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News:Western Jurisdiction Meetings, 'A New Thing,' Are Well ReceivedSee, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. – Isaiah 43:19
By Cate Monaghan
Director of Communications, CA-NV Annual Conference
When Bishop Grant Hagiya (resident in the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference) posed the question on Sunday, "Should we do this again?" he received a warm response. There were nods throughout the roomful
 of bishops, Cabinet members, directors of connectional ministry, communicators, and other leaders, gathered in San Diego for Western Jurisdictional Meetings, Jan. 28-Feb. 4. The first-ever gathering was conceived by the College of Bishops and the jurisdiction's deans of Cabinets, and designed to be a time of team building, leadership development, and resource sharing.In this General Conference year, discussion of General Conference issues of particular interest to the West also made it to the agenda.
First United Methodist Church of San Diego hosted the first day of the Full Cabinet Forum at its leafy, sunlit campus on Saturday. Opening worship in the Trotter Chapel was followed by a team building exercise and sections on adaptive leadership and best practices. Closing vespers, again in the chapel, concluded the day for all but the deans, who met for a planning session after adjournment.
On Sunday, the group moved to the Bahia Resort Hotel to "test drive" the facility that will host upcoming Council of Bishops meetings. Bishop Warner H. Brown, Jr., resident bishop in the California-Nevada Annual Conference, preached a sermon titled, "From Ho-hum to Amen!" at opening worship.
 Calling attention to a Barna study in which "very few" professing Christians said that attending church affects their lives greatly, the bishop pointed out that Jesus came with a new way, and that becoming a disciple means learning to say and do what the master does."We have to engage a faith that has vitality," said the bishop.
Speaking of the Church's charge to congregations to monitor their "vital signs," he noted, "You won't know if you're sick or healthy if you refuse to have your blood pressure taken."
However, he acknowledged that such measurements are only one part of the adaptive work needed.
"We are changing the scorecard for the Church itself," the bishop stated, adding, "We are in the business of making people, and the rest of it doesn't matter at all …. Jesus took anybody and everybody, and His sole purpose was to make them somebody."
Bishop Brown noted, "The disciples left the building. Jesus moved into the world to show that God's awesome power is available for all the gritty, tough problems of our life.
"Think about your God sightings," he urged, "and let those give you the courage for moving from the ho-hum to an awe-filled 'Amen!'"
Sessions on coordinating resources, training and coaching, appointment-making, and discussion of General Conference issues followed, with an Imagine No Malaria presentation during lunch, at which Bishop Thomas Bickerton (Pittsburgh Area), lead bishop/spokesperson for the campaign and for the United Methodist Global Health Initiative, reported that The United Methodist Church was the only faith organization singled out for its work to defeat malaria, at a meeting hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The denomination has pledged to raise $75 million dollars to help eradicate malaria from the continent of Africa by the year 2015, which the bishop said is a greater amount than The UMC has ever raised for any one concentrated cause. The previous maximum was around $40 million, he said.
"People of privilege must come to recognize that the world is unbalanced and we have the means to balance it," the bishop concluded.
Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, resident bishop in the hosting California-Pacific Annual Conference, was the celebrant for the closing Communion worship.
On Monday, the Western Jurisdiction Leadership Team met; the WJ Mission Cabinet met on Tuesday; and Directors of Connectional Ministries, Wednesday-Thursday.
The Western Jurisdiction Episcopacy Committee meeting began on Tuesday and is scheduled to conclude on Friday. Separate meetings of the College of Bishops began Wednesday and are due to conclude on Saturday.
The Conferences of the Western Jurisdiction are Alaska, California-Nevada, California-Pacific, Desert Southwest, Oregon-Idaho, Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountain, and Yellowstone.
Some highlights from Best Practices presentations
Alaska is reducing the time at charge conferences and shifting the agenda from administrative, to training and resourcing "to meet the challenges of shaping our message for a new generation," said dean of Cabinet Dave Beckett. He added that the superintendent is experimenting with conducting charge conferences using video technology, which frees him to visit churches on Sundays for worship, followed by training.
 In California-Nevada, "There is nothing that we're doing in the same way," according to Conference Superintendent for Mission Collaboration Linda Caldwell. She reported that the Conference suspended the standing rules for two years to allow a time of exploration and experimentation, to better align Conference structure with the Four Areas of Focus – to make a significant impact on local churches' ability to make disciples. "Collaboration is an important part of the change," she said. Mariellen Yoshino, superintendent of the Central Valley District, reported on the three-year-old circuits system. Cal-Nevada now regards the circuit to be a part of a pastor's appointment or assignment, she noted.
California-Pacific also has a new Conference structure, organized around five (5) Essential Ministry Teams:
Conference staff is aligned around the five EM Teams, which are intentionally cross-cultural in nature.
Dean of Cabinet Catie Coots added that Cal-Pac has proposed a realignment of districts, to four in Southern California and one in Hawaii, and is in the process of organizing into "mission areas" based on Cal-Nevada's circuits system.
The Conference's plan for congregational revitalization includes requiring all churches to conduct a congregational assessment; a partnership with Conference Equitable Compensation to identify high-potential congregations with a readiness to move "from maintenance to missional"; and a 12-month institute for 10-12 pastors, for "deep listening and deep learning, to incubate deep personal and congregational change."
Desert Southwest has engaged in a partnership with Path 1 for a Lay Missionary Planting Network, to develop Hispanic laity who work in teams to plant new churches. Tom Butcher has led this work and the Conference now has 15 planters beginning to work at planting congregations in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Sahuarita (tom@desertsw.org).
As the Missionary for Hispanic/Latino Congregational Development, Bishop Jaime Vasquez has been an integral part of the Lay Missionary Planting Network, assisting the Conference in its efforts to strengthen existing Hispanic/Latino ministries, as well as help it plant new Hispanic/Latino ministries – throughout the Conference, but particularly in Maricopa County (jaime@desertsw.org).
Dean of Cabinet Michael Pearson noted that Relevance X (and Lead) 2012 will invade Las Vegas Feb. 17-19, 2012. "More than an event," Relevance X is a movement that focuses on empowering young adults (18-35) through worship, service, uniting their voices, and actively creating change in our communities, while the Lead component is designed for leadership development (www.desertsouthwestconference.org/relevance).
Oregon-Idaho called attention to the second annual Western Jurisdiction New Church Leadership Institute West (NCLI west) taking place in Portland, Oregon, March 13-16. This discernment and leadership-training event for potential new church start pastors, open to both lay and clergy, was developed in partnership with the Pacific Northwest Conference and Western Jurisdiction. (Information and registration is at www.umoi.org/ncli).
Oregon-Idaho also will be offering an event called "Launchpad," Sept 21-23, designed to help new faith community launch teams build their ministry plans. Path 1 will be the resource base for this WJ event.
Pacific Northwest, according to Cabinet Dean Sharon Moe, is going from a culture of:
She said the Conference has seen an increase in the number of churches paying full Apportionments; a 10% increase in net attendance; and a 5% increase in the number of professions of faith.
By last year's annual conference session, Moe reported, PNW had started six (6) new ministries under the guidance of the director of New Faith Community Development. The Conference intentionally uses the description "New Faith Community Development," in recognition of and pursuant to the concept of developing communities, rather than facilities or properties.
"Our focus has changed in the last year to an emphasis on new models of faith community – one that focuses on leadership and community identity/affinity," Moe said. "We have a goal of 2-3 new faith community starts during this Conference year," she added.
A new staff person, the Rev. Curtis Brown, is leading the Conference's efforts for Renewal of Existing Congregations. He currently is working in partnership with the Oregon-Idaho Director of New Faith Community Development to mentor and coach a new faith community start in PNW.
Assets of closed churches are offered first to ethnic congregations, then to new church starts, Moe said.
A unique new church start in the Rocky Mountain Conference, DCM Walter "Skip" Strickland reported, is
 AfterHours Denver. AfterHours is a church plant in which Bishop Elaine Stanovsky appointed a pastor to a "space," rather than to a place. The space is downtown Denver, where the Rev. Jerry Herships' charge is to actively pursue persons for whom church is not a part of their life. Each day members of metropolitan Denver churches join with members of AfterHours Denver to hand out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in Denver City Center Civic Park, to folks who need something to eat. The economically-, racially-, and lifestyle-diverse folks of AfterHours also gather in several restaurant/bar locations in the downtown Denver area on Monday nights. "A unique thing is that the restaurants are asking AfterHours to use their space, in most cases for free," Strickland said (jerry@afterhoursdenver.org).Strickland reported, also, that the Conference has "increasing clarity" that it is not possible for every church to be sustained. Yet the Conference desired to create a caring self-determining process to guide a church into that realization. To this end an initiative, called the Legacy Church Initiative, was developed by Stephanie Munoz, working with Strickland, the bishop, and the Cabinet. Through editing assessment questions used by the Desert Southwest Conference and creating new ones, a process was created for entering into conversation with churches that are determined to be less than viable: that determination being made through demographic analysis, Cabinet member recommendation, and/or self-identification.
Yellowstone Cabinet Dean David Burt reported on "Nu Places 4 Nu Faces," a series of 10 lay training sessions throughout a year, including two overnight retreat times, that integrate CLayM studies. Sue King (formerly Director of Volunteers in Mission in the Cal-Nev Conference) designed the program and is under contract to manage it for one year, with the intent of making it self-sustaining. The courses fit within the Advanced Lay Leader training requirements. Participants will discern calls for beginning new faith communities through their local congregations or beyond, or may serve as DS Assignments.
In partnership with Rocky Mountain Conference, Yellowstone is working in consultation with Alan Roxburgh of the Missional Network to deepen and extend missional engagement of United Methodists with their neighborhoods. Each district superintendent is coaching 8-10 pastors over an 18-month period. Both superintendents and pastors participate in a 360-leadership assessment and develop their capacity to lead their congregations in listening to God and following God back into their neighborhoods.
At the same time, Roxburgh is coaching the Cabinets to re-examine their roles and time commitments, and to experiment with new ways to cultivate experiments in missional adaptation. A key question for the Cabinets is: How can the bishop and Cabinet better use resources – time, attention, authority – to encourage leaders, disciples, and churches to initiate creative mission in their neighborhoods?
Register Your Church to Change the WorldIn 2012, the Church will come together – not only for General Conference, but also to change the world. United Methodists will extend justice and compassion in community on May 19 and 20.
In 2011, 25 Cal-Nevada churches participated and more than 2,000 events were registered worldwide:
 everything from developing/enhancing community gardens to fighting human trafficking. Think now about how your congregation will Change the World! Your event will be charted on the rethinkchurch.org map. National advertising will draw thousands of visitors to the website; they will see your church on the map and know how to join your event. (And if you register for Change the World before April 16, you'll receive a free lawn banner, sermon series bundle and T-shirt!)
Change the World 2012 seeks to build community locally and fight malaria globally, and some regions are joining for Conference-wide events. The Louisiana Annual Conference will support the anti-malaria effort through 5-kilometer runs – all benefiting Imagine No Malaria. This effort promotes healthy church members and saves lives of countless individuals suffering from malaria – which kills one child every 45 seconds.
The Call to Action report reminds us that vital congregations have "disciples engaged in mission." Dive deep this year with Change the World – it is a wonderful opportunity to connect mission-minded disciples with the global impact of our worldwide connection.
Registration Deadline Extended for Feb. 11 'Pathway to Renewal' EventThe deadline to register for "Pathway to Renewal: An Introduction to Leading Transformational Ministry for Congregational Teams," on Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Fairfield United Methodist Church, has been extended.
Register by Thursday, February 9 to take advantage of this one-day workshop in which participants will be given the tools, principles, and skills to affect change and renewal in their church.
Congregational renewal is more than re-tooling your mission statement or adding new programs. Workshop leaders Mary Huycke and the Rev. Dan Smith, certified co-active leadership coaches and members of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference, are working with church leaders across North America to lead congregations through this process of renewal as congregations reorient their understanding of the nature and purpose of their church.
Participants will learn:
Follow-up coaching will be offered to participating teams, at a subsidized cost, for up to 18 months.
Cost of $10 per person includes lunch.
Register online here.
For more information, download flyer here, or contact Mahsa Farahani in the Districts Administration Center at mahsaf@calnevumc.org or 916.374.1503.
Fairfield UMC is located at 1875 Fairfield Avenue, Fairfield, CA 94533. Get directions from Google Maps on the church's web page (http://calnevumc.org/churches/detail/234).
For more workshop and training opportunities, go to www.cnumc.org/register or click on the "Registration" tab on the Home Page at www.cnumc.org.
Don't Forget: Register for Feb. 16 Clergy CEU WorkshopFeb. 16 is just two weeks away! Don't forget to register for the Clergy CEU workshop "Cultural Competency: A Leadership Skill for Building and Strengthening the Church," at Holy Cross United Methodist Church in Stockton on Thursday, Feb. 16 (9 a.m.-5 p.m.).
Cultural Competency is defined as the willingness and ability to shift perspectives and change behavior, depending upon the cultural/racial context – and developing it requires a spiritual journey. The goal is to become more effective witnesses for the gospel of Jesus.
Hosted by i-Relate: The Intercultural Leadership Institute, this workshop is designed with a mixture of activities – presentations, experiential activities, small group discussions, films/videos, and individual reflections. Participants will:
Registration fee of $85 per person includes resource materials and lunch. Each workshop is eligible for .75 Clergy CEUs.
The next Clergy CEU workshop will be on Tuesday, June 19, the day before Annual Conference Session begins, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (location TBD).
Download flyer here.
For more information, contact Dr. Shan McSpadden at lmcspadden@psr.edu or 510.849.8250 or the Rev. Dale Weatherspoon at dmwspoon@aol.com.
Holy Cross UMC is located at 1200 W. Hammer Lane, Stockton, CA 95209. Visit the church's webpage (at http://www.cnumc.org/churches/detail/103) to plan your route using Google Maps.
Registration Opens for March 14 Gathering of ClergyRegister now to attend a day of soul-satisfying worship and re-affirmation of your call to ministry, Wednesday, March 14, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church in Alamo, California.
This day of worship and renewal for all clergy and candidates – in all orders of ministry, active and retired, appointed and not-currently-appointed – features worship and music leaders Mark Miller and Marcia McFee and is sponsored by the California-Nevada Annual Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, the Orders of Elders and Deacons, and Bishop Warner H. Brown, Jr.
Mark Miller, composer of many of the hymns in the new Worship and Song hymnal, will lead you through his new series of hymns, teaching you as worship leaders, how to effectively use them in your local churches.
Miller currently serves on the faculty at both the Drew Theological School and the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University, where he teaches music and worship. He also is Director of the Gospel and Youth Choirs at the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. Mark is well known throughout The United Methodist Church as a worship leader, teacher, and performer of sacred music. Abingdon Press has written that he is a "rising star in the field of Protestant music."
Composing for the church is one of Mark's passions. In February 2002, Abingdon launched the Mark Miller Anthem Series, and in March 2003, Abingdon Press published his hymn collection, Amazing Abundance, Hymns for a Growing Church. Mark has composed many of the hymns in the new United Methodist Worship and Song hymnal.
Marcia McFee has been designing memorable worship for 20 years. She is the founder and leader of The Worship Workshop, and has become a trusted mentor to the Council of Bishops and the entire denomination as it moves into 21st century communication and vital ministry. In 2010, Marcia led worship at our Annual Conference Session. She now is generously taking a break from preparation for the 29 worship services she will lead at General Conference 2012, to lead us again in meaningful and inspiring worship at the Gathering of Orders event.
Local Lodging Options:
San Damiano Retreat Center has openings for a private retreat at $95 per night, with meals included. To make reservations, contact Kateri at 925.837.9141, ext. 315.
Westminster Retreat Center is available for groups of 12-30 people. Lodging is $58.50 per person. Meals may be added at an additional cost. Reservations may be made by calling 800.678.5102.
This event has been approved for .5 CEU credits in professional development.
The cost of $15 per person includes lunch.
Advance registration is required – and the deadline to register is March 7, 2012.
Other Opportunities:
Online Registration Opens for 2012 Summer CampsRegistration is open now for this year's summer camps at Monte Toyon, Lodestar, and the Urban Camp in San Francisco.
Click on the Registrations tab on the Home Page of the Conference website at www.cnumc.org and select "Youth Event Registrations," or visit the Camping section of the website (www.cnumc.org/camping) to register and to access:
2012 CAMP DATES
Monte Toyon Camps:
Toyon Kids, Camp Quest, and Toyon L.I.T
July 8-13, 2012
Lodestar Camps:
Super Kids, Super Camp, Lodestar L.I.T
July 15-21, 2012
Sr. High Leadership Lodestar
July 22-27
Urban Camp, San Francisco:
June 10-14
And don't forget to register for other upcoming youth events on the "Youth Event Registrations" page:
2012 Bishop's Confirmation
Session One: March 8-9, Monte Toyon
Session Two: May 18-19, Camp Lodestar
Hip-Hop Artist 'Agape' Comes to Manteca*
March 3, 2012 ($10 per person)
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
910 E. North St., Manteca, CA 95336
(*Note: Agape will perform in Santa Rosa, also. Read AGAPE Adds FUMC Santa Rosa on March 4 to Cal-Nevada Tour.)
5th Annual Youth Workers' Retreat
March 23-24, 2012
Valley of the Moon Camp, Glen Ellen, CA
For more information contact Kelly Newell at kellyn@calnevumc.org or 916.374.1515, or Shari Sandoval at sharis@calnevumc.org or 916.374.1528.
AGAPE Adds FUMC Santa Rosa on March 4 to Cal-Nevada Tour
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CA-NV Annual Conference
1276 Halyard Drive West Sacramento, CA 95691 916.374.1*500 Cate Monaghan
Director of Communications 916.374.1529 Jane Horstman
Technologies Specialist 916.374.1518 Submissions
Submit news items by 5 p.m. on Tuesday of desired week of publication to Cate Monaghan at comm@calnevumc.org.
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