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September 13, 2004

A summary of Bishop Coyner's welcoming sermon

Bishop begins by talking about making a difference

By Daniel R. Gangler

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bishop Michael J. Coyner, United Methodist Bishop of Indiana, publicly began his ministry during a welcoming service at St. Luke's United Methodist Church here on Sunday, Sept. 12. More than 1,200 worshipers from across the state were in attendance.

The service featured the DePauw University Chamber singers, Meridian Street UMC bell choir, a combined choir of African American United Methodists, soloist Char Harris Allen and congregational singing. A dozen lay and clergy representatives from all walks of church life presented Coyner with symbols of Indiana and his role as Indiana's United Methodist bishop. Representatives from other faith groups were honored guests during the service. Coyner delivered a sermon titled "Making a Difference" based on Matthew 28:16-20.

After greeting his parents, other family members and three United Methodist bishops living in Indiana -- Bishops Duecker, Hodapp and Lawson, Coyner said, "there is something you need to know about me; I like Star Trek. I have watched Star Trek for years. I think I have watched every episode and every Star Trek movie."

He then went on to explain that in the movie Star Trek: Generations, Captain Picard is caught in a nexus -- a time warp, a wonderful comfort zone that is not real. In that time warp, the bishop said, Captain Jean-Luc Picard meets Captain James T. Kirk, who is assumed to be dead.

The bishop said one thing he likes about Star Trek is that there are well defined good people and bad people and the good people always win.

In Generations, Captain Kirk asks Captain Picard, "Wouldn't you like to make a difference again?" Both captains team together, battle against evil Klingons and scientists and save the galaxy. But in the battle, Kirk is mortally wounded. As he dies he asks Picard, "Did we make a difference?" And then Kirk said, "And it was fun."

Coyner said, "I came back to Indiana because I believe we can make a difference in people's lives. I didn't come back to play church." He said he tires of meetings without ministry and careers without calling. He doesn't want to play church where we talk bout scarcity instead of stewardship. "We are abundantly blessed?. God is concerned about our stewardship -- love, friendship as well as finances. We pretend we are in scarcity."

Are we really making a difference? Coyner asked. "I believe we are called to make a difference. I want to be part of a church that makes a difference (in the lives of people). Differences don't need to divide. We are United Methodists with differences. We are allowed to have our differences as we focus on the Christ who unites us, Coyner said.

"Unity is a gift from God; when we claim Christ, we are brothers and sisters." I came back because, we can make a difference in Indiana and around the world, he said.

We can make a differences if we:

• Make disciples for Christ,
• Are witnesses for Jesus Christ, and
• Are a more effective and faithful church.

Coyner said that making disciples is a job for all of us. That comes as a good transition. The Greek word for "making" means: shaping, forming, inviting, enabling, loving. Making disciples starts in the church and reaches beyond the church.

He then told a story about the United Methodist Church in Tolstoy, S.D., a little dying prairie town (population 64), on a multiple-point charge for years. Pastors were sent there to "love the people." He said he sent a couple named Jake and Jan, dairy farmers, who lived 40 miles away, as part-time pastors. He said he forgot to tell them "you can't make disciples in Tolstoy."

Coyner said Jake and Jan went from farm-to-farm inviting everyone and asking what the needed. They soon found that the community needed a children's ministry. But the people at the church said they didn't have children at the church. Jake and Jan began a Wednesday night supper, Bible study and children's choir, and 200 children came when they heard the church cared. They came because they were hungry. And the church grew. The church brought a 60-voice children's choir to annual conference and the big churches asked, "How did you do it?"

Coyner then said, "it takes pastors and lay people to step out and meet the needs of people."

Second, he said we needed to be "a witness for Jesus Christ and stand up for things (we believe in) in the Dakotas." The issue was gambling. Catholics, Lutherans and United Methodists came together to fight video slot machines by making TV spots against gambling. "We were winning," said Coyner. And when the gambling industry saw we were winning, it poured millions of dollars into campaigns to discredit us." He said, "we lost."

He said he was discouraged, but people saw that the church cared and came to United Methodist churches because we cared. "We need to make a witness for Christ, even if we don't win."

Third, Coyner said, "we need to be a more effective and faithful church. My question is 'how can we be the best church that we can be?' I just don't want to move the furniture. This is a faith issue ? I want us to be the most effective, faithful church that we can be in Indiana.

"I want to stand before God someday and say, 'we made a difference and it was fun.' Anyone can make a difference. Everyone can make a difference," he said.

He then told the story of an elderly homebound woman who died. Few were expected at her funeral, because few at church knew her, but hundreds came. Coyner said that in her own quiet way, she read the newspaper and sent greetings, poems, prayer cards and letters to people who had been sick, had a new baby, got married or experienced loss. No, her special ministry wasn't an official ministry of the church, but she ministered to those hundreds who were present at her funeral, he said.

Coyner concluded by saying, "all this starts by believing that God calls us to make a difference. Together we can make a difference and it will be fun."

Following the service, Bishop and Mrs. Coyner spent more than an hour greeting one-by-one those who had come to the welcoming service.

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