AC 2016 Daily
Recap from June 1, 2016
Welcome to Topeka, Kansas, and the 2016 Great Plains United Methodist Conference Session!
The weather will be on the warm side. We hope you enjoy the city and its amenities, while taking in the grand worship, productive business and timely learning of this conference session.
Each day there will be a special edition of "GPconnect." You can expect to receive GPconnect Daily today through Saturday. Below you can find information on what attendees can expect during AC 2016, along with announcements and featured stories.
Watch the live streaming of the session at www.greatplainsumc.org/livestream. See the official schedule to help make your viewing plans. View photos on our AC Flickr album, as we will update it daily. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to view additional photos and stay current with everything AC 2016. Don't forget to use hashtag #GPUMC and #GPAC16. Have a great week.
Bishop Jones, Fowler give state of conference
With a focus on the recently completed General Conference in Portland, Oregon, Great Plains lay leader Courtney Fowler and Bishop Scott J. Jones delivered their State of the Conference addresses Wednesday afternoon.
Fowler said the two-week conference was a “spiritually challenging experience” where she learned more of the “vast global nature of our denomination.”
In the midst of all of the parliamentary procedure disagreements and continued calls for points of order, Fowler wondered, “What was God thinking about us then?”
She said the denomination needs to find some mutual ground.
“We can’t wait for people to believe the same as we do,” she said.
Bishop Jones praised the Great Plains clergy and laity delegates in Portland for their involvement, both in motions on the floor and ceremonies on the stage.
“They weren’t just sitting there watching this happen,” he said. “You should be proud of them.”
Jones, leaving as bishop after 12 years and overseeing the merger of the Kansas East and West and Nebraska conferences into the Great Plains, looked back at what had been done during that time.
“It has been amazing to see how we have all grown together to become the Great Plains Conference,” he said.
Despite the large geography of the conference – Jones said it’s a 10 ½-hour drive from the conference office in Wichita to the furthest regions of Nebraska – there have been accomplishments including The One Event, a youth rally in Grand Island that draws from throughout the Great Plains.
“We are a big conference that can do amazing things,” he said.
The bishop’s message was not all congratulatory, going back to the original goals of the newly formed conference to see what has fallen short.
The conference is “behind the curve” in planting new churches and revitalizing existing congregations, he said.
The average age of clergy in the conference has risen to 57, he said, and more than half of the churches have had no professions of faith in the past year.
Pastors, Jones said, don’t talk enough about money to their congregation, even though Jesus mentions it more often than prayer In the New Testament.
Jones was brought nearly to tears twice in his last address to the Great Plains Conference. Just because he’s moving on to another conference, he said, “it doesn’t mean I don’t care.”
“I love you all,” he said. “Mary Lou (Reece, his wife) and I will always love you.”
Bishop Jones officiates his final annual conference session opening worship for the Great Plains
Punctuated by the music of the Thundering Cats big band from Manhattan, Kansas, the opening worship service of the 2016 Great Plains Annual Conference featured the last sermon by Scott J. Jones as its bishop.
“We are one body of Christ,” said Jones, whose term as Great Plains bishop ends on Aug. 31. “What an example that is to the world.”
As he elaborated in his State of the Conference address, Jones said change is vital in growing as a church.
“When did we as United Methodists become so institutional that we can’t adapt to new situations?” he asked.
Showing a clip from “The Lion King,” Jones said United Methodists should be proud of who they are.
“I’m convinced that the best days of the Wesleyan movement in the United States are still ahead of us,” he said. “We just need to remember who we are.”
Laity session begins annual conference session
The opening laity session of the Great Plains Annual Conference Session was a time of sharing the good that churches throughout Kansas and Nebraska are doing in their communities.
From new community food pantries to helping early grade-schoolers to memorize Scripture, lay delegates to the conference rose in the audience to tell of what their United Methodist churches were accomplishing.
Courtney Freeman Fowler, the conference lay leader, led the session and expressed her gratitude to those attending.
“How good it feels to be here with the familiar faces of people that I love,” Fowler said.
“It’s a blessing for me to look out at all these people who care about the work of the Lord,” she added. “Thank you – you are a blessing to us.”
Photo: Carolyn May, associate lay leader, presents the Angie Newman award to Greg Baur. Baur accepted the award on behalf of winner, Keitha Thomson, of First UMC in Nebraska City, Nebraska, who is currently on a mission trip.
20th anniversary of deacons celebrated
The 20th anniversary of ordained deacons in the United Methodist Church was celebrated with recognition of some of the 49 who have completed the process in the Great Plains Conference.
Greetings from Nigeria
Simon Benjamin, director of the United Methodist Orphanage in Jalingo, Nigeria, gave an update on the orphanage, and thanked the Great Plains Conference for the support and prayers. Benjamin, was among a total of four Nigerian delegates who attended General Conference in Portland, Oregon, along with the annual conference session.
33 interns commissioned
Thirty-three interns were commissioned on Wednesday. There are several different internships currently offered: Micah Corps, vacation Bible school, pastoral leadership, new church planting, Hispanic ministry and youth and community ministry.
