The United Methodist Connection

Last Friday I was ordained at a worship service during the Annual Conference session (perhaps more on that later).  One lay person told me later that attending that worship service allowed her to truly see and feel the power of the United Methodist connection.  She told me how it was so powerful and moving to be there as a lay person, amidst other lay people from across the conference, worshipping with clergy, district superintendents, and presided over by the Bishop of our Annual Conference as well as the resident Bishop of Nigeria and the Episcopalian Bishop of the Nebraska area.

It was truly a powerful service.  But this woman's comments reminded me that in order to celebrate this joy of being a connectional church, someone must help to tell the stories - to give testimony.  As a result, I am going to try, for at least a little while, to write some short posts with links to other stories about ministry of which we are a part through our connectional structure in the United Methodist Church.  Many will be local or regional, others might be far-reaching.  We'll see where the Spirit takes us.

The first installment of connectional, missional testimony is about the Volunteer in Mission team going to Kenya from Nebraska today.  Check out their thoughts and experiences on their blog: http://numckenya2010.blogspot.com/ .  The team is made up of members of UM churches in Norfolk, South Sioux City, Laurel, Madison, Minden, Hay Springs, and Scottsbluff.  They will return on July 3.