Let me share just a brief recap.

I had the opportunity to conduct Annual Conference and District seminars for over 2,800 pastors and lay people. These were conducted in the following Annual Conferences: Alabama-West Florida, North Alabama, Michigan, North Carolina, Western North Carolina, Florida, Memphis, Holston, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Missouri East, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, North Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas.

I also led Pastors seminars for the General Baptists, multi-denominational seminars in Atlanta, North Carolina, Missouri, and Fresh Anointing Church of God in Christ in Montgomery.

I had the opportunity to preach 131 times in many United Methodist Churches and in churches of six other denominations. I had the privilege to preach in 7 African-American churches. As you can see, this required a lot of travel.

I had some interesting experiences speaking to groups outside of the church venue. I did a leadership seminar in Orlando, Florida for ALFA Insurance managers, Rural Electric Coop in Alabama, Prattville YMCA Leadership Board, had an opportunity to speak to the 1,200 public school teachers in Autauga County, Citizen of the Year banquet honoring Dr. Jack Hawkins, Hyundai Awards banquet, Vaughn Forest Baptist Church Wild Game Dinner, Troy Bank and Trust, STEP Foundation banquet, and several athletic teams.

I led seminars with selected Pastors from Alabama-West Florida and North Alabama Conferences. I lead a seminar for a Matrix Connection involving selected Pastors from across the United States.

In addition to these preaching, speaking, teaching opportunities, I have served as the Chairperson of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy, which has responsibility for the election and assignment of Bishops. I also have served as chairman of the Investments Committee for the United Methodist Publishing House Board. I have enjoyed serving on the Alabama Sports Commission. I have served at Frazer on the Vision Committee which has established a special project for transformation and revitalization in a special area in Montgomery.

I have continued to prepare and deliver a 2-minute devotional thought 5 days a week on WLWI, one of the largest radio stations in Central Alabama. I have also written a weekly blog. Several newspapers and magazines have picked up and used the blogs.

I had opportunities for pastoral functions as I officiated at 11 funerals and 13 weddings.

I have participated in writing and preparing resources for training Pastors in developing countries. I spent time in consulting with 5 churches.

I am greatly indebted to Linda Poole with whom I have worked for the past 15 years. She handles most of the administrative end of the ministry.

I am also blessed to have a wonderful Board of Directors who are very active. These Directors are Mike Henig, Gaeton Lorino, Mike Hutson, Harold Faulkner, Lucinda Cannon, Ken Love, Wilbur Hufham, Craig Coblentz and Steve Davidson. I would encourage you to go to the website (www.johnedmathison.org) and see more extensive biographical info about them.

To ensure financial accountability, we continue to belong to and abide by the stringent standards of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA).

The year 2012 has already presented some awesome opportunities for ministry and training. Please be praying that everyone connected with the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries will be faithful to God’s call and that each of us will be good stewards of the time, talent, and resources that God is providing.

Please pray bodaciously for this ministry.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

October 1 and 2 – Preached in St. George, SC at the Indian Field Camp Meeting. At the Sunday morning worship service the tabernacle was packed and several hundred people sat in chairs under the trees. Drove back to Montgomery.

October 4 – Met as a member of the Alabama Sports Commission. The purpose of this organization is to plan and promote sporting events in the Montgomery area. We meet in the new press box at Cramton Bowl. You need to see all of the renovation that has taken place at Cramton Bowl and the building of a huge facility at the south end of the stadium. This is a huge square building where you can play seventeen volleyball games at once or several basketball games or indoor tennis courts. There is also a large dining area. It will be a tremendous asset to the city. The new complex has not been named yet. Since it is a square building, and there are some trees and shrubs in the plaza, and since it is located on Madison Avenue, I just suggested that we should name it the Montgomery Madison Square Garden.

October 8 – Attended the Hall of Fame induction at Huntingdon College for five new members. Anthony Leigh is giving great leadership at Huntingdon. The athletic program is extremely strong. I left Saturday afternoon to fly to Raleigh, NC. They were completing the study of Treasures of the Transformed Life.

October 9 – Preached at the First United Methodist Church in Louisburg, NC. I stayed with Dr. & Mrs. Mark La Branche. Mark is the President of Louisburg College. The church is across the street from the college. I did something I have not done in over 50 years – I walked to church on Sunday morning!

October 10 – Led a five hour seminar at Louisburg College for pastors in two of the Districts surrounding Raleigh.

October 11 – Traveled back to Montgomery. Lynn and I attended an In His Steps dinner as we were participating as Captains in this important stewardship campaign.

October 15 – Traveled to Fairhope, AL. This is one of Lynn’s favorite places to go.

October 16 – Preached at the morning worship services at Fairhope United Methodist Church. They are completing the study of Treasures of the Transformed Life. Mike McKnight is giving great leadership.

October 21 – Attended my 55^{th High School Reunion in Opelika. I thought it was 45, but they insisted it was 55. Some of my classmates have really aged!}

October 22 – Traveled down to Port St. Joe, FL. to be with Mac and Beckie Fulcher. Both of them are products of the Frazer family. Mac is giving great leadership as the pastor there.

October 23 – Preached at the two morning worship services at Port St. Joe. The first worship service is outdoors. They call it “WOW” (Worship on the Water). It actually was pretty cool –actually cold – at 8:30 (EST) for that first service. I traveled back Sunday afternoon to be at Frazer where Bruce Wilkinson was beginning his seminar.

October 24 – Traveled to Nashville, TN as I serve on the Board of the United Methodist Publishing House. We meet once a year.

October 25 – I serve as the chairman of the Investment Committee for the United Methodist Publishing House. This is an interesting experience for me because on my committee is a man who recently served on the Federal Reserve Board and a couple of bank presidents. I let them do the decision making.

October 26 – Lynn and I had an opportunity to spend time with Bruce Wilkinson. He has been a big influence in my life. We attended the Sav-A-Life banquet that night.

October 30 – Traveled to Phenix City, AL to preach at Trinity United Methodist Church for their homecoming service. I served Trinity for 2 ½ years just prior to coming to Montgomery. The greatest thrill is to return to a place where you meet people who comment about the effect of your ministry on their lives. I stayed over Sunday night to preach as all of the Methodist Churches of Russell County came together for a joint rally.

November 1 – I was invited to speak at Citizen of the Year banquet honoring Dr. Jack Hawkins, Chancellor at Troy University.

November 2 – I love spending time with young athletes. Alexia Henig is the track coach at St. James School. She had a special gathering for her athletes and their parents and invited me to speak to them.

November 5 – Officiated at the wedding of Chase Fisher and Rachel Beers. It was a unique experience because they are the same age and grew up in the same church. At the altar where the wedding took place, they had been baptized as infants. They had attended Frazer Kindergarten and “graduated” on that stage. They were confirmed together at the same altar. They both were active in the youth program and participated in choir and drama presentations on that stage. Their High School graduation was held at Frazer and they graduated together on that stage. On Youth Sunday Chase spoke in the three traditional worship services and Rachel spoke in the three contemporary worship services. Now they came back to that same spot to be married. One of the great things about being the pastor of a church for a long time is that you get to see young people grow up.

November 6 – Preached at the homecoming worship service at Coosada Baptist Church. Coosada is not a big town, but they average over 700 in worship.

November 7 – I serve on the nominating committee for the Montgomery/Opelika District which met to select District leadership. Dr. Ron Ball our District Superintendent is giving great leadership.

November 8 – I was invited by Coach Reggie Barlow and Coach Payne to come over to Alabama State University and meet with the football team and offer a word encouragement and prayer. I have had a lot of opportunities with the coaches and players at Alabama State. They have had a great season, especially beating Tuskegee University in the Turkey Day Classic.

November 9 – I had the opportunity to have lunch and spend some time with Coaches Barlow and Payne. They have a great desire to not only coach football but help raise young men. Wednesday night I went over to Prattville United Methodist Church for the first of a three part series in their Advent Bible study.

November 11 – Once a quarter former Frazer program staff people and their spouses get together to eat and share great memories of ministry at Frazer.

November 12 – Traveled to Warner Robbins, GA to preach at Harvest United Methodist Church. Jim Cowart is the pastor. He had shared with me the impact that my ministry had on his life as he finished seminary. He had attended a couple of conferences at Frazer. His desire was to plant a new church. Harvest is only about 10 or 12 years old. They are averaging 2,300 in worship! I preached a Saturday night worship service.

November 13 – I preached three Sunday morning worship services at Harvest. It is an exciting church that is growing tremendously. It was a great thrill for me to be a part of that ministry for the weekend. Drove back to Montgomery.

November 14 – This was a day of travel to Branson, MO where I would be preaching and teaching in a Pastors Conference.

November 15 & 16 – Dr. Bob Pierson has put together some outstanding opportunities for continuing education for pastors. I had the opportunity to preach, lead two 1 ½ hour seminars, and participate in a panel discussion.

November 17 – This was a day of travel back to Montgomery.

November 18 – I drove to Atlanta to fly to Oklahoma City, OK where I rented a car to drive to Lawton, OK to speak and teach at an Evangelism event for the Oklahoma Annual Conference.

November 19 – I had the opportunity to teach for five hours to pastors and lay people on the topic of evangelism. Again I met many young pastors who had attended some of the seminars at Frazer. The host pastor at First United Methodist Church in Lawton, OK is Dr. Al Potts. He is a great leader and had served a short time in our Annual Conference. He had spoken at some events at Frazer.

November 19 & 20 – I flew back to Atlanta, GA and drove to Carterville, GA to preach three morning worship services at Sam Jones United Methodist Church on November 20. This was Commitment Sunday at Sam Jones. They were completing the study Treasures of the Transformed Life. Many people made encouraging comments about the study of the book. I also had an opportunity to meet with their church leaders at lunch on Sunday, before driving back to Montgomery.

November 23 – Attended a great celebration with Law Enforcement people and the presentation of a $60,000 check to pay for insurance premiums for fire fighters, police, highway patrol, etc. so that their families might receive some compensation if they are killed on duty. Grant Sullivan and Jerry Wills have done a super job in putting this PSIFprogram together.

November 30 – Will lead the second in a series of three Bible studies at the Prattville United Methodist Church. I am teaching on the topic of “How Transformed People Live in Tough Times.”

God opens doors. Please pray for this ministry.

John Ed Mathison

August 6 – Officiated at the wedding for Erin Gowan. I have a long relationship with the Gowan family. Erin’s grandmother use to look after me when I was 2- years-old living in Loxley, Alabama. I also served the Woodland Methodist Church in 1960 as I was a senior in college. The Gowans’ had moved to that area and were members. Erin’s father Lyn was born. They asked me to baptize him. He was the first person that I baptized as a pastor. I am not really sure now that I was authorized to do it, but I did it anyway. The baptism took!

August 7 – Preached at Frazer UMC for the three morning worship services, had a memorial service Sunday afternoon, and preached at the evening worship at Frazer. I also had an interesting experience with Greg Calhoun. I met Evander Holifield, Isaiah Thomas and other atheletes in conjunction with his charity golf tournament. I wrote a blog about it on August 10.

August 8 – Met with some young pastors to focus on ministry opportunities.

August 11 – Went to Birmingham to give the opening devotional for the Board of Directors meeting for the United Methodist Homes for the Aging for North Alabama and Alabama-West Florida Conference. My Dad served on that Board for some 30 years, and I have had the privilege of serving on the Board in recent years.

August 12 – Had an opportunity to speak to about 1,100 public school teachers in Autauga County. Greg Faulkner is the School Superintendent. I shared a blog about this experience that was posted August 17.

August 14 – Went to LaGrange, Georgia, to preach at the First United Methodist Church. That church was preparing to begin the Treasures of the Transformed Life stewardship study. Dr. Harold Lawrence is the Senior Pastor.

August 16 – Went down to Calhoun High School to speak to the football team. This school is located in rural Autauga County. I was greatly impressed with Coach Williamson who decided to go there and coach. He had to have three fundraisers to buy enough helmets so that all 24 of his players could have a helmet. I watched one kid practice without football pants. Since most of the boys do not have any form of transportation, most of them could not start football practice until school started. One big challenge is to keep the boys there on Friday afternoon when they have a game Friday night. Regulations will not allow them to have food out of the cafeteria so Coach Williamson has to provide a pregame meal. He currently has negotiated with Subway for that pregame meal.

August 19 – Spoke at the Frazer Men’s program. This is an exciting ministry for men. They had over 150 men present.

August 20-23 – I traveled to Brownsville, Tennessee, for a Preaching Mission. Brownsville is located northeast of Memphis, Tennessee. I enjoyed a great experience there with Rev. Philip Cook and the good people of Brownsville. This is also where Bishop Paul Duffey grew up.

August 25 – Attended a meeting for the Alabama Sports Commission. This is a very interesting group that I will tell you more about later. I also participated in a conference call for the Confessing Movement.

August 26 – Retired staff members from Frazer get together once a quarter to visit and pray together. We meet at Steak-Out on Taylor Road and usually have about 15 staff members and spouses present. It is a good time of reflecting on past ministry.

August 27 – Officiated at the wedding for Bethany Black and John Neubauer. I also officiated at the wedding of Bethany’s parents – Buddy and Rhonda Black. Bethany’s mother Rhonda has served on the Frazer staff for 17 years.

August 28 – Preached at the Notasulga Methodist Church homecoming. My Dad served five years in Notasulga. My brother George was born while we lived there. Notasulga is the place where I got in deep trouble for a babysitting incident with my brother where I tied him to a tree while a group of us boys played football.

August 30 – Attended a special meeting to raise funds for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Troy University. I posted a blog about this on September 7.

September 7 – I was invited by Buzz Phillips, Athletic Director at Huntingdon College, to speak to 526 student athletes at Huntingdon. This was an impressive group of young men and women. Buzz Phillips wanted to be sure that the young people stayed focused not only on athletics and academics, but also setting goals for future achievement in their profession and the development of their spiritual life..

September 9-10 – Traveled to North Carolina. Lead a stewardship seminar at the Fuquay- Varina United Methodist Church, which is a suburb of Raleigh. Several former members of Frazer are members of that church. Dr. Albert Shuler is the Senior Pastor.

September 10-15 – Traveled to Mocksville, North Carolina, to preach at the Sprinkle Preaching Mission at the United Methodist Church. Rev. Joe Collins is the pastor there. On Monday I lead a seminar for a group of District ministers. On Tuesday noon I spoke at the Rotary Club. Each night we had worship services. I drove on a lot of highways in North Carolina in the space of those seven days.

September 18 – Preached at Frazer at the three morning worship services and at the evening worship service.

September 20 – Attended our Annual Conference Committee on Episcopacy meeting. This was a time of evaluation for Bishop Paul Leeland. He scored as high as could be scored on his evaluation. We are blessed with his leadership. Bishop Lindsey Davis came to Montgomery to assist in that process.

September 23 – Attended an event honoring Bishop Paul Duffey as he has served faithfully in our Annual Conference. I was one of the presenters for this occasion. Bishop Duffey is moving from Montgomery to North Georgia to be nearer his family members.

September 25 – Preached at the homecoming for Fort Deposit Methodist Church. Reverend Dennis Carlson is the pastor. It was the 150^{th anniversary of that church.}

September 26-30 – Drove to St. George, South Carolina for the Indian Field Camp Meeting. I began on Monday night the 26th and preached each night of the week. This is a Camp Meeting that has 100 hundred cabins in a circle around a large tabernacle. Each of these cabins will sleep about 20 people. I will write more about this unique experience.

As usual, I was on the road quite a bit the last two months. I do block out time each day I am in town to be in the office for study, preparation and meeting with pastors. One of the growing opportunities is to counsel individually with young pastors. During this next year I am going to be meeting with some small groups of pastors.

Thank you so much for your interest in and support of this ministry. I receive a lot of communications from pastors that indicate that this leadership ministry is making a difference in their ministry. That is really what I am about.

June 1-3 – Spoke to the Pastors’ Conference of the General Baptist denomination meeting in Branson, Missouri. This was my third opportunity to be with these pastors. The General Baptist denomination is growing and becoming intentional about reaching out to a younger mission field here in the United States.

June 4 – Officiated at the wedding ceremony for Robin Crook and Clint Darby.

June 5-8 – Attended the Annual Conference meeting of the Alabama/West Florida Conference.

June 11 – Officiated at the wedding ceremony for Crystal Luster and Trip Strickland.

June 13-14 – Spoke at the LaGrange College Awards for Servant Leadership at the North Georgia Annual Conference meeting in Athens, Georgia.

June 16 – Conducted a conference call for the Investment subcommittee, of which I am chairman, for the United Methodist Publishing House.

June 19 – Preached the three morning worship services at Frazer.

June 19-22 – Preached at the Hayneville United Methodist Church. The Baptists, Methodists, Christian Church, and Presbyterians go together for joint summer worship services.

June 30-July 2 – Went to Lake Junaluska, North Carolina to speak at the Laity Conference as a keynote speaker on Thursday night. Friday afternoon I led a stewardship seminar. Ken Love a member of the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministry Board, went and gave a powerful witness on Saturday morning. God used Ken in a great way to communicate how He can take a man who was addicted to alcohol and gambling, and totally transform his life.

July 3 – Preached at the Church in the Pines at Kowaliga at Lake Martin. People come to worship by boat, seadoos, bicycles, cars, etc. I have done this each summer for about 35 years.

July 17 – Preached at Cain’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Slapout, Alabama.

July 19-20 – Went to Orlando, Florida to give a leadership seminar for staff members at ALFA Insurance Company. I told them that I really like the place that businesses go to train their people. We were at the Dolphin Hotel at Disney. When Methodist preachers meet, we oftentimes go to some Boy Scout Camp. I have really enjoyed getting to relate to business people.

July 24 – Preached at Trinity on the Hill in Augusta, Georgia. On Sunday night they had a special worship service sponsored by college students, high school students and young adults. It was a moving, energetic experience.

I have continued to write a weekly blog. If you know of people you think should receive that blog, just send us their e-mail address. Anyone can go to the website to read and/or print it.

I have had an opportunity during the past two months to meet individually with several young pastors and work with them one-on-one. I am finding this to be extremely fruitful.

I have also continued preparing a 2 minute daily radio program on WLWI and enjoy the times when I can be live on Sports Talk Radio here in Montgomery. There are also a couple of other opportunities for radio that I am exploring.

The fall will be extremely busy. Please pray for our Board of Directors, and for me. This is a great time to focus on Biblical leadership.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

April 4-8 – I had an opportunity to go with a group of educators to Parris Island, South Carolina to view firsthand how Marines are made. I wrote a blog about it that was posted on April 13. It was a very interesting and informative trip. I learned a lot. It gave me a greater appreciation for the men and women who serve in our armed forces. As I said in the blog, if we were as persistent and disciplined in making disciples as they are making Marines, I believe we would live in a different world!

April 10 – I had an opportunity to preach at a great African-American Church here in Montgomery, Community Christian Church. Rev. Paul Gourdine is the pastor. The worship was exciting and all of the people most gracious.

April 16 – Bishop Paul Leeland invited the lay leaders of each local church and the delegates to Annual Conference to a meeting at Blue Lake. We had over 350 lay people present. He asked me to give a one hour presentation on the stewardship program Transformed Giving and Treasures of the Transformed Life. He asked every local church in our Annual Conference to consider using this stewardship study during the year.

April 17 – Preached three worship services at Dauphin Way United Methodist Church in Mobile. Dr. Jeff and Robin Wilson are co-senior pastors at Dauphin Way. Their church was finishing the study of Treasures of the Transformed Life and were making their commitments on Palm Sunday, April 17. Dauphin Way is one of the great churches of our Annual Conference. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to minister in that congregation through the six week study of Transformed Giving and to preach on Sunday. Jeff and Robin are giving superb leadership.

April 19 – Family Promise is a great non-profit group here in Montgomery who has a wonderful ministry. They have a fund raiser where people serve as waiters at restaurants and the tips go to Family Promise. For the second year in a row I joined Mayor Todd Strange and a couple of other folks who didn’t know anything about waiting tables, and we worked at Mr. G’s. So many people came out and we raised a lot of money for Family Promise.

April 21 – Was invited to help pray for pastors as they prepared for worship experiences during Holy Week and Easter. We met at Trinity Presbyterian Church. The ministers were from all denominations and it was a good time for the pastors to relate to each other, and to pray for each other. Dale Huff, former pastor at First Baptist and I were the “old guys” who have been through a lot of Easter experiences and were invited to lead in the praying.

April 26-28 – About five or six years ago a few of us pastors of the largest United Methodist congregations met to discuss way in which we could learn from each other and offer synergy to the carrying out of the mission of Christ in the world. We expanded that group to the top 100 pastors. We met in Kansas City at Church of the Resurrection. It was a very intense but productive three days as we had several bishops who met with us, along with a group of lay persons and pastors who have been selected as an Interim Operation Team to help begin implementing the Call to Action Report for the United Methodist Church.

April 30 – Preached Saturday morning at Pastors’ Conference at Fresh Anointing House of Worship. Apostle Kyle Searcy is the lead Pastor. The Conference was sponsored by the University of Mobile. Saturday afternoon traveled to Dallas, Texas to preach at First United Methodist Church Arlington, Texas on May 1^{st and preach and teach at the Evangelism Conference and Preaching Academy May 2-4.}

Please continue praying for our Board of Directors, Linda Poole, and me. You can stay updated on future opportunities through the website. The number of people receiving these blogs increases each week. If you feel that receiving the blogs each week would be helpful to someone, have that person send us an email address.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

March 1 – Preached at Luverne United Methodist Church where Ken Jackson is the pastor. This community produced many fine young people who have since married and moved to Montgomery and joined Frazer United Methodist Church. I think Luverne has produced more future Frazer members per capita than any other town.

March 3 – Attended the prayer breakfast for legislators and state government officials at First United Methodist Church in Montgomery. It was a time for pastors to meet our leaders and to pray for them.

March 4 – Went to Trinity United Methodist Church in Opelika, Alabama, to speak at the kick off for their Missions Conference. Joe Lay is the Senior Pastor. This church has a core value of continually growing in its support of missions.

March 5 – Part of the Missions Conference was a day where people went out into the community to help with repairs, clean up, etc. We met at 8:00 a.m., Saturday morning for coffee and muffins. I spoke to the group about serving. The rain was heavy, but over 300 people were ready to go out and serve.

March 6 – Preached at the three morning worship services at Trinity in Opelika. Faith promise commitments for missions were made at the worship services. Everyone was excited as Trinity went well beyond twice the goal that had been set!!

March 8-9 – Went to Blue Lake in Andalusia, Alabama. This was a meeting of retired ministers and spouses from our Annual Conference. I preached the memorial service as ministers and spouses were remembered. It was meaningful to light a candle for one of the special ministers from our Conference and from Frazer – Earl Andrews.

March 10 – Spoke at the celebration at the Hyundai Plant in Montgomery. The occasion was to be with Tommy Allgood and his team who won special honors for car sells. On March 17, I posted a blog about the teamwork I experienced.

March 11 – Traveled to Lansing, Michigan, for a Bishops Day Apart event. I was scheduled to arrive in Detroit about 4:00 in the afternoon. The plane was delayed for    4 ½ hours in Memphis, so I got in about 9:00 p.m. It is a 2 hour drive to Lansing. About 10:00 we stopped in Ann Arbor, Michigan, home of the University of Michigan, to get a quick meal at a restaurant. After the football bowl season, people from Alabama might not be very welcome in Michigan. The pastor apologized because there was a band and it was pretty loud. As we walked in the door, the band started playing and singing “Sweet Home Alabama.” Doesn’t God have a sense of humor!

March 12 – I had five hours with key pastors and laity from the Michigan area. They were extremely enthusiastic about mobilizing lay people for ministry. Bob Hundley is the District Superintendent. The event was held in Holt United Methodist Church. The Senior Pastor, Glenn Waggoner demonstrated lay involvement in hosting the Bishop’s Event. Left Detroit at 7:30 p.m.

March 13 – Preached the three morning worship services at Frazer. I have the title of Pastor Emeritus. Part of what “emeritus” means is that you are invited to preach when the topic of the sermon series is “Persecution”, and it is the beginning of spring break, and it is the first day of the time change with Daylight Savings Time! Regardless, it was a good experience. Sunday afternoon I participated in an engagement blessing for a wonderful young couple, Robin Crook and Clint Darby. Many friends came together to pray for them. They will be getting married in June.

March 17 – Spoke at the men’s monthly event at Frazer. There were over 100 men present. I was inspired and challenged as several men gave their personal witnesses. The Men’s Ministry at Frazer is reaching a lot of men.

March 20 – Preached at the Sunday night worship at Frazer.

March 21-22 – Our ministry helped host and I taught a group of pastors in a Matrix Connexion which consists of about 16 ministers selected from across the United States. Maxie Dunnam, former President of Asbury Seminary and his daughter, Kim Reisman, designed this ministry. Frazer demonstrated servant hospitality in helping us host this. I had an opportunity to teach Monday night for two hours, then on Tuesday for five hours. These were young ministers, and I feel like this is one of the best investments of my time. A positive seed planted in the life of a young minister can bear fruit for years to come.

March 24 – Went up to the Union community in Tallapoosa County where several churches came together for a couple of nights of outdoor worship services. Bob Bachant from the New Prospect/Pentecost Methodist Church and Dana Miller from the Union Methodist Church were the Methodist churches participating. They concluded with a big community day on Saturday with a wild game lunch, etc.

March 25-26 – Went to Atlanta, Georgia to officiate at the wedding of my niece, Mallory Mathison. She is George and Monteigne’s only daughter. It was a marvelous event at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church. Assisting in the wedding was Bishop Mike Watson and a Deacon from the Roman Catholic Church. It was the first time in my ministry I ever had the opportunity to have a Bishop assist me and I could tell him what he needed to do!

March 28 – Spoke at a Teaching Parish of young pastors from our Annual Conference. This is part of the seminary training from Candler School of Theology. Dr. Karl Stegall works with this group throughout the year.

March 29 – Went to Mobile, Alabama, to conduct a funeral for a very special friend, Mr. Perry Jones, Jr. Everybody knew him as Hop. Hop and his wife Dot had a tremendous influence on my ministry in my first assignment as a pastor at South Brookley United Methodist Church in Mobile.

March 30 – Officiated at the funeral for Don Markwell. Don’s family is extremely gifted in music. There were several marvelous musical presentations by family members and friends.

March 31 – I serve as the Chairman of the Investments Committee for the United Methodist Board of Publications. In order to conserve money, the Board only meets once a year in Nashville. We then meet by conference call several times throughout the year. This was a conference call and was a bit more fun because investments are doing better.

Thank you so much for your support through your prayers, finances and encouragement. Please pray every day for me, for Linda Poole in the office, and for the nine members of our Board. Please pray that we will be totally open to what God wants to do in and through us.

Listed below is a brief recap of some of the ministry opportunities during the month of February.

February 1 – Preached at Stuttgart, Arkansas at the First United Methodist Church.

February 2 – Preached at the Memphis Theological Seminary Chapel in Memphis, TN. This is an excellent seminary and is becoming the primary source for seminary training for so many United Methodists pastors in Arkansas, Mississippi, etc. I knew some of the faculty members and we had a few students from Alabama.

February 3 – Spoke at the STEP banquet in Montgomery that celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the ministry of STEP. STEP – Strategies To Elevate People is a tremendous ministry in this area. I received a call 25 years ago from Bill Brewbaker to talk about the possibilities of this ministry. Frazer became one of the founding churches. Judge Joe Phelps and other Christian leaders came on board and helped this become a powerful influence. Today there are some 25 churches involved. It has always been an honor for me to serve in the STEP ministry. The celebration banquet was very special.

February 6 – Preached at the First United Methodist Church in Springfield, Alabama. Rev. Mike Ratliff is the Senior Minister. It was a unique experience as we had three morning worship services. The 8:00 worship service was bluegrass service. They had some tremendous musicians and it was “down home.” We then went to a large contemporary worship service in the gym. The 11:00 worship service was traditional in the sanctuary wearing robes. In one Sunday morning you go from blue jeans, to a sport shirt, to robes all in the same church. It is a good example of offering different options to reach people.

February 9 – Tim Thompson asked me to serve on a vision team for determining how God could use Frazer to greatly impact a specific area of the city of Montgomery. It was the first “church committee meeting” that I have been to since I retired. As you probably know, I didn’t like a lot of meetings. This was a very valuable time as a group of about ten people are looking at how “transformation” can become specific in an area of Montgomery. I must confess that I dreaded a little bit going to a “church committee meeting,” but it was a very meaningful time. Please pray for that group as we are meeting with a lot of city leaders, etc. and are specifically looking at a long-term ministry in West Montgomery.

February 10 – I had an opportunity to visit the Cumulus Radio Stations and participate in their programming. Leigh Ann and J.T. are on Mix 103 and were preparing special things about Valentine’s Day and they gave me a lot of opportunities to record some messages about the deeper meaning of relationships, a Biblical understanding of love, etc. I also go down quite often and join John Longshore and Barry McKnight on their Sports Talk program in the morning. Sports Talk is huge in this area and reaches a whole segment of the population that other forms of media would probably miss. I also do recordings for the daily devotional that occurs every morning on WLWI at 5:50 am.

February 18-19 – Spoke at the First United Methodist Church in Hendersonville, NC. They had a special emphasis on Friday night and all day Saturday on spiritual formation and how to develop lay led ministry in the local church. About 300 lay people gathered on Friday night for a two hour session. Saturday we had sessions from 8:30 till 3:30 in the afternoon. The Senior Pastor is Rev. Dan Martin. He has just returned from a ten day trip to Israel. He arrived home at 2:00 am Friday morning. He was in the session Friday night (and stayed awake) and the entire session Saturday. Several lay people also did the same.

February 20 – Preached at the three morning worship services at First UMC in Hendersonville. Sunday afternoon I drove down to Atlanta and several of us who were in school together at Young-Harris College went to visit “our Pastor” at Young-Harris Dr. John Minter. He has had a lot of health struggles. He talked about how much it meant to him, but it meant much more to us to affirm his ministry in our lives during college.

February 24 – Spoke at the Wild Game Dinner at the Vaughn Forest Baptist Church in Montgomery. Dr. Lawrence Phipps is the Senior Minister. They had over 900 men present. It was a great time of fellowship, but was also an outreach event. Men were encouraged to bring unchurched men with them. It was a unique and effective venue for evangelism.

February 27 – Preached at the Luverne United Methodist Church Sunday morning and Sunday night. Dr. Ken Jackson is the Senior Minister there. We have about 10 to 12 families who are members of Frazer who grew up or are connected with Luverne. It was also special for me to be in that church because it was there that my brother George accepted the call to ministry during a youth revival at that church. The pastor was Rev. Joe Bullington. My dad was leading the singing and Rev. Red Hildreth was the preacher. My brother was just there as a high school student to attend and there God called him and he responded to the ministry. Also another great minister in our Conference Joe Bullington, Jr. responded to God’s call to ministry that same night. It was an awesome experience to be standing “on Holy Ground.”

February 28 – Preached on Monday night at the First UMC in Luverne. They have a beautiful new Family Life Center. This facility enables that church to have a unique impact in that community.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support for this ministry. I am continually amazed at the unique opportunities that God offers. Please pray that I will be faithful. Pray also for our Board of Directors as they give overall supervision to this ministry. Their names and a little information about them is a part of this website.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison

I want to thank you for the tremendous support that you have given to the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries. You have invested your time, your prayers, your financial resources, and your encouragement.

At the end of the year 2010, I want to give a brief recap report to you. This will show you how your investments have been used and also help you pray more specifically for the ministry in the future.

I have a passion for helping train pastors and laity for effective ministry. This is a part of our mission statement and our mission strategy. God continues to open many doors for that. In the past two years I have had the opportunity to give training to over 5,000 pastors.

Here is a sample of some of the training/preaching/speaking opportunities during the year 2010.

• 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
• Albany, Georgia – Ministers and laity
• Atmore, Alabama – District ministers and laity
• Dothan, Alabama – Local Church leaders
• Lincolnton, North Carolina – Ministers and laity leaders
• Lake Junaluska, North Carolina – Church administrators for South Eastern Churches
• Birmingham, Alabama – District Ministers
• Co-sponsor “next level ministry” for 60 Pastors from North Alabama and Alabama-West Florida Conferences meeting 4 times a year.
• Lead, with Maxie Dunnam, a Matrix Connexion for 20 pastors selected from across the U. S.
• Preached 117 times.
• Ministered in 43 different cities – 10 different states.
• Preached at the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference Memorial Service.
• Preached in 12 revivals/Preaching missions.
• Preached in 2 campmeetings in South Carolina and Georgia.
• Preached at Renewal Group Banquet at Northern Illinois Conference in Chicago.
• Preached inauguration sermon for new President of Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi.
• Preached at 7 District Conferences.
• Spoke at several non-profit banquets such as Neighbors in Christ and Sav-A Life.
• Participated with 90 Pastors of largest United Methodist Churches and 33 Bishops in Park City, Utah, conference.
• Had daily radio devotional on WLWI.
• Wrote a weekly blog.
• Conducted 8 funerals and 6 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 – 60 Devotionals published by Cokesbury.

One thing that was accomplished this year was our approval by ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability). This is one of the most stringent processes for non-profit organizations. There are seven different areas in which a non-profit group must comply. We were accepted in the year 2010.

Being a part of ECFA is a huge step toward insuring financial accountability. When I was Senior Minister of Frazer, if an organization requested mission giving and they were members of ECFA, we knew that they were financially accountable.

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

We are also blessed to have a tremendous Board of Directors. I am going to list their names so that you can pray for them. 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 continually stand in amazement at the doors that God opens for this ministry. It far exceeds anything I had ever dreamed of. Thank you for help making this possible.

There are great opportunities for 2011. Please pray. Our new brochure suggests that we pray:

1. Expectantly – Matthew 7:7

2. Dangerously – Acts 4:29-31

3. Persistently – Luke 18:1-5

4. Bodaciously – Matthew 21:22

To God be the glory!

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison