Download the printable version of the Aug. 8 issue of GPconnect.
In this edition:
THIS WEEK'S NEWS
First town hall meeting to discuss Way Forward Commission is 16 days away
Retired Nebraska pastor is still fighting against death penalty
New conference app helps you track spiritual as well as physical fitness
CLERGY EXCELLENCE
Momentum classes, sessions next week available for livestream
EQUIPPING DISCIPLES
New Zombie Dash part of Camp Fontanelle’s Connect event
Camp Horizon benefit golf tournament set for Sept. 8
METour heads Southwest this year, with variety of missions toured
Deadline for Educational Partnership Grants is approaching on Aug. 20
MERCY & JUSTICE
Micah Corps meets with leaders of One America Movement
Great Plains Conference team reflects on Creation Care Summit
DISASTER RESPONSE
Recovery process begins in Eureka; Aug. 18 set for work day in Kansas town
ADMINISTRATION
Kansas Area UM Foundation announces August certificate rates
ACROSS THE CONNECTION
Kansas’ Arnold UMC celebrates 125 years with special service, potluck dinner
Hays District 6 has first ice cream social, hymn sing
Backpacks blessed for back-to-school time in Aurora, Nebraska
In other news
Resources
Newsletters
Blogs and opinion
Classifieds
First town hall meeting to discuss Way Forward Commission is 16 days away
A series of 18 town hall meetings led by Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr., to discuss the recommendation by the Council of Bishops following the Commission on a Way Forward report and prior to next year’s special session of the General Conference, will begin with three sessions on the final weekend of August.
All 17 districts in the Great Plains Conference will host one of the town halls, with two in the Great West District, both on Sept. 22.
Here is a printable schedule, by district.
The chronological schedule of the meetings:
- Saturday, Aug. 25: Omaha St. Luke UMC (10 a.m.), Lincoln Trinity UMC (3 p.m.)
- Sunday, Aug. 26: Olathe Grace UMC (5 p.m.)
- Sunday, Sept. 9: Garden City First UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Sunday, Sept. 16: Norfolk First UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Saturday, Sept. 22: Scottsbluff First UMC (10 a.m. MDT), Ogallala First UMC (4 p.m. MDT)
- Sunday, Sept. 23: Cozad First UMC (4 p.m.)
- Sunday, Sept. 30: Grand Island Trinity UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Saturday, Oct. 6: Wichita Chapel Hill UMC (10 a.m.), Wichita West (location TBA; 3 p.m.)
- Sunday, Oct. 7: Hutchinson Trinity UMC (3 p.m.)
- Sunday, Oct. 14: Salina Trinity UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Sunday, Oct. 21: Council Grove UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Sunday, Oct. 28: Hays First UMC (3:30 p.m.)
- Sunday, Nov. 11: Topeka First UMC (3 p.m.)
- Saturday, Nov. 17: Parsons Wesley UMC (10 a.m.), Lawrence First UMC (3:30 p.m.)
VIDEO: Bishop Saenz urges everyone to read entire report from Commission on a Way Forward.
Our Forward in Unity page keeps you updated on all sides of the report.
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Retired Nebraska pastor is
still fighting against death penalty
A retired Nebraska United Methodist pastor is still working to end the death penalty, which the denomination has officially opposed since 1956, even though he is no longer the executive director for Nebraskans for an Alternative to the Death Penalty. The Rev. Stephen Griffith’s efforts continue as Nebraska schedules its first execution in 21 years next week.
Read more about Griffith and the efforts to protest the death penalty.
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New conference app helps you track spiritual as well as physical fitness
The Great Plains Conference has a new, improved app available in the iTunes and Google Play stores.
The new app features news and information about the conference, contact information for conference and district staff members, the events calendar, easy access to the Great Plains’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, links to many of our website pages and more! You’ll even find a link to weather so you can see what the forecast is for where you are traveling to for conference events.
One all-new component is our Spiritual Fitness Tracker. This feature will help you keep track of how well you are doing with the spiritual disciplines of reading scripture, praying, attending worship, participating in small groups, and providing service to others. But we’re also concerned about your physical health, which is why we also have pieces that allow you to track how much exercise you’re getting and how healthy you are eating each day.
Watch a short video that explains more about the new app.
And all of this is free! Download the app now by searching for “Great Plains United Methodists.” Or follow the links to the appropriate store below. Or, just scan the QR code below.
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Clergy Excellence
Momentum classes, sessions
next week available for livestream
Momentum, a School of Congregational Development learning event sponsored by Discipleship Ministries, Global Ministries, Path1 and the California-Pacific Conference, will be available for online viewing of teaching classes and livestream sessions from Aug. 15-18.
A session in Spanish, “Being a Christian and Serving in the Community,” will be at 6 p.m. CST Friday, Aug. 17. An English session, at 10 a.m. CST Saturday, Aug. 18, is designed to equip worship leaders with tools for the revitalization of corporate worship, particularly through creative and contextual corporate worship design. Presenters will discuss and provide examples of diverse worship design, techniques for introducing new congregational song that inspires full participation, and ways to build support and consensus around proposed changes in non-threatening ways. Online registration for both is available through this link.
Plenaries and worship services will be livestreamed through www.umcmission.org/live and http://www.facebook.com/umcdiscipleship.
Wednesday’s schedule includes a preconference seminar on #seeallthepeople, with Discipleship Ministries General Secretary Junius Dotson, at 4 p.m. CST; opening worship with John Farley and Allison Mark, 9:30 p.m. CST.
Thursday includes “From Lost to Found,” with Sam Yun, and a response by Emma Vega, 10:30 a.m. CST; From Injustice to Justice, featuring Gregory Boyle and a response from Rosie Rios, at 9:30 p.m. CST.
Friday’s plenary is “From Mono-Cultural to Diversity,” features William deBos, Ben Camp, Ruben Torres, Adiel DePano, Ruben Esponda, Siosaia Tuitahi and John Finau. It is at 6 p.m. CST.
The sending worship, featuring Kennetha BIgham-Tsai, will air at 1 p.m. CST on Saturday, Aug. 18.
Momentum takes place in San Diego. More information is available here.
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Equipping Disciples
New Zombie Dash part of
Camp Fontanelle’s Connect event
Camp Fontanelle will be the place to be for the first Zombie Dash in memory of Simon Jones, a teenager who lost his life too early to cancer, during the Connect Event on Aug. 18.
Being organized by the Simon Jones Live a Better Life Foundation, all registered participants for the Connect Event at Camp Fontanelle are eligible to register for the Zombie Dash. (You must register for the Zombie Dash and there is no additional cost.) The object of the dash is to find zombies in the corn maze and Fort Jones area at the camp. The youth group with the highest percentage of "lives," will receive a $1,000 travel scholarship. The scholarship money is to be used for a fun or adventurous youth group activity.
The youth group will register for the Zombie Dash by emailing the Foundation at Simonsays.foundation@gmail.com, or phoning your reservation to 402-618-2344.
Other activities at the Camp Fontanelle Connect Event will include ziplining, laser tag, Gaga Ball, Petting Barn time, Jumping Pillows and more! Worship will be led by the Rev. Ashlee Alley Crawford, with music by Sebastian Sorensen.
There are Connect Events at four of the six camps, for youth from sixth to 12th grades. For more information about the activities at the different camps, refer to the page on the Great Plains website. For specific questions, contact the individual camps. This is a great way to begin your fall activities. Get registered today. Cost is $20 per person and includes all activities, lunch and dinner.
Get your youth group registered today!
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Camp Horizon benefit golf
tournament set for Sept. 8
Camp Horizon's annual golf tournament will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 8 at Quail Ridge Golf Course in Winfield. The proceeds will go towards the new swimming pool for next year. Look at the attachments and come play or become a sponsor.
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METour heads Southwest this year,
with variety of missions toured
This year’s Mission Education Tour, or METour, headed Southwest, with 39 young women, including five adult chaperones, exploring Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.
The seven-day mission experience, sponsored by the Great Plains Conference, included stops at the Lydia Patterson Institute, McCurdy Ministries and Four Corners Native American Ministries.
“The girls enjoyed the diversity of missions in the places we learned about,” said Venedith Vargas, METour director.
There was also sightseeing, including the White Sands Monument, Four Corners National Parks and Mesa Verde National Park.
Each year the tour, which began in the former Nebraska Conference, goes in a different direction. Next year, the trek is east-southeast, including stops at Redbird Mission in Kentucky. The METour takes place the first full week of June.
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Deadline for Educational Partnership Grants is approaching on Aug. 20
Great Plains Annual Conference is accepting Education Partnership Grant requests for the fifth year to encourage congregations to build relationships with their local or neighborhood schools. Pastors and Lay Leaders are encouraged to go to the Great Plains website to find a number or resources and tools to strengthen your work and vision for building these relationships. You’ll find the information here.
Grant requests should be forwarded to Rev. Nathan Stanton in the office of Congregational Excellence by Aug. 20.
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Mercy & Justice
Micah Corps meets with
leaders of One America Movement
The Micah Corps summer internship has ended. But many experiences the interns had over the summer will continue to influence them into the future. Nick Detter, one of the interns, shares about an important learning opportunity they had this summer:
The Micah Corps kicked off their learning seminars at the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) by meeting with the leaders of the One America Movement, Andrew Hanauer and Areesa Somani.
The One America movement was founded by faith and community leaders following the 2016 presidential election. They aim to bring Americans together across racial, religious, political and geographic divides to work on issues such as poverty, the opioid crisis, and racial tensions.
“I really liked how they were committed to bringing people together of all backgrounds to work on issues that matter to all of us,” said Micah Corps intern Stephanie Carson. “I truly believe the best way to overcome seemingly insurmountable differences is by getting to know ‘the other’ and realizing that they are just another person and are more like you than not.”
The leaders of One America also found the meeting with Micah Corps worthwhile. “It was an honor to speak with (Micah Corps),” Hanauer said after the meeting.
Micah Corps Co-Coordinator Maria Penrod felt that meeting with leaders from the One America Movement should be a priority for all future Micah Corps teams making the trip to Washington, D.C.
“One America gave us the tools to see people different from us beyond labels and stereotypes,” Penrod said. “Building bridges across divides is crucial to our mission as Christians of loving all people.”
Micah Corps went on to meet with six more social justice experts working on issues ranging from global peace to climate change. They also met with five GBCS staff people including GBCS general secretary Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe. Learn more about the One America Movement.
-- Nick Detter, Micah Corps intern
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Great Plains Conference team
reflects on Creation Care Summit
From left, Carol Windrum, Eileen Seiger and Lynne Hunter point to graphic notes from the Creation Care Conference, highlighting the graphic about the Great Plains Creation Care Project.
“The earth is our most important relative. It is imperative that we protect her.” -- Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs
What are your early stories of connecting with the earth? This was one question we were asked as members of the Great Plains Creation Care team at a gathering of United Methodists in St. Paul, Minnesota, July 26-29. The question took me back to playing hide-and-seek in fragrant alfalfa fields a block away from my home in central Nebraska. The memory brought a sense of childhood adventure (and no batteries required!).
The United Methodist Creation Care Summit brought concerned people of faith from all over the nation to Hamline University to pray, learn, sing, and act.
In the words of Lynne Hunter from Winfield, Kansas: It was a gift, a gift to attend the Creation Care Summit in St Paul. We were reminded of how United Methodist doctrine calls for loving God's world. It was a gift to be reminded of what a vital organization the UMW is in many areas but particularly in women's care for the earth. It was a gift to meet national leaders in the church and to seeing their work was inspiring. The most special gift for me, though, was two speakers, Marcus Briggs Cloud (of the Ekvn Yefolecv Maskoke EcoVillage) and Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs (Minnesota Healing Stories), both indigenous religious leaders, whose backgrounds embrace a different approach to spirituality. Through storytelling and sharing of a specific project, we were all reminded that when it comes to caring for God's creation, we have so much to learn from the indigenous peoples. So much was taken away/lost through colonization of the indigenous natives and those of African descent. Our connection to the earth, our spiritual disconnect, hurts us. Respecting the earth, God's creation, is God's plan. I am in awe of all that United Methodists do but also how much work is still to be done in each and every congregation. What a great time to begin/continue the work.
Eileen Seiger from Eastmoor UMC in Marion, Kansas, shares these impressions: “The organizers hope that “the energy, inspiration and gifts of those days “are now on their way back to the homes of the attendees. Their vision was “wildly, beautifully, enthusiastically embraced, enhanced, implemented and received” by the participants. We have been encouraged to Listen, Connect, Act and Share all that we did during that special time.”
From praying in the four directions and being aware of the wide blue sky above us, to creating our own “rain storm” by clapping hands and clicking fingers, we became more attuned to our dependence on the natural world. Read more about the conference.
Eileen's dream is that her congregation and all congregations in our Great Plains Conference can be challenged to do more by reinvesting in a project of the former Kansas West Conference called Creation Care Churches.
To learn how your congregation can become a Creation Care Church, go to this link and scroll to the bottom of page.
--Carol Windrum, member of the GP Creation Care Team
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Disaster Response
Recovery process begins in Eureka;
Aug. 18 set for work day in Kansas town
Less than six weeks after an EF-3 tornado hit the Kansas town of Eureka, the Rev. Hollie Tapley says the relief phase is over and the longterm recovery process has begun.
“That’s awesome this early in the game,” said Tapley, disaster response coordinator for the Great Plains Conference.
Conference disaster relief volunteers were among 930 people who worked about 3,000 hours in the week after the June 26 tornado.
“We got a lot of work done in those first seven days, mainly with debris removal,” Tapley said. “It took massive amounts of time to take care of the debris following the EF-3 tornado.”
In total, 198 homeowners were affected by the tornado, she added.
Disaster case management is set to start Aug. 10, Tapley said, after case managers train on Aug. 8-9. They will meet with each of the 198 homeowners to determine their recovery plan and unmet needs.
The longterm recovery committee has a work day scheduled for Eureka on Saturday, Aug. 18. Those interested can contact Tapley, htapley@greatplainsumc.org.
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Administration
Kansas Area UM Foundation
announces August certificate rates
The Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation's Certificate of Participation provides an investment alternative for those who are seeking the security of a fixed income type vehicle at competitive rates. It is an excellent option for investors who like to invest in certificate of deposits or money market funds. These certificates have been registered only with the State of Kansas Securities Commissioner, are on file with the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, and are not offered in any other state or jurisdiction.
It is the funding source of our Church Development Loan Fund Program providing loans to United Methodist Churches and United Methodist institutions throughout the state of Kansas and Nebraska for the purchase of real estate, building new church starts, renovating existing buildings, large maintenance projects, operating needs and re-financing existing indebtedness. Participation in a Foundation’s Certificate of Participation is available only to residents of Kansas and Nebraska as well as Kansas and Nebraska United Methodist churches and institutions.
If you would like to receive a copy of the Foundation’s Certificate of Participation Offering Circular, including an application for participation, please contact the Foundation office directly at 888-453-8405 or foundation@kaumf.org or www.kaumf.org.
August Rates
1 year -- 1.45%
2 year -- 1.75%
Investment Particulars
- $1,000 minimum investment – 12 month term or 24 month term
- No penalty for early withdrawal for special circumstances
- Simple Application Process – Must obtain an Offering Circular
- Interest is reinvested semi-annually or paid semi-annually or paid quarterly
- Fixed rates adjusted monthly for new and maturing certificates
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Across the Connection
Kansas’ Arnold UMC celebrates 125 years with special service, potluck dinner
The Arnold (Kansas) United Methodist Church celebrated 125 years during worship July 29. Joining in the gathering were the Ransom and McCracken UM churches.
The history of the forming of the church was read. Activities of the various groups within the church and past clergy were also shared.
Pastor Norma McNair led the worship service as she preached from Hebrews 10-11 and Deuteronomy 6.
She reminded the church that the founders were small in number and facing an unknown future just as it is today. The work of the church continues to be the “making of disciples.”
McNair included history questions throughout the service to “Honor Time and Fact” of the church.
Pat Mishler, accompanist, was recognized for her beautiful music and dedication to the church.
Special recognition and thanks were given to Janice O’Toole for her tireless work for the church and her efforts to organize the special celebration.
The youngest and oldest in attendance were recognized.
A delicious potluck dinner and a time of visiting were enjoyed by all. The fellowship hall was beautifully decorated and a special cake depicting the church was shared.
A monetary gift will be made to Camp Lakeside in honor of the anniversary.
The Arnold UMC is thankful and blessed to be a part of the foundation of the work of the Lord in this community. We pray for faith as we look ahead to continue in this work.
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Hays District 6 has first
ice cream social, hymn sing
The Hays District Network #6 (Osborne, Alton, Downs, Portis, Rose Valley, Lebanon, Smith Center, Kirwin and Agra) met on Sunday, July 29, for its first ice cream social and hymn sing. There were 39 present, including three children, who enjoyed homemade ice cream, cookies and cake. Everyone had fun fellowship, getting to know each other with a little discussion on how to do ministry together, how to support each other, and if there might even be a Network #6 traveling choir in the future. The pastors and the Network #6 laity leaders would like to thank everyone for making this event possible.
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Backpacks blessed for
back-to-school time in Aurora, Nebraska
In Nebraska, the Aurora United Methodist Church invited children to bring their backpacks for a blessing to start the school year.
“School can be a really stressful time for kids, kindergarten on up, so having that realization that someone is praying for them and someone has given them a blessing for their day might just get them over the hump on a hard day,” Pastor Michelle Reed told a reporter from the NTV Network.
See more in this story.
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In other news
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Resources
Hispanic Heritage Month: Hispanic Heritage Month is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Explore these tools from United Methodist Communications to celebrate the contributions of Hispanic-Latino individuals in your community.
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Newsletters
- Dr. David Upp Mission Link August 2018
- Employee Assistance Program newsletter, July 2018: Internet addiction
- Employee Assistance Program newsletter, August 2018: Cranky co-workers
- Ministry Matters, August 2, 2018
- UMCom Resources for Ministry, August 2, 2018
- Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation, August 5, 2018
- UM Now: Inspiration for Daily Living, August 6, 2018
- A Sermon for Every Sunday, August 7, 2018
- MyCom by United Methodist Communications, August 7, 2018
- Leading Ideas from Lewis Center for Church Leadership, August 8, 2018
Blogs and opinion
- Getting into podcasting: In his In Layman’s Terms blog, communications director Todd Seifert delves into the world of podcasting, and how it can benefit pastors and churches. “Clergy and laity alike can use podcasts to record discussions on timely mercy and justice topics of interest to the congregation. Podcasts can be used to provide a midweek devotion or to tease an upcoming sermon series. Interviews with church members can be used to introduce the surrounding community to the people in the congregation,” he writes. “And that’s only the beginning of the possibilities.” The blog is accompanied by a how-to video by the Rev. Ben Hanne, campus minister at Southwestern College and a podcasting aficionado.
- Scaling that mountain: Wesley United Methodist Church in Erie, Pennsylvania, has a creative discipleship ministry plan. They use a mountain climbing theme, based on a trek up Mount Everest, according to Jeff Campbell of Discipleship Ministries. Rev. Pam Gardner and her team crafted the well-developed plan to help their people grow as disciples. They invite people to begin “the journey of a lifetime.”
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Classifieds
More available at www.greatplainsumc.org/classifieds.
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