Lay Delegate Report  

MN Annual Conference 2010

            Annual Conference is divided into two scenes: the worship, preaching, learning session and the business sessions.  First I will tell about the worship/learning portion and then the business session. 

Given that the United Methodist mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, rethinking worship so we can transform lives was the theme of Dr. Marcia McFee, the United Methodist worship designer, leader and professor who led worship throughout the conference.  McFee said good worship requires planning and a sense of wonder in God’s presence.  She explained five practices that will transform our worship and our lives: 1. Leaders must model authentic spiritual leadership.  2. Don’t think of worship as a laundry list of actions to check off.  It should feel like a movement by people, from beginning to end.  Be intentional about transitions.  3. Think carefully through rituals—baptism, communion, etc.  On any given Sunday, someone in the congregation is having an important transition in their lives.  Help people through those transitions with carefully crafted rituals.  4. We all experience worship differently—(This is the part that spoke most clearly to me as a teacher because I used these techniques in my classroom.  That is to understand that we all learn in different ways.) through music, verbal linguistic, logic, spatial, color, bodily/kinesthetic, relating to others and exploring deep silences.  5. Planning ahead, particularly thematically with an anchor image through a season of services and an organizing factor that is a common thread from one service to the next can be very effective. 

Encouraging members to “rethink worship” the bishop in her Episcopal address said we need to nurture a sense of awe about God and a willingness to distinguish oneself and one’s church from other groups in our communities.  Every entity in this nation is rethinking what it is doing and the bottom line is money.  Bishop Dyck said the bottom line for the church, even as we work to be good stewards of our resources, isn’t money.  The bottom line is to share the gospel of Jesus with the world around us.  She said we won’t be a people of faith, cultivating spiritual vitality or reaching new people with our faith, unless we have a renewed sense of awe in God, and all that God has done and is doing for us.  She defined “awe” as the response to God’s palpable presence in life.  Unless we get “awed,” our faith erodes.  She went on tell us that good worship makes us odd.  “Odd” means that our world view is shaped by Jesus.  What makes us odd, what makes us different is that worship is the weekly framing story that shapes our lives with the gospel. 

At the lay session, Cindy Gregorson, director of congregational development, gave three necessities for a healthy church: cultural relevance, nourishing relationships, and life-giving behaviors.  More important are the three legs of the leadership stool necessary for church growth: spirituality, chemistry, and strategy. 

            In a moving transition worship segment, thirteen retiring clergy were recognized at the Wednesday banquet and thanked by Bishop Sally Dyck.  Hilda Parks who served this parish was among the retirees. Each of the retiring clergy passed a candle to a person to be newly ordained.

The business session.

Eight petitions to General Conference 2012 request the removal of all discriminatory language about homosexuality from the United Methodist Book of Discipline 2008.  Passage simply refers the petitions to the General Conference it does not change the current Book of Discipline.  The votes for each averaged 400 in favor to 230 against.       

The conference apportioned budget was approved at $6,542,436 or about the same as 2004.  Twelve percent for unremitted apportionments is added for a total of 7,434,586.  The 2011 budget is 147,000 below the 2010 budget.  Pastor Taylor chairs the Budget Process Team and presented that information at the conference.  In 2009, Minnesota United Methodist congregations remitted 85.9 percent of the total.  This church has paid 100 percent of its apportionments for 41 years.  That is something to celebrate. 

The way we compensate clergy also changed.  Rather than a 25 step salary schedule, we will have an eight step schedule that requires the local congregation to negotiate salaries after 8 years of service.  The schedule provides flexibility for experienced pastors to serve smaller but promising churches that need skilled leaders but cannot afford the salary required by the previous schedule.