Pastor
Richard S Mitchell, Chief Encouraging Officer

Have you ever had an Ah Ha moment in your life?  I've had a couple.  One came when I was near 8 years old.  I realized week after week while sitting in church what I saw the preacher doing was something I was supposed to do.  I had another Ah Ha moment later in life while filling out a personality inventory and had to decide between pairs of words.  One pair was  "Speaking - Writing". Seeing the two words made me realize I was a writer.  When it comes to preaching, I speak better if I write it down first.

I had another Ah Ha moment a few moments ago when considering writing a description of Pastor at Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church.  A name from the New Testament leaped to my mind. Barnabas.  Barnabas means Son of Encouragement.  I think that's a pretty good description of my pastoral role here at Gardner.  Encourager.  How?  Well, how about this for starters.  I'd like to encourage you to take the next step in your spiritual journey.  Maybe you haven't made up your mind about Jesus Christ.  I encourage you to take a step closer.  Maybe your next step is making a profession of faith in Jesus Christ.  Go ahead.  Or maybe you're a professing Christian and need to take the next step in serving Christ and His Church.  Go ahead.  Or maybe you've turned into a paper member at church.  May I encourage you to get off the paper, get into the pew, and get into the 'serving' line?  I guess I just did.  Go ahead.  Take the next step.  And when you do pause a moment, look back, and rejoice at where the grace of God has brought you.

Administrative Assistant
Joy Cameron

Joy is a life long member of Gardner Memorial United Methodist Church. She started working for the church in 1986. She has served as Director of Program and Outreach and Youth Director. She currently serves as Financial Secretary and Administrative Assistant. She is married and has two sons. Her family lives in Sherwood, AR.