December 31, 2009, marks the first full calendar year of the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries. I thank you for making possible the dream and development of this ministry. I thank you for your prayers, your financial support, your encouragement, and your help in extending this ministry.

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