We will begin a new Bible study in March titled "Good Questions on Heaven and Hell."  The study will examine questions such as "What happens next?" and "Will unbelievers simply cease to exist?" and What is heaven like?"  More information on meeting times and dates will be coming soon!

The United Methodist Church recently issued a Call to Action Report that lays out a compelling vision of what the Church must do to ensure leadership, structures, funding, and practices are all aligned for faithful witness and fruitful ministry.  The report points toward the action the Church must take in the future to have a global connectional Church that has a clear consensus about its mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, with local congregations being the most significant places where this mission occurs.  To achieve this goal, the Church needs to do many things including reducing the perceived distance between the general Church, the annual conferences, and the local congregations.  The Church must also place a greater emphasis on things such as leadership development, invest more resources into local ministeries, and demand more accountability from all levels of Church administration. 

One focus over the next 10 years for the United Methodist Church is to increase congregational vitality.  The congregation at Salem is engaged in discussions of what increased vitality means for this local church. Following the findings and recommendations in the Call to Action Report, we are discussing how to make pastoral leadership more effective, how to create more small groups within our congregations, how to make our worship service more passionate and exciting, and how to increase the involvement of the laity in the work of Salem UMC. 

Members of Salem are also thinking how this church can also be involved in the Four Areas of Focus defined as priorities by Connectional Table.  Those areas of focus are:

--Global Health

--Ministry with the Poor

--Creating New Places of Worship/Discipleship for New People

--Revitalizing Congregations and Developing Principled Leaders

This is an exciting time for the United Methodist Church and just the latest chapter in our long history of serving the Kingdom of God.  Methodists have always sought to be active disciples of Christ and this latest effort is an important attempt to position the Church to be vital in the 21st Century--meeting the needs of a challenging and changing world and offering to all the love and peace that only Jesus Christ can provide. 

If you want to hear more or have ideas that you'd like to offer to the church, come by and visit us at Salem.  Or call or email us with your thoughts.  If you'd like to see the full Call to Action Report go to www.umc.org/calltoaction.   

We are the United Methodist Church and we are living God's Word through a ministry called Imagine No Malaria! 

Every 30 seconds an innocent child in Africa dies of malaria.  Malaria steals more than 1 million lives every year.  The disease causes immeasurable suffering and devastates families across Africa.  But, malaria is preventable, treatable, and beatable. 

The United Methodist Church is engaged in prevention of the disease by supplying mosquito nets to those in need, providing education to families so they can recognize the symptoms of the disease and learn ways to prevent it, and paying for treatment for those who already have malaria as well as funding vital medical research in this field.   

We need your help!!!!  How?  First, pray for those who are suffering with this dreaded disease.  Second, engage others and talk about this critical need in the world today.  Third, make a donation (any amount helps).  Gifts should be made payable to:

UMC--Imagine No Malaria, P.O. Box 440544, Nashville, TN, 37244