Fellowship seeks to involve more of church community

The Carson City Ministerial Fellowship has for many years welcomed representatives of area churches to its membership.

With a new slate of officers for the 2006-2007 year, the group is again extending an invitation for pastors and laypeople of Christian churches to join them in a united effort to share the word of God.

"We would like more pastors to come to our monthly meetings," said Alan Dorway, associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church and secretary/treasurer of the fellowship.

"I send letters to Carson City churches and some outlying areas informing them of the meeting. If they can get a representative of their church to attend, that would be great."

The fellowship meets at 8:30 a.m. the second Thursday of each month at Grandma Hattie's Restaurant. Meetings are generally one hour long and include devotion, a guest speaker and sharing information about activities at each church.

"We try to make a conscious effort to include everyone in what we do," said Ken Haskins, fellowship president and pastor of First Christian Church. Vice president is Wayne Ellison of Stewart Community Baptist Church.

"The pastors in this community provide chaplains to the legislature when it's in session, contribute to the Faith and Insight column for the Nevada Appeal, are active with the sheriff's chaplaincy, do invocation at the board of supervisors' meetings and are hospital chaplains.

"These are just some of the things we do. But we need to be more visible in the community. We can do that by getting more people involved."

The group's biggest event is organizing activities for National Day of Prayer, held the first Thursday in May each year. A 40-minute program includes prayer for community, city, state and world officials, military, schools and families.

"Pat Propster has done a great job to involve everyone in this day," Haskins said. "All denominations.

"With that, we hope more people may want to be involved."

Haskins said students from parochial schools could attend, possibly through field trip activities. He would like schools to share their top student to offer prayer during the event.

"Or the school's choir," he added. "Christian schools could use National Day of Prayer as a field trip."

At the end of each fiscal year for the fellowship, the membership votes to disperse funds from its account. Money in the account comes from yearly dues paid by members.

"We will ask for recommendations on who to donate the money to," Dorway said.

Last year the group dispersed $450 to three charitable organizations.

If you go

WHO: Carson City Ministerial Fellowship

WHEN: 8:30 a.m. second Thursday each month

WHERE: Grandma Hattie's Restaurant, 2811 S. Carson St.

CALL: Ken Haskins, 883-4836

• Contact Rhonda Costa-Landers at rcosta-landers@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1223.