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2020
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The Kerusso – June | 2020
Kerusso (Greek): “To publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done.”
Journey 2020 | Opportunities to Connect, Worship, and Learn As we shared last month, the Cabinet of Superintendents has decided that for reasons of financial frugality and safety, we will not be hosting a face-to-face Journey meeting this year. Most of the four previously scheduled Journey sessions would have been impossible to hold, given the governmental restrictions in place at the times and locations in which they were slated. While things are beginning now to change, and governors are tracking through re-opening phases, there are still just too many complexities and unknowns to be able to host a face-to-face meeting in June in North Carolina. Given those decisions, and having been inspired and encouraged by the insightful work of churches and pastors around the country who have labored to creatively connect during these last many weeks, we are going to host this year’s USA Journey meeting electronically in late July. Meeting live via an electronic connection for several hours can be a bit of a challenge for a couple of reasons. First, it takes a lot of stamina to stay engaged to a computer or TV screen for hours at a time. And even more challenging is spanning four different time zones. Asking questions such as “What day of the week?,” and “What time of day should we start?” prompted us to decide to host three shorter sessions rather than one long one.
For those and other reasons, Journey 2020 will be broadcast live from the Heritage Learning Center at EMC Headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana on Sunday-Tuesday, July 26-28. The Sunday night session will be mostly Word and Worship, with a few other segments along the way, but all compacted into 90 minutes. Then the Monday and Tuesday sessions will both be just an hour long, with a little bit of teaching, but mostly made up of praise and progress reports from around the conference, as well as a report from our International General Superintendent and a closing time of prayer with all of the Conference Superintendents. While attending this year’s Journey will be much easier than packing up and heading several hours to a central location, we still very much want it to be a centerpiece of connection and accountability, so we will be working on how to record attendance on the part of our credential holders. Every church leader and member is entirely WELCOME and encouraged to connect with us over those evenings, but participation is required as a part of our ministerial service as credential holders. The sessions will be broadcast via internet-based video platforms. We are working on those details, and will have all of those technical issues ironed out well in advance of the late July sessions. There will also be some short regional, live Zoom meetings with pastors during the days of Monday and Tuesday, so look for that information to come as we settle on connection times for each of our eight geographical regions. All you will need to know will be sent in a direct email to our entire EMC family by way of our connectional database, CCB. We are very excited, and are looking forward to connecting in this way.
The Kerusso – June | 2020
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Kerusso (Greek): “To publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done.”
Summer Camp 2020 Update - from Pastor Brian Gordon, Board of Youth Activities, Chairman Our current national (and world-wide) situation has affected every facet of life. It has changed how we shop, how we go to school, how we go to church, and how we socialize. One question I have been asked numerous times is, "how does this affect youth camp?" Most of our Evangelical Methodist Churches are not currently holding face-toface youth meetings, and don't anticipate doing so until sometime in June at the earliest. Nationally, several denominations have cancelled their summer camp programs. For several reasons we have not cancelled yet. We own our camp in Virginia (Indian Cave), which means we have some flexibility on the dates. As a result we have moved our Indian Cave Kids and Youth Camps to July 29August 1 (Kids Camp) and August 2-7 (Youth Camp). The deadline to register is July 5, but we will be flexible regarding this deadline and are waiving the late registration fee, knowing that for some the decision to attend camp may be made at the last minute. Please see the Camp Packet found as an attachment to this email for all the information you need. The Southwest Family Camp is proceeding as planned on July 6th-9th at Woods Canyon Lake, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, AZ for ages 11 and older if not attending with a guardian. Interested participants should contact Pastor Debbie Miller at: millerdebbie8@gmail.com for more information. Markleysburg, PA camp dates were already planned for July 22-24, and we have been given assurance by the camp directors there, that if overnight camp is approved they will host us. As of this writing I am awaiting confirmation from Camp Iliana. So, as of this moment, we ARE planning to host camps this summer. As we move into June, I believe we will have a clearer picture of how to proceed and what camp will look like.
Meanwhile …. Stay Tuned For More Details! We are working out the details for an international Zoom youth event for the near future. I think it will be fun to get our youth together, play a few games, and have a round table discussion on how this pandemic has affected their lives. God Bless!
The Kerusso – June | 2020
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Kerusso (Greek): “To publish, proclaim openly: something which has been done.”
Legacy Pastor: J.R. Dean Harvest EMC ~ Good Hope, WV J.R. Dean was born in 1945 in WV. He grew up occasionally attending church but when he was in third grade, he went to a revival service with a friend whose family was devout believers. During that service, the minister singled out J.R. and poured oil on his head and asked God to pass every gift and calling that he had experienced onto J.R. Like many people, J.R. ran from his calling and became rebellious. After coming home from the Navy in 1967, he turned to drugs and alcohol and was also part of a Rock band. The bass player for that band was a follower of Jesus and as he and J.R. became close, God touched him and he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. These two friends formed a Gospel music group and from that point in 1976, J.R. began to study for the Ministry. Fast forward to 1987. J.R. married his wonderful wife, Sue and they have served the Lord together ever since. A year later in 1988, he began serving as the Assistant Pastor in an independent Full Gospel Church. Fast forward again to 1996 when they moved to Good Hope, WV and began attending Harvest EMC. He enrolled in the EMC Course of Study and the first Sunday in March, 1999, became Senior Pastor of Harvest EMC. He was Ordained with the EMC on April 23, 2003.
Legacy Pastors 20+ Years of service in one church
Three years ago, J.R. and Sue adopted their very active grandson, Andrew. Andrew excels in three sports - baseball, football and basketball. J.R. is officially retiring as Pastor of Harvest after serving there for 21 years. He is continuing to serve the church while they searche for their next pastor. J.R. is a faithful minister of the Gospel and no matter how he will be serving in the future, he will serve with his whole heart! He says, “I will continue to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ in whatever capacity until he calls me home or he comes for his church.”