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Sep 2023
By Rev. Lynn Bartlow A good friend of mine in Illinois used to make fun of me and my travels. “Do you ever stay home and work?” Apparently he thought my husband and I were always planning our next vacation, our next education event, our next trip. Our Book of Discipline gives us, as appointed pastors, four weeks every appointment year for vacation, plus a week of continuing education and a week for camp or revival kinds of opportunities. I believe pastors should take every day of their four weeks. Ideally, we......
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It’s Time for ‘Food With Friends’!
By Rev. Lynn Bartlow One of the essential tasks of the Implementation Team has been to help form a community as two congregations merged into one church. As we wrestled with how to do...
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Love and Concern Come in All Sizes
By Pastor Kim Ogle Is there anything sweeter than kids’ art? Little kids don’t know whether their drawings are good or not-so-good. They just choose colors and create something. I’m pretty sure that what...
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Being the Church
By Rev. Lynn Bartlow St. Mark’s has shown once more what an amazing community you are. You have lived out our mission to care for all people as you stepped in after Pastor Kim’s...
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At Home With God
By Rev. Kevin Lester Over the last 10 years, home renovation shows have become a phenomenon on television. Remember chanting “MOVE THAT BUS!” at the end of “Extreme Home Makeover” episodes? Since then, there...
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Blessed to be a Blessing
In worship this summer, we have followed the path of the patriarchs of the Jewish and Christian faiths. The Hebrew Scriptures — or Old Testament, as Christians have called it for generations — routinely...
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God and Fire
What did the fireman say when the church caught on fire? Holy smoke! (Is it too early to joke?) As you know, we had a fire at the Wesley House early Wednesday morning. The...
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Greetings From Daytona!
By Rev. Kevin Lester It’s been a great week at Youth 2023! This is our national UMC conference just for youth that happens only once every four years (so it’s a big deal). We...
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Holding Space for Conflicting Emotions
My daughter turns 14 this week. She’s my youngest, the one who thinks and acts a lot like her father but who looks so much like me. We have photos of each of us...
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Our Pastors and Their Roles
At Annual Conference this year, I took photos with several former Associate Pastors from here at St. Mark’s. You’ll see in the photo above Jonathan Arnpriester (1992-1996), Jennifer Hageman (2006-2011), Tom Jelinek (2005-2006) and...
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