This is the official blog of the Independence United Methodist Church in Independence, OH. It's a place where all people can come together to explore our faith and our lives.
Showing posts with label East Ohio Annual Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label East Ohio Annual Conference. Show all posts
Our final day of annual conference was quite brief as it only ran to lunch. Thus- this report will be much shorter!
The first major issue of the day was a report on what the minimum salary for pastors would be in 2013. The original formula (you don’t want to know!) called for pastors at minimum salary to receive a raise of $245 in 2013. Charlie Yost, pastor of Church of the Savior in Cleveland Heights indicated that this seemed almost insulting to those pastors who make the least (He is not one). He proposed that pastors instead receive a 2% raise and this was adopted. This will make the minimum salary in $33,047.
A second presentation of note was from the president of Guidestone (formerly Berea Children’s Home). We recently had a presenter from this agency so I know you know the vast amount of social services this Methodist agency provides. However, did you know that they are creating a new charter school in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland? Called Stepstone, the academy will offer a blended learning model (incorporating classroom and online work) with the full resources of Guidestone to offer support for the entire family. This seemed like a wonderful model for me and they will be looking for loving people to volunteer on their boards and with the kids. Anyone interested?
With this, our 2012 annual conference drew to a close. They focus quite a bit on our leadership will launch us into new ministry opportunities in the future. Are you ready?
Every other year, we devote a good chunk of a day to a guest presenter who will present to us on a critical aspect of ministry. Two years ago, we talked about holistic ministry that attends to the needs of the body. This year, we had as our guest Bishop Scott Jones of the Kansas Episcopal area. He is an expert on John Wesley and was talking to us about the key aspects of Methodism we need to be grounded in as we seek to lead the church in the future.
Bishop Jones indicated that “One of my deepest fears is that we UMC’s are in the profess of forgetting who we are.” Too often, we don’t know what to do as pastors or as congregations. But John Wesley was very clear about who God was and what God was doing. Wesley had at first thought that holiness was at the heart of the Gospel so he started by committing himself to be more and more holy through spiritual discipline. However, in interacting with Moravians (a type of Lutheran), Wesley began to realize he was a sinner and sought a personal relationship with God. Thus, the core of the Wesleyan movement is both about personal relationship (salvation) with God and a continued drive toward personal and social holiness. At the core of both beliefs is the idea that God’s grace proceeds all of us and seeks to draw us close to God. Thus, Wesley’s message of inclusiveness is a deep part of our inheritance.
Bishop Scott indicated that April 2, 1739 should be perhaps the most important date for those of us who want to follow Wesley. Prior to this date, Wesley believed it was a sin to convert someone outside a church building. His friend, George Whitfield, tried to convince Wesley to go beyond the local church but Wesley was resistent. Rather than dismiss it entirely, he decided to take it to his small group. By drawing lots (not recommended) he confirmed he should go out the church. As he put it, he decided to be more “vial by preaching to people in the fields.” However, thousands flocked to him and he saw the importance of getting beyond the doors of the local church in seeking to find converts.
Bishop Scott indicated there are four crucial lessons we can learn from our history about how to lead today.
1. Be clear about your values
We must remember that grace is extended by God for all people. Furthermore, we need to leave the church to bring people into a converting relationship with Jesus. We then need to all work to bring about holiness.
2. Align your practices-
Everything we do must be in pursuit of the above. Thus, “If there is something in your church that is not serving the need to make disciples or transform the world, then stop doing it!”
3. Flexibility in our communication standards.
Methodists weren’t doing much with German speaking people, but Otterbein decided they needed to do communicate to people. So they began to reach people where they were- in German- and the Evangelical movement flourished. We cannot insist people come to us in our way, we must meet people on their terms.
4. A willingness to sacrifice.
John Wesley traveled thousands of miles on horseback. Early Methodist pastors did not marry and went via horseback whereever their bishop sent them. Yet today, we have an appointment system that too many pastors view as there HR department that will place them where they want. He declared that we as pastors should go to our bishop and say we would obey our bishops no matter where we are sent.
Sacrifice is part of who we are. Scott argued that We preachers are settling for mediocrity when God deserves excellence. Furthermore, too often we pray for God to bless what I am doing. We ought to be praying to be a part of what God is blessing. These are the sacrifices pastors need to make.
However, pastors are not the only ones, or even the primary ones, who must sacrifice. Scott argued that Too many UM churches see the appointment process as the bishop sending them a savior and then blame the bishop when it doesn’t automatically turn around. In the early church, it was the laity who were the evangelists. It was the laity who were inviting people to do God’s work. Scott challenged- “If you are depending upon the preacher as the servant of your local club to bring in more members so that the budget will be better met, you’ve forgotten who you are.”
One way that that sacrifice should happen is be re-envisioning what it means to be a member of a local church. Bishop Scott related that when he was serving in a new church start, he would tell the following to anyone who expressed interest in joining-
"Membership has no privileges here- you can participate in anything. So there is no reason to join
But if you want to join as part of your spiritual development, then
We expect you to be in worship every week and we are going to track it We expect you to belong to two small groups- one where you are spiritually fed, one in which you feed others We expect you to tithe. The leadership of the church is going to know it and track it."
I find this to both intriguing and challenging. How would you react to a pastor who said this to you?
Bishop Scott concluded with his favorite scene in a Disney movie. In the Lion King, after Simba leaves his family and travels, his father comes to him in a dream:
We need to remember who we are.
The afternoon session was marked by the debate and adoption of two resolutions. Resolutions are statements of position taken by the conference on various issues. While they express the will of the body, they are not binding.
The first resolution, adopted without debate or objection, is entitled “A Call To Advocate Anti‐Harassment, Anti‐Intimidation and Anti‐Bullying”
The full resolution can be seen on page 49 of the pre-conference workbook (click to access).
The resolution calls on all levels of the conference to among other things-
categorically oppose the practices of adult, youth, and child harassment, intimidation and bullying; and
urge our churches, General Boards and Agencies, Campus Ministries, and the Council of Bishops to create safe space for each and every child of God, including those but not limited by the following enumeration – age, color, creed, national origin, race, religion, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical attributes, physical or mental disability, ancestry, socioeconomic status or familial status; and
endorse a zero‐tolerance within their sphere of influence for harassment, intimidation and bulling in any form;
The second resolution proved to be more controversial. Entitled “An Affirmation of Open Table Worship”, the resolution declared that:
The East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church affirms the availability and efficacy of the holy sacraments to all people.
We encourage all of our congregations to welcome into community and membership all persons, regardless of race, gender, physical or mental ability, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic position.
We believe such inclusion and openness offers the greatest hope, through faith, that the power of God may change all lives, forgive all sin, and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
One delegate asked whether this was essentially endorsing homosexuality by allowing “unrepentant sinners” to join the church when we have declared “homosexuality to be incompatible with Christian teaching.”
In response, I pointed out that our book of resolutions calls war incompatible with Christian teaching and yet we do not require people to forsake war before joining the church.
The resolution was altered and adopted with the final version reading- “We encourage all of our congregations to welcome into community and membership all persons”
A resolution calling for the enforcement of Human Trafficking Laws was also adopted. These resolutions can be found in full on pages 49-52 here.
The remainder of the afternoon was a series of reports from various annual conference committees. The finance committee indicated that apportionment payment to the conference had increased over the past year and that the 2013 apportionments would either be held steady or reduced by approximately 1%. The Congregational Vitality team reported they were working on various strategies to help make congregations more vital. One that caught my eye was the Healthy Church Initiative. It allows congregations to apply to bring in a consultant who would do a top to bottom evaluation of the congregation and offer five recommendations to make the church more vital. Though this interests me, they highlighted that churches must be prepared to make change to be considered for this program. Do you think we are ready? Can we make the plunge and step out in faith? Let’s pray on it!
We began the day with a rousing worship service led by Bishop Woodie White. Bishop White was an African American pastor in the segregated Central Conferences before the walls of segregation were broken down in 1968. He risked his own life for justice no numerous occasions. He told the story of trying to visit one particular white Methodist Church in New Orleans in the early 60s. The ushers turned him away. When he explained he was a Methodist pastor and simply wanted to join them for worship, he was arrested and thrown in prison for three days until the $1,000 fine for trespassing and disturbing worship were paid. However, as a mark of how far we have moved, when Bishop White returned to New Orleans as a Bishop recently, he choose to preach in that very same church.
Bishop White preached on the disconnect Christians sometimes have on the issues of mission, seeking justice and evangelism. He indicated you need to do all three to truly follow God. All too often we do one or two of those three and thus we live out an incomplete Gospel. Some highlights of his sermon-
“It’s not good enough to know the scripture and recite scripture. You must do it!”
“I’m struck by the number of people who love Jesus, but don’t like what he taught.”
“Definition of prophetic preaching- Saying the right thing at the right time in the right way in the right place.”
“I often wonder how God’s heart must break when He sees how is children treat one another.”
In concluding his sermon, Bishop White altered a traditional blessing with the following words:
“May the Lord torment you, may the lord disturb you, may God keep the faces of those in need in front of you. Only after you have done your best to do God’s will may God give you peace.”
Are we bold enough to believe and follow a God who will constantly agitate us to grow in grace? After the good Bishop’s address, I think many of us were.
The day continued with some business sessions and the episcopal address. Bishop Hopkins indicated they were going to focus on several bright spots and the type of leadership that is necessary to bring ideas and dreams into reality.
In the Canal district, a lay person, Dave Catrell, started a ministry with skate boarders. Many in the church had complained about kids using the parking lot to skateboard. Dave, who had skateboarded a lot as a youth, saw them in the parking lot and thought the proper response was to invite them in. He formed a bond with the youth and began driving them to skate parks throughout NE Ohio. While the kids still skateboard in the parking lot at times, they have also been introduced to Jesus and often attend church. Dave indicated that the most important thing was to connect to the youth right where they are.
In the Mahoning Valley district, one pastor shared about the life of his church by talking about all of the individuals who had been transformed. He told us about Victor- a man who had recently been incarcerated and was living in transitional housing. One day, Victor made a decision for Christ and came to the church wanting to join. He know takes it on as his ministry to be the first one to greet everyone as they come in the door for worship.
Judy had confessed that though she always went to church, she had never personally heard from God. (I think many of us can echo that!) She prayed to hear from God and felt strongly that God was calling her to lead mission trips. No one in the church had been on a trip before, but Judy and her husband Jerry began organizing them. In the few years since, they have led 16 mission trips with hundreds of members of the congregation.
Sue came on Christmas Eve, made a decision for Jesus and now leads the recovery ministry and works in the food pantry.
George and Nancy never had children of their own but adopted the children of the community and now serve breakfast to them each and every Sunday. Joe started attending small group in 2004 and has now been the director of 4 of the Alpha classes and leads the prayer team. Through these many individuals and their leadership, the church has come alive.
A church in New Washington committed themselves to seek to serve the people that no one else wants and no one else sees. The pastor said that they want the folks who have been abused and the people who are abusing.” They have committed themselves to live radically in community with those who are hurting so they can be part of God’s transforming love.
Church of the Savior, in Cleveland Heights, discussed their Upward Basketball program. They have launched a basket ball league in the community where each game starts with devotions and bible study and testimony is offered at half time. Of the hundreds of people who have participated, 31% have had no church affiliation and several have since joined the church.
All of these churches have the following in common- they saw a need, prayed about it, and had many lay people come together to launch new ministries that their pastors supported and blessed. This is the type of leadership that is necessary for real transformation.
In the afternoon, the district superintendents and the bishop announced the new appointments and “fixed all the pastors in place” for the next year. I was officially appointed back to Independence UMC.
Other Notable appointments-
Orlando Chaffee will be stepping down as DS. After his personal leave, he will become the pastor of Bedford and Maple Heights United Methodist Churches.
Peggy Streiff was appointed as superintendent for the North Coast district to replace Rev. Chaffee. She served as DS in the Mid-Ohio district for 6 years prior to retiring in 2011. Her husband is the pastor of Norwalk First United Methodist Church. For the first time, the cabinet will have an equal number of male and female District Superintendents.
Sade Davis-Reynolds retired but has been appointed back half time to Seven Hills UMC for the next year.
Prior to announcing the appointments, the bishop indicated that many people ask “How are appointments really made?” He invited Karen Oehl and Jim Winkler, the two newest district superintendents, to give their thoughts on the issue. They said-
Karen Oehl-Consultations matter. The meeting the SPRC has in the fall and shares in their hopes, dreams and goals really matters. That information is what we then have about the churches and how we make the appointments.
Jim Winkler-Consultations matter. It is our job to get to know our pastors well. We want to know who they are, what their hopes and dreams are as they have served faithfully. We try to faithfully and accurately profile each pastor as we seek to find the right appointment for them.
The bishop and the cabinet spend considerable time praying about each appointment. The cabinet prays until they make a unanimous decision about which pastor should be appointed. The pastor is then taken to meet the SPRC committee and the appointment is then confirmed. It is then announced to both the departing and receiving congregation on the same Sunday.
For dinner that evening, I had the privilege of attending a presentation but on by the East Ohio Board of Church and Society. The presentation was focused on the issue of Modern Slavery. It is estimated that there are move people held in slavery today than at any time in our history. There are currently 27 million people held in slavery, included an estimated 800,000 people right here in the United States. Tina Flores, a slavery survivor from Toledo Ohio, gave a presentation talking about how vulnerable individuals are taken by force, fraud or coercion to perform labor or sex acts against their will. It is difficult to summarize this important topic in a paragraph, but if members of the church would like to learn more, please contact me.
Our evening concluded with a service of Commissioning and Ordination. The highlight of the evening was the sermon by Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the Northern Ohio Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She preached about just how difficult it was to be a Christian in a society that celebrates glorification. She said that “we are sinners serving sinners following a Lord who took on the sin of the whole world.” All too often, Christianity is reduced to a “Name it and Claim it theology” in which all the world’s problems are wrapped up neatly through prayer. However, we experience too much tragedy to proclaim such a glib understanding of God. The truth is that we follow a crucified savior in a fallen world- this results in considerable pain and requires deep commitment. All too often, we want the benefit of faith without any of the sacrifices it requires. “The cross comes not to relieve this tension, but to highlight it as we realize just how far we have fallen and how far we need to go” as individuals and as the church. The real question that challenges us as Christians is this: “Is it possible to stand with the marginalized, even those marginalized by the church, and still sing hallelujah?” I firmly answer yes- but only with considerable effort and faith. We have to give up our desire to seem and project perfection and instead just try to hold on to each other and the hurting in the world with love.
With that challenging and yet inspirational message, we concluded day 2.
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.
Each day at annual conference, we open our day with worship. This is generally my favorite part of conference because it is usually designed creatively and executed excellently. The service focused on the poverty and hunger that is hidden all around us. I learned that the second meaning behind the “If we are the body...” theme is that we must engage in work with the poor.
The guest preacher that morning was Jorge Acevedo, pastor of Grace Church in Flordia. Grace church is a multi-campus church that worships over 2,000 in a mostly impoverished area. They truly live out the mandate of working with the poor because the congregation itself is also poor. Rev. Acevedo joked that his spiritual gift was that of “agitation.” In fact, he said that this is precisely what the Holy Spirit does. God wants to wreck your life by disturbing your comfortable life with a call into life-giving ministry. He argued that the church exists for no other reason than to show God’s love. Living out this calling comes in three stages-
“We love our neighbors by giving immediate aid”
“We love our neighbors by giving ongoing advancement”
“We love our neighbors by giving continual advocacy.”
The challenge to doing this is that many churches have lost touch with their communities. The people inside the church do not look like the people of the neighborhoods. When questioned by Bishop Hopkins how to do this, he encouraged churches to strip down to the basics and admit your flaws. If the pastor can admit to struggling with control issues, if your lay leader can openly discuss her alcoholism, if your choir director can cop to her quick temper, people will learn that this is a church where you can feel safe to bring your whole sinful self to God. Its exactly when we pretend we are all prim and proper that people are turned away.
Later in the morning we heard about the vital ministries a number of other churches in East Ohio were doing. Fresno UMC noticed that people had access to clothes and food, but not to cleaning supplies. Thus, they launched “Martha’s cupboard” to give people access to cleaning supplies for both their bodies and their houses. Another church learned to get over their fear by allowing an outdoor rock concert to use their bathrooms in the evening. After turning it down the first year for fear of theft and vandalism, they finally opened their hearts and learned how rewarding it could be to allow the community in.
We then received reports from a number of committees and boards within the wider church. One of the particular concerns expressed was the need to recruit and retain young clergy. Only 4% of clergy are under the age of 35, and the median age of clegy in East Ohio is 55. Several new initiatives were announced to help recruit promising young candidates through tuition assistance and paid internships. I do hope more focus will continue to be given on mentoring and providing support for we young clergy once we are actually in the pulpits.
In the afternoon session, we received and voted to accept a resolution advocating for passing anti-human trafficking laws in the state of Ohio. The area of Toledo has had the most per capita arrests for modern slavery in all of the US. While I don’t have time to go into details, modern slavery is the 2nd largest criminal enterprise in the world and involves individuals forced into sexual or physical labor by force, fraud or coercion from human traffickers. It is estimated that over 27 million people are still enslaved today. Please let me know if you want to know more and we will have a presentation at IUMC.
Scattered throughout the day’s business sessions were 3 more ballots to elect clergy and lay candidates. Through the days voting, the laity were able to select 11 of their 14 representatives, while the clergy only managed to elect 5. While their are certainly no political parties in the church, some candidates do receive endorsements from the faith and justice coalition (representing progressives), the evangelical fellowship (representing conservatives) while the vast majority are unaffiliated with either group. Through the current round of balloting, in my humble opinion, the laity group seemed to be leaning to the progressive side while the clergy group was leaning more conservative. Once the election process is completed, I’ll try to go into more detail.
In the evening, we had the honor to see five people ordained into lifelong ministry in the United Methodist Church. One individual, Paul Wilson, was ordained as an elder and serves at Ridgewood UMC and Pearl Rd. UMC. Our outreach committee is currently exploring an opportunity to partner with Pearl Rd. in some ministry in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood.
Linda McCowen, a frequent IUMC pulpit guest, was ordained as a deacon. We have the honor this Sunday of having Rev. McCowen lead worship with us. As this will be her first service since being ordained, we should feel especially blessed to be witnesses to it.
In conclusion, I wanted to leave you with the most thought provoking statement of the day. It is both exciting and scary. I hope it causes you to rethink what we do in church-
“We are the body of Christ. Therefore Christ is judged by what we do”
With this (somewhat) traditional greeting, Bishop John Hopkins called the 2011 East Ohio Annual Conference to order. For at least the last three years, the first official action at annual conference is primarily rooted in the past. We commemorate the ministry of the various clergy members, clergy spouses and lay members of annual conference who have passed in the last year. For each of the 53 individuals who died, a candle was carried forward from the back of Hoover auditorium and placed on the alter as a bell was rung and their name read. Many of the individuals who passed had been attending annual conferences at Lakeside for the entirety of the denominations 50+ years of existence. Two deaths that we commemorated were particularly notable: Bishop James Thomas- an African American who was elected Bishop while the church was still segregated and led the East Ohio Conference in the 80s. Also, Robert Dieterich Jr., the pastor of Bedford UMC up until his death this past summer. His death was a tragedy not just for his family, but for his church and the conference. I imagine the church is still reeling from his death even though it has almost been a year.
The theme of the opening sermon, and indeed, the entirety of the Conference, is “If we are the body...” The theme is taken from the 12th chapter of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth. Bishop Hopkins especially highlighted the way that we are called to recognize our diverse gifts, both as pastors and laity, churches rural and urban, small and large. We cannot afford to faction ourselves off and despise those who are different, we must instead remember how it takes all of these unique parts of the body for health to ensue. This is a particularly important message given that we were shortly to begin the contentious process of electing delegates to General Conference.
Following the opening worship, all of the laity were called together to receive instructions about the voting process and to receive nominees from the floor of conference for lay delegates to annual conference. As the clergy were not involved in this session, I instead attended a lunch gathering for young (under 35) clergy held by the lake. It was refreshing to catch up with some of my fellow young colleagues and to celebrate with those who would be commissioned later that evening. Two of our younger clergy, Curt Bissel and Erik Marshall, announced that they were launching a young-pastor driven network so that we could try and support each other in our ministries. I look forward to visiting with, and learning from, many of my young colleagues.
Following lunch, we clergy attended the “clergy session” of annual conference. This is a closed meeting in which issues of ordination and discipline are voted upon. Generally, this is fairly routine, but their was one fairly poignant speech that was the talk of the session. One pastor was removed from membership in the annual conference because they had transferred to a new denomination. After the vote to confirm the removal, this pastor asked for an opportunity to speak to her reasons for leaving. She expressed that she had been a life long Methodist, had been loved by God before she could walk, had been called into God’s service before she had even received her first kiss. She had received her calling into ministry here at Lakeside and was ordained into ministry in the United Methodist church a number of years later. She was leaving the denomination, however, with a heavy heart. She was leaving not because she didn’t love the church, nor because she didn’t love Methodism, but because her sexual orientation meant that she could never be fully accepted within the Methodist church. Our current discipline indicates that she would have to choose between her sexual orientation, or her calling by God as a Methodist pastor. Thus, she announced she was transferring her ordination to the Episcopal church where she could “come before God fully” just as she was. No matter where you stand on this issue, you couldn’t help but feel moved by the pain that she expressed.
The clergy and lay delegates were finally reunited for the afternoon business session. Two particular parts of this session deserve mentioning: our conference treasurer, Jessica Vargo, gave a presentation on the “State of the Conference.” In my three years here, this has never been the most positive parts of the week. Generally, giving and attendance are down while spending is up. However, this year Ms. Vargo was “moderately hopeful.” Though membership and attendance had decreased by approximately 1%, the decline was quite slight given the demographics in our state. She brought the good news that there would be no increase in clergy health care expenses for 2012 and that the conference had once again paid its apportionments in full. Independence UMC was highlighted for making significant improvements in the paying of their apportionments. Congratulations church!
The second item of note is that the clergy and the laity cast their first ballots for delegates to the General and Jurisdictional conferences. We will elect 7 lay and clergy delegates to each this year. The General conference is where much of the direction and rules of the church are set while the Jurisdictional conference is where bishops are elected. Since each only meet every four years, these are particularly important elections for the future of the church. These elections will continue throughout the conference (we have to vote upward of 13 times!)
In the evening we had a service of recognition of Clergy who were retiring from Pastoral Appointment and a Commissioning service for Provisional members. Literally and metaphorically, a mantle was passed from the generation who was retiring to the generation who would just be beginning their ministry. I was commissioned last year in a very similar ceremony.
That’s the update for Monday! If you have any questions about the above or about specific activities at conference, leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them as well as I can.
