Thursday at Peoria

What a wonderful day Thursday was here at Peoria. It started off with a dash to Wal-Mart at 6am…turns out that is a great time to go to Wal-Mart if one must...there were only two other shoppers in the store! Then at conference this morning Bishop Palmer challenged us with falling in love with the Word and His word. Directed primarily at clergy, we were reminded to thoroughly explore the Biblical text before we turn to commentaries in preparing a message…that is, allow the Holy Spirit to work in us thru the text. I also attended the Wesley Foundation luncheon where each year the evangelism awards are presented. Now, I must tell you (and I hope I have before) that I am extremely proud of Beulah and the evangelistic fervor here. Last year, if my memory serves me correctly, we had 11 professions of faith and while I didn’t really think we set any records, I was very proud of Beulah. However, today I was reminded that evangelism should be our passion, and must be if we are going to be the church God has called us to be. Bethany UMC in Peoria won the evangelism award for churches in our category (101 to 200 members) with 29 professions of faith. I don't know the size of Bethany, but that is at least a 15% increase! I want to congratulate Bethany and I praise God for their enthusiastic approach to reaching the lost. I also want to challenge everyone at Beulah, not to win any awards, but to be the Church. I am reminded of John Wesley's words: “We have nothing to do but save souls.”