by Mark Adams | Nov 17, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
Raging fires throughout Northern California have taken many homes, creating smoke-filled air that chokes out oxygen, making every breath a labored chore, obscuring the sun, and has made life dangerous and miserable for months. One Free Methodist church, the Foothill...
by Marissa Mattox Heffernan | Oct 13, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
“When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” – John Lewis If you had told me over six years ago, when I entered the ordination journey, that this quote...
by Kayleigh Clark | Oct 13, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
“I want you to picture My kingdom in Uniontown.” The words echoed around me during a time of prayer, an unmistakable message to my heart from the still, small voice of God. In that moment I thought I knew what those words meant. It seemed to me an invitation to step...
by Patricia Ann Tefft | Oct 13, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16). “Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame” (Psalm 34:5). As the North Michigan Conference’s Global Associate Prayer (GAP) missionary, my call is to...
by Mark Adams | Oct 13, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
Governor George Ryan handed me the Illinois Excellence Award for Hillside Free Methodist Church’s Refugee Ministry. It was a proud moment for the church. Serving refugees in Chicago had never been about awards (though the church received many) but simply about...
by Derik Heumann | Sep 18, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
“What is a disciple and how do we make one?” This question has been a blessing and a curse to many leaders in the church in the last few years. We are reaping the fruit of decades of attractional, consumer focused, seeker-sensitive, non-missional forms of “church”...
by Chris Hemberry | Sep 18, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
I have become an avid golfer. For most of the past 20 years of my life, I played golf sparingly — something like 12 to 15 rounds a year. The bar I set for myself as a golfer during that time was relatively low. Scoring below 90 was “clearing the bar” for...
by George F. Ford | Sep 18, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
The Great Commission given to us by Jesus Christ was to go and make disciples. But what is a Christian and disciple? Churches have many different definitions of a Christian (convert, adherent, learner, member, believer, attender, etc.) and they also have many...
by Michael Forney | Sep 18, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
“Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Discipleship is a word around which most followers of Jesus agree in its importance but have broadly different understandings as to what constitutes a disciple and...
by Brett Heintzman, Director of Communications, Free Methodist Church - USA | Aug 18, 2020 | Pastors and Leaders Newsletter
Anniversaries are times to celebrate and reflect, remember where we’ve been and dream of where we’re going. Such is the case with the Free Methodist Church – USA. We are 160 years old this month! It’s appropriate to ask ourselves, are we the...
