Well, okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. I haven't been to that many annual conferences, so I can't actually say it was the best one ever. I can say, though, that it was the best annual conference I've ever attended.
There are a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is that there was such a positive attitude. It started with Bishop Ough, it carried on through the speakers and presenters, and it came down to the people in attendance. Yes, there are still problems and challenges—there always will be. But, more than I've ever seen before, there was an attitude that we can solve the problems and meet the challenges. There was also an attitude, more than I've seen before, that God will help us solve the problems and meet the challenges, if we ask God humbly and rely on God's help.
There are lots of things I could tell you about this year's annual conference, but there are three that I want to point out to you now. The first is that Wanda and I have officially been appointed to serve the Wheatland Parish for another year. We had assumed this for some time, but now it's official, and we couldn't be happier. We feel incredibly blessed to serve in this wonderful place with its awesome people. While we have no control over this, we hope to be allowed to serve here for several years to come.
Second, we completely changed the formula by which apportionments are calculated. Apportionments, of course, are the amounts each United Methodist church is required to send to the Annual Conference. They used to be determined by a rather complicated formula that involved membership, expenditures, and budgets, all added together, multiplied by the square root of pi, figured on a four-year rolling average, and placed in a refrigerator capable of surviving a nuclear blast. The new formula is much simpler. You take a specific percentage of the income of your church which goes toward the operating budget and send it in every month. That's it.
The best part of this, to me, is that apportionments are no longer a barrier to membership. It used to be that churches were hesitant to add new members because they were afraid it would make their apportionments too high. Now, that's not an issue, because membership is not a factor in figuring apportionments. So, if this issue has been preventing you from becoming a member, please let me know!
Third, Bishop Ough had set a goal of raising $100,000 from the churches of this conference to fund a new ministry in the Bakken Oil Reserve in Western North Dakota. Well, we did not raise $100,000. We raised over $262,000! That's an awesome thing, and it shows how passionate the churches of this conference are about reaching out to people who need us.
We will be hearing much more about this ministry in the future. It is still being developed and taking shape. One thing that will happen, though, is that the United Methodist pastors of our local ministry team, the Prairie Harvesters, are planning to make a trip to that area in late summer/early fall. Exactly what we will do is still being worked out, but part of what we will do is simply talk to people, find out more about their needs, and let them know that there is a church that cares for them and wants to help them.
You will have the chance to be part of this. We want to take you with us, not physically, but through something you've made, such as cookies. No, the problems of that area cannot be solved with cookies. What those cookies will do, though, is be a tangible sign that the United Methodist church cares and wants to help. Now, don't make the cookies yet—as I said, we don't know just what we're going to do yet, nor do we know just when we're going to do it. But we will have some way you can help with the ministry in that region.
These are exciting times, both for our parish and for the Dakotas Annual Conference. Wanda and I are thrilled to be back serving God with you for another year. We can't wait to see what God has in store for us, both as a parish and as a conference.
No comments:
Post a Comment