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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.
