By Heather Hahn, UMNS

Photo illustration by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications

The New York Conference’s board of ordained ministry announced March 1 that it would not consider sexual orientation in evaluating a clergy candidate, even if that individual has a spouse of the same gender.

The board “has observed vital, effective ministry from clergy married to a spouse of the same sex,” said a statement by the Rev. William B. Pfohl, the board’s chair and lead pastor of Jesse Lee Memorial United Methodist Church in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

The statement continues: “Quite simply, discriminating against married persons regardless of the gender of their spouse or against those who hope to be married is not the path we believe God is calling us to walk.”

The move puts the conference on a potential collision course with the denomination’s official teachings on human sexuality. It also comes just weeks after the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s board of ordained ministry announced it was recommending a married lesbian, Tara “T.C.” Morrow, as a provisional deacon.

The Baltimore-Washington Conference board’s recommendation of Morrow still needs the approval of the annual conference’s clergy session, which votes on all clergy candidates. But Pfohl said his understanding is that the board does not need his annual conference’s ratification to set standards for clergy effectiveness.

“We’re amenable to the annual conference, but we’ve been elected to carry out that charge (of setting standards),” he told United Methodist News Service. “This is the functional way the board is working, and we’re being transparent.”

Thirty members of the New York board approved the standards on Feb. 20 by a secret-ballot vote of more than 75 percent, Pfohl said. The standards also affirm celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage between two people.

Bishop Jane Allen Middleton, who is New York’s interim leader, said she is aware of the board’s decision.

“As president of the New York Annual Conference, I preside over persons who will agree and others who will disagree with this decision,” she said in a statement. “These are difficult times in the life of our denomination, and my intent is to provide fairness and respect for all. I call for all of us to strive to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ wherever we stand on this issue.”

General Conference’s approach

Both the actions in New York and Baltimore-Washington come as the denomination prepares for the 2016 General Conference on May 10-20 in Portland, Oregon. Many United Methodist leaders expect the most passionate debates at the denomination’s top legislative assembly to deal with how the denomination ministers with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The Book of Discipline, the church law book, bans “self-avowed practicing” gay individuals from “being certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.” Under church law, “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy could face church trials and be stripped of their credentials.

The church’s teachings on human sexuality are routinely debated at General Conference, as it considers to the Book of Discipline. But that debate has intensified as more jurisdictions, including the United States, have legalized same-sex civil marriage. Some United Methodists are calling for schism.

In the meantime, boards of ordained ministry are dealing with the ban in a variety of ways, with some essentially practicing a version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

For instance, the Rev. Dan Hurlbert, chair of the Desert Southwest Conference board of ordained ministry, said that his board has no official position. However, during his tenure, sexual orientation has not been a determining factor in anyone’s candidacy, ordination or ongoing ministry.

Hurlbert said some might describe this as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” which he said he personally sees as lacking dignity and far from ideal. And, he added, he wonders “how The United Methodist Church came to be behind the U.S. military on a social justice issue. A closet with an open door is still a closet. I pray for that day when all who are called can serve openly and as who God made them to be.”

Development of New York policy

Pfohl told the United Methodist News Service that the board’s decision is independent of General Conference’s rapid approach.

Instead, he said the board’s move is a response to the New York Annual Conference’s 2014 resolution “Our Vision of a Beloved and Just Community,” which declared the conference “to be the place where LGBTQIQ persons can find safe space.” The initials stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, intersex and questioning.

“We take seriously our responsibility to try and identify and support and prepare clergy who will be fruitful in our ministry settings. We want the best possible people the Lord has raised up,” Pfohl said. “We understand that there are parts of the Discipline that give some descriptions of what they expect that to look like.”

But he added that the board determined that the Discipline’s restrictions on gay clergy are not where it should focus its attention.

Not every board member sees the policy as a right for the conference. The Rev. Roy Jacobsen, a retired pastor and current New York Conference board of ordained ministry member, was not able to attend the vote. But if he had, he said he would have voted against it.

“Speaking personally, I can say this policy will have huge consequences for churches, for pastors and for laity consequences ─ negative consequences,” he said.

Jacobsen is a leader in the Wesley Fellowship, an unofficial New York Conference advocacy group that he says is still working on a response.

The Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, vice president and general manager of Good News, said that he does not think his group has any recourse against the board itself, but said a newly ordained or licensed gay clergy member could face a complaint.

His denomination-wide advocacy group seeks to keep the current language in the Discipline regarding homosexuality and strengthen penalties against those who defy those teachings.

He sees the Baltimore-Washington board’s action as a “shirking of responsibility,” but sees the New York Conference as in some ways even more extreme.

“The New York action ups the ante in terms of a very blatant and open statement to violate the Discipline,” he said. “The church cannot continue to exist as a denomination with conferences openly or even covertly violating our covenant.”

What this means going forward

Still others praised the board’s move.

The majority of voters in the New York Conference have repeatedly approved petitions to General Conference seeking to change church law on homosexuality.

The Northeastern Jurisdiction, of which the New York and Baltimore-Washington conferences are members, has submitted a petition “that enables ministry with LGBTQ persons, while allowing each clergyperson, church, and annual conference freedom to abide by decisions of conscience.”

“The New York Conference for decades has been visibly, vocally and passionately opposed to the UMC’s discrimination and hate language against LGBTQI people, and this is a continuation of that,” said Dorothee Benz, a General Conference delegate and national representative of MIND (Methodists in New Direction), an unofficial New York Conference group that sponsored the 2014 conference resolution and advocated for the board’s new standards.

The conference already has had openly gay individuals among its clergy. The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, who married her wife in 2008, faced a complaint in 2013 accusing her of being a “self-avowed practicing” lesbian. The complaint was subsequently dismissed the following year without a trial or any penalty.

Tweedy said in her autobiographical statement during her clergy candidacy, she noted she told the board she was in a partnership with the woman who is now her wife. “No one chose to ask me any questions about that,” she recalled.

She said the board’s move will help people minister more authentically.  “It’s a beautiful day in the New York Conference,” she said.

Benz agreed.

“What’s so important about the public statement is it says we’re moving away from ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” Benz said, “and we’re moving into open affirmation as whole people, and we’re no longer going to make heterosexuality a criterion for ministry.”

Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Christina Dillabough of the Desert Southwest Conference and Kathy Gilbert, a UMNS reporter, contributed to this story. Contact them at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Special to the UMConnection

Isabella Yosuico holds her son, Isaac, the inspiration behind MightyTykes.

When self-described special needs “mompreneur” Isabella Yosuico gave birth to her son Isaac, who has Down syndrome, she could never have imagined where it would lead.

Today, Yosuico, who attends First UMC in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., (pastored by the Rev. Doug Hoffman) with husband Ray and sons Pierce and Isaac, is marking two major milestones for the company inspired by Isaac.  MightyTykes is starting 2016 off having landed its first international reseller as well as leading online retailer wal-mart.com in January.

Yosuico was told at her 12-week prenatal check-up that Isaac was likely to have a genetic condition. When a diagnosis of Down syndrome was confirmed shortly after Isaac’s birth in 2010, Yosuico learned more about the challenges he would face, including hypotonia or poor muscle tone, common in kids with Down syndrome and many other conditions.

Inspired by the wrist and ankle weights she often used while running on her treadmill, she created a tiny set of weights with some leftover fleece and sandbox sand and started using them with tiny Isaac, soon seeing results.

Isaac’s physical therapist was impressed and urged Yosuico to explore manufacturing them. After much research, Isabella developed some prototypes to share with parents and therapists at hospitals from the US News & World Report Honor Roll of Top  Children’s Hospitals.

Yosuico soon learned that the weights could help with many different conditions and challenges including prematurity, autism-spectrum disorders, sensory processing disorder, toe-walking, cerebral palsy, tremors and simple weakness. Encouraged by the positive response, she developed a business plan to secure an economic development loan, launching a company called MightyTykes in May 2014.

In just 18 months, sales have steadily increased and the company has enjoyed a growing following, accolades and extensive media coverage including being singled out during West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s 2015 State of the State address, having its story featured in Guideposts magazine in July 2015, and securing several national catalog resellers.

In December, MightyTykes also received a substantial order from international reseller exploreyoursenses.com and U.S. mega-retailer wal-mart.com.

“This has been an extraordinarily challenging, humbling and really rewarding experience,” Yosuico said. “Hearing how the weights are helping kids all over has kept me going during the low points and God has been so faithful, even when I wasn’t.”
Yosuico explained that she has clearly seen God’s hand in the process all along.

“God continues to reveal himself to me,” she said, “from seeing how he’s personally prepared me to do this, marshalling all my life experience and faith, his miraculous provision of resources and amazing people to help, and just doing exceedingly and abundantly more than I could ask for or imagine.”

MightyTykes has also afforded Yosuico some speaking and writing opportunities through which she’s  been able to share the Gospel and her own testimony, which she feels is an awesome privilege.

No matter what happens, Yosuico affirms that the greatest gift of all has been Isaac himself. “At first frightened, angry and disheartened,” she said. “I could never have imagined how much joy and wisdom Isaac would bring to me, my family, and all who meet him. He’s an extraordinary blessing who just keeps on giving.”

By Carol Anderson*

A young member of Captiol Hill UMC hands out Valentines during a visit to the First District Substation in Washington, D.C.

Pop sensation Adele wasn’t only at the Grammys. She also was well represented at a Capitol Hill police station.

At the 17th Annual Police Valentine Tribute, a group of church and community members turned Adele’s mega-hit “Rolling in the Deep” into “Patrolling City Streets,” and honored many officers by name in the lyrics. Soloist Dan Felton handled the more acrobatic parts of the song, with everyone singing the chorus. A second song for the officers, titled, “Anytime We Need to Call,” was sung to the tune of “Ain’t No Sunshine.”

Each February, members of Capitol Hill UMC, Ebenezer UMC, and other community leaders descend on the First District Substation (1D1) at 5th & E St., SE, in Washington, D.C., to thank neighborhood police for their dedicated service. They surprise police officers with valentines, good food, gag gifts and songs written in their honor. Each time an officer heard his name, a loud “That’s me!” rang out.

“This annual tradition is a great way that neighbors share a heartfelt thank-you to the men and women of our city’s police department for the hard work they do each and every day on our behalf,” said Ward 6 DC Councilmember Charles Allen, who regularly attends the celebrations.

Knowing the officers love attention from the kids, Capitol Hill’s Deacon of Discipleship, Troy Sims, kicked things off by presenting a “boatload” of valentines from the church’s Sunday school kids, which were stuffed inside a big paper boat they had made especially for the police.  Sims then gave a brief homily and concluded by leading children and adults in singing an energetically choreographed “Pharaoh, Pharaoh.”

The Rev. Alisa Wailoo, left, pastor of Capitol Hill UMC, stands wtih Capt. Mark Beach.

The Rev. Alisa Wailoo, pastor at Capitol Hill, encouraged the officers to come to CHUMC for breakfast or lunch, where they would be warmly welcomed with hearty food and fellowship.

“We are grateful for the officers of 1D1,” said Wailoo. “From the moment I arrived on the Hill in 2008, there has been a beat officer ready to partner with us to help those in need and to keep our community safe. We deeply appreciate how you sacrifice for and serve our neighborhood.”

After the music, officers dove into the food or started checking out the gag gifts — or both. Suddenly bubbles appeared everywhere as they realized their “light sabers” were really bubble-making wands. But the 1D1 crew gave as good as they got. They presented the church kids with a box-load of individual bags of candy they had put together as a thank you gift.

“The kindness and generosity of the members of Capitol Hill UMC and Ebenezer UMC will long be remembered,” said Captain Mark Beach, interim chief of 1D1. “We are humbled that you would bring our community together to show support and appreciation for the officers who serve this community.”

Beach said that the church’s efforts don’t go unnoticed by the police.

“For the 17th straight year now, this outpouring of love and kindness resonates deeply as America struggles to maintain strong relations between police and the citizenry,” Beach said. “It has been my honor to work with such an outstanding group who are committed to serving others.  Thank you all so much.”

Echoing Beach, Robert J. Contee, the new First District Commander, said he, too, was grateful for the show of generosity toward the officers.

The kids were as excited as the cops. One little boy said, “I’ve been inside a hospital. I’ve been inside a fire station. Now my wish has come true — I’ve been inside a real police station!”

*Carol Anderson is a member of Capitol Hill UMC and coordinator/founder of CHUM Women, which organizes the police tribute each year.

By Mike Beiber*

Breaking his “cover:” the Rev. Mike Beiber, right, stands with his wife, Cherish, and son, Oliver.

One of the guilty pleasures of being clergy is visiting other churches “undercover” where nobody knows that I’m a pastor. I get to sit in a pew and worship like everyone else, and I get to experience the welcome and fellowship of a church.

One thing I find particularly interesting is the welcome that I, my wife and my son tend to receive as a young family. I always feel bad, because there is no way I’m coming back next Sunday; I’ve got my own church people to lead and my own sermons to preach, thank you very much.

Wonderful as these welcomes may be, there is often a certain flavor to them that disturbs me both as a visitor and as a pastor: the flavor of desperation. Sometimes it comes across subtly but often it is blatantly obvious through remarks like, “We’re so glad you’re here — we need young people in our church.” (Whoa there hoss, I’m just visiting — I’m not taking vows of membership just yet!)

Then there were the folks that asked for our home address so they could pick us up for Bible study – and offered to stay at our house to watch our son. (I’m pretty sure I saw something like that on an episode of “Criminal Minds” — so no thanks.)

One person even used the term “fresh blood” in their conversation with us. (Thanks for the imagery, well-meaning but creepy church person; we will show ourselves to the door now.)

It felt that they did not see us as people in need of a community in which we could come to know and follow Jesus. Rather it felt as if we were a rare prize to them that they were clawing at, hoping to catch and keep as their own.

While I hope no one reading this has ever said or done anything like this, let’s admit something. When a young family darkens the doors of your church, someone’s heart is going to skip a beat. “Young people!” church people’s souls proclaim. “Surely they have come to join and bring new life to our church!”

Okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but you get my point.

It’s great to welcome young adults to your church. It’s important to think of ways to invite and include them into the whole of the church’s life, just as it is important to do so for every person of every age. But listen, young people come to churches for many various reasons but they aren’t there to save your church or to give it new life.

Jesus is the one who has saved your church. He is the one who will breathe new life into your congregation. That truth is at the very foundation of who we are. How often do we forget this and instead reach out for whatever else we think can give us hope and a future?

Young adults in our churches do not give us these things. Rather, our hope and future and the grace we need to strive towards it are provided to us by God. As the Body of Christ, we are to then offer this hope to people, not expect it from them.

Young adults don’t need a church that is desperate for them to be there. Young adults need a church that is desperately in love with its Lord, and freely shares His love with others.

So if you’re worried that you might have acted as one of the offenders I mentioned above, don’t worry; you’re forgiven. Both God and the folks you may or may not have creeped-out know you meant well.

But the next time a young person walks into your church, remember something before you run over to them. God doesn’t call us to reach out to anyone because they offer us hope. God calls us to reach out to people so we can share and embody the hope of Jesus Christ with them.

* The Rev. Mike Beiber is pastor of Mt. Zion UMC in Myersville.

By Jeff Jones*

The Rev. Jeff Jones, who is putting his faith into action by running for Congress.

Have you ever thought, “I’m sick and tired of all this mess in politics” and feel like someone ought to do something about that?  Well I do and I’m doing something about it. We Can Do Better.

On Groundhog’s Day, I signed up to be a candidate for the United States Congress in the 8th District of Maryland, which includes parts of Montgomery County, Frederick County and Carroll County. The primary is Tuesday, April 26.

As far as I can tell, there are four others doing the same. When I was first motivated to do this, there weren’t any. Now it’s going to be a lot more work.

I am running because I really was sick of the gridlock in Congress. I was upset with the apparent staking of claims and not being willing to budge or compromise or move off the position that brought us here, even if it meant the government could be shut down.

I’m also really sick of the treatment some people are getting from some candidates about gun control, immigration, health care, and the list just seems to keep on going. We Can Do Better.

I’m running because of my faith. There is a time to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. There is a time when we remember that St. Paul admonished us to pray for our government leaders because it’s ordained by God that when it’s good, it defends against evil and protects the poor and needy. I don’t feel that is what our government is doing anymore. So I’m putting prayers into action.

I am enough of a realist to know that this is an incredible challenge, but we can do better, and I want to try in this election. Running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic district is crazy too. But… I will have some time to ask people to remember that we ought to govern as Lincoln said so well, so that from this Earth no government will perish that “is of the people, by the people and for the people.”

I’m running because we need some good brought back into the system that determines so much of our resources. John Wesley was so right when he said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”

I feel that for the time leading up to the primary election, I may get a chance to practice what I’ve done my whole ministry: build a foundation for good; work as a bridge builder; and help couples and congregations work through the differences to come to a good place. I want to use my experience with coaching, scouting, community service projects, and rehabilitation challenges, to apply it to our government. I hope that there may be some good publicity generated in this campaign that would get people thinking about common sense and the common good for us all.

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Philippians 4:8, NKJV).

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. We need a fresh voice to proclaim that we still have dreams. To paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., that we will count, not because of “the color of our skin, or our country of origin, but by the content of our character.” I believe that someone should say, “Can’t we all just get along?” and recognize what is the best for our nation in the long run. We Can Do Better.

Therefore, I put my hat in the ring. I am now certified — or certifiable (as some may say) —   but I love this country and I’m at the age and place where maybe I can use my years of service to serve in another type of parish.
Blessings to you all.

*The Rev. Jeff Jones is pastor of North Bethesda UMC in Bethesda.

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

Smiles tend to follow Bill Weller around. But the laughter has a purpose, it helps point people to God’s love.

Weller, the president of the Baltimore-Washington Conference United Methodist Men, is quick with a joke. He also shares his faith with a Marble Moving Ministry.

This is how it works. He stocks up on marbles at the dollar store and carries them in his bag or pocket. When he sees someone he would like to share his faith with (and he likes to share his faith with everyone), Weller approaches them and says, “Hi, there.”

He then launches into a simple script: “I want to share with you that in my church I am part of a group of people who are called Marble Movers. When we find someone that has helped us or we can just tell they need an encouraging word, we give them a gift.

Bishop Marcus Matthews, left, receives a marble from Bill Weller.

Have the marble already in your hand, Weller explained, and extend your hand so they can tell you want to give them something. As you place the marble in their hand and gently fold their fingers around the marble you say, “When you feel this in your pocket, when you see it on your desk or your bureau tonight and for as long as it lasts and it will last longer than you, it will remind you that God Loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day.”

If it feels right, Weller then invites people to join him in getting a positive start on each day with a morning prayer group that meets on the phone.

“Each day at 5:55 a.m., there are about 20 of us that try to move a marble every day.  We also read a scripture and have a meditation,” he said.

The number  for the prayer group is 605-562-3000; the PIN is 710605#

As president of the conference United Methodist Men, Weller’s ministry is one of being a prayer advocate and alerting people to possibilities that come with God’s love.

“Men’s ministry is critical to the vitality of our churches and communities,” he said. Those interested in learning more can visit www.bwcumm.org.

To learn more about the marble ministry or talk with Weller, contact him at 443-845-8748 or billweller@verizon.net.

By Erik Alsgaard
UMConnection Staff

The Rev. David Simpson is set to retire – again – at the end of June. He tried to retire once before, in 2015, but ended up being called by Bishop Marcus Matthews to help out a church in need.

That church, Calvary UMC in Frederick, has made a drastic turn-around in the past 15 months under Simpson’s leadership. It’s a story any church facing conflict and decline can replicate.

The Rev. David Simpson works at his desk in the office of Calvary UMC in Frederick.

Simpson was appointed to Calvary in late February 2015. The bishop asked him to serve as an interim pastor for four months in addition to his then-duties of being on Conference Staff and co-leading the Imagine No Malaria campaign.

When Simpson arrived at Calvary, a cathedral-like church built in 1929-1930 in downtown Frederick, he found the congregation in chaos. There was no vision, no goals, no objectives, he said, and the church was losing both members and money.

“It was really ugly,” he said. Various groups in the church were in “open warfare.”

The first thing Simpson did was establish a four-point plan: stabilize, create order, establish a vision, and promote healing and reconciliation.

“Everything starts and ends in worship,” Simpson said. “I had to stabilize worship, so I preached every Sunday. The church needed to see the same person in the pulpit every Sunday.”

He then set about to stabilize the staff. Simpson informed the staff that everyone’s job was safe, but they had four months to prove they belonged at Calvary. He began holding staff meetings every Tuesday, but with intentional changes to the agenda. Instead of diving straight into business, the meetings opened with prayer and times of what Simpson calls “loving on each other.” They also shared a meal together at every meeting.

Simpson also sought to stabilize the church’s finances. Staring at a projected deficit of $50,000 in a $660,000 budget, Simpson simply asked from the pulpit. “We need your support,” he said, “and people responded.” He also made numerous one-on-one visits with people who used to support the church both with their presence and their gifts but who had left in the midst of the troubles.

At the same time as this was being done, Simpson worked on “order.” For example, he said, the order of worship was not dependable from week to week. He placed this ministry in the hands of the Rev. Julie Wilson, a Deacon serving at Calvary, and instructed her to follow the United Methodist Book of Worship, “not because this is what David does, but because this is what United Methodists do,” he said. “She has stepped up to the plate on this.”

To help create order, Simpson said that he hearkened back to an old saying he learned from Bishop Joseph Yeakel, who served the BWC from 1984 to 1996. “The bishop would say, ‘No secrets, no surprises, no subversion,’” Simpson said. “I’ve said that so often here that I’m sure people are tired of hearing it.”

The Staff Parish Relations Committee, for example, used to meet in secret, a violation of the church’s Book of Discipline. Simpson put a stop to that and called for transparency in everything.

But the hardest part – and the on-going part – is healing and reconciliation, Simpson said. It was clear last March that this would take longer than the four months Bishop Matthews had appointed Simpson to Calvary. Simpson agreed to delay retirement one more year.

And again, he used worship to affect change.

In the spring and summer of 2015, Simpson preached on what it means to be church and what it means to be a child of God. He knew that, like every church, there were three groups in the church: those on either “extreme” end of an issue or subject, and the vast majority in the middle. He needed to address the people in the middle of the issues, he said, and assure them of God’s never-ending love. In addition to the sermons, he met one-on-one and in small groups with those on the edges, spending 20 hours per week meeting with those people.

To emphasize that the church is one family, Simpson turned to a portion of worship that makes many people cringe: the passing of the peace.

“I became directive” during this part of worship, Simpson said. “I would say, ‘Find someone you don’t know and talk with them.’ Or, ‘Find someone you’ve had a disagreement within the past and talk with them.’ I didn’t’ allow this time to be perfunctory.”
Simpson also helped the church decide to combine their worship services for the summer. All of this, he said, in an effort to show people that they were one body, one church.

He also sought to bring about reconciliation through creating projects that would bring people together. He recruited two women, for example, who were on opposite sides of an issue, and invited them to lead the effort to refurbish the church’s library. The church’s fellowship hall was re-painted which, again, brought people together to work side by side.

Perhaps the largest project is the church’s pipe organ, a source of pride for the congregation along with its carillon peal bells. The organ is on its last legs, Simpson said, and a study committee is working on recommendations for replacing it which may cost $1.5 million.

Even with the success of getting people back to working together on a common project, the danger in all this, Simpson said, is that the church may become too inward-focused. “I don’t want them to forget,” he said, “that it’s not about us; it’s about the people in our community and in our neighborhood.”

Simpson said that he could not and did not do this ministry alone. He cited the support and work of two retired pastors working alongside him, the Revs. Harry Cole and Ken Humbert, who have provided pastoral care and visitation ministries to the congregation.

“I asked my staff to step it up,” he said, “and they did.”

Slowly but surely, the changes have worked. As Simpson prepares to retire and hand over the reins to a new pastor July 1, the church’s worship attendance has stabilized at 300 and is beginning to grow again. The church’s finances are such that, for 2015, they will finish with a surplus of about $40,000 with all bills paid.

Calvary UMC, Simpson said, has a bright future in Frederick, a city, he said, that is growing, vibrant and alive.  “We need to be a part of that,” he said. “We have to catch up with the city, and to do that, we have to turn our focus outward.

“We’re a family; we’re God’s people,” Simpson said. “Some people had just forgotten that.”

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

As a pastor, the Rev. Vivian McCarthy is always listening for what’s going on in the life of the community as it unfolds around Reisterstown UMC. Recently, she heard a story that was helping to shape the moral imagination of the people in her church and beyond.

The story was told in a New York Times best-seller, “The Other Wes Moore.” Two young boys named Wes Moore were born in Baltimore, just blocks apart, within a year of each other. Both grew up fatherless in similar troubled neighborhoods and had difficult childhoods. One of them, the author, grew up to be a Rhodes scholar, a decorated veteran and a White House fellow. The other ended up a convicted murderer serving a life sentence in Jessup.

Their common journeys, how their paths diverged and the relationship they forged forms the foundation of the book.

“The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates,” was featured in Franklin High School’s “One Book, One Community,” initiative last summer and read by every student and teacher in the Reisterstown school.

Reisterstown UMC was going through some struggles and McCarthy decided she needed to preach a series on coping. The story of the two men named Wes Moore came to mind.

On Jan. 10, she preached the sermon, “Keep Calm and Trust God.” In her preaching, she stressed Moore’s quote: “The chilling truth is that his story could have been mine, the tragedy is that my story could have been his.”

McCarthy led the congregation through the truth highlighted in the book that “small decisions become big decisions.”

The story took on an extra and tragic poignancy because the man who was killed in Wes Moore’s robbery was Baltimore County police Sgt. Bruce A. Prothero, a loving husband and father of five who was a member of Reisterstown UMC.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Prothero was shot three times Feb. 7, 2000, as he chased four men out of a jewelry store during a robbery at the store, where he was working a second job as a security guard.

Moore was convicted of felony murder later that year, based on testimony that he and his half-brother held a clerk and customer at gunpoint while two accomplices smashed jewelry cases and fled with more than $400,000 in watches.

McCarthy remembers when Bishop Felton May, then the resident bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, returned from Prothero’s funeral service. He spoke of policemen lined up for more than a mile to honor the officer.

Prothero’s death shook the community and the emotional and spiritual pain lingers.

Wes Moore

In her listening to the community, McCarthy had heard that the school invited Wes Moore, the author, to speak to the students. He was unable to do so. But McCarthy thought she might have something to contribute, so she contacted the author’s representatives and told them the compelling story of how the church and community were connecting to the book. She shared what a difference it might make for the author to bring a message of the two Wes Moores to youth struggling with choices, consequences and the many factors that lead to success or failure.

His executive assistant heard McCarthy’s plea and Moore agreed to wave his more than $25,000 speaking fee.

The church paid a portion of Moore’s travel expenses and bought each student a copy of his new novel for young adults.
The money came from a grant managed by the church library at Reisterstown UMC.

On Feb. 18, Moore spoke at Franklin High School. “The kids were entranced, they were riveted on what he had to say,” McCarthy reported. “Wes answered questions and the kids stood in line, some for an hour-and-a-half, to get their books signed. He took pictures with the kids and talked to them like they were the only person in the room.”

The next Sunday, Reisterstown UMC had more than 260 people in church, significantly more than the 215 who regularly attend worship. Many of the visitors had teenagers with them.

McCarthy doesn’t know if they attended because of the church’s involvement in bringing Moore to speak to the high school students, but she celebrates the church being willing to reach out and be a part of the community’s story.

At one point in the book, the other Wes Moore visits his mother’s church and is unable to connect. He recounts a moment of despair and anger where he says, “If he does exist, he sure doesn’t spend any time in West Baltimore.”

McCarthy is glad the church is willing to genuinely wrestle with the difficult realities facing the community. “It is truly a God moment,” she said.

In the promotional materials for the book, it’s noted that in December 2000, in the same issue of the Baltimore Sun, there was a small story of Wes Moore receiving a Rhodes scholarship and, just pages away, the story of a manhunt for the killers of a police officer – one of whom was named Wes Moore.

As she worked on her sermon and Moore’s speaking engagement, the factors that led these boys to live out such different stories fascinated McCarthy. It’s her prayer that the church will be present in ways that illuminate good choices for today’s youth.

“Our daily life is what we have to give back to God,” she said. “It is often messy and doesn’t always sound very spiritual, but it’s our gift to God nonetheless.”

By Erik Alsgaard
UMConnection Staff

The Baltimore-Washington Conference will achieve significant savings on its annual IT services contract with a new arrangement with the General Council on Finance and Administration’s Shared Services department. The savings represent nearly $75,000 per year, according to BWC treasurer, Paul Eichelberger.

The conference was at the end of a three-year contract with its previous vendor, said Eichelberger. “That was a long contract in the IT world,” he said, “and a lot of things had changed in that time period.”

GCFA was the lowest-priced bid of five the conference received, Eichelberger said, and even though that was one of the most important factors in selecting them, it was not the only reason.

“GCFA offered us the best technology at the best price,” Eichelberger said.

Joseph “Moe” Battley, who serves the BWC as its Facilities/IT Manager, said that GCFA improved many areas of the conference’s IT structure.

“They increased our ability to use remote access to our e-mails and files,” Battley said. “They improved our firewall security and data backup, and are now providing around-the-clock monitoring for our IT.”

GCFA is one of 13 general agencies of the UMC and is thus part of the worldwide United Methodist connection.

“This was very important,” Eichelberger added, “because it helps them to offer more personalized customer service. They are coming in with a missional purpose.”

Customer service was also important in the new contract, Eichelberger said, along with GCFA’s ability to work remotely with BWC staff to resolve any problems. GCFA, he said, provides IT support for the church’s missionaries around the world, “so they specialize in this remote access which we knew was the new model for IT.”

Another factor in making the decision to go with GCFA, Eichelberger said, was that they are situated in Nashville, Tenn., home to numerous technology companies. “There’s an over-abundance of IT professionals that they can tap into,” he said. As part of The United Methodist Church, GCFA is non-profit so they don’t add a built-in profit margin to their costs, Eichelberger added.

The decision, he said, wasn’t just driven by cost; the people at GCFA made the difference. The enthusiasm of Derek Preston, who heads the Shared Services area, along with Shannon Logan, Shared Services Specialist, was contagious. Both Preston and Logan, along with other Shared Services staffers, were on-site at the BWC Mission Center for 10 days in early February as the new IT solutions were rolled out.

For Logan, working to help conferences throughout the connection with IT needs is part of her ministry.

“Our purpose at GCFA is to work in the ministry of administration,” said Logan. “It’s our vision and what we feel we’ve been called to do. Under the leadership of our General Secretary, Moses Kumar, his desire is to make administration, financial services and IT truly a ministry and a way to serve the connection.”

Kumar started the Shared Services department several years ago, Logan said, and branching out to serve annual conferences is the next step in its progression. At present, Shared Services does not offer assistance for local churches.

For the BWC, Shared Services is providing information technology solutions and managing the conference’s IT needs.

“We’re assisting with everything from managing your firewall to hosting your servers,” Logan said. “We’re also making sure you have the most up-to-date software on your computers.”

Logan’s Shared Services department is also working with the New England Annual Conference. “In the end, it’s all about how can we save dollars for the conferences so that that frees up additional monies that they can use in the conference,” she said.

The start-up with GCFA took place “at the worst possible time,” said Eichelberger, when the Mission Center was closed for five days during the January snowstorm. But the closure helped prove a point: “All that snow didn’t deter anything,” Eichelberger said. “They just treated us like we were missionaries in some far-off country.”

“I love that, because of my job, I’m able to get out and meet people throughout the connection,” Logan said. “I think that sometimes we get in our own little world… that you forget how many people are out there that are connected because of this connection. There’s a lot of good that goes on in this church, and I get to see that.”

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

“You Have the Power” is the theme of the 232nd Annual Session of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, which will be held June 1-4 at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The Conference features a packed schedule.

On Wednesday, June 1, a mandatory clergy session will be held 2 p.m. The laity session will be held that same day at 7:30 p.m. In addition, the retiree luncheon will start at 11 a.m., and the dinner for extension ministers is at 6 p.m. Throughout the day, courses in variety of topics will be offered for those who register.

Online registration for this event is now open. The cost is $129 before April 14 and $159 after. Churches are expected to pay the registration expenses of lay and clergy members.

One of the highlights of the session with be a farewell celebration for Bishop Marcus Matthews, the resident bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, who is retiring Sept. 1 after 42 years of ministry. The celebration will be June 3 at 7:30 p.m.

A Memorial Service, honoring those who have died in the previous year, will be June 3 at 10 a.m., and the Service of Ordination will be held Saturday, June 4, at 9 a.m.

Bishop James R. King Jr., the episcopal leader of the South Georgia Annual Conference, will be the preacher for both of those services. Bishop Matthews will preach at the conference worship service June 2 at 7:30 p.m.

A Bible study, led by Bishop Young Jin Cho, of the Virginia Annual Conference, will be June 3 at 8 a.m.

All of these services, and other portions of the plenary session will be live-streamed on the Conference website.

At the laity session, Munashe Furusa, vice chancellor of the United Methodist-affiliated Africa University in Zimbabwe, and BWC Lay Leader Delores Martin, are expected to be the featured speakers. The Rev. Ann Ross Stewart, a much heralded pastoral counselor, will speak at the retiree luncheon and extension ministries dinner.

Included in the plenary session will be a report from the BWC’s 12-member delegation on the proceedings of the General Conference session, which will be May 10-20 in Portland, Ore. At this quadrennial session, the law, structure and budget of the denomination will be decided.

Members will also vote on the endorsement of the Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi as their candidate for the office of bishop. Moore-Koikoi, superintendent of the Baltimore-Metropolitan District, was endorsed by the BWC delegation in February. The episcopal elections will be held as part of the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference, July 11-15 in Lancaster, Pa.

Lay and clergy members will hear reports on conference ministries, including expanded options for clergy health care; come together in mission in Circles of Prayer; vote on the 2017 budget; and consider resolutions on matters of rules and administration for the conference and local churches.

A Pre-Conference Briefing, to answer any questions members may have about these issues or other matters concerning the Annual Conference Session, will be held April 30, from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at First UMC in Hyattsville. No registration is needed to attend the Pre-Conference Briefing.

» View more information about the annual conference session.

By Kate Payton

The Easter Vigil service is all about remembering and reliving our story of salvation. Usually we do this within the confines of a sanctuary. But last year, the multi-site church I serve in Northwest Washington, DC, partnered with other churches to conduct an Easter Vigil in multiple locations.  We came together to proclaim a story our whole city desperately needs.

The betrayal, abandonment, violence, and death that Christ experienced on Good Friday are present-day realities for too many people in our midst. Given the racial and socio-economic geography of DC, some of our group members found themselves in parts of the city they had never been to before. If we are to pray and work for new life for all of God’s people, we must know first-hand the Good Fridays they experience.

So our Easter Vigil service was designed to lead us through places of need in our city, places we usually avoid or don’t even know about. The service explored the themes of creation, liberation, abundance, hope, and baptism, each in a specific location where death and the hope of resurrection are tangibly present.

• Creation. We started at our community food garden — standing barefoot in the dirt — to remember God’s creating work.
• Liberation. We went to a church located on a known prostitution track of our city. Standing in a parking lot littered with condoms, we read the Exodus story. One of their pastors spoke of the realities of sex and human trafficking. We prayed for all of these who are enslaved.
• Abundance. Reading the prophecy of the consummation of all creation in Isaiah 55, we joined a partner church in their table fellowship open to all housed and unhoused neighbors. The food came from our Campus Kitchen Project that reclaims food from area grocery stores and restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away. We prayed that the word God has given through us, and provided in food we have grown, is not wasted and does not return to God empty.
• Hope. Reading Ezekiel’s passage of dry bones, we stood next to the trash trap in a water way in a local park. It was the place where police had searched for the body of an eight-year-old girl abducted the previous year from the city’s shelter for homeless families.
• Baptism. We closed our vigil remembering our baptism along the Anacostia River — a riverbed so contaminated that brown bullhead catfish have developed cancer from simply touching the riverbed. We read Romans 6:3–11, remembering African American churches in our community who were once able to baptize new believers in the river. We remembered our baptisms and prayed for a cleansing of our sins and of the river, that it might once again be a sign of life.

This Easter Vigil allowed our church to connect with our city and face our Good Fridays head-on. We prayed with heart, soul, mind, and strength for God to bring a resurrection morning. And when it came, we were reminded of the hope that is ours. We serve a living God who brought forth life from death and continues to make the impossible possible. This is our prayer, and our work, for our city — for all those still in need of a resurrection dawn.

The Rev. Kate Payton is one of the pastors of The Metropolitan Church, a multi-site United Methodist Community in Washington, D.C.

This article is reprinted by permission from Leading Ideas, a free e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership of Wesley Theological Seminary and available at churchleadership.com.

By Donna Claycomb Sokol*
Reposted with permission from her blog at Words from Washington

Three weeks.

It was three weeks ago this morning when I settled into my favorite chair with a cup of hot coffee on the table next to me and opened the pages of the Washington Post. It’s my favorite routine for a Saturday morning, one that normally encourages the calmness we seek for our only day off together. But Saturday, February 20 was different because rather than reading about another homicide in our city on the front page of the Metro section, I was actually reading about someone who was once part of my community.

I know Clifton as someone who came to our church’s shower ministry a few years ago and then to our Tuesday morning Hope 4 All group. Our church paid for a bus ticket so he could go home and be with his mother in Atlanta. Along with another church member, I took him to lunch on his birthday. I served communion to him on Christmas Eve. And I not only knew Clifton, but I also knew one of Clifton’s roommates – the person who was not home on that day. He, too, had been a Shower Ministry guest and then a Hope 4 All guest. He came to the church to see me in mid-December immediately after signing his lease to the same house where Clifton lived. He wanted to not only show me his keys but actually show me the place where he had signed that he had access to a room of his own. It was a celebratory moment filled with hope being born anew. And so when I first read about Clifton’s death, my mind also immediately went to this third roommate who we prayed was still alive. We located him a couple hours later, and he’s now staying in the home of a colleague of mine until he can find another place to live.

But I’d never known anyone who was murdered. I’ve never read about a homicide that includes the name of someone whose story I know well. How could this be?

The waves of pain and anger came crushing in again on Monday night when I got a message saying, “Ivy died.” Ivy? How could Ivy had died? Ivy is one of the reasons we started our Tuesday morning group. I first met her on a cold January day in 2015 when I went outside with a colleague to make sure everyone was okay. The temperatures were cold enough to kill someone. But we had no idea what we would find that day. When we pealed back the layers of green tarp and blankets, we found a cozy communal space holding a few prescription drugs, some food, and lots of clothing all covered with more blankets. It was Ivy’s space, Ivy’s belongings, Ivy’s temporary home. And it was this image that captured our congregation’s attention enough to figure out how we could offer hospitality in a different way.

Since our change in policy, a group of individuals have gathered every single Tuesday morning with the exception of one. There are some mornings when there are 15 people at the table and other mornings when there are three or four people. Each gathering starts the same, with an invitation to tell us who you are and what you have done in the last week to get closer to housing and/or employment. Every person’s answers are recorded so we can hold people accountable the following week. If someone has a barrier whether it be transportation or clothing, then we try to remove it. We’ve loaded dozens of Metro cards, purchased new shoes for an interview, solicited new suits for men to wear to a meeting, paid for licenses and school fees, and countless other things. All of these expenses are met through a fund that was established in 2007 when our congregation let go of inviting people to give Easter lilies in honor or memory of someone on Easter and instead give life through the purchase of a share in the Harry McLean Life Fund. A list of all who give is included in the Easter bulletin, along with the names being honored or remembered. It’s just that while lilies often die a few weeks later, these gifts have produced new life in the form of food, gift cards for medication, and help with housing and job expenses. We have learned that someone being moved from homelessness into housing is nothing short of a miracle. And still, we’ve had front row seats to some 14 different people who have been able to make this incredibly large step in the last year.

Two of them are now dead.

First Clifton and now Ivy. While it would not have surprised me to learn that Ivy had died several months ago – her body was so frail – Ivy was doing incredibly well. She’d put on at least 20 pounds, looked healthy, and had returned to our group a few weeks ago to start offering encouragement to others. She had a housing voucher. She was housed – but she came to tell others they could do it. Just two weeks ago she sat next to me. I can still hear her saying, “You came!” to another participant. “I’m so glad! You can do this.” When it came time for her to share, she joyfully talked about her relationship with her son, describing how big he is and how much she’s enjoying him. She shared how her longtime partner was finally in treatment and that they were committed to getting married one day. She was overflowing with goodness and health and wisdom and triumph.

So, how could Ivy be dead? That was the question that kept going through my mind last Monday night only to later see this article being shared by another person from our church. Ivy had been shot in broad daylight. The one who was rebuilding her life one painful step at a time had everything robbed from her in the blink of a bullet.

I’ve never felt this kind of pain when it comes to knowing someone has died. The tears of grief started to overflow on Wednesday morning after I successfully kept them tucked inside on Tuesday. How could someone who finally had so much going for them be killed on a Sunday afternoon? Good God Almighty, can you help us? Can you hear us? Can you prevent this from happening again?

I soon started to ask how we begin to move forward. How long will we wait before reading about someone else we have grown to love? Who else from our community will have their life robbed from them in an instant? Where are you God?

My mind then turned to an anonymous note left for me at our Ash Wednesday worship service. The individual was taken back by signs that say, “No Sleeping. No Storage. No Loitering.” They were bright orange and quite loud. Our practice was to always take them down before worship begins but we forgot to take them down for a midweek service. The signs have since been redesigned with information on how we are trying to be in relationship with people who need places to sleep and store their belongings. There are invitations to come inside for a shower or join us on a Tuesday morning. The person who wrote this note helped us see the impact of our signage. But I’d love to have a conversation with him or her.

I’d love to have a dialogue about how our understandings of mercy and justice have been transformed. Opening a church’s porches for people to come and sleep outside is not hospitality. There is nothing merciful about thinking your church is doing someone a favor by letting them sleep outside. Have you ever invited someone to come and visit you and then given them a pad on your porch?

We are so quick to judge one another.

Our church and I were judged harshly on Ash Wednesday.

But I’ve also been so quick to judge people.

“Can’t these people get a job? Can’t these people get a home?” These questions have gone through my mind dozens of times when I have found myself cleaning our front porch or picking up someone’s belongings.

I’ve learned that the answer is sometimes “no” and often “yes.” Many people can get a job, and many people can get housing. But it takes a village. It takes people who are willing to not do the easy thing, like saying, “Well, at least we’re giving them a place to sleep where they don’t get wet by rain.” But rather it takes people who are willing to do the hard work of showing up, of providing people with some basic resources, of letting folks know we are together on this journey, and of holding people accountable. I was reminded this week that it also takes people who are willing to allow their heart to be broken.

My heart may always be shattered a bit – not like the bus stop where Ivy was killed – but by the weekly reminders of how broken our community is and how much healing can occur when people who have so much start to share a little, when individuals can muster the capacity to give a second chance even when they see the words “convicted felon,” and when we wrestle together to figure out what would Jesus really do.

Our nation is also deeply broken by our addiction to guns. Lives and families and communities are being shattered. The madness needs to stop. Changes in policy are needed.

Will you pray for us, please?

Ivy changed my life. I pray her memory is one of the last things I forget and that it also propels me to encourage our congregation to do everything we can to journey with people and prevent further lives from being robbed.

* Donna Claycomb Sokol is pastor of Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, Washington, D.C.

By Melissa Lauber and Larry Hygh*
UMConnection Staff

The Rev. Tony Love was elected to serve as vice coordinator of the national Black United Methodists for Church Renewal caucus. Love currently serves as coordinator of the Baltimore-Washington Conference chapter of BMCR and works in ministry as the conference Director of Vibrant Communities.

Standing before the 330 members of the national Black Methodists for Church Renewal, who gathered in Baltimore March 10-12, U.S. Congressman Elijah Cummings shared how, as a child, he could not come into downtown Baltimore because it was a segregated city and he was black.

“The thought today that I represent every square inch of these blocks and help to make policy for this city, and this nation… only God could make my life,” said Cummings, the representative for Maryland’s 7^th Congressional District.

Cummings preached to the crowd on the theme “When Holy Meets the Hurting.” He challenged people to recognize that compassion comes through experience. “So often, out of our pain, comes our passion to do our purpose.”

BMCR is one of the denomination’s five ethnic caucuses. Its mission is to raise up prophetic and spiritual leaders who will be advocates for the unique needs of Black people in The United Methodist Church.

Within the denomination, in the United States, 6 percent of United Methodists are black. In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, 39,539, or 23 percent of United Methodists are African American. Twenty-eight percent of the churches in the Baltimore-Washington Conference are black and 29 percent of the clergy are African Americans.

Within BMCR, two of the emphases are servant leadership and prophetic preaching, said Willa Kynard, immediate past coordinator of the conference BMCR chapter.

Children from Furman L. Templeton Elementary School in Baltimore.

To welcome BMCR to Baltimore, Kynard organized a project that drew upon Bishop Marcus Matthews’ initiative for churches to partner with local schools.

Kynard invited the Maryland Governor’s Office to participate and they responded by sending more than 300 books and art supplies to Furman L. Templeton Elementary School in Baltimore. BMCR members then met at the school and read stories about African-American issues and heroes to the kindergarten and first graders.

“It’s easy to paint a wall or clean up a building, but BMCR believes in reaching out to the community, to serving children, and to promoting justice and wholeness in authentic ways that nurture relationship and faith-sharing,” she said. “Church is about helping others, not ourselves.”

As the BMRC readers left the school, the teachers said they wished more “church people” would share of their time with the students.

During the BMCR plenary sessions at the old Masonic Lodge on Charles Street, members discussed the upcoming session of General Conference, supporting the Historic Black College Fund, and saw the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp honoring the Rev. Richard Allen, founder of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

One of the highlights of the session was a presentation by four young adult clergy on prophetic preaching.

The Rev. Michael Parker, left, and Tony Hunt, share a laugh during the BMCR meeting.

The panel was led by the Rev. C. Anthony Hunt, pastor of Epworth Chapel UMC in Baltimore. Among the participants was the Rev. Michael Parker of Ames UMC in Bel Air.

Prophetic preaching, Hunt said, “calls persons and structures back into relationship with God and paves the way for the coming of the reign of God.” It speaks to the hopes and hurts, he said.

Equipping young clergy to preach prophetically often requires mentoring and the sharing of earned wisdom, Parker said. In the Baltimore-Washington Conference, he pointed out, there are only 7 pastors of color under the age of 35, and only two of them are female.

There should be more, and those who are ordained, need to be set loose in setting where prophetic preaching is valued and imagination and excellence have not been snuffed out, he said.

As a pastor with 15 tattoos, Parker said he has gained an understanding that he must pastor and preach from a place of authenticity. He advises his peers to do the same.

“God made you to be who you are on purpose,” he said. “Don’t lose yourself.” Having a mentor can help, he added, so can being willing to take risks and have fun.

“Every day,” Parker said, “should be something new… God has every desire to exceed your expectations.”

A highlight of the BMCR meeting was the Spirit Banquet, which honored five retiring ebony bishops: Warner H. Brown Jr. (a native of Baltimore), Robert E. Hayes, Jonathan D. Keaton, James R. King Jr. (who will be a guest preacher at the June Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference session) and Marcus Matthews.

Matthews is the resident bishop of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. He retires in September after 42 years of ministry.

During his ministry, most of it as a leader in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, Bishop Matthews served as the founding president of the local chapter of BMCR, as treasurer of the National BMCR, was president of the Northeastern Jurisdiction BMCR, and is an honored Harry Hosier member of the organization.

*Larry Hygh serves as Director of Communications for the California-Nevada Conference. Hygh began his communications ministry in the BWC as a one-year Racial Ethnic Scholarship winner from United Methodist Communications.

By Erik Alsgaard

On March19, members of the Patapsco-Lodge Forest Cooperative Parish, a United Methodist Community, spent part of their Saturday making prayer beads for General Conference delegates.

Fourteen people participated in the effort, according to the Rev. Katie Grover, pastor, led by Tom Albin, Dean of the Upper Room Chapel in Nashville, Tenn.

“It is important to bathe this conference with prayer,” Grover said. “After all, John Wesley taught, ‘God does nothing but by prayer, and everything with it.’”

Prayers are said over the beads.

The Upper Room, in tandem with the General Conference prayer team, designed Protestant prayer beads to be assembled and given to each delegate. The prayer beads are assembled individually by persons around the globe. As they are assembled, the delegates are prayed for. There is also a time of prayer following their completion.

General Conference will meet in Portland, Ore., May 10-20. There will be 864 delegates from around the world gathering together to determine polity for the UMC for the next four years. The Baltimore-Washington Conference is sending 12 delegates – six clergy and six laity – along with several alternates. Delegates will receive the prayer beads during the opening worship service on May 10.

The medallion was handcrafted using three pieces of wood, representing the Trinity, Grover said. The United Methodist logo (used with permission) and a ram/sheep were laser cut into the emblem.

“The colored beads represent earth (brown), air (green), fire (red), and water (blue),” Grover said. “Each strand is one color. The cruciform bead, in the shape of a cross, is made from the olive tree and from the Holy Land. The spherical beads are made of jasper, a native stone from Oregon.”

Prayer bead kits are available from PrayerWorks Studio, owned by Kristen Vincent. She is a United Methodist author of A Bead and a Prayer, published by Upper Room Books. More information on the beads and how they are used can be found at http://60daysofprayer.org/prayer-beads/.

“Everyone commented on how meaningful this experience was,” Grover said, “and how thankful they were to be a part of the connectional system, praying for our denomination and our District Superintendent, Rev. Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, who will also be a delegate.”

Grover added that the church is looking at ordering a more kits to continue in this endeavor. She said the church will also be participating in using the “60 days of Prayer” guide to pray before, during, and after General Conference. More information on the guide is available at 60daysofprayer.org.

By Melissa Lauber*

After a 15-hour flight, there is nothing better than being greeted with a feast of chicken, fruit and kindness.

Yesterday, Bishop Marcus Matthews, responding to an invitation to preach at the Nambu (South) Annual Conference, landed in South Korea. The BWC has a covenant relationship with the Nambu Conference. Among the joys of these partnerships are that strangers recognize each other’s faces in far-away places, language barriers fall, and God’s love is shared in a thousand small gestures.

Bishop Matthews traveled with the Rev. J.W. Park, dean of the Cabinet and superintendent of the Central Maryland District; the Rev. HiRho Park, with the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry; the Rev. Maidstone Mulenga, assistant to the bishop and the conference director of Connectional Ministries; and me, who gets to take photos and witness the incredible faith of the people of the Korean Methodist Church.

We were greeted at the airport – banner and all – by the Revs. Nak Hwan Kim and Yu Il Kang. Rev. Kang shepherded us to Daejeon, Korea’s fifth largest city, which is located in the center of South Korea. We are to attend their annual conference, which starts later this week.

The South Conference is made up of 23 districts, 581 churches, 987 clergy and 120,400 members. Its motto, I’m told, is “Saving Lives through Right Faith.” The partnership with the BWC focuses on building up young-adult clergy leaders through cultural exchanges (of which several have been hosted beginning in 2002) and nurturing global understanding of mission and ministry.

I know the faces of the Revs. Kim and Kang by heart. In recent years, they have been prominent participants in the covenant partnership. For me, they’re the face of the 1.2 million-member denomination, which was started 131 years ago by the Rev. John Goucher of Lovely Lane church in Baltimore, and two Methodist missionaries.

This time I got to talk with Rev. Kang a bit. He shared some of his history about being a mechanical engineer before responding to a call to ministry that followed a revival. He told me about his wife, whose name can be translated “pure gold,” and his two children. During the last 18 years, he said, “I am a pastor. It is my way.”

That’s another beauty of partnerships. You can say things like “It is my way,” and that carries complex and nuanced luggage. But it’s also a phrase that family understands immediately. We’re Methodists. For bad, better or best – “that’s our way.”

*Melissa Lauber is Director of Communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

By Melissa Lauber*

Imagine more than 500 junior high girls, all dressed in school uniforms, seated with their legs crossed in more than a dozen straight lines on the floor of a gymnasium in Daejeon, South Korea. It wasn’t the normal audience for Bishop Marcus Matthews to address.

But Bishop Matthews brought a special message to the girls as part of the BWC’s partnership with the Nambu Conference. Each of them, he stressed, was loved by God and they should dare to dream an impossible dream.

The bishop drew his inspiration from Arrena Carroll, a Methodist from the Baltimore Conference, who in 1898, as a missionary, began the Holsten School for Girls. Her legacy sat before Matthews in those straight lines, along with the other more than 500 high school girls, who attend the school. When the school started women weren’t even allowed to venture beyond their family’s front gates. Educating girls was a bold act of faith.

The bishop also spoke to 23 candidates who are preparing to be ordained into the Korean Methodist Church later this week. He told them about how the Rev. John Goucher, and Methodist missionaries Henry Appenzeller and William Scranton, stepped out on faith to bring their faith to Korea, starting the denomination that is thriving today, 131 years after that grand leap of faith.

The church needs strong leaders willing to dream and then act, witnessing to God in the world, the bishop challenged them.

Sitting in the crowd was the Rev. Park Hyung Min , pastor of Juhyang Methodist Church, where the ordinands gathered. Bishop Matthews joined Bishop Seung Chul Ahn for a traditional, many-dish Korean lunch.

As the bishops lunched, Min shared how, of the more than 400 people who worship at his church, a majority are young adults. He attributes the congregation’s popularity among young adults to the worship, which he said is full of praise and “light and bright.”

He used a model of ministry that focuses his energies as the pastor on getting people to worship well, helping members to share God’s story and then becoming disciples. Min says his favorite word is “passion.”

“I love that word,” he said. Passion, as in suffering, and passion as in enthusiasm. “I tell people, ‘you need Jesus Christ.’”

Passion is also a favorite word of Bishop Ahn. “Passion and zeal, they have been mine to embrace,” he said.

Bishop Ahn retires this year after serving his two-year term as a bishop. He likens himself to a small puppy. “When they’re born, puppies can’t see,” Bishop Ahn said. “They have closed eyes. In two weeks, those puppies will open their eyes. As a bishop, I feel like I’ve just opened my eyes,” he said.

Bishop Ahn will continue to serve as pastor of his 6,500-member church, which averages 2,500 in worship, a staff of more than 20, and a coffee shop on the first of the church’s six floors.

*Melissa Lauber is Director of Communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

By Melissa Lauber*

Today, the past and present merge in unexpected ways in the Methodist Church of Korea and across the Korean landscape.

On the third day of our journey, April 2, we watched ancient drums merge with rock tunes as a sanctuary full youth celebrated Next Generation Church. At a traditional Korean village in Jeonju, teenage girls in colorful bell-like costumes posed next to artifacts from the Joseon Dynasty, capturing the moment with their cell phones and selfie sticks. And, at Chungman Methodist Church, the Rev. Che Youn Cho urged her members to call upon the timeless name of Jesus as she breaks barriers as one of Korea’s pioneering woman pastors.

Rev. Che Youn Cho

Cho felt a call to ministry when she was 9-years-old, but her family was Presbyterian and that denomination did not ordain women. “My whole family thought I was crazy,” she said. She pursued a career as a news reporter, but God’s call continued to nudge at her soul.

She began to answer in small ways, and eventually found herself in the town of Jeonju, the only female pastor, starting a congregation with five people. In the Korean Methodist Church today, there are 5,000 clergy, but fewer than 400 of them are women.

Cho quickly asserts the fact that God didn’t choose her because she was a woman. God called her for her gifts and what the Holy Spirit might do through her.

In the past 17 years, she’s grown the church to more than 100 times its original size, she said. The church has recently been given land, and Cho is set on continuing the growth and bringing a spiritual revival to the area.

She tells her congregation – constantly – to call upon the name of Jesus. They do. She does. Lives change.

As they visited over tea and refreshments in her office, Cho asked Bishop Marcus Matthews for a word of wisdom to guide her. “Continue to allow God to use you,” he said.

The delegation from the BWC, which includes the Rev. HiRho Park, laid hands on Cho and prayed for her and her congregation. Park, who leads denominational efforts to empower clergy women in her work at the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, connected with Cho and invited her to attend the Global Clergywomen Gathering in Houston, Aug. 29-31. The theme will be “One: Birthing a Worldwide Church.”

Throughout the trip here, churches that are flourishing share their stories with the leaders from the BWC as they spend five days at the annual session of the Namboo Annual Conference. Meaningful worship, praise, and small groups seem to be the common themes that they all share. That seems ancient and new as well.

“It’s not asking the Holy Spirit to be with us,” Cho said. “It’s recognizing the Spirit’s presence and acting to actively call and proclaim Jesus’ name in absolutely all we do.”

*Melissa Lauber is Director of Communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference

By Melissa Lauber*

At Daejeon Central Church, where Bishop Seung Chul Ahn is pastor, neither the orchestra musicians, the band members, the choir director, the large choir, the special women’s quintet, nor the hip-hop dance troupe gets paid. Neither do the workers in the church’s coffee shop, or the leaders of the children’s church.

“They serve God,” said Miss Ahn, the bishop’s daughter. “They give of themselves to honor God.”

Sitting in a pew at one of the five Sunday services, it’s easy to believe God is both honored and pleased by their gifts. The holy washes over you, punctuated by the congregation’s shared staccato “Amens” as something Bishop Marcus Matthews says in his sermon touches their hearts.

A fascinating feature of the church is the massive screen in the front of the sanctuary. A broadcast team projects what is happening in the altar area. During the wide shots, you could see Bishop Matthews preaching and on the screen behind him was Bishop Matthews preaching with a screen behind him and on that screen was… well, it went on.

In some odd ways, this projection summoned up images of the global church for me —and not always in the best ways. Too often, we have one person, or one ministry, or one program praying and playing with fervor in the foreground. But the way we project it makes it look larger and more abundant than it actually is. (Kind of like with the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, it can be troubling to look behind the curtain.)

Being present in the midst of the Baltimore-Washington Conference’s partnership with Korea makes me realize the multitude of possibilities when United Methodists connect in relationship beyond borders. When we think of the BWC’s partnerships in Russia, Zimbabwe, Puerto Rico and Korea, the potential for truly transforming the world explodes with potential.

In the midst of that beautiful music at Central Methodist Church and pride in John Wesley’s inheritance of “the world as our parish,” I was moved at how the Holy Spirit washed away cultural distinctions and worship transcended language. And then, the first hymn began, and projected on that large screen were the words to the song in Korean —and in English.

Bishop Matthews and I were the only two non-Korean speakers in the huge sanctuary. But they made the effort to ensure we could sing, that we felt at home, that we could fully worship with them. It was a gesture, and it was gift.

I found myself wondering how much other local churches go above and beyond to welcome the strangers in their midst. How much do I offer radical hospitality?

At lunch following worship, I sat with a clergywoman from Toronto, who leads one the Canadian Korean Methodist churches joining the Namboo Conference this week. Her name was Grace. She shared how she believes there is science that proves that what we feel in our heart is projected to others in about a 10-foot range. Our feelings are contagious, in other words.

She calls this “Peter’s shadow,” from the verse in Acts 5:15-16 in which sick people positioned themselves so that the apostle Peter’s shadow might fall on them as he passed by and heal them. How we receive our faith and project it to others in proximity to us matters.

In his sermon, Bishop Matthews shared how we might possess hearts we want to share with the world. Citing the work of missionary E. Stanley Jones, he told those present, “Whenever we focus on Christ first, as the main event in life, everything else will always fall into its own proper place.

“There is nothing greater, or richer or more timely than living and telling the story about the resurrected Christ in our lives,” the bishop said. “In the Book of Acts, Scripture says, ‘You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and in Samaria.’ But we know holy scripture is the ‘Living Word’ and so we can translate that today to mean, ‘you shall be my witness to Daejeon, Baltimore and Seoul and to the ends of the earth.’”

*Melissa Lauber is Director of Communications for the Baltimore-Washington Conference.