Sunday, June 6
It was a day of warm greetings and friendly smiles as nearly 1,200 United Methodists descended upon the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton, GA for the start of the 2010 South Georgia Annual Conference Session.
Both clergy and lay members began to gather at 3:00 for registration and fellowship.
The first official gathering was an evening worship service at 7:00 p.m. Members sang favorite hymns from the Cokesbury hymnal. Rev. Jim Cowart, pastor of Harvest Church - a United Methodist Congregation in Warner Robins - gave the evening message.
With a message titled, “What would Jesus say to the SGC (South Georgia Conference),” Rev. Cowart challenged clergy and laity alike to “refocus and turn our attention to Jesus,” saying that the byproduct of that refocusing will be church revitalization and health.
“Trying to save the United Methodist Church is not a worthy enough goal,” he said. “We have what a dying world needs; they don’t know it and we seem to have forgotten it … (but) we can recover our passion; we can recover our joy.”
With a focus on leadership within the church, Rev. Cowart admonished the crowd to “be busy at what is important,” and to ask themselves the question, “Is this program, event or sermon helping us win souls? Is it helping us fulfill the Great Commission? If not, don’t do it.”
“Our first love must be Jesus over everything else,” he said.
A reception for both laity and clergy rounded out the evening.
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