2015 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 15-19), over 2800 delegates representing the 1000 churches and 370,000+ United Methodists in North Georgia will be gathering at the Classic Center in Athens, Georgia for the North Georgia Annual Conference with the theme “We Are God’s People Connected: A Focus On Global Health.” This year I am serving as our church’s clergy representative, and Pat Holcomb will serve as our laity delegate. In addition, Lee Bierce, Cindy Campbell and Frieda Brown will be present and serve 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 (as most of you already know, effective June 25^th I will be appointed as the new Senior Pastor of LaGrange First UMC in LaGrange, GA, and Rev. Nanci Hicks will be appointed as the new Senior Pastor here at East Cobb UMC); 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” (“Imagine No Malaria” to end malaria on the African subcontinent); and much more! This year, Annual Conference will also be electing 11 clergy and 11 laity delegates to represent North Georgia Methodism at the 2016 General Conference of world-wide United Methodism -- the body that meets every four years to make official decisions that affect the entire denomination. 

Upon our return from Athens, your delegates will 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!