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Stokes County Tornado lifts over Chestnut Grove UMC King NC May 24, 2017

A tornado passed through Stokes County on Wednesday May 24, 2017 and lifted right over the top of Chestnut Grove UMC, King NC.  I was in the church with the children from our afterschool ministry, several women who are neighbors to the church, and my son, Lt. Joey Lemons, with Stokes County Sheriff's office.  The tornado came quickly through our community and left a wide path of destruction.  Fortunately, God lifted the tornado over the church, and we were spared.  From all directions as you stand and look at our church grounds, you can see the destruction of the tornado, but the church was not harmed.  Those of us who were in the church were not harmed as we waited out the storm in the basement. Little did we know at that moment how bad the damage was from the storm, or just how close we had been in harms way until it was over.  Starting that Wednesday night, our church sprang into action going to work to help our neighbors.  For the next 9 days, our church would serve as a hub of activity for those working to help the victims would stop in to communicate and have a meal.  We had over 11 agencies working together helping our community.  Still the phone is ringing on a daily basis regarding a family in need from the tornado.
      From our own church family we had several families that took a great loss with trees down on their farm, one across a house, another split a mobile home in half.  With all this damage, we praise God that no one was hurt.  One family in our church has been displaced by the tornado, and is currently living in the church parsonage as my guest while our church is looking for this family a new place to rent to help them get back on their feet.  Life for us is not back to normal yet.  Our days are still busy.  We are still busy trying to help our neighbors and our community.  We want to say, thanks for all the help that has been extended to help the people of Stokes County.  We do appreciate all that has been done.  There is still much work to do in the recovery phase we are now experiencing.  Rebuilding is slow work.  If you want to help or ask your church to help in some way, you can contact our church at 336-983-9657 and leave a message at the church office.  I will be glad to return your call.  The church address is: Chestnut Grove UMC, 1024 Volunteer Rd, King NC 27021.  We are sure we are blessed to be a blessing.  We are sure God spared us.  We are sure God is with us.  Come join us when you can.  Rev. Dr. Evelyn Lemons

Follow up Watauga Missional Network

I want to offer a word of thanks to Deerfield UMC for hosting the poverty trainer, Susan Pennock, from Communities In Schools and the Duke Endowment who came to present 6 seminars here in Boone last week. These events were sponsored by the Watauga Missional Network and I want to thank you for helping make the meetings possible.

A few of big ideas came from our work last week:

1.      Try to learn the names of one in four children in our community who live in poverty.

2.      The answer to working towards a solution to poverty is through education and building relationships. How can we promote education especially to work to help people who are in generational poverty? How can we build relationships with people who are in poverty?

3.      Our business leaders who met last week showed a strong interest in trying to make a difference to bring real change for those in our community who are living in poverty. People who are called to make a difference by working for a change of life for people in poverty will be given a chance to plug in their efforts locally.

4.      One way to begin to connect to the educational needs of our community is to volunteer at Parkway School. Please see the pastor for a volunteer application.

Please Keep these questions: Post them on your desk or somewhere important and prayerfully think about these items:

Our District Superintendent met with the Watauga Missional Network, including Deerfield UMC this past Sunday and asked some important questions. Please consider these as we head into planning for 2014. These are great questions for our church to prayerfully consider:

1.       If your church ceased to exist, who would miss you? Who would notice? Who would care?

2.      What is our greatest kingdom offering for Christ?  What work do you currently do that makes a difference in the lives of others?

3.      What is your vision for the future of your church? What is the snapshot of what God is calling your church to do and be in the next 3 years? If you can’t quote the mission statement of your church, we need a new one. What might be preventing that from happening?

4.      What must you change in order to be more able to serve kingdom? What is holding you back? What is our reason for existing? What does it mean to be the church?

5.      What one step will you as the leaders of the church agree to do or work on before the end of this year?

Free Continuing Ed on Poverty for Watauga County Teacher and church leaders

11-12-13 Notes for upcoming Poverty Training Events from Evelyn Lemons

Click Here to Register for Poverty Training

Developing successful church school partnerships

Who: Pastors of the Watauga Missional Network

Date: Wed. Nov. 20, 2013

Time: 11:30am to 1:30pm,

Location: Deerfield UMC

Please bring a bag lunch, Evelyn will provide drinks.

Audience: Small group meeting with Pastors of Watauga Missional Network. The Watauga Missional Network pastors will have the chance to meet with Susan to have follow up training from our meeting in May in a small group setting.

Subject:   1. Leading our churches to launch new efforts to build bridges to the schools in our communities. Trouble shooting time for pastors in how to get the effort off the ground. How to get lay people on board? Hear from pastors where we are stuck and get suggestions from Susan.

2. How can we do follow up work in the schools after the poverty training offered this week?

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Event One Seminar:  Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Date: Wed. Nov. 20^th ,  Snacks ready: 3:15pm,  Time: 3:30pm to 5:30pm

Audience: Teachers and church leaders

Focus: Emphasis on Title one schools as they deal with supporting children in poverty.

Location: Henson Chapel UMC

Contact person at Henson UMC: Pastor Catherine Cornell 828-263-2035

 Catherine is coordinating the snacks with her church for that day.

Maximum seating for 300 to 350.  We anticipate having enough room for all who will want to participate. Teachers and church leaders invited.

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Seminar:  Developing successful church-school partnerships

Date Wed. Nov. 20, Time: 6:30 to 8:30pm, Location: Deerfield UMC

Contact person: Pastor Evelyn Lemons, 828-264-7130, church. Register at this number.

Audience: Appalachian District, missional network leaders, key lay people working in schools

Subject: Follow up strategy training in how to launch new partnerships with schools in the community. Hear where people are stuck and do trouble shooting.  Address how the church can deal with poverty issues in the schools they are supporting. What does the church need to understand about poverty as they begin these new partnerships? Watauga Missional Network is focusing on building relationships in the community that will last. Susan said she would begin with the poverty piece then move towards the church school partnerships.

Needs from Deerfield UMC: Refreshments, greeters.

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Seminar:  Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Day Two: Thursday November 21, 2013, Time: 8:00am to 10:00am

Location Central office: Space is booked and Christy Welch’s husband John Welch is providing breakfast. Participants should contact Christy Welch to register. 

Audience: Counselors, social workers, nurses. We are looking at about 20 people for this. Similar material from the afternoon seminars for teachers, targeting these specific support staff in their role.

Subject: Trainer would focus on the subject of poverty, the mindset of the students vs the mindset of what teachers think vs mindset of those who are in a support role. 

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 Business Leader Luncheon: Jim Hastings. Watauga County Lay Leader, member from Deerfield UMC is heading up this luncheon. We hope to have a small meeting of business leaders to begin the conversation about poverty in our community. We hope that our gathering this week will spark an interest for people to want to work towards solutions here locally.

Date: Thurs, Nov. 21, 2012

Time 11:00 to 11:30 registration and lunch.

11:30 am to 1pm Lunch Meeting

Location: To be decided

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Seminar Two: Understanding and responding to children and families living in poverty

Date: Thurs, Nov. 21, 2012

Time: 3:30 to 5:30pm

Location: Boone UMC.   Luke is providing snacks.

Audience: Teachers and church leaders

Subject:   Trainer explains how poverty impacts education.   Focus on comments from trainer targeting a population mixed with those in poverty and students from middle class. She will address many ways poverty has an impact in the classroom and look at Watauga County data.

What kind of differences could a teacher make to adapt to this diversity in resources at home for students? 

Remember, this is for free continuing education for the teachers on Wed afternoon and Thursday afternoon. See Evelyn to sign up for the credits at the seminar.

 Evelyn

Free Poverty Training coming up November 20 and 21 in Watauga County

Free Poverty Training sponsored by Watauga Missional Network.

You are invited to a free continuing education poverty training seminar.

Trainer Susan Pennock has worked with communities in Schools for over 20 years. She will offer practical, real-world support and guidance to understand the world of students in poverty and help them succeed. Two seminars will be offered, and they will both rely on local Watauga county poverty data. Seminar One will focus on Title One schools, while Seminar Two will focus on supporting students in poverty in a more economically diverse community. Teachers can choose to attend one or both seminars. Register by Thursday November 14^th at noon.

Seminar One: Henson Chapel United Methodist Church (120 Henson Hollar Rd., Vilas, NC 28692-9119)

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013, Snacks start at 3:15pm

Seminar: 3:30pm to5:30pm

Subject: Focus of the first seminar will be targeting poverty with Title One schools and understanding and responding to the needs of families living in poverty.

Seminar Two:

Boone United Methodist Church (471 New Market Blvd  Boone, NC 28607)

Thursday, November 21, 2013, Snacks start at 3:15pm

Seminar: 3:30pm to 5:30pm.

Subject: Focus of the second seminar will be dealing with poverty training for understanding and responding to the needs of families and children living in poverty with middle class issues addressed as well.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

 ** These events are sponsored by the Watauga Missional Network, made up of all the United Methodist Churches and ministries in Watauga County. The United Methodist people of Watauga county want to bring our teachers professional development regarding poverty because they know that our teachers are on the front line dealing with children in poverty every day.

October 1, 2012 Watauga Missional Network Meeting Notes

October 1, 2013 First meeting of laity of Watauga Missional Network

Location: Faithbridge UMC, 6:30pm to 7:30pm.

Rev. Evelyn Lemons, Watagua Missional Network Leader, presiding.

Agenda:

1. Rev. Ben Carson, host pastor, to lead in welcome and prayer.

2. Rev. Lemons, Summary of the first year’s work in a nutshell.

3. Dr. David Fonseca, Superintendent of Watauga County schools to speak.

4. Christy Welch from Mabel School to speak on upcoming poverty training.

5. Hear from the churches on what we are already doing in the schools in our community and new ideas for the coming year.

Pat from Mabel UMC and Hinson Chapel UMC to speak.

6. Attached is one example of a brand new effort at Deerfield UMC to start a volunteer effort at Parkway school. We are starting small. You can too.

7. Close with prayer.

Item 2. On Agenda:

Summary of first year’s work in a nutshell:

Watauga Missional Network:  Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall of 2012 when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community.

After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last.

 We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools. These conversations are already under way between the churches and principals. We are coming to the schools to serve.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for startup money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible. Christy Welch from Mabel Elementary is our contact person for this. Her contact number at Mabel School is 297-2512.

Important dates to come:

1.  We are looking at the dates of November 20 and 21 as possible dates for the poverty training. We will confirm these dates and get the training information to each church. Our target audience is the teachers, but we want to ask the churches to attend where they can and to assist with either snacks or a meal, depending on the location and time of day. Training teachers and church leaders together is a place to make significant connections to people working with children in poverty daily.

2.  Next meeting of the laity for the Watauga Missional Network that has been called by our DS for Sun. Nov. 24 at Boone UMC at 3pm.

Purpose of our meeting tonight as the laity of the Watauga Missional Network:

Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people. The pastors will continue to meet regularly as well.

More information to come to be posted on blog:

www.liftupyourheartsblog.blogspot.com

By: Rev. Evelyn Lemons

Watauga Missional Network Leader, Deerfield UMC, Pastor

Contact information: evelyn.lemons@gmail.com

One example of a church partnering with Parkway as we begin:

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary.  A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in October with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway and the first grade teachers, then the next month, we will be appreciating the second grade teachers, etc.  We were not able to get started on this in September, so we are going to double up in October, then take one grade per month.

Pastor Evelyn is working on the volunteer schedules to turn in to Principal Costin regarding who can volunteer when.  We will need some volunteers from church members to drive students from ASU to Parkway to volunteer and take them back to campus. Right now, we have at least two volunteers who have a significant  block of time to give that do not have rides.

Pastor Evelyn and Angel Teague are signed up to volunteer on Tuesday mornings from 9:25am to 11:10am weekly. We started this work three weeks ago and it is going great. We are working with students individually giving specific help on reading. The school has provided training on exactly what they want us to do with the child we are helping. It has been so much fun!!

Trail Ministry and Deerfield UMC to Partner with Parkway Elementary

We are getting ready to step up our efforts to partner with the school in our community at Deerfield UMC. The school we are going to partner with is Parkway Elementary. We are asking anyone who wants to volunteer to see Pastor Evelyn to get a volunteer application filled out and bring it back to her. They will be turned into the Central Office for a background check. A preliminary idea in our partnership with the school this year is to take one grade per month and do something for the teachers of that grade. If we start in September with showing some gratitude towards the three kindergarten teachers at Parkway, then the next month, we will be appreciating the first grade teachers, etc. There is a meeting coming up on Oct. 1 for anyone who wants to support our partnership with Parkway school at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock at 6:30 that evening. For Trail participants, this would require a sacrifice of your regular meal and group time for this one organizational meeting. Please contact Pastor Evelyn if you want to work in some way to support the ministry of partnering with Parkway School.

Watauga Missional Network- Who are we?

The Watauga Missional Network was formed last fall when our Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church changed the structure of the districts from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Now we are in the Appalachian District and Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is our District Superintendent. In Watauga County, all the United Methodist pastors in Watauga are in the Watauga Missional Network. We have been meeting since last fall to discern one common focus on a mission project where we can make a significant difference in our community. After several months of meetings with our pastors and much prayer, we have been able to discern a common goal: to partner with an elementary school in our community to build relationships that will last. We want to have an impact on student achievement with students who are behind in math and reading. The pastors have started conversations with staff at the schools with principals and social workers to find out about the needs that are specific to their schools.

Watauga Missional Network: What are we doing?
      This summer the Watauga Missional Network learned that there was grant money from the district that we could apply for, for start up money. The pastors came together around the common thread of poverty in Watauga County that has been part of our conversation many times over the last year. So we applied for a grant to do poverty training and got $750.00 from the district to do poverty training. Since our main goal is to work with schools in our community, we are going to the teachers first for providing this training because we believe that our teachers work face to face with poverty all over our county on a daily basis. After meeting with Dr. Fonseca, our superintendent of schools here in our county, we have his permission to go ahead with the poverty training for teachers and we are working with the school system to help make this possible.
Please make a note of the date of October 1. We are going to have our first meeting for pastors and lay people who are interested in working in the school in their community. The meeting is going to be hosted at Faithbridge UMC in Blowing Rock from 6:30 to 7:30pm. Child care is going to be provided. Our goal at this meeting is to share what churches are already doing to connect with the school in their community, and we anticipate representatives from the school system to be present to speak directly to the needs that the church can help address. Dr. Fonseca may be there to do this part, or a representative from his staff.  Please come to the meeting on October 1 if you have a passion for connecting with the school in your community and want to learn what other churches are doing, hear from the schools, and try to make our work as efffective as possible. We will be addressing things to do and pitfalls to avoid. There is great work already going on in this connection in some places and not a very strong connection in other places. We want to learn from each other and support each other in this important work. This is a work meeting for the Watauga Missional Network and will include lay people.
    For the poverty training piece that will be coming up soon, we have been in contact with Susan Pennock who is a trainer with communities in schools and does poverty training to mark some dates on her calendar. As soon as we get those cleared we will publish those dates and the location of the training.

Getting ready for new mission project

The Watauga Missional Network did meet last week and we are continuing to narrow our focus on the one great big umbrella of an idea to use to draw the United Methodist Churches in our community together in purpose. I am seeing a common thread of interest in leaning towards looking for ways to serve the schools in our community, but I am also listening with open ears to all kinds of possibilities our new Missional Network may work together to meet the unmet needs in our community in the name of Christ. It is awesome to have so many young pastors serving in this community who have great ideas for missional possibilities. When we first started going out into the community to ask about the needs in our community, on my second stop which was the Hospitality House, I found a huge unmet need right then. The director said, "We need a 12 Step Recovery program going on under our roof right now. It is our number one need." I thought I was just going to collect information to share with my church and the Missional Network. The Lord had something different in mind. After wrestling whether or not it was my assignment from the Lord to lead this group to address this need, the Lord moved me forward with a green light. We have been meeting now for about 13 weeks and what a huge blessing it has been to lead a recovery ministry at the Hospitality House. I am finding healing for broken places in my life, that I had not anticipated. I headed into this ministry to serve, and I am finding out that the Lord intends for me to receive the blessing of healing at the same time.
   So for all the other pastors who are working towards trying to nail down our focus for the Missional Network, I hope you get snagged by the Holy Spirit too in some huge, life changing way, as we press towards a common goal in missions. It may not be what you had in mind, but I know God already has something in mind for each of us to lead. It is a matter of knowing what that is, and saying yes to the right thing at the right time. I hope for you the same. Get snagged by the Holy Spirit while you are on your way to the mission field. I can't wait to hear what happens next.

Watauga Missional Network for 2-13-13

The Watauga Missional Network will meet at Deerfield UMC again this coming Wed. Feb 13th at 10am. Coffee will be ready at 9:30am for anyone that would like to come a few minutes early for a few minutes of fellowship time before the meeting.
In meeting with our DS Lory Beth Huffman this fall regarding the direction of the work of the mission networks, there is one primary question before our group of pastors to adddress:

  "What is the greatest need you see in your community that you think the church can meet?  Focus. Focus. Focus. Look for deep, high impact in one area."

These are our very specific instructions from Lory Beth.

The Watauga Missional Network met for the first time on Jan. 23, 2013.
As you would guess, there are a multitude of missional needs in our community. We discussed in depth several of the missional needs of our community. We were not able to decide in our first meeting on what would be our primary mission. We decided that we needed time to learn more, ask more questions, think, pray and process and come back to the table at our next meeting ready to address the question again.
One question that came to the table for the leaders to consider is, "What areas of service, from each flock that we represent around the table, are our people willing to serve?
Boone UMC had recently done a missions survey. They made this survey available to us. So at Deerfield, over the last two Sundays, we have passed out the surveys and taken them up during worship to get a better feel for the pulse of the people in where they want to plug in in missions. Just from scanning over the surveys, the results were very much a reflection of being all over the board just like the first time our pastors met with about 10 different areas that are worthy areas of mission being represented in the flock I serve. There was not one place that really stood out above all the others that had much concentration of interest. I have explained to the congregation the work that the Watauga Missional Network is doing and that their answers were important in helping us focus on our coming area of concentration of mission. I am prepared to turn over these surveys to Luke Edwards on Wednesday to begin to crunch numbers and enter data.  Luke has an ASU connection to help put the data into a format that will be helpful to us.

Here are some ideas for this coming Wednesday morning. Our meeting time is at 10am and we will need to break at 11:30am at the latest because our first community Lenten Luncheon will be meeting at noon at Grace Lutheran Church.

One item for reflection before the meeting on Wed. am. Rev. Adam Hamilton gave the sermon for the President's prayer breakfast in January after the inauguration. I have put a link to that sermon which is about a 16 minute clip on my webpage at: www.faithliftingstories.com.  Go to the page that says Watauga Missional Network. Please plow through the politics and and preview this clip before our meeting together on Wed. The reason for that is what this United Methodist Church is doing in their community. He gives some specific examples of the ways they reach out to their community through their schools. The topic is very much in line with what we have already brought to the table for our own community.

Agenda for Wed.
1. Share prayer needs and open with prayer.
2. Review our discussion from the last meeting. I will be prepared to give about a 2 minute summary of our discussion from the last meeting.
3. Give pastors a chance to report on what happened with doing the survey in their church. Has this happened yet? What have we learned so far?
4.  It was proposed at the last meeting to set some short term goals and then look for long term goals. Our first short term goal was to try to collect more information on the heart beat of each congregation and their passion for mission. We did not get as far as being able to set a long term goal at the last meeting.
In doing my doctoral work right now in Educational Leadership, I am personally focused on thinking about how the church can meet the unmet needs of our local schools. That is my area of interest where I plan to pursue doing my dissertation. I say this to let you know I am thinking about what our church could be doing in our local schools every day.
What I found in doing the survey is that most of the people who filled out a survey are interested in missions but their interest was in a great variety of areas.  The challenge before our team of pastors who make up the Watauga Missional Network is to narrow our focus and then lead.
In listening to the conversation around the table at the last meeting I do think our network will be able to have a primary goal. I want to commend our group for having 100 percent attendance from each church represented. I also was surprised at the variety of gifts that each church brings to the table. I think about this everyday because this is where my heart is in ministry right now. Here is a possibility, you know, thinking out loud.
Primary Goal: To find a school in our community to serve to meet their unmet needs.
Theology: Our purpose is to be the hands and feet of Christ in our community and to look for ways to make a difference in his name. In making disciples for Jesus Christ in our local church, we look for ways to help them serve and meet the needs around us. Our job as leaders is to help our flock plug in to an identified need.
Approach to the school:  We will have to understand that the law does provide boundaries between the church and the state that we will have to follow. Even though in our heart we very much want each person to come to faith in Jesus Christ, if we partner with a school, we will not be able to be an evangelist while we are in the role of being a school  volunteer. If we approach the school from the perspective of we are here to serve you, and ask what are your most pressing needs that will make the biggest difference, each school principal would be able to answer that question.  They will have to be sure our agenda is to serve or we will burn the bridge before we ever get started. We also need to be straight that our agenda is to serve.

If we choose the umbrella of serving a local school, there are many areas of ministry that could fall under that umbrella.
For example: If you have people in your church who have a strong area of interest in dealing with hunger issues, our local school is the front line for being able to identify families who have the greatest need. We could plug people into a very specific need, like: what happens to families during the summer who usually get a backpack of snacks at the end of the week?
We had some folks at the table who had a surplus of fresh food that they grew during the summer last year. Could we figure out how to make a connection between the families that have great need, and the people who have community gardens or fresh produce in the summer with the help of the local school? Keeping confidentiality is required by federal law when it comes to the students information, which puts the church at a place of asking the school to identify where is the need, and  then asking the church to supply the food need. We would have to partner with the school in such a way that the school maintains confidentiality of the students who would receive the food.

That is just one example, building on our conversation at the last meeting of how we can move forward in one direction, but still use a variety of people and their gifts to meet specific needs.

If we do make a decision to partner with a local school, it puts the emphasis of the Watauga Missional Network, to then take this goal back to our church, and work to bring leaders in from the church to lead in the goal.

I have published these notes in the format of my blog so you can read ahead, follow the link that I have listed ahead, and also have the chance to invite key leaders from your church to think ahead, pray ahead, and be involved in this process from the ground up. You are invited to post comments at the end of this article. The blog puts our mission in a format that people in the church or ministry we serve can see and comment.
I look forward to meeting with you on Wednesday morning. I will have the coffee hot at 9:30am. This meeting is for the pastors of the Watauga Missional Network.  Rev. Evelyn Lemons

Winter Bible Study to Start Feb. 11

Week One coming up of Bible study: First Night February 11, 5:30pm to 6:30pm. 
The study is from Does Your Church Have a Prayer? By Marc Brown, Kathy Merry, and John Briggs.

Notes from the Leaders Guide by Evelyn on 1/31/13
Here are some note worthy questions to consider before our study begins. These are from p. 16 of the leaders guide:

Scripture: John 21:1-14. Good to read this ahead of the questions below.
1.  Is your church fishing on the wrong side of the boat?
2. Does your congregation spend most of its time casting its nets into waters that protect cherished memories of the past or cherished ministries of the present?
3. Do the nets your congregation casts continue to come up empty?
4. Is there a spirit of weariness and murmuring as ministry efforts keep yielding the same frustrating results?
5.Leaders guide, p. 18. Are you ready to fish from the right side of the boat?
6. What does God intend for your church? from p. 21
7. How can we glorify God through our life together? from p. 21

Scripture to study ahead of week one: Gospel of John, chapter 17 and Acts 1:8.

If you have time to post your answer, our members who are living away for the winter can participate in the study with us, as well as ASU students or people from our community who have a strong interest in our church can see what we are all about. I hope by adding the electronic dimension to our winter Bible study, it will bring the word of the Lord to more people. Come join us. Evelyn Lemons, Pastor.

Watauga Missional Network

One of the things I am learning is that technology changes as soon as you learn how to do something, the whole format will change out. Well that is out of our control. On the blog, today I have added a place where you can comment at the end of the article. At least, I think I have. So, if you are interested in what is going on with the Watauga Missional Network, and want to keep up and contribute to an ongoing conversation about how to go about making a difference together as United Methodist Churches in our community, I invite you to the conversation. I hope you will find a place at the end of this post where you can share your thoughts on the Missional Network.

Deerfield UMC starts 12 step ministry

Rev. Evelyn Lemons, with the help of two other women from Deerfield UMC,  is leading a new 12 step ministry at the Hospitality House for those who are working a 12 step addiction recovery program and would like spiritual support. Our group meets at the Hospitality House. We have been meeting for about 7 weeks now, and we would like to thank the church for their support and for Hospitality House allowing our church to come there to provide a service to the residents there. God is working to change people's lives with the power of the Holy Spirit still giving us the daily strength and encouragement to fight the battle with sin and with the help of Christ, live in victory. We believe Jesus Christ is still changing lives and we celebrate every request for help that comes to the foot of the cross. Jesus Christ is still the name above every name that we lift up on high! We have provided Life Recovery Bibles to 7 people who have requested a Bible. If you want to put your hand on the heart beat of where God is working, pray tonight for those in Boone NC who are homeless. It was 5 degrees on my front porch this morning. Our shelter will be filled to overflowing tonight. The Hospitality House is doing such a great work in our community. We praise the Lord for them. Imagine from the view point of one adult who lives at the Hospitality House and wants to go to church on Sunday what it must have felt like when two church vans pulled up this past Sunday to take children to church, but the adults were left behind. We have a very sweet volunteer from our church who made two trips back and forth to bring people to church on Sunday. I am so grateful this person did get to come to church! There is still room on our pew for people who want to worship with us. Praise the Lord for people in this community who have such compassion for people who have some kind of disadvantage or struggle, and want to make a difference in their lives. Deerfield UMC, I am so proud of the ways you keep on looking for ways to love people and make a difference for the name sake of Jesus Christ. This past Sunday from Isaiah 62 we focused on the passion with which Isaiah prayed for Jerusalem. Our challenge is to bring that same kind of passion to the Lord when it comes to praying for the holy work of the church. Christ does want to use us for the holy work of salvation, and mold us and shape us to be a holy people. We all stand in need of a savior. Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ wants a relationship with everyone of us.

Watauga Missional Network

Like each new District in the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church, Watauga County has a new Missional Network too.
One of our assignments by our District Superintendent Rev. Lory Beth Huffman is to address an area of mission and unite our efforts as churches in the county to make a significant impact on an area of need. Our first meeting is at Deerfield UMC at 10am for the Watauga County United Methodist pastors. The days of going to district meetings once a month are gone. Our district now is huge and too spread out over too many miles to make that possible. One of the goals for the meeting tomorrow is to look at the ways we communicate with each other as pastors and make sure we have the best practices possible in our communications to be effective with our time. We plan to make time when we gather to share prayer concerns and pray for one another and the churches we serve, and tomorrow we will really spend some time trying to narrow our focus on what area of mission could our churches in Watauga County address together from our own location to make a significant impact on the issue.
Currently, I am the pastor of Deerfield UMC in Boone, and I am in my third year of service here, my 20th year as a full time pastor. Last summer I started into a doctoral program at Bethel University in St. Paul MN in Educational Leadership. That work has helped me make ties out in the community in the school system here in Watauga County. Please go to the website that I am building and using for class for more information on the Missional Network. On the website, you will find a powerpoint presentation on how to improve literacy in Watauga County that I did for a class project in December of 2012. We look forward to how the Lord will bring our churches together for mission and guide us as we make important decisions for the kingdom. Here is the website: www.faithliftingstories.com

Wrapping up 2012

I just looked on my blog to see when I posted last. When I got back from my first class in MN! Life has been pretty busy since then. Two more classes done online, serving the church full time, charge conference done, Christmas done, and the start up of a new ministry. About 5 weeks ago, we started a 12 step recovery program at the Hospitality House in Boone for people who are working an addiction recovery program. I am leading this new ministry with the help of two other women. It has been great ministry. Looking forward to meeting with our area pastors to get started with our new Missional Network here in  Watauga County early in January. We welcome Rev. Lory Beth Huffman as the new DS to the new Appalachian District. Our church has continued to work closely with the Wesley Foundation at ASU and Rev. Brad Ferrington continues to do awesome ministry with young people there. Our UM Men had their annual Christmas tree sale and it was a success. Lot's of work has been done to raise money for our missions in our community through the bazaar and Christmas tree sale. One sad note for Boone NC this year has been marked with the loss of life of several young people who are already greatly missed.  One tragedy after another has left our town hurting. Right before Christmas, we have grieved the loss of a teacher only 43 years old at Watauga High School that died with pneumonia. As a church, and as a community, we have worked hard to lean on the Lord and on each other during times of great loss. We have the hope of Christ within us, that the coming year will be better. One of the happiest times for our church over Christmas, was the Marvelous Magical Mondays Christmas program with the kids from our church leading in worship. We pray for those who are hurting in this Christmas season. Back at home in Stokes County, two United Methodist Churches from Rockingham County have suffered with the loss of a fire. Mt. Zion UMC in Stokesdale and Gideon Grove Church in Belews Creek. Having been through a fire at our church and parsonage in 2010, we are sure sorry for your loss and will pray for the church and community to pull together and help each other in this time of loss from the fire. Out of all the loss that our church has faced since that time, the Lord has done incredible work to help us love each other more, become more sensitive to the needs of the community around us, and the rebuilding within spiritually surely points to the redemptive work of a living Savior, Jesus Christ among us. We praise the Lord for helping us keep our eye on the heavenly prize before us, even when times have been tough. We thank the Lord for our salvation, and for giving us the charge to be the hands and feet of Christ to our community. Blessed are the feet of the one who comes to bring the good news! We will continue to serve a living Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord!

It's Back to School time!

     When there is a slight chill in the air in early August, it has meant one thing to me for nearly 40 years; it's time to go back to school. This year, it really does mean back to school time for me as well. I have started on a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Bethel University in Minnesota. Most of the degree work will be online.  This summer I did my first residency in St. Paul, Minnesota to start the degree program.  Going back to live in a dorm room after 30 years of being out of a dorm room was quite an adjustment. The academic challenge of thinking about leading for the future of the church has been an area of interest to me for a number of years, so now I am officially pursuing another degree.  At night when I come in from a day of work with the church, and sometimes late in the evening after meetings, I still have homework. Going back to school has brought with it a lot of challenges.  Two nights ago as I sat down at the kitchen table under the brightest lights in the house to work, I still could not see the words clearly.  So the great search for the strongest pair of reading glasses in the house began. I had to lay aside my real glasses, and put on the stronger reading glasses to start on my homework.  My reality, I need new glasses in order to be able to read at night when my eyes are already tired. Yesterday, I went to the eye doctor to order new, stronger glasses that she had already prescribed. She told me I could try to get by with my old prescription as long as I could.  I figured out that if I have had to go buy a stronger pair of reading glasses from CVS just to be able to read to do my homework, I probably do need the new prescription.  Education is expensive.
     Spiritually, going back to school at the age of 47 to get another degree has been a life journey. I have always loved to learn, but I have not been at the place in my life to be able to start a degree for some time. One of the big spiritual questions I have had to address is why do I want to do this? Is it worth the money and the sacrifice it will cost me?  My faith based answer to those questions was not quick to come in the discernment process, but the answer did come. Peace came with the answer: do the degree because you can, even if you don't know where it will lead, God will take care of the future.  I have had to decide on my world view of life, and decide am I at a place of winding down, or winding up.  My choice is to wind up and to get all the education I can to make a difference for Christ in my community.  Somehow God has given my the understanding that lives deep inside of me that I can still make a difference. Borrowing a few words from Jeremiah Chapter 29, I believe we would call that a future with hope, and living into God's plans for us.
     So whatever the cool chill in the air of an early August morning may mean to you, for many it means going back to school. Our future is filled with possibility and with hope, new friends, new technology and stepping into whatever may be the plans God has in store for each of us. I am excited that God's plan for every person is to give us a future with hope, made possible through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Glad to have a new Mrs. Lemons in the family!

    Several months ago when our son Joey asked Katie Gordon to marry him, I had no idea that becoming a mother in law was going to be so much fun. Over the last couple of weeks as we prepared for the wedding, it was a joyful time and a sad time all wrapped together. Jeff practiced the piano at every chance so the house was filled with music. It was a joy to get to have the honor to officiate at their wedding in June, and at the same time it was a little sad to know he is moving out of the house and starting a new household of his own. So Joey and Katie set their minds to the task of preparing for a small family wedding. It was a beautiful summer day. So a small family wedding we did have at Davis Chapel, Stokes County NC. It is a small church located near the Dan River in Walnut Cove that started in 1793 when a traveling Methodist preacher, married a local girl with the last name of Davis. These two worked together to help form the first Methodist congregation there. The first building burned and was rebuilt in 1882 which was the building that we used for the wedding. The church now belongs to a historical association in the community as there has not been a congregation that worshiped there since the 1970's.
    A number of years ago there was another traveling United Methodist preacher that married a local Stokes County native. But this time, it was me that was the traveling preacher, and it was the father of the groom that I married. Because of the same practice of the United Methodist Church sending out preachers to itinerate, I connected with the history of the founding pastor of Davis Chapel where Joey and Katie were married.  I married a Stokes County native, and from there we have done our life, our faith and our family together. We celebrated our 8 year anniversary the day of Joey and Katie's wedding rehearsal. My personal story of moving to this community is directly linked with being a United Methodist pastor. Little did I know the day I had the honor to receive Joey into membership at Delta United Methodist Church that life would turn out the way it has.  I remember the day he was baptized in the Dan River, about a mile from the location of the wedding, all these years later. Faith in Christ to follow God's call on my life to be a pastor brought me to the Lemons family years ago as their pastor, and with God's help my role expanded to wife and mother. Christ brought us together as a family. Now the Lord has grown our family by sending us a new daughter. I feel so blessed.
   Standing in front of my son and brand new daughter on the happiest day of their life, was one of the hardest things I have ever done and at the same time, one of the happiest days of my life. To be wife, mother, pastor and think and feel in all those roles at the same time is crazy making. What a tremendous day! The love I feel towards my new daughter in law is beyond what I thought it would be, or imagined it could be. This is a marvelous time for our family, and it is uplifting to my heart to be able to honor Christ by sharing with you our good news. I have a Naomi for a mother in law and we share a tremendous love. Ruby Lemons is a fantastic mother in law. We just canned 77 quarts of beans together so you know that's a lot of love. On Katie's wedding day, I told her I hope I can love her like Naomi loved Ruth. I wish you could have seen the look of love in her eyes. It was precious time and I won't forget it. We give the Lord praise for a new daughter! We are so happy! Congratulations Joey and Katie as you start your life as husband and wife!

Bishop Goodpaster opens General Conference

     It is an exciting day for millions of United Methodists around the world, about 8 million of us in the United States and around the world, as we focus our attention on the opening of General Conference in Tampa, Florida. Our bishop, Bishop Larry Goodpaster from the Western North Carolina Conference preached today at the opening worship service at 4:00pm to encourage United Methodists around the world to follow Christ...immediately. Thanks to the live feed through the General Conference webpage, you can follow General Conference online as well when they are in session as some of General Conference will be broadcast over the internet live by streaming. The link to the General Conference webpage is gc2012.umc.org . When you get to the website, click on streaming and you will be able to follow what is going on as it unfolds. The meeting has about 988 delegates, about half clergy and half laity, and these delegates represent the United Methodist Church from around the world. For the next 10 days, these delegates will vote on over 1000 pieces of legislation that after approved will become our new 2012 Book of Discipline.
     Bishop Goodpaster urged each of us to remember how the first disciples responded as they worked by the sea when Jesus came by and invited them to come and follow him and he would teach them to fish for people. Unlike the first disciples, Bishop Goodpaster noted that some of us would want to first refer that to a committee for four years to study the idea and then get back to us. The tongue in cheek referral to a committee is a long standing practice in the United Methodist Church. It is true that we have a committee for just about every task in the life of the church. Sometimes ideas die in the committee and they never come to pass. The first disciples did not hesitate to drop their nets that they were mending and step right in behind Jesus and follow him. Bishop Goodpaster noted that these men were fisherman by trade and that they used their nets enough that from wear that would have to be mended. It is through General Conference that the United Methodist Church sets aside time to mend our nets, he noted. Likewise as the first disciples were busy doing their job, which was fishing, they cast their nets out into the sea and when they brought in the nets, they brought in an assortment of creatures of all kinds that lived in the sea. Bishop Goodpaster noted how differently we fish today for Christ, by fishing for people one at the time, and then for people just like us, whatever "us" looks like. Another point he made for the church today was that to follow Christ does mean that we will have to get off the pew to follow Christ and to be like the first disciples, our response should come with commitment to the cause of Christ, and to be willing to drop what we are doing as they did. Immediately.
     I hope that you will go to the webpage for General Conference listed above, make an effort to see what is being discussed and remember to pray daily for the leadership of the Holy Spirit to be with each person participating and voting on our behalf. Thanks to my laptop and my cell phone, I made a picture of the bishop as he was preaching to share with you today. The word he left us with regarding what to do about the invitation to follow Christ was an urgent call for response, immediately.

General Conference April 24 to May 4, 2012

     The time for General Conference is here to be held April 24 to May 4, 2012 in Tampa Florida. Tonight at Deerfield UMC we are hosting a Bible study to give information to the church on how to access information on General Conference. We are using the links from the Western NC UMC web page to click on the link for General Conference as our primary source of information to learn about how General Conference works, who attends, and what are some important pieces of legislation that will come to the floor. This meeting is extremely important to our church because what is decided at General Conference is the foundation for the new 2012 Book of Discipline that will govern the life of our work together for the next four years. I want to urge you to take the time to go to the conference web page and click on the General Conference link to learn about what is getting ready to take place.
     Here in our own District we are anticipating big changes to come with the restructuring. We will be welcoming our new District Superintendent Rev. Amy Coles when she takes on the new assignment at annual conference this year. Welcome Amy!  We offer a word of thanks to our outgoing D.S. Dr Fred Jordan for his faithfulness in serving our churches and we wish him well in the transition to come for him. The dates of annual conference have been moved to later this year. Please note the dates for annual conference this year will be June 20 to June 24. To get ready for annual conference, our church is asked to participate in a pre-conference briefing to be held on May 20th at Miller's Creek UMC at 2:00pm. The North Wilkesboro District will be de-commissioned and a new District will come online. We are going to be having a name change, along with some changes in the churches in our district. Our new name is going to be the Appalachian District. More details of the district lines and the restructuring changes can also be found at the conference website online. You can print out the new proposals to see exactly where the new lines fall for each district and which church aligns with what district, and also the new District Superintendents have been named. On the conference and general church front, much is on the line regarding our priorities and how we will be organized. Please take the time to read up and be informed about the coming changes. It is our prayer through General Conference and the changes to come here to our own conference and district, that the Lord will continue to be our guide through this process so that in the end, we can reach more people for Christ and remember that is why our church exists. Our prayers are with each church who is going through a time of pastoral change right now.  We pray God's hand will be on each new assignment that is being made. May the Lord hold the churches and the pastors and their families in the palm of his hand in this time of huge changes.

Transition time is here for the Western NC Conference

     Transition time is here for the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church. We are in the middle of figuring out how to move from having 15 districts to 8 districts. Since Annual Conference met last summer there has been a team of people working diligently on how to bring this change on paper into a reality. If you have not already been to the conference website, you can go there to look at the new district line proposal, the new district names, and the churches that will be aligned with each district. Some of you may be asking why are we trying to do this and what was wrong with the way things were? We are working to do the best we can to realign resources and energy to do the best we can to make disciples for Jesus Christ. Why does it have to be that the church is usually 50 years behind the times? Well, for some of the ways we do life together, the old ways of worship and singing and coming together, and making disciples and people getting saved are working great. I hope that for all the churches that are going through a time of prosperity and seeing fruit in ministry that this time of transition will not be seen as a negative dynamic that will pull you down in any way. I don't see any reason that the change in conference structure should slow you down even for one day. But, for the churches that are struggling, and in a real need of an extreme makeover from the top to the bottom, the model of what the conference is doing may help give your church the example it needs to go ahead and make some tough choices, realign priorities, and put all you have towards becoming more effective in putting resources behind making disciples for Jesus Christ.


     As a pastor, I am close to completing my 19th year of full time ministry as Elder in this conference. Having served several churches, I am not a stranger to times of transition. Every year this time of year, there are hosts of pastors and churches that are gearing up or gearing down because you are facing a time of transition because of a change in pastoral leadership. Having been through that a few times I would like to offer some words to both pastors and churches are in that time in the life cycle of your church or ministry right now. To the pastors, seek out other pastors who are going through times of transition. You are not alone in the feeling of being bombarded with a host of what if questions. You make the effort to find other pastors who are transitioning and offer support to pastors who are going through times of change just like you are. Remember, we are in this together, and you are not alone. To the churches, I offer to you the challenge to look for the strength that you bring to the table as the lay people of your church. What area of ministry are you doing well right now? This is a great time to focus on what you as lay people do well and go after your ministry! If you are in the middle of a building project, then keep on building. If you are in the middle of starting a new playground, then keep on planning and fundraising and gathering the volunteers to make it happen. The dance between the pastor and the congregation in who is taking the lead can shift to the congregation during the times of transition in pastoral changes. When the new pastor arrives, you will be in a great place of being focused on ministry and offer your new pastor the chance to see how his or her gifts will add strength to the ministry that your church may be missing.

     There is no way to escape that times of transition may cause some pain. As human beings we simply are not crazy about change, in whatever form change comes to us. We just have it in our bones to not want but so much change and at a certain pace. Life usually will bring us more change than we want and at a faster pace than we want. So we do what a normal human being does, we will adapt. We will grieve having to give up relationships and the security of the way things used to be, and in working through that get ready to embrace new possibilities. All that doesn't happen on the same day. Transition is truly a process. It's time to get our head in the gear that change is coming. Grief is part of acknowledging the good that may be left behind. In a healthy grief, that allows us to let go and get ready to embrace the new opportunities that the Lord will bring, both for pastors and for congregations. Our conference is currently right in the middle of its time of transition of structure. Change is coming. Many churches and pastors are also in a time of transition knowing that change is coming. It is our prayer together that God's hand will be on each change, and to work through every change the most good for the cause of Christ that is possible. My prayers are with the church and all those who are really feeling transitions right now. Remember, God is still in charge.