Fifty Years of Change

On June 10, 1964 at the Virginia Annual Conference in Roanoke, I was ordained a deacon in the Methodist Church by Bishop Paul Neff Garber.  At that time, I was a married pre-ministerial student and had already begun serving student appointments.  During my senior year at Randolph-Macon College, I received my first appointment to the Bethel-Gum Spring Charge on the Richmond district. A popular song of the day was “The Times, They Are a-Changin.”  As I began my ministerial journey, I had no idea what changes were ahead for me both personally and professionally.  I had little understanding about how God would open doors to new opportunities and use me in such a variety of ways.  Neither did I understand as I began my ministry that the Methodist Church (the United Methodist Church by merger in 1968) would have a decline in membership.  Changes would occur in many ways.  Indeed the song of the 6o’s about change was one with a prophetic message for the remainder of the twentieth century to the present. The way the Church did ministry had to change in order to remain relevant for future generations.  As the twentieth century came to a close, churches that refused to address change continued to decline and some were forced to close their doors.

 

This June 20-22 (2014), the 232nd session of the Virginia Annual Conference in Hampton will be conducted by Bishop Young Jin Cho. It will be a significant year for me, marking fifty years of ministry and attending annual conferences.  This Conference brings together clergy and elected laity who will conduct business and act on proposals that will affect the life of local churches. On Sunday the 22nd, we will be dismissed to go back to our churches, where we will resume the hard work of dealing with ministry in rapidly changing times. We will once again be challenged by the many issues and decisions facing our denomination as we confront the major crossroads named “change” concerning the future direction for our Church.

     

When all is said and done at annual conference, a primary question facing church leadership is this: “What changes must occur in our lives as a Church so that we can become all God desires of us?”  The answers lie in spiritual discernment by all members and leadership, which will result in casting a vision for God’s preferred future.  Indeed, “the times they are a changing” and God continues to call the Church and her people to be agents of change who reflect the good news for changing times.  How will we respond to this challenge?