In this video, Bishop Ward and Cory Oliver talk about the recent Local Pastor Webinar held on May 16th.

Bishop: Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s good today to share this airtime with an important leader in our annual conference.

Cory: Hello. I am Cory Oliver and I chair the Fellowship of Local Licenses and Associate Members.

Bishop: Cory and I, last week, engaged in a webinar with local pastors and associate members. It was a new way of linking with one another, of sharing a bit of information, but mostly, engaging in questions and comments which were offered online.

Over 40 pastors posted questions and comments and more pastors were online, we are sure, who did not actually post to us a question or a comment. In this way, we were able to glean from the clergy, areas in which we need to work, clarity that needs to be given, and wonderful suggestions which need to be received.

Cory: Indeed, and it’s an exciting venture as we reach out to empower the local church and just to enhance the connection which is such a blessing in itself.

Bishop: Webinars are a good way to connect with one another in this time in which we find ourselves. We connected on the webinar at noon, from 12 until 1:00, hoping to catch those local pastors who have full-time employment during their lunch hour.

It’s our hope to connect with people in ways which are inviting to them and which are easy for them. It’s our hope also, to continue to engage with one another, both face-to-face and in new and exciting ways like this.

Cory: So some of the areas of concern that were addressed were covenant relationships and covenant groups, the health initiatives, and ways we can be effective clergy spiritually and mentally and physically.

Bishop: It was our hope that this webinar would be a means of connecting and honoring those who serve as local pastors and associate members across our annual conference.

We thank every one of them for the excellent work that they do and as we gather for Annual Conference, the closing service of the Annual Conference will be a great sending forth service, in which clergy, all clergy, will be robed and processed in during the opening hymns (because it will take a while for all of us to get in.)

We will commission a missionary; we will pray over newly-licensed local pastors; we will celebrate commissioning and ordination, and in all these ways, we will testify to the unity of our church and give witness to the Pentecost Spirit which is upon us. We look forward to seeing you there. Grace and peace.

On May 20, Moore, Oklahoma was devastated by a massive tornado.  Over 20 people were killed and more than 200 were injured.  Earlier in the week, several tornadoes roared across central Texas killing at least 6 and injuring almost 100.  Families have lost their homes and lives have been shattered.

This is a horrific reality and it is a reality into which the love of Christ will flow.  You can respond in several ways:

• Pray for those who have been so deeply hurt.  Pray for their families, for their communities, for our United Methodist Churches in the area as they respond, and for the first-responders who are offering care through the crisis.  
• Give through your United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).  You can do this through several avenues:
  • You can make a donation on-line now for Disaster Response, United States Advance #901670.
  • You can also donate via telephone by calling 1-888-252-6174.
  • You can make an immediate $10 donation, you can text RESPONSE to 80888.
  • You can also donate through your local congregational offering by noting on your check or offering envelope:  UMCOR Advance #901670 – Tornado
  • You can send your check directly to the NC Conference Treasurer at:
    • NC Conference, PO Box 60053, Charlotte, NC 28260.  Make check payable to: NC Conference designated as Advance #901670 – Tornado
  • You can give directly through the Oklahoma Conference.  See information and directions at this link:  Oklahoma Disaster Response You can give directly through the Central Texas Conference at Central Texas Disaster Response.
• When the appropriate time comes for recovery and rebuilding homes (watch the Oklahoma Conference website and the Central Texas Conference website for this information), consider sending an UMVIM workteam from your church.

Here in the North Carolina Conference, we know what it means to experience the trauma, the loss, and the heart-break of disaster.  In the past 2 years, we have received $1.5 million in relief funding to assist in our response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irene.  This gift came from the hands and hearts of brothers and sisters across our United Methodist connection.  Now is the time for us to do the same.  Please respond generously.  It is the mark of love expressed as the Body of Christ.

The 2013 Annual Conference session is less than a month away! The following Briefing Session videos are intended to help everyone prepare for the upcoming Conference session by bringing information to consider prior to it being presented at Conference.

Please find all Annual Conference related files and information on the official 2013 Annual Conference page. If there are any questions, please send them to helpdesk@nccumc.org.

Introduction

A brief overview of what to expect from the Briefing Session videos. View the transcript (PDF) or watch the video below.

Overview – Carol Goehring & Jerry Bryan

Carol and Jerry provide information about what to expect at this Annual Conference session. View the transcript (PDF) or watch the video below.

Financial Overview – Christine Dodson

Christine reviews the reports from the Board of Pension, Commission on Equitable Compensation, Insurance Committee, Incapacity Committee, Council on Finance and Administration and the Conference Board of Trustees. View the transcript (PDF) and the slides (PDF), or watch the video below.

Retiree Health Insurance Proposal – Christine Dodson

Christine reviews the retiree health insurance proposal. View the transcript (PDF) and the slides (PDF), or watch the video below.

Conclusion

Thanks for taking the time to view the 2013 Annual Conference Briefing Sessions. Again, if there are any questions, please send them to helpdesk@nccumc.org.

On May 18-19, United Methodists around the globe will unite in service with their local communities for the fourth annual Change the World weekend. People in more than 1,500 locations internationally observed Change the World in 2012. United Methodist Communications has created several free planning resources including a sermon series and ideas for service projects. To locate an event in your area, go to RethinkChurch.org

There is a new phishing attack passing around where you are invited in a brief message to log into Google to view a confidential shared document. If you visit the page and log into the system you are exposing your email account and password to compromise. This is what the message may look like:

Local church pastors, please contact the Conference Secretary’s Office, via email smedlin@nccumc.org or 919.779.6115 ext. 222, if the Lay Member from your church/charge is a youth between the ages of 12-18 years of age.  We need to know the age of your youth lay member, if he/she would like to participate in the meals provided at the Hilton, transportation needs and whether or not they need housing at ECU.

The conference’s Moodle site learning.nccumc.org will be down for maintenance Tues. May 14th starting at 11:00 am.  It will be back up again as soon as the maintenance is finished. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Bishop Ward speaks about the upcoming Annual Conference in this Connections video. Find more information about Annual Conference, including the agenda and reports, on the Annual Conference 2013 page.

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ. One month from today, the North Carolina Annual Conference session will be unfolding. I look forward to seeing many of you there in person and I invite those of you who will be in your communities during this time, to go online. The Annual Conference sessions will be streamed and you can watch and engage and learn.

We gather at Annual Conference sessions so that we might worship together, renew our sense of community in the Christian life and mission, and go forth in mission to the world.

There will be teaching sessions every day of Annual Conference. We will be led by Tom Berlin and Lovett Weems in thinking about ways that we might be more fruitful in every local congregation. We will also be led by Candace Lewis in celebrating church planting, the creating of new communities for Christians in the North Carolina Annual Conference.

In addition to these three leaders coming from beyond our annual conference, we will be led by many gifted leaders from our community, both in break-out workshops and in the plenary sessions.

We celebrate higher education one of the evenings at Annual Conference, giving thanks for the long tradition of engagement in higher education in the North Carolina Annual Conference and celebrating a very significant anniversary of Louisburg College.

Another evening, we will celebrate new church planting and the way in which the North Carolina Conference has continued to grow through the establishment of new churches. We will remember the work of the Ten Dollar Club and receive a vision for the way we will go forward in generosity towards church planting.

On Saturday morning, Bishop Larry Goodpaster from the Western North Carolina Conference and I together will share visions of ways in which we, United Methodists across our great state, will engage in mission together. The Annual Conference session will end with a glorious worship service called “The Ordering of Ministry.”

All clergy are invited to be robed and vested and to process at the beginning of this service, as we commission a missionary, as we recognize and pray for local pastors, as we commission and as we ordain servant leaders for our church.

I look forward to this time together and with you, I am praying for renewal, for connection, and for stronger ministry as we go forth to grow.

“From strength to strength” is our quadrennial theme and the theme of our annual conference is “grow.” I look forward to seeing you then.

The Conference Board of Pension and the Insurance Committee are proposing changes to the retiree health care plan at Annual Conference in June.  These changes will be effective January 1, 2014.  Informational sessions will be held in each district to provide opportunity to give an overview of the changes being proposed and to answer questions on the proposal.  All clergy and lay members of annual conference are invited to these sessions, but retirees, widow/ers and clergy and lay employees approaching retirement age are specifically encouraged to attend.  Visit the Insurance page for more details.

Children’s Ministry Conference

Registration is now open for the Conference on Ministry with Children July 22 – 26 in Greenville, South Carolina. Sponsored by the General Board of Discipleship, the event is for teachers, leaders, pastors, children’s advocates, preschool teachers and directors, annual conference staff, and anyone who is committed to the faith formation of children.

Please contact Robin Marley if you plan on attending. If enough people register from our conference there is a possibility of obtaining transportation to Greenville for the event.