District Superintendent Visits Peoples

Conversation with District Superintendent Mike
On Sunday, February 10 District Superintendent Mike Davis spent a few hours at Peoples. During the church service in the sanctuary he and Jamie shared the service. Mike’s message in the sermon illustrated a number of the jobs and duties that he and his wife Jan perform in the role of District Superintendent of the Tri-state District. He also mentioned the various connections of the United Methodist Church locally, within a cluster, at the district level and conference level and finally at the international level. This was helpful for members and friends of the congregation to know since many who are contemplating joining the United Methodist church find, perhaps, the churches they have been associated with in the past did not have the same degree of connectionalism.
Mike also talked about the value of supporting Mission Shares and then stressed the real importance of United Methodist supported camps such as Mechuana located in Winthrop, Maine. He recalled his experiences at counseling at Mechuana and told the story of Tim, a young attendee, who found that someone really loved and cared for him in this world through the experiences he was provided on Lake Narrows. There are many of us who have had the experience of sharing at that camp that have come to love the Lord and others in very meaningful ways by our participation at Camp Mechuana as children and as adults.
After church service several of the membership and some friends trekked next door to Ellis Hall to share a meal with Mike and to have a conversation with him about some of the questions that have been raised within the operation of the church.
One of the questions was concerned with the feeling that the local church doesn’t feel its own input in the church’s annual meeting with the District Superintendent. Mike said that the District Superintendent has always determined the annual meeting’s business. He also said that to expedite the meeting within a respectable period of time it is necessary to cut down the time of meetings that sometimes become to lengthy. He did approve of how we handled the meeting this year and also that we were able to gather in January for the celebration phase of what use to be part of the Annual Meeting.
A question about co-pastoring led Mike to spend some time on how he and his wife, Jan, have over the years developed into what he feels is an effective working relationship. He did say that every co-pastoring couple has to develop their own systems. Nothing was mentioned in how that relationship includes advice, give and take, with/from lay members of the church. He did mention that each church with co-pastoring usually gets more in the way of work from two pastors than they would from one. He did mention that he figured that he and Jan often would work about 60 hours apiece.
Several significant questions were not answered due to the time. Relatively few folks were present for this get together with District Superintendent Mike, but those present found it valuable.