Look for change in the daily devotion email

---

Todd Seifert

Romans 8:28 says this: "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."

We'll come back to the scripture in a moment. But first, I want to talk about engines — how I’m amazed by them, and how I am utterly confused by them.

My dad has a great mechanical aptitude. My brother is pretty good at mechanical things as well. I most definitely am not, but I am still fascinated by them. All sorts of pieces and parts of different shapes and sizes moving in unison can make a car move forward, help a plane take off from the ground and even shoot a rocket into space.

All of those pieces have to work together.

Our conference communications team is going to try something new in the next few days aimed at helping us — United Methodists in the Great Plains Conference — work together, like pieces in a well-oiled faith engine, for a common purpose.

The daily devotion is getting a tune-up — at least for a few months — to test drive a new way of providing some inspiration to the start of your day. To be honest, we’ve struggled to fill all seven days’ worth of devotions written by United Methodists across Kansas and Nebraska. So our team has brainstormed some ideas to freshen it up a bit and — we hope and pray — encourage more folks to contribute to this work by people who love God to fulfill a common purpose.

Some things will remain — a group of pastors and staff to pray for, verses for that week’s lectionary, the liturgical colors and a link to The Upper Room. But we think these changes can be kind of fun and include a few more folks to submit items for publication.

It’s important to note that these only work if you all participate, so please check these out and see where you might be able to lend a hand.

Here's what we have in mind:

• Mondays: Motivation and engagement — We’ll present the gospel from the previous day’s lectionary and will pose a question. We’ll also provide a link to our Facebook page. Please read the question, follow the link to Facebook, and post your answer. Our hope is to start some good conversations about the lectionary text.
• Tuesdays: Teams — Share a brief testimonial about a team you are part of — at the conference, district or network level, in your local church, or in your secular vocation. Remember, just about any ministry involves a team. Briefly describe the work, tell us how that work matters and what keeps you involved.
• Wednesdays to Fridays: Traditional devotions — We know these submitted devotions are important to many of our readers, so we aren’t changing everything. We wanted to continue to provide an outlet for people interested in sharing their insights for the benefit of us all.
• Saturdays:  Faith Practices — We hope this day provides you with some ideas of how you can strengthen and even share your faith. From family traditions to things working in your congregation to books you read to music you enjoy to prayer practices, we hope you’ll share the things that help you stay connected to God.
• Sundays: Prayer — Do you write prayers? Often these might be easier than writing a full devotion, so we wanted to provide this kind of opportunity. Share prayers you write yourself. Don’t discount short poems, either.

So, as you can see, the daily devotion will provide a few different ways to share some motivation for you each day. And our prayer is these different ways for you to share with others will help us all to work for good — as people who love God who are called according to his purpose.
 
Contact Todd Seifert, director of communications, at tseifert@greatplainsumc.org.