The Board of Directors of The Regional Council of Churches is pleased to announce that the honoree for the Ecumenical Intern Scholarship for 2006-2007 is the Reverend Dr. Herchel H. Sheets.


The Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta launches the Ecumenical Intern Scholarship program. This program will enable the Regional Council to provide stipends for graduate interns from local colleges, seminaries, and universities. As an intern at the Regional Council, graduate students from all areas of study will benefit from hands on experience in ecumenical, socially minded work while fulfilling educational requirements. Call the office at 404-389-0590 for information on how you can contribute to this fund.

The Reverend Dr. Herchel H. Sheets was born in Franklin, Georgia on December 8, 1928. He is a graduate of Berry College and of Candler School of Theology. He has been honored with Doctor of Divinity degrees by LaGrange College and Union College in Kentucky, as well as with the Distinguished Service Award from Berry College and the John Wesley Award for Distinguished Service from Reinhardt College. He and his wife, Gladys were married on May 28, 1949 and they are the parents of two sons and two daughters, and have eight grandchildren.


Dr. Sheets is an ordained deacon and elder of The United Methodist Church. He served a variety of appointments as a minister in the North Georgia Conference during a period of fifty years, from 1949 to 1999. His last appointment was as Assistant to the Bishop and Director of Ministerial Services. He has held numerous leadership positions in the Conference, and was elected to the Church’s law-making body, the General Conference, five times and to its Jurisdictional Conference seven times, including once after his retirement. He was a member of the World Methodist Council from 1986 to 1996.


Dr. Sheets has been active ecumenically as well as in his own denomination, particularly in the Georgia Christian Council and the former Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, now the Regional Council of Churches of Atlanta. He served as President of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta in 1991. The North Georgia Conference of United Methodists recognized his ecumenical leadership with the presentation of a special award in 1995.


Dr. Sheets was chosen as speaker for The United Methodist Series of The Protestant Hour radio program in 1992. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles in various publications, including more than 400 Sunday School lessons in the Wesleyan Christian Advocate, the official news organ of Georgia United Methodism. His most recent book, Methodism in North Georgia, published in 2005, is a comprehensive history of the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church.This book may be ordered from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.Click hereSee the listing below for other books written by Dr. Sheets.


In retirement, Dr. Sheets serves as Adjunct Associate Professor of Methodist Studies at Candler School of Theology, and continues an active schedule of preaching, teaching, and writing.


Books by Dr. Herchel Sheets:
Places Christ Hallowed, The Upper Room, 1965; Revised Edition 1994
The Look That Redeemed, Tidings, 1972
The Isolated Beatitudes, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1972
Enemy Versions of the Gospel, The Upper Room, 1973
When Jesus Exaggerated, CSS Publishing Co., 1977
United Methodists Today, North Georgia Conference Council on Ministries, 1984
Our Sacraments: A United Methodist View of Baptism and Communion,
Discipleship Resources, 1986
The Beginnings of Methodism in England, 2002
An Idle Tale Becomes Good News, CSS Publishing Company, 2002
Methodism in North Georgia: A History of the North Georgia Conference, Boyd Publishing Company, 2005.