By Jessica Connor. UM ministers reflect spiritual journey, sacrifice through Christian tattoos.
Read MorePosts by Category: News
This is the category for Advocate news and feature articles.
CCM elects officers, fleshes out its body
By Jessica Connor. The new structure for Connectional Ministries now not only has its framework, but its people in place.
Read MoreWampee afterschool program breathes new life into old church
By Jessica Connor. Two years ago, Wampee United Methodist Church was almost on its way out.
Read MoreBreaking bread: Greenville church reaches out with free community dinners
By Jessica Connor. If there’s one thing the members of Monaghan United Methodist Church are really, really good at, it’s food.
Read MoreRejuvenated softball field a symbol of renewal at Liberty UMC
By Jessie Morgan. When the Rev. Brian Arant came to Liberty United Methodist Church a year ago, he heard many stories about the fun and fellowship the congregation once had on the softball field behind the church. But Arant found it hard to believe that space was once a thriving gathering place.
Read MoreSumter Area Missions: Answering the call
By Jessie Morgan. Seven years ago, Wes Conner was looking for a way to bring together a community of faith in the Sumter area and bridge the gap between Christian denominations.
Read MoreFighting Goliath: Bishopville church stands up to DHEC, local farm in fight over turkey barns
By Jessica Connor. A United Methodist church and its surrounding neighbors are fighting their own version of Goliath: eight new turkey grow-out barns in their rural community.
Read MoreOut of the ashes: Walhalla church gets new life through forgiveness, rebuild
By Jessica Connor. They remember it like it was yesterday: the flames eating away at the historic building, the cavernous hole where the sanctuary used to be, the despair in their hearts as they huddled together and watch their church burn.
Read MoreGod’s Kitchen feeds hungry bodies, souls
By Jessica Connor. It’s said she rules the church food bank with an iron fist. “A tough girl,” her pastor calls her. But Gladys Edge’s eyes tell a different story, gleaming with emotion as she recounts the woman with cancer trying to feed seven grandkids after their mother was killed; the man with a criminal record and six mouths to feed who can’t get government help because of his shaky past; the woman with an armor of “attitude” to hide her shame and fear about having to beg for a meal. “She would’ve starved if not for Murray Church,” Edge said.
Read MoreMcClendon tapped as episcopal nominee
By Jessica Connor. Delegates to the 2012 General and Jurisdictional conferences have unanimously selected Dr. Tim McClendon as their episcopal nominee.
Read MoreDoing God’s work: Youth, adult missioners step outside comfort zone on Brazil trip
By Jessie Morgan. When a recent United Methodist Volunteers in Mission group traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to do mission work, group members were forced to step outside their comfort zones while experiencing the acceptance and love of the Brazilian culture.
Read MoreVBS season: UMCs explore Christ through Shake It Up Café, Pandamania, Island Connection, more
By Jessie Morgan. This summer, South Carolina United Methodist Churches saw Pandamania in the streets of Hometown Nazareth, and things were totally Inside Out and Upside Down. While some dined at the Shake it Up Café, others had a getaway to the Son Surf Beach Bash.
Read MoreLeadership in the Wesleyan Spirit
By Jessica Connor. Three S.C. pastors teach on leadership principles, passions and practices during Annual Conference.
Read MoreTurner preaches on finding new life by letting go
By Jessica Connor. Sometimes you have to die to live.
Read MoreKersey: Faith can move mountains—and the UMC
By Jessica Connor. Why can’t we be the kind of United Methodist Church that God calls us to be? Reach young people and the unchurched? Speak in one voice as a denomination? See the growth and transformation that John Wesley saw in early Methodism? Perhaps, said the Rev. Jeff Kersey, our answer can be found in our faith – or lack of it.
Read More‘The Wesleyan Way’: United Methodists elect delegates, set budget, pass legislation at 2011 Annual Conference
By Jessica Connor. “Can you feel it? Can you sense it?” Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor asked members of Annual Conference. “Are you ready, South Carolina, for what God will do with us together?”
Read MoreAnnual Conference chooses representatives to 2012 General, Jurisdictional conferences
By Allison Trussell. Members of the 2011 Annual Conference elected nine clergy and nine laity as delegates to the 2012 General Conference during the five-day event. An additional nine clergy and nine laity were elected to join the General Conference delegates at the 2012 Jurisdictional Conference.
Read MoreAnnual Conference passes legislation on immigration, redistricting evaluation, more
By Allison Trussell. Immigration reform, redistricting evaluation, AIDS and other key pieces of legislation fueled much debate during the five days of Annual Conference.
Read MoreThe time has come: Thirty-one souls commissioned, ordained
By Jessica Connor. Praising the glorious power of the Holy Spirit that came as a great wind during the first Day of Pentecost, Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor led an ordination service that commissioned and ordained 31 people as provisional or full deacons and elders in the United Methodist Church.
Read MoreThe audacity of faith: Gadson preaches at Annual Conference on utter belief in God
By Jessica Connor. Bringing a message from St. Mark United Methodist Church in Sumter “to the saints, the sinners, the whiners and the winners,” the Rev. Telley Gadson preached on what she called the audacity of faith during the Thursday night worship service at Annual Conference.
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