As we consider all that we experienced during this year’s Annual Conference, I hope that whether you were present in person, or were able to be with us online, that you were inspired by our time together.
The theme of the Annual Conference was to Fearlessly Embrace Our Future. Our Guest Speaker was Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli, the Senior Pastor at Foundry UMC in Washington, D. C. In her Keynote Address and sermon, she encouraged us to focus on what it means to be United Methodist, to be engaged in mission and ministry and to create new relationships, as well as deepen existing ones with one another and with our Lord.
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Browne, the Assistant to the Bishop and Director of Connectional Ministries, spoke with laity and pastors who are engaged in innovative missions and ministries in their neighborhoods. From basketball to creating a space for children who have immigrated to the greater Detroit area, we learned how faith communities are transforming neighbors and neighborhoods following the example of our Lord and Savior.
There was also a Mission Festival celebrating the ways United Methodists across the state are answering God’s call on their lives. We opened worship on Thursday with the hymn: And Are We Yet Alive? Over the next few days we answered that question with a resounding yes! We are dedicated to wearing the mantle that the Lord has placed on us to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
May we continue to be in prayer and conversation with our Lord as we consider what’s next. I invite each of us to consider how we can widen the circle of those who are with us today, creating space for those who are on the outside looking in, those who are on the doorstep, ready to cross the threshold and those who hunger and thirst to be spiritually filled, but don’t know how to take that first step. May we rejoice in all that we have done, as we continue to ask what more can we do. Know that God is with us every day in every way. And Amen.