Notes From Annual Conference

I think the most striking thing about this year’s Oklahoma Annual Conference was all of the significant leaders who are retiring. Bishop Jimmy Nunn presided over us all for the last time after surviving incredibly difficult circumstances for the last few years with the pandemic and then the disaffiliation season. I am sure that he is looking forward to a much calmer retirement enjoying his family. Seungrok and I were both honored to be invited to his “invitation only” retirement luncheon. Three other members of the Cabinet also retired. The Secretary to the Bishop and two District Superintendents. July 1 is the official restructuring of the cabinet with five districts in Oklahoma. We are now part of the Northeast District and our Superintendent is Rev. Terry Koehn. I have known Terry since I was going through the ordination process because he was on the committee that interviewed me and then recommended me. I think that you will really like him. His last words to me as we said goodbye were “Let’s plant some churches together!”

Another significant thing that happened was the celebration of the largest gift ever left to the Oklahoma Foundation. The Alice Badger Dangott Trust awarded 22.5 million dollars to be divided between Conference Camping Ministries, OCU, and the Circle of Care. While everyone celebrated this incredibly generous gift, I smiled to myself because Alice and her husband Bob were from Okmulgee and were my friends. I never knew that they were wealthy but Bob was always the most dapper dresser at church because he liked to wear hats. Alice volunteered in the food pantry and was involved in my raising up as a child of God.

Every year the Ordination service and election of candidates for ministry is recognized as one of the most significant parts of Annual Conference. It was nice to see people that I have worked with and admired be Commissioned and Ordained. Kurt and Janie Lampi were at this service because their son-in-law , John, was Ordained. It was such a joy to see their daughters and grandsons at this celebration. At the end of the service, they asked if anyone had felt called by the Holy Spirit to ministry and people went down to the altar and were prayed over.

Mike Miller and one of our youth, Addie Cole, were there to represent Faith and to vote on your behalf. I really enjoyed the time that we had together. Mike and I attended a day of training on how to build bridges out of poverty based on a successful program in Muskogee. It was inspiring and I hope that we might consider using the model in the future.

Lastly, I want to ask you to pray for the leaders and students going to Camp Egan next week. We have 37 youth and 6 adults attending. If you want to send mail to the campers or adults, you will need to post by Monday at the latest. Our youth director Mark will be celebrating his birthday while we are at camp. The adults leave on Sunday and the youth leave on Monday. We will be back Friday afternoon. I wish you could all experience the awesomeness that is camping with our youth. It is truly a holy place.

Grace and peace,