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SOUTH GEORGIA ADVOCATE EDITION OF THE UNITED METHODIST REPORTER
SOUTH GEORGIA ADVOCATE
JUNE 5, 2009
Advocate: Witherow joins as editor Continued from front page Conference to tell its own stories and share its own news. As in this edition, the front section is comprised of news focusing on South Georgia United Methodism. The second section of the paper is generated or collected by the UMR staff and contains news from the larger United Methodist family and the global Church. The Conference Personnel Committee and the Conference Council on Finance and Administration agreed to shift the Conference funding for the Wesleyan Christian Advocate to the Office of Communications so that a staff person could be hired to assume primary responsibility for the South Georgia edition. Mrs. Kara Witherow has been hired as the editor to report, write and coordinate the South Georgia Advocate edition. Witherow brings extensive writing and communications experience to her new role, including employment with Gaylord Entertainment, parent company of Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tenn.
“We are extremely fortunate to have someone with Kara’s skills, experience and spiritual commitment join our Conference staff to coordinate our Advocate edition,” said Dr. Brad Brady, Macon District Superintendent and cabinet member appointed by Bishop King to lead the Advocate transition. Several familiar and popular features will continue in the South Georgia Kara Witherow Advocate, including the Sunday School New Advocate editor lessons and Homer Heardmore’s “Maybe So” column. The South Georgia editorial team anticipates new features that will expand the conversation on topics related to being disciples of Jesus in today’s culture. “I look forward to meeting and working with the laity and clergy of South Georgia,” said Witherow. “We serve a mighty God who is at work all around us. I can’t wait to tell the stories of
what God is doing in our congregations and communities,” she said. Witherow invites both laity and clergy to send her information about possible news stories and photographs of events in your congregation or ministry. Information can be sent to advocate@sgaumc.com. “I am excited about the opportunities within our connection and pray that our readers will support us by subscribing or renewing their subscriptions to the South Georgia Advocate,” said Witherow. “We are grateful for the Advocate’s heritage, the stewardship of which we now assume. Many writers, staff, editors, advertisers and readers have benefitted from more than 172 years of publications,” said Dr. Brady. “We are also thankful for the new partnership with UMR and our readers which will allow us to efficiently use our resources to continue and expand our communications ministry in South Georgia,” he concluded.
Leadership Team: ‘Best summers of my life’ Continued from front page there, and wanted to help impact lives for Christ in the same way that his life was impacted. “My years on the Leadership Team were a very formative time in my life,” said Varnell, who served three summers on the Leadership Team, from 2004 through 2006. “My time there helped me realize what I wanted to do and how God wanted to use me. I saw my own strengths and what I am capable of, but more importantly, I saw what God is capable of doing through me.” Associate Director of Connectional Ministries and camp director Rev. Adam Ricker says that two main attributes he looks for in Leadership Team members are a genuine desire to serve God and a demonstrated ability to work well with others. Both traits, he says, are essential qualities to have whether working as a counselor or in full-time ministry. “We can teach them how to play games, how to sing songs and how to lead Bible studies, but if they don’t have a genuine desire to serve others and an ability to relate and work well with others, we can’t teach those,” he said. Building healthy relationships and learning to work in a team environment are key components to any successful ministry, and many Leadership Team alumni say they developed these skills while serving as camp counselors. “One thing the Leadership Team experience taught me was a team approach to ministry,” said Rev. C.J. Harp, Director of the Wesley Foundation at Valdosta State University who served on the Leadership Team for two summers, in 2001 and 2002. “As a relational being, the lone ranger approach to ministry is both draining and self-defeating. My Leadership Team experience allowed me to learn my giftings and how to use them to benefit the team as a whole.” While most of their peers are vacationing, relaxing, or spending time with friends and family, the Leadership Team counselors work with 4th–12th grade students during two weeks of middle school camps, three weeks of elementary school camps and one week of Road Rules traveling to local churches. A grueling schedule? Yes. Worth it? Definitely, say Leadership Team alumni. “Those were the best summers of my life,” said Kelly Johnson, who served on the Leadership Team from 2001 through 2003 and is now the Director of Children’s Ministries at Forest Hills United Methodist Church in Macon. “You go into the summer not knowing what to expect, and then God weaves lives and friendships together that go on for years and years.”
Johnson, who submitted her Leadership Team application after a friend shared with her his Leadership Team stories, initially just wanted to do something different and positive with her summer. What she experienced, though, turned out to be life changing. “In those three summers, I learned that I wanted to work with kids,” Johnson said. “God placed gifts in me that I never had the opportunity to use before then, and I was able to use them during the summers I was on Leadership Team. It was during my third summer that I specifically knew that I was being called into children’s ministry.” Rev. Thad Haygood, senior pastor of Perry Crossroads United Methodist Church in Perry, says that the time he spent serving on the Leadership Team was formative and impactful, as well. Growing up, he attended the camps and always admired the counselors and hoped to become one when he was older, and says it was a dream come true when he was chosen to be one. “Those four summers helped shape my call into ministry and solidify it,” said Haygood, who served on the Leadership Team from 1992 through 1995. “The people I worked with and the experiences I had really solidified that I was called into ministry. It really gave me a hunger to lead people into worship and helped me realize that it is fun to be in ministry.” In addition to helping him understand that he was being called into ministry, his time on the Leadership Team gave him tangible, concrete experience that helped prepare him for his ministry. During his last two years on the team, he had the opportunity to preach at St. Simons United Methodist Church. These opportunities, he says, allowed him the experience to do things he wouldn’t otherwise have had the chance to do, such as write sermons, and pushed him to grow. Rev. Marcia Cochran, District Superintendent for the Waycross District and former camp director, agrees that serving on the Leadership Team makes a positive impact on the lives of young adults and helps prepare them for full-time ministry, noting one alumnus in particular. “Jay Hanson came into the job at a real crossroads in his life,” Cochran said. “He was not the typical ‘religious’ kid, even though he was a preacher’s kid, but he did a great job and I think it made a positive impact in his life and he’s now gone on to full-time ministry at The Chapel.” Rev. Hanson, pastor of The Chapel in Brunswick, served on the Leadership Team in the mid-1980s and later as the camp director, echoes Cochran’s statement. “I would not be where I am today if not for being hired and serving on the Leadership Team,” he says. “It was the step that
led me to where I am today. I was not planning on going into ministry; I was planning to go into sales!” Jack Caldwell, current head counselor and a senior at Georgia Southern University from Blue Ridge, is beginning his third summer on the Leadership Team. He plans to enter into full-time ministry after he graduates, hopefully in youth ministry. “This summer has already taught me so much about being a servant,” Caldwell said. “Being in ministry, you have to be a servant. It’s not always easy or fun; it’s not always about me or being in front of a crowd, but it’s about Christ. It’s a humbling experience.” Callings into ministry have been heard, lifelong friendships have been forged and marriages have been the outcome of summers spent serving together on Leadership Team, but the impact of the Leadership Team experience spreads far beyond just the actual alumni who served on the team. Its influence is felt far beyond South Georgia, with Leadership Team veterans serving in ministry in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, North Georgia and beyond. Most team members say that they haven’t fully realized the impact that their experience has played in their lives, but that it has been transforming and life changing. “I’d do it again if I had the chance,” said Haygood.
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