District happenings

Laity assembly to include much
training, spiritual refreshment
Laity assemblies for all laity and clergy in the church have been scheduled for Feb. 23-24 at Mount Wesley and March 2-3 at First UMC, Kingsville. Benefits include leadership training, leader responsibilities defined, free exchange of ideas, networking opportunities, leadership and ministry resources, and spiritual refreshment.

Night Praise Team to provide
music Nov. 18 at Expresso.com
The Night Praise Team will be playing Nov. 18 at Expresso.com for its Christian Band Jam Night. Please come to support this ministry as we take our message of hope through song out of the church and into a place where we can minister to those who may not know Christ. It will be a great evening of good music and fellowship. Music starts around 7 p.m.

The Rev. Mike Lowry encourages
churches to grow, transform
Here are some of the general points that the Rev. Mike Lowry, executive director of new church development and transformation for the Southwest Texas Conference, made about church growth and transformation:
> The modern church has become a risk-averse institution, especially the mainline denominations like The United Methodist Church. We have to be willing to risk change.
> Every local church should exist for a reason. We need to discover ours. Lowry said the reason God had put us here was to be “a place of grace” for the people of Corpus Christi. People want more than a secondhand knowledge of God; they want a firsthand experience of the living God.
> Churches are called to be more than faithful; they are called to be fruitful, to produce results for God’s kingdom.
> Worship is Job One: 40 percent of worship is perceived to be preaching, and 40 percent is perceived to be music. Both can affect the perceived quality of the other.