Annual Conference in Redlands last week was a great experience. I officially transferred into the California-Pacific Conference from Mississippi. (It’s about time!) Bishop Swenson re-appointed me to my EIGHTH year at Christ Church.
Among the highlights of this year’s annual conference were:
- Wonderful music by Ken Medema
- Dr. Marjorie Suchocki of Claremont School of Theology led an inspiring study of the Gospel of John.
- Revs. Chris and Sheila Cumbest of the Mississippi Conference presented an update on Hurricane Katrina relief, highlighting the rebuilding of Clermont Harbor UMC (which I served as pastor for six years), followed by a $27,000 offering to the Mississippi Conference for ongoing relief.
- Vietnamese United Methodist pastor under house arrest for 23 years spoke of his ten children’s desire to serve as house church pastors.
- Elena Sokolova, pastor of two United Methodist churches in Khabarovsk, Russia shared what her church is doing to minister to the needs of her area in eastern Russia.
That is a time-tested Wesleyan principle. Many churches like ours serve in densely populated areas. Yet we fail to thrive because we fail to serve. Most of our programs are geared to “come” when Jesus instructed us to “go”. John Wesley developed a massive following, not because of his well thought out theology, nor his finely tuned organization; but because he went about the “highways and byways” to widows, orphans, and dispossessed people of his day. His “street ministry” brought about vitality in ministry, just as Jesus’ ministry did 2000 years ago.As we look for ways to vitalize and re-vitalize our churches, the answer is not finding new formulas of preaching, music, or teaching.
We don’t need to appoint a new committee to discover why our committees are so ineffective.
We don’t need to schedule “one more meeting” to discuss how to increase attendance in our “other” meetings!
“If we want to thrive; serve!”
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