people currently attending on a Sunday morning service without the need to expand the facility. The immediate area has over two thousand families that offer an opportunity to visit them to invite them to come and share in worship. We need to pray for God’s guidance as we prepare to visit these families. Most importantly, we need to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit and obey the call to serve.
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