ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS Don't hesitate to contact us at mission@igrc.org if you have any questions or need additional details. Contact Sharon Monroe at; smonroe50@yahoo.com Cunningham’s Be a Hero 5K URBANA – Be a hero in the eyes of Cunningham kids! Join them Saturday, Sept. 28, for Cun- ningham Children’s Home’s 4th Annual Be a Hero 5K . There are several ways to participate! 1. Register to walk/run on Sept. 28. This year, the race is on Cunningham’s campus in Urbana! Registration fee includes some Cunningham swag. 2. Register to participate and upgrade yourself to “Superhero” status by raising $100 or more. Your registration fee is included in your total and you also get a 5K superhero cape. 3. Give Cunningham youth a chance to participate by donating $10 for their registration. Donating $20 gives two youth a chance to participate. And so on. Join in this FUNdraiser from your own community and register as a “Tag Along” and organize your own 5K walk/run this fall. Contact Brooke Buzard Watson by by calling (217) 337-9073 by Sept. 27. Online registration is available at: https://runsignup. com/Race/IL/Urbana/Cunningham- BeaHero5k Embrace Resilience workshops for clergy, laity SPRINGFIELD – Are you ready to embark on a journey towards
C H R I S T I AN CONVERSATIONS
time for pastors, laity, history fans, confirmation classes, new Methodists, and anyone looking to ground a vision for the future of Methodism in the spirit of our heritage. If you have questions, feel free to contact Curtis Brown in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference Office of Connectional Ministries, cbrown@ igrc.org . Bishops' Installation Service slated for Sept. 28 NORMAL – Bishops David Alan Bard and Kennetha J. Bigham- Tsai will be installed as presiding bishops of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2:30 p.m. at Normal Calvary UMC. Both bishops began serving the Illinois Area on Sept. 1. Bishops Bard and Bigham-Tsai will also have additional oversight respon- sibilities. Bishop Bard also serves as bishop of the Michigan Area and Bishop Bigham-Tsai serves as bishop of the Iowa Area. The Installation Service is a worship experience and the public is invited to attend. Disaster Response training events ERT Recertification Oct. 14-15: Training will take place online on October 14 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm and October 15th from 1 to 3 p.m. Contact Sharon Monroe at smonroe50@yahoo.com Connecting Neighbors Training Nov 12: This session is set for Nov.12 and will take place online from 1 to 5 p.m.
healing and resilience? Join us for a groundbreaking two-day workshop designed to empower pastors, clergy, and laity with the tools and understanding necessary to navigate the complexities of life’s traumas and embrace a resilient life through Christ. The IGRC Congregational Development Office is hosting workshops for both clergy and laity, Embrace Resilience: A Transformative Workshop on Trauma Healing. The two-day clergy workshop will be Oct. 9-10. The laity work- shop will be Oct. 11-12. Links for registering for either session can be found in the listing on: https://www.igrc.org/register The Embrace Resilience Workshop provides a safe, educated space for pastors and parishioners to engage in trauma healing and resilience. This workshop will help you recognize the beauty and pain in every individual, equipping you with the knowledge and practices needed to foster a resilient life. Bishop Bard to preach Cartwright Memorial Sermon PLEASANT PLAINS – Bishop David Alan Bard will be the Memorial Ser- mon, which will be delivered on Sunday, Oct. 13, at 10:30 a.m. at Peter Cartwright UMC in Pleas- ant Plains. This year’s celebration is a preacher for the 2024 Cartwright
Celebrating
REGIONALIZATION: PUTTING HOPE IN THE ‘HARDER THING’
Organist/Pianist JOB OPENING FOR ORGANIST / PIANIST at Evangelical UMC in Washington, IL. Please go https://evanumc. org/organist-opening to view requirements, responsibilities and how to apply for the position.
hours debating U.S. clergy pension plans — but delegates from the U.S. are the only ones who should have to do so. The strong vote for regionalization at the postponed 2020 General Conference reveals a desire for each region of the church to be able to order their shared life and ministry in ways that are contextually appropriate, make disciples and give life and hope to those in their local communities. As each regional conference takes up the necessary work of ordering the life of the church, there will — by God’s grace! — also be opportunities to address pressing regional issues. A United States Regional Conference, for example, could choose to finally place front and center the development of concrete strategies to acknowledge and address our denomination’s racist history and the toll it has taken on the Black church, or the pandemic of loneliness in our country, or the scourge of gun violence, or the crisis of faith and the growth of the “nones” (those who identify with no religious tradition). United Methodists are known to be a “get it done” kind of people. When we decide to move together toward a goal, we know how to mobilize and move the needle on things that matter. Regionalization provides opportunities for all of us — not just those outside the U.S. — to do just that. Finally, a benefit of worldwide regionalization is that General Conference gatherings can focus on the things that matter most of all, the core tenets of our faith and the human concerns we share across all the places and cultures in which we live and serve. Imagine holy conferencing that isn’t mostly about legislative process with a little worship thrown in but is, rather, about learning together, forging new relationships, delighting in our different cultures, collaborating to be in mission together, reflecting together about the call of the Gospel for the days we are living, creatively focusing on and setting priorities for concerns that affect us all, such as climate change, violence, disease, and poverty. Another of our United Methodist refrains is that we can do more together than on our own. Imagine a United Methodist General Conference working together, filled with the Holy Spirit, making decisions and creating strategies that truly participate in the transformation of the world! Structures and conferences aren’t the salvation of the world. We leave that to the Holy One in Three. But how we live and serve together, how we honor one another across all our differences through holy conferencing and connection is part of how we — even we! — are incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation. I rejoice in the hope that the steps taken toward a new connectionalism through regionalization will be fully realized, bearing the fruits of growth in all the ways that matter. (Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli is senior pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington and was a General Conference delegate from the Baltimore- Washington Annual Conference.) enough positive results that conference leaders want to expand the program over the next few years to include all full-time appointments among the 522 churches in the annual conference. Johnson said onboarding proved highly instructive to Iowa church leaders because the new pastor and church members “address all the things that came up that are on the flip chart as they go through the process.” “If one person says it, there are 10 people thinking it,” Johnson said. “The process allows us to have a really good conversation about questions that people have.” (Cynthia B. Astle has reported on The United Methodist Church at all levels since 1988. She serves as editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011. The original article which was adapted to include IGRC was published Sept. 9 at www.baptistnewsglobal.com Paul Black, IGRC Director of Communication Ministries, contributed to this report.)
Methodist and a new zeal for sharing the good news of God’s love, grace, justice and mercy for a world crying out in need. There is a reclamation of our Wesleyan heritage, the spaciousness of grace and the power of God to help us do the hard work of being the church that is needed for this time in human history. But, as one colleague said to me recently, “As a large church, we’re very good at wishful thinking.” If we are to do more than engage in wishful thinking and experience less rancorous — and even joyful! — annual conferences, then some things have to really change. Worldwide regionalization, supported by 78 percent of General Conference delegates, is not the answer to all the issues needing to be meaningfully addressed as we move into the future. But it provides the framework to accomplish several important things. First, it allows the worldwide church — including the 75 percent of U.S. churches who did not leave the denomi- nation — to remain United Methodist in a new connec- tional way. My “home church” in small-town Oklahoma was a great example of the Wesley sentiment: “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?” Growing up in a sea of “check the belief-boxes to get your ticket to heaven” churches, I was always proud of the United Methodist commitment to question, to debate, to think deeply and to stay in relationship with God and one another. “Big Tent” or “Big Table” church is biblical; it is countercultural; it is profoundly Wesleyan. It is doing the harder thing — the Gospel thing. The going trend in the church and in the world is to jump into polarized bubbles, to discount or discard people who make us uncomfortable or angry. But regionalization keeps us meaningfully connected across differences and invites us to remain on the journey together as we all seek growth in holiness and love. Not every person or congregation or even annual conference will want to do the hard work of being United Methodist if it means that we are in the Body of Christ with those who interpret Scripture differently or who don’t agree theologically. That has always been the case, and there will continue to be ways for those who need to depart to do so with grace. I believe that as one wise colleague said to me, “We may become smaller in size, but will grow bigger in deepened relationships.” Second, regionalization also assures greater self- determination for all regions within the connection and decentralizes the United States in General Conference deliberations. Conferences outside the U.S. currently have provisions allowing for regional decision-making, based on their context. Issues of property, ordering of ministries, financial issues and more can be determined within the region based on local laws and culture. The U.S. has nowhere to take those concerns except to the General Conference. Many might agree that no one really wants to spend He said his first experience with the onboarding process was the assignment of Bishop Kennetha Bigham-Tsai after her election in November 2022. Johnson said he’s found, as with Graves’ experience, that a bishop who benefits from onboarding wants to provide it for all pastors going to new appointments. “We use a congregational assessment tool to make appointments with all our churches,” Johnson said. “About 47 percent of our churches score what we call ‘clergy focused,’ which means that they’re not dominated by clergy, the church thinks well of itself (no matter who’s appointed their pastor). “We know from the (assessment) that once the relationship between the pastor and that kind of congregation starts to go downhill, it’s nearly impossible for it to go back uphill,” Johnson said. “So, it’s really critical in those churches to start well and continue that relationship well.” Johnson said Iowa has conducted 10 onboarding sessions with these critical churches this year. He said they’ve had
BY REV. GINGER GAINES-CIRELLI
My first-ever General Conference was
Years
in Portland in 2016.
of
I’ll never forget those first preparatory delegation meetings in which I found both the legislative process and
200th anniversary celebration
the content of the legislation mystifying. I wondered: In a time when so much is broken in our world, when so many hunger for bread and for justice, for safety, shelter and sustainable wages, for access to health care and clean water, and for an end to warfare between nations, tribes and gangs, was legislation about committee process or non-binding resolutions really what would occupy the energies of the highest decision-making body of the denomination for two weeks? After serving as a delegate to the 2019 special called General Conference and the postponed 2020 General Conference held in Charlotte earlier this year, I am less mystified by the process, and I can even appreciate some of the legislative minutiae. But more than that, following our most recent General Conference, I am hopeful for what these worldwide gatherings might be like in the future. I caught a glimpse of that in Charlotte as I served on the leadership team of a legislative committee with colleagues from the Philippines, Nigeria and the U.S. and as delegates from across the connection who held differing views spoke in committee and on the plenary floor. They spoke with occasionally a little “edge,” but with care. The beautiful diversity of voices, races, cultures, genders, gender identities, orientations, abilities and ages engaging in holy conferencing as a worldwide body was inspiring. It was an unexpected joy to work with a common purpose for worldwide regionalization alongside new friends from Africa who are committed to remain United Methodist. I was blessed to learn about them and their ministries, and to learn from them as we served together. We understood that our contexts lead us to different stances on some key issues, that our countries are at different places culturally, theologically and legally related to ministry with and for LGBTQ+ siblings and allies. Yet even in this deep tension, we found ways to make space for our different contextual needs and to stay United Methodist together. Because we know we are all part of the Body of Christ, called to be in mission together and to love one another. Part of the experience in Charlotte — and in annual conferences across the U.S. these past weeks — is the strangely heart-warming feeling of the people in the room actually wanting to be there. I had the opportunity to experience not only my Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, but also to spend time with the Michigan Annual Conference in May. In these gatherings and in reports from friends and colleagues all over the United States, there is a fresh wind of Spirit blowing through the people called United
of Illinois Methodism BELLEVILLE – A conference- wide celebration, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the first Annual Conference session of the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church will be held on Saturday, Oct. 26, from 10 a.m. to noon at Belleville: Signal Hill UMC. Methodists from throughout Illinois are welcome to join in the celebration of that first meeting of the Illinois Methodist Conference, which was held Oct. 23, 1824 in St. Clair County, and marked the launching point for the development of thousands of churches and hundreds of thousands of Methodists throughout the State of Illinois. We’ll gather for an old- fashioned Methodist hymn sing, be introduced to our 200th Anniversary commemorative historic sites, hear a message from Illinois Great Rivers Conference United Methodist Church Bishop David Bard, and join in a re-covenanting service as we look forward to the future for Methodists in Illinois. The celebration will be a great
significant one as it marks the 200th anniversary of the first class meeting held in Peter Cartwright’s cabin in Pleasant Plains – a predecessor to the Peter Cartwright Church, which is a United Methodist historic site. Following the worship, there will be a catered meal to follow. Contact the church’s pastor, Mark Milhouse at me.milhouse@ gmail.com or by calling (217) 720-5464 if you plan to be pres- ent for the noon meal. The Cartwright Sermon is usu- ally observed on a Sunday in October and serves to remind persons of the contribution of the Rev. Peter Cartwright, who was a leader in the formation of the church in the State of Illinois. This sermon series, along with the Prentice Sermon, which is given in various locations throughout the conference, are co-hosted by the IGRC Com- mission on Archives and History and the IGRC Historical Society.
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A gift for Candler In January 2023, Bowen took her program to a member of her church, Jan Love, then dean of UMC-related Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. She gave Candler the copyrighted program and agreed to create more opportunities to certify conference UMC leaders in team building models and strategic vision work. By September 2023, Love, who recently retired after 17 years as dean, set up the Candler Center for Christian Leadership, complete with initial funding. Celeste Eubanks, a human resource professional from the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference, joined Candler as the center’s director at the same time. Since she began the process for pastors, Bowen estimates she’s personally conducted at least 150 onboarding sessions, and the program has trained at least 230 facilitators to guide the “new leader” process throughout all five U.S. jurisdictions of The United Methodist Church. One of those first “new leaders” was Bishop David Graves, who in 2016 was headed for his first assignment as a bishop in the Alabama-West Florida Annual Conference. Bowen said Bishop Graves — who moved to lead Kentucky, Tennessee-Western Kentucky and Central Appalachian Missionary
The new pastor welcomes the laity to the session, invites them to be completely honest about their concerns, and then leaves, turning the meeting over to the facilitator. In turn, the facilitator asks participants a set of 12 pre-determined questions such as: • How would you describe your church’s DNA? • Where are the “landmines,” the “sacred cows” of the congregation? • What do you already know about your new pastor? • What do you wish to know about your new pastor? “On this question, they can ask anything,” Bowen said. Questions, which often are adapted to each congregation’s identity, aren’t published in advance so there’s no possibility of one perspective dominating the conversation. Answers are written on a flip chart, and cellphone photos are taken of each sheet and sent to the waiting pastor. When the facilitator’s conversation with laypeople is complete, the facilitator coaches the pastor to see if there are any issues needing clarification. The pastor returns to the group and the facilitator sits in the back allowing the pastor to be in charge now. The give- and-take of the meeting ends with a group prayer for the leadership of the new pastor.
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conferences Sept. 1 — found onboarding so successful he’s now the advising bishop for the Candler Center for Christian Leadership. “Once the relationship between the pastor and that kind of congregation starts to go downhill, it’s nearly impossible for it to go back uphill.” Now the Candler-housed process can train more UMC conference facilitators to conduct these onboardings with Eubanks’ guidance. Eubanks’ administration allows Bowen to train more conference staff to deliver onboarding because trained clergy who serve on the regional unit often go back into local pastorates, requiring others to be certified to take their place. Iowa’s experience Iowa Annual Conference used onboarding to great success this summer, said Jaye Johnston, conference superintendent for congregational excellence and new communities of faith.
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