I appreciate the work to produce the State of the Church Report for The United Methodist Church. You can find it online here or use this link to download a PDF of the entire report. Here are a few tidbits that I found to be of interest: The median age of the population in the […]
Category: united methodist church
I recognize there is debate about how to determine what makes a clergy person effective. Whatever criteria is used, when a clergy person is determined to be ineffective she or he should find another job before the end of the appointive year. This doesn’t mean being kicked out of the church or Christian community. It […]
According to the 2008 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, “Every effective elder in full connection who is in good standing shall be continued under appointment by the bishop…” (¶334.1) There is conversation about changing the “shall” in this paragraph to “may.” This would, in effect, end a guaranteed appointment to serve at […]
If I could change one thing in the United Methodist Church today, I would end guaranteed clergy appointments. Here are the top 10 reasons to end this practice: 8. Ineffective clergy will be more easily removed from leading a United Methodist church. 7. Effective clergy will be responsible for a increasing number of churches. 6. […]
It was a great day yesterday. I was ordained as an elder in the Kansas West Annual Conference at the Service of Commissioning and Ordination last night at the Bicentennial Center. We had a rehearsal at lunch time and got ready to go for the evening. After the afternoon plenary session, I went out to […]
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 […]
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 […]
I have enjoyed being involved in #SMCKC, the Social Media Club of Kansas City. I have learned a lot from others, particularly over the past few months in presentations on social media efforts from various local companies. In addition, conversations have proven to be fruitful. So why not #smcumc? A Social Media Club for The […]
Several months ago, I read the post The Pollyanna Principles for Social Change, which lead me to The Pollyanna Principles. From the website: The Pollyanna Principles The Ends: 1. We accomplish what we hold ourselves accountable for. 2. Each and every one of us is creating the future, every day, whether we do so consciously […]
The next steps from the trip to Zimbabwe are to bring a recommendation to the Focus Team from the Kansas West Annual Conference to move forward, draft a proposal for a covenant and prepare a presentation for Annual Conference. I am excited to see what will happen in the future and share the stories that […]
In several of the districts that we visited in Zimbabwe there was a mission centre that in many cases was founded over 100 years ago. These were locations that started to be places of ministry when missionaries from the United States came to what was then Southern Rhodesia. These sites often had a hospital, school, […]
A few weeks ago, I made a proposal to make publicly available the documents produced by candidates for ministry in The United Methodist Church. To that end, I have published my Sermon for Admission to Full Connection and Ordination as Elder in the Kansas West Annual Conference. You can find the document online at http://j.mp/69Bnng. I have licensed my […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 