Notes from the 2011 Session of the
Western North Carolina Conference
of the United Methodist Church
Lake Junaluska, NC
June 8-12, 2011
Please allow me a
few moments of your time to share some thoughts from Annual Conference
this year.
It may come as a surprise to you to
know that, though I had been to Annual Conference many times as
a “preacher’s wife”, I had never been as a delegate.
As a preachers wife, I had the pleasure of attending all of the
“fun stuff” like worship services, celebrations for
clergy and families, riding the trolley with my boys, visiting Cokesbury
bookstore, fun stuff like that. I had not attended many of the plenary
sessions and certainly never sat through elections to General and
Jurisdictional Conferences.
But, I must say, attending Conference
as a delegate was a joy. I enjoyed witnessing the election process.
I enjoyed hearing debates on issues that face our church. I enjoyed
hearing the reports of all of the wonderful ministries that are
occurring within our churches, our Conference and, through our churches,
around the world.
Here are a few observations and highlights:
Bishop Goodpaster is a gifted leader and administrator. He was prepared,
brought insight and guided what could have been a very laborious election process
to a timely, successful completion with good humor. He knew Robert's Rules of
Order like nobody's business!
In 2010, the WNCC United Methodist Women – for the tenth year in a row – were
number ONE in mission giving, surpassing the million dollar mark to $1,044,072.78.
This year, one of the Conference gatherings of youth produced 100 first time professions of faith!
The WNCC elected 11 clergy and 11 laity to represent us at General Conference and
an additional 11 clergy and 11 laity for Jurisdictional Conference, both to be held in 2012.
We passed the Conference's $14 million dollar budget for 2012.
We voted to reduce the number of districts from 15 to 8,
beginning in July, 2012. This action will save the Conference over $1 million dollars annually.
It's not all good news.
The collective membership of our churches decreased by around 800 people from 2009 to 2010.
We saw an increase in the number of people transferring their membership to non-Methodist churches.
We had a decrease in the number of children and youth and those participating in Sunday school.
There was a 10% decrease in people enrolled in confirmation classes and an 11%
decrease in the number of people baptized.
There was one church decommissioned by action of the Annual Conference.
(Bishop Goodpaster commented that he was grateful there were no more.)
But there is encouraging news:
Minority United Methodist churches in our conference are growing, particularly Latino churches.
There was an increase of over 1,000 in people of all ages participating in Christian formation groups.
There was a 62% increase in the number of mission teams and people sent out from local churches.
There was a 29% increase in the number of community ministries for outreach, justice and mercy
and a 101% increase in the number of people served by these ministries.
Bishop Goodpaster focused on the Book
of Acts during Conference and encouraged us to be “Easter
people”, going into the world as the early church did, sharing
the good news of Jesus Christ, and making disciples. Tommy Pharr
– district delegate and my Stuart Auditorium seat-mate –
very wisely said, that if we [the church] will get busy doing the
work of the church, we will not have to worry about our church growing...
he said, “the numbers will take care of themselves”.
Amen, Tommy.
Finally, thank you so much for allowing
me to attend Annual Conference on your behalf. I was very proud
to be a United Methodist as I observed the Spirit-led activities
of the Conference, conducted with decorum and respect for others
with differing opinions. I challenge you as I am challenging myself...
let’s get out there and be Easter people!
–
Submitted by Joyce Brooks
|
