Find resources here:
2023-2024 dCOM Handbook
If you would like a hard copy of this handbook mailed to you, please email the Office of Clergy Life.
General Board of Higher Ed and Ministry (GBHEM) Resources for DCOM’s
Find resources here:
2023-2024 dCOM Handbook
If you would like a hard copy of this handbook mailed to you, please email the Office of Clergy Life.
General Board of Higher Ed and Ministry (GBHEM) Resources for DCOM’s
It was as refreshing as a drink of cool water at hot midday.
I was encouraged in a zoom gathering of women in ministry on the first day of this month, the hot month of July. We gathered in response to the provocative invitation White Women Doing the Work of Anti-Racism. The zoom is archived for view and review as I have done since with a drink of cool water.
In this season, we are thirsty for God’s eternal love and creative power. We are thirsty for the holiness that is honest, introspective, eager and hopeful. We are thirsty to dismantle in our souls, minds and bodies the lessons of multi-generational immersion in a world that categories humanity in hierarchy, injuring all. We are thirsty to become fully human, no longer in denial, no longer defensive but alive, joyful, free. We are thirsty for sisterhood in ministry.
I am encouraged by the thirst of 99 women in ministry on July 1. I am encouraged to read and re-read the chat: hospitable greetings, recommendations of books read and podcasts heard, hopes and prayers, commitment to self-care.
Read: Genesis 29:2 and John 4:11
“For out of the well, the flocks were watered. . .” (Genesis 29:2)
“You have no bucket, and the well is deep . . .” (John 4:11)
Reflect: In Biblical stories, the well was essential to life in the village and to the lives of travelers. Women went regularly to the village well to draw water for their households. The wells were deep in the arid world of ancient Palestine. Lowering a bucket, raising it filled with water, carrying that water home in pottery jars – all these tasks required physical strength.
I am encouraged by the strength of women to journey together with grace and accountability, embracing good questions, not having answers, encouraging one another. Jesus, still at the wellspring, meets us and we share cool water in the dangerous heat of pandemic. Jesus meets us as we lament violence and injustice against brown and black bodies. Jesus meets us as we acknowledge history, recreate public spaces, learn how to be anti-racist from the social location we find ourselves.
We need one another. We need to gather at wells and drink cool water. We need convenings so that all women in ministry deepen connection with one another, find support and inspiration in one another’s company, and receive grace and seek accountability in the journey onward.
Take Action: What do leaders do? They convene and they bless. So, be blessed as you convene and bless. Call a woman in ministry, organize a conversation safely distanced outside in the shade, convene a zoom. Let us arise, strengthened as we connect and grow together in this time, for this time.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to Bishop Hope Morgan Ward for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.
Comparison. We engage in this so often in our lives … comparing ourselves to others as a measure for how we are doing and whether we are doing something right. As women, we are socialized to compare ourselves in order to figure out how to look, dress, and, yes, even feel and act. But this comparison can lead us to be intimidated by others, and to doubt who we are and our own gifts. In trying times where we are challenged to take innovative, creative approaches to ministry, it can be all the more tempting to fall into the “comparison” trap. We can feel like we don’t have what it takes. We can forget that God knows us, that God created us, called us good, and set us apart for God’s purposes.
Read: Jeremiah 1:5-8 and 1 Timothy 4:12a
We are not alone. Throughout scripture, we encounter those who are called struggling with their image and their giftedness for the call. And we encounter God reassuring them that no mistake was made.
Before I created you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I set you apart; I made you a prophet to the nations. “Ah, LORD God,” I said, “I don’t know how to speak because I’m only a child.” The LORD responded, “Don’t say, ‘I’m only a child. Where I send you, you must go; what I tell you, you must say. Don’t be afraid of them, because I’m with you to rescue you,” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:5-8)
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young (1 Timothy 4:12a)
Reflect: Where have you fallen into the “comparison” trap in your life? What negative voices do you need to name in order to gain power back in your life? In what ways might your perceived “weaknesses” actually be strengths?
Dear Sister, in these strange times when all is new territory and there are a lot of expectations on us, remember that you are beautiful! Remember that you are fearfully, wonderfully made. You, in all your unique giftedness, in all your eccentricities, in your experience and perspective, in your limitations and your struggles…you are called. God didn’t make a mistake. God called you. You and your story are exactly what God wants to use to tell God’s story.
Take Action: Take some time to think about who in your community might need a reminder of their value and beauty in God’s eyes. Consider writing a card, making a phone call, or sending a text message encouraging them and affirming this person and the gifts and strengths you have seen in their life and witness.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Allison Lancaster for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements. Allison is the pastor at Prospect UMC in Yanceyville, NC.
The one thing that is constant in life is change. Change may come forcefully like a tidal wave, or creep along incrementally like a glacier. It might come in the form of devastating tragedy, pandemics, difficult choices, broken relationships, or new opportunities. Yet, in the midst of our challenging and ever changing lives, God’s steadfastness remains constant.
Read: Lamentations 3:22-23 and James 1:17
We are encouraged throughout scripture, in the Old and New Testaments, of the steadfastness of God. God is immutably wise, merciful, good, and gracious.
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)
Reflect:
I have experienced change that blessed my life in ways I could never imagine. I have also had changes that rocked my life to its very core, leaving in its wake uncertainty, disappointment, scars, and pain that only God could heal. In the conflux of my life, I remember that the God who brought me to and carried me over my mountain top is the same God with me in the valley. Trusting our unchanging God is the only way we will be able to balance and stand in a world that seems to be spinning out of control.
How change affects us often depends on our perspective. Think about the changes you have experienced in your life. What have you learned and what would you do differently? Based on your past experiences, how will you deal with change and help someone else who is experiencing a life altering situation?
“Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness.” ~ Mother Teresa
Take Action:
We are all experiencing significant change right now. Who can you reach out to this week to offer a word of comfort and hope? Take some time to think about who you would have encountered in a normal week before the stay-at-home order. Who might need a word from a friend this week? Consider sending an email or a simple text message to let them know they are not forgotten.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Rhonda Grant Jordan for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements.
There is nothing like being in love, being at the helm of a sailboat, feeling the breeze on your face, smelling the salt water, hearing the sea gulls, and gliding through the sea at sail. Pure joy. There is also nothing like questioning the wisdom of being in love, being at the helm of a sailboat, having no breeze in your face, smelling salt mixed with diesel exhaust, not being able to hear anything but the churning sound of a diesel engine, and not being able to see past the bow of your vessel because you are suddenly in fog as thick as pea soup. Pure terror.
That pretty much describes what happened to my husband Chip and me when we departed Anclote Key on New Year’s Day in 1985. Since there were only two of us, we each shared time at the helm on two-hour watches. For the non-sailors, that meant that each of us was awake with full responsibility for steering the boat, keeping us on course, staying aware of our surroundings, and protecting not only ourselves but our fellow sailor who had the luxury of a two-hour nap. Repeat every two hours. Now, let’s add to this the reality of the date of this adventure—1985, which meant no cell phones, no GPS, no radar, unless you count a contraption that looked like a Moravian Star covered in tinfoil hoisted up the mast in hopes that any ships crossing our paths would see “it” with THEIR radar.
I stood at the helm in the foggy night, terrified. Then came my comforter. Somewhere in the darkness and fog in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico with no land in sight, I heard a sound. Not the horn of a ship, thank you Jesus. It was more like a tapping sound and was coming from the starboard side towards the stern. I shined my flashlight in the direction of the sound, and immediately a shape darted through the water towards the bow of the boat. What in the world? After only a few more minutes, I heard the sound again. Once again, I shined the light of my flashlight towards the sound and, once again, the shape darted through the water at lightning speed.
This time I recognized the source of my shortness of breath—a friend, a porpoise, a helper, a comforter. I do not know if there was one or a pod, but for the entirety of my two-hour watch, this game continued. Then, after my two-hour nap, my friends returned and played for the length of my watch. This pattern not only continued all night long but resumed the next evening and for the complete journey across the Gulf of Mexico until we were safely in the Destin Pass.
To this day I wear a bracelet of porpoises to remind me that, in the midst of fear, I am never alone. A constant reminder of the ability to overcome fear with courage, the promises of God, and the help of a comforter.
For the past month, my friends, we have been surrounded by a growing fog of uncertainty, of grief, of loneliness, of fear, of heartbreak. We are grateful to be a people of faith and know of God’s promises…
Read: Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. God is right there with you. God won’t let you down; God won’t leave you.
Reflect:
What are your fears? Who or what are your comforters?
Take Action:
I the Lord of sea and sky, I have heard my peoples’ cry…Here am I
Call a friend. Text a colleague. Read a Psalm. Keep a journal. Write a poem. Dream of everything you will do when you are free from the confines of isolation. One thing a day for you and one thing a day for someone else. We are all on two-hour watches.
Friends, on this day and every day, plot your course even if you have to tack your sails, even if you have to raise the storm jib, even if you have to have relief after a two-hour watch and rest on this journey. You have the tools, you have the courage, you have the assurance of a comforter…and sometimes it might look a lot like “Flipper.” 😊
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to Dawn Hare, General Secretary for the General Commission for the Status and Role of Women, for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements. Dawn can be reached at dhare@gcsrw.org.
My husband was away overnight for an interview, and I was alone with our two-month-old—who was freaking out. I started to count how many hours straight she was fussing. 3 p.m. 4 p.m. Still crying. 5 p.m. 6 p.m. Never sleeping. 7 p.m. 8 p.m. Just wailing.
I was hungry, it was dark, I was tired, and my chest was blistered from 25 attempts to nurse her. So I’ll go ahead and say it: I had the urge to shake the baby.
Sometimes we come face to face with an anger that lives in us, and it can be scary. When we reach our limits as pastors, parents, or just plain people, we discover there is something festering in us we wish wasn’t there.
Even returning to church work after maternity leave brought new levels of anger, to my unpleasant surprise. Sometimes it stemmed from noticing sexism I’d never noticed before, now that I’m tasked with raising a girl in this culture…and other times it came just from irritation (perhaps due to sleep deprivation?).
There are a hundred reasons we might feel anger, but not all of them serve us well. The good news is, there is no place off-limits to God’s influence. There is no mood or energy that the Spirit can’t breathe new life into. What if this place—this festering, inner place—is just the place God wants to touch?
Read: Jonah 3:10-4:4
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.
But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish…for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
And the Lord said, “Does your anger serve you well?”
Reflect: What are my current sources of anger? Are they mostly based on ego (not getting my way) or revenge (after an injury)? Where might I channel a healthier kind of anger—righteous anger—into creating a more just world?
Take Action: Print out, write out, decorate the question “Does your anger serve you well?” and stick it on your bathroom mirror or your car dashboard. Better yet, put it as the background of your phone! Whenever you find yourself ruminating on your anger, let God’s question echo in your mind.
In partnership,
Center for Leadership Excellence and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women
We are grateful to the Rev. Sarah Swandell for writing this month’s issue of Encouragements. If you are interested in contributing to a future issue of Encouragements, please email josey.snyder@nccumc.org.
Find information and resources to prepare for the annual meeting in June.
919-779-6115
800-849-4433 (Toll-Free)
NC Conference of
The United Methodist Church
700 Waterfield Ridge Place
Garner, NC 27529
Powered by WordPress