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In a letter dated Jan. 23, 2017, Jim Salley, Associate Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement at Africa University, reports that the Bishop Jonathan and Beverly Keaton Endowment from the Making Dreams Possible Campaign has surpassed the $1 million goal with a total of $1,003,907. "By investing in Africa University, you help young people move from the sidelines into meaningful and productive lives. thank you again for your continuing support and generosity."
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Ross named to Missouri Annual Conference staff
Bishop Robert Farr announced his intent to appoint the Rev. Dr. Roger Ross as Director for the Center of Congregational Excellence. Ross is currently serving as senior pastor of First UMC in Springfield, Illinois in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. The cross-conference appointment comes with the blessing of Bishop Frank Beard.
The position has been vacant since Farr was elected to the episcopacy in July at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita, Kansas. Ross rose to the top of the field after a national search. He expects to start in the new role on July 1.
"The Center for Congregational Excellence is one of our priority areas for the Missouri Annual Conference," said Bishop Farr. "Roger has a great track record in planting and transforming congregations. We think he will be a great fit to our team and help us discern the next season of connecting the Gospel with new people in new places." - See more at: http://www.moumethodist.org/newsdetail/missouri-annual-conference-chooses-new-center-director-7391736#sthash.JOyEydaZ.dpuf
Bishop Robert Farr announced his intent to appoint the Rev. Dr. Roger Ross as Director for the Center of Congregational Excellence. Ross is currently serving as senior pastor of First UMC in Springfield, Illinois in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. The cross-conference appointment comes with the blessing of Bishop Frank Beard.
The position has been vacant since Farr was elected to the episcopacy in July at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita, Kansas. Ross rose to the top of the field after a national search. He expects to start in the new role on July 1.
"The Center for Congregational Excellence is one of our priority areas for the Missouri Annual Conference," said Bishop Farr. "Roger has a great track record in planting and transforming congregations. We think he will be a great fit to our team and help us discern the next season of connecting the Gospel with new people in new places." - See more at: http://www.moumethodist.org/newsdetail/missouri-annual-conference-chooses-new-center-director-7391736#sthash.JOyEydaZ.dpuf
Bishop Robert Farr announced his intent to appoint the Rev. Dr. Roger Ross as Director for the Center of Congregational Excellence. Ross is currently serving as senior pastor of First UMC in Springfield, Illinois in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. The cross-conference appointment comes with the blessing of Bishop Frank Beard.
The position has been vacant since Farr was elected to the episcopacy in July at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita, Kansas. Ross rose to the top of the field after a national search. He expects to start in the new role on July 1.
"The Center for Congregational Excellence is one of our priority areas for the Missouri Annual Conference," said Bishop Farr. "Roger has a great track record in planting and transforming congregations. We think he will be a great fit to our team and help us discern the next season of connecting the Gospel with new people in new places." - See more at: http://www.moumethodist.org/newsdetail/missouri-annual-conference-chooses-new-center-director-7391736#sthash.JOyEydaZ.dpuf
Bishop Robert Farr announced his intent to appoint the Rev. Dr. Roger Ross as Director for the Center of Congregational Excellence in the Missouri Conference. Ross is currently serving as senior pastor of Springfield First UMC in the Illinois Great Rivers Conference. The cross-conference appointment comes with the blessing of Bishop Frank Beard.
The position has been vacant since Farr was elected to the episcopacy in July at the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita, Kansas. Ross rose to the top of the field after a national search. He expects to start in the new role on July 1.
"Although I was not seeking this position, after much prayer and countless conversations, I have accepted a new ministry role," Ross said in a letter mailed to the Springfield First congregation this week. "As some of you know, I have long felt a special calling to start new churches. I also love helping pastors and churches find new life. Like you, I want to invest my one and only life in a way that has the greatest impact for the Kingdom of God. When prayerfully considering who God made me to be, I came to believe this position would uniquely tap my passion and gifts and could be my highest point of contribution to a world that needs the love and leadership of Jesus Christ."
As with any pastoral vacancy, the District Superintendent is meeting with the church's pastor-parish committee and the process of discerning a new pastor is underway.
Read more...
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Bishop Lewis weighs in on A Way Forward
In an op-ed piece for the United Methodist News Service, retired Bishop William B. Lewis makes the case that it is the annual conferences, not General Conference where issues on human sexuality and ministry need to be settled.
"The annual conference is the basic body of the church. It preceded and created the General Conference. This is fundamental to our polity and has been from the beginning," Lewis writes. "We are so accustomed to thinking about authority as 'top-down' that we just assume the General Conference has the power to tell one part of the church how to deal with personnel matters in another part of the church. It has never been so, though it has been tried several times and the attempt has always failed.
"Problems arise when General Conference makes behavioral rules intended to apply to the entire denomination. We have a lengthy history of such frustrating and failed attempts at 'one-size-fits-all'" legislation, i.e., bans against the use of tobacco or alcoholic beverages or remarriage of divorced persons. The General Conference doesn't have the power or machinery for enforcement of such rules because that prerogative belongs to the annual conference and therein to a body of one's peers."
Read more...
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Standing Rock Sioux to fight Trump's executive order
Native Americans at Standing Rock announced this week they will fight an executive order signed by President Donald Trump to resume construction of the North Dakota Pipeline near the Standing Rock reservation.
In a Jan. 24 press release, Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chairman David Archambault II said the executive order violates the law and the tribe will take legal action to fight it.
"President Trump is legally required to honor our treaty rights and provide a fair and reasonable pipeline process," Archambault said. "Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream."
Water protectors began camping near the construction in July after the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe took its first legal action to block the pipeline by filing a complaint against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over its permitting process.
The North Dakota Pipeline would carry a 500,000 barrels of oil daily from the Bakken oil fields in northwest North Dakota to Patoka, Ill. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe says the pipeline would not only threaten its water supply, but also pass through and destroy burial sites and sacred places.
Nearly 800 campers still occupy three campsites near the pipeline construction. The tribe is asking campers to leave because of concern about flooding from the river due to record snowfalls this winter.
Read more...
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Year-end reports available online
EZRA - the on-line tool for local churches to report their year-end statistics - is now available. One church has already submitted all three tables! We will be sending out instructions and reminders, but if you want to get a jump on it, the website is
http://ezra.gcfa.org
The username for your church is the six-digit number assigned to your church by GCFA (it is the same number found on your remittance reports from my office). The initial password is password. You will be prompted to change the password when you enter the system for the first time.
Deadline to submit your reports is March 31, 2017.
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February issue of The Current posted online
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| Click on the cover to view the February issue |
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The February issue of
The Current should be arriving this weekend but you can also read it online. The cover story, A Tale of Two Cities, is a look at two Illinois communities celebrating a bicentennial in 2017 and both stories are interwoven with early frontier Methodism. Find out the roots of Mt. Carmel and Alton by clicking on the image posted.
The issue also includes several local church stories, a two-page report on what's happening on our college campuses and universities.
Bishop Beard also asks the question,
Whose Side Are You On? in his monthly column, pointing out that God doesn't choose sides.
There are also tributes to two pastors who recently passed away -- Rev. Earl Dickey and Rev. Richard "Dick" Chrisman.
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Sincerely,
Paul E. Black
Illinois Great Rivers Conference
217-529-2848
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