Dear Friends,

The John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries is one year old. I want to thank you for making possible the birth and development of this ministry. I want to thank you for your prayers, your financial support, your encouragement, and your help in extending this ministry.

I am more excited today about this ministry than I was a year ago. The opportunities and accomplishments have far exceeded my expectations!

Let me share a few statistical highlights of the last year.

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I have preached 123 different times.

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I have conducted 36 different seminars.

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I have been in 43 different cities.

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I spent a lot of time in giving leadership and preparing documents to oppose 32 constitutional amendments offered to United Methodist Annual Conferences in June. It appears that the work of so many people was productive as the amendments we opposed were soundly defeated – the amendments we supported appear to have passed. The United Methodist Church will be different in the future because of this.

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I have served on the United Methodist Publishing House Board of Directors. I have also served as Chairman of the Investments Committee.

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I have had the privilege of leading a series of Bible studies for Governor Bob Riley and his cabinet on the subject of biblical leadership. I really didn’t anticipate being able to teach leaders who have this scope of influence in the political realm.

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I am serving as the Chairman of the Southeastern Jurisdictional Committee on 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.

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I have written blogs for the website at least weekly. These have been very positively received.

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I have conducted daily radio devotionals on WLWI in Montgomery.

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I have participated in several television interviews.

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I have done consulting work with a couple of churches.

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I have spent some one on one time with a few young pastors.

We have a great Board of Directors. We meet quarterly. All aspects of the ministry are under their purview. They take an active part in every aspect of the ministry.

I wrote a 40-day study entitled Treasures of the Transformed Life, which has been far more widely received in the United Methodist Church than was anticipated. At the request of Cokesbury, I am putting together a smaller book, which could be a companion study based on how transformed people navigate tough times. This requires a good section of my time.

This next year I will participate in more international training sessions for pastors. My involvement there will create an expense, but the number of pastors who will be attending will be in the neighborhood of several thousand at each event. For many of them, this will be their only training.

The one thing that I did not anticipate was the fact that most everything I do is out of town. It has involved much more travel than I anticipated. Our Board of Directors has been very helpful to me in trying to schedule my time wisely.

I have a wonderful office provided by Mike Henig at 4131 Carmichael Road. I am privileged to work with Linda Poole. She is a tremendous asset to this ministry.

This is a brief overview of the first year’s work. I would be glad to share in detail about any aspects of the ministry.

Our Board of Directors adopted the following mission statement one year ago:

The purpose, first and foremost, is to bring honor and glory to the Kingdom of God. John Ed will accomplish this by speaking at churches, conferences, and leadership training programs on a local, national and global scale. He will also be participating in leadership activities within the United Methodist Church. One of the major objectives of this ministry will be to provide training opportunities for young pastors. He will share with them the best practices that he has developed over the last forty-five years. We believe that John Ed, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, can affect the Kingdom of God in such a way in the next few years as to exceed all his previous outstanding accomplishments.

We are structuring the John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries to carry out that mission statement. Thank you for your contributions to make that happen.

Thank you for your support.

For the Cause of causes,

John Ed Mathison