- August 1-4 – Served as principal resource speaker for Church Business Administrators of the Southeast at Lake Junaluska, NC. I spoke at 8 sessions on stewardship.

- August 7 – Spoke at the Senior Adult Celebration at Trinity on the Hill in Augusta, GA. We 20 different churches participating for that Saturday celebration.

- August 8 – Preached at the morning worship services at Trinity on the Hill in Augusta, GA. The worship services were held in their gymnasium as the sanctuary is being renovated. I spoke at their rally last October at which time they pledged several million dollars for this sanctuary renovation. They are now projecting more building to accommodate the growth. Dan Brown, the Senior Minister, is a super leader.

- August 15 – Served as the worship leader in the three traditional worship services at Frazer on Sunday morning. Preached at the evening worship service. A group of lay people approached the staff at Frazer requesting an evening worship service and pledging to give leadership. Tim Thompson, Patrick Quinn, and the staff gave an enthusiastic endorsement of this idea. This was the third worship service and they are having an average of over 300 people each Sunday night.

- August 19 – Attended the Methodist Homes meeting in Birmingham, AL, and gave the devotional. I have served as a trustee of this board for several years.

- August 21-23 – Spent three days at First United Methodist Church Dothan with Dr. Jim Sanders. This was a part of their emphasis called Deeper 2010- Expanding Your Influence. On Sunday I preached at 3 morning worship services, taught Sunday School for all of the men of the church in the Fellowship Hall during the Sunday School hour, spoke to about 40 of the leaders at lunch (these leaders will be serving in their Stewardship Campaign studying Treasures of the Transformed Life), preached Sunday night.

- August 23 – Spoke at a noon session at Dothan First United Methodist Church regarding witness to people in the community who are not currently being reached by thechurch. Spent time in the afternoon with the staff. Monday evening spoke at asession on leadership to about 250 leaders.

- August 25 – Attended luncheon for retired persons from Southern Guaranty Insurance. For some 30 years I spoke at a devotional each Wednesday morning for all of the employees of Southern Guaranty.

- August 28 – Officiated at the wedding for Melinda Morrow.

- August 29 – Preached at a rally at the Bluff Park United Methodist Church in Birmingham as a kick-off to their Fall ministry opportunities. Dr. Reid Crotty is the pastor.

During August I had the opportunity to meet with several pastors in one-on-one conferences. I am finding this to be very productive. I also met with leaders from two different churches who were seeking opinions, directions, etc. on how to make their local church vital.

Please pray for me and for the Board of the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries. Our Board gives me great encouragement, support, and accountability.

The month of July offered me a huge variety as I preached in a Camp Meeting for 8 days, preached at the July 4th Church in the Pines, filled in one Sunday at a Southern Baptist Church, preached in a four night revival sponsored by Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians, preached at a little church in Mobile I had served 42 years ago, spoke to all of the football coaches, compliance persons, university relations, etc. for the Athletic Department at Alabama State University, did some television and radio recordings, met with some individual churches for consultation, had one-on-one sessions with several ministers, and had some days in the office for study and preparation.

I think it would be hard to get bored with that kind of variety of ministry. The venues were both exciting and challenging.

July 4 – Church in the Pines. This is a unique worship experience 9:00 a.m. on Lake Martin at Kowaliga Bridge. The outdoor chapel seats more than 600 people, and more than twice that many sit under the trees outside. People come by boats, seadoos, and cars. I have preached there one Sunday during the summer for the last 35 years.

July 4 – I preached at the Tallassee United Methodist church at 11:00 as the appointment of their new minister wouldn’t take effect until August. Even though I have “surrounded Tallassee” by living in Notasulga, Wetumpka, Opelika and Montgomery, I had never preached there.

July 9-16 – Preached at the Salem Camp Meeting located on Salem Road about three miles south of I-20 between Conyers and Covington, Georgia. The campground is over 175 years old. I know of no experience in Alabama like the Camp Meeting experiences in Georgia.

The tabernacle seats over 800 people. Visiting choirs from different churches come each night and each morning. There are about 30 cottages, some of which are over 75 years old. One cottage had 32 people staying in it.

I stayed at the hotel on the campground. Because I was going to be there for eight days and take all my meals in the dining hall, the dietician said to me, “Dr. Mathison we have visiting churches come in for each of the meals so we cook large meals three times a day. If feeding big three times a day would be hard on you I would be glad to fix you something lighter.”

I smiled and asked her to call me John Ed and the three big meals a day would be no problem for me. I would look forward to them! At the end of the week she said in the over 175 year history of the Camp Meeting I might be the pastor who enjoyed the food the most. I discovered that they fried over 1,200 pounds of chicken during the week. A lot of those chickens entered the ministry!

Go to the website, www.salemcampmeeting.org, and you will be fascinated by the pictures, history, schedule, etc.

July 18 – Preached at the Eastern Hills Baptist Church in Montgomery as Dr. Rick Marshall was taking a sabbatical for a few weeks. This church is very much alive. I had difficulty finding a parking place. It is exciting to visit a church in Montgomery on a summer Sunday and not be able to find a parking space.

July 25 – Preached at New Hope United Methodist Church at Fowl River, Alabama. The former church was called Fowl River Methodist and I served it for two years from 1968 to 1970 I was the pastor at South Brookley United Methodist Church and there was some concern about the future of this small church south of Mobile. I volunteered to preach there every Sunday morning at 9:00. It was a great experience for me. Today the church is strong and thriving under the leadership of a retired minister, Jessie Shackelford.

July 25-28 – Joe Pat Cox and I participated in a revival in Benton, Alabama, just this side of Selma. Each year the Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians go together for a community revival. Every third year the Methodists are responsible for the preacher and the song leader. I have been invited to preach every third year for the Methodists for the last 36 years. This was my twelfth time. They invite Joe Pat every year to lead the singing for the Methodists, Baptists, and Presbyterians. Benton is a small area where so many of the young couples finish college and come back to Benton. It is great to be in a church like that that has many, many boys and girls and young people.

July 26 – I love being around coaches. I spent some time with the football coaches at Alabama State University. Coach Reggie Barlow and all of his coaches and the people in the University connected with football met at the Robert Trent Jones Center in Prattville for a day apart to kick off the football season. I enjoyed speaking to them.

Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support. Every day is a great day for each of us to be alive and to serve our Lord.

Life should never be boring – I am discovering every morning the truth of God’s Word that says “Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day.” Lamentations 3:23

You have invested in the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries. You have made investments in prayer and financial resources. I want to give you a snapshot of your investment during the first six months of 2010.

Through your prayers God has opened some huge doors for this ministry. Those doors continue to open. I am learning everyday to pray more expectantly and be ready to walk through doors where I did not even know that doors existed.

Your financial investment is extremely important. One of the best things we have done this year was to be approved by the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). This is one of the most stringent groups of which a non-profit religious organization can join. It took one whole year for us to complete all the necessary documents, track record, etc. There are seven different areas in which a non-profit group must comply. Our ministry was accepted in the first half of this year.

To show you the importance of ECFA, many people in groups will not give to a ministry unless it has been approved by the ECFA. When I served as Senior Pastor at Frazer, if a request came for financial giving and the organization was a part of ECFA, we knew that we did not have to spend any time “investigating” the financial accountability of that organization. Very seldom would groups who were not a part of ECFA be accepted for mission giving.

ECFA has an excellent website which is listed as www.ECFA.org.

My goal is to provide more and more training for pastors who can not afford registration, fees, expenses, etc. During the first six months of this year I have been able to participate in training for over 2,000 pastors who had to pay nothing for the training event.

These funds come from your financial contributions. They also come from honorariums where I speak to other groups. All honorariums go to the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries.

Here is a brief summary of how your investments of prayer and finances have been used.

           – Pastors’ Conferences conducted:

             Pastors’ Conferences in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, Argentina

             Congress on Evangelism – New Orleans, Louisiana

             Billion Soul Interdenominational Conference – Orlando, Florida

             Guntersville, Alabama District Ministers Conference

             Elizabeth City North Carolina District Ministers

             Montgomery, Alabama District Ministers

             St. Louis, Missouri District Ministers

             Danville, Virginia District Ministers

             60 Pastors in Alabama –West Florida and North Alabama Conferences invited to participate July 2010 – June 2011, in “next level           ministry” training experience.

           - Preached 41 times.

           – Ministered in 23 different cities – 10 different states.

           – Preached at the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference Memorial Service.

           – Preached at Renewal Group Banquet at Northern Illinois Conference in Chicago.

           – Had daily radio devotional on WLWI.

           – Wrote a weekly blog.

           – Conducted 4 funerals and 5 weddings.

           – Spoke at the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce meeting and River Region Hotel Hospitality meeting.

           – Served as Chairman of the Investment Committee for the United Methodist Publishing House.

           – Served as Chairman of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy.

           – Served on the Board of Directors of the Confessing Movement.

           – Had new book Transformed Living in Tough Times available in January.

           – Working on new book Transformed Living in Tough Times – 60 Devotionals.

I have received so many letters and comments from pastors about the difference that the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries is making in their ministry. God is blessing. I ask you to please pray for discernment in where He leads for more effective ministry. My challenge is to pick the areas in which I can spend my time most effectively.

We have a great Board of Directors who meet regularly and give accountability and direction to the ministry. Here is our Board. You can go to our website www.johnedmathison.org to see a full resume of each of our Directors.

        Mr. Mike Henig – President, Henig Furs

        Mr. Mike Hutson – Retired President, Burford Equipment Company

        Dr. Gaeton Lorino – Partner, Montgomery Pulmonary Consultants

        Ms. Lucinda Samford Cannon – President, Cannon Ventures

        Mr. Harold Faulkner – Retired President, Faulkner Insurance Agency

        Mr. Craig Coblentz – President, Equipment & Parts Specialty Company

        Dr. Stephen Davidson – Partner, Montgomery Cancer Center

        Mr. Wilbur Hufham – Retired President, Regions Bank

        Mr. Ken Love – Certified Public Accountant &  Chair, Audit Committee, Federal Land Bank

I wanted to give you a 6 months report on your investments and I hope you feel they are paying good dividends.

• Preached a revival at the Wallsboro United Methodist Church
• Preached at Capitol Heights United Methodist Church
• Preached at Baggetts Chapel United Methodist Church in Evergreen, AL
• Preached at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church
• Preached at Church of the Living Waters at Stillwaters on Lake Martin
• Conducted two weddings
• Officiated at two funerals
• Spoke at the River Region Hospitality Association
• Spoke at the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce
• Recorded daily radio programs
• Conducted missionary television interview
• Held several counseling situations
• Participated in conference calls as I serve as Chairman of the Investments Committee for the United Methodist Publishing House and as Finance Chairman for the Confessing Movement
• Conducted leadership planning as I serve as Chairman of the Committee on Episcopacy for the Southeastern Jurisdiction
• Spent several days engaged in writing projects

I was in town more this past month than in previous months and it was a great opportunity to attend baseball games and soccer games as I have several grandchildren competing. I also was able to attend several honors day programs in which my grandchildren were involved.

While I had a lot of opportunities for preaching and teaching, this past month afforded several opportunities for pastoral ministry functions. Some of these were very challenging, but I feel it helped me stay grounded in the real world of ministry.

Thank you for your prayers and your financial support.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

I was with two pastors who introduced me by saying that their training at Frazer changed and shaped their ministry. They referred complimentarily of my mentoring them.

Jim Blue is Lead Pastor at SunRise United Methodist Church in St. Louis, Missouri. It is growing rapidly and is one of the leading churches of that Annual Conference. He and his wife came and spent a week at Frazer in the early 1990’s. He showed me pictures of that visit and notes that he took. I spent 4 days in his church and I could see the things I believe in stamped all over that ministry.

Stuart Greene is the Lead Pastor at Sugarloaf United Methodist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Stuart worked for a year at Frazer when he was a student at Huntingdon. He married a Frazer girl – Becky Tucker. His church is rapidly becoming one of the leading churches in North Georgia. He also talked of my mentoring him and the impact the ministry at Frazer has had on his ministry.

Both of these were rich experiences for me. It made me more excited about the ministry in which I am now engaged as I am having the opportunity to teach/train young pastors.

Here is a recap of the last month.

- April 1 – Had Holy Week worship service for the lower school (grades – kindergarten-5^{th grade) at Trinity Presbyterian School. That age group is a tough challenge to speak to. I do have 5 grandchildren who attend there.}

- April 1 – Preached at the Lenten Luncheon worship at First United Methodist Church Prattville.

- April 1 – Led the Bible Study for the Alabama State University football team and helped Coach Reggie Barlow during their scrimmage. I think I offered him more suggestions than he was looking for!

- April 4 – Preached at the Easter Service at Children’s Harbor. It was an interesting experience as they had the worship in their new Conference Center and had about twice as many people show up as they expected. I was invited back next year. It probably will be at the Church in the Pines.

- April 5 & 6 – Left early to go to Universal City, Los Angeles to speak at an event honoring Derric Johnson. It was my kind of group – musicians and entertainers. Derric has had a great career as a writer, composer, arranger and speaker at Disney World, Miami Dolphins, ReGeneration, and many churches. He also started the Singles’ Ministry at Frazer.

- April 6 – Got back to Montgomery in time to participate in a charity event to raise money for Family Promise. I served as a waiter and the tips went to Family Promise. I have decided to keep my day job.

- April 7 – Spoke at the men’s breakfast at Frazer at 6:30 am. The Men’s Ministry is really growing.

-  April 7 & 8 – Went to Augusta, Georgia with my son Si. I had been at Trinity on the Hill UMC twice in the last two years. They provided us tickets for the opening round of the Masters. What an experience!

- April 9 – Attended reunion of basketball players from Huntingdon College.

- April 10- 13 – Went to St. Louis for a preaching/teaching event at SunRise. It began with Saturday night worship, 3 Sunday morning worship services, Sunday evening and Monday and Tuesday evenings.

- April 12 – Led a seminar for the pastors of that District in St. Louis.

- April 14 – Led the Wednesday night Bible Study at Frazer. Rick Holston is an excellent teacher who shared this teaching opportunity with me.

- April 15 – Seminar for pastors at the Legends Conference Center in Prattville. I wrote about this in one of the blogs. About 60 pastors from North Alabama and Alabama-West Florida Annual Conferences were invited to participate in this initial session of training that will last throughout the next year. I am partnering with Stewardship Resources from North Alabama. I am very excited about the possibilities of this initiative. It is designed for pastors who want to move to the next level for ministry.

- April 15 – Spoke at the special program of the Frazer men. It was low-country boil cookout. That event had about 160 men present. Methodist men always come when there is good food!

- April 17-21 – Went to Danville, Virginia, to the Trinity United Methodist Church. That church had made more preparations than any place that I have been. They had signs all over town. Their District Superintendent commented on Monday night that, “It is great to be in a Methodist Church that needs an overflow room on Monday night.” The pastor Charles Wickham is extremely energetic and effective. The two lay people Dr. Albert Payne and Richard Jones gave super leadership. We had worship services Sunday morning, Sunday night, Monday night and Tuesday night.

- April 19 – Had a seminar for pastors of the Danville District on Monday morning. Met with the District Superintendent and a smaller group of pastors on Monday afternoon.

- April 25 – Preached at Sugarloaf United Methodist Church. Stuart Greene is the pastor. His church is involved in studying the book I wrote, Treasures of the Transformed Life. I had one unique experience as they gave me a hotel room at the Holiday Inn in the Gwinnett Center. Another Alabama boy – Hank Williams, Jr. – was there in concert at the Gwinnett Center. I was the only person staying in the hotel who was not going to the concert and the only person over 30. Hank, Jr. sings about his rowdy friends – I met them! I didn’t realize that young people in Georgia didn’t travel with suitcases. I guess they put their clothes in all of the coolers they brought in.

So many of you give financial support to this ministry, I genuinely thank you for that. It enables us to offer more seminars and teaching opportunities for young pastors.

Thank you so much for your prayers. Please continue.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

The month of March offered a variety of different opportunities for ministry. It included a nine hour training with leaders from a local church, preaching at Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church, at Christchurch, at the Holy Spirit Conference, teaching and preaching in Buenos Aires and Cordoba, Argentina, and doing District Pastors’ Conferences in three different Districts.

The one thing about ministry I did not anticipate was the amount of travel that would be required. Most everything I do is out of town. I decided to figure up the number of hours in March that I spent either in my car, or airport, or airplanes. It came to just over 83 hours. That is almost two full work weeks in just travel.

The following is a brief recap with some pictures.

• March 1 & 2 – Preached a revival at First Baptist Church in Eufaula. It was my third time for this event. Dr. Ken Bush has been the Senior Minister there for 30 years. I always wondered how Baptists have so many men participate. Below is a picture of a steak dinner that they had on Monday night. The fellowship hall was packed with men, I think they require you to attend worship if you eat the steak dinner. One of the differences in Methodists and Baptists is that they had steaks left over at the Baptist men’s meeting – that would never happen at a Methodist church. The other picture is one of the worship services. They had a sanctuary full even for the noon day services.

• March 3 – I went to Ozark for a noon day Lenten worship service. I actually have kin folks who live in that area as most of the Mathisons came from Skipperville. As you know Ozark is a suburb of Skipperville!

•  March 5, 6 & 7 – I went to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The District Superintendent there is Carl Frazier. We had a Pastors Conference with one section of the District on Saturday morning and another Pastors Conference near the Atlantic coast on Saturday afternoon. One of the pictures below shows some of the pastors and a shot of one of the groups of pastors in the workshop. Sunday afternoon was a rally of all of the churches in that District. They really have a lot of Duke fans up there. They gave me a Duke cap and I have worn it a couple of times during March Madness.

• March 9 & 10 – Pictured below are some of the people from radio stations here in Montgomery. Dr. Sam and Andi Scott are with WLWI. I have a 2-minute devotional on WLWI every morning. A very popular duo is Leanne and J. T. on Mix 103. They invited me to participate on air in one of their special programs. The third picture is John Longshore. He and Barry McKnight have one of the most popular sports talk radio programs in this area. I enjoy being on with them live. I actually should have had Barry’s picture on here because he is much better looking than John, but he normally is in the studio at Auburn.

• March 12 & 13 – Spoke at the Holy Spirit Conference at Blue Lake. They had over 200 people participating. Pictured below is a shot of one of the worship experiences. The other speaker was Dr. Steve Seamands who is a professor at Asbury. Below is the Praise Team from the Sardis United Methodist Church. As you can see they had about 20 people in the Praise Team and they are all in same Sunday School class in one United Methodist Church that we would consider to be small. It reminded me that the size of the church never limits the numbers of people that can be reached and participate.

• March 14 – Preached at Christchurch. This is a congregation that is building a large church building out on Vaughn Road. They presently meet at the Dexter United Methodist Church at 9:00 on Sunday mornings. They are related to the Anglican heritage. 

• March 15, 16, & 17 – I went to Argentina to teach pastors there as a part of the Billion Soul Initiative. I was in Buenos Aires one day and in Cordoba the next day. Pictured below is the pastor of the church that sponsored the event in Cordoba. He is retired military and started this church 20 years ago and today they have over 20,000 people every weekend. They also have planted churches in seven other countries. Below is a picture of me doing part of that teaching through an interpreter. Also there is a picture of a group of the leaders there who all of their congregations average more than a thousand in worship each weekend. They are forming a core group to host a major summit there in 2012. They have invited me to come and participate. I didn’t stay long in Argentina. I spent one night in the hotel and two nights on the airplane.

• March 19 & 20 – I went to Dalton, Georgia to work with about 50 leaders from this great church in North Georgia. They had used my book Tried & True, about visioning for the future and this was an opportunity to look at how the work of that Joel Committee would be implemented in that church and that community. I was so impressed with Rev. Robert Lindsey and his staff and the tremendous leaders. You would know Dalton as being the carpet capitol of the world. Today they have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country—yet they have an optimistic energetic spirit. Pictured below is part of the group that spent nine hours together on Friday night and Saturday.

• March 21 – Preached at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. I wrote a blog about it last week. It was an awesome experience. 

• March, 27, 28, & 29 – I went to Stone Mountain, Georgia to be a part of the Mountain Park United Methodist Church witness. It was an extremely busy weekend as we began on Saturday morning with about 50 of their church leaders for a 3-hour session together. I preached Sunday morning at the 8:30 and 11:00 worship services and then taught Sunday School as all of the adult classes met together. At noon I met with some of their church leaders. I taught a workshop on evangelism at 3:00. It was open to the churches of that area. I preached the evening worship service. Monday morning we had a session for all of the ministers of that District. The District Superintendent James Cantrell did not require the pastors to come, but most every pastor in the District attended the 3-hour seminar.

Please pray for me and for the leaders of your local church as we all strive to make the Easter message the dominant message of our day!

The one thing about ministry I did not anticipate was the amount of travel that would be required. Most everything I do is out of town. I decided to figure up the number of hours in March that I spent either in my car, or airport, or airplanes. It came to just over 83 hours. That is almost two full work weeks in just travel.

The following is a brief recap with some pictures.

• March 1 & 2 – Preached a revival at First Baptist Church in Eufaula. It was my third time for this event. Dr. Ken Bush has been the Senior Minister there for 30 years. I always wondered how Baptists have so many men participate. Below is a picture of a steak dinner that they had on Monday night. The fellowship hall was packed with men, I think they require you to attend worship if you eat the steak dinner. One of the differences in Methodists and Baptists is that they had steaks left over at the Baptist men’s meeting – that would never happen at a Methodist church. The other picture is one of the worship services. They had a sanctuary full even for the noon day services.

• March 3 – I went to Ozark for a noon day Lenten worship service. I actually have kin folks who live in that area as most of the Mathisons came from Skipperville. As you know Ozark is a suburb of Skipperville!

• March 5, 6 & 7 – I went to Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The District Superintendent there is Carl Frazier. We had a Pastors Conference with one section of the District on Saturday morning and another Pastors Conference near the Atlantic coast on Saturday afternoon. One of the pictures below shows some of the pastors and a shot of one of the groups of pastors in the workshop. Sunday afternoon was a rally of all of the churches in that District. They really have a lot of Duke fans up there. They gave me a Duke cap and I have worn it a couple of times during March Madness.

• March 9 & 10 – Pictured below are some of the people from radio stations here in Montgomery. Dr. Sam and Andi Scott are with WLWI. I have a 2-minute devotional on WLWI every morning. A very popular duo is Leanne and J. T. on Mix 103. They invited me to participate on air in one of their special programs. The third picture is John Longshore. He and Barry McKnight have one of the most popular sports talk radio programs in this area. I enjoy being on with them live. I actually should have had Barry’s picture on here because he is much better looking than John, but he normally is in the studio at Auburn.

• March 12 & 13 – Spoke at the Holy Spirit Conference at Blue Lake. They had over 200 people participating. Pictured below is a shot of one of the worship experiences. The other speaker was Dr. Steve Seamands who is a professor at Asbury. Below is the Praise Team from the Sardis United Methodist Church. As you can see they had about 20 people in the Praise Team and they are all in same Sunday School class in one United Methodist Church that we would consider to be small. It reminded me that the size of the church never limits the numbers of people that can be reached and participate.

• March 14 – Preached at Christchurch. This is a congregation that is building a large church building out on Vaughn Road. They presently meet at the Dexter United Methodist Church at 9:00 on Sunday mornings. They are related to the Anglican heritage.

• March 15, 16, & 17 – I went to Argentina to teach pastors there as a part of the Billion Soul Initiative. I was in Buenos Aires one day and in Cordoba the next day. Pictured below is the pastor of the church that sponsored the event in Cordoba. He is retired military and started this church 20 years ago and today they have over 20,000 people every weekend. They also have planted churches in seven other countries. Below is a picture of me doing part of that teaching through an interpreter. Also there is a picture of a group of the leaders there who all of their congregations average more than a thousand in worship each weekend. They are forming a core group to host a major summit there in 2012. They have invited me to come and participate. I didn’t stay long in Argentina. I spent one night in the hotel and two nights on the airplane.

• March 19 & 20 – I went to Dalton, Georgia to work with about 50 leaders from this great church in North Georgia. They had used my book Tried & True, about visioning for the future and this was an opportunity to look at how the work of that Joel Committee would be implemented in that church and that community. I was so impressed with Rev. Robert Lindsey and his staff and the tremendous leaders. You would know Dalton as being the carpet capitol of the world. Today they have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country—yet they have an optimistic energetic spirit. Pictured below is part of the group that spent nine hours together on Friday night and Saturday.

• March 21 – Preached at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. I wrote a blog about it last week. It was an awesome experience.

• March, 27, 28, & 29 – I went to Stone Mountain, Georgia to be a part of the Mountain Park United Methodist Church witness. It was an extremely busy weekend as we began on Saturday morning with about 50 of their church leaders for a 3-hour session together. I preached Sunday morning at the 8:30 and 11:00 worship services and then taught Sunday School as all of the adult classes met together. At noon I met with some of their church leaders. I taught a workshop on evangelism at 3:00. It was open to the churches of that area. I preached the evening worship service. Monday morning we had a session for all of the ministers of that District. The District Superintendent James Cantrell did not require the pastors to come, but most every pastor in the District attended the 3-hour seminar.

Please pray for me and for the leaders of your local church as we all strive to make the Easter message the dominant message of our day!

• February 5 – Spoke at the annual meeting of the Alabama Hospital Association in Birmingham. At the banquet 10 people throughout the state were honored as Hospital Heroes. Last week’s blog concerned this event. If you want to read some inspiring stories of these 10 people, you can go to the website of the Alabama Hospital Association.
• February 6 – Spoke at the opening session of the Every Member in Ministry Conference at Frazer. We began this conference about 25 years ago, where people from all over the country come for a weekend of study together on how to get lay people involved in ministry. Over 22,000 people have attended this conference over the years.
• February 7- was in Mobile, Alabama, to preach at the Springhill Baptist Church. They are without a pastor. The preacher the week before was Coach Bobby Bowden. My good friend Jerry Gunnells is a former pastor here in Montgomery and at Springhill Baptist. He will be serving as the interim pastor. It is a great church. I had the opportunity to be a part of a commissioning of a pulpit search committee. Some pastor is going to be fortunate to be called by that church.
• February 7- had the opportunity to give leadership in “The Real Halftime” on Frazer television during the Super Bowl. Jay Wolf from First Baptist Church and I have done this for a lot of years. This year Jim Carpenter joined us, along with Gary Cramer, who is the Chaplain for the Alabama Crimson Tide. He has access to the inner workings of football at the University and is having a great ministry there with not only the football team but other sports teams. I always enjoy going to the University of Alabama to speak at a FCA meeting.

• February 8- helped lead a 5 hour seminar for some 80 pastors from the Montgomery/Prattville and Montgomery/Opelika Districts of the United Methodist Church. Dr. Karl Stegall and I led this seminar on some of the best practices that we have discovered. It was fun working with Karl because he has been one of my best friends in my ministry. I also was able to tell them that I was sharing the seminar leadership with a man who was much older than I and who had mentored me when I was just a young fellow!
• February 8 – participated on the panel to ask questions of the gubernatorial candidates. It was an interesting experience to be able to ask questions and hear the answers from all of the candidates running for office. You would be interested to know that the very first question to the gubernatorial candidates came from another panel member, a college professor, who asked the question, “Do you believe in the inerrancy of scripture and how would your answer to this question shape the way you make decisions as governor?” Wow! I didn’t know I was at a political meeting – I thought I was a part of a process of interviewing a potential minister. Actually, I hope all of the gubernatorial candidates will see the possibility of the position of governor as being a ministry that will glorify God and lead the people of Alabama.

• February 9 – led a seminar in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church for pastors of North Alabama Annual Conference. Charlie Carlton from Stewardship Resources in Birmingham and I did six of these seminars last year in our Annual Conference and this was the first we have done in the North Alabama Conference. My focus was on leadership.
• February 14 – spoke at the Valentine Banquet and Worship at Taylor Road Baptist Church with Pastor Andy Hepburn. It was a fun time that Lynn and I enjoyed. Our anniversary was February 13, so I told them that this was my way of taking her out to a special dinner on our anniversary. That is a growing church here in our city and the people were most gracious. It takes a brave Southern Baptist preacher to invite a Methodist to come in and preach. I had that opportunity two weeks in row.
• February 16 – went to Atlanta, Georgia, to see Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets play the University of North Carolina. My good friend and a great supporter of this ministry is Phillip Cook from Stockbridge, Georgia. He is a trustee at the Shingleroof Campmeeting. He and his wife Julie invited my son Si and me. You know how I love basketball. The North Carolina Tarheels are defending National Champions, but they are not defending much – they are having a tough year.

• February 19 – spoke at a surprise birthday party for Dr. George Washington Carver Richardson, pastor of Hutchinson Missionary Baptist Church. I had preached in his church back in December and feel a real kinship with his congregation. It was a surprise party out at the Gateway Park. He was thoroughly surprised. It was his 70^{th birthday so Lynn and I had an opportunity to share in a special moment with him, his wife, and his congregation.}
  

• February 23 – was in Huntsville, Alabama, for the second seminar on leadership offered to the pastors of the North Alabama Conference. It is encouraging to see the eagerness of pastors, especially young pastors, to learn about leadership.
• February 23 – spent the morning down at the Cumulus Radio Stations. I have always enjoyed radio and doing a two-minute devotional on WLWI every morning at 5:55 a.m. I have been doing that for years. I also enjoy periodically being a part of the Sports Talk program with John and Barry. I am amazed at how many people listen to Sports Talk Radio. I recorded a segment for Mix103 in one of their special promotions. It will be on some time the first week in March during the 7:00 a.m. hour. LeAnne and J. T. are the radio hosts and are a great asset to our community.
• February 26 – wanting to save expenses, the Confessing Movement holds its’ Board meeting by conference call. I have always been actively involved in the leadership of the Confessing Movement. In my opinion, it is one of the reasons why the United Methodist Church is still a vital force in society in many parts of the world. Please pray for the Confessing Movement. You can go to their website and learn much of the work that the CM does. Actually, the first office for the Confessing Movement was at Frazer and I served as the first President.
• February 27 – preached at the Eufaula First Baptist Church for the morning and evening worship services and will be there in revival services on Monday and Tuesday. I believe this is my third time to go for a revival at First Baptist Eufaula. Dr. Ken Bush has been pastor there 30 years. He is also a brave man to invite a Methodist to be a part of his ministry. I will share more about that next month.

God has opened several doors for me to do some individual consulting with churches. I spent several hours doing that this past month. I also enjoy one-on-one time with young pastors.

Our Board joins me in thanking you for your financial support of this ministry. Many of the seminars I do have no charge for those who come and participate and sometime we even help pay expenses for younger pastors. In March I have the opportunity to be a part a teaching team in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where a huge number of pastors will gather for training.

I try to write a blog each week. If you would like to have this e-mailed to you, please send us your e-mail address. The blog will also appear on the website. Thanks for your support.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

• January 4-7 – Spoke at the Congress on Evangelism held in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is an event sponsored by the Foundation of Evangelism for the United Methodist Church. The picture here captured one of the opportunities I had for teaching about 300 pastors and laity on the topic of “Evangelism in the 21st Century^.”

One of the speakers at the Congress on Evangelism was William Young, who is the author of the bestselling book, The Shack. He was a delightful person to know and gave such a winsome witness.

• January 7 – Got home just in time to watch Alabama win the National Championship. The FCA Chaplain for the University of Alabama football team is Gary Cramer. I have spoken for him at the FCA meeting at the University. He will be here on February 7, to participate in “The Real Halftime” during the Super Bowl.
• January 9 and 10 – Lynn and I went to Shalimar, Florida, which is just outside Fort Walton Beach. It was a great weekend to go to the beach because the temperature was about 18 degrees.  Shalimar United Methodist Church is a growing church where I preached at four morning worship services. It was an inspiration for me to be with Larry Bryars and his staff. One person on his staff was David Hoppenjan, who served as an intern at Frazer.
• January 13-15 – The College of Bishops consists of the United Methodist Bishops in the Southeast. We met in Birmingham for their annual meeting. I am the chairman of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy and met with them. Part of the responsibility of our committee is to make assignments of the Bishops, to develop and implement the evaluation process, and design the format for electing Bishops, etc.
• January 16 – I went to Auburn to participate with my brother George in officiating at the wedding of Catherine Alley and Will Pollard.
• January 18 – I spoke at their annual meeting for their employees of the Berney Corporation, the organization that sells copiers throughout the state of Alabama and the panhandle of Florida.
• January 19-22 – I participated in the leadership at the Synergize 2 conference at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. I had the opportunity to speak on Wednesday afternoon, lead a seminar at lunch on “Leadership for Pastors,” video tape a thirty minute teaching on “Empowering the Laity for Ministry,” which will be used in churches around the world. I also did a brief video for a special event.

The Billion Soul Initiative had about 60 organizations and denominations in 2005. Today there are over 760 networking organizations, para church groups, denominations, etc. The goal is to see 1billion people come to Christ and to start 5 million churches.

I want to introduce you to some of the people participating.

This is Ben Lerner who is the author of a lot of books on health and nutrition. His book Body by God has been on the New York Times bestseller list. He has a network of doctors throughout the country who utilize their practice as a platform for ministry. I had the privilege of doing a five minute video taping for one of his projects which will be used by churches around the world. My focus was on how good health enhances the opportunity for ministry and the best use of our time.

This is a picture of Lazarus Yeghnaz from Iran. I wrote about him in my last blog.

This is a picture of David Grant who heads up Operation Rescue in India. His beautiful smile and contagious spirit are an inspiration.

 

This picture is of Eddie Leo and his wife. His ministry is so effective with men throughout the countries around Indonesia that military persons and police departments are asking him to give leadership in developing the kind of men who can be real leaders. He is an exceptional witness.

 

This picture has two wonderful leaders. The person in the middle is Bishop Dale Bronner. He has a huge church in Atlanta. He spoke on the subject of giving godly wisdom. The person on the right is Bishop Ken Ulmer from California. His church bought the Forum where the Los Angeles Lakers played. That is their church building. He is a tremendous preacher. Once I have had to speak following him, and I felt like a valium sedative compared to the energy that he preached in his typical African-American style.

 

This is Shliasi Kurulo from Fiji. He is one of the real leaders in that part of the world. He has personally been involved in starting thousands of churches during his ministry.

This is a picture of Danny Murray. He is director of the Lee University Singers. They provided the music during the conference. It would be hard to find any group in the United States who would be better than the sixteen singers from Lee University. He gave me five of their CD’s. I have been driving all over Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee listening to their music and singing along with them.

 

This is picture of Dr. Len Sweet. He is one of the most prolific writers of our day. He focuses on making the church relevant to the 21^{st century. He is a futuristic thinker. He has had a tremendous impact on seminary education.}

James Davis gives the basic leadership to the Billion Soul Initiative. He is like an energized bunny. I don’t know when he ever has time to sleep. He is a great leader!

• January 22 – I flew home from Orlando in time to drive to Guntersville, Alabama, and meet with a delegation of laypeople and their pastor from Dalton, Georgia, on Friday evening. I am going to visit their church to work with their leadership in a couple of months.
• January 23 – I had an opportunity to teach for three hours to about 150 people from several churches in the Guntersville area. The topic concerned “Empowering Laity for Ministry in the 21st Century.”

This picture basically captures the group attending the conference.

This picture was taken as I met with about 30 of the key leaders from the Guntersville First United Methodist Church. They are utilizing the Every Member in Ministry concept and I had the opportunity to work with some of the challenges they are facing in implementing it.

• January 24 – On Saturday night I drove up to Huntsville to spend the night. On Sunday morning I met with the Saint Paul Triana United Methodist Church where Dr. Paul Hilliard is the pastor. It is an African-American church. I taught a seminar on evangelism at 8:15, Sunday morning. I then had the privilege of preaching at the 10:45 worship service. His church is positioned in a growing area. They desire to reach people effectively as they move to that area.
• January 24 – I left Huntsville at 12:00 noon following the worship service to drive back to Montgomery for a large seminar at the First United Methodist Church in Montgomery at 4:00 p.m. The seminar involved churches in Montgomery/Prattville District. I focused on stewardship. It was a little bit of a challenge to make a three and a half hour drive in four hours because we had tornado warnings and huge rain storms. I made it on time.
• January 26 – I spent the afternoon with our campus minister at Alabama State University. Stephen Redmond is the first fulltime United Methodist Campus Minister at ASU. We visited with a lot of the professors. I had an opportunity to introduce him to several of the coaches. He has been well received and I am excited about the possibilities for his ministry there.
• January 30-31 – My father served the First United Methodist Church of Panama City for 14 years. They have just completed a new family life center and named it “Si Mathison Community Life Center.” Lynn and I went down to participate with my brother George and his wife Monteigne in the worship services on Sunday morning and the dedication of the new building. God really blessed me when he placed me in the family of Si and Mary Mathison. I still am amazed at how blessed I am to have had them as parents.

• During the month I spent about 14 hours in one-on-one time with pastors in individual mentoring, etc. I am finding this to be very helpful. I also spent some time with four different local church leadership groups.

January presented a variety of different ministry opportunities. I am constantly amazed at the doors that God continues to open. I want to thank you for your support through your prayers and finances that make this ministry possible.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

This ministry has far exceeded my greatest expectations. God continues to open more and more doors.

Let me share a few statistical highlights for 2009.

• Preached 131 times.
• Conducted 44 seminars.
• Ministered in 65 cities.
• Ministered in 16 states.
• Preached in events in 6 different denominations.
• Wrote a book, Transformed Living in Tough Times, published by Cokesbury in December 2009.
• Taught seminars on leadership, stewardship, evangelism, next level ministry, developing leaders, shaping a church for the future.
• Preached at worship sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the American College of Football Coaches Association meeting at Nashville, Tennessee.
• Conducted daily radio devotionals on WLWI in Montgomery.
• Did consulting work with several churches.
• Spent many hours of one-on-one time with young pastors.
• Participated in several television interviews.
• Wrote devotional thoughts for the website on a weekly basis.
• Led a series of Bible studies for Governor Bob Riley and his cabinet on the subject of Biblical Leadership.
• Served as Chairman of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Committee of Episcopacy, which is composed of one pastor and one layperson elected to lead the delegation from each Annual Conference.  Two of the responsibilities assigned to us are the process for electing Bishops and the assignment of Bishops.
• Gave leadership in preparing documents to oppose 32 Constitutional Amendments offered to United Methodist Annual Conferences last June.  Those Amendments were soundly defeated!  The ones we supported passed overwhelmingly.
• Served on the United Methodist Publishing House Board of Directors and served as Chairman of the Investments Committee.
• Preached in 12 churches engaged in the Treasures of the Transformed Life stewardship program.

One major emphasis was to become a part of the ECFA – Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. A non-profit ministry has to be in existence for one year and pass strong financial audits to qualify. It appears that we will become a part of ECFA in January 2010! This will ensure strong financial accountability for the ministry.

We have a great Board of Directors who is actively involved in directing the ministry. They meet on a quarterly basis. A resume of the Board of Directors can be found on the website www.johnedmathison.org.

I have a lot of opportunities scheduled for 2010. As you know, I am part of a global teaching team who is focused on carrying out Dr. Bill Bright’s vision of starting 5 million churches and winning 1 billion people to Christ in the next 10 years. We are making good progress. I will be participating in several international pastors’ schools in 2010.

The website www.johnedmathison.org is widely used. We plan to develop more resources for pastors in churches and help connect pastors in churches to people who are engaged in effective ministries. The website also contains some of my schedule, and devotional thoughts that are posted periodically.

Please continue praying for me and this ministry. I am anxious to see what God is going to do in 2010!

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison