Bishop's Day 2011: Detroit Conference events to focus on ministry with the poor

Minnesota Area Bishop Sally Dyck
will be speaking at the Saginaw Bay
District  Bishop's Day event on March
12 at Midland FUMC.  

By Paul Thomas, Detroit Conference Director of Communications

Churches and leaders in the Detroit Conference will be learning about "Ministry with the Poor" in March during the annual Bishop's Day events, which will take place at seven district sites across the conference.

Each district has arranged for keynote speakers and workshops to highlight Michigan Area Bishop Jonathan D. Keaton's annual continuing education event.

"Faith Stories: A Transformation Experience" is the title of the Ann Arbor District Bishop's Day, which features the Rev. Faith Fowler as the keynote speaker.

Fowler, the pastor at Detroit: Cass Community UMC (casscommunity.org) and the executive director of Cass Community Social Services, will speak on ways to help congregations see the needs of those who live in their communities, and how the local church can engage those needs in a way beyond just writing checks.

United Methodist Communications will be also be presenting on the “Change The World” event, which will take place on May 14-15.

The Ann Arbor Bishop's Day will be held on Saturday, March 12, from 8:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at Dexter UMC.

Fowler will also be the keynote speaker for the Detroit East District Bishop's Day event, which takes place on Saturday, March 5, from 8:30 a.m.-2:15 p.m. at Troy: First UMC. In addition to Fowler, at least 12 different workshops dealing with ministries with the poor, stewardship, urban ministries and missions will be conducted.

The Rev. Dr. Walter L. Kimbrough will be highlighting the Detroit West District Bishop's Day, which will explore the theme "Seeking Jesus in the Least of These."

For more than 40 years evangelism, pastoral care, teaching, preaching, and community service have characterized Kimbrough’s ministry. He has provided leadership at all levels of the United Methodist Church in the Northern Illinois and North Georgia Conferences.

After successfully leading Chicago congregations through racial transition, he was appointed to the Cascade Church in Atlanta in 1974 where he moved Cascade from a dying congregation of less than 100 members to a vibrant one of more than 7,000 members. He retired from this pastorate in 2006.

The event will also feature workshops designed to encourage, equip, and excite local church leaders about developing ministries that address the needs of the "least of these." Southfield: Hope UMC will be the host of the event, which will run from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 5.

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West Michigan Annual Conference 2010: There are spaces, bring on the faces

By RJ Walters, Editor

Register for the West Michigan Annual Conference here.

The late American author/speaker Dale Carnegie seemed to be dead on with the mission of the 2010 West Michigan Conference Annual conference, when over 70 years ago he said, "The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.”

The goal of the annual conference committee for the 2010 conference, at Calvin College June 3-6, is to create an experience for clergy and lay members that makes them think outside the box about how to “create new places for new faces”, the theme of the event.

To facilitate that type of thinking the conference is welcoming friends from “that state to the south”, in Rev. John Edgar, George Howard and Donita Harris from the West Ohio Conference.

The trio has been instrumental in taking a corner store that opened in downtown Columbus in 1999 and shaping it into a United Methodist congregation and hub for human services, as well as a free store that now serves over 100,000 in a city of around 750,000 people.

West Michigan Director of Connectional Ministries Benton Heisler said their cutting-edge contemporary ministries are something that should excite the crowd and get people thinking.

“We tried to bring in presenters who could create an atmosphere that places a greater emphasis on the teaching and learning about what it means to be a transformational church creating new places for new faces,” he said. “We don’t want people dreading annual conference, or getting bored by it, or make it all about these different committees — and with these speakers I think we’ve accomplished that.”
Edgar is the lead pastor at the United Methodist Church for All People, Harris is a lay pastor at the church, and Howard is the Director of Connectional Ministries for the conference.

They have mastered the art of taking basic human needs, reaching out to people and incorporating the love of Christ each step of the way.

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