by Sis. Gwen May, Lay Delegate to Annual Conference
What an awesome example of our great core beliefs of this Texas Annual Conference was demonstrated at the start on our thirty-seventh Annual Session. From Sunday, May28 th through Thursday June 1, 2006 a constant outpour of radical hospitality, passionate worship and faith forming relationships was demonstrated.
- Our Vision- Vibrant, growing congregations changing lives and reshaping futures for Jesus Christ
- Our Mission- Equip congregations to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the glory of God
- Our Key Drivers- Spirit led excellence, fruitfulness, and accountability
- Our Core Beliefs- Radical hospitality, Faith-forming relationships, extravagant generosity, fervent prayer and diligent study of scripture, passionate worship, risk-taking mission and connectional ministry.
- Our Strategic themes: 1. Congregational Excellence. 2. Effective Missional Structure. 3. Clergy Excellence.
I experienced God at work each day through the daily worship services with dynamic clergy, such as Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, Rev. B.J. Hightower, Rev. Dr. Jim Moore and of course our distinguished Bishop Janice Riggle Huie. The host church was the historic downtown First United Methodist Church, with Rev. Steve Wende being the host pastor.
Sunday night’s worship service was truly a blessing and praise-worthy period, because youth were in charge of the evening devotion. Several praise dance teams performed. Just Praise, the combined praise dancers of Spiritual Movers of God (SMOG) - St. Paul UMC and Praise in Motion (PIM) - United Methodist Temple had the house clapping and giving praise. I saw more youth under one roof than I have personally experienced in years.
Effective June 1, 2006 our district is the Southeast District. Through our strategic planning efforts, we are now the benefactors of structure designed to keep us connectional and keep us informed. Some of you may be wondering why we even have or need an annual conference. According to our 2006 Pre-Conference Journal we need one to:
1. Deal with administrative ,personnel and programs needs.
2. Share in celebration of our faith in worship.
3. Grapple with the needs of reconciliation among ourselves, laity, clergy, youth and adults as we affirm our various beliefs and judgements.
4. Find renewal and motivation for the Christian life, individually and as a church.
5. Discover avenues by which United Methodist may become empowered to be Christian people in witness and mission.
6. To enjoy the fellowship of our United Methodist family.
We approved two amendments to the resolutions that were before conference:
- We mandated that half of the voting members of the Core Leadership Team be laity
- We added the chairperson of Black Methodists of Church Renewal to the Missional Excellence individual team composition.
Reports were made by every single board, commission and committee. Dialog was extensive in reference to clergy sexual ethics policy. Here are highlights from a few that may be of interest :
1. Committee on Disability concerns - Deaf/hearing impaired members of our churches will be accommodated.
2.Safe Sanctuary- Over 10,000 background checks have been performed and almost 4,000 workers have been certified in the Conference Safe Sanctuary policy.
3 .Evangelism- The “Reclaiming the Vision” campaign introduced in 2005. Sixty churches signed up to be “test churches”. Fourteen were chosen with a good cross-section based on location, size, ethnicity and situation.
4.Stewardship-Rev.Melvin Amerson- Two more “Good $ense Ministry Training events to come in 2006.
5.Children’s Ministry-Amy Hodge - Two Seminars in 2006 ...Web site www.childrensministryconnection.org
6. Youth Ministries- 157 youth and young adult attended the Spiritual Life Rally in Oklahoma-2005. 280 youth and adults attended 6 th grade winter carnival. There were two Junior high and two Senior high retreats. The theme : “Fisher Christ”.
7.Partners In Mission- As a conference we responded to Katrina and Rita disasters by sending 5,633 teams of volunteers from Texas to Alabama-43 medical teams and 1224 construction teams.
8.Committee on Relief- Clay Whitaker- UMCOR continues to be the leading ministry of compassion and relief across the globe. The recommendation is that all churches be intentional regarding disaster preparedness. Check conference for training sites. Office 713 533-4965 Mobile 281 468-0832.
9.Commission On Small Membership Churches-This group manages the Redistribution Depot at Lakeview Methodist Conference Center. This is a great resource for the exchange of gently-used items such as choir robes, bibles, electronic accessories and more. St.Paul has already been blessed with choir robes, which will be premiered later in 2006 .
10. UMM- Only 10% of our churches have chartered UMM fellowships. President Kenneth Tielke says that it is essential to the health and growth of the church.
11. UMW- There were 703 flood buckets,1070 health kits,184 school kits, 88 cases of water plus additional monies were collected for flood buckets that total 3,334 .
We had access to workshops to attend on Tuesday. I attended “Sunday School is for Life”. We reflected on the vital role that Sunday school can play in developing Christian faith and discipleship. I was very pleased with the flow of activities for this conference. My concerns center around the decline in membership in our conference, despite an increase in population. One half of all United Methodist churches reported no new members in 2004.
Let us be intentional about being true and good stewards over God’s kingdom on earth. In the words of Bishop Huie in her Episcopal Address: “Fruitfulness is evident that the branches are connected to the vine. Fruitfulness is evidence that the congregation is achieving its mission. If your congregation is not demonstrating increasing levels of fruitfulness, it may lacking some of the practices of faith that Jesus taught us.”
Yours in Christ,
Sis. Gwen May
