The Minnesota Annual Conference voted in early June to reduce by one district. While we may not have even considered that question if there wasn't some financial motivation behind it, sometimes finances help us think about what's important to us and why.
By this time you may have seen that there is a surveymonkey that you can take to give us feedback on reconfiguring districts. I hope you'll do that. But I want to engage us in a conversation, listening to each other as well as for me to listen to you on what matters in regards to the make-up of a district. This is the "essay" part of the feedback.
I'm interested in what you think is most important in a district:
Is it an identity?
The role of the district superintendent?
What's the role that the district plays for you and your church that no one or nothing else can play?
What are the essential considerations and values that you would want us to keep in mind in relation to the reconfiguration and reduction of districts?
WDYT?
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Reaching New People
Thanks for your comments on the gospel imperatives. I encourage you to continue to talk with your churches about them.
However, this year we're focusing especially on reaching new people. What is it, in your estimation, that keeps us from being as effective as we might in that regard?
There seems to be at least two different angles on reaching new people.
1) Reaching the new people who actually walk in our doors. Last Sunday a new person to the community (long time United Methodist elsewhere) who had been church shopping for a couple of months woke up and prayed, "Dear God, please let someone talk to me when I go to church this morning." We obviously have some work to do, given this person's 5-6 weeks of church shopping in United Methodist churches in Minnesota.
What keeps us from reaching new people who actually walk through our doors?
2) Reaching the new people who live in our communities. What keeps us from identifying a community of people--a specific age or ethnic group--and effectively including them in the life of our church (through worship or other outreach)?
WDYT?
Bishop Sally
However, this year we're focusing especially on reaching new people. What is it, in your estimation, that keeps us from being as effective as we might in that regard?
There seems to be at least two different angles on reaching new people.
1) Reaching the new people who actually walk in our doors. Last Sunday a new person to the community (long time United Methodist elsewhere) who had been church shopping for a couple of months woke up and prayed, "Dear God, please let someone talk to me when I go to church this morning." We obviously have some work to do, given this person's 5-6 weeks of church shopping in United Methodist churches in Minnesota.
What keeps us from reaching new people who actually walk through our doors?
2) Reaching the new people who live in our communities. What keeps us from identifying a community of people--a specific age or ethnic group--and effectively including them in the life of our church (through worship or other outreach)?
WDYT?
Bishop Sally
Sunday, May 27, 2007
The Gospel Imperatives
As you or your clergy and lay member go to annual conference on Tuesday, May 29, in St. Cloud, one of the things we'll be focusing on will be the two imperatives for our annual conference--it's clergy, laity, and churches.
The two imperatives are:
Reach new people (based on the Great Commission -- Matthew 28:19)
Cultivate spiritual vitality (based on the Great Commandments -- Matthew 22:35-39)
How are you in your personal life already living out these two imperatives?
What questions do you have about them?
What suggestions would have you as to how we as individual Christians as well as churches could better live them out?
Please pray for us at annual conference and I'll look forward to reading your reflections!
Bishop Sally Dyck
The two imperatives are:
Reach new people (based on the Great Commission -- Matthew 28:19)
Cultivate spiritual vitality (based on the Great Commandments -- Matthew 22:35-39)
How are you in your personal life already living out these two imperatives?
What questions do you have about them?
What suggestions would have you as to how we as individual Christians as well as churches could better live them out?
Please pray for us at annual conference and I'll look forward to reading your reflections!
Bishop Sally Dyck
Friday, April 27, 2007
Do Christians Care about the Earth?
Welcome to my blog!
I’m calling it "WDYT: What Do You Think?" because I want to provide a place for on-going dialogue about what’s important in the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The beauty of blogging as I understand it is that we’ll “talk” to each other.
A piece that had kept me from blogging fell into place recently when the creator of Wikia (no, that’s not a wicca group but a cyber-encyclopedia) recommended a code of conduct or rules of civility for blog conversations. See "Rules of Engagement" on this blog's home page. These will be the standard for this blog. (They’re definitely in cyber-language and not church language, but they seem like holy conferencing to me!)
So this is our trial run. I hope you’ll get registered and join in the conversation.
Climate Change
Let’s begin by talking about what Minnesotans love to talk about: the weather. Only I’m thinking of weather in the global sense: global climate change. (Click here to see what National Geographic has to say about it.) I’ve been convicted recently through a number of conversations that we as United Methodists can really make a difference in the world for ourselves and others if we would make the care of our physical home, the planet, a priority in our daily living.
I’m going to avoid preaching but I’d love to hear your best biblical and theological as well as scientific thoughts and convictions on the matter.
What about global change? Is it just junk science? Is it something that we as Christians have an obligation to address in our daily, religious, political and spiritual lives?
WDYT?
I’m calling it "WDYT: What Do You Think?" because I want to provide a place for on-going dialogue about what’s important in the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. The beauty of blogging as I understand it is that we’ll “talk” to each other.
A piece that had kept me from blogging fell into place recently when the creator of Wikia (no, that’s not a wicca group but a cyber-encyclopedia) recommended a code of conduct or rules of civility for blog conversations. See "Rules of Engagement" on this blog's home page. These will be the standard for this blog. (They’re definitely in cyber-language and not church language, but they seem like holy conferencing to me!)
So this is our trial run. I hope you’ll get registered and join in the conversation.
Climate Change
Let’s begin by talking about what Minnesotans love to talk about: the weather. Only I’m thinking of weather in the global sense: global climate change. (Click here to see what National Geographic has to say about it.) I’ve been convicted recently through a number of conversations that we as United Methodists can really make a difference in the world for ourselves and others if we would make the care of our physical home, the planet, a priority in our daily living.
I’m going to avoid preaching but I’d love to hear your best biblical and theological as well as scientific thoughts and convictions on the matter.
What about global change? Is it just junk science? Is it something that we as Christians have an obligation to address in our daily, religious, political and spiritual lives?
WDYT?
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