November 21, 2023

Sharefest Success

Believing in Christ means experiencing comfort, encouragement, love and unity. It also means expressing this to fellow siblings in Christ. The collective efforts made by churches and groups of various backgrounds through the Festival of Sharing Sharefests embody these traits. This year alone, over 1,500 volunteer hours were donated by over 300 volunteers across the seven Sharefest events. Read more here→

Upcoming Events

• December 2 - Early Response Team Training (Sedalia)

See the full events calendars at www.moumethodist.org/events  

Featured Resource

Cultural Competency Courses 

In pursuit of becoming a Church for all God’s people, the Missouri Conference has partnered with its culture coach Nikki Lerner to create seven online courses on cultural competency topics. The courses are available for free on Absorb, our on-demand learning platform. 

• Defining and Expanding a Multicultural Decision-making Team 
• The Five P’s of Multicultural Leadership 
• How to Have and Facilitate Cultural Conversations 
• How to Fix a Flub 
• Multicultural vs. Multicolored 
• The Four Anchors of a Multicultural Organization 
• 12-week Communication Plan for Race and Culture 

To learn more about the Missouri Conference’s race and culture work, visit www.moumethodist.org/race-and-culture

Resources for Native American Heritage Month

During the month of November, many communities will offer opportunities to observe and honor Native American Heritage Month. One way local churches can participate in Native American Heritage Month is by lifting up the voices of Native Peoples in worship services. UMC Discipleship has liturgical resources written by United Methodists from different Native American tribal affiliations. Consider how you might use these prayers in worship this month and throughout the year. May God use them to shape your local congregation and the worldwide United Methodist Church into the church we are becoming.

3 Things to Consider as You Seek to Reach Gen Z and the Current Climate of Our Students?

Gen Z is different than older generations. It's one of the biggest disruptors to church attendance and engagement. How do we reach students who aren’t as interested in what’s being offered at church anymore?

See the full resource library at www.moumethodist.org/resourcelibrary