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Acts 2 Sweeps West Ohio conference


Bishop Bruce Ough

Written: 6/12/2007

EPISCOPAL ADDRESS

June 11, 2007

The Lord be with you!

I greet each of you – stalwart followers of Christ who have gathered as the West Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church. May everything good from God, our Creator, be yours!

 

Once again, it is a personal privilege to address the lay and clergy leadership of the West Ohio Conference as we continue to live into God’s vision for us – “a conference in which every congregation is a healthy, growing, spiritually vital, risk-taking center for making and equipping disciples of Jesus for the transformation of the world.” (2001 Episcopal Address)

 

We have been following six vision pathways, or strategic emphases, as we live into God’s preferred future for the West Ohio Conference. Think of the image: “pathways” What do people do on a path? They move! They walk. They run. They jog. They jump. They skip. They ride bikes. They roller-skate. They go from somewhere to somewhere. The West Ohio Conference is moving on out. We are going somewhere along the pathways of:

Ø Leadership Excellence

Ø New Venues for Ministry

Ø Strengthening Existing Churches

Ø Mission Partnerships

Ø Financial Resource Development, and

Ø Missional Alignment

 

There are many signs of fruitfulness as we move along these pathways. There are many individuals, churches, neighborhoods and villages being transformed. There are many exciting partnerships being established to extend risk-taking mission, service and justice to our West Ohio communities and the world. You will be seeing, hearing and learning about this fruitfulness throughout our annual conference session. I invite you to celebrate a few highlights at this time.

 

Leadership Excellence

We celebrate the launching of our residency and internship programs which are being funded through Strength for Today…Bright Hope for Tomorrow. In July, Rev. Rachel Billups will begin serving a two-year residency at Greenville Evangelical United Methodist Church. Two college students will explore pastoral ministry as interns this summer. Angelique Evans is at King Avenue United Methodist Church in Columbus and Kathy Connolly is at Powell United Methodist Church.

 

New Venues for Ministry

We celebrate the planting of twenty (20) new United Methodist congregations in the past six years. Twelve (12) of these twenty were parented by, or are satellites of existing congregations. The combined 2006 average worship attendance for these twenty new ministries was 2,150.

 

Strengthening Existing Churches

We celebrate a significant increase in the number of Acts 2 Congregations in 2006. Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the following six areas of fruitfulness:

Ø Professions of Faith

Ø Baptisms

Ø Growth in Worship Attendance

Ø Growth in Membership

Ø Faith Forming Groups

Ø 100% Apportionments Paid

 

At the end of 2005, we had 84 congregations that demonstrated all six of these fruits. At the end of 2006, we had 112 Acts 2 Congregations – an increase of 33%. Additionally, there were 221 congregations that demonstrated five of the six areas of fruitfulness in 2006, an increase of 10% over 2005.

 

I am particularly pleased to report to you, and invite you to celebrate, an increase in our average worship attendance. In 2006 our average worship attendance in West Ohio was 122,739. This figure does not include the worship attendance of our new, unchartered congregations. This means 55% of our conference membership is in worship every weekend.

 

Missional Partnerships

We celebrate the growth in the number of individuals and churches engaged in mission partnerships through Volunteers in Mission. Between 2005 and 2006, the number of VIM teams from West Ohio grew from 40 to 76 teams. The number of individual participants on those teams grew from 338 to nearly 2,000. And, these were only the teams that were reported to our conference Director of Missions and Justice Ministries.

 

We celebrate our maturing partnerships with the North Katanga Conference in the Congo, the Oriental Conference in Mexico, the Volga District in Russia and the emerging United Methodist Church in Southeast Asia. As you can see from the power point, exciting initiatives are being implemented in each partnership this year. We are particularly blessed to have present in our conference session this year Eduardo Martinez from the Oriental Conference and Gaston and Jeanne Ntambo from the North Katanga Conference. Later this month, I will be traveling to Cambodia and Vietnam with a West Ohio team to train the district superintendents in Cambodia and our United Methodist pastors in Vietnam.

 

Financial Resource Development

We celebrate the growth in our connectional stewardship. In 2006, 764 of our churches paid 100% of their conference apportionments. This is an increase of 29 congregations over 2005, and a new high for the conference. Total conference apportionment receipts reached 82.33% in 2006, an increase of 2% over 2005.

 

I want to take this opportunity to thank our Conference Council on Finance and Administration for the energetic and courageous leadership they are providing in the area of financial resource development. They have committed to a disciplined strategy to simultaneously (1) build our reserves to an appropriate and responsible level, (2) steadily increase the amount we pay on our general church apportionments and (3) fund the program and staffing priorities of the West Ohio Conference that will allow us to live ever more fully into our vision. I commend them to your prayers and encourage your growing commitment to our connectional stewardship and shared mission.

 

We also celebrate $32 million generated in cash or pledges through the Strength For Today…Bright Hope for Tomorrow Funding Initiative. This is an additional $12,000,000 over what was reported at the 2006 annual conference session. Over $28 million is remaining in local churches for new facility construction, expansion or remodeling and debt retirement.

 

We also celebrate over $2.9 million in contributions in 2006 through the Council on Development for clergy pensions and health benefits, and a host of other mission projects.

 

Missional Alignment

We celebrate the continuing progress we are making to align the conference and district structures and resources to focus on

Ø local church reproduction,

Ø strengthening the discipleship systems of existing congregations,

Ø developing transformational clergy leadership.

 

Since our last annual conference session, we have successfully transitioned from 14 to 8 districts and launched our clergy clusters. These clusters are increasing our clergy leadership capacity by providing a context for spiritual support and ministry accountability. I want to take a moment to thank the conference staff, district superintendents and district staff for the Herculean effort they made to transition the districts.

 

Indeed, we are a conference on the move. Indeed, God’s great and mighty United Methodist Church is moving – in West Ohio and all over the world. Our task, as clergy and lay members of this Annual Conference, is to lead this God-movement. Even as we celebrate what God is accomplishing in West Ohio and around the world, I urge us to continue to seek and to pray that we will be open to what God yet intends to accomplish through us.

 

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

SHIFT HAPPENS

We gather here at Lakeside during the very heart of the Pentecost season. We gather, hoping and praying that the mighty, Holy Spirit wind will rush in and fill this entire auditorium. We gather, hoping and praying that the mighty, Holy Spirit wildfire will spread through our ranks. We gather, eager to hear – truly hear – one another speak about God’s deeds of power. We are eager to hear one another across all that divides us. We long to hear one another beyond all that separates us.

 

For the next four days, I invite you to imagine this West Ohio Annual Conference session as that first Pentecost crowd. Imagine us unified by the active, empowering presence of the Holy Spirit. Imagine us acting as if we are drunk. Drunk with the joy of being one in Christ Jesus. Drunk with enthusiasm for God’s purposes. Drunk with a desire to repent and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Imagine us – all three thousand of us – cut to the quick by Peter’s preaching and responding with one voice, “So, now what do we do?”

 

So, now what do we do? I invite you, with one voice, to ask God this critical question, this transformational question, this Pentecost question – So, now what do we do? Together we beseech God, “So, now what do we do?”

 

Pentecost changed the world. Pentecost shifted the world. Pentecost shifted the world from being exclusive and exclusionary – everyone speaking in their own tongue – to inclusive. Suddenly, without warning, everyone could understand everyone else. Suddenly, without warning, people of every language and culture, people from every corner of the known world, were caught up by the Holy Spirit and included in the God movement. That just gives me chills!

 

The second chapter of Acts says, “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 2:12) Eugene Peterson in The Message puts it this way: “Their heads were spinning; they couldn’t make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: ‘What’s going on here?’” The people gathered in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost experienced the “Whoosh Factor.” On Pentecost, “whoosh” happened.

 

This term was actually coined by Wendy Lybarger just two weeks ago at the Day Apart I hosted for all those being commissioned or ordained at this conference session. When the group was asked by Rev. Larry Brown, chair of our Board of Ordained Ministry, to describe what happened at Pentecost, Wendy did not hesitate. “Whoosh happened,” she exclaimed. Indeed, the Holy Spirit “whooshed in” and turned the world upside down and inside out, and everyone present knew that everything had changed, even though they could not comprehend all that had happened.

 

Dear friends, we live in such a time. We live in an age, a Pentecost-like season, when everyone knows that everything is changing at the speed of a violent wind, at the speed of wildfire, and we cannot comprehend it all. Like those present for the first Pentecost, our heads are spinning; we can’t make heads or tails of any of it.

 

A few weeks ago I ran across a video that helped me understand why I so often have that “head spinning” experience. It was written by Karl Fisch for the higher education market. It is titled, “Did You Know?” It is about the paradigm shift that is all around us. It is about the “whoosh” in which we live. Take a look at “Did You Know?”

 

(Did You Know video shown here)

 

That is only a small slice of the shift that is happening all around us. But, the point is stark – the point is clear – we are living in exponential times. Information technologies, populations, jobs, cultures, the church are all shifting at lightning speed. The church finds itself in the midst of a huge “whoosh.” We certainly do not want to find ourselves flatfooted, unable or unwilling to be the transformational movement God intends. We certainly do not want to be the church Lyle Schaller quips about when he says that if the 1950’s return, The United Methodist Church will be perfectly positioned to reach the world.

 

The question Peter’s Pentecost congregation asked is our question, “So, now what do we do?” I believe the answer lies in recovering the dynamics of a Spirit-movement. A Spirit-movement is exponential in nature. A Spirit-movement rushes along at the growing edge of people’s needs and hungers. A Spirit-movement is in the inversion business. A Spirit-movement captures us and compels us to hoist our sails into the “whoosh.” As the West Ohio Conference expression of this Spirit-movement, I believe God is calling us to:

Ø Repent and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit,

Ø Become a nimble church,

Ø Commit to becoming fruitful congregations, and

Ø Write the next chapter of Acts.

 

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

REPENT AND PRAY FOR THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Transformation begins first with us. Our United Methodist movement will never recover its ability to transform the world until those of us gathered in this room, and all those we represent back home, are actively being formed in Christ for the sake of the world. The West Ohio Conference cannot fully participate in the grand story and mystery of resurrection unless each of us is on the journey of dying to self and being raised to new, transformed life in Christ Jesus. Any recovery of the United Methodist way, any recovery of John Wesley’s “experimental religion” must include the individual and personal experience of an awakened soul, God’s pardoning and infilling grace, and a lifelong journey in God’s perfecting grace. Wesley had it right – a movement to transform the world must begin with the movement of God within the heart and soul of the individual.

 

Earlier this year, I received a letter from Rev. Jeff Raker, pastor of Cornerstone United Methodist Church near West Chester. He wrote to share an update on the congregation’s growth in ministry and mission. One sentence, in particular, caught my attention. Jeff wrote: “One of the big lessons we are all learning is to focus on the heart transformation as the goal and the other measurables as the results of transformation.”

 

When Peter’s compelling sermon caused the Pentecost crowd to ask, “So, now what do we do,” he did not hesitate in responding. “Repent! Repent, so that your sins may be forgiven. Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Peter’s first response to the question, “So, now what do we do,” was to tell those gathered to change their lives before they went out to change the world. Peter’s first response to the question was turn to God before you go out to turn others to God. Peter’s first response to the question was to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that you do not go out into the world powerless. Peter understood that transformation begins with the individual.

 

So, now what do we do? Dear friends, is it time for a season of repentance in the West Ohio Conference? Is it time to turn back to God? Is it time to pray, fervently pray, for the gift of the Holy Spirit? Is it time to confess that we cannot become a conference in which each of our nearly 1,200 congregations is vital, healthy and growing until we are a Holy-Spirit-filled, Pentecost People fully available to pursue God’s purposes?

 

I encourage each of our congregations to enter into a season of repentance and prayer. Turn back to God. Seek forgiveness for not being faithful to Christ’s command to bear much good fruit.

 

I know this repentance needs to begin with me. I can’t tell you what parts of your lives; work and witness need to turn back to God. For me, I repent of my tendency to be a planner more than a prayer. I confess that I have too often focused on growing disciples by osmosis and cognitive theological assent rather than by leading persons to new birth in Christ. I confess that I often depend on my own cleverness, methodologies and strategies rather than being fully dependent upon God’s hope, imagination and call. I repent of my tendency to blame others, systems and even our beloved denomination for our decline.

 

And, so I pray, Lord God, gentle my desperation, soften my fears and soothe the knots of my anxiety. Help me, to take responsibility for my own contribution to our decline and loss of evangelical fervor. Lord, reshape me to be an agent of healing and hope. Startle me with your Holy Spirit presence to live my life as authentically and boldly as Christ lived his. Help me to always remember that transformation begins with me. Amen.

 

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

BECOME A NIMBLE CHURCH

 

Jesus was born into a very securely ordered world. There were chief priests and scribes and Pharisees. There were countless rules and regulations. The Roman world was securely ordered and Rome was brutal when that order was violated. People knew their place – like it or not.

 

Then along came Jesus. He was a carpenter’s son. He preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” When he stood up to describe the kingdom, it was as if he was turning the world upside down and inside out. “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,’ but I say to you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

 

Jesus told stories about the kingdom. A landowner hired employees for his vineyard. He paid those who started 30 minutes before quitting time exactly the same wage as those who had worked from dawn. How orderly is that? In another story Jesus said that a powerful man invited his close friends for a great feast. When they didn’t show up, he brought in the homeless, the drunks and the gang members. How orderly is that? Jesus said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” How orderly is that? First, through Jesus’ disciples and now through the Church, God’s Spirit empowered a movement of the reign of God that has spread all over the globe. Early Christians were known as “people of the way” – people of the movement.

 

A movement: that’s how the United Methodist Church began in Great Britain. John Wesley, Charles Wesley and a handful of highly disciplined disciples of Jesus were determined to live as Jesus had taught his disciples. Both were priests of the Church of England. However, most of the people to whom they preached and who formed the early Methodist classes, bands and societies were people with little economic, religious or political power. Responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Wesley’s sought to help people become the whole persons that God intended. They made Christian faith simple and practical. “Do no harm. Do good. Attend to the ordinances of God.” A movement called ‘methodist’ was born.

 

It was a similar story in this brand new country called the United States. According to Dr. Nathan Hatch, a Methodist historian at Notre Dame University who spoke to the Council of Bishops in 2000, the American followers of John Wesley could boast no more than four ministers and three hundred lay people in 1771. The church was threatened with extinction during the Revolution. However, between the end of the Revolution and 1850 – seventy years – the Methodists achieved a virtual miracle of growth, rising from less than 3% of all American church members in 1776 to more than 34% by 1850.

 

Methodists were famous for their ability to move. Responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, they moved physically. Circuit riders traveled west and south with the wagon trains. They transcended lines of race and class and language. Methodists empowered ordinary people to express their faith in Jesus Christ. Methodists were known as a church which “moved with the spirit.” One of the words Dr. Hatch used in his presentation to the Council of Bishops was the word, “nimble.” Nimble. I love the image of a nimble church. Don’t you?

 

They were so nimble that, as Professor Hatch describes it, by 1850, nearly one out of five Americans was associated with the Methodists. We were the most extensive national institution other than the Federal government.

 

Fast forward to my lifetime. At the risk of oversimplifying the complexities of the last 56 years, allow me a moment to describe my experience of the United Methodist Church in the United States. By the time I was born in 1951, The Methodist Church was becoming less and less well known for responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, or being a “movement,” or being nimble, and better known for its great, strong and mighty institutions and agencies. Those institutions and agencies brought permanence and stability in a world that had experienced the chaos and insecurity of a Great Depression and two great wars in a half century. Functioning like mighty, well-oiled machines, they were created to endure, to order the church and to offer Christ’s ministry forever.

 

Many of the twentieth century institutions and agencies that remain today continue to bless the church and the world. They do good works in health, education, mission and ministry to the poor. If some of them didn’t exist, we would need to create them. Like many of you here, I work hard to support and maintain the United Methodist institutions and agencies for which I have Episcopal responsibility.

 

By the time I went off to seminary in 1974, most of us clergy in the United States thought we lived in a “Christian nation.’ The major work of making disciples of Jesus Christ was mostly complete. We were focused more on preserving the gifts given to us than we were on extending them. In my early years of ministry, I believed that my vocation was the faith development of the children, youth and adults in my congregation. I did not think about my neighborhood or community as a mission field. I thought in terms of “come” rather than “go.” I am a bit embarrassed to acknowledge that my view of making disciples was limited to deepening the faith of the disciples already entrusted to my care. “Mission work” was primarily international work or work in another part of town or nation. Responding to the “promptings of the Holy Spirit” seemed slightly suspicious to me.

 

In the 31 years since my ordination as a deacon, only in the rarest of instances have I experienced a United Methodist Church guided by such a powerful sense of mission and vision that people were galvanized into one unified Body of Christ. Only in the rarest of instances have I experienced the United Methodist Church in the United States as “movement.” Only in the rarest of instances would I have used the word “nimble” to characterize our beloved church here in the United States. Many of you gathered here today have never been a part of a local church which was making more new United Methodist disciples of Jesus Christ than it lost in the previous year.

 

Thank God for institutions and agencies which bring stability, order and good works. Thank God for the people who envisioned them and whose generosity supports them. For all their sacrifices, I can think of no better word than “gratitude.” I am truly grateful for the great institutions and agencies passed on to my generation.

 

However, the foundations laid in the 19th and 20th centuries need to be lifted up as the platforms with which we launch the new initiatives of the 21st century. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to loosen up a little. I’m ready to move. I’m ready to follow Jesus. I’m ready for the United Methodist Church to rise up and dance before the Lord. I’m ready for “whoosh” to happen. I’m ready for the United Methodist Church to step forward into God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven. I’m ready for us to become a nimble church. I believe this West Ohio Conference is ready to lead that movement. Are you ready? Are you ready to lead the movement? Are you ready to become nimble? The question is: So, now what do we do?

 

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

COMMIT TO BECOMING A FRUITFUL CONGREGATION

 

In my Episcopal Address to the 2006 Annual Conference session, I encouraged each of our nearly 1,200 churches to become an Acts 2

Congregation fully engaged in transforming lives, their community and the world. Acts 2 Congregations are fruitful. Acts 2 Congregations are reaching and baptizing new believers, growing worship, forming disciples and engaging in vital mission in the community and the world. Acts 2 Congregations are bearing kingdom fruit.

 

The fruits are clearly identified in the second chapter of Acts, verses 41 – 47. I believe God is calling West Ohio United Methodist congregations to bear similar fruit in the 21st century. So, now what do we do? Jesus says, “Remember, I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil.” (John 15:16) “My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.” (John 15:8)

 

Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the fruit of new persons professing faith in Christ Jesus, being baptized and added to the church. Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the fruit of increased diversity, attracting persons of different tongues, races, nationalities and life styles. Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the fruit of growing worship. Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the unity that comes from having ears to hear one another. The unity that comes when the Holy Spirit is present.

 

Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the fruit of a vital piety and devotion to the Word. Acts 2 Congregations demonstrate the fruit of their members engaged in ministry in and to the world. Acts 2

 

Congregations demonstrate the fruit of extravagant stewardship and sharing their blessings with those in need.

 

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

WRITE THE NEXT CHAPTER OF ACTS

 

The Book of Acts is more than the first and second chapters. As we continue to read through all 28 chapters, we discover that the Holy Spirit changed countless lives. Through the bold work of the early communities of faith – people were transformed physically, emotionally and spiritually by God’s grace and power. The apostles and earliest disciples of Jesus bore much kingdom fruit. They were able to do so because God, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, was in them, and they were responsive and obedient to the Spirit’s leading. They were in on the action of God, God acting in them, living in them, guiding them.

 

Now, we come to Acts Chapter 29.

Ø Acts 29 is the next chapter of God’s holy story.

Ø Acts 29 is your congregation’s story.

Ø Acts 29 is the story being written by you and your community of faith.

Ø Acts 29 is the story of God’s Spirit activity in and through your church.

Ø Acts 29 is the story of how your congregation is seeing and responding to the vision of God.

 

From the first century on into the 21st century, the church has been writing Acts 29. From the first generation of Spirit-filled believers, the church in every generation has been writing the next chapter of Acts. Every faith community, every congregation is only one generation away from extinction. Congregations that are vital are constantly and effectively telling “the old, old story of Jesus and his love.” And, telling it in ever new ways to an ever expanding audience. Healthy, growing congregations are stirred with hope to be the next page of God’s salvation story. Thriving congregations understand that God is always seeking to advance God’s salvation story through the holy stories of us all. God’s story of love, God’s story of transforming grace is not told until your story is told.

 

Many of our West Ohio congregations are already writing Acts 29. Many are already extending God’s story into their communities and beyond. Many are already demonstrating the fruits of God’s activity in and through them. And, what are the common characteristics of the congregations that are writing and living and demonstrating, on a daily basis, God’s holy story? You guessed it. You are already running ahead of me. You know these characteristics. You are living this process of disciple making. The characteristics are:

Ø Radical Hospitality

Ø Passionate Worship

Ø Faith-forming Relationships

Ø Risk-taking Mission, Service and Justice, and I would add

Ø Extravagant Generosity.

 

Bishop Robert Schnase describes these characteristics in his book, Five Practices of Faithful Congregations.These are the same dynamic steps, or core process, that Jesus employed as he led persons into a saving, transforming relationship with the Living God. They are the same means by which the early church extended the Pentecost experience into the world. They are the same characteristics and ministry framework I see in the vibrant, fruitful and growing congregations in West Ohio. They are the avenues the Church has always used, for 21 centuries now, to give expression to God’s reign and realm in the world.

 

Congregations that are writing the next chapter of Acts practice Radical Hospitality. Out of genuine love for Christ and for others, they take the initiative to invite, welcome, include and support newcomers grow as they grow in faith and become part of the Body of Christ. Their members focus on those outside their congregation with as much energy as they attend to the nurture and growth of those who already belong to the family of faith. Like the early church described throughout the Book of Acts, their hospitality is radical precisely because it is Holy Spirit inspired and driven to welcome persons of all nations, races, languages and status.

 

Congregations that are writing the next chapter of Acts offer Passionate Worship that connects people to God and to one another. Out of a deep desire for people to be fed, healed and transformed, they thoughtfully prepare worship that creates expectancy that has people figuratively and often literally on their tiptoes, eager to drink in the Spirit. They understand that people are searching for worship that is authentic, alive, and creative; where they experience the life-changing presence of God. Like the early church described throughout the Book of Acts, their worship is passionate precisely because it is filled with the awe, the wonder, the signs of God’s presence.

 

Congregations that are writing the next chapter of Acts create Faith-Forming Relationships and provide intentional faith development for those being assimilated into the God movement. Out of an abiding concern that people be formed into the image of Christ for the sake of the world, they insure that all followers of Jesus, from the great grandmother or great grandfather to the toddler, mature in faith and grow in discipleship by learning together in small, intimate, accountable groups. This is the United Methodist Way. This is our DNA, our heritage, our legacy and our future.

 

Like the early church described throughout the Book of Acts, their faith formation is intentional precisely because they know the Holy Spirit is best able to make disciples when people study and pray together and not by themselves.

 

Congregations that are writing the next chapter of Acts are engaged in Risk-Taking Mission, Service and Justice Ministries. Out of an unwavering commitment to make the kingdom of God visible on earth as it is in heaven, they help persons identify and claim their unique mission and service. They are involved in efforts to challenge and change unjust or inhumane systems that affect the poor. They understand that the failure to be engaged in risk-taking mission and service results in a deterioration of the congregation’s vitality and ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Like the Acts 2 church, and the early church described throughout the Book of Acts, their mission, service and justice ministries are risk-taking precisely because the Holy Spirit compels them to incarnate Christ’s complete, self-denying, life-giving love.

 

Congregations that are writing the next chapter of Acts practice Extravagant Generosity. Out of profound gratitude for God’s gift of life and Christ’s offering of himself, they invite persons to align their hearts and their resources with God’s purposes. They have discovered a truth as sure as gravity, that generosity enlarges the soul, realigns priorities, connects people to the Body of Christ and strengthens the congregation to fulfill Christ’s ministries. Their clergy and lay leaders model and teach that growing in the grace of giving is an integral part of the Christian journey of faith. Like the early church described throughout the Book of Acts, their generosity is extravagant precisely because it reflects the very nature of God’s extravagant love, and the extravagant Spirit gifts God continues to give the Body of Christ.

 

Congregations that are in on the action of God, congregations that are alive in the Holy Spirit, congregations that are fully available to accomplish God’s purposes are writing the next chapter of Acts. Their ministry plans propel them to practice radical hospitality, offer passionate worship, build faith-forming relationships, engage in risk-taking mission, service and justice ministries and demonstrate extravagant generosity. They are pervaded by the purpose of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

 

CONCLUSION

SO, NOW WHAT DO WE DO?

 

Dear and beloved friends in Christ, God is good, (All the time). All the time, (God is good). God has brought us so far. We see and celebrate the fruits of strengthened congregations, new faith communities, growing worship attendance, transformed lives, churches making eternal differences in their communities and the world, spiritual leaders being called and raised up, and growing generosity.

 

Whoosh has happened. And “whoosh” will continue to happen. That is the nature of living in this wonderful season of Pentecost. That is what happens when we hoist our sails into God’s mighty Spirit wind.

 

So, now what do we do? I invite you as leaders of the United Methodist movement in West Ohio to:

Ø Repent and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Listen for the Whoosh. Watch for the shifts in where and how God is present. Cast yourselves into God’s loving, forgiving embrace.

Ø Become a nimble church. Start to move again. Dance before

the Lord. Trust the Spirit to take you to where God wants you to be and to whom God wants you to witness and minister. Receive the Holy Spirit’s gifts of movement, of dance, of nimbleness.

Ø Commit to becoming a fruitful congregation. Claim as a goal to become an Acts 2 Congregation. Plan to demonstrate the six fruits of the early church. Remember that God chose you to bear tasty fruit.

Ø Write the next chapter of Acts. Plan now to develop a ministry plan that gets you in on the action of God – that aligns you with God’s purposes. Be that next page of God’s salvation plan. Be the next chapter of God’s transforming love in your community, in your neighborhood, in your part of the world. Change lives. Make a difference. Make the reign of God visible.

 

So, do you now know what to do? Friends, this is not a rhetorical question. Do you now know what to do? I believe you do? As we go forth into this next conference year, go and do what you know to do. May it be so. Amen.

 

Bishop Bruce R. Ough

West Ohio Conference