Blog
The Conference Blog had its beginnings prior to 2013, but an ongoing, almost weekly version began here: Western North Carolina Conference Blog 2.0. The blog continues in a new place as a part of the conference website.
Opinions expressed in these articles are completely the views of the author and are not an official statement from the conference.
God's Medicine Bag
by Drew McIntyre The church is more than we usually make of it. The church is not merely a house of worship, a social outlet, a service agency, or a repository of age-level programs. Instead, she ...
Thanksgiving Turkey
by Kel Billings I’m often surprised when and where it hits me, or what triggers it. It was a turkey. Actually, a Syrian boy, a refugee, coloring a thanksgiving turkey. I was in Jordan, a few ...
Young people are making professions of faith
Who is the hero of your story? As the pastor of Chestnut Grove United Methodist Church in King NC, we as a congregation can say together that God is our hero. On May 24, 2017 a tornado ripped ...
Dying to Live
by Nancy Rankin “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24) There are many ...
Fill Wanted
by A.J. Thomas The other day I drove past a church facility that was undergoing significant expansion. As we often see around many sites where construction is happening, there was a piece of plywood ...
Tourists vs. Pilgrims
by Drew McIntyre During seminary, I was blessed with the opportunity to participate in a program called the Middle East Travel Seminar. This program brought together seminarians from around the ...
Transitions
by Amy Vaughan In what would be one of my last big adventures while I was serving in an appointment beyond the local church, I was selected to be a participant in SEED20, a kind of “shark tank” ...
"Here I raise my..."
by Sally Queen I love rocks and I collect them as souvenirs, so perhaps that is why I love the story of the rock that Samuel names Ebenezer in 1 Samuel 7:12. This rock is set out after the ...
Is Unity Worth It?
by Paul Brown Disagreeing is part of being human. Just ask any parent. Sooner or later, every child will switch from asking “Why?” to declaring, “That’s not fair!” From kids arguing with their parents...
A Pain in the Rear for Jesus
by Duke Ison My definition of “a pain in the rear” is someone who wants us to change something we would rather not look at, consider, or deal with. Like a pain in our body that is symptomatic, a pain ...