OPEN HEARTS     OPEN MINDS     OPEN DOORS

A NEW YEAR BEGINS
In so many phases of our life “a new year begins.”  Think for a minute about some of the many ways this truth claim impacts and reflects your own life.  A new year begins for the life of our church as well: both the local church and the larger church.  As a new year unfolds the Bishop of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, in consultation with our District Superintendents, will begin the process of “appointments.”

As you know pastors in the United Methodist Church are appointed where they serve.  Each year our church leadership assesses the mission field (changing demographics, population shifts, evolving neighborhoods, etc.), assesses the districts and local churches (needs, challenges, opportunities, developments, growth curves, etc.) and assesses the personnel available for appointment (current ministry efforts, visions, goals, plans, years in ministry, years left in ministry, personal strengths, limitations, etc.).

It is easy to be concerned only with the interests of our own congregation, not that local concerns are not important.  Yet, I would invite all of us to care about the CHURCH as well as the church.  Would you please offer prayers on behalf of our church leaders as they fulfill their responsibilities to provide spiritual leadership to ALL of our churches, as a new year begins?

Blessings,
 

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