General Conference Postponed, again

March 11, 2022

Hello Friends, 

I am making my packing list for the mission trip to Memphis with the youth group.  We are leaving this weekend and returning on Friday.  I am so excited to be attending with the thirty students and five other adults. Mark Fowler, our Youth Director, made prayer cards for every participant and our Lay Leader Alec Davis blessed us and sent us out in worship last Sunday.  I loved the reaction of the congregation when they said “I didn’t even know that we had this many teenagers in the youth group.”  And not all of them are attending the mission trip! My goal is to learn all their names and something about each of them while we are away.  Please keep this entire team in your prayers.  

You may have heard the news that the General Conference of the United Methodist church has been postponed again until the year 2024.  As you can imagine, those who were waiting are not very happy about the delay.  The churches that want to leave our denomination are impatient and want to move on to the next phase of their ministry.  If you would like to read more about this, click HERE.  

You are probably wondering what this means for Faith UMC.  And the reality is nothing yet.  We will wait until 2024 to see what will happen.  In the mean time, we have lots of vital ministry to do and plenty of kingdom work. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are hurting because of this decision but we also do not want to exclude those who should be at the table for these important discussions.  The world has changed in many difficult ways these last two years and our response is to lean into who we are and what we are about.  Faith UMC has a vital mission statement and clear values.  So we will keep doing what we have always done in love.  Also, when people visit our church from these churches who are struggling, we will love them and invite them to serve Christ right along with us.  

This Sunday I need you to show up for worship and support Pastor Seungrok as he preaches three times in one morning.  BUT DON’T FORGET IT IS “SPRING FORWARD” for your clocks this weekend.  Hopefully your alarm is on a smart phone and will make the adjustment for you.  If not, please don’t forget to move your clock forward one hour.  

Grace and Peace,