Download the printable version of the Oct. 10 issue of GPconnect.
In this edition:
THIS WEEK'S NEWS
Wichita, Hutchinson town halls draw more than 750 to hear of proposals
Blog shares details on resources for special General Conference session
Hutchinson church, school combine forces to boost youth
You can become a part of our new daily devotions!
GENERAL CONFERENCE
Plan approved for decision-making at special session in St. Louis
CLERGY EXCELLENCE
Today is deadline to register for Sacred Encounters/Fresh Expressions session
EQUIPPING DISCIPLES
OneEvent 2019 to look at ‘Word in Relationship’ with two pastors
MERCY & JUSTICE
Nationally known speaker coming to Creighton University in November
Nigeria Partnership benefits Jalingo Orphanage students at Africa University
ADMINISTRATION
Kansas UM Foundation announces October certificate rates
ACROSS THE CONNECTION
Children are future superheroes in South Hutch UMC Bible study
Baby remembered after 115 years in ceremony at York cemetery
Omaha’s Urban Abbey featured in New York Times article
In other news
Resources
Newsletters
Blogs and opinions
The week ahead
Classifieds
Wichita, Hutchinson town halls draw more than 750 to hear of proposals
Add about 750 south central Kansans to the list of those who have listened to the explanations of the three proposals for the future of the United Methodist Church after three sessions last weekend in Wichita and Hutchinson.
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. explained the details of the three plans -- One Church, Connectional and Traditional -- and took questions from members of the audience.
The next stop in the bishop's town hall meeting tour is for the Salina District, at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Salina Trinity UMC, 901 E. Neal Ave.
Read more about the Wichita and Hutchinson town halls.
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Blog shares details on resources for special General Conference session 
Discussions about human sexuality and the special session of General Conference planned for Feb. 23-26 in St. Louis can be difficult. Passions can run high both for progressives and traditionalists. And legislation proposed for consideration by the 864 delegates from around the world can be a real challenge to understand.
The Great Plains Conference communications team has been working with Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. to develop resources and to curate the work of others to help us all understand both the process and the content from the Commission on a Way Forward.
In this week’s “In Layman’s Terms” blog, Todd Seifert, conference communications director, shares details about resources developed so far and provides links to make them easy to find as you talk about human sexuality and the denomination’s ongoing dialogue within your local churches.
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Hutchinson church, school
combine forces to boost youth
Hutchinson Trinity United Methodist Church's partnership with Hutchinson High School goes beyond handing out school supplies.
The church is one of the major forces behind Salthawk Community Support, which provides funding and mentors for many of the high school's 1,500 students.
Read more about the partnership.
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You can become a part of
our new daily devotions!
The Great Plains Conference began a new look with new content for our Daily Devotional emails last week – and you can be a part of it!
The new, personal devotion space on the emails is open for contributions by clergy and laity from throughout the conference. Use the lectionary text choices that are provided as the basis for your devotional. There is a limit of 300 words, including a two-sentence prayer.
The next few weeks have been claimed. The deadline is two weeks before it appears in the daily email.
For more information on becoming a contributor to the devotions, contact communications administrative assistant Lisa Soukup at lsoukup@greatplainsumc.org, or 785-414-4235.
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General Conference
Plan approved for decision-making
at special session in St. Louis
The Commission on General Conference has decided on a process to help delegates to the 2019 special session do the legislative work together, without the usual prologue of meeting in multiple legislative committees.
Read more from the United Methodist News Service.
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Clergy Excellence
Today is deadline to register for Sacred Encounters/Fresh Expressions session
Today is the deadline to register for Sacred Encounters: Meeting God's People Where They Live, from 1-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at The 180 Room in Olathe.
The workshop will feature:
- Rev. Michael Beck, a national speaker for Fresh Expressions and a pastor of Wildwood UMC, a network of Fresh Expression communities
- Rev. Dr. Mike Graves, author and emeritus professor at Saint Paul School of Theology and an advocate for “Dinner Church”
- Rev. Lia McIntosh, missional strategist for the Missouri Conference.
With your $50 registration, you'll experience a content-rich, lively introduction to the Fresh Expressions movement that has captured the missional imagination of United Methodists around the world. Fresh Expressions is a movement that creates Christian communities with people who would never attend a regular church. Fresh Expressions have started in pubs, skateparks, living rooms and wherever people naturally gather for work, play and daily living.
Each of the day’s presenters will offer insight into creating sacred encounters within your community followed by a “dinner church” experience including a buffet catered by Joe’s Kansas City BBQ.
Hosted by Friends of Saint Paul School of Theology, the Sacred Encounters Retreat is endorsed by the Great Plains Conference and Saint Paul School of Theology and is supported in part by the Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation through the Pathways for Discipleship funds.
Download an event flier and schedule.
If you have any questions email Rena Yocom, renayocom@gmail.com.
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Equipping Disciples
OneEvent 2019 to look at
‘Word in Relationship’ with two pastors
One of the elements of the Trinitarian understanding of God is through relationship. It is a relationship that brings what is different together in harmony and life-giving way.
Relationships can tricky, especially in our politically divided environment where people are tempted to only to be in relationship with those who see reality from their perspective.
However, the relationship that we learn from the Triune God is not about uniformity, rather bringing those who are different and interpret reality from different perspectives together in mutual respect and support. When cultural, language and political differences make the situation more complex, our relationship through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit creates hope and grace-filled presence.
One of the workshops of the 2019 OneEvent is titled “The Word in Relationship,” featuring the Rev. Lora Andrews (top photo), pastor of Winfield Grace UMC, and the Rev. Molly Just (lower photo), director of discipleship at Southwestern College. Both have modeled how we can be in ministry together even when our theologies are different.
The Great Plains’ Congregational Excellence Team invites you to register for the OneEvent scheduled for Jan. 5-6 at the Tony’s Pizza Events Center in Salina. The 2019 OneEvent theme is the WORD. This theme is rooted in the Gospel of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
To learn more and to register, click this link.
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Mercy & Justice
Nationally known speaker coming
to Creighton University in November
Immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers and our governments’ immigration policies are in the news almost daily. People have very diverse views on why people come to our country and how we should treat them.
There is a lot of misinformation. Many of our citizens think that immigrants choose to not “stand in line” to get documents when in reality there are no lines to stand in for the majority of immigrants in our midst. The recent immigration raids in the O’Neill, Nebraska, community have caused a lot of suffering and fear for many families. Our immigration system is broken and needs to get fixed.
As Christians we have a special responsibility to care for the strangers among us. There are many verses in the Bible telling us to treat the stranger with compassion and love as if he or she were one of our own citizens.
The Great Plains Peace with Justice Ministries, the Omaha Area Sanctuary Network and Creighton University faculty met several months ago to discern how to offer educational events to help people better understand the situation of immigrants. Maria Mena-Bohlke, an instructor in Modern Languages and Literatures, has been the main organizer, contacting the speakers as well as many groups to ask for financial support.
The events will take place during International Education Week in November and are free and open to the public. At 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15, Sarah Stillman (pictured above) will be the speaker. Stillman is a staff writer for the New Yorker magazine. She is a MacArthur fellow and the director of the Global Migration Project at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. On Saturday, Nov. 17, Aviva “Avi” Chomsky will be one of several panel members. She is professor of history and coordinator of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies at Salem State University in Massachusetts. She is also the author of several books. One of them, “They Take Our Jobs! and 20 other myths about immigration,” was included in the 2010 United Methodist Women Reading Program.
“It is exciting to have these events come together after many weeks and months of planning,” said Andrea Paret, Peace with Justice Coordinator. “When we collaborate with others, we can do so much more. I am hoping that we will have good attendance and that those who come and participate will gain understanding for the often extremely difficult situation of immigrants in our midst.” Being well informed is crucial for people to take positive action for immigration reform. Peace with Justice Ministries, the Omaha Area Sanctuary Network, and Immigrant Legal Center are among the organizations co-sponsoring these events.
Here is more information on the events.
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Nigeria Partnership benefits Jalingo Orphanage students at Africa University
As our international mission partnerships have continued to grow and focus more on leadership development and education for young people, the Nigeria Partnership celebrates the three students from the Jalingo Orphanage who are attending Africa University in Zimbabwe, pictured from left,Simon Hassan, Lami Joseph and Uziel Stella, with Dr. Sang Heui Lee.
During a Zoom conversation with the three, all expressed their gratitude for the Great Plains Conference support, which enables them to attend a Pan-African University where they meet young people from several African countries.
In addition to the three students from the Nigeria Jalingo Orphanage, the Mercy & Justice Team has offered support for Dr. Sang Heui Lee, a lay member of First United Methodist Church in Pittsburg, Kansas, who wanted to use his sabbatical to be involved both in academic research and to be immersed in a place where he would be involved in the life of the United Methodist Church. Dr. Lee is teaching this fall at Africa University and working with an ecumenical students’ body through the Kwang Lim Chapel with Rev. Dr. Chikafu. Lee is also grateful for the opportunity our Zimbabwe partnership offered to travel to Zimbabwe and get a first-hand experience of Christianity in this part of the world.
This is a shift in our mission engagement, where the focus is on building relationship and supporting education and leadership development for young people. When Rev. Jacki Sincere from Haiti visited the Great Plains, he reminded the Haiti Partnership Team and the Mercy & Justice Team to “build the Haitian leaders up and leave it to them to decide if doing construction would lift Haiti out of poverty.” This shift is a result of three years of listening that the Mercy & Justice Team has been doing alongside all our three Mission Partnership Teams.\
The Great Plains has three international Partnerships: The Haiti Partnership, the Nigeria Partnership and the Zimbabwe Partnership. To learn more about any of these partnerships, contact Rev. Kalaba Chali at kchali@greatplainsumc.org or 785-414-4220.
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Administration
Kansas UM Foundation
announces October certificate rates
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A Certificate of Participation is an investment in building the United Methodist witness through the Kansas Area United Methodist Foundation’s loan program for Kansas and Nebraska United Methodist churches and agencies.
A Certificate of Participation is a time investment. An individual or church may invest a $1,000.00 minimum for one- or two-year participation so that you may strengthen the expansion of the United Methodist witness. Your $1000 investment could be used to purchase a new church building, renovate a church sanctuary, or to help construct a new church building.
Certificate of Participation October Rate: One Year: 1.45% Two Year: 1.75%
To learn more how you may increase your investments at the same time expanding the United Methodist witness, download promotional material for your church such as flyers, postcards or newsletter/bulletin ads, etc., at: www.kaumf.org or 1-888-453-8405.
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Across the Connection
Children are future superheroes in South Hutch UMC Bible study
As they walked into South Hutchinson United Methodist church a hush fell over the previously terribly loud room full of children and youth. They were quiet! What made them quiet? A respect for the men who had just entered into the room. Men in uniform, men who we consider modern day superheroes -- firefighters.
This year our youth are exploring the theme of superheroes complete with Bible superheroes and the superheroes from modern times. We have been praying the superman prayer, talking about people from the Bible such as Moses and Miriam, we have met a police officer and now firefighters from South Hutchinson Volunteer Department.
The children have been learning what they would have to do to be a superhero like the men and women who command respect when they walk into a room. Things like behaving in school, getting their high school diploma, and learning life-saving skills such as first aid.
At a time when our children are not given as much encouragement to make more of themselves, it’s been amazing to see them light up when introduced to someone who is super. Life saver, house saver, animal saver, community defender. We have plans to show them even more: Plans to contact those who serve in the armed forces, doctors, Taekwondo instructors, animals such as guide dogs and more. Why? To give our kids a fighting chance at knowing that all of this is possible. That they can be the superheroes of their generation.
As Philippians 4:13 says I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
-- Rev. Claire Gadberry
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Baby remembered after 115 years
in ceremony at York cemetery
A little more than two months after he was born, Lyle Durwood died at the Mother’s Jewels Home, the predecessor to the Great Plains Conference-supported Epworth Village in York, Nebraska.
Not much is known about the orphaned boy – or even if Lyle Durwood is his real name – but even 115 years after he was born, a ceremony took place last week at a York ceremony to the child that “God never forgot.”
Read more from the York News-Times.
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Omaha’s Urban Abbey
featured in New York Times article
Urban Abbey, Omaha’s coffeehouse, bookstore and United Methodist Church, was featured in an article in the New York Times in an Oct. 3 story about the city’s “progressive approach to free time.”
Writer Lucas Peterson describes the experience:
There are modern church services in the shop’s warm, open space (“The World According to Mister Rogers” is the name of one sermon series) and part of my purchase ($2.50 for a mango peach iced tea) went to benefit Nebraska Appleseed, an organization that supports immigrant rights. I wondered if activism with a decidedly progressive bent struggled to thrive in a state as red as Nebraska, and I asked Eithne Leahy, an Omaha native who was working behind the counter. “It sort of works,” she said. “There’s lots of great work being done on a grass-roots level with nonprofits and churches. But with the government …” She paused. “Not so much.”
Read more in the NYT’s Frugal Traveler column.
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In other news
Resources
How can you appreciate your pastor?
This is Pastor Appreciation Month, and specifically the second Sunday in October is Pastor Appreciation Day. Sure, a card and the literal or figurative pat on the back may be a way to show appreciation, but have you thought of something deeper?
Laurens Glass from United Methodist Communications talked to pastors and parishioners, and her findings can help you show appreciation to your congregation’s spiritual leader.
Read more from UMC.org.
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Newsletters
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Blogs and opinions
- Should be hard to leave denomination: The Rev. Lovett H. Weems Jr. (pictured above) argues that The United Methodist Church should not loosen the trust clause or in other ways make it easier for congregations to leave the denomination. "Moving too quickly to the option of leaving removes the needed impetus to stay with the struggle and undermines the historic, though inadequately lived out, goal of unity among Christians," writes Weems, of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary.
- Expand to keep healthcare in rural Kansas: The closing of a second Kansas hospital because of the high volume of uninsured patients is avoidable, says David Jordan, president of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund. “At the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, we understand how important a sustainable health system is to rural Kansas communities,” Jordan writes in a guest column in The Hutchinson News. “Over the last two decades, we provided support to strengthen our rural health care system, better integrate services and make care more patient-centered. We aim to help rural communities build new, sustainable models for healthcare, which is why we partner with hospitals.”
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The week ahead
Classifieds
See more and submit your own free ads at greatplainsumc.org/classifieds.
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