I have submitted a profile to be considered for election as a clergy delegate from the Great Plains Annual Conference to the 2020 General Conference, South Central Jurisdictional Conference, or as an alternate. You can find a list of all clergy and laity who have submitted profiles from the Great Plains Conference here. Here is one […]
I had not cried this week… Until this morning. As I was dropping our children off at school, One Day by Matisyahu came up on shuffle on the playlist to which we were listening. They headed off for their school day and I drove home with tears rolling down my cheeks. Here is the music […]
This morning, I met with a group of clergy colleagues in what is a regularly scheduled gathering. Today we shared, reflected, grieved, considered the future and talked about what and how to best share with our local congregations the events of General Conference. I shared an image of the disorientation that I am feeling in […]
It is difficult to make sense of the events of the day. The passing of the Traditional Plan was disorienting, heart-rending, and continues to be heavy on my mind. The church that has been home for my entire life feels a little less like home. The votes clearly reflect the reality of where the church […]
Well, I was not expecting the day of conferencing to go as it did. It was disheartening to see the Traditional Plan receive enough votes in legislative committee to go on the plenary. The disaffiliation legislation is interesting. If you asked me six months ago about the wisdom of a “graceful exit” for churches and […]
This morning I led worship at Berryton United Methodist Church and preached a sermon about being in connection with one another – Moved to Connect. It is the second in a three part series, The Movement Continues. It is focused on who we are as United Methodist Christians. During our worship service, we lifted up […]
Over the last several years, the Great Plains Annual Conference has introduced Networks into our life in ministry together. These are groups of congregations that share a physically contiguous mission field – all the churches in an area. The church which I serve, Berryton United Methodist Church, is connected in a network with Big Springs […]
Today is my 32nd day as the preacher assigned to Berryton United Methodist Church. It has been a wonderful journey of learning, sharing, and welcome. I am so grateful for the warm welcome that we have received from the congregation and community. One of the ways that I have been learning about the congregation is […]
There will be less than 16 months between the special session of General Conference in 2019 and the regular session of General Conference in 2020. I believe that continuity between the two General Conferences will be essential, given that any action taken in 2019 will directly influence legislation proposed in 2020, and delegates in 2020 […]
Over the past few days, I have continued in prayer for Charleston. I want to share a portion of my response to the Charleston Church Shootings which I preached this morning at First United Methodist Church. I believe it is important and inadequate. You can find the entire sermon and manuscript online here. Let me […]
Today was the final day of the BOM Mid Quad Training Event in Denver. We had the opportunity to hear from two groups presenting on Identifying Critical Issues for General Conference. For each we heard a presentation and had the opportunity to follow up with table conversations on both the Global Discipline and Study of Ministry. As the presenters were […]
Yesterday was Day 2 of the BOM Mid Quad Training Event in Denver. The morning was a back and forth between presentation from Bishop Hagiya of The Pacific Northwest Conference and conversation in response at our tables with others from our annual conference. In the afternoon we self-selected into affinity groups for conversation and the evening brought jurisdiction meetings. […]
Rev. Andrew Conard 