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| Hoosier United Methodists together |
January 2005 |
North Conference takes leap of faith in new sessions agenda
MARION, Ind. - The Bible will replace business as the primary focus of this year's North Annual Conference session at Purdue University in West Lafayette June 1-4. And the schedule looks far from business as usual.
The Annual Conference Sessions Committee has announced that "Molded by Grace, Making a Difference" will be the three-day conference theme based on the prophet Jeremiah's vision of the potter (Jeremiah 18).
Annual Conference is scheduled to begin with a Thursday morning, June 2, Memorial and Communion Service, instead of clergy and laity sessions, and end Saturday morning, June 4, with a service of ordination, consecration and appointments - not a flurry of legislative items and the approval of the budget.
The executive clergy session is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday night, June 1, in a banquet setting. According to an agenda drafted by Annual Sessions Committee, chaired by the Rev. Craig Lasuer, pastor of Christ UMC in Lafayette, five Bible studies will preface each of the business sessions.
"We are beginning each session of conference with a Bible study so that we can collectively remember our mission and reason for being and so that we can be refreshed and inspired to fulfill our ministry in the local church," said Lasuer.
Why the change?
Together further asked Lasuer why the radical change in the conference agenda. He said, "We have decided on this new approach because we have tried to fit in so much each year at Annual Conference that we have shortchanged the most meaningful moments that can connect us to one another and to the emerging work that God is doing in our midst.
"At the local church level, we have learned to do less reporting and more thinking and praying together about important emerging matters of ministry. It is time to do this on a conference level as well."
According to the Rev. Cindy Reynolds, NIC director of ministries, "The change is to help guide the focus of the annual conference to mission, ministry and vision for where God is calling us - why do this? It is to enrich and rebuild the connection that we share and celebrate what God is doing."
Reynolds told Together the Wesleyan understanding of conferencing is to confer with God and each other, and then confer the power of the Holy Spirit to return to our local communities and be the church.
"This is a move to be faithful to the core values where transformation is possible; God is experienced; Christ is central; local churches are served; and a vision is cast that challenges us to be and to make disciples," she said.
The sessions will be intentionally biblically based. Reynolds said it's the committee's vision to accomplish the business of the church within the framework of sacred space and upon a biblical foundation. Each session will have a ministry focus and this is new.
"Praise and worship at the close of each session will reflect our acknowledgment and gratitude to God who is working among us and using us as instruments of ministry," Reynolds said. The praise band will embellish closing worship during plenary sessions, as well as opening and closing worship services.
"Molded by Grace,
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All five plenary sessions will represent one of the new Conference Council on Ministries ministry teams, except for Saturday early morning which will consider the administrative support and stewardship of the annual conference.
Legislative groups are scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon, June 2, for three hours to consider pending legislation coming to the floor of annual conference. Each group will open with prayer.
The Session Committee hopes to create a new atmosphere in which the Annual Conference becomes a part of transformation - creating hope, light, vision and to claim and experience the living presence of God in all we do. It hopes to change the attitude that says annual conference is boring.
Renew and refresh
Reynolds says the committee wants conference to renew and refresh its 12-hundred clergy and lay members, "so they might engage in more effective ways in ministry across the conference. It also will focus the discussions around the priorities of the conference and our life together."
Indiana Area Bishop Mike Coyner says he is open to the change and supports focusing on our life (as United Methodists) together. The ideas originated form the committee and were endorsed by Coyner. He told the committee that he was willing to give leadership in the area of the Bible study and has made contacts with others to make this change effective.
Lasuer said, "We (the committee) appreciate Bishop Coyner's openness to not only try new things, but also then to help lead the way in the fresh direction God is leading. We hope the clergy and laity will also be open to the changes we are making as we go on the adventure of following Christ in a new direction at the Annual Conference Session."
Another new aspect of this schedule is a laity luncheon with the bishop present. The bishop has not been able to address the laity session in the past because it was scheduled at the same time as the clergy executive session. The schedule demonstrates a new connection and model of partnership, according to the committee, said Reynolds.
For continuing information about the North Indiana Annual Conference session at West Lafayette, log on to www.nicumc.org.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008