Annual Conference

The Missouri Conference met in Springfield June 6-9. Let me hit on some highlights (in my opinion) from this year's conference. The first day of conference began with a great worship service led by people from Morning Star UMC in the St. Louis area. Mike Schreiner has led this new church to about 1600 in worship over the past few years. We were able to experience the flavor of this church's worship.

In the afternoon the clergy met in our "executive session" where we do "preacher stuff." The laity met together during the same time frame.

We also spent time with ordained ministry matters and heard from Bishop Schnase and our leaders in congregational and pastoral excellence.

The banquet on Friday night featured some of our congregational development leaders and was a time to receive our church's commitments to PETS (personal energy transportation). We eventually raised over $126,000, enough to buy and distribute 509 PETS. You can learn more about these vehicles on the conference Web site.

Saturday was a day of learning as well as business. We had worship and a number of learning times. The main event for Saturday was Ordination. Our own Rev. Megan Sly was among the nine persons who were ordained elder at this year's conference. It was a very meaningful service. Congrats Megan!

Sunday was a day for more business but my high point came in the Study time at 8:00 a.m. (Yes, I get up and go to these things!) Dr. Doug Anderson shared with us some very practical ways to share the faith. You will be hearing about these in the future. (I'll wait a little while so I can try to pass the ideas off as my own!)

Sunday evening was great. We celebrated the PETS at the ballpark. It is a pretty cool thing when you are supposed to go to the ballgame!

Monday we concluded with business. We approved the conference budget of $13,341,092. This continues our trend of decreasing the conference budget and seeking to pass more money back to the local church. We elected conference leadership. (More about that in a moment.) We worked through a tough issue regarding retired ministers' health insurance. Hopefully we acted in a way that will be beneficial to all. The Bishop "fixed" the appointments for the coming year.
This is always a neat time. Pastor Megan was appointed to her new place, St. Peter UMC in Blue Springs. It is emotional to say "goodbye" but exciting to embrace new challenges. Dr. Reuben Wilbur came to our district and stood by me during this time. He has invested over 19 years of service to the Missouri conferences and now comes to a new and exciting chapter in his life. Angie Olsen and Ginger Pudenz were appointed to Platte Woods UMC. It was an exciting time.
Our church is well represented in conference leadership. Curtis Olsen was elected to chair the conference communications team. Rex Archer was elected to the social justice team. Alan Herndon was elected to the conference board of ordained ministry. I was also elected to the board of ordained ministry and then the board elected me the chairperson of the board for the coming quadrennium. Keep us all in your prayers!

That is a little snapshot of this year's annual conference. You were well represented by Alan Herndon and Brian and Evelyn Evans.

You can always find pictures and more information by going to the conference Web site.