3 I thank my God every time I remember you,
4 constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you,
5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.
6 I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.
7 It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart,[d] for all of you share in God’s grace[e] with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.
8 For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.
9 And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight
10 to help you to determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless,
11 having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.
– Philippians 1: 3-11
As we start a new conference year, I want to express my gratitude for all the clergy and laity in our district. Please know that I am constantly in prayer for you. I pray, as the apostle Paul did, that “your love may overflow more and more…” as we continue our service to God and neighbor in the new conference year. I especially pray for all those who are new to our district, and those who are not new to our district, but they are starting new appointments within the district, here are their names, and I encourage you to send them a note and keep them in your prayers:
- Stan Smith (Calvary UMC) he is also serving Piney Grove.
- Sean Kavanagh (Cokesbury UMC)
- Raymond Payne (Wesley Chapel-Ebenezer) – He started on 11/1/2020.
- Sang Seon Park (Pinetops-Temperance Hall)
- George Loveland (First Henderson)
- Tracy Clayton Sexton (First Roanoke Rapids)
- David Joyner (First Rocky Mount)
- Jacob Dye (Granville Charge)
- Tuck Taylor (Louisburg UMC)
- Heidi Reddy (Red Oak Charge)
- Keith Sexton (Rosemary)
- Rafael Martinez (Spring Hope Charge)
- Terry Williams (St. Paul RM) – He started on 8/1/2020.
- Carol Ann Van Buskirk (Wakefied) – She started on 8/23/2020.
- Michael Edmonson (Wesley Memorial) – He is also serving Speight’s Chapel UMC.
Last week, I had a conversation with two men that were working around my neighborhood. At some point, they asked me what I did, and I told them that I was a pastor. One of them asked me: What’s the deal with Christians and their notion that Jesus is the only way to heaven? He also added, “I consider myself a Christian, but I do not want anything to do with the Church because I feel that we keep excluding a lot of people instead of welcoming them into our faith in Jesus.
I keep thinking about that statement. I also keep thinking in the significant drop on the number of adults who belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, according to a Gallup article. In this article, the author emphasizes how the decline is across all religions, he says:
The decline in church membership is primarily a function of the increasing number of Americans who express no religious preference. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Americans who do not identify with any religion has grown from 8% in 1998-2000 to 13% in 2008-2010 and 21% over the past three years.
As we start a new conference year in ministry together as the Heritage District, we cannot ignore these signs. Perhaps, this is an opportunity to look closely and deeply into our individual and congregational lives, so that we might identify ways to become more welcoming spaces. We have a year full of transitions ahead of us, Bishop Fairley will be our new Bishop starting on September 1. Also, as we prepare for General Conference on August 29-September 26, 2022 in Minneapolis, a lot of dialogue needs to happen, and I encourage you to reach out to me or any of the delegates of the GC NC Delegation. Here a link where Christine Dodson, lay delegation member, offered a session to answer frequent questions that local churches often ask.
I wonder if a way to practice love and becoming more welcoming spaces for one another, but especially for those who are not in our churches, or do not practice any faith, is by being more welcoming to one another as we prepare for General Conference. May God help us to welcome more conversation just for the sake of truly listen to others, and not necessarily to defend our opinions and convictions. Listening can be transformational, and may lead us to discover ways to grow in our faith, and in our love for God and neighbor. God, we pray that “your love may overflow more and more,” as we continue walking our journey of faith with you and one another in this new conference year. Amen.
If you would like to view past editions of Time with Ismael, follow this link: https://heritagedistrictnc.org/category/from-the-ds/