EXTENSION MINISTRIES
* If you were redirected here for a news/event posting, CLICK HERE to jump to the listing or a directory of news/events.
The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. The Tennessee Conference seeks to connect, equip, and change lives. As agencies and ministries beyond the local church, we extend the love of Christ so that God's people in all circumstances of life can experience the transforming and sustaining love of God.
Click on a ministry below to visit their website:
Please scroll down to view a story/event listing, or a directory of news/events:
- The Tom & Betty Cloyd Scholarship Fund
- Miriam's Promise releases 2011 final report
- Martin Methodist student tabbed for UMC internship (Press release, 4/24/12)
- Mountain T.O.P. and Martin Methodist camp
- Eden Seminary professor tells MMC ‘words can create worlds’ (Press release, 2/14/12)
- Johnston family hired by Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries (TNUMC Camps)
- Waltrips continue to help feed hungry (Feed America First)
The Tom & Betty Cloyd Scholarship Fund
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | UMFMTC
Contact: Rev. Dr. Vincent Walkup (email, 615.259.2008)
Applications for the Tom & Betty Cloyd Scholarship Fund
Several years ago friends and family of Tom and Betty Cloyd established a scholarship fund in their honor. Each year a scholarship is given to a student who has been a member of a United Methodist Church in the Tennessee Conference for at least two years. The student must also be enrolled in or accepted to a United Methodist related college or university.
To apply for this scholarship, please contact Rev. Dr. Vincent (Vin) Walkup, President of the United Methodist Foundation for the Memphis and Tennessee Conferences. Call 615.259.2008 or email (vwalkup@umfmtc.org) to obtain an application. Applications must be in the Foundation office by June 20, 2012.
If anyone desires to continue to honor Tom and Betty with a donation to this fund, you may also contact Dr. Walkup as instructed above. Tom served as a minister in the Tennessee Conference in a variety of positions with churches such as Madison Street, McKendree, Springfield, Belle Meade, and Seay Hubbard. He was also Director of the Conference Council and the Cumberland District Superintendent. Beyond the Tennessee Conference, Tom served in Brussels, Belgium; in Lubumbashi, Zaire; in the Congo; and in New Mexico. Betty served as a Diaconal Minister in Christian Education at McKendree and Hermitage in the Tennessee Conference and as a Director at the Upper Room, as part of the General Board of Global Ministries. They are now retired and live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Miriam's Promise releases 2011 final report
> DOWNLOAD report (.PDF)
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Martin Methodist student tabbed for UMC internship (Press release, 4/24/12)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Martin Methodist College
Contact: Grant Vosburgh (email, 931.363.9815)
Junior from the Congo to serve as Ethnic Young Adult intern for summer 2012
PULASKI, Tenn. – Junie Nkonge, a junior at Martin Methodist College, has been selected to serve as an Ethnic Young Adult (EYA) intern with the General Board of Church and Society for the summer 2012.
A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, she will join approximately 12-15 EYA interns in growing in faith through community, service and worship. According to the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), these components will involve the following:• The community portion of the experience includes living in community with the other EYA interns and “meeting together on Fridays for seminars that explore issues concerning our church, our government, and how ethnicity and faith inform our views.”
• Interns will serve with long-term GBCS non-profit, non-governmental partners whose work and ministry is focused on addressing a specific social justice concern.
• The worship component of the summer will involve visiting a variety of UM churches in the D.C. area, as well as midweek devotions.
Nkonge’s home church is Jerusalem United Methodist Church in the Congo, and she currently attends First United Methodist Church, Pulaski.
She transferred to Martin Methodist after earning her associate’s degree from Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. She plans to graduate from Martin Methodist in spring 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems.
“I am honored to have received the opportunity to go and explore faith and social justice issues this summer in Washington, D.C.,” Nkonge said. “I believe that social justice is important because it emphasizes human beings’ rights, their dignity and equality. As Christians, we should all be committed to social justice to promote unity, peace, and love for the glory of God. ‘Fight injustice throughout the world.'"
“I expect to return with a great dedication to working with and in support of marginalized group in society. I can’t wait,” she said.
> Nurture: Higher Education & Campus Ministries
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Mountain T.O.P. and Martin Methodist camp
Joining hands to further God’s kingdom...For the first time in Mountain T.O.P. history, we will be hosting a Youth Summer Ministry camp week at Martin Methodist College!
Campers will arrive Sunday morning at 9:00 am, work Monday-Friday on minor home repair projects and depart Sunday morning. Every day will include daybreaks, sharing, and worship. Rooms will be AIR CONDITIONED! These campers this summer will be the FIRST M-TOP GROUP in a BRAND NEW SERVICE AREA!!!
Dates:
Week 7, Sunday, July 15th - Saturday, July 21st, 2012
Cost: $375/person, includes meals, lodging, staffing and material fees! Tools and programming space will be
provided by FUMC Pulaski.
Applications can be found at www.mountain-top.org • Contact sam@mountain-top.org • 931.692.3999
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Eden Seminary professor tells MMC ‘words can create worlds’ (Press release, 2/14/12)
Martin Methodist College
Contact: Grant Vosburgh, Dir. of Communications (gvosburgh@martinmethodist.edu)
Dr. Leah Gunning Francis speaks at annual Convocation on Religion and Race
PULASKI, Tenn. – As a young girl, she heard the adage that “sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you,” but as she grew into adulthood, Dr. Leah Gunning Francis learned that was not completely true.
“Even as a child I knew there was something illogical about that familiar refrain, but it was not until adulthood that I came to understand how sticks, stones and names have the power to hurt the body and bring sullenness to the soul,” she said. “Fortunate for me, my childhood world was filled with words of affirmation, hope and love, so the occasional zinger from a peer didn’t do too much damage, I don’t think. But what about people whose worlds are dominated with negative and dehumanizing words. What kind of world has been created for them?”Gunning Francis was the keynote speaker at Martin Methodist College’s annual Convocation on Religion and Race, held Jan. 24. As assistant professor of Christian education at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, she is a passionate teacher, drawing on her marketing experience, pastoral leadership and academic training to creatively equip graduate students for transformative leadership in congregations and society.
But standing at the podium in the Curry Christian Life Center on the Martin Methodist campus, just eight days after the national holiday celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, she had a single focus and a powerful message: words and the different types of worlds they can create.
“Ask any advertising executive, seventh grade English teacher, psychologist or speechwriter, and he or she will elaborate on the nature and scope of the power of words, and the meanings we attach to them,” she said. “Words can persuade, influence and inspire. Words can heal. Words can hurt. Words can empower. Words can oppress. It is no wonder the writer of (the biblical book of) James cautions us to listen more quickly than we speak, so that our actions and words might correspond with God’s idea of righteousness. We can bless and praise God, yet curse those who are made in God’s image? My brothers and sisters, the writer goes on to say, this ought not be so.”
Once that truth is established, she told the Martin Methodist students, faculty and staff assembled for the convocation, a larger question comes into focus.
“So instead of diminishing the effects of words with the sticks and stones logic, what if we took seriously the claim that words create worlds, and ask ourselves, ‘What type of world are your words creating?’ In our classrooms, are our words subtly reinforcing antiquated patterns of exclusivity, subjugation and indifference? Or do they open the way for the classroom to become a sacred space where critical thought, exchange of ideas, and construction of new realities can take place without diminishing or devaluing anyone in the room? What about our common spaces on campus and out and about town? Do our words create a world that is conducive and healthy for all people, or only a select few?”
Dr. King, she reminded the audience, dreamed of a different world than the one facing the United States during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ’60s, and he chose his words – both those he said and those he chose not to say – carefully, with the hope that his words would help create that world.
“What if we, through our words, embodied the type of world we long for, hope for?” Gunning Francis asked. “What if we, like King, mustered the courage to dream a world where love was the order of the day, and peace and justice were inextricable bedfellows? We may not be about to always influence discourse in the public square, but what worlds do our words create in our homes, among our friends, on this campus, in this town?
“Are our words creating a world where God’s tenets of faith, hope and love can take on flesh in ways that transform us, and the world we inhabit? Or do they regularly contribute to the promulgation of indifference, prejudice or even despair? Do we believe that our words have the power to create a pattern of action that inspires a new reality?” she added.
> A.N.O.W.: Advocacy, Religion & Race; Nurture, Higher Ed & Campus Ministries
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Johnston family hired by Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries (TNUMC Camps)
For Immediate Release
Contact: campusminister@citlink.net, dhinton@tnumc.org
Board of Camp and Retreeat Ministries announcement from Chair Bud Alexander
In order to enhance our ministries, the Conference Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries (BCRM) is pleased to announce that the Director, Dickie Hinton, will be devoting much of his work to development, marketing, and fund raising for Cedar Crest and Beersheba, as well as continuing to supervise both facilities. In order to expand the quality of work Dickie has brought to Beersheba, the BCRM has hired David Johnston as Director of Beersheba Springs Assembly and his wife Vanessa as Director of Food Services.David comes to Beersheba from having served as the Executive Director of Skye Farm Camp and Retreat Center, a United Methodist Camp in upper New York. He has a B.S. in Education from Springfield College and an M.A. in Administration from the University of New Hampshire. He has completed requirements to become a certified Camp Director of the United Methodist Church. Vanessa brings experience at camp as well as food service and many radical hospitality skills.
These staff changes will continue the rich tradition of Welcoming, Restoring, and Transforming ministries at Beersheba and will develop a sustainable future for our camping ministries and facilities. Please join the Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries as we welcome the Johnston’s to Tennessee and Beersheba Springs Assembly.
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]
Waltrips continue to help feed hungry (Feed America First)
Vehicles pull through food distribution lanes at Nashville Family Church in Franklin, as volunteers load donated food and personal hygiene products, on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011. NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip and his wife, Stevie, were among the volunteers.
FRANKLIN, Tenn. – NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip and his wife, Stevie, continued their local hunger relief efforts at a recent event that put food into the hands of 800 families in Williamson and Davidson counties.The food distribution was a combined effort of several agencies and individuals. An anonymous donor paid for the food, which was provided by Feed The Children. Feed America First coordinated the distribution with the help of Nashville Family Church’s hunger ministry, 1GenAway, and local hunger ministry Feed Franklin First.
This was the second time this year the Waltrips joined this combined effort, the first being in June, when 400 families were fed. The event was part of Feed The Children’s Americans Feeding Americans Caravan.
The host agencies for the event were Feed America First, a non-profit hunger relief agency, and OneGenAway, a ministry of Nashville Family Church.
“It’s in our community, and it’s just such a wakeup call to think that there might be some kids who might go to bed hungry tonight,” Darrell said in June. “To give them a helping hand just makes you feel good.”
The Waltrip family resides in Franklin and attends Parish Presbyterian Church.
Since 1979, Feed The Children has consistently ranked as one of the largest international charities in the U.S., based on private, non-government support. Their mission is providing hope and resources for those without life’s essentials. In FY 2010, Feed The Children distributed more than 133 million pounds of food and other essentials to children and their families in all 50 states and internationally. For more information, visit www.feedthechildren.org.
This article was featured in the TN Conference weekly eBlast TNUMConnects. FREE to your INBOX weekly!Click the button to subscribe now!
[Back to Top] [Print] [Direct Link] [Share This]