"Notes From Annual Conference 2006"

About 3 p.m. on a sunny 90° day, people started filing into the cool, air-conditioned Brandt Center on the beautiful Northwest Nazarene University Campus in Nampa, Idaho, for another Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference. Represented were some 200 local churches.  There were 460 equal voting members present, divided equally between clergy and laity.  Each local church sends their pastor and a pre-determined number of elected lay members whose votes are exactly equal to those of the clergy.  This year you elected Pat Sorsoli for her third time at Annual Conference, and Bill Brown for his second.  They are both excellent members who take their job seriously, and I’m looking forward to what they have to share with us today. 

Bill is going to share something of the inspirational worship and the challenges that Bishop Hoshibata presented us with.  The bishop reminded us of the challenge he had issued at Annual Conference last year, to go out and boldly make disciples for Jesus Christ.  Then he went on to say that this year, while we will continue to boldly make disciples, the challenge will be to do so by giving God our very best. If you have a clogged sink, he said, you wouldn’t say, “I think I’ll try to find a mediocre plumber.”  If you had a legal problem, you wouldn’t say, “I wonder where I can find a mediocre attorney.”  If you were seriously ill or in pain, you wouldn’t say, “I think I’ll look for a mediocre doctor.”  Neither would you say to yourself that you want to be a mediocre disciple in your efforts to share Christ’s love.  “What if we had a test to evaluate your church’s discipleship?” he asked.  “What would your grade be?”  Bill’s going to tell us a little more about that. 

Pat has already put up a very informative bulletin board in Wesley Hall, and this morning she’s going to tell you about the legislative process and also tell about how small groups called “Discipleship Groups” met to engage in worship, Bible study, prayer and discussion. This “holy conferencing” is one of the hallmarks of Methodism, going all the way back to John Wesley’s “United Societies.” For members of Annual Conference it is an opportunity for spiritual growth and accountability.

It was my good fortune to have shared this week with two hard working and responsible members of Annual Conference.  And you should know that it’s your good fortune as well.  They take their job seriously, and they represent you well. 

“A Spiritual Message from Annual Conference 2006 “

Bill Brown

June 25, 2006

I’m going to expand upon what Michael said about giving God our best while boldly make disciples.  And I’m also going to talk about change, the inevitability of change here in our local congregation, change in the Methodist church, change in the mainline churches, and even the Evangelical churches.

If, as the Bishop suggested, we did take the test to evaluate our church’s discipleship, what grade would we receive? 

Bishop Hoshibata told a story about a teacher who was given the worst of the worst in an inter-city school.  These students were unreachable so this teacher was told.  You might call them somewhat mediocre.  At the beginning of the term he told them that he was giving them all an “A”.  The only catch was they had to write him a letter within two weeks telling him how they would earn the “A”.  The result was beyond all expectations.  He had raised the bar and they responded … well beyond mediocre.

The bar has been raised for each of us.  God gave each of us an “A” when he gave us Jesus, the man. So what is the catch?   The catch is we are called to be the best disciple-makers we can be for God.

I have come to realize that making the simple statement “I am a Christian” is not so simple.  What I am really saying is that I am a disciple of Jesus.  Prior to his ascension, Jesus told his disciples that God had authorized and commanded him to commission them to “go and train everyone they met, far and near, in his way of life …” That great commission (as it is referred to in the bible) means we are all indeed called to ministry, called to boldly make disciples and to give God our best.   Discipleship is the work of God done by God’s people. 

Many of us feel we have given enough and it is time to turn it over to others.  I have been saying things like “I’m doing too much”, “I don’t have time for myself or my bride or my family”.  The truth is I am giving of myself to this church family which I love, but have I been doing a mediocre job making disciples for Christ. If so how am I going to accomplish this challenge, this commission?

In a discipleship gathering at Annual Conference we talked about apprenticeship.  Eugene Peterson explained it for me in his introduction to Paul’s letter to the Philippians in The Message;

READ INTRO and Philippians 1: 22-26

The second message from the bishop over the past year is that we must embrace change, accept our differences and try something new.  The fact is mainline churches are losing at the numbers game.  We need to accept that fact and try something different.  One definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing again and again expecting different results.

Change is uncomfortable even scary.  Becoming a reconciling church for instance is divisive just as accepting women into the ministry was a challenge 50 years ago.  Pioneers in each area feel and felt like strangers in a strange land.

Tell the story of the Wizard of Oz.  The “frightening forest” … lions, tigers, and bears … “Oh my”.

The fledgling church in the first century went through some very divisive challenges.

Being a disciple was not clear even when Christ first uttered the words of the great commission.  As long as the disciples remained in Jerusalem all was comfortable, after all they were telling their stories to fellow Hebrews.  But when the Samaritans were invited into the new group … “Oh my”, then Philip baptized an Ethiopian eunuch … “Oh my”, and Peter himself baptized Cornelius and his family … gentiles, “Oh my”.  This resulted in the first annual conference ... an explanation to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem was needed to justify accepting uncircumcised into the circumcised group … even then Kingdom growth was thwarted in the name of “churchianity.

Change is essential and unavoidable.  Our culture has changed from the time of Jesus and Paul.  It has changed since the reformation when modernity was introduced and the spiritual was separated from the secular.  Today spirituality is alive and well but “churchianity” is floundering.  Many Christians are advocating change on a large scale within Christianity itself.  The shift is from church growth to kingdom growth … they are saying the question should be how many disciples have we made, not how many new members do we have?  Maybe we all should be trained as missionaries because is that not our purpose? Gay and lesbian disciples?  “Oh my!”  A reconciling church … “Oh my!”

Our congregation will also experience many changes this coming year and we need to look beyond ourselves and focus on the needs of others … kingdom growth needs to be our focus.  Sharing worship space for two different congregations will require understanding, patience, and perseverance.  How about a single worship in WH?  “OH MY!

If we want to do our best for God remember that Micah called us to “do justice, and love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.”

Jesus is indeed at work in the world … we can choose to join him … ?

2006 Report of OR/ID Conference of the United Methodist Church by Pat Sorsoli

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to represent you at the OR/ID Conference of the United Methodist Church.

I described my first year’s experience at annual conference as exhilarating, my second year’s experience as inspirational and my third year’s experience as educational.

My husband Wayne took the three of us, Pastor Michael, Bill Brown and I to the Medford Airport.  To our surprise and pleasure while we were changing planes in Portland, Bishop Hoshibata and his wife Greta were waiting to board the same plane.  This gave us time to have some personal moments with them.  About an half hour’s worth!  Lucky us!  The bishop and his wife are humble gregarious people.  It is so easy to have good conversation with them.  For instance, I remarked to Bishop Hoshibata that the pre-conference information I had received informed me that we would be sitting in theater style seating which would appear to preclude any meaningful personal exchange of ideas that we’d previously encountered at Willamette University through assigned table seating.  With a twinkle in his eye and a quiet response of, “Yes, you are correct, but we are trying some new ideas this year that I think will obtain the same purpose.”  When the conference began I discovered the Bishop was correct.  All lay members and ministers were assigned to a small Discipleship Group of 8 to 10 members which met daily with a prescribed bible scripture reading, information to read and discuss, time for prayers and singing.  In the auditorium where we had all the plenary meeting and worship a visual aid highlighted this quote by Charles Wesley throughout the conference: “Unite the pair so long disjoined knowledge and vital piety.”  Allow me to share an “It’s a Small World Story.”  Out of the 460 persons who could have been assigned to my Discipleship group when I arrived for the first meeting, sitting in the circle was my old friend Ebeneezer, Eb for short, Vedamuthu.  In l961 when Wayne went to Oregon State to begin his PhD program he met Eb who was his assigned dorm roommate and also a Microbiology major who had come from India on a student visa plan.   After college we had lost track of Eb.  How nice it was to catch up on his life.

Budgets of Conference magnitude are a bit intimidating for me, but very educational.  The annual budget is an important part of annual conference and allows us to serve in ministry and support of local churches in ways that a local church cannot do alone.  The Council on Finance and Administration –CF&A- as it is called has the task of presenting the budget for 2007 for our approval.  With about 460 lay members and ministers having to understand this budget that involves $6,976,942.00 you can imagine that the CF&A must have it clearly defined.  To my surprise, they do!  I will leave my copy in the office for you to look it over.  Of the total budget, $4,643,142.00 will be raised by apportionments.  Apportionments are the funds required from each local church in the conference to help support the total budget.  Each church is assigned a specific amount to pay according to the size of the congregation and other factors.  The good news is that Ashland First United Methodist Church has a reputation of always paying their share!! Great Job everyone!

Another educational experience.  Last year I reported to you my experience with the 2005 Action requests groups. (Also known as legislative groups.  Now referred to as discernment groups.)  At this year’s conference there were 43 action requests.  After much debate in small discernment groups and in the general plenary group of the 43 requests, there were 18 action requests passed, 21 did not pass and 4 requests were tabled until the 2007 annual conference.  It is very educational to realize that each individual vote is very important to the outcome of these action requests.  Also individual speakers can play an important roll in the outcome of the requests.  Democracy really does work!  Three discernment requests of particular interest to me which were passed after much debate in the plenary session:

l. Action request #29  Petition to the 2008 General Conference to amend Paragraph 161G in Social Principles.

2. Action Request #7 Petition to the 2008 General Conference to prohibit Discrimination in receiving members into United Methodist Congregations.

3. Action Request #55 Designate Campus Ministries to be paid at 100% of 2007 budgeted amount.

The last thing I would like to share with you today is what I learned in the two workshops I attended.  Both of these workshops were led by Rev. Troy Plummer, Executive Director of the Reconciling Ministries Network of the Methodist Church.  Rev. Plummer shared some of his personal history with us.  He is one of only a few “outed” Methodist ministers who is ministering within the United Methodist Conference.  He was raised within a United Methodist church family and was accepted into the ministry to serve the HIV population.  He has also served a United Methodist Church in Texas which has become a reconciling congregation.  Rev. Plummer, a dynamic speaker shared with us that the reconciling community of faith who attended the Reconciling Methodist conference at Lake Junaluska, N.C. this year affirmed that they are United Methodist of all sexual orientations and gender identities making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.   Rev. Plummer used Acts l:8 (NRSV) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”    To this I want to say AMEN! 

My prayer is, Let us here at Ashland First United Methodist Church take up Bishop Hoshibata’s goal and continue Boldly Making Disciples and Giving God Our Best!