Category Archives: kansas

Learnings from the Kansas Leadership Center

Posted on by

I have had the opportunity to engage with the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) in the Leadership and Faith: Transforming Communities program over the past year. I wanted to share some of the learnings that I have gathered from my interactions with the KLC.

  • If you can be competent in four things – you will make more progress on your leadership challenges. They are:
    • Diagnose situation
    • Manage self
    • Energize others
    • Intervene skillfully
  • It is helpful to diagnose the situation more often and longer than one may think necessary.
  • It would always be nice to have more information before taking action. This is not possible. You have to take action.
  • Be ready to entertain more than one interpretation about any situation
  • Be ready to ask – What story are people telling about me?

The #kwc12 Twitter Word Cloud Project

Posted on by

2012 Kansas West Annual Conference Twitter Word Cloud

As a follow up to the The #gc2012 Twitter Word Cloud Project, I completed a similar project for the Kansas West Annual Conference. I collected Twitter updates from May 22 to 27 that were tagged with #kwc12, #ksw12 and #kswumc. Then I used Wordle to create a word cloud with the text of all the updates for the conference. I edited out Twitter usernames, #kwc12, #ksw12 and #kswumc to get a better view of the conversation. I hope that you enjoy the results!

  • You can find the raw data of Twitter updates tagged with #kwc12, #ksw12 and #kswumc at http://j.mp/LlgkSN. Feel free to use these updates and World to create your own word clouds.
  • You can download a full size image of the word cloud at http://j.mp/L2ZwlA

Enjoy!

My Ordination

Posted on by

This is a video of highlights from the 2010 Ordination and Commissioning Service at the Kansas West Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. It has been edited to highlight my ordination. Thanks to the Kansas West Communications team for their work in producing the entire service.

Cat-Hawk Challenge – #UMC Campus Ministry

Posted on by

I believe that campus ministry in Kansas is a critical part of renewal within The United Methodist Church in the state. I am excited to share the Cat-Hawk Challenge with you. From the website:

You are invited to this year’s Cat-Hawk Challenge. The purpose of this challenge is to encourage United Methodists to become Partners- in-Ministry with Wesley KU or K-State Wesley. The Cat-Hawk Challenge offers a fun way to learn about the vital ministries of these two United Methodist campus ministries.

In what ways are campus ministries supported close to where you live?

Institut(ion): In Every Sense of the Word (3 of 5)

Posted on by

I spent last week at a youth camp, Institute 2010: God’s All Stars, which is a ministry of the Conference Council on Youth Ministry of the Kansas East Annual Conference. This post is part of a series reflecting on the week and making applications for the local church.

Institute is an institution with the good and the bad that it brings. There are rich traditions and a history that brings the past to light and looks to the future. Many of the adult leaders at camp this summer remember an experience of the very same camp when they were young. One of the pastors among the adult leaders remembers feeling first called to ministry in the very place where we had morning worship during the week. However, the rich history has the side effect of narrowing the vision of what could be possible for a camp among the high school students of the Kansas East Conference. There are some practices that are clearly leftovers from time gone by and while faithful have ceased to be relevant.

What about in your local church? How has the past shaped who the community is today? In what ways does the history shape both the present and the future?

Institute 2010: God’s All Stars

Posted on by

Today begins my first experience of Kansas East Youth Institute. From a promotional poster:

For almost 100 years, young people have come to Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan., to attend United Methodist Youth Institute. Institute is a tradition of the Kansas East Conference Council on Youth Ministry. Institute is a unique week of spiritual formation and discipleship for senior high youth. At Institute, youth are taught to both receive and give care as taught by Jesus Christ.

Youth who have completed the eighth grade through graduating high school seniors are eligible to attend Institute.

The 2010 summer theme is “God’s All-Stars.” The Institute Vision Team selected this theme with you in mind. We will consider how people whom God calls upon for leadership are often a different type of All-Star than those the rest of the world calls upon for leadership.

Here goes something…

Kansas East Annual Conference – #kseumc

Posted on by

Resurrection is hosting the Kansas East Annual Conference. While I am a full elder in the Kansas West Annual Conference, I am currently serving a church located in the East. I care a great deal about spiritual revival across the state of Kansas and pray for that every day that I come to church.

Resurrection Online is hosting the stream of the worship services and plenary speakers. You can find the stream live at http://kansaseast.org/stream.

Happy Conferencing!

2010 #kswumc – Clergy Session

Posted on by

Tonight is the clergy session of the Kansas West Annual Conference. This is where I hope to be elected as a full member of the Annual Conference and approved for Elder’s ordination. I decided to look up officially the process for which I will be ordained and want to share a few of the applicable paragraphs in the 2008 Book of Discipline.

  • “Questions relating to matters of ordination, character, and conference relations of clergy shall be the business of the clergy session. The actions of the clergy session shall be for and on behalf of the annual conference” (2008 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, ¶605.6).
  • “Provisional members who are candidates for full connection and ordination as elders and have been provisional members for at least two years may be admitted into membership in full connection in an annual conference and approved for elder’s ordination by two-thirds vote of the clergy members in full connection of the annual conference, upon recommendation by two-thirds vote of the Board of Ordained Ministry…” (2008 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, ¶335).

I have already been recommended by the Board of Ordained Ministry, so am looking to the vote of the clergy session to move forward.

Make sense?

I am looking forward to tonight.

2010 #kswumc Annual Conference

Posted on by

The annual conference season has begun in The United Methodist Church. This week I will be attending the Kansas West Annual Conference in Salina, Kansas. I hope to post each day this week about annual conference.

According the the 2008 Book of Discipline ¶601, “The purpose of the annual conference is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by equipping its local churches for ministry and by providing a connection for ministry beyond the local church; all to the glory of God.”

I hope and pray that this gathering of the annual conference will be a means to accomplishing this purpose. Do you believe that your annual conference, Kansas West or elsewhere, fulfills this purpose?

PS – #kswumc is a Twitter hashtag for the annual conference. You can follow live updates from the conference by searching for that text at twitter.com.

Kansas West Delegation to Zimbabwe

Posted on by

Next week, Nicole and I will travel to the Zimbabwe East Annual Conference as part of a delegation from the Kansas West Annual Conference. This trip was first announced in this article from the Kansas West website – Local churches invited to support Zimbabwe partnerships. On the trip, I hope to build relationships with the people of Zimbabwe, listen to stories, look for opportunities in ministry and pray continually. One of the key questions, that was affirmed by a conversation today with the Director of Mission Minstries at Resurrection today is this:

How might a partnership be formed with the outcome of healthier local churches in both Zimbabwe and Kansas?