Work of 260 Hoosiers coming together soon in final Imagine Indiana report to conferences

"It's more than considering what's best about us. It's what's best for the Kingdom."

- Cindy Reynolds

INDIANAPOLIS - "What's God seeking to do in our midst?" has been the paramount question of the more than 260 Hoosier United Methodists as they considered uniting the North and South Indiana annual conferences, according to the Rev. Dr. Adolf Hansen, a retired clergyman of the South Indiana Conference

"We are interested in the creation of a new conference," he told Together following the final reporting session of the 28-member Imagine Indiana Discernment Team March 5 at the Indiana Area office in Indianapolis.

"It's more than considering what's best about us. It's what's best for the Kingdom of God," said the Rev. Dr. Cindy Reynolds, Warsaw District Superintendent of the North Indiana Conference.

Hansen and Reynolds are co-chairs of the smaller seven-member Imagine Indiana Planning Team which was charged last year by Bishop Mike Coyner with the task of developing a plan for recommendation of the creation of a new conference for The United Methodist Church in Indiana to the two annual conferences this spring.

Hansen and Reynolds shared their observations and an update of the Imagine Indiana process after the March 5 meeting. They said diverse groups of both laity and clergy representing United Methodists from both the Indiana North and South conferences populated the 14 Imagine Indiana Discernment Teams that met several times in numerous locations across the two conferences since the Teams' first meeting last summer at the University of Indianapolis.

Hansen said the teams have collected more than 100 pages of documents from a variety of sources, guests and consultants that the Planning Team used during a March 8-9 retreat in Indianapolis to frame a report that will go to both annual conferences this spring. That report will be released this spring as part of both conferences' pre-conference reports to be discussed at briefings to be held in all 18 districts statewide.

Hansen and Reynolds both agree that the overall concern of the Planning Team is to help people understand the process being used to give recommendation to the final decision coming to both annual conference sessions. North Conference meets May 31-June 2 in West Lafayette. South Conference meets June 6-9 in Bloomington.

Reynolds said one of the significant developments in the process "revealed that people (participating in the process) learned they liked each other, were stimulated by their conversations and enjoyed being together." Most had never met each other before the series of meetings. She went on to say that the Feedback Team of 50 people learned to appreciate and trust each other after spending hours discerning the will of the conferences on the question of unity.

Another large discernment group is the Prayer Team which networked smaller prayer groups throughout the two conferences and which asks all Hoosier United Methodists to remember Imagine Indiana each eleventh day of the month in prayer.

Hansen said there was a deep desire on all the teams to ask, "What's God seeking to do in our midst. Is God leading us to create a new conference in Indiana?"

During the consultations, the Planning Team has listened with leaders of the Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri annual conferences, each of which in recent years have united from two previous conferences. None would turn back their decisions, Hansen said.

Sharing their optimism, Reynolds said the common thread woven through the meetings is that even though the 14 individual discernment teams never met as one group, much of what they said was very similar.

Hansen observed that there is an "increasing amount of energy of something new being created in Indiana" among United Methodists.

One challenge is determining how much should go into the 2007 report to both conference sessions and how much should be left for the 2008 report. Another challenge is figuring out ways to communicate with people who have not been engaged in the process. Hansen said the Planning Team continues to be open. He further said, if the report is approved this June by both conferences, there is a whole other set of things to be done in detail.

Both Hansen and Reynolds express their deep gratitude to the work the discernment teams have done. They said, "We could not be where we are with hundreds of pages of research."

Hansen said, "Our prayer is that God will be able to accomplish what God wants to do for vibrant, growing and effective ministries, a process that will make a difference to the Kingdom of God in Indiana and the world."