Taking Care of the Real Business

The Bishop reported that money and attendance are not the only ways to measure growth. Participation in events and missions has also shown an increase. The reports that received a great deal of attention were on how we include ourselves in the community. Some may say who cares? In some places the church is the community. Do you know where your father and mother met? it could have been church, church camp or at a community event sponsored by the church. This brought up a powerful point of how many times people say I grew up in the Methodist church, or I used to attend a Methodist church... It is important to note that our church is not alone in its endeavor to keep and bring in new members. But we must remember our endeavor is to support and make new disciples for Christ.

We were given a powerful example on looking outward: there was a man who was not able to walk and he was asked what he needed. He did not ask for a wheel chair or a scooter. He asked for a pair of binoculars. When asked why, he said, "So I can see farther from my cot." Reaching beyond our walls was really emphasized.

It made me proud of some of the programs we have here at Salem that reach out: Community Garden, Habitat for Humanity projects, and Circle of Concern. Can we do more? Of course the answer is yes.

The first evening we had a Mozambique Mingle with the Bishop Nhanala who spoke and thanked us for our support and spreading the gospel by coming to her country. It was good to get a real, human, personal understanding of how the Mozambique Initiative is really having an impact on the other side of the world.

My favorite time was the first session each morning - The Bishop's Learning Time. Bishop Schnase opened each session with scripture and prayer. Sometimes he led the session himself, other times he had other ministers give the lesson. there were examples of all types of people we have reached through church outreach and ideas for more work were plentiful. The Bishop called the efforts and ideas the "seeds", and then quoted from Matthew 13:1-22
(The Parable of the Sower). I pray I can share those "seeds" and our church can reach "Someone Out There!"

I close this report with a prayer. Lord, give us the strength to reach out and touch the life of someone out there. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Annual Conference - Taking Care of Business

A large part of Annual Conference is voting on issues that have been brought forward. I was struck by the fact that clergy and laity have an equal vote. You can learn more about all the items we voted on and see the highlights of the conference on a video on the Missouri Annual Conference website at www.moumethodist.org

The voting opportunities covered many items such as an amendment to our constitution that would change the title of world conference to Regional from Central. That seems small to us but if you are in a small part of Africa and you think the USA churches rule everything, the Regional is a very important word. Race, creed, and color may not mean much to some people, but ALL PERSONS is another very important change. Lay people voting on matter that deal with clergy? There is an equal vote on everything else, why not that?

Of course we also looked at financial issues. We had an increase of 3 percent in the budget primarily for health care costs, a problem facing all employers (and employees). The Missouri District Superintendents did not take a salary increase. That is huge! Did you see the CEO's and middle and upper managers at the car companies do that? I don't think so! it bolstered my faith to see that we are walking the walk as we talk the talk.