Kairos & Ambiguities

Celebrating the DuBois Band

We are celebrating the DuBois Area High School Band's competition results at the Atlantic Coast Competition.  They placed 18th which was fantastic for them.  Polly did a great job and Amy got to ride on the bus and view the competition as a chaperon.  Way to go Polly and DHS!

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Reflecting on Statistics

I have been reflecting on the membership statistics of the Northeast Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church over the past couple of days and my experience at the Northeast Jurisdictional Conference.  During the Conference we had several points of business around membership that I think were related.

1. We reduced the number of bishops in the jurisdiction by one.
2. We reduced the number of conferences in the jurisdiction by three.
3. We set in motion a plan to reduce the number of bishops by one in the future.

The plan to reduce the number of bishops in the Northeast Jurisdiction came under a lot of fire.  People were really upset that we were "planning" our decline instead of looking optimistically toward and planning for growth.  No one who was a member of the Northeast Jurisdictional Conference was looking forward to planning our decline, but unless we change some things I think that the trajectory will continue.    Here are just a couple of observations that I think point to the trend of decline.

1. During the Youth Convocation, the Sunday morning speaker (a youth with two parents as pastors in the Troy Annual Conference) was chosen to give the message and this message was not the message of the gospel.  In a nutshell he said it didn't matter if Jesus died for our sins or was the Messiah, what mattered was that he was a good teacher and we need to follow his teachings for a good life.
2. The Conference voted to support pastors who are "prophetic" and perform same-sex unions and recommend that any discipline on this issue should be mild.
3. Reports of excessive use of episcopal power when it comes to personnel and agenda (particularly in the Baltimore-Washington Conference) in regards to ethnic churches and progressive appointments (the appointment of a pastor who had a sex-change operation and is trans-gendered).

I can't help but remember Galatians 6:7 "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow."  These things go together and what we choose to speak about and how we choose to act will speak volumes to a world looking for the real thing.  We are reaping what we have sown.  I hope you will join me in prayer that we will get it and sow in the Spirit.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

The Continued Trajectory

Earlier in the year I reflected on what was the direction of the arrow.  I had the chance to look at the membership statistics for 2008 for the Northeast Jurisdiction and although the trajectory remains the same, at least we are not in the lead.

Annual Conference          Membership          Net Change          Rank

Baltimore-Washington      196, 847              -1,984                    6   ***

Central Pennsylvania         141,030              -2,821                    2

Eastern Pennsylvania        123,360              -1,014                    11**

Greater New Jersey            96,927               -2,016                    5**

New England                      90,974               -2,484                    3

New York                          120,404               -2,352                   4

North Central New York       74,483                -1,866                  7**

Peninsula-Delaware            89,801                 -1,470                  9

Troy                                  47,518                 -5,687                  1

West Virginia                    103,905                -900                     12

Western New York              55,659                 -320                     13**

Western Pennsylvania        187,441                 -1,738                 8**

Wyoming                              61,534               -1,379                 10

*** = no available results for 2008

**= numbers reported as presented, but don't work with last years figures (the membership loss is greater if you count this) again these numbers are not audited but from annual conference reports.

Although I am not sure it is good news that Western Pennsylvania is no longer leading the Jurisdiction in membership loss.  It has been difficult to watch our conference contracting in size and scope of ministry.

Again, I would like to lift up, what makes this so difficult is not that this indicates a loss of institutional strength, but that each one of those numbers is a life.  Many of our churches don't have a single profession of faith.  That means that there is not one life in that congregation who has the light of Christ shining through it in such a way as to touch another life and let it catch on fire for God.

It won't be the lastest program that turns this around, but it will be one life touching another life...one at a time.  I pray that God will order my life, so that the grace of God might shine through and light another heart on fire.  I hope you will join me in that prayer and perhaps with God's grace through you and me the world will change.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Tiger Banquet

Yesterday we attended Robert's last official Oklahoma Tiger event the banquet.  There was lots of good food and Robert had a great time with his team.  We got to enjoy his team video and graduation reflections.

We also celebrated with Robert that he recieved the team defensive player MVP award.  We were really proud of him and enjoyed watching him play this year.  We are looking forward to him playing on the 7th & 8th grade team next year.

Here are his final stats for the year.  The team played six and a half games (one forfeit and one game called in the middle).  We think these are great for a defensive lineman.

Tackles:  38

Sacks:  3

Pass Deflections:  2

Fumble Recoveries:  1

Forced Fumbles:  2

Interceptions:  1

Way to go Robert, we are proud of you.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Indiana District Youth Retreat

We had a great trip to Wesley Woods for the Indiana District Youth Retreat.  Jericho was a great hit from Wesley UMC in Erie leading the Praise and Worship and Randy Roda was our speaker.  My favorite part is the testimonies that the youth give during our Sunday morning Communion Service.  It was such a joy to see the Spirit move in a powerful way.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Heading to Wesley Woods

Heading to Wesley Woods this evening for the Indiana District Retreat.  Should be a great weekend.  Please keep us in your prayers.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Voting

           JUST DO IT.

Chapters and Football

Saturday we put a lot of miles on the van, but it was a great day!  We first took off for Bellefonte for Robert's last midget football game.  Robert again had a great game and got 8 tackles in the first half (which is great for the defensive line).  The game had to be called early in the second half due to two bad injuries.  One player broke their femur (from Bellefonte) and it took about 45 minutes to get an ambulance to him and the second player broke his arm (from Oklahoma).  We are keeping them in prayer.  It was kind of a sad note to end the season.

We then drove back to DuBois to drop off some of the football players from Robert's team and then headed south to Indiana.  Polly and the DuBois High School Band were taking the field for the Chapter Band Competition.  The came in 1st place and will be heading to the ACC Championships for the first time in many years on November 15-16.  The band has worked really hard this year and I think that they have achieved the highest score in school history for the competition this year.  I like to kid Laura and Sara and tell them all it took was to get Polly in the Band for them to finially make it to ACCs.

Hope your weekend was as eventful as well.

Until next time...Grace & Peace.

Judicial Council Decisions Fall 2008 #4

Last set of takes on the fall Judicial Council Decisions:

JD 1106:  Was not in the right form of a question of law.  The issues was consulting with pastor and the PPRC by appointing bishop.  Still an outstanding question, but needs to be in the form a declaratory decision to be handled by the Judicial Council.

JD 1107:  Was not in the right form of a question of law.  It was a statement of facts versus a question of business before the annual coference.

JD 1108:  Lets the General Conference Secretary split up legislation in regard to paragraph 507.2 of the Discipline.  This will make it very difficult to make massive changes in item before the General Conference and will complicate the regional conference debate in 2012.

JD 1109:  Is probably the most interesting case this docket as it concerns the use of the restirictive rule in regard to how we handle communion.  In essesence for something like allowing commuion to be held for long periods of time for laity distribution, has to be approved by changing of the restrictive rule and requires a super majority.  This Judicial Decision will be a good reference and precident on how the Judicial Coucnil will handle the restricitve rules of The United Methodist Church.

JD 1110:  Remanded back to the annual confernece due to secretary's error.

Until next time...Grace & Peace

Judicial Council Decisions Fall 2008 #3

More takes on Judicial Council Decisions:

JD 1102:  Remanded to Alaska due to Secretary's error.

JD 1103:  For a Probationary member, the hearing in front of the Executive Committee of BOOM is not an appeal but part of the process.  This has been practiced very well by the BOOM in Western Pennsylvania.

JD 1104:  Remanded to West Ohio due to Secretary's error.

JD 1105:  Was a difficult case from Eastern Pennsylvania.  A minister was acquitted of all charges related to several complaints regarding child abuse.  Bishop Matthews noted that the minister was in good standing, but still refused to appoint him.  The Judicial Council ruled that the Bishop had to appoint the clergy member.  There was also a concurring opinion that lifted up concern that appointing this clergy perons without a clear, expunged record compromises his ministry, his appointability, and his relationpship in the Annual Confernece.  A dissenting opinion was filed by one member to support that the Eastern Pennsylvania Confernece can hold all pastors serving local churches "to submit to their clergy record current mandated child abuse clearance" as a condition for continued eligibility.

This case deals with several very highly held principles in our culture and context of ministry

1. When you are acquitted at a trial, an acquittal acts as a total vindication of an accused, whereby, the accused is relieved of all badges and indicia of the charges.
2. When you are acquitted at a trial, you are restored to all previous status, rights and privileges to which you were entiteld prior to the commencement of the complaint process.
3. The difficulty the church has in prosecuting child abuse.
4. The difficutly our culture and church is confronted with after the Roman Catholic child abuse scandal.
5. The accusations of child abuse (and sexual harrassment) bring a presumption of guilt rather than a presumption of innocence.
6. What role can Annual Conferences play in reducing and preventing child abuse.

We will need to continue to struggle with these issues and pray for those who have been hurt on either side of these accusations.

Until next time...Grace and Peace