WPAUMC e-news for July 18, 2012

Watch NEJ Conference Live! Live streaming of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in Charleston, WVA is on our Conference website, along with links to reports on balloting, other news, photos and the Twitter feed. Use  #nej12 to tweet. Some are using #nej2012.

Episcopal Elections: There were no elections on the first or second ballots in the Northeastern Jurisdiction elections for bishop. The top vote-getters on Ballot 2 were Sandra Steiner-Ball of the Peninsula-Delaware Conference with 109 votes, Mark Webb of Susquehanna Conference 67, Martin McLee of New England 58, Eric Park of Western PA with 47; Aida Fernandez of New England 41 and William B. Meekins of Western PA with 40. There were 220 valid ballots; 132 were needed to elect. Follow updates on wpaumc.org or the UMC election site

Funeral for Mission/Youth Director: Funeral services will be held Saturday for Erin Jedlowski, the 23-year-old Mission and Youth Director at First UMC in Waynesburg who was critically injured in the crash of her mission team’s van in Tennessee on July 1. Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. at her home church, Bethel UMC in Lower Burrell. Get details.

Apply Now for Hunger, Poverty Grants: Two weeks remain to apply for a grant from the Appalachian Ministries Network to fund ministries that address the long-term, structural, and systemic causes of hunger and poverty in Appalachia. Local churches and community ministries are among those eligible to apply.  Learn more.

Welcome, Don’t Smother, Visitors : Check out these dos and don’ts for welcoming visitors to your church.  There’s a fine line between being friendly and invading someone’s space, says UM Communications.

UMW Elects Board: United Methodist Women has elected its 25-member board of directors for 2013-16, which will be responsible for managing the organization's program policies, finances, property and its top executive staff person. UMW became an independent agency after the 2012 United Methodist General Conference this spring. Read more.

Food for Thought on Brainstorming: Researchers increasingly believe brainstorming can hamper innovation, “corporate drone” Wayne Turmel writes. People are more creative when they come up with ideas on their own, avoiding the groupthink that results in many meetings. "When it comes to generating creative ideas, interacting too soon -- at the idea-generating stage rather than at the evaluating stage -- kills productivity," he writes on a site devoted to business management issues. The thoughts may be worth considering for churches too. Read Why Brainstorming Doesn’t Always Work.

Senate Endorses Fight Against Malaria: The U.S. Senate approved a resolution July 11 supporting World Malaria Day and efforts to end malaria deaths by 2015. The resolution also commended “the recent progress made toward reducing global malaria deaths and prevalence.” The United Methodist Church’s Imagine No Malaria campaign has distributed almost a million bed nets to ward against malaria-carrying mosquitoes and has raised more than $20 million to fight the disease. Learn more.