John Motley, Dee Dee Rencehausen, Ruby Cunningham and I attended the fortieth annual session of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church at Lakeside, Ohio last week.  We were blessed with wonderful weather (in the 70’s), a minimum showing of Canadian soldiers (bugs), and great speakers.  The theme for this session was “Be Transform - Transform Our Hearts, Transform Our Minds, Transform Our Doors.”  Let me share with you some thoughts and challenges brought to us by some of the speakers that week.

Bishop John Hopkins challenged the delegates from our churches to re-think church - to seek to engage our community outside the traditional ways.  He mentioned that if the church does not adapt to the changing world, the world will pass it by.  And he offered three ways to rethink church:  1. we need to be more reflective than reactive – paying more attention to what God is doing, 2. be more concerned with who is around the church than who is in it, and 3. encourage the creation of new worship services to meet the spiritual needs of people.

Rev. Orlando Chaffee, our new District Superintendent, was the speaker at the Religion and Race dinner.  Utilizing the biblical passage of the Good Samaritan, he talked about the need to build bridges out of our fences.  He described some of the fences we have created that hinder us from entering meaningful relationships with others - fences that exclude rather than include.  And that if we are to be a transformed church, we need to tear down those fences to build bridges instead.

Rev. Nancy Hull, pastor at Westlake UMC, was the speaker at the Thursday morning service.  Utilizing the biblical passage of the paralyzed man being lowered through the roof to Jesus, she talked about how the church on occasions has been like the multitude of people blocking the entrance door to Jesus, and until we learn how to be an inclusive church we can’t talk about being a church with open hearts, open minds, and open doors. 

It has been a year since I have been your pastor, and I can say that Christ United Methodist Church is a wonderful church of loving, caring and talented people.  I am looking forward to the challenges of this year, as we continue to grow in our spiritual journey, and to be transformed into the likeness of Christ.  Have a wonderful summer.