| LUMBER RIVER [ CONFERENCE | SOME REAL PURPOSES OF . CHURCH ORGANIZATIONS i (Second In a sates of srtktes j about The Lumber Elver ? Conference of the HoHness j Methodist Church). j Last time we gave you the i new appointments of the ministry staff assignments made at the 82nd Annual Conference. To complete the report the following staff ? members were also re-elect F ed: Brothers: C.N. Lowty who j has faithfully served the con > nrence as secretary for 26 ' years. Mr. Lowty also is a retired North Carolina public school teacher with about 40 years of service and is very activate church work over the years. Donald W. Bullard as conference treasurer is the son of the late Belton Bullard who served many. years as pastor in the conference, 6 years as Bishop. Mr. Bullard (his son) is an attorney-at-law with his practice in remnroae. 'Andrew Ransom, a long time professor of science at PSU as Sunday School Supervisor. Mr. Ransom has served in the position for several years. He is a graduate of PSU with a graduate degree (Masters) from Ohio State University. Mr. Ransom is very capable of carrying out his duties to promote such activities rela tive to: Sunday School Super intendent Conferences, Sun day School workers Conferen ces, and Sunday School work shop activities. Clyde Colbert, Lay Leader of Young People joined the Conference a few years ago as a young fine christian gentle man. He serves the conferen ce in many ways, however, his primacy duties are to cultivate and promote Christian stew ardships relative to vacation Bible School, Youth for Christ organization, camping, foster mutual understanding and activities and make recom mendations for improving the genera] Church programs. There were of course sever al conference committees ap pointed-we will share these with you later as they will be listed in our new official Journal for 1982-83. SOME REAL PURPOSES OFCHURCH ORGANIZATIONS More and more we notice many new church buildings constructed in Robeson Coun ty. These buildings are con structed beautifully, causes one to want to learn some thing about the people, the ch programs, their primary motives for building and their general procedures in con ducting their church affairs. Shall we take a look at what is organization? To organise is to set up an administrative structure to arrange by sys tematic planning with a unit ed effort. A church organisa tion or s union for that matter, wfll strive for a large member ship to make them a strong workable group of people. Whenever a group of people assmble themselves and draw up a sort of constitutional by-laws for the group, by the group shown coherent unity working together with the administrative staff that en forces the by-laws shows characteristics of being organ ized. All kinds of people with different minds and physical make-up might not complete . ly understand all the details of n~ functional organization. How be it. let us look at how I >**'is taught in simple terms. Jtobeson farming is w j is decreasing, as weti as over the nation, most Robesonians are familar with living close to the soil and general farm terms. Economically speaking up to about W.W.D cotton corn and tobaoco were the chief crops gfown in the southland as well as in Robeson County. These crops were attended by people with mules and plows. By hooking s mule to a plow, a common term was used to say be sure to get rtie jnule traces even and have the back ban in the proper place. That decision was based primarily on the size of the mule. The mule traces(chains) generally last for a good number of years, or until one would trade off the old mule for a younger mean mule that would jump and break a trace. If a family living in the community gets sick and was not able to wort for some time, it would be a common practice to see sever al people with their mule and plow helping their neighbor. Educational and religious community had a church and a small school located in close proximity of each other. The school was generally a one, two or three teachers, the Principal being one of the teachers. This school system was highly organized by the county Superintendent of schools that was responsible to the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. The churches were general' ly small too, very highly organized holding member ship with their church organ ization in the rural areas o the county are the Baptist an< Methodist. These two churcl of tfcsir origin and iij slip , AeLM*erb0et ** '***** "* to tot rClS study unit to woftMp^C^TAtoo, , while we are reading and | studying together, shall we take a real look at same of the conditions we find ourselves in that has become typical at the connty, state, and nation. The crime rate is higher, there are several murder cases in the county unsolved to-day. Does this seem right, while the number at churches are increasing, the number of murders increasing? The same is true of the divorce rate, child support, stealing, breaking and entering, drug abuse and many others. Some of our large Church organizations sponsor college and universities in this coun try as well as overseas play a different role on a larger scale. Traveling particularly in rural areas for one to observe the school and church , building as well as the farm homes and farm houses, tells us a lot about the people and their concernments. It would be a real good piece of research project to share the organizational ! church programs, to learn how one deals with their individual problems in the church, to read your by-laws or constitutions of order, and to learn about any other important things not mention ed that go on from time to time in these many fine beautiful church buildings in this county. In my 35 years working with school children, people and school personnel, 30 years in North Carolina and 5 years in South Carolina with a contin uous up-dating our school systems to not be able to solve money problems, maybe we should take a serious look into our homes and church pro 1 grams O.K.? i There seems to be a mutual feeling that there are I several church organizations in the county that one does not know about thtpther. And 1 funny to the others. For ! example: I said to a small group the other day that our confer ence, The Lumber River Con i fere nee has two former Bis i hops living as the United i States has three former Presi dents-they laughed and in quired-we know the Presi dents names-what are the f names of the Bishops? Do I have my reading audiences' - attention? Are you with me f thinking about your church organization? Is it for granted that we just go to church f every Sunday for fifty years or I so and not realize any growth i .for ourselves or the church n*btoti?i ***** ' itaa right diataacn fro? hiehway under a group <* 1 XTtJeea-Asyouetoerthe . hoot ?tt tM CM ?J*r.01!! mrue P?h the deer beH i thatrin**beautifultune end , yo.?eWj^Thtr^? < ftobesoo^Coufity thai <**7 < this same type of llviaf 1 conditions that la far bett than we have ever known to rural areas. There are modern < convenience* that anyone could have, town or country. Notice drat we have Invited Into the home.* could be a long article whMnUs* to write about the findings. TheparentocomeandgoweU ? dressed working on_ the yob earning a comfortable living for the family. Say. left'??* at the furniture, electxK.1 appliances and all the other thiig, that make for a comfor table living. There are so m?ny queationa one could a* about these homea. Going tway back In Watery to our mother country, England con- ,, ? sidered a man's home Ms castle and is treated very fffivately. It is somewhat like visitfiipthe White House or President's home in Wasn ington. DC. Visitors only see certain outer fringes of the living quarters an COAL NUCLEAR OIL I 100 80 ? I i I I K} /* Ifcl*. fcfa flElJ i -? &y. 2 9ir. 0 ^