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Texas Annual Conference Report
May 28-June 1, 2006, Houston
Some described it as renovating the house while living in it. After years of dwindling membership and stagnant professions of faith, the Texas Annual Conference decided it could no longer live in a declining spiritual house. The members at the 2006 annual conference unanimously voted to renovate their Father’s house, by upgrading the conference structure to help build the kingdom of God on earth.
A new model for ministry was adopted that will replace the structure that has shaped the conference since the 1970s. “Ambitious goals? You bet,” said the Rev. Jerry House Jr., pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in College Station. “But should we expect less of ourselves as a Texas Annual Conference? I hope not.”
The new ministry structure streamlines conference functions into four centers for excellence that focus on clergy, congregations, mission and connectional resources. An innovation of the plan was the creation of a Core Leadership Team that will implement the decisions of the annual conference between sessions.
The voting membership of the 16-person team will consist of equal representation of clergy and laity from each of the nine districts. Non-voting members of leadership team include the center leaders and key conference staff. The assistant to the bishop and the bishop, who will chair the group, also are voting members.
Leah Taylor, conference lay leader, hailed the plan for its promise of equipping laity, clergy and local churches to minister. “We believe the model for ministry will equip all of us in fulfilling the great commission,” she said. “What better way to glorify God than to see United Methodists engaging in hands-on mission and ministry?”
Extravagant generosity
The conference also celebrated another milestone as it paid 100 percent of its general church apportionments for the first time since 1972.
“Friends, I was ordained in 1970,” said Bishop Janice Riggle Huie. “This is the first time in my entire ministry that I have ever been part of a conference that has paid 100 percent of its apportionments.”
Apportionment payouts were not the only evidence of extravagant generosity in the conference. Methodists in East Texas contributed more than $2.2 million to hurricane relief efforts. Area churches spent an additional $2.6 million ministering to evacuees in their communities – providing shelters, food pantries, transportation and other acts of radical hospitality.
Angela Baker is director of the Texas Annual Conference Committee on Relief which is housed in the Southeast District, where all 52 United Methodist churches and more than 94,000 homes were damaged by Hurricane Rita. Baker reported that, since last October, 203 teams of 2,150 volunteers have served the storm-ravaged region. Those work teams have volunteered more than 53,000 hours, which if billed at the national average construction salary of $18, she said, would have cost more than $1 million.
While celebrating the strides made in this nine-month recovery journey, the church re-issued its desperate call for assistance for those impacted by the “forgotten storm.”
“Every day we receive a call from a family saying: ‘Can you help me?’” Baker said. “We have 500 families on our waiting list.”
To send a work team to the Hurricane Rita recovery zone, call Bonnie McAndrews, volunteer coordinator, at (409) 892-0140 or e-mail bmcandrews@umcortexas.com. Visit the Web site at www.umcortexas.com for recovery updates.
Passionate worship
Conference youth jump-started the week’s activities with a praise-packed service on Sunday, May 28. The call to worship was issued in four different languages, which was symbolic of the worship fusion that would take place using born-again bands, multi-ethnic, multi-generational praise dance teams and more. Youth and young adults also offered the evening’s sermons.
On May 29, the conference celebrated the 50th anniversary of full rights for clergywomen, with Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher of the Illinois Conference as the guest minister. The Texas Conference has more than 200 clergywomen. Nearly 100 clergywomen made up the choir that evening.
Nearly 1,500 delegates and church members attended the annual conference.
Membership stands at 283,617, down 7,238 from the previous year. Worship attendance stands at 109,269, down 976 from the previous year. Church school attendance stands at 47,391, down 7,678 from the previous year.
--Eleanor L. Colvin
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