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Highlights from the
February 2008 issue of Together

Flooded Indiana areas get United Methodist relief

MONTICELLO, Ind. (UMNS) - United Methodists are joining other faith groups to provide relief for hundreds of northern Indiana flood survivors whose homes were heavily damaged by muddy waters.

The three northern Indiana communities of Remington, Monticello and Delphi were hard hit by early-morning flood waters on Jan. 8. Indiana Area United Methodist Bishop Mike Coyner visited with pastors of each community on Jan. 19 and toured flood-ravaged areas in Jasper, White and Carroll counties.

United Methodist Bishop Michael Coyner of Indiana visits with Harry and Lois Alberts whose Remington home was damaged by flooding on Jan. 8. United Methodist churches are working with other faith groups to provide relief to hundreds of residents in northern Indiana.

As of mid-January, three United Methodist churches in the area had distributed more than 500 flood buckets, received $10,000 from the United Methodist Committee on Relief to meet immediate needs of flood survivors, and coordinated help from volunteers across the state.

Coyner toured Remington with the Rev. Mary van Wijk and trustees of Remington United Methodist Church. Street curbs throughout the community were lined with water-drenched mattresses, furniture and appliances.

Most homes had a dumpster filled with debris sitting on the driveway.

More than 200 homes were affected in Jasper County, according to van Wijk.

At Monticello, 30 miles east of Remington on U.S. 24, Coyner and van Wijk toured flooded areas along the Tippecanoe River between Shafer and Freeman lakes, where more than 300 homes were affected. Accompanying them were the Revs. Brian Beeks and Alex Hershey of Monticello United Methodist Church and the Rev. Todd Ladd of Delphi United Methodist Church.

UMCOR begins fourth year of tsunami assistance

The United Methodist Committee on Relief is working to help tsunami survivors find a "new normal" more than three years after one of the world's worst natural disasters killed an estimated 230,000 people and displaced millions in 11 countries.

In Indonesia and Sri Lanka - the countries most affected by the tsunami - UMCOR offices continue to work daily to help survivors recover whatever possible. UMCOR also provided relief and recovery assistance in Somalia, India and Thailand.

United Methodists and others have contributed approximately $42 million to UMCOR's tsunami relief response since the Dec. 26, 2004, disaster.

UMCOR emphasizes a shared approach that encourages participants to take ownership of their recovery and to act as project partners in an effort to empower survivors to restore their lives.

Fox, Reisman to lead LEAP Feb 29-March 1

Reisman

To assist both United Methodist laity and clergy in sharing their faith stories with others, the lay leaders of both the Indiana North and Indiana South conferences are sponsoring an Indiana Area convocation to be held in Indianapolis.

Kayc Mykrantz, lay leader of the North Indiana Conference, and Ike Williams, lay leader of the South Indiana Conference of The United Methodist Church, invite both laity and clergy to a unique LEAP Year Event - Let's Establish A Priority to Tell Our Story - the weekend of Feb. 29-March 1 at United Methodist-related University of Indianapolis.

Fox

They will be joined by Dr. Eddie Fox of The World Methodist Council and nationally known North Indiana Conference Evangelist, the Rev. Kimberly Reisman in a two-day event leading participants to become confident in sharing their faith through personal stories.

LEAP will run from opening workshop at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 29, through closing worship at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 1, at Ransburg Auditorium in Esch Hall. Registration will open at 5 p.m.

Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner will lead opening worship followed by a presentation by Fox.

The Christ United Methodist Church Choir of Franklin will provide special music for the evening.

Cost is $50 per person including materials and Saturday lunch. A brochure including a registration form is available online at www.inareaumc.org. Printed brochures were mailed to lay leadership across the state in January. A registration form also is provided with this story.

Imagine Indiana continues with focus on service to local churches

The Imagine Indiana Design Team continued its work in January. If the goal of The United Methodist Church is to "Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world," the center of that activity is at the local church or congregational level.

According to the Design Team's draft report introduction, "Creating a new Indiana Conference is all about these five practices of a fruitful annual conference (adapted from the book, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations by Robert Schnase)":

1. Focus on Mission

The team plans to recommend each local church become a part of a Ministry Cluster of four to nine congregations to cooperate, collaborate and hold one another accountable.

2. Resource Local Churches

The team plans to recommend a focus on providing resources to start new faith communities, to strengthen existing churches and to provide effective leadership for all local churches, and that conference staff and resources will be deployed to respond to local churches and clusters.

3. Streamline Conference Structure

The team plans to recommend a streamlined structure of one Conference Center for the bishop and other leaders and with five Resource Centers across the state to support the work of 10 districts as they resource our more than 1,200 local churches. This is a change from a former plan of 9 districts with three Resource Centers.

4. Care for Clergy

The team plans to recommend a combined benefits structure which protects current eligibility, raises clergy benefits to the higher levels of either preceding conference, and provides support systems to enhance effective clergy leadership.

5. Make a Difference

The team believes that the new Indiana Conference can provide a vehicle for all of us to make a difference here in Indiana and literally around the world.

Using these principles of organization, the Imagine Indiana Design Team hopes to complete its draft report in February for review before releasing it in March.

The Imagine Indiana Design Team plans to introduce its plan throughout the state on March 30, with an hour-long presentation video streamed over the Indiana Area Web site.

Indianapolis pastor preaches barefoot with a passion

INDIANAPOLIS - The Rev. Andrea Leininger, pastor of Old Bethel UMC in Indianapolis, preached barefoot on Sunday, Jan. 27 to promote a challenge and cause to provide shoes for children in African countries. She also encouraged her congregations and other area congregations as well to come to worship without shoes and socks.

She was joined on Jan. 24 by IUPUI Men's Head Basketball Coach Ron Hunter who coached in his bare feet at home against Oakland.

All the bare feet were done to raise awareness for children around the world who don't have shoes. Samaritan's Feet (www.samaritansfeet.org), founded by Emmanuel Ohonme, is a humanitarian relief organization created to provide hope and shoes to impoverished children throughout the world. Ohonme, a native of Nigeria, grew up very poor. He received his first pair of shoes at the age of 9 from a missionary, who also taught him how to play basketball. These shoes helped him get better at sports, specifically basketball. Eventually he earned a scholarship to play basketball at the University of North Dakota.

Pastor Leininger and Coach Hunter's goals are to raise awareness for Samaritan's Feet and 40,000 pairs of shoes in honor of the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death.

Anderson pastor named community's 'Person of the Year'

ANDERSON, Ind. - At the close of 2007, The Herald Bulletin named the Rev. Reginald Lee as Anderson's Person of the Year.

Lee is senior pastor of the New Hope United Methodist Church in Anderson and directs the West Side Hope Community Development Corporation.

The Person of the Year honor is given to someone the editorial board feels has made a positive effect on the Madison County area in the past year, according to the newspaper's story.

The Herald Bulletin reported that "Lee was in the forefront on several progressive programs including starting an ex-offender reentry program, helping at-risk youths gain trade skills and initiating a pre-school and day care for low-income families."

United Methodists explore divestment proposals

FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) - Would divestment from companies connected to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land help bring about change in the Middle East?

United Methodist speakers explored that question during a Jan. 25 panel discussion on "Divestment, the Middle East and Sudan" during the Pre-General Conference News Briefing sponsored by United Methodist Communications.

The Rev. Steve Sprecher, a director of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.

Sprecher was part of the committee of the General Board of Church and Society that led the social action agency to send a petition to General Conference recommending divestment from Caterpillar Inc., the heavy-equipment manufacturer based in Peoria, Ill., with a plant in Lafayette, Ind. and other plants in the United States and other countries. The petition charges that the company profits from illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and contributes to the occupation by supplying Israeli Defense Forces with heavy equipment.

About $5 million of the denomination's estimated $17 billion pension portfolio is invested in Caterpillar stock.

The Rev. W. Douglas Mills, an executive with the United Methodist General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, noted that divestment is not such a simple solution and could have a negative impact for a denomination that places a high value on Christian-Jewish relations, the horror of the Holocaust and the quest for peace in the Middle East.

Northern Illinois delegation endorses Pickens for bishop

The Northern Illinois United Methodist Conference General and the North Central Jurisdictional Conference delegations recently endorsed the Rev. Dr. Larry Pickens for bishop.

Pickens

Pickens has been a member of the Northern Illinois Conference for 23 years, having been ordained as an Elder in 1987. He has served as associate pastor at St. Mark UMC, and senior pastor at Gorham, Maple Park and First Elgin UMCs. Pickens has served on the United Methodist Judicial Council and as the General Secretary of the General Commission of Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, from July 2004 to Dec. 2007.

Pickens joins three other previously announced candidates for bishop from other conference delegations to the 2008 North Central Jurisdictional Conference coming July 15-19 in Grand Rapids, Mich. They include:

The Rev. Randolph Cross of the Dakotas Conference. As a pastor with 28 years of experience in a wide range of ministry settings, he has held appointments across both North and South Dakotas and currently serves as both the Lower James River District Superintendent and Dakotas Conference Director of Leadership Development and Connectional Ministries.

The Rev. Dr. David Alan Bard of the Minnesota Conference. Bard is senior pastor of First United Methodist Church of Duluth, Minn., and has served as superintendent of the conference's Northwest District (1998-2005). He was ordained an Elder in 1986.

Christopher

The Rev. Dr. Timothy Bias of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. Bias is directing (senior) pastor of First UMC in Peoria, Ill. He was ordained an Elder in 1981 by the West Virginia Conference and has served churches in West Virginia and Illinois and as Director of Evangelism Ministries, General Board of Discipleship, Nashville, Tenn.

A candidate must gain the votes of at least 60 percent of the delegates to be elected as bishop.

A vacancy occurred in mid-2007 when Illinois Area Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher announced her retirement effective Sept. 1. Bishops begin their new four-year assignments on Sept. 1.

United Methodists invited to see if God is calling

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, based in Nashville, Tenn., is sponsoring "Turn Aside and See: Is God Calling?" March 8, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., in Indianapolis (St. Luke's United Methodist Church); Tempe, Ariz.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Brentwood, Tenn. and Dallas, Texas.

The agency is harnessing the power of the Exodus story of Moses and the burning bush to help churches discern God's call and strive to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

This event is a preview of the Discipleship University Core Curriculum. It will assist local churches in becoming places of disciple making through focusing on discipleship systems.

For more information, contact Mary McDonald, mmcdonald@gbod.org, or call toll-free 877-899-2780, ext. 1760.

One Great Hour of Sharing offering to be received March 2

The One Great Hour of Sharing offering is essential to UMCOR: gifts to this offering underwrite UMCOR's "costs of doing business." That helps us keep our promise that 100 percent of every other gift you make to a specific UMCOR project can be spent on that project - not on home office costs and assisting UMCOR programs that have not been fully funded through designated Advance gifts.

Free offering envelopes and DVD's are available for the One Great Hour of Sharing offering by calling toll-free 888-346-3862, by fax at 615-742-5499 or online at www.umcgiving.org/ss. Other resources include bulletin inserts, litany of hope, songs and Scripture which can be downloaded from http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/give/oghs/.  - UMNS

Seminary dean gives good advice to transitional churches in new book Keep the Call: Leading the Congregation...

Congregational leadership in a transition church can be a difficult task, however Jill Y. Crainshaw's, recent book Keep the Call: Leading the Congregation Without Losing Your Soul, gives useful advice to both newly ordained or seasoned ministers and is well worth the read. The book is one of the Bishop's Bundle of Books recommendations by Bishop Mike Coyner. Crainshaw serves as associate dean for vocational formation at Wake Forest' Divinity School in Winston-Salem, N.C.

From the beginning after reading the title, I was not drawn to the book. I think it's mis-named. A better title comes as a kicker on the back cover - "Keep Faith with your call to ministry while becoming an engaged and effective congregational leader."

Crainshaw doesn't give answers in how to keep one's faith while strengthening a faltering congregation in a transitional neighborhood, but gives readers a process to follow to revitalize waning congregations in socially-transitional areas. First and foremost, she believes each established congregation and neighborhood has its own personality and culture that needs to be understood.

For her, there are no easy answers for transforming congregations. If a pastor, no matter how smart or experienced, applies changes to strengthen a congregation without listening to the congregation and the community, he or she will probably fail. Crainshaw believes a different approach is needed and spends 116 pages outlining a process used in two transitional inner-city congregations.

Keep the Call is worth the read even if a congregation is already vital in a growing neighborhood or community. The process the author outlines and the questions she asks are questions every congregation can consider for its own well-being. Keep the Call is about making a difference in the lives of people, words very familiar to us as Hoosier United Methodists.

For online conversations about Keep the Call, log on to www.keepthecall.blogspot.com.

North Indiana Conference to host VIM team leader training at Kokomo

The Mission Volunteers Resource Team of the North Indiana Conference have scheduled a Volunteers in Mission Team Leader Training event for Saturday, April 12, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at St. Luke's UMC, 700 East Southway Blvd. in Kokomo, Ind. Penny Krug will be the trainer for this event.

Leaders and/or participants of VIM work teams and youth leaders need to attend this important event.

The cost is $10 person, which includes lunch and basic materials, plus $25 for a VIM Training Manual (only one needed per church).

For more information: Contact Bonnie Albert, bonkay@hotmail.com, or phone 219- 464-1447.

Together reader's Sunday school class contributed to CJ's bus

Photo courtesy of Joyce Poland

Pictured with blankets for CJ's bus are Aubrey McCoy, Kathlyn McCoy, Taliyah Teel, Trianna Teel and Trista Teel.

Joyce Poland, a Sunday school teacher of Blythe (Ind.) Chapel United Methodist Church, told Together she was surprised to see the story about CJ's Bus (Nov.-Dec issue), a portable childcare facility used in communities hit by disaster.

She said the Saturday before she read the story, her Sunday school class of girls ages 3 to 9 years made fleece blankets as a Christmas project for the children who would use CJ's Bus. Elderly residents of a local nursing home also helped the girls make the blankets. They made 13 blankets in a couple of hours.

Kathryn Martin, mother of CJ who was killed in the Evansville tornado two years ago, was pleased with the blankets and said that her son CJ had a blanket like the ones Poland's class made.

"God works in wonderful ways to lead us to do good," said Poland.

The story of CJ's Bus can be read online at www.inareaumc.org,  click on Together and go to the Nov.-Dec. 2007 issue.

"e-HUM" copyright 2008 by Indiana Area United Methodist Communications.

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