Annual Conference

Angie Hartman, our lay delegate to Annual Conference, and I participated in a historic event this past week: The first Annual Conference of the New Indiana Conference. (You might wonder about the meaning of the word Conference and why it is used differently in this same sentence. Annual Conference is a yearly event bringing together both lay and clergy delegates to work on the business of the Church but also to worship together and have fellowship. The New Indiana Conference is a geographical area, encompassing what were formerly the North and South Indiana Conferences. As you have read above in Dan’s article, the districts lines have also been redrawn. The Michiana District and parts of other districts will now be known as the North District. This North District is comprised of the counties of Lake, Porter, LaPorte, St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall (except Culver Emmanuel, Poplar Grove, Santa Anna, Richland Center, and Burton), Kosciusko (except for Pierceton, Morris Chapel, Packerton, Center, Mentone, Burkett, Akron, Beaver Dam, and Talma), plus DeMotte from Jasper County.

Our first Annual Conference of the New Indiana Conference also took place in a new location. For years, we had gathered at Purdue University in West Lafayette. This year, and probably for the next couple of years at least, we gathered at Ball State University in Muncie.
Because of the coming together of two geographical Conference areas, the number of delegates basically doubled at over 2000. I don’t recall the exact number which was given to us by the Bishop on the first day. That large number of delegates combined with a new, unfamiliar – at least for me – location was interesting. Needless to say that if you need to find someone, you better have their cell phone number, in order to get hold of them and set a meeting place.

We did conduct the business of the church but for me the best part of Annual Conference is the worship and preaching, fellowship and ordination service. Have you ever heard “O for a Thousand Tongue to Sing” sang by over 2000 people? Pretty cool! The praise team did a great job. I guess I am biased too because I have some friends singing in it. We heard good speakers, in Rev. Adam Hamilton and Rev. David Bell and a thoughtful ordination message from our Bishop Mike Coyner. He called it “Finish the Song”. It was a reminder that we are serving together and that when someone is in trouble, we are called to help them “finish the song” by supporting them and loving them. We should be in ministry serving together not as isolated as too many are.

I got to see pastor friends I had not seen in a long time because they are appointed pretty far from here. I shared a room with a good friend who was ordained this year. I remembered my ordination last year too but I think I was more excited about her being ordained than I was at my own ordination. Go figure…

I wrote briefly about community in our June newsletter. What I experienced at Annual Conference was community. A gathering of all kind of folks, different folks, with the same love for Jesus and desire to see His Kingdom grow here as it is in Heaven. Community is not always neat; it can be a little chaotic and messy but we are still the Body that Jesus has commissioned to do His work. We are a bunch of goofs and some would snicker that if we are the ones Jesus has commissioned to do His work, we are in deep trouble. In view of the declining membership of our churches and the fact that we are not reaching unchurched population as effectively as what Jesus calls us to, one could believe that but Jesus is clear that we are the ones. Someone said that we are the ones we have been waiting for. Indeed. No others are coming. We’re it! May the Spirit continue to grant us power and boldness for the task at hand! May we be known by our love and not our division.

Community

Community. I have been thinking quite a bit about community recently. True community is hard to come by in our society yet it is what we were designed for. We were never meant to do life alone. We see this early on in Genesis, when God creates everything including man. It is very soon apparent that something is missing. God says, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Gen. 2:18) We were created for community because God is a community God. He is, after all, a triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We were created for community and we all need community.

I think of community because we celebrated the day of Pentecost on May 31. Pentecost Sunday is the final Sunday of Easter. We celebrate Pentecost (see Acts 2) as the “birth” of the Church – this corporate faith community. The Church emerges - out of a frightened band of followers - after the resurrection of Jesus and after he goes back to Heaven (celebrated on Ascension day). The Holy Spirit who comes forms the church by making the Risen Christ manifest in power.

The church is a community called together by the Spirit of the Risen One. As such, it is different than other “organizations” such as the Rotary or Kiwanis for example. “The Greek word for church (ekklesia, from which we derive “ecclesiastical” means “those who have been called forth or summoned, much as one is summoned to appear in a court of law. And we are called as a body of interdependent parts, not as separable individuals (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-31)… Participation therefore is not something we do on the basis of personal choice or need; participation in the Body of Christ is inherent in being Christian… Therefore Christians participate in the church not so much for what they can get as for what they can give, for what they can offer as an alternative to the dominant ways of the world.”

Our society tends to isolate us more and more. Families are distant, geographically and too often emotionally. People move quite a bit. We seldom know our neighbors. Isolation and loneliness are rampant.

I believe that what the church – at its best - can offer is a community that cannot be found outside of it: A community which points to Jesus, as the source of everything; a community where love and forgiveness and healing can be found in the midst of the craziness of this world; a community which worships the God who gives purpose and meaning to life; the God of our salvation.

I hope and pray that we are – that we can be - that kind of church.