From Pastor James S. Brewer

As published in the July 2006 Newsletter

The World Methodist Council (WMC) is an organization of over 70 Methodist church groups worldwide, including The United Methodist Church, various Methodist Churches in nations, as well as churches in the United States like the Free Methodist Church and The Wesleyan Church.

Organized in 1871, the WMC meets every five years to share, discuss, and interact. This year the World Methodist Conference will be held in Seoul, Korea July 20-25. Carol and I have been selected by Bishop Sherer to be delegates to his conference, and we are looking forward to it. While in Seoul, we will hear speakers, participate in workshops, and learn about the ways that Methodist people are living out the theme of the conference: "God in Christ Reconciling."

Following the meeting in Seoul, we are going to Beijing for five days of touring and sightseeing. We are looking forward to this part of the trip as well. It should be interesting -- and we hope, not too exciting!

We will leave from Norfolk on July 17, and when we return to the West Coast will take a few days to visit with family members in California, Oregon and Washington states before returning to Norfolk the evening of August 9.

We know that we will miss Norfolk while we are on this trip, but we are also eagerly anticipating learning more about how our church is living the call of Jesus Christ in the world. We'll tell you more about our experiences when we return!

From Pastor Charles Kathurima Murithi

NEBRASKA ANNUAL CONFERENCE VOTES “YES” TO CHANGE

As published in the July 2006 Newsletter

The theme for the 2006 Nebraska Annual Conference was “Making Disciples, Making, a Difference” which was held in Kearney Nebraska. What this simply meant was the Nebraska Methodist church has accepted to take the theme of Disciple Making, that make a difference as their main focus in the coming years. This will take different formats but the central thing will be making of disciples. In doing this each and every United Methodist member is therefore challenged to work towards making of the disciples.

Connected with the disciples making, was the change of the number of the districts that we need to have to make the whole process effective. The conference voted yes on having six districts instead of eight. The final boundaries will be done by the Bishop and her cabinet. The six districts are: Monument District with the district office in Ogallala, Elkhorn Valley District with the district office in Norfolk, Gateway District with the district office in Kearney, Buffalo Valley District with the district office in Grand Island, Flat Water District with the district office in Lincoln and Missouri River District with the district office in Omaha. Connected to the alignment is that each district will have a full time Administrative Assistant (This title may change depended on what is recommended by the transition committee). The conference also passed a vision statement that every local church need to work towards achieving if they are to succeed in making disciples, making a difference. The vision therefore includes: Radical Hospitality, heartwarming worship, risk-taking mission, vital faith formation/prayer gracious generosity and connectional joy and commitment.

This year the conference celebrated all the new members that joined our churches in the past year. This included those who joined through confession of faith or by transfer. The conference did celebrate the opening of the new churches that have taken place since last conference. The experience for those who attended therefore was that of the church being reborn to its original mission and purpose. The prayer that I send forth is that every Methodist will take upon himself or herself to make this year a year of reaching out with the love of God and changing someone’s life by pointing them to the love of God.

Church in mission was yet another celebration that was experienced at the conference because of your participation. The conference is involved in a partnership with the Nigerian Church in many ways. One of the programs that the Nebraska conference is involved in is the orphanage. Other mission programs included Lydia Patterson Institute just to name a few.

Have a blessed and Godly Month.

Shalom

~Dr. Charles Kathurima M.  

HOME