What is the Connection?

As clegy and lay leaders prepare to meet in Muncie for the first ever state wide Annual Conference I thought I'd share Bishop Mike's e-mail on Connection. (United Methodists are not just members of a local congregation, we are members of something much bigger.)

Please pray for God's will to be done in Muncie. We have some very important issues to vote on including major changes in budget and some constitutional amendments.

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“What is the Connection?” – June 21, 2009

After one of the recent PreConference Briefings that the Directors and I shared in all 10 of the new districts, one pastor stayed to ask me an important question, “What is the connection?” His question was in response to hearing that our new conference budget does not include as much “pass through money” from the local churches to agencies and extension ministries that we have supported in the past. Rather than collecting this additional money through the conference, the new plan is to leave those funds in the hands of local churches to give as they choose to these various Advance Specials. The idea is to ask our churches for a 10% tithe for the conference budget, and a 1% giving to their districts, and to leave the other 2% or “Plus” in the hands of those local leaders who know best which projects and ministries in their areas that they want to support. (By the way, this 2% if it were fully collected would equal nearly $3 million)

His question was a legitimate and serious one. In the past, perhaps we have viewed “the connection” in terms of apportionments collected and dispersed, pensions and insurance for pastors, and other collective ministries we have supported together. The “connection” has been perceived as primarily a financial one. What will it mean if the new Indiana Conference changes that sense of “the connection” to one based more upon relationships (i.e. Ministry Clusters and Clergy Covenant Groups) and mutual ministry decided at the “local” level (what the Imagine Indiana Plan called “inverting the initiative”)?

Clearly we will still be doing much of our ministry together financially. The 2010 conference budget includes $1.5 million in support for our retired pastors, spouses, and surviving spouses’ health benefits, and it includes $450,000 to continue paying the past obligation to pensions for part-time Local Pastors. Our conference is devoting an additional $4.5 million in our pension reserves to bring all of our retirees with pre-1982 service years up to the highest rate ever ($608). Our budget includes $750,000 to support the camping ministries of both former conferences, which is a large part of the over $2 million we still have in the budget for “connectional ministries.” We still provide medical insurance for our active clergy through a conference-wide plan (which is also the denomination’s Healthflex Plan). We still help pay for clergy to move from one appointment to another, so that is not a cost to the local churches involved. Clearly, we still do many things together financially.

But the question lingers in my mind, “What is the connection?” Is it more than money? It is more than just a combined budget whereby we do many things together that a local congregation cannot do on its own?

I heard a story this past week which illustrates what “the connection” is all about. At a meeting of the Clarian Health Board, we began as always with a devotional story and prayer by one of the chaplains. This time it was Rev. Laurie Hearn, chaplain at Methodist/Riley/Clarian who told about getting a call from a chaplain at the Fort Wayne Parkview Hospital. There had been a terrible auto wreck, the mother and father were in ICU at Parkview, but their 6 month baby was airlifted to the Riley Hospital ICU in Indianapolis. The mother was quite worried about her baby, so the two chaplains worked with IT people from the IU School of Medicine to set up a laptop computer and camera in the Riley ICU and the Parkview ICU. The chaplains and nurses watched as this technology allowed the mother to see and hear her baby. They also observed that the baby's vital signs improved as the baby saw the face and heard the voice of its mother!

This story may help to answer the question, “What is the connection?”

I believe that our United Methodist connection is the relational effort of all the parts of our system to accomplish our mutual mission of “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Sometimes that mission is accomplished locally in a congregation led by a pastor who is credentialed by the conference, supported in education by our Ministerial Education Fund, appointed by the Bishop, and supervised by a District Superintendent. So even when a ministry is “local” it is never separated from “the connection.” Sometimes our mission is accomplished by a Ministry Cluster of churches who work together in some ministries they can do better together than alone. Sometimes our mission is accomplished by our pooling of financial resources and connecting with a special ministry here in Indiana or on the other side of the world. And sometimes, as in the case of helping a mother see and hear her baby, and helping a baby survive by seeing and hearing its mother, it takes an extra effort by our churches and our institutions and our clergy and laity – all working together in the name of Christ.

What is our connection? It is first and foremost a SPIRITUAL REALITY which we try to embody through our conference budget, agencies, committees, churches, and institutions.

As we gather this coming week for our first Annual Conference Session of the new Indiana Conference, I pray that God may help us to keep our connection strong and nimble to accomplish our mission.

from Bishop Michael J. Coyner
Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church

Prayer for Africa

When I get up in the morning I usually read the New York Times Online. This morning's "paper" had a story by Nicholas Kristof that broke my heart. I'm posting (or at least trying to post) a link. If you can't open it by clicking on it, please copy and paste. This story is worth the extra effort.

After reading this e-mail I sent a note to Jerry Kulah who is the District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church Monrovia, Liberia asking if our church has a ministry to girls and women who have been raped. (And if so how I can make a donation). I'll keep you posted on that.

In the mean time, please join me in prayer for our sisters in Africa. Ask God to deliver this continent of this scar of war!


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/opinion/21kristof.html

Op-Ed Columnist
After Wars, Mass Rapes Persist
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 21, 2009
Mass rape has been an element of warfare in Congo, Darfur, Bosnia, Rwanda, Liberia. But the lesson in Liberia is that even when the fighting ends, the sex crimes continue.

Let your light shine!

My friend David Jones forwards a devotional to me each day. I particularly liked this one. Our Council on Ministries is working on new and creative ways for Bedford First UMC to shine God's light in our community. Let's join together in prayer that we will reflect the character and grace of Jesus Christ to our neighbors!

VERSE:
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be
hidden."
-- Matthew 5:14

THOUGHT:
Darkness dominates our world. Despite appearances, darkness
controls much of what is said and how it is viewed by the world.
When people live for Christ, they will be noticed. Their allegiance
to Jesus and his righteousness cannot be ignored. So what are we
going to do with that light? Are others going to see and be drawn
to our Father in Heaven who sent his Son as Savior? Or, are they
going to reject the way of Christ because our walk is all talk and
not much service? Let's let them see God's grace through our lives
so they will come to know the Savior!

PRAYER:
Holy and Righteous Father, thank you for your grace that saved
me. Please help me reflect your character and grace in all that I
do so that when folks notice me and know of my Christian
commitment, they will glorify you because of the service they have
seen. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

From Pastor Tom Heaton's in Guatemala...hope t

Thank you, Goodbye!


Hola Beth Ann! Greetings from Guatemala!

Methodists like to meet. We call it conferencing. Methodists in Guatemala are no different...My Spanish is improving but still very poor. As I heard all these reports and speeches, I kept picking up words and phrases I understood. One phrase that was repeated over and over again was “Gracias adiós” or in English, “Hello goodbye”. I thought this was odd, but I have been surprised by other phrases I have heard here.

On the way back from the morning at annual conference, I asked Dr. Fredy, the Salud y Paz clinic doctor, why everyone kept saying “Gracias adiós” hello goodbye. Dr. Fredy looked at me strangely and then started laughing. “Tom, they were not saying Gracias adiós, they were saying Gracias a Dios… Thanks to God.” I started laughing too! How could I have missed that!

I have thought about my misunderstanding of this phrase over and over again. It is an easy misunderstanding since there is only a slight voice inflection change that makes the difference in word sound. Certainly, if I had been thinking about the context I would have figured it out on my own.

But isn’t it true that we often raise prayers to God asking God for help, and when we feel like the prayers have been answered we say to God, “Thank you, goodbye!” Until we hit another life crisis and need God’s help. Too often we live our lives saying to God, “Thank you, goodbye,” when we should be living each day of our life saying, “Thanks be to God.”

During my first few months here in Guatemala, I have found myself relying on God each and every day. I have an even deeper understanding of what the apostle Paul meant when he said, "God's grace is sufficient... in my weakness I shall be made strong." God's grace is enough for us. In our weakest and most difficult moments, we are able to realize that fact because we open ourselves to receiving and experiencing God's love and grace. God's love for us shines through each and every day. We just need to stop and experience it. God is always there for us allowing us to live each and every day to its fullest. We just need to stop saying, "Thank you, goodbye," and start saying, "THANKS BE TO GOD!"

Paz de Cristo,

Seven Stanzas On Easter

I'm using this poem in the sermon this mornings sermon on John 20:24-31 "Dealing with Doubt". I'm posting it here because I'm sure some people will want the full poem and I didn't have room for it on the teaching outline.

Seven Stanzas at Easter by John Updike
From Telephone Poles and Other Poems

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

Set Free

After the service on Sunday one of our young adults brought me a youtube for the Lighthouse Everything Skit. I had just preached on Jesus victory over darkness and death--using Mary Magdalene's life story as the example. She said that my message reminded her of this powerful clip about being set free in Christ.

It's awesome--I hope it blesses you. I know it did me!

The Heart of Our Faith

I receive a daily devotion by e-mail each morning. I want to share this one with you today. Remembering the true heart of the Gospel helps us keep "first things first". Believers may disagree about many things but this is the essence of our faith!

VERSE:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

THOUGHT:
Some things are "first importance" things. They lie at the heart of the matter and are central to the issue at hand. For us as Christians, we don't have to doubt what those "first importance" things are. The Gospel of our salvation is built on one simple foundation: Jesus died, Jesus was buried, Jesus rose from the grave, and Jesus appeared to his disciples who were never the same after witnessing their resurrected Savior. Let's not let anyone distract us from these core truths or crowd out their simplicity with other matters they may claim to be essential. Our salvation is rooted in our faith and our participation in this simple, yet powerful Gospel.

PRAYER:
Dear God, I confess my faith in your work for me in Jesus. I believe that your Son and my Savior, Jesus, was crucified by wicked men just as you had said long ago in your Word. I believe his dead and lifeless body was placed in the tomb. I believe that on the third day, you brought him back to life, just as you promised. I believe that those most destroyed by his death, those who knew him best, saw him alive again. I believe their lives were never the same. I believe, dear Father, that as I have confessed my faith in Jesus and shared with him in his death, burial, and resurrection through baptism that my life is caught up with him in your salvation and victory over death. I praise you for this grace. I thank you for this assurance. I look forward to sharing in your glory when he returns for me. Thank you for my salvation, in Jesus' name. Amen.