On the road again

In the last two weeks I have been on the road. My spouse and I drove to Nashville, Tennessee for a continuing education event, then to Durham, North Carolina for an executive committee meeting for the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligous Concerns. Then I was home for twenty four hours before coming to the Kansas West Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

The trip to Nashville fed my soul, the trip to Durham challenged my mind and the trip to Salina where I am as I write this reconnects me to my congregation, the annual conference. In the United Methodist Church, elders are not members of a local church, they are members of the annual conference.

Each year we gather to worship, to work, to ordain and to do business as a conference. While many things frustrate me, mostly I just enjoy seeing people. Folks from churches I have served before, other clergy I have not seen for a year delight me. Then there are the reminders of my commitment to God, my call that must answered, and my responsibility to my sisters and brothers of the conference.

Many things can be frustrating at conference. Someone is always complaining about worship, and honestly, I have been one of them. The building is too hot, or too cold. The food is mediocre, the prices too high. And yet.....it is the gathering of all these people, lay and clergy, visitors, old timers and new timers, that God uses to move this small portion of the church forward.

This year, I am working to be less critical and more appreciative of those who have spent hours and days and weeks preparing for this gathering. I am praying for a kinder spirit and a more open heart that I might here the still small voice of God. I am reconnecting with those I have not seen in a long time. Finally, I preparing myself to recommit to the call that was placed in me at annual conference those many years that I may once again be

Graced to Serve.

Pastor Christopher's Commissioning

The highlight of yesterday's annual conference was Christopher's commissioning. Bishop Robert Schnase was powerful and challenging. Bishop Jone's state of the conference address asked us to reach for excellence. The highlight of every annual conference, every year, for me is the ordination and commissioning service.

Thirty five years ago, at annual conference in Sam's Chapel at Kansas Wesleyan University I received my call. Each year, where ever ordination is held, I go and celebrate and remember. It was a delight to stand with Christopher and his family as a sponsor as he was commissioned as a provisional member of the conference. It was an honor to watch as the bishop blessed him and others as they continued the journey to full membership and ordination.

In his sermon, the bishop charged us as followers of Christ to bring people from darkness into light. To leave to the darkness our fears, our prejudices and those hateful violent impulses that we might live in love, in faith and in hope. Christopher and the other ordinands and commissioned were challenged to be bearers of the good news to all people.

We are challenged as well. We are invited to continue to lift Christopher up in prayer as he continues the journey. We are challenged to find others whom God is calling and we are called to also be the ones to invite others into a life changing relationship with God.

I am grateful to remember my call, but more importantly to live it out and to share with Christopher and others.

Will post more highlights from conference in the next day or two.

I am....

Graced to Serve.
Cindy

FIrst Day of Annual Conference

Last night, the clergy session met to do the business surrounding the clergy of the annual conference. In that session, our student pastor, Christopher Eshelman was officially voted as a provisional/probationary member of the annual conference. We honored our retiring members and remembered those pastors who had died in the last year. In the midst of the business, we are really dealing with human beings and their call and their ministry and their lives.

Today began the official business of the Kansas West Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Reverend Amy Lippoldt, the pastor of Woodland United Methodist Church preached on “the HIP crowd.” HIP stands for the Hospitality Industry Personnel. These are the persons who wait on us in restaurants, in stores, at hotels and any person working in customer service. And yet, is not the church the original hospitality industry? She invited us to look at why we are hospitable. “Is it only to get more people in the pews or more money in the plate? If it is, our hospitality is a cheap charade. We should be the ones the world thinks of when they hear the word hospitality.”

As a person who believes that hospitality is at the heart of ministry and theology, I was challenged to ponder what it would look like if I lived a more hospitable life. What if I looked upon each person I meet as Christ. In the words of a grandmother, to say in my heart, “The Christ in me greets the Christ in thee.” From those powerful words, we moved to the sacrament of Holy Communion.

We finished the morning with some business. Particularly we looked at the new campaign, “RETHINK CHURCH”. I think this will be a wonderful tool for us at West Heights as we plan to reach out to our neighborhood and invite persons to experience God’s love and grace.

Annual Conference is always part worship, part education, part reports and business agenda, resolutions and family reunion. I have seen people from every church I have ever served and caught up with old friends and new ones. Tomorrow will be full with evening worship being ordination and commissioning. I look forward seeing some of you here to celebrate with Christopher as he is commissioned as a provisional member of the annual conference.

As always I am,
Graced to Serve.

Cindy