July 2024 Newsletter – Pastor’s Page
Happy July Church!
In June, I attended our Mountain Sky Annual Conference in Casper, WY. Diane Elliot, our Leadership Board chair, attended online as our congregation’s Lay Delegate (Thank you Diane!). Nancy Flint attended in-person as one of our conference’s three Co-Lay Leaders. The conference was full of worship, sacred business, laughter, tears, and prayer. It was the best annual conference I have ever attended. The air was thick with joy and hope as we marked the history-making changes made at General Conference back in May. The UMC is the most inclusive it has ever been, and we are ready to turn the page and begin a new chapter as the people called Methodists. We remembered the role of a Methodist Clergyperson in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado in 1864 and re-doubled our efforts to facilitate healing for the Arapaho and Cheyenne people.
We approved the closure of four churches – two in Montana: Scobey UMC and Shields Valley UMC. We also celebrated Bishop Karen’s upcoming retirement and reaffirmed her legacy with the Table for All Fund to strengthen rural churches with inclusive missions. A new bishop for our conference will be selected by July 13 at the Western Jurisdictional Conference in Spokane, WA. I’ll continue to share resources and news in the weeks ahead.
Two new co-lay leaders were elected by the laity. Nancy Flint’s four-year term as a Conference Lay leader has now ended. The UMC is unique in its mission to give lay people equal footing and voice with clergy in the church’s ministries and structure. I am filled with gratitude and awe as I reflect on Nancy’s work as a lay leader in our conference. She spent countless hours in zoom meetings, traveling, writing, and speaking in order to help shape the mission of clergy and lay people in Mountain Sky. Our churches are more thoughtful, energized, and effective because of Nancy’s work. I’ve included some moments of Nancy on stage during Annual Conference this year. Thank you Nancy!
Our conference gathering reminded me that every person has a calling in God’s church. So many of you use your gifts and resources to bring forth the Kingdom of God. As Bishop Karen said, “There are no bystanders in the Body of Christ!” Our conference ministries prove that we are better together!
Blessings,
Pastor Jared