“Local churches are the strength of the conferences,” co-Lay Leader Mark Menzi told Annual Conference members in the Laity Address on June 8. “While there is training and resources available in districts and conference, it is in the churches where the ministry is happening, disciples being made, people are going into the community to see the people and minister with them.”
Read MoreIn our highly conflicted society, is civil conversation on disputed subjects possible? At Laity Session at Annual Conference on June 6, participants learned some basic principles to practice when they engage in conversation with those they disagree with.
Read MoreBishop Dan Schwerin, newly assigned episcopal leader for the Northern Illinois Conference, spent his first month focused on meeting key leaders within the conference and the denomination. A cabinet retreat and bishop training, locally and across the country, filled his calendar. Late January and February were set aside to work on forming relationships across our conference.
Read MoreLaity Convocation 2023 was an opportunity to try something new. After two years of virtual gatherings, Co-Lay Leaders Mark Manzi, Eugene Williams, and Connie Augsburger decided that they wanted in-person participation at three locations. Being in three churches (Disciples UMC in Mt. Morris, Barrington UMC, and Faith UMC in Orland Park) provided the opportunity for fellowship and reduced the distance for participants to travel.
Read MoreWhen I think of being called into ministry, I think of my father. Oh, he wasn’t a pastor. He was a mechanic who quit school in the eighth grade and was mostly a “home” Baptist. That means he did not go to church very much. He was “spiritual” but not “religious” long before those were sociological categories.
Read MoreThis year’s Laity Sunday falls on Oct. 16. The theme is RISE UP! - and Reveal God’s grace (2 Tim 1:8-12). Under the call to Rise Up, laity in the current quadrennium will continue to echo the invitation of this passage: to Rise Up and revive God’s gift of faith.
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