Entries Tagged 'Events' ↓

On Sunday, Joleen, Ethan, and I attended our district’s first (of what may become an annual event) “local pastor sabbath.” It was intended to be an opportunity for Local Pastors (and Student Pastors and Appointed Lay Speakers) to share a day off together.

We gathered at Gethsemane United Methodist Church in Allport (located across the street from West Branch High School) for the 10:45 am worship service where Rev. Dr. Pam Ford, State College District Superintendent, preached a much-needed message on the importance of sabbath.

After worship, pastors ate an excellent meal together that the church had prepared for us, followed by a teaching/discussion time led by Rev. Karen Allen (pastor of Gethsemane) called, “Gathering Our Crazy Scattered Lives.” It was a practical and helpful time!

We concluded the day with a time of worship and communion. This is especially noteworthy because it was the first time the three of us celebrated communion together as a family, including Ethan’s first communion. We had intentionally waited until the three of us could be together for communion, since we’re not usually together for Sunday worship gatherings.

Speaking of Ethan, he was with us for the day. After lunch, he slept for about an hour (a short nap for him), mostly while Joleen held him during the afternoon teaching/discussion session. He did very well on the day.

We’re grateful for the sabbath day we had together!

Tonight, as I rushed out of COR’s sanctuary at the conclusion of Leadership Institute, I found myself having a familiar conversation with God …

I want to change the world!

That conversation was reawakened in me at a Chris Tomlin concert last year in State College.

Well, since it’s late and we have to get up in 4 hours to head to the airport, I’ll make this quick.

You can’t be at the Church of the Resurrection and not get a sense of the impact they’ve had on their city. COR, started by Adam Hamilton in 1990, currently has 9,000 people who attend services/ministries each weekend, and there are many incredible ministries that take place there.

As I’ve said before, we’ll need to take some time to process what we’ve heard and find ways to implement what we’ve learned in our lives and ministries. But for now, I’ll just share a couple quick things …

First, the worship experiences have been amazing — the music, the words, and the multimedia. It’s been quite emotional. In fact, I could hardly even sing this morning due to the intensity. It’s always intense to gather with so many people, particularly leaders, who love God and want to make a difference in the world.

Second, the closing worship and prayer time tonight was incredible. We sang about being the light of the world as more than 1,600 of us from 500 different churches representing 200,000 people held lit candles in the once darkened room displaying our desire and our prayer to change the world.

May God indeed empower those of us who’ve gathered here this week in Kansas City to change the world through transformed local congregations!

More later after we’ve had a chance to process what God is saying to us in Kansas City. But first, a few closing thoughts …

We’ve enjoyed traveling with colleagues and friends from our conference to this event in Kansas City, ad spending time with them. We’re new to the district, so it’s been an opportunity to meet and/or get to know some people better.

And, finally, Joleen and I look forward to seeing, holding, and reconnecting with Ethan in 12 or so hours from now!

From today’s marathon day, three concepts stood out from today’s sessions, which all come out of a desire to impact non-religious or nominally-religious people.

Adam Hamilton, in some of his final thoughts, talked about his approach to preaching. While many of us were taught in seminary to follow something like this:

1. Start with Bible
2. Exegete the text
3. Apply
4. Illustrate

Preaching from the lectionary would be an example of following this approach. While Adam still uses this approach about half the year (although he doesn’t follow the lectionary, except in December), he follows a different approach for the rest of the year:

1. Start with the human condition (e.g., marriage issues, etc.)
2. Exegete the human condition (what are the root causes? etc.)
3. How the Bible speaks to the condition
4. Illustrate

While this model isn’t new to us, it validates it. Some people find fault with this approach, but there is biblical precedence. In fact, Adam said, Jesus virtually always started with a story about the human condition; only once did he use what we’d call the lectionary (i.e., his first sermon where he read from the scroll, Isaiah 61).

Another area that struck me was Adam’s talk about 21st century evangelism, which he calls “service evangelism.” Adam suggested an alternative view of Rick Warren’s illustration of the four bases that culminates with mission. Adam suggests that this cycle is now reversed. Today the model starts with mission, which helps people discover their passions/spiritual gifts. People begin to understand Scripture and they eventually accept Christ, before ultimately becoming in mission. Adam drove the point home, saying, mission and service comes first, not last.

The other major thing that struck me came from keynote speaker, Jim Wallis. Wallis, pointing to the great awakenings, talked about revival and said it’s not revival until it changes something in society. This comes from his study of the great awakenings. Revival needs to be both personal and social.

In talking about repentance, Wallis asked what might repentance mean for us. What about simplicity, stewardship, putting economic values above family values, the sin of covetousness, cultural values of worth versus kingdom values, living beyond our means, etc.?

Finally, Wallis encouraged us to be the change we want for the world. Also, he said our congregations need to be the change, to be responsible for the neighborhoods in which they’re located.

Now that Leadership Institute is over, we have a lot to process!

Yesterday, we spent nearly 12 hours getting from Clearfield, PA to our destination in the greater Kansas City area. While our two flights were short (45 minutes to Dulles, then 2 hours to Kansas City), we had a long 4 hour layover in DC.

After our State College District group rented 2 large SUVs, we had a 45 minute drive from the airport (located on the Missouri side of the metropolitan area) to our hotel (in Kansas) where we arrived around 11:00 pm (central time).

Well, our first day here has been a long day so I’ll keep this is short as possible. Today began with pre-institute workshops. Joleen may share from her perspective later, but I went to the “Leadership Essentials” workshop, which addressed practical tools for leading change. It was led by Carol Cartmill and Yvonne Gentile, who wrote Leadership Essentials: Practical Tools for Leading in the Church, which we received as a gift from the publisher (Abingdon).

There were a lot of practical tips and tools in this workshop and I’ll need some time to process them, but in the meantime, my favorite statement from this workshop was by Yvonne, who said, referring to many people’s resistance to change in the church …

Sometimes we get so comfortable in our safe zones that we make stability our idol.

The Leadership Institute officially began this evening with an inspiring worship experience followed by the first of three plenary sessions featuring Adam Hamilton. Adam is talking about 16 leadership principles that he’s learned/experienced in the past year at COR.

Tonight’s presentation centered around the areas of ministry focus, first communicated by the United Methodist Council of Bishops (see the list on this page) and how they are fleshing them out at COR. There was a whole lot to chew on, but just a few quick quotes for now …

Leadership is influencing people to accomplish a common goal.

Being a pastor is the coolest job in the world.

Find the best and the brightest and ask them to consider the call.

Adam believes that the best days of the United Methodist Church are ahead of us. That’s saying a lot for a denomination that has been in decline for more than 4 decades. It’s also a huge statement considering something else Adam shared that blew me away (and inspired me at the same time!): over a 50 year period in our history, more than 18,000 churches were started — that’s one new church every day for 50 years! (you may need to pause to let that sink in). Wow!

Amazing things are happening at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. I’m grateful for their commitment to, not only influencing Kansas City, but also the world, and the mainline church, and the UMC, in particular.

As I said, there’s been a lot to chew on from our first several hours of the institute. We have an even more full day tomorrow before we finish up tomorrow night.

And, as much as we’re enjoying the institute, finishing up tomorrow night will be a good thing — Joleen mentioned at dinner this evening that she was getting homesick. We head out of here pretty early on Saturday and expect to be home around 3:00 or so (thanks to a much shorter layover this time).

Feel free to post comments or questions. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your prayers!

A few months ago, we wrote about attending Leadership Institute, a 2-day conference hosted by The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (COR). Well, the has come for this event.

Tomorrow, we travel to Kansas City (we’ll return Saturday). We’re excited about attending this event with a group of pastors from four districts in our conference.

While we look forward to spending a few days in Kansas City at COR, unfortunately, Ethan will not be with us (thankfully, though, Grammy and Pappy are going to stay with Ethan here on his familiar turf while we’re away). Were it not for this being the first time being apart 3 nights, we’d be a lot more excited about this trip!

But we expect this event to contribute to our ongoing personal development, and we want to share the experience with as many as we can. So we invite you to follow along here on the blog over the next few days as we reflect on some of the things that impact us most.

More than likely, we expect to publish posts (as we’re able) (1) Thursday night, (2) Friday night and/or Saturday morning, and (3) sometime later after we return home and have a chance to process the whole experience.

As always, we invite you contribute to the conversation by clicking on the “comments” link underneath any post you wish to comment on, then fill out the form to submit your comment.

Well, let’s get started!

The Fireman’s Parade ended where we were seated about 8:30 pm. We packed up the stroller and returned home.

By that time, Ethan was ready to go to bed. We followed our evening routine (getting Ethan dressed for bed, reading a Bible story, praying with Ethan while he drinks milk from his sippy cup). Tonight was my turn to give Ethan his milk and put him in bed, and just about the time I returned downstairs, the fireworks began at the Clearfield County fairgrounds behind our house.

Joleen and I headed outside to watch the fireworks (with the baby monitor nearby). Because of the loud noise, Joleen went to check on Ethan, who was standing in his crib quietly, at that point. She brought him outside where I was taking photos of the fireworks.

Standing outside, the fireworks were a bit too intense for Ethan so he and Mommy returned to Ethan’s bedroom where they finished watching the fireworks from the upstairs window in Ethan’s room. He soon went back to sleep, thankfully!

This week is the Clearfield County Fair, a big week in the life of Clearfield. One of the highlights is the Fireman’s Parade which took place this evening.

The parade is like one continuous block party. Someone told us you have to “earn” a place along the route, which can take years. It’s a good thing we have hospitable church folk! As we went out this morning, just a half block from our house, to place our chairs by the parade route, we found that most of the spots were already taken. But Rick and Becky were passing by in their pickup and invited us to their corner for their party.

We had a great time with great folks and great food. It was amazing how many church people from both West Side and Centre Grove we bumped into on the way to our seats on Weaver Street, a few blocks away from where we live, especially considering that we’ve only been here one month!

Ethan enjoyed the parade tremendously. He let out squeals of joy like we never heard before as the fire trucks passed by. And when the bands and music played his foot would go round and his hand would tap to the beat. He even waved, arm outstretched, at one fire truck crew.

Tired, sleep-deprived, and worn out.

That’s an odd way to begin a post called “Re-energized!” But while annual conference is physically tiring (and not just annual conference, but annual conference with a baby for the first time), it is still very energizing, spiritually and missionally!

Of course, while spending hours together with a community of Christ-followers in worship and worshipful work is always impacting and re-energizing, it is also a time to refocus on the mission — the main thing, why we do what we do.

Everyone, including leaders, need these kinds of times renewal and refocusing. Leading on the front lines of the mission is challenging. In every organization, including churches, there are strong forces at work to simply maintain the status quo (or go back to the way things were at some point in the past), to take the easy road, or to seek the comfortable way.

The temptation for leaders is to grow weary of the journey of leading people in mission and to allow these forces to inhibit them from fulfilling their God-given task. Leadership *always* involves challenging the process (to use the language of Kouzes and Posner in their landmark book, The Leadership Challenge). It’s certainly not for the fainthearted!

But we all get tired. We all battle doubt and despair, at times. We must regularly find ways to fan the flames, to stir the passion, and to keep moving forward. For us, annual conference is one of the ways that keeps us focused, encouraging us to stay the course, and to lead with courage.

These times of renewal serve as reminders that this is ultimately God’s work. God always gives us the equipment we need for us to complete the work he’s given us. The journey is never easy, but because of God’s power and presence, it is always do-able!

BTW, Ethan did well today, his third/final day of annual conference. He was obviously tired, though. We are grateful for Jean, our district superintendent’s (Dave Norris) wife, who cared for Ethan during the closing ordination service in the afternoon. And, Ethan finally got a much-needed nice long nap during that time!

The big story this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Ethan continues to grow as he experiences new things.

In the recent past, highly social activities seemed to have (emotionally) taxed and drained Ethan. But no social event that we’ve participated in so far is anything like annual conference. For two entire days, we’ve been immersed in a sea of people. I’m pretty sure we’ve interacted with more people this year than in the previous 9 years combined.

Early this morning, a little sleep deprived, Ethan was a bit clingy (but not too bad, really). We were a little concerned about dropping him off at child care, but once again, he did very well.

While Ethan was at child care, Joleen and I both wrote for the Daily Link (our articles from today’s edition are currently published on the main page, but you may have to scroll down for previous articles after tomorrow’s edition is added). The articles are a goods way to find out what’s taking place at annual conference. (Someday, I suspect worship services at annual conference will be streamed live over the internet. It’s probably not a question of if, but when.)

At lunchtime, I fed Ethan baby food while Joleen went through the lunch line to get her food and some food for Ethan. But just about the time she got through the line, I had to take him out of his high chair because he was falling asleep! We put him in his stroller, where he slept for the next hour (actually, yesterday, he didn’t even get to eat anything — he fell asleep by the time we reached the cafeteria — he hasn’t been napping during child care).

We spent the afternoon and evening together. In the midst of the “worshipful work,” we heard two great sermons — one by Rev. Dr. Ron Parks, pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, and the other by Bishop Sally Dyck, bishop of the Minnesota Area of the United Methodist Church. (Perhaps we’ll say more about these messages later, maybe even after we receive them on DVDs.)

The worship has also been great this year. Mark Miller (who led worship here in 2005 and 2006) returned this year along with Marcia McFee. Mark and Marcia teamed up to lead worship at last month’s 2008 General Conference.

But again, the big story for us this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Through two long days, he continues to do well. We still have a long day ahead of us, but we will head home Saturday evening.

But who knows, Ethan may end of sleeping much of next week!

Wednesday morning, we drove to Camp Hill, PA where we met with Cindy, our caseworker from Adoption Horizons, for our second (of three) post-placement visits. Basically, it was an opportunity for us to talk about Ethan’s progress. It went very well.

That leaves only one more post-placement visit. Sometime in the fall, we will go to court to finalize our adoption of Ethan.

Later Wednesday afternoon, we checked into our room at Messiah College. We are assigned to a dorm room with a living room, kitchen, private bath, and a bedroom with 3 twin beds (2 of the them are stacked). The room also includes a pack-n-play, which Ethan is sleeping in (it’s the first time we’ve travelled away from home that he is able to sleep in his own bed!).

Annual conference started this morning at 9:30 and ended a little more than 12 hours later. The big test today was leaving Ethan with total strangers for the first time when we dropped him off at child care for the morning session. We didn’t know how Ethan would handle it, but he handled it very well!

We kept him with us for the afternoon worship service. Then, while Joleen wrote for the Daily Link during the afternoon’s “worshipful work” session, I wheeled Ethan around in his stroller while he slept for well over an hour (mainly in the hallway where I was able to catch most of what was happening in the main auditorium).

After dinner, it was my turn to write for the Daily Link while Joleen hung out with Ethan for the rest of the evening.

Ethan has certainly changed the dynamic of annual conference for us. Simply put, Ethan is a huge attention getter. As Cindy (our caseworker) told Ethan yesterday, “You’re going to be a big hit at conference.” Indeed, he has been!

We’ll try to take some photos tomorrow — today, being the first day at annual conference with Ethan, and having a lot of extra stuff to carry with us, we just didn’t want to bother with the camera. But we should be ready tomorrow.

For now, here are some photos of yesterday’s arrival in our dorm room …