United Methodist ordained Elders are set a part by the church to a ministry of Word, Sacrament, and Order.Word and Sacrament refer to preaching/teaching and administering Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. Order refers to the overall administration of the life of the church.
Thankfully, the United Methodist Church uses a connectional church governance system in helping us to be a people who have a sense of structure and order to help us fulfill our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
On Wednesday, January 21, from 6:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. during our Common Cup program at Faith Community UM, the Common Cup clergy will be leading a session on church governance. This session will be particularly helpful for church officers/leaders to attend so that we can become more familiar with how we are to order ourselves in the life of the church. While our system is far from perfect, it does provide us with a proven system that when implemented, helps the various ministry components of the church work together in fulfilling our common mission.
One week earlier on Wednesday, January 14, 6:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., I'll be leading a session on the changes that will be in our new 2008 Book of Discipline (the 2008 edition gets printed in 2009) as a result of last May's General Conference which was held in Texas. Some of the changes will have an impact on familiar liturgy parts we commonly use during weekly worship.
For the next week and a half, I look forward to preparing for these two sessions (January 14 & 21) and identifying the basic components of our connectional system which are most helpful in the ordering of our congregational life and ministry.
There's a reason why we are called, "Methodists."
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