John Wesley's Women #2 - Seven Sisters

Samuel and Susanna Wesley had 19 children (some say 20).  Only 10 of them lived to adulthood, seven girls and three boys.  So John Wesley, who was the 16th child, had seven sisters. They were very important in his life because the older children helped raise the younger children.

Social Media and Scripture

The headline in the Wall Street Journal caught my attention:  “Facebook and Twitter Postings Cost CFO His Job”.  Rachel Emma Silverman reported (May 15, 2012, B-1) that 63-year-old Gene Morphis was fired because he showed no restraint on Facebook and Twitter.  The ex-Chief Financial Officer for the women’s clothing company Francesca’s Collection who received a salary of $1.8 million in 2010-2011 is now unemployed because of posts and tweets like these:  

Stay Focused

We are blessed to live in a society with so many new devices and mechanisms in place to aid us in communicating with each other faster, more economically and more easily. Unfortunately, the ability to communicate globally as well as locally does not mean the world has become kinder and more loving. In fact, there are too many places where the walls have grown taller and differences isolate rather than unite the human family. 

Events in the South Georgia Conference - 6/1/2012 edition

Despite disappointment at General Conference, there is hope

General Conference is important, but it can’t legislate vitality, discipleship or growth. And despite the disappointment that emerged from the 2012 session, there is still hope. 

Harlem Globetrotters surprise St. Marys Methodist Home residents

It’s hard to play basketball with a broken basketball hoop on a cracked and worn court. But that’s what the young men of the St. Marys Methodist Home for Children and Youth played on every day after school.

Stepping up to serve at General Conference

Three South Georgia Conference volunteers stepped up to serve during the recent 2012 General Conference – literally. Sometimes on their feet for eight-hour stretches, Rev. Meg Procopio, Rev. Michael Finn and Marianne Wright participated and observed the inner workings of General Conference in ways that few are able to do. 

Rev. Herchel Sheets passing Sunday school lesson torch

This is a historic edition of the South Georgia Advocate. After 37 years of writing insightful, relevant and well-crafted Sunday school lessons for the Advocate, the Rev. Herchel Sheets is calling it quits.  

Lesson 1: Living as God's just people

Recently I was asked this question by a small study group in our church: "How do we know what rules and decrees in the Old Testament still apply today?" That's a good question. The Bible was written many centuries ago under circumstances radically different from those of our day. It is natural to wonder about what in those writings still applies today. 

Lesson 2: Celebrate Justice

 "I wish that there were some wonderful place called the Land of Beginning Again." Laurel Louisa Fletcher expressed that wish in a poem about a hundred years ago. She said that if there were such a place, "all our mistakes and all our heartaches and all of our poor selfish grief could be dropped like a shabby old coat at the door and never put on again."