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Saturday morning
Bishop introduces delegates to General, Jurisdictional conferences
One Saturday morning, the conference warmly welcomed the ten delegates to General Conference, the ten delegates to the North Central Jurisdictional Conference and the four reserves. General Conference lay delegates are Kayc Mykranz, Carolyn Johnson, James Ottjes, Paula Shrock, Edwin Fenstermacher. Clergy delegates to General Conference are Frank Beard, Kimberly Reisman, Bryan Siefert, Cindy Reynolds, Michael Dominick.
North Central Jurisdictional Conference lay delegates are Pat Weeks, Charles Hefley, Ashley Loomis, Kenneth Adams, Ruth Ellen Stone with reserve delegates Albert Bohnstedt, Manet Shettle. Clergy delegates to the North Central Jurisdictional Conference are Mark Fenstermacher, Michelle Cobb, Mary Eileen Spence, Chris Nunley, Gregg Parris, with reserve delegates Robert Dexter, Jean Brindel. The first two clergy and lay delegates to Jurisdictional Conference serve as reserve delegates to General Conference.
The conference added three more reserve delegates to each of the clergy and laity lists using the last ballots vote tallies to determine those delegates. A full list including contact information will be published in a future issue of the Hoosier United Methodists Together newspaper.
After they were introduced to the conference, Bishop Coyner led in a prayer for the delegates as they prepare for next year's General and Jurisdictional Conferences. The General Conference will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, April 23-May 2, 2008. The North Central Jurisdictional Conference will be held in Grand Rapids, Mich., July 16-20, 2008. The North Indiana Conference is one of 12 conferences in this nine-state region. The states include: Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota.
Cabinet chair reports on vitality of the church
Michelle Cobb, chairperson of the North Indiana Cabinet, reported that the North Indiana Conference is vital. She highlighted events of the year which included: the recent chartering of the Cristiana UMC as the first Hispanic congregation in Indiana; evangelism events with Bishop Coyner; the cabinet's mission trip with Bishop Mike and Marsha Coyner in January to D'Iberville, Miss. to assist two families in the rebuilding of their homes; and the success of the new tithe model for giving to the conference and general church.
She also said this year the Cabinet will be working closer with parsonage families to provide better supportive care for clergy spouses and families.
Changes in superintendents include the retirement of Lamar Imes of Fort Wayne, the move of Michelle Cobb from Lafayette District to the Calumet District, the appointment of Kate Walker to the Lafayette District and the appointment of David Schrader, who has served as Calumet DS to Grace UMC in South Bend.
She also announced Frank Beard would be the new Cabinet chairperson and Kate Walker would be the new Cabinet secretary.
The Cabinet moved and the conference approved the discontinuance of the Newville UMC in Fort Wayne District and the Sugar Grove UMC in Marion District. The conference trustees later reported that if the Newville property is not requested to be used as a satellite location for another congregation, the church property will be disposed of according to conference guidelines.
CF&A pleased with results of new tithe model
Paul Arnold, chair of the Conference Council on Finance and Administration, said the new tithing model is working. By mid-May, 269 churches were giving at 100% and above of their previous year's askings and that 360 churches were giving at 95% and above. On May 15, $2.4 million or 24% of the budget had been received, compared to last year when $2.2 million or 22% of the budget had been received.
He also reported that in 2006, the conference had $39,013 in underfunded expenses compared to the previous year when it had $129,957 in underfunded expesnses.
The conference will continue to use the tithing model for connectional giving. Conference leaders, clergy and lay members are asked to tithe 10 percent of income to their local church. Local churches in turn are asked to tithe monthly 10 percent of their churches' income to the North Indiana Conference.
The conference approved a 2008 expense budget of $9.87 million (compared to the 2007 expense budget of $10.1 million) and a 2008 income budget of $8.93 million (compared to the 2007 income budget of $8.89 million).
In other business, the conference:
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Approved the nomination of officers and members of committees, commissions and boards for July 2007 through June 2008.
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Approved to ask for the bishop to appoint a team for renovation of the North Indiana Conference if the Imagine Indiana Planning Team recommendation was NOT approved.
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Celebrated the 30th anniversary of diakonia ministry and the 10th anniversary of permanent Order of Deacon. Prior to this time, the Order of Deacon was a probationary order to the Order of Elder.
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Celebrated the 20th anniversary of Operation Classroom, an outreach mission based in Indiana to care for secondary schools in Liberia and Sierra Leone. In 1992 OC was expanded to include Operation Doctor, which has included nutrition education, HIV/AIDS education programs, an operating room at Kissy Hospital and a new operation ward. OD is now working on a Tele-med program waiting for approval from the government. The NIC provides 800 OC scholarships each year. The conference expressed its thanks to Joe and Carolyn Wagner, coordinators of OC/OD.
Saturday afternoon Bishop Coyner sermon
The real credentials of our faith are the fruits of our faith
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| Lamar Imes, retiring pastor and superintendent of the Fort Wayne District, prepares to symbolicly transfer the mantle to newly ordained Elder Shalimar Holderly of Fort Wayne during the comissioning and ordination service Saturday afternoon. |
WEST LAFAYETTE - Bishop Mike Coyner reminded ministerial candidates being commissioned or ordained on Saturday, June 2, that the credentials they receive are not the true credentials of the Christian faith. The true credentials of our faith are the results or fruits of ministry.
Coyner said, in 2 Corinthians 3:1-6 we see the Apostle Paul struggle with those who had more credentials than he had. Paul may not have been all that much compared to these other TV-evangelists types. But Paul didn't want to play those credential games.
Coyner said one of his pastors in the Dakotas Conference had a wall full of certificates and another wall with 32 pictures of himself on the opposite wall. "I counted them."
In the spirit of Paul, Coyner said, "The day I have to prove myself, my ministry is over."
Paul said his works were his credentials. "The real proof of our ministry is the fruit of our ministry."
Coyner said in the Philippines, one who wants to be ordained goes to his home congregation and learns ministry from his pastor, then goes out and establishes a ministry on his own before he or she is considered for ordination.
"Credentials are important and agencies use them for checking out references, but the proof of your ministry is the fruit of your ministry," said Coyner. "How many lives have you touched? People are our letters of recommendation. And we are the letters of recommendation for Jesus by changed lives."
Coyner said he remembers when attending Epworth Forest as a youth, he had a poem which read in part, "We are the only Bible that sinners will read." He then commented, "What if our lives are not good letters of reference and our lives do not give evidence to our faith, who will believe the Gospel we preach?"
The bishop commented on the popular WWJD - What Would Jesus Do? - written on clothing and signs. Part of WWJD is the ethics of Jesus, yes, what would Jesus do?
"What the world sees as Jesus is what we do. If we talk about Jesus but don't live out his love and grace, the world doesn't see Jesus. So it behooves us to be letters of reference for Jesus Christ. Those letters need to be love letters for each other, even for our enemies. Love letters to the world from Jesus," Coyner said.
"You are love letters for Jesus to the world. It's not just clergy, but all of us. References start with letters of credentials, but they become love letters."
The bishop said he has credentials, certificates and degrees on his walls, but no one has given him better credentials than a little girl who told him he was a friend of Jesus. "If people do that, then we will be love letters to the world."
Following his sermon, Coyner commissioned 11 probationary clergy members to be ordained and ordained 11 Elders to full clergy membership in the North Indiana Conference.
During the closing moments of the service, Coyner asked those in the audience that felt called to ordained ministry to come forward for a special prayer and blessing. Retirees were recognized, a symbolic stole was exchanged between retiring Lamar Imes and incoming minister Shalimar Holderly. All ministerial appointments were fixed or became official and effective beginning June 16.
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Operation ClassroomJoe Wagner, Lynette Smith (Chili UMC) and Ken Decker (West Lafayette First UMC) take a break from counting supplies at the Operation Classroom truck. They have received the following items as of 5 p.m. on June 1. 108 boxes: dry milk |
All Conference Dinner
The Methodist Way and no place like gnome
On Friday night, the annual conference gathered for the all-conference dinner and several presentations and messages.
The Conference Council on Youth Ministry started asking members if they could here them now to explain how we are all connected. The youth challenged the conference regarding funding, job descriptions, accountability and training. They also encouraged and accountability to the conference to help provide for the youth.
In addition to introducing their new officers - Rachel Shettle, president from Alexandria UMC; Molly Miller, vice president from Pretty Prairie UMC; Anna Ruble, secretary from Muncie High Street UMC - and presented Bishop Mike with a traveling Purdue gnome. The concept of the gnome is to pass along to others to be held accountable for mission, visions and goals of the church.
After receiving the gnome, Bishop Mike presented "A Call to Action" which outlined a proposal from the Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table. Bishop Mike added that the group is asking that the phrase "Making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world" be added into the Discipline.
The group will highlight four calls to action: living the United Methodist Way, starting new churches, reaching the children and stamping out poverty diseases such as malaria and AIDS.
Living the UM way includes teaching the Wesleyan model of discipleship, living the General Rules - do no harm, do all the good you can and stay in love with God through the orders of the church.
Starting new churches: the goal is 650 new churches for 2009 and 2012 and then 350 a year.
Reaching the children: continuing the emphasis of the Bishops' Initiative on Children and Poverty.
Stamping out poverty diseases: To work to raise money for "Nothing But Nets" in partnership with NBA Cares, Sports Illustrated, UMCOR and others to purchase nets for families in Africa. About $16 million has been raised from a variety of resources.
"Our vision is to bring the entire church into alignment with these actions. We want a huge amount of momentum going in and coming out," said Bishop Mike. "We can really stand up and say we're proud to be a United Methodist."
During the laity address, Lay Leader Kayc Mykrantz shared stories of Abraham, Moses, Bartamaeus and others throughout the Bible who all wanted to stop the parade and not be an observer. "We've come to a serious crossroads in the church I believe," said Mykrantz.
With more than 100 million people in the U.S. who do not have a relationship with Christ, it is important for us to all reach out and witness with our stories to others. "We need to take Jesus to the people," said Mykrantz. "We can tell our own story. We are on the horizon. We're the ones who are moving. We're the parade. We have to stop and go into the crowd.
In other awards and commissioning from the All Conference dinner:
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Merit scholarship winners: Allison Rock of Mentone UMC, Kaitlin Bonifant of Peru Main Street UMC, Brienne Rentz of Kokomo St. Luke's, and Alexis Wilson of North Webster UMC.
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Francis Asbury award: Betty Jo Townsend, administrative assistant at the Wesley Foundation at Purdue University.
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J.C. Williams Sr. Educational Scholars: Ashley Smith, studying radiology at Ivy Tech and a member of Anderson New Hope UMC; and Ashell Smith, studying physical therapy/exercise at Ball State and a member of Anderson New Hope UMC.
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Commissioning of lay missioners in Hispanic/Latino ministry: Malinda Hinton, Sandy Sizemore, Ramon Aleman, Sergio Reyes, Jamie Reyes, Leonardo Flores, Georgina Flores, Dara Flores, Melvin Stein, Ana Salazar, James Jacobs, Crecencio Barahona and Ramon Gonzalez. Facilitators for this program were Beverly Biehr, Juan Martinez, Juanita and Oscar Ramos.
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Bread and Basin award winners:
| Calumet | Don Copple, Champ Merrick |
| Fort Wayne | Deb Miteff |
| Huntington | George and Juanita Rapp |
| Kokomo | Shirley Dominick |
| Lafayette | Norma Crane (not present |
| Marion | Rev. Brian Wise |
| Muncie | Earl and Louise Luke |
| Warsaw | Holly White |
Last updated on 06/07/2007