Reflections from Sunday Evening

Try not to get into anything! (Got the idea from a Lenoard Sweet sermon) Here is our take on this idea from today. Try not to get into anything - that detracts from the mission, purpose and vision God has given. This applies to our individual lives as well as the church. It serves as a reminder to keep focused on our mission - main thing. Our mission: To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the tranformation of the world. Our purpose: Honor God in all of life. Our vision: To build and outwardly focused Christian community of full participants in the life of grace. Try not to get into anything that detracts from this. At the same time TRY ANYTHING that contributes to or enhances the mission, purpose and vision. Through the Pentecostal power of the Holy Spirit we are empowered for the mission. TRY not to get into ANYTHING. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. And the day has more to come. We finish our Faith in Action weekend with worship at 5:00 followed by a bbq and fun fellowship. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

Had a good day at church today. Pastor Angie reminded us that "faith without works is dead." A great lead up to Faith and Action next weekend. If you have not indicated where you plan to serve please do so this week. Many opportunities to bear with to Christ through serving others. At the 11:00 service we had confirmation. This is always one of my favorite services in the year. We had 12 students confirmed today. 2 were baptized and all made their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. A special thanks goes to Jim and Margie Thomas who met and worked with this group over the past year. We have another group that is currently meeting and will be confirmed later. It was a good day. This is also graduation weekend. Cindy and I had the opportunity to get around to some graduation parties this weekend. Great accomplishment and great joy. Through all we have been doing this weekend I have been thinking about what a blessing it is to be part of our church. I am grateful to be part of the body of Christ. Something I have just begun to think about will be showing up in other ideas and expressiions. My prayer is that we do not settle for modifying behavior in positive ways - as important as that is - but that we be about the ministry of changing lives. The Gospel brings people from darkness to light - from death to life - from despair to joy. The Gospel is more than helping us be more enlightened, tolerant, nicer and culturally adept. Join me in giving this idea some prayerful consideration. More to come. I'd be remiss to not mention the one year anniversary of the Joplin tornado. Our prayers continue as friends and brothers and sisters in Christ continue to re-build in that community. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

Reflections From Sunday Evening

The Shirt. Here's the story. At General Conference a women's group from the Democratic Republic of Congo had shirts for sale. They seem to like bright colors there. They were hand made. They brought them to General Conference and had them for sale in the Cokesbury Store. I learned that the proceeds from the sales went to support women's ministry in the Congo. I saw them and wanted to get one to bring home. That's what I wore today. On Saturday night I put it to a vote. Should I wear the shirt tomorrow? They gave me a resounding YES! Actually it was said that if they were going to be subjected to the shirt those on Sunday should be too. Among teh comments I got on the shirt were "it's ugly". Many commented on how "bright" it was. A few liked it. Actually I call it a hit. But the real story behind the shirt is a story from the Congo. Last week another 3000 Congolese escaped their country into nearby Rhwanda to escape the recent surge of bloodshed in the on-going battles between the DRC army and a another militia. Evidently this brings the number of refugees in camps to over 50,000. The Shirt is a very small way to identify with and support our brothers and sisters in Christ who live in the Congo. One day we will see peace. May it come quickly. It's been a good day. I hope you've had a good day too. steve

reflections from Sunday evening & General Conference

Today Cindy and I went to Trinity UMC in Appleton City to go to church with mom and dad. This is Dad's 81st birthday. Tuesday will be their 60th wedding anniversary. Our kids joined us as we went to eat at mom and dad's favorite Sunday dinner place. The restaurant even baked us a cake! My brother and I are truly blessed to have such great parents. Their influence has done much to form us and continues to do so. I got back in time to go to church and move back and forth between NEXT (contemporary worship) and ReFuel (Youth service.) Lots going on. I need to make a special note of Spencer's sermon! Great job young man! It was good to get back to my favorite church. Which brings me to another reflection from General Conference. As you know GC 2012 concluded about 10:27 on Friday night (but who was counting?) Frankly the final day was maddening. People had worked for over 2 years to develop a re-structuring plan that would be intended to position the church to be more nimble (a word that was often used) to help empower conferences and local churches to be more effective in making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. By the time we got to Tampa the IOC (we have lots of these things) or Connectional Table and the Council of Bishops had the Call to Action. This was soon countered by another proposal by MFSA (the social action caucus) and then by another group who developed Plan B. When the proposals were discussed in legislative committee none of the plans were able to gain sufficient support to move forward. At that point people who had been involved with the development of the plans began to meet and in a couple of days brought forward a new plan - Plan UMC. That was the plan that would eventually be approved by the General Conference only to be ruled unconstitutional at 4:00 on Friday afternoon. Frustrating. But after getting home things do not look as irritating. Now people will go back to work and craft a new plan that will correct the errors and hopeful provide General Conference 2016 will a new structure that will find wider suport. It could happen! One piece of legislation that was approved eliminated "security of appointment" or what we generally call "guaranteed appointment" for elders. As things developed it appears this act could also be ruled unconstitutional when the Judicial Council meets this fall. We moved our pension from a basic Defined Contribution to a Defined Benefit plan. With these acts I saw my guaranteed appointment removed and cut my pension 20-30%. Actually I supported both these initiatives. I call it a good step forward. The conference maintained the current disciplinary language related to homosexuality. The conference did not support a move to divest our pension funds from three companies doing business with Israel. That was a heated issue but failed to gain support by a 70 - 30% margin. On a positive note annual conferences were given flexibilty to structure themselves as they need to in order to fulfill their mission. We feel this is very positive for us in Missouri. Probably 80 - 85% of the petitions that were submitted were placed on a consent calendar and never brought to the floor. One that some of our members were interested in dealt with the issue of pay day loans. I will look but feel sure this resolution was passed. General Conference showed that our world wide church is extremely vast in perspectives. This conference voted about 60 - 40 in favor of more conservative positions. But there was never a clear, uniting vision that emerges. One part of our church things more pragmatically and is focused on making disciples for Jesus Christ with evangelism (something that was never seriously brought up) as a major point. Another group desires to make disciples for Jesus Christ with the emphasis on diversity and inclusivity. Frankly we have competing visions of how to fulfill the mission. I come home grateful for having the opportunity to engage in issues that affect the church and trust good will come. I also have hope that God will once again direct our attention, focus and resources to share the good news of Jesus Christ in life changing ways. It's been some 12 days! It's been good. I hope you've had a good day. steve

May 3 - General Conference

Today was our most difficult day. After some house cleaning work this morning we began work on the issue of human sexuality. We have a phrase in our Discipline that states all persons are of sacred worth however, "we find the practice of homosexuality incompatible with Christian teaching." For the majority in our denomination and General Conference this represents the most accurate picture we should have. For a significant minority this is seen as a huge problem. We spent the morning debating. When the vote was taken the current statement was upheld. This initiated a protest as a number of people came to the floor of the conference and began to sing. Bishop Coyner, who was presiding, dismissed the conference early for lunch. It was a very emotional and difficult morning. After lunch we continued our business. The issue this afternoon centered on clergy pensions. We discussed at length whether a defined benefit or a defined contribution plan would be best for the church. After much discussion the conference moved us toward the defined benefit plan. The remainder of our work today was completed. We have one day to go! Tomorrow it appears our main task will be working with the budget. Steve

May 2 - General Conference

A busy and somewhat intense day at General Conference. As always there were several pieces of legislation that were processed and dealt with fairly quickly. Then the morning turned to the re-structuring proposal. We went to General Conference with hopes of passing recommendations related to the "Call to Action." This is a complex restructuring plan for the United Methodist Church. When the initial proposal came out it was followed by a proposal from MFSA (Methodist Federation for Social Action) and then Plan B. None of the initial plans gained a majority of votes in legislative committee. Then proponents of the Call to Action and Plan B worked out a compromise plan. This became Plan UMC. After much discussion and parlimentary procedure the plan passed. It is now referred to the financial administration team (GCFA) and will be incorporated into the budget which will be addressed friday. The other intense conversation surrounded the issue of divestment in three American companies that have contracts with Israel. The issue relates to the occupied area of the Holy Land. This was a very emotional issue for many of our delegates. In the end the General Conference voted to not move toward divestment. The afternoon concluded with a demonstration by a group of LGBTQ supporters. The conference was adjourned for the dinner hour. This evening a few more pieces of legislation were worked through prior to adjourment for the night. Two more days and much to do. Keep us in your prayers. steve

May 1 - General Conference

This is my eighth day and frankly I'm tired! Today we moved quickly into petition work. The majority of the 1200 petitions submitted have been worked with in committees and we are able to approve the prior work by voting on the "consent calendar." We had an item today that was approved on the consent calendar and then faced a motion ro reconsider it. It was a significant issue - the elimination of security of appointment for clergy. For the last 60 years or so UM pastors have had a "guaranteed appointment." The principle has been that every church gets a preacher and every preacher (elder) gets an appointment. After some parlimentary movement today the issue of security of appointment was eliminated. This was actually the recommendation of the committee. I personally agree with this decision. Another matter that most of us in Missouri appreciate is the legislation that gives annual conferences great flexibility in structuring. It should help us put ourselves in position to strengthen local churches to make disciples of Jesus Christ. There were a number of other matters worked through. When we began the day there were 143 items to process and we had finished 11 of them. I imagine we improved on that some today but many are wondering how we will be able to complete the work. But these things do tend to work out. Our Missouri delegation had dinner together. It was a welcome time to relax and share together. This evening most of the time was devoted to ecumenical matters. Getting ready to turn in and give it a go tomorrow. Three more days! Keep us in your prayers. steve