God's Agenda

Preached at Hallam and Martell UMCs June 10, 2007.

For one week each year, a representative of every UMC in the state, and every UM clergy person in the state come together for Annual Conference. Now, for many people, this is a time of reunion. They get to see old friends, former pastors, people they’ve met in their travels across the state, even family.

A lot of things happen at Annual Conference. There is worship, training and educational events, and reports from various ministries. The members of annual conference decide on the stance of the UMC in Nebraska on various issues and work out the funding for ministries in Nebraska.

As most of you know, this last week was our church’s Annual Conference. There was extra work this year, as the election of delegates to other gatherings of global and regional UMC took place. I would like to take opportunity to thank the delegate from this church, and invite them to say a few words about their experience.

Lay Member speaks

As I reflect on the events of AC, and listen to the words of scripture for this morning, I am compelled to tell you that I am excited. I am excited to gather with you this morning to praise God, and to bring to you a message of hope--hope for the future of our church. At Annual Conference, I saw a lot of pastors and lay people, with agendas of their own. Some seemed to be outright angry! There were sour looks, bitter voices, hurt feelings. And I realized that many had been beaten up emotionally and spiritually in the past year. I noticed that many were concerned about pennies and nickels, rather than the mission of the Church. Some were condemning others for their beliefs—it didn’t seem to matter, to some you might not be conservative enough, to others, not liberal enough.

It seems to me that those who struggle with some of these issues were the most angry and concerned because their churches were struggling, some even dying, maybe as a result of their anger and concern. I saw members of other churches who were excited, though. Water’s Edge in Omaha started in September and is steadily growing—their membership is larger than our town! St. Mark’s NW? Same story! Bellevue? Yes! But these weren’t the only excited and joyful people there. There were many excited and joyful people there, including the delegation from our church—because good things are happening, because we are becoming a vital congregation!

To support this argument, this morning I want to begin a series on Galatians. Open your pew bibles to Galatians 1, this morning we will focus on verses 13-17. Take a close look at the verbs and their subjects. In the first part, you see that Paul was trying to do a lot of things on his own power. But then God intervened, and Paul responded.

Paul had been bitter and concerned with his own agendas. He was struggling and striving, bitter and unhappy. It wasn’t until God intervened and Paul had an encounter with the living Christ, that Paul’s attitude was changed. The same urgency and passion with which he had persecuted the church was then used to build the church and share the gospel.

My point this morning is this: regardless of the agendas WE have, we will not be blessed until we surrender our will to the will of God and have an encounter with the living Christ. God can then use our lives to expand HIS Kingdom.

I see hope in this church, because I believe that many of you have caught sight of the living Christ, yet still struggle with the sense of urgency conveyed by our mission and vision statements—a document we constructed together. It talks about a lot of important things (see http://www.hallamumc.com/vision.htm).

Friends, I believe this document is inspired by God, and represents our encounter with God. I pray that our eyes have been opened—we can see that the task is clear. Let us approach the future with our eyes wide open, looking for what God is doing among us, and celebrating God in all we do.