2012 is coming to a close and should the Mayan’s be incorrect, the earth will continue to turn after tomorrow and the sun will rise on God’s earth. Assuming that there will be a 2013 I want to encourage you to support one of our great front line sources of United Methodist news.
The United Methodist Reporter has been HUGE in keeping everyone ‘in the know’ this crazy year of Methodism that 2012 has been. From General Conference coverage, Call to Actions, Bishop Bledsoe, Bishops Elections, tragedies, Cokesbury, as well as introducing us to a host of new UM commentary voices.
As a curator for the Methoblog and our Twitter Account, I can say without hesitation that their breaking news and challenging writing has been at the core of our United Methodist conversations this year.
What you may not know is that the United Methodist Reporter is a stand alone, independent, non-profit that supports the ministries of the church but does not benefit from monies within the system. They survive because we want them to & feel they are a valuable voice in our denomination.
With all this said the times on a traditional newsprint publication are very tough. UMR has begun transitions and business practices to help itself with digital print and communications services. However, at it’s core they still want to share the news of the church.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help support our gold standard Independent Methodist News source by subscribing to a physical paper or digital paper for $26, or less, a year.
Yes, for less than a family meal out you can subscribe to UMR and do your part in helping to ensure that we have a cutting edge independent news source.
Disclosure: As I, Gavin, write this letter to you today. I am a standing member of the Board of Directors for UMR. Let me be clear that my petition here is to encourage our Methoblog and Methodist community in supporting a voice that we all benefit from. I get no financial gain from any subscription. Your support goes to the staff at all levels from paper press operators to Sam who leads the news reporting team. Even if you do not plan on reading the papers yourself, order one or two and take to church as coffee table placement and know that you are just chipping in for the greater good. That is what I do.
If You Are Curious
The image at the top of this page is a large portrait hanging in the UMR offices. It is from the early days of UMR when it was the Texas Christian Advocate (and a few other names in the mix of that history). What I found fascinating was the cutting edge nature of rolling a printing press around from town to town to share the news. Crazy Methodists. It would take a bigger horse drawn wagon to do this today. The ethos of that early ‘getting out’ and sharing the news is more present now than it has been in decades. I would hope we all see that and support it so it stays part of our present and not part of our historic past.
2013 is hear and we are still plugging away here at the MethoBlog. Every day some 500+ of you drop by to catch up on the latest in Methodist related blogposts and news. We are a one stop shop for musings in the MethoWorld and we are pleased to be able to offer you this service.
