2014 North Georgia Annual Conference

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

This coming week (June 9-12), over 2800 delegates representing the 1000 churches and 365,000+ United Methodists in North Georgia will be gathering at the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia for the North Georgia Annual Conference with the theme “Together We Make Disciples.” This year Peter Kaimathiri and I are serving as our church=s clergy representatives (although Peter will be absent as he is still in Kenya), and Lee Bierce and Pat Holcomb are serving as our laity delegates. In addition, Cindy Campbell and Frieda Brown will be present as at-large delegates from our Atlanta-Marietta District.

Each year’s Annual Conference makes important decisions that affect every United Methodist church in our geographic area: approval and ordination of new clergy and retirement of older ones; appointments of pastors to local churches are finalized (we celebrate that our Bishop -- Michael Watson -- has reassigned myself and Peter Kaimathiri to East Cobb UMC as your appointed pastors for this next year); adoption of the conference budget; support for and reports from conference missions and ministries; exciting worship and bible study opportunities to enrich our spiritual lives; present our “Bishop’s Offering” (Global AIDS fund and the Experimental Leadership Institute for our camp and retreat ministry); and much more!

Upon our return, we’ll be available to report on important decisions that were made, and how these might affect us as a congregation.  In the meantime, you can find more information about Annual Conference (including videos and other resources) by CLICKING HERE.

Thank you for your prayers, both for ourselves as your representatives, and for the Conference itself.  Always remember, God loves you and I do too!