This is the category for Advocate editorials and other viewpoints.
When I was a kid, preparing for Christmas involved a whole lot of me, myself and I—what I wanted to receive for Christmas, where my family was going to celebrate Christmas, you get the picture.But now, I’ve come to realize that a focus on Advent—the four weeks when we prepare for, and anticipate, the coming of Christ—is what I was always missing in the holiday. By Jessica Brodie.
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For many of us, this season will be an endurance marathon of way too much to do, way too much to eat and way too much stress. However, the true blessing of the Christmas season can be discovered when we focus on preparing our hearts to receive again the greatest gift given to humankind: the hope, comfort, joy and glad tidings the baby Jesus brought to earth. By Bishop L. Jonathan Holston.
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Advocate Editor Jessica Brodie’s reflection on gratitude.
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Professional athletes often find success through their keen ability to remain focused in moments of high pressure. Certainly they practice and train to continually improve their skills, but the difference between a novice and a champion can come down to the ability to focus when it matters most. By Bishop Jonathan Holston.
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By Jessica Brodie. What started as a restoration project has become a full-scale catalyst for one United Methodist church in South Carolina, St. John’s UMC, helping members honor their history while invigorating their future.
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By Jessica Brodie. One South Carolina United Methodist pastor, the Rev. Judy Hames, headed to Uganda this summer to spend a week mentoring new believers in Christ. Hames went as part of International Missionaries For Christ, a non-denominational mission organization that sends out these new believers as serious transformers of the world for Christ in the ways of Methodism’s founder, John Wesley. “It has to have been one of the highlights of my life,” said Hames.
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By Laura Camby McCaskill. In 2012, two police officers were killed in the line of duty in Aiken County within six weeks of each other. This brought the community together to find out why—and led to the creation of an organization, Megiddo Dream Station, that helps alleviate issues of poverty and unemployment.
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By Jessica Brodie. Deacons and lay employees outside the conference office will see an increase in their premium costs for insurance in 2019. That’s the word from the Rev. Christopher Lollis, director of the South Carolina Conference Pensions and Benefits Office.
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By Jessica Brodie. This month, The United Methodist Church’s top court is expected to review the final report of the Commission on a Way Forward and rule on whether the proposed legislation for General Conference 2019, including petitions, is constitutional. That court, the Judicial Council, will gather Oct. 23-26 in Zurich. The matter is on the court’s docket along with other items.
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Bishop Sharma D. Lewis, resident bishop of the Richmond episcopal area, will serve as keynote speaker for the South Carolina Conference’s Summit on the Black Church: Real Talk for the Black Church.
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Move over, sophomores. At 499 strong, the freshman class at Spartanburg Methodist College just took the record for the largest group of new first-time college students since SMC’s founding in 1911.
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In 2016, Trinity United Methodist Church raised money to “dig” six wells in Peru, Ghana, India (two) and Thailand (two). In 2018, Trinity again decided to dig some wells and this time raised enough money for 11 wells.
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By Jane Agan. As one church in South Carolina hurries to finish its organ restoration, another is just beginning. Main Street United Methodist Church began an organ campaign Aug. 26. Called “Keep the Music Flowing: A Campaign to Replace and Restore the Organ,” this campaign is eight weeks of spiritual renewal as well as funding a new organ.
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By Jessica Brodie. What to do? How to proceed? Which way to turn? Sometimes, I wish I had a giant God Spotlight to answer those questions.
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By Bishop L. Jonathan Holston. South Carolina once again is feeling the brunt of a powerful hurricane that has caused widespread property damage across our state. While many South Carolinians have had their lives disrupted, there is tremendous evidence of God’s faithfulness in our midst. We recognize that these are trying times that are overwhelming and often lead us to believe there is nothing we can do to help.
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By Jessica Brodie. Mental illness runs in my family. Like some families have a genetic predisposition to diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure or high cholesterol, my family members sometimes struggle with chemical imbalances in the brain.
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By Bishop Jonathan Holston. An African proverb teaches it this way: “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
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Editor Jessica Brodie on how bad times (even those facing the UMC as a whole) help us draw closer to God and develop a more Christ-like attitude—humility, faith, and trust in God’s will (“thy will be done”). They teach us things we wouldn’t know otherwise. They help us become patient. They can later help us to comfort others. And when we thank God for these situations, even when it feels ridiculous to do so, we’re acknowledging His sovereignty, His dominion and His power.
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Bishop Jonathan Holston reflects on what it is to be in mission: Being on the cutting edge, figuring out what it means to make disciples. Transforming the world for people where they live. Using our lives to share Christ’s love. Meeting new people and listening to their stories. Growing in an understanding of how God is at work in the world.
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Editor Jessica Brodie on how—when we take a step away from our own clique, our own church, our own circle of friends and family, and we begin to look around at others who are also Christian—we realize our family is nothing like us at all on the surface except where it counts: in matters of faith.
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