Annual Conference - Monday Report

Good day church!  As we go through Annual Conference, I hope to keep you in the loop about the days events.  Please note- many of the worship sessions can be streamed live.  Worship is the best part of conference so I encourage you to tune in.

The theme of this year’s annual conference is 

Planted in the Past, Rooted in the Future

This theme comes to us from Psalm 1:3-

“They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”

This year marks the 200th anniversery of the first Annual Conference of Methodists held in Chillicothe in 1812.  The meeting was poorly attended due to the raging 1812 War, but indeed Methodists gathered to organize themselves for ministry.

Each year, we begin our annual conference by joining together in communion and remembering those clergy, clergy spouses and conference lay leaders who have entered into the life eternal in the past year.  We celebrated our connection to saints who have served the church for well over 90 years.  I’m humbled to know that one day I too will be read amongst this list of names.

Bishop Hopkins sermon was entitled “Being Strong in our Broken Places.”  It highlighted the way in which we are called to "become strong at the broken places by turning to god for healing so that his love may shine through in your brokenness.”  Too often we are lured into believing that it is through our strength that God works.  We think we have to pretend all is perfect and project that strength.  We have to aggressively pursue our dreams and our wants and desires.  But ultimately, Christianity is about “losing the life we dream of for the life Christ intends for us"

He shared with us our Max Cleland declared that his life truly started the day a grenade took both of his legs and one of his arms.  He was forced to confront his weakness and it led him to a life of service.  Former BW president Mark Collier shared his own struggle with stuttering.  He said that he discovered that his stuttering became his teacher- forcing him to learn to be patient and to be open toward others.

Engaging in ministry through our weakness rather than our strengths can be a difficult concept to grasp.  Bishop Hopkins used an analogy of healing to describe how this works.  When a bone is broken, all that doctors can do is line up the pieces and allow healing to happen.  If you try to force the process, you only make it worse.  Ministry is the same way-  you cannot force people to change or force transformation on their lives.  You instead have to line people up in the right direction and then let go.  Allow transformation to happen.  But that can’t happen until we admit and acknowledge our own brokenness.

Our first business session was for the clergy only.  In it, we approved the commissioning of 17 provisional elders and 3 provisional deacons.  We need to lift these 20 individuals up in prayer as they begin their first steps into ministry.  We also approved 4 people to be ordained as elders and 1 as a deacon.  These individuals have served in ministry for a minimum of 3 years.  Ordination means they have taken on a life long sacrament in which they will serve God in this special calling.  I hope to join them next year as I first become eligible for ordination.

One difficult moment came when one pastor was placed on involuntary leave due to administrative charges.  While the nature of the issue is confidential, we want to lift this pastor and his family up in our prayers as they seek new direction.

After the clergy session, we had a series of reports about the state of the church.  Our jurisdiction (which stretches from Ohio to North Dakota) will have one less bishop during the next four years.  This reduction was made to help fund the placement of new bishops in the Democratic Republic of Congo- our fastest growing area of Methodism.

The Youth Annual Conference reported that their theme this year was “In Christ we are set free”   They showed a video of all of the fun they had over the previous three days and announced they had passed 2 resolutions.  The first was to encourage every church to hold a youth night for ages 5-18.  In addition, they voted to require that all events sponsored by CCYM must have gluten free bread for communion.

In the treasurer’s report, Jessica Vargo indicated that in every major statistical area regarding participation, we declined.  This means that we had less people in worship, less members, less baptisms and fewer people in Sunday School.  However, the financial state of the conference is strong.  Apportionment payments are up, our Emergency and Health Care reserves are solid, our Pension and Health care obligations are funded and we have paid our full general church apportionments for the 6th year in a row.  Together, this means we have an opportunity to grow, but we need to seize it now by focusing on creating vital congregations.

To do this, the conference is focusing on the following 5 areas:

Clergy Leadership

We hired a recruiter and are looking for ways  to help pay for their education of new young clergy.

Lay Leaders

We tend to recycle lay leaders, but we are not grooming lay leaders and creating a new generation.

We need to leverage technology to allow for better access to meetings for laity.

Church growth

We need to better track our numbers so we know where we stand

New church starts

Vital Mergers (2 or more churches come together and start something new) have been successful.

Shift Resources

We need to shift away from propping up dying congregations and toward investing in  areas of growth.  For example, when a church doesn’t pay apportionment in full, we are essentially supplementing their ministry.  Thus, non-payment of shared ministry will be taken into the equation when churches apply for grants

We concluded the day by celebrating several bright spots.  In the Tuscarawas district, the celebrated the charting of Crosspoint UMC, first church chartered in 20 years. This means that this new church has moved from infancy to fully mature and active status within the conference.  They were planted in 2005 by Church of the Lakes UMC and continue to grow and bloom.

In the Three Rivers district, 20+ churches teamed together to build a house in less then a year.   By the end of the summer, one family will have a new home and can celebrate the work of God.  

It was a busy day!  May God watch over us tomorrow and in the days to come as we continue to invest in the future of the church.

Update:  Of Special Note- Sade Davis-Reynolds, pastor of Seven Hills UMC, celebrated her retirement last night!  However, her work will continue on a part-time basis as she returns to Seven Hills on a part time basis.