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2005 Session
of Annual Conference - June 5-8
Change is in
the air! The weather is getting hot. Our recent graduates will start
their new lives as adults. The flowers are blooming and the bugs are
swarming. New babies are preparing for their entrance into this
exciting world. Our school teachers are finding some time to work at
home and maybe even enjoy some time without grading papers. Yes, the
summer is here and change is a part of its allure.
This coming Sunday,
I will have the privilege of participating in another change. On
June 5, the opening session of the Alabama West Florida Annual
Conference will take place at Christ United Methodist Church in
Mobile. This is the first time since 1947 that the conference will
be held in a place other than Montgomery, AL. As Mrs. Betty Kelly,
Ms. Opal Spikes, and myself travel to Mobile, we will learn new
roads, meet new faces, and represent the ministry of this great
church.
Some of our business
will include:
- A mission day
where we will distribute food to the needy, pass out water
bottles to the thirsty, visit our nursing homes, sort peanuts,
and other various outreach ministries.
- Worship with all
the other delegates, clergy and lay, from every church in our
conference.
- See the
ordination of 12 new elders (including Pastor Gary Stringfellow
from Sardis Methodist Church in Hartford) and the commissioning
of 15 deacons and probationary elders.
- We will set the
conference budget.
- We will vote on
petitions and resolutions in attempts to be faithful in our
witness as a conference.
- The pastoral
appointments for the next year will be set.
I personally am
invested in this year's annual conference for several reasons.
Firstly, I am the chairman of the Equitable Compensation Commission
(E.C.C.) that sets the minimum pastors' salaries and provides
economic assistance to churches in the payment of their pastor.
Also, I have worked closely with the conference youth ministries. I
have resigned my position to spend more energy here in Hartford and
will see my last work with them presented at this conference. The
youth are presenting a resolution concerned with the world's
pressure to conform to an unhealthy body image. So, I am excited to
see the work of the youth and the E.C.C. at conference.
More importantly, I
am excited to see the winds of change that our conference is seeing.
We are reaching out in ministry to Africa in a way we have not seen
before. We are letting pastors stay in their appointments longer
than ever before. We are seeing a fresh spirit and breath of
Almighty God that I have not seen in my time as a pastor.
Please keep us in
your prayers as Betty, Opal, and I go to conference. See you when we
get back on June 8!
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