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Plenary Session #1:
'Our hope is in Jesus Christ'
With the cry of "God is good" Bishop Woodie W. White welcomed the nearly 1,300 lay and clergy members and friends at the opening session of the 2001 North Indiana Conference.
Bishop White introduced longtime friend Bishop Janice Huie of the Arkansas Area as a "wonderful and genuine human being."
Her second visit to Purdue University, Bishop Huie recalled visiting the university as a high school student. It was on that trip which she received the "spark" which eventually lead her toward ordained ministry.
During her sermon, Bishop Huie told the story of a woman living with terminal cancer. With little time left, the woman's doctor explained that she had only one option to prolong her life. Without hesitation, she directed her doctor to "do whatever it takes. I would love to see the sunshine again." Bishop Huie goes on to explain, "It's the power of hope" which drives us. "Hope offered in the name of Christ."
In closing, Bishop Huie left with these words: "Our hope is in Jesus Christ. It is in this hope that we are saved."
In other action:
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After Bishop White introduced the soon-to-be 11 elders and one deacon, the Rev. Jim Jones presented each ordinand with a certificate for an all expenses paid trip to the Holy Land.
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At the request of Bishop White, the new lay members were asked to stand. The new faces were greeted with a round of applause.
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Brent Williams accepted the Conference Statistician's Report. Some primary points of the report: the total number of members received in 2000 was 5,526; total members removed in 2000 was 6,222; there was a -0.7% loss of received versus removed; average worship attendance for 2000 was 70,160.
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Bill Hinkle, Chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Administration, reported that the 2002 apportioned budget will total $9,937,784. Apportionment receipts for the 2000 fiscal year totaled $8,131,840 in support of a budget totaling $9,048,141. For 2000, apportionments were received at a collection rate of 89.9%. In January additional apportionment payments were received from churches bringing the total collection rate to 90.6%. This represents a 1.4% decrease from 1999.
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After many months of work, the Strategy Council presented the Core Values of the North Indiana Conference. The Core Values are: transforming churches & people, experiencing God, living Christ-centered, serving local churches and leading by vision. The targeted date that the Core Values will be implemented is January 2002. (See related story this issue.) According to Jones, "If the Core Values catch on, we're in for some new days."
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Outgoing Conference Council on Ministries Director Rev. Steve Burris reviewed the goals of the 2010 Plan, thanking those who provided many hours of service. Matthew Carlisle
Strategy Council:
Core Values set new paradigm for conference business
True discipleship or business as usual? In essence that was the issue faced by members of the Conference Spiritual Life Division during the past year as it struggled to honor a mandate issued by the NIC one year ago. That mandate: discern the spiritual core values that should drive the life and work of the Conference if it is to be faithful to its calling as the body of Christ.
At Thursday's Spiritual Life Luncheon, speaker Mary Ann Chalstrom described the process and the outcome of the yearlong struggle that followed that mandate. (Chalstrom was appointed by Taylor Burton-Edwards, temporary chair of the SLD, to lead that body in its search for the mandated core values.)
"Core values are unconscious, and the process of raising them to consciousness involves pain, frustration, resistance, and soul-searching," Chalstrom reported. It goes far beyond initiatives, programs and other all too transient focuses of energy, time and money. It means suspending judgment and relinquishing personal and corporate agendas. It means traveling humbly through what Chalstrom calls the Valley of the Shadow of Repentance and Conversion. It means entering into what Denise Duvall, current chair of the SLD, calls "a holy indifference" and investing total faith in the prayer-filled process as it evolves.
That process incorporated work by the Spiritual Life Division Task Force (guided by the Conference Vision Statement), the laity session of Annual Conference 2000, an all-conference mail-out questionnaire, responses from other groups (e.g., Board of Discipleship and the Board of Ordained Ministry) and, ultimately, the bishop's Strategy Council.
In the end there emerged five core values which, if prayerfully and faithfully pursued, can transform this Conference. It will mean saying good-bye to preoccupation with apportionments, hierarchy, the status quo, financial responsibility and power (current core values most often cited). It will mean "mobilizing the Green Berets of the Annual Conference," says Chalstrom. "We'll be deploying the shock troops of North Indiana Methodism to do the liberating, winsome, exhilarating work of Christ. What could be more exciting?" Joyce Elliott
Editor's Note: The Strategy Council's report containing the Core Values Task Force was reviewed by Legislative Group I Thursday afternoon. After some questions and answers, the group overwhelmingly approved the report. Spiritual Directors, chosen in a "meticulous selection process" will be specially trained and assigned to each of the approximately 40 Conference boards, committees and commissions, according the Rev. John Elliot, a member of the Task Force. "This will be a major change in how we get God into our work," he said, "testing our actions against our values."
Laity Session:
Core Values defined
The 2001 North Indiana Conference Laity Session, with more than 500 in attendance, began with litany and song. "We'll be singing in the key of Jack," proclaimed Conference Lay Leader Jack Dwiggins of Brookston.
James Ottjes of Daleville was welcomed as Associate Conference Lay Leader, a new position created last fall to run in two year terms.
The Rev. Steve Burris, retiring Conference council director, who has been serving as the clergy representative to the Board of Laity, was thanked for his years of service. Burris updated the session on the core values work that was begun at last year's Annual Conference Laity Session. Burris returned the thanks to the laity for their commitment to the work of the church. Estimating that around 150,000 people actually worship in North Conference churches, with only 500 clergy serving that same area, Burris asked rhetorically, "How's [the work] going to get done?"
Cited as those core values the laity believe are currently driving our conference are:
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Apportionments
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Hierarchy
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Protection of the church
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Maintaining the status quo
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Financial responsibility
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Power
However, according to Burris, the list of core values desired by the laity to drive our conference looks much different:
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Transforming lives of the church and people in Jesus Christ
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Experiencing God's presence
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Living a Christ-centered life
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Serving local churches to accomplish their mission
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Leading by vision
The Rev. Taylor Burton-Edwards, chairperson of the Board of Discipleship, presented slides showing how this conference is already living out two of these core values through a ministry grant program. Those two core values are: serving local churches to accomplish their mission, and transforming lives of the church and people in Jesus Christ. There are a dozen different grants available covering areas such as leadership training, church development, stewardship, evangelism and spiritual formation.
The Rev. Reginald Lee, pastor at Anderson New Hope UMC, called on the session to continue their efforts in reaching those in poverty. Lee presented the plan for "moving from vision to victory" with the building and ministry program for the New Hope Church.
All African-American congregations in this conference started the same way, by people who built the churches moving on and letting African-Americans come in and revitalize, according to Carnell Scott, Religion and Race representative. The Anderson New Hope project is an opportunity to break that cycle, according to Scott, who encouraged continued support. Patti Splitgerber
Saving soles; saving souls
The Council of Bishop's Initiative on Children and Poverty Task Force might have been standing in cold rain and wind, but they were warmed up by the donations of thousands of pairs of shoes from North Indiana churches.
As of around 3 p.m. yesterday, an estimated 3,000 pairs of shoes had been donated, causing the volunteers to make two trips from the southwest corner of Elliott Hall of Music to West Lafayette First UMC to make room to collect more shoes.
The shoes will go to various social agencies around Indiana and then whatever is left will go to Missionary Ken Vance's mission in Congo.
Dorothy Dexheimer, a member of Hillsdale UMC and a member of the task force, said she was thrilled over the outpouring of love by Indiana United Methodists on this project. "God is sending soles to save souls," said Dexheimer.
Vance said that putting a pair of shoes on children in Africa stops cycles of illness and disease. "I have seen a pair of shoes save a child's life."
While talking to the Hoosier United Methodist News, Dexheimer, Vance and Sue Ringenbach of Lafayette Congress Street UMC were greeted by Brenda Burnworth of Scott UMC. Burnworth was bringing her church's donation of 42 pairs of shoes and extra socks to the van. According to Burnworth, the church's mission chair person challenged the 85 members of the church to donate one pair of shoes per family for the cause. Last week during Scott's service, the shoes were laid near the altar then prayed over by the entire church.
The shoe van will continue to be at the southwest corner of Elliott Hall of Music. If it is not there (because it's overflowing and being unloaded at West Lafayette First UMC), please drop off all items at the Operation Classroom truck at the same site. Matthew Oates
Clergy Session:
18 outgoing; 11 incoming
Eighteen retirees were honored and 11 new clergy members were voted into the North Indiana fold Thursday morning. Bishop Woodie W. White gaveled the 34th annual session of the conference to order at the clergy session in Loeb Playhouse.
The retirees were invited on stage to a resounding ovation as the bishop recalled their commitment to ministry. He reminded the group that their special relationship with the conference continues even while they are no longer active in full-time pastoral ministry.
Three clergy were voted into probationary membership status, one was voted in as a full member deacon and seven were approved as elders. "A good annual conference is being made better because you are here," declared Bishop White.
Those pastors in full connection who died during the past conference year were recognized in a solemn moment of remembrance. "We share a special bond as those set apart for ministry," said Bishop White.
In his concluding remarks, the bishop announced to the clergy he is planning to begin dialogue about the issue of homosexuality. He invited the clergy to learn ways to minister to those homosexuals and their families. Gary Lewis
'The Road Not Taken'
On Thursday, the members of the North Indiana Conference paused for a moment to remember their 34 brothers and sisters in Christ who have died since the 2000 Annual Conference.
With 34 candles lit in their honor and memory, the conference remembered the ministers, spouses and surviving spouses who came from a variety of walks of life and various towns and dedicated their lives to the work of Christ.
Citing Robert Frost's classic poem, "The Road Not Taken," the Rev. J. Philip Klinger of Anderson First UMC reminded those in attendance of how one person who takes a road less traveled can make a difference in other people's lives.
Recalling their devotion to their God, their church and their calling, Klinger said, "They took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
While preaching, the attendees answered with several "Amens" and nodded their heads as they remembered those that had made a difference in their lives, all because they took that road less traveled.
Bridging and honoring the generations past, present and future, Klinger used several sources that reflected various stages in the church's life. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience and a clip from A River Runs Through It were all used to remind everyone to remember those who have gone on, but to be assured that they are alive and well in heaven because of their faith in Christ. Matthew Oates