Hello all,

It is my hearty prayer that CEM Tidbits will be used for the glory of God to take communication between church education ministers and ministries to the next level in the Heartland Conference.

When I joined the conference in 1999 as a pastor, I enjoyed very much the ministry of Richard Goad. I don’t know what parts of his ministry were original or ideas that he inherited from directors who served before him, but he regularly blessed us with a newsletter called Tips and Tools. That was the way to get the maximum amount of information to the maximum amount of people. Later I worked as a volunteer on the CEM board under Aldon Preston. Aldon kept after us to write articles for the newsletter since it was such an excellent way to share ideas with the staff and volunteers in the churches of the Heartland.

Bishop Tunstall has been great to move our churches toward an electronic connection. Truly the possibilities for sharing ideas and resources through the internet are staggering. We can publish information so much faster and more inexpensively than we ever could with print. Another advantage of a blog over printed material is that print material goes to people who want it and people who do not. And there are always new workers joining our churches who would not immediately receive material that they might indeed enjoy. With a blog, no one is reading or receiving material, who does not want that material!

Simultaneously with the launch of this blog, CEM is starting an electronic forum for the exchange of ideas and resources between the various ministries of church education. The main difference between these two mediums is that with this blog, you read what the board members have to share. On the forums you can ask questions and share your ideas. You are just as much the author as we are! The forums can be found at http://forums.hccem.org.

Of course you can feel free to comment on these blog articles as well! I do pray that the Lord will bless you and that He will bless this effort of CEM. May we be able to share ideas like we never have before, and may our ministries grow! There are millions of blogs in cyberspace, and we might be a little behind. It doesn’t matter though, now is the time if we take the opportunity!

Much love in Christ,

Stuart