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Pastor's Pen
Stay up to date on the life of our church with Pastor Gary Turk's blog, updated monthly. His blog features devotional reflections, reports, observations, and more!Report From Annual Conference
27 June 2010 / 02:32 PM
The Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church met June 3-5 with over 1,300 people from across the area in attendance. As always, the conference opened with a service of tribute to those pastors or spouses who passed away during the past year, along with a service of Holy Communion.
This year the main conference speaker was Rev. Stephanie Hand. She said, “We are called to serve and not to be served.” She reminded the gathering of clergy and lay people that Jesus had washed His own disciples’ feet in service. Using the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian she emphasized the importance of presence in the world. “Because Phillip was willing to talk.” She said we are called to serve people. “We aren’t called to transform people, we’re called to lead people to Jesus Christ and let God do what God does.” She also noted, “Christ isn’t looking for religious people. He is looking for disciples who are going to give it all. The world is waiting for us!”
Rev. Doug Ruffle reminded us that our mission field is large. He said that of the estimated 9 million people living in the bounds of the conference, only a third are active in the community of faith and only 11.7 percent of New Jersey’s population attends any mainline denominational church.
In response to the earthquake devastation in Haiti, our GNJ Conference is sponsoring a Volunteers in Mission work trip to Haiti, November 6-13, 2010. Anyone interested can contact Kathy Ahmad at kahmad@comcastnet. She is coordinating the Conference trip.
During the conference several offerings were taken for the mission and ministry of the Conference. These offerings totaled more than $22,000. Of that, $5,824 was for the work of UMCOR in Haiti and Chile.
Included in the actions of the conference was a restructuring of conference taff that would consolidate three current positions into one, thus reducing the size of the staff. This was done in light of the current economic situation and redundancy of ministries.
In other action the conference approved the closing of two churches, the Solomon Wesley United Methodist Church in Blackwood and the Kinnelon UMC in Kinnelon. The conference also learned that a new church plant will be taking place in Logan Township, under the nurture of the Sharptown UMC.
This year Bishop Devadhar commissioned seven men and women to ministry in the process for ordination. He also ordained eleven others into full Elders Orders. At the same time fourteen Elders retired.
As we begin a new conference year, may it also be year of renewal and ministry in our own congregation as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ.
This year the main conference speaker was Rev. Stephanie Hand. She said, “We are called to serve and not to be served.” She reminded the gathering of clergy and lay people that Jesus had washed His own disciples’ feet in service. Using the story of Phillip and the Ethiopian she emphasized the importance of presence in the world. “Because Phillip was willing to talk.” She said we are called to serve people. “We aren’t called to transform people, we’re called to lead people to Jesus Christ and let God do what God does.” She also noted, “Christ isn’t looking for religious people. He is looking for disciples who are going to give it all. The world is waiting for us!”
Rev. Doug Ruffle reminded us that our mission field is large. He said that of the estimated 9 million people living in the bounds of the conference, only a third are active in the community of faith and only 11.7 percent of New Jersey’s population attends any mainline denominational church.
In response to the earthquake devastation in Haiti, our GNJ Conference is sponsoring a Volunteers in Mission work trip to Haiti, November 6-13, 2010. Anyone interested can contact Kathy Ahmad at kahmad@comcastnet. She is coordinating the Conference trip.
During the conference several offerings were taken for the mission and ministry of the Conference. These offerings totaled more than $22,000. Of that, $5,824 was for the work of UMCOR in Haiti and Chile.
Included in the actions of the conference was a restructuring of conference taff that would consolidate three current positions into one, thus reducing the size of the staff. This was done in light of the current economic situation and redundancy of ministries.
In other action the conference approved the closing of two churches, the Solomon Wesley United Methodist Church in Blackwood and the Kinnelon UMC in Kinnelon. The conference also learned that a new church plant will be taking place in Logan Township, under the nurture of the Sharptown UMC.
This year Bishop Devadhar commissioned seven men and women to ministry in the process for ordination. He also ordained eleven others into full Elders Orders. At the same time fourteen Elders retired.
As we begin a new conference year, may it also be year of renewal and ministry in our own congregation as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ.