Church / Charge Conference

The annual church conference was held Tuesday evening, December 18 and have had positive feedback, especially on the presentation on "Warming Up Your Welcome" (see next article) put on by our district superintendent, Rev. Mike Davis.

For those who were not able to attend, here are some of the highlights from the evening:

Taize Worship led by Mike Davis -- This is a style of worship popular among younger generations today which is a bit surprising as it is very contemplative. WE were given permission to not like it! The worship included silence, meditative singing of one verse repeated for several minutes, Scripture, prayers offered from the people and more singing. Several folks attended the Taize worship at Peoples last Spring so this was not a new experience for a few.

Marlene Tordoff was elected as Recording Secretary. We offered a slide presentation to give thanks for the folks who have gone to be with the Lord this year. We've lost some folks who were very dear to us this year and had a chance to share about this. Mike offered some encouraging words, that "the hurt goes deeper because we've lived and loved together."

Mike spoke about the importance of mission shares in the conference, and our church's contribution which goes toward churches such as the Lawrence UMC that has brought in 47 new converts this year. Mike also presented a conference wide missions focus called "Nothing But Nets". With the purchase of nets to cover African children while they sleep to protect them from mosquitoes, the disease of malaria could be virtually wiped out. Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds - that's 3000 children every day. Nets cost $10/day, and the district has put out a challenge for each church to purchase 17 nets - that would be 1,000 nets for the conference. It was pointed out in the video that one little girl raised 1,000 nets all by herself so certainly 15,000 Methodists should be able to do the same! This is the first time Methodists have partnered with organizations such as the MBA and Sports Illustrated. We also were encouraged not just to take this on as a church but to partner with other area organizations - boy scouts, work places, etc.

A list of inactive members was voted on unanimously to begin the removal process. These are folks who have had no contact with the church for some time. The Darling trust fund was accepted unanimously. The lay speakers were all approved as well for continued ministry: Chris Ward and Merrill Kaiser (advanced lay speakers) and Art Tordoff (basic lay speaker). Mike Gray now holds his membership at Annual Conference so Peoples no longer is responsible for his candidacy process.

Pastor Jamie reviewed the list of folks who will be holding various ministry and committee positions for 2008. Earle Harvey presented a creative report on what it means to bring the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the to the ends of the earth, and such ministry stems from our Small Group Ministry as we are encouraged to serve together within the Food Cupboard, the Root Cellar, Red Bird Mission, and Heifer.

The pastors compensation package was approved. Pastor Gwyneth then presented the pastors report with a video presentation of photos showing our life together the last year, which was encouraging and fun. The conference closed with the presentation on Warming Up Your Welcome, and then we closed in a prayer circle as those connected with each other through Christ.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact the pastors or other attendees.