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THIS WEEK'S NEWS
Virtual annual conference brimming with celebrations, challenges
#LoveStrong begins with reconnecting
Looking to neighbors to fix neighborhoods
CLERGY EXCELLENCE
Upcoming webinars provide more information about Culture of Call
Mutual Aid Association helps clergy in their time of need
EQUIPPING DISCIPLES
EmberHope Youthville is seeking volunteers
UMM announces recipients of 100 Club scholarships
Sign up to write one of our Daily Devotions
MERCY & JUSTICE
Berryton UMC participates in Nehemiah Action for Topeka JUMP
Micah Corps learns about justice, gardens, social principles
RESPIRCES
Helping pastors through difficult transitions
Applications open for first cohort of Testimony congregational initiative
ACROSS THE CONNECTION
Sewing group leads to dresses for girls in Haitian orphanages
Adam Hamilton is guest on clergy podcast
Magazine profiles COR’s video production manager
Wichita church keeps track of rooftop goose
Pastor’s wife celebrates her 100th birthday
In other news
Newsletters
Classifieds
Virtual annual conference brimming
with celebrations, challenges
 
The eighth Great Plains Annual Conference session, and its second in a distanced format forced by the coronavirus pandemic, took place Friday-Saturday, May 28-29..
“This is another way of meeting together,” Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. said at the opening of the session, from a studio at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood.
Most of the reports necessary by the Book of Discipline were presented in recorded videos, while the bishop; the Rev. Nan Kaye-Skinner, secretary; and Jesi Lipp, parliamentarian, were at the table in Leawood.
Voting this year took place entirely through the V-Voter system. The bishop acknowledged the frustration many people have with technology and asked for patience and grace for those experiencing difficulty.
“We are all digital immigrants in some way or another,” he said.
Read a recap here.
See photos from the memorial service, including baptisms.
Videos of individual reports from the conference should be available at greatplainsumc.org by June 11.
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#LoveStrong begins
with reconnecting
June 2 is the first time Major League Baseball is celebrating the late great Lou Gehrig. His career was cut short by the onset of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). He died just a few years later after leaving baseball where he was known as the Iron Horse. ALS attacks the body by breaking down the communication between the brain and upper motor neurons. People who are diagnosed with ALS typically live only 2-5 years. There are exceptions like Steven Hawking who lived decades with the disease. The most recognizable form of ALS starts in the extremities and works its way to the center of the body. Other forms start in the bulbar area (speaking and swallowing), as well as respiratory.
Rev. Nathan Stanton, congregational excellence director, is being recognized on Lou Gehrig Day at the Kansas City Royals game, by sitting in the Buck O’Neill seat. This seat is in honor of the legendary Kansas City Monarchs player whose philanthropy off the field matched his greatness on the field. Stanton shares some of the journey and a personal challenge he is inviting family, friends, and colleagues, to share in called the #LoveStrong campaign. This is an invitation to take a picture with a loved one, a group, or an activity that has helped you stay strong through the pandemic and in the face of any challenge. #LoveStrong is about the connections we all rely on particularly when we face a diagnosis like ALS. There are three groups Stanton is elevating through this campaign that he names in the blog as well.
Read more of Stanton's thoughts about reconnection and the start of a campaign called #LoveStrong.
Tickets for the Royals game Thursday are still available in the Great Plains Conference's block of seats. Tickets are $28 each, with parking passes available at nearly 50% off. If interested, email TeamStanton@greatplainsumc.org for details and purchasing.
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Looking to neighbors
to fix neighborhoods
An activist who believes residents are the most important key to improving in-danger neighborhoods has won a Tom Locke Innovative Leader Award from the Wesleyan Investive. DeAmon Harges, whose work in Asset Based Community Development has been studied by the Great Plains Conference, works to improve northwest Indianapolis and consults all over the world.
Read more here and watch video.
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Clergy Excellence
Upcoming webinars provide more
information about Culture of Call
The Culture of Call Grant was designed to provide churches, campus ministries, United Methodist organizations and districts in the Great Plains UMC with resources to fuel their imaginations in creating opportunities to cultivate a Culture of Call. Grants will be awarded in the range of $500-$2,000. Since 2016, we’ve awarded 65 grants totaling almost $105,000!
Special opportunity for 2021: Are you interested in learning more about what a Culture of Call is? Do you want to learn more about how to make the most of a Culture of Call Grant opportunity? We’re offering an hour-long webinar that will include identifying what it means to have a “Culture of Call” and hearing from pastors, campus ministers, or other leaders who have a robust sense of Culture of Call in their context. You’ll be split up into a breakout room for some small group discussion and can expect to walk away from the webinar with the following:
- Describe what it means for a community to have a Culture of Call
- Identify Questions about calling in your context
- Brainstorm possibilities for your ministry context to cultivate a culture of call
- Create a “Next Step” plan
- Receive a Resource Kit to share with people who are exploring calling
The cost for participation is $10 and will include a box of resources (valued at over $50) sent to you after the webinar. The webinar will be held:
- Tuesday, June 8, 10 a.m. CT
- Thursday, August 12, 10 a.m. CT
Learn more about the webinar and register here: www.greatplainsumc.org/culture-of-call-webinars.
To see some FAQs about the grant, read reports of previous grant recipients, and find the application, check out the grant website: www.greatplainsumc.org/cocgrant
2021 Grant deadlines:
- Sept. 15 — Late Deadline, Awards announced Oct. 1
- Oct. 8 — Distribution of funds
Questions? Contact Rev. Ashlee Alley Crawford, aalleycrawford@greatplainsumc.org, 785-414-4216
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Mutual Aid Association helps
clergy in their time of need
When a Great Plains minister or spouse dies, do you have an effective way to show you care about them? The Great Plains United Methodist Conference Mutual Aid Association was started to do just that.
The Mutual Aid Association provides a Sympathy Expressing Gift of $1,700 every time a member dies. When a member dies a Call Letter is sent or emailed to the other members of the Mutual Aid Association. The living members each send in $5 to the Mutual Aid Association treasurer. The treasurer then sends a $1,700 check to a designated beneficiary of the member who has died. Along with the check goes a list of the members who contributed the money. Since 1917 more than 820 families have benefited from this sympathy expressing gift.
If you would like more information about the Great Plains Mutual Aid Association, contact Rev. Bob Neben at nebenmary@hotmail.com or by calling him at 402-499-3636. This is a great way to show you care when a Great Plains minister or spouse dies.
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Equipping Disciples
EmberHope Youthville
is seeking volunteers
EmberHope Youthville could use your helping hand! After 90 years of providing service to the children in our care, the EmberHope Youthville Newton campus needs a “freshening” up with new coats of paint, accompanied by a maintenance and repair honey-do list.
Do you paint? Are flower beds your specialty? How about cleaning? Do you have a special skill, you could help us out with? We’ve designated the week of June 28 as Volunteer Week, inviting friends to campus to help us complete projects.
Other ways to help during volunteer week are providing meals to volunteers or offering financial support for EmberHope Youthville to purchase food items. Donated bottles of water would be most helpful too or again, offering financial support and we will purchase the bottled water.
Rally your teammates, coworkers, church members, classmates, or neighbors and join us on the EmberHope Youthville campus for a week of ministry and camaraderie, in addition to a free t-shirt!
To sign up, please contact Courtney Emery at cemery@emberhope.org or 316-202-7180 by June 21.
--Courtney Emery, EmberHope Youthville
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UMM announces recipients
of 100 Club scholarships
The United Methodist Men’s 100 Club has named the recipients of its 2021 scholarships.
They are Debra Copple, Debra Borgman, Daniele Rouse and Cameron Miller.
They will each receive $2,000 from the UMM One Hundred Club.
Find out more information on the Fleming Family Foundation and download a scholarship application.
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Sign up to write one
of our Daily Devotions
You have a perspective that's worth hearing, and we have openings for our Daily Devotions. What a match!
Dates for June and July are available for signup here.
Included is a link to the Vanderbilt lectionary to give you Biblical inspiration, although you may use any verse you wish. Write about 300 words and send it to us at least three days before the published date.
Thank you for considering writing one of our Daily Devotions!
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Mercy & Justice
Berryton UMC participates in
Nehemiah Action for Topeka JUMP
In 2020, Berryton United Methodist Church in Kansas received a Social Justice Seed Money grant from the Mercy & Justice Team of our Conference. This seed money helped the church to join Topeka JUMP, a social justice organization affiliated with DART (Direct Action and Research Training Center).
Read more here.
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Micah Corps learns about
justice, gardens, social principles
TK Maforo, a recent graduate of Conway Springs High School in Kansas, provides this week’s report from Micah Corps:
This week was our first full week on campus, and it was a busy week to say the least. Everybody has begun to get settled in and are becoming anxious for what the rest of the summer has in store.
We kicked off the week with a very informative meeting with the Great Plains peace and justice coordinator, Ms. Andrea Paret. She gave us many points to discuss as a group, and to contemplate for ourselves. The following day we visited The Big Garden, which is a non-profit organization based in Omaha devoted to food justice in the city and surrounding areas. Executive director Nathan Morgan showed us around the place and was very informative of the food crisis in the city. Wednesday, we discussed the book of social principles with Mr. Neal Christie over a Zoom call. We dove into some topics that are not always talked about and learned an abundance of new material. Our next meeting was with the Voices for Children organization. We spoke with research coordinator, Alfonso Vaca-Loyola, who gave us the statistics and logistics angle of the program. We also were given an insightful presentation by the executive director, Aubrey Mancuso.
The interns had been working all week preparing the first presentation, which was delivered to Lexington UMC as well as Cozad UMC. We split up the group in order to reach both crowds. Was a great first run, and we are now moving our attention to next week. Where we will be traveling to Wichita and presenting with one group in Argonia and one in Arkansas City.
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Resources
Helping pastors
through difficult transitions
A change in pastoral assignment marks a critical point in the life and ministry of pastors and their congregations, so it is important for pastors and churches to show grace at every step in the transition. The Rev. Rick Vance, United Methodist Men’s director of the Center for Men’s Ministry, offers some tips for how churches can support both the incoming and outgoing pastor.
Read more here.
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Applications open for first cohort of Testimony HQ congregational initiative
Applications will be accepted until July 1 from congregations interested in joining Perkins School of Theology’s Testimony HQ grant-funded initiative. Ten churches will be selected for the first cohort, which launches January 1, 2022. Churches within a 350-mile radius of Dallas, are eligible to apply. This includes churches in southern Kansas.
The program, supported by a $999,975 grant made through Lilly Endowment’s nationwide Thriving Congregations Initiative, aims to increase the practice of testimony as community engagement both inside and outside the church. The Rev. Priscilla Pope-Levison and Bart Patton of Perkins School of Theology are the co-principal investigators.
“The stories we tell our children, our neighbors, our co-workers about how, when and where we have experienced God remain the most winsome, invitational way for people, both inside and beyond the church, to encounter God for themselves,” said Pope-Levison. “We are looking for congregations, of any denomination, that are ready to focus wholeheartedly on testimony as community engagement.”
Find out more here.
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Across the Connection
Sewing group leads to dresses
for girls in Haitian orphanages
What started when Leona Tyler joined a sewing group at Grantville UMC in Kansas has grown to a project that has sent dresses to young girls at 22 orphanages in Haiti.
“They don't have anything,” Tyler said. “What little they have a storm will come, and they have nothing. I'm sure they are so proud to have a new dress.”
Read more from the Topeka Capital-Journal.
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Adam Hamilton is
guest on clergy podcast
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection, is a guest on the podcast “Something Two Say with Johnny and Sky,” hosted by two longtime clergy and friends.
Hamilton reflects on how COVID has made us reimagine how we do ministry. Reflecting on the highs and lows of the previous year, Hamilton speaks candidly about how he has been impacted.
Listen to the podcast here.
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Magazine profiles COR’s
video production manager
Video production, especially during the pandemic, has sometimes been a challenge for churches – especially so when your church is the largest United Methodist Church in the world.
Church Executive magazine this month features a cover story on Sandy Thailing, video production manager for Church of the Resurrection in Leawood and the challenges that he and his crew have faced over the past year.
Read more here.
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Wichita church keeps
track of rooftop goose
There’s a new resident at Wichita Woodlawn UMC, and her name is Lucy.
Lucy the goose found a home on the roof of the church, which set up a webcam to keep track of her movements – and to document Lucy giving life.
“We thought what is a way we can invite the community to join in on that joy without disturbing Lucy as she is doing her thing,” Pastor Valecia Scribner said.
See more from KSN.
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Pastor’s wife celebrates
her 100th birthday
Iola Hegle Schroeder celebrated her 100th birthday on May 25, 2021, in Shawnee, Kansas, where she currently resides in the skilled nursing care portion of Brookdale Rosehill.
Her late husband, Harvey, served EUB churches in Fremont, Kearney and Omaha; became chaplain at Methodist Hospital in 1969, and passed away in 1989.
Iola was born in Lost Springs, Kansas, and received a two-year secretarial degree from Western Union (later called Westmar College) in LeMars, Iowa, where she and Harvey met. She returned home where she worked as a secretary to a Marion County, Kansas, attorney until she and Harvey were married on June 6, 1944. Iola was secretary to President Harold Heininger at Evangelical Theological Seminary while Harvey attended school in Naperville, Illinois.
Harvey and Iola had three children: daughters Sandy Polson (now living in Durham, North Carolina) and Jeanette Grenz (now living in Overland Park) were born in Fremont and son Wayne (now living in Vista, California) was born in Kearney.
Friends can send cards to:
Iola Schroeder
12802 Johnson Drive
Shawnee, KS 66216
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In other news
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Newsletters
- Communication Essentials, June 2, 2021
- GCFA Collaborator, June 2021
- Leading Ideas, June 2, 2021
- CCLI, June 1, 2021
- A Sermon for Every Sunday, June 1, 2021
- The Source, June 1, 2021
- United Methodist Now, May 31, 2021
- Leading Ideas Talks, May 29, 2021
- UMCOMtigo (in Spanish), May 27, 2021
- Immigrant Legal Center, May 27, 2021
- Ministry Matters, May 26, 2021
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Classifieds
Classifieds are posted for 30 days unless otherwise requested. Submit your classified here.
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