Banner
created for Hunter's Chapel UMC
Faye and Forest Smith with a banner presented
in honor of Mr. J. B. Petrea
Banners Created For Newton United Methodist Church
Hanging the banner at Memphis Theological Seminary
Peggy with the banner she created to hang in the Chapel at
Memphis Theological Seminary
2003 Annual Conference Banner
Working on the banner
Hanging the Banner
The Finished Banner
2004 Annual Conference Banner
(with help from the ladies at Meridian Wesley UMC)
working across six tables
The Finished Banner
(over 20 feet wide... the image of Jesus in the center panel is seven
feet tall)
She was asked to design the banner by the Mississippi United Methodist Conference office, and donated her time to the project.
The banner will hang in the Bishop's office and be used when the Bishop processes in each year at Annual Conference, as well as at other functions throughout the year.
The following article appeared on page 8 of the July 21, 2004 issue of the Mississippi United Methodist Advocate. The article, written by Woody Woodrick, is part of the Sunday School lesson guide for August 8.
Seek faithfulness,
character in choosing leaders
By
Woody Woodrick
Aug. 8
Exercise and
Sacrifice
Purpose: To consider the need to cultivate
God-given
gifts and to
exercise responsibility in family and
church
relationships.
Scripture Lesson: 1 Timothy 4:7-16; 5:1-8
Key Verse: “Godliness is valuable in every
way, holding
promise for both
the present life and the life to
come.” – 1 Timothy 4:8
For the past two
years, the Mississippi Annual
Conference has
been blessed by beautiful banners
hanging over the
stage against the backdrop.
The banners take
hours and hours of work. Their
size alone makes
them a difficult project, but in addition
their intricate
designs have given visual meaning
to the conference
theme.
The banners have
been primarily the work of Peggy
Salley of
Meridian. Salley has had help, particularly
from the women of
Wesley United Methodist Church,
but most of the
design and the lion’s share of the work
has been her own.
Two points become
obvious when viewing Salley’s
banners. First,
she has gift for both design and sewing.
It’s one thing to
be able to visualize how a banner
should look.
Sewing the materials to the right sizes,
and using the
right stitches takes equal ability.
Second, the
banners tell us that Salley loves God.
One could not so
vividly bring to life a conference
theme without
having a heart for hearing God’s word
and using His
gifts to inspire His people.
Salley’s
dedication and hard work serve as an example
of recognizing a
gift, from where it comes and
developing it. All
for the glory of God.
Of course, Salley
didn’t just wake up one day with
the ability to
sew. She might have had some natural
tendencies to
understand the concepts of needle and
thread, but she
also had to “exercise” her ability. She
might have tried a
certain technique and found it didn’t
work. She might
have had another that seemed
hard to grasp, so
she practiced it over and over.
Such is how we are
called to conduct our lives and
our faith. It
takes practice to be comfortable being a
Christian leader.
One must start out following Christ
and other leaders,
learning from them and then taking
their place among
them. If we don’t exercise our
faith, it gets
slack and out of shape. What analogy
does that bring to
mind? If we don’t exercise our bodies,
they become soft
and lose their endurance. Our
bodies can’t stand
up to a test if it’s not exercised on a
regular basis.
One of the best
places to exercise faith is in our families.
Serving as an
example for our children by doing
the things God
calls us to do and doing them faithfully
improves our
relationship with our spouse and children.
It also
strengthens our relationship with God
and our church.