SC MEN n MINISTRY S.C. United Methodist Men Report to SEJ November 13-15, 2015

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1 South Carolina Conference SC MEN n MINISTRY S.C. United Methodist Men Report to SEJ November 13-15, 2015 South Carolina United Methodist Men are continuing to respond, lay and clergy, to Jesus Christ s command to go into all the world and make disciples. With the leadership of Bishop Holston, the lay and clergy in the South Carolina Annual Conference are seeking God s will to dream and accomplish God Size Dreams through the discipleship of men that God can use in their families, church, and community. NEWS FLASH NASHVILLE, Tenn. Dan Ramsey, president of the National Association of Conference Presidents of UM Men, and Gil Hanke, top staff executive of the General Commission on UM Men, presented a plaque honoring UM Men of South Carolina as the top annual conference unit of UM Men in the nation. Herman Lightsey, president of the conference UM Men, received the award during a March 5-8, 2015 meeting of leaders from all conferences of UM Men. UM Men of South Carolina Annual Conference host an annual retreat that traditionally brings about 500 men, but with a huge leap of faith, in 2015, the men moved to a church that formerly housed the Gatlin Brothers Theater and more than 850 people attended that life-changing event. This is the largest gathering of Methodist Men in the country. In addition SC had over 500 men and clergy attend five Teaching Church events during 2014 and had the largest percentage increase of churches connecting their men s ministry nationally through the General Commission of Methodist Men. This was a result of the Lay and Clergy under the leadership of the Bishop, working to accomplish God Size Dreams! 1 P a g e

2 We have held our Men s Spiritual Retreat at Springmaid Beach for many years. Last year we issued a challenge lay and clergy to bring 500 men to the retreat. This was over 21/2 times the attendance in the past. We had 530 men and 60+ ladies. This was great, but it created a problem that we have not had in my many years of ministry. We had outgrown the Springmaid Beach Resort facilities. Comment forms made it clear we had to seek a larger facility with much better video and sound capabilities. Much prayer and consultations with the Bishop and Pastors in growing churches led us to Christ United Methodist Church, Myrtle Beach, SC. The church is housed in the old Gatling Brothers Theater and you guessed it it has the space, sound, video, and other amenities that are needed to grow this ministry. Pastor Jeff Dunn and his staff are excited to be hosting this event. This is a huge leap of faith for the men and pastors in the South Carolina Annual Conference. Teaching churches are the "Next Steps" in the transformation of ministry to men, their families, and churches over the next three years. Connectionalism is the "ACE" that other organized religions do not have. We have United Methodist Churches in the SC Annual Conference that has growing ministries for all ages. We invite each of you to come share and listen as these churches share their successes. We encourage you to invite clergy and laity to come and help us change the face of the Methodist Church, one disciple at a time. We have a lot of work ahead of us if we are to change the Methodist Church in South Carolina and beyond through the discipleship of men that God can use. Teaching Churches: Grow Your Church Through Ministry to Men and their Families Each Teaching Church event will be different, because they will share their ideas that have helped them grow their churches through discipleship of men and their families. We encourage men, woman and pastors to attend a teaching church in their area or attend as many as they can to gather ideas for growing their church. This is part of our connection as United Methodist to share our successes with sister churches. Come, listen, and learn how to make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of SC and the World. We held our fifth teaching church on January 17, A total of over 500 men attended these teaching church events. 2 P a g e

3 I will cover several areas of success and needs: After many years of praying and seeking, we now have a Conference Prayer Advocate. Dennis Sullen, who is also the district lay leader in Florence, is our new Prayer Advocate. Dennis attended the Prayer Advocates meeting last March in Nashville and came away fired up. He personally does a prayer line on Fridays from his home. He is pushing training. He always has a prayer line and prayer room at our Ministry weekends. We plan to have one at our Annual Conference in Glad to have Dennis on board. For a number of years we had no men s leadership in the districts of Anderson, Greenwood, Marion, and Spartanburg. We are trying a new concept which creates ministry teams in districts instead of the normal UMM officer structure. The teams are made of laity and clergy and they designate leaders to be the conduit to the conference men. We have new ministry teams established in Greenwood and Marion districts and we are working continuing to work with the DS in Anderson and Spartanburg to establish teams in those districts. The Marion District sponsored their second teaching church" in August of this year. Also a new ministry team in the Greenwood District also held a "teaching church" in August of this year. We need to strengthen the ministry teams in ALL districts if we are to grow this ministry. The harvest is plentiful, the labors are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labors into the field. The Bishop has a real interest in and heavily depends on laity to be his hands, eyes, ears, and feet to disciple men, women, and children down to the local church. He is very pleased and excited about the men s movement to disciple men and their families in this Conference. In April of 2015 he had a training event to teach and challenge men to step as leaders of men. The Bishop took his key lay leaders and conference staff on a Road Show to visit with the laity in every district. I was asked to represent the which gave me face time will all of the lay leadership in each district, which included the leadership in the local churches. We have searched for a qualified treasury for our SC MEN n MINISTRY for three years. After much prayer for a person with a financial background that can work with the South Carolina United Methodist Church treasury, to link our banking and online registration process, David Holcombe has agreed to assume this position. David is an accountant with Milliken Inc., and is active in Covenant UMC, Greer, SC. Welcome David!! Charters have not been talked about in over two years. Instead we talk about discipleship of men and their families and how we want to be the conduit. 3 P a g e

4 We have partnered with other laity groups (lay leaders, lay speakers, UMW, UMVIM, etc) DS, and pastors and we only talk about discipleship. We have begun to talk to churches about connecting their ministry to men by chartering their churches, not clubs. Opportunities and partnerships: We continue to partner with the Bishop, District Superintendents, pastors, and laity groups to grow this ministry to men and their families. This has resulted in a renewed interest in this ministry. The Bishop is partnering with us in this ministry through his leadership and training of laity and his encouragement of pastors. Working with DSs, ministry teams are being established in districts with no prior leadership. We are also partnering with the Conference Lay Leader, Barbara Ware, and all of the District Lay Leaders for this common goal of discipleship of men and their families... We have been asked to be involved with a group of black ministers and laity to see how young black men can be mentored to reduce the incarceration rate. Much of the incarceration of young black men is because there is no father figure present. They feel that this is a good fit with our ministry. We have also been asked to advertise our ministry with The Summit on the Black Church which meets every other year. We have been invited to District Superintendent s set up meeting for pastors, the Bishop s School, The fellowship of Clergy, and other events and men s meetings. Our partnership with the South Carolina Conference Staff has enabled us to do on line registrations, direct deposit of funds, pre-printed name tags and attendance list and many other things. Without this assistance we could not handle the Retreats and Teaching Church events. To show our thanks we sponsored a thank you lunch on September 30, Many of our Men s leadership team attended. It was well received. I continue to travel to the districts when invited to continue to build relationships. We are working on other relationships and plans to enhance and grow this ministry. We are participating with the Conference event for young people called Revolution. This event draws about 2,000 high school and college youth. We are donating bibles, a youth worship book, and helping with the event. 4 P a g e

5 Update after our Men s Spiritual Retreat February 20-22, 2015 at Christ United Methodist Church, Myrtle Beach, SC. Our goal this year was to have 750 in attendance. Remember this is a different venue, A United Methodist Church. The location that has been used as long as I can remember, had meeting space, dining facilities, and lodging in one location. We were familiar with the facilities and the people. People could park their car on arrival and never move it until the event was over. Everything was new this year. We negotiated with the church for the meeting area, contracted with hotels to block rooms, and we provided no meals. We did this all on faith.. God graced us with 850+ and the comments have overwhelmingly positive. God is good.. The Bishop has challenged the SC Church with having 1500 in Our key presenter will be Rev. Zan Holmes who was one of the key people in the Disciple Bible Study Series. The Bishop continues to be a key part of this ministry. Dates are February 19-21, Come and see.. Our next step for will continue to utilize teaching churches in different parts of our conference. We also plan to have at least one teaching church for pastors in corporation with Clergy Services who want to target young pastors at New Start and Re-Start churches. More details to come. Check web site at or It is important for pastors to preach to and encourage men from the pulpit. Teaching Churches Dates for 2015: Date Church District Location August 15, 2015 St Mark UMC Greenville Taylors, SC August 29, 2015 Grace UMC Greenwood N Augusta, SC September?, 2015 Belin UMC Marion Murrells Inlet, SC October 3, 2015 Journey UMC Columbia Columbia, SC These five teaching churches had over 700 men in attendance. On April 11, 2015, we hosted training for the Bishop s 100 Men who are willing to put skin into the game, which is a personal commitment to work through their local church, the district, and the conference to disciple men and their families for Christ. The hope is that we will have 300 plus men that will step forward from all twelve districts to commit to this movement to get men to be Godley men as Christ intended men to be. Those who could not come to the meeting and still be part of these committed men. We had over 100 men and clergy, including two 5 P a g e

6 DSs. Eleven of the twelve districts had representatives. The Bishop conducted training and challenged men to Put Personal Skin in the Game at their local church, district, and the Conference. If they agreed they were asked to pray about it and sign a Leadership Contract. Many men also picked up a copy of The Class Meeting by Kevin Watson, and were challenged to read the book and then get seven other men to form a Class Meeting group. This is based on John Wesley s weekly accountability groups in the early church. Please pray for these men. God has graced us with a Bishop that challenges us to dream God Size Dreams. But this Bishop does not just talk.. he walks and leads. Take the challenge walk the walk, come and see The Harvest is plentiful, the labors few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labors into the field. Luke 10:2 Our prayer is that this moves across the Church. Will you put some personal Skin in the Game? Respectfully Submitted Herman Lightsey President SC Conference United Methodist Men 6 P a g e