C-Mail
My family and I were very impressed with the beautiful "Service of Remembrance" held June 12 at Annual Conference. Many thanks to every worship participant, beginning with Bishop Swanson and ending with the worship designer. The service was very meaningful. My husband, the late Rev. Wilson Newman, would have loved it.
Jane Newman
Fries UMC, Wytheville District
I am writing with concern to the membership of the United Methodist Church. In his 1941 book "The Methodist Meeting House," former Duke University Dean of Divinity Paul Neff Garber wrote of Methodist evangelism's failure to reach persons of the very type among which the early Methodist movement originated and flourished. "[The church] faces serious danger of becoming a complacent and conventional church of the middle and upper classes," Garber wrote, "and thereby losing its influence among the multitudes."
Garber's prophecies have been fulfilled in our generation. The signs are very evident with the plateau and decline in church membership in North America. We need to return to the principles and foundation laid by John Wesley, Francis Asbury, and Thomas Coke. God help us return to the former ways of the church while reaching out to all people regardless of socioeconomic status.
William Eachen
Ross Campground UMC, Kingsport District
In early July, I received an email from [Missions Coordinator] Bill Daugherty stating that a check for $95,000 was being sent to the Alaska Missionary Conference treasurer to be used in the Willow Anvik Grayling Church and Community Ministry. Combined with the funds that the Volunteers in Ministry Intern Team from Holston had provided a few weeks before meant that the goal of $100,000 had been reached.
I found myself overwhelmed and in tears. I knew this was going to happen. I was here last fall when the conference group came to make the video. I had heard from folks in Holston about how they were making their donations. The reality did not set in until I got the e-mail from Bill.
This show of love and support humbles me. Our ministry here in Alaska - yours and mine - can happen and grow in ways that were not possible before this offering was taken. My thanks go out to my family of Holston Conference.
Fran Lynch
Church and Community Worker
Alaska Missionary Conference
Editor's note: Since Lynch's letter was received in the conference office, Holston churches surpassed this year's goal of $100,000 for the Alaska mission. On July 18, the total reached $105,931.
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To send a letter to the editor of The Call, write: C-Mail, The Call, P.O. Box 32939, Knoxville, TN 37930-2939, fax (865) 690-3162, or thecall@holston.org. Printed letters are limited to 150 words.
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