Matters of the Heart and City

In the musical RENT the question is asked, "How do you measure a year?" Several answers are considered.

"In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights

In cups of coffee

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife."

It was one year ago that Bishop Bruce R. Ough appointed me to be your pastor in the heart of the city for another year. I am grateful for his confidence and yours. 

As I look back, I'm asking the same question and considering the answers voiced in RENT. There are many ways to measure a year here at Broad Street UMC.

In meals served, families sheltered, crises averted.

In sermons delivered, songs sung, prayers made.

In tears shed, arguments engaged, conflicts embraced.

In stories told, memories healed, relationships reconciled.

In members received, children baptized, adults confirmed in the faith.

In legislation supported, rallies attended, justice sought.

In contributions received, ministry expended, mission accomplished.

In welcomes extended, church trials revisited, convictions expressed.

In denominational headaches, connectional miracles, community questions.

In hands held, calls confirmed, meetings attended, e-mails answered.

In ice dams thawed, ceilings repaired, and toilets installed. 

In faith, in hope, in love.

In RENT, the lyricist gives the actors a different answer that they sing with warmth and joy. "How about LOVE?"

I like that answer.

Paul declared in his letter to the Corinthians, "These three remain, faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love." (I Cor. 13.13)

The Bishop has appointed me for another year in the heart of the city. Again I'm grateful for what has been and what is yet to be. Let's measure the past in LOVE. Together, let's commit to another year marked with the Christ's great love and let's share it in all that we do.

Love matters. 

--Pastor David

Pot Luck Picnic at Broad Street

 Despite the wind and the wayward napkins blowing about, the first outdoor picnic for this year was a great time for all! There was a lot of good food as always and great company to share it with. We would like to thank everyone for pitching in and helping with clean up. It was wonderful! Thank you! 

The next picnic is July 10 and will be held on the west lawn. Remember to bring some lawn chairs or blanket along with paper products for your family. There will be a few tables set up. Drinks will be provided. A picnic side dish such as fruit, salad, snacks or dessert to share with others will be welcomed. Ask a friend or neighbor to join us for the next Picnic on the Lawn! Looking forward to seeing everyone next month.

 -- Nancy Taggart

Annual Conference Reflections

This June, I had my first Lakeside experience. It was exciting, to say the least, to be at Annual Conference for the very first time as a lay delegate-at-large and to be "running" for election to the 2012 General Conference! Our days were definitely full, but the free time that we were able to squeeze in between sessions was priceless.

Darrell and I shared a cottage with 3 other Broad Street delegates: Lyn Ellis, Whit Johnstone, and Ken Schoon. Even though the cottage was small (2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom) and quarters were tight, it was a great chance to deepen our already existing friendships with one another. In the evenings, we often spent time down the street with more members of our Broad Street family, David Meredith, Chris Clough, Laura Young, Marcia Miller, and John Girard. Though we were extremely busy during the day, the evenings allowed us to spend quality "Broad Street family" time with one another.

It was also a great chance for me to get to know other United Methodists from churches across West Ohio. I was able to begin new friendships with individuals that I would not have otherwise met, and was also made aware of the hard work other churches and activists are doing to make West Ohio and the world a better place. At the end of the intense 4 days, I was ultimately elected as an alternate delegate to Jurisdictional conference. I look forward to serving the church in this capacity, and ask for your prayers as I navigate another brand-new experience.

-- Laura Spurlock

This year I attended my third annual conference in West Ohio. Since I have been building more relationships in the church over the last few years, conference now feels somewhat like a family reunion. I am reunited with folks I know from my four years in Cincinnati. I am reunited with friends who participated with me in the conference internship program last summer. I am reunited with acquaintances and partners in ministry from neighborhoods all over Columbus.

Annual conference has also taken on some stranger, more alien tones, however, as I take the beginning steps to enter into ordained ministry. In addition to my closest friends, my bishop and my district superintendent are at conference. Other, powerful people who hold theological positions opposite from my own are present at conference. Being in the presence of all of these people at once requires the use of many different filters and can put a ministry candidate in a constant state of guardedness.

This year was a general conference elections year, and I ran for election on the lay slate. Though I was not elected to general conference, I was elected to jurisdictional conference, which will be held in Akron following general conference. This year's elections were disappointing to those of us who hold a "progressive" vision for the future of the church. The Evangelical Fellowship of West Ohio, which stands at the opposite end of the theological spectrum from the Reconciling Ministries Network, of which Broad St Church is a member, is excellent at maintaining discipline on the ballot to ensure their candidates receive a plurality of votes.The candidates who first win a plurality of votes will eventually gain the name recognition to be voted through, regardless of whether or not a majority of the conference agrees with their theological positions.

My primary lesson from the election process is that it is essential for those of us who will not command the disciplined votes of the Evangelical Fellowship to be coalition candidates. We must build working relationships across the conference with different caucus groups. This is not just good politics; it is putting into practice the very "progressive" vision that we preach. If those working relationships are not in place by the time the next elections process rolls around, we will cede the future of the church to those whose politics are exclusive and reactionary. The good news from conference is that both clergy and lay have the opportunity to shape the United Methodist Church, and I look forward to many more annual conferences to help shape the future of the church that I love.

-- Ken Schoon

 View this highlight video from the Annual Conference's YouTube channel, narrated by Bishop Ough

Week Overview: 2011 Annual Conference

Arts Festival Reflections 

Items for sale at the 2011 Arts Festival

On a perfect Friday afternoon, the 3rd of June, Broad Street opened its doors to the passers by as they made their way to the Columbus Arts Festival. Church members handed out Arts Festival Programs and church post cards complete with our url and invited folks to enter the sanctuary to learn more about our church. Folks were particularly attracted by the wonderful music of our organ that could be heard from the street. Several were treated to a brief history of the church by Jim Barbee. What a great day to tell the story of our beautiful, historic church.

-- Bob Furbee

As a volunteer on Saturday, June 4th, I distributed the Art Festival Brochures and the history of the church, with an encouraging word to stop by on the return from the festival. Many were complimentary of the Church and gave a nod that they would visit. One couple heard the organ playing and stopped to ask if that was a real pipe organ. I explained that it was and they immediately came in to hear the beautiful music recorded by Brian Johnson. They were overjoyed to be able to hear the organ and professed to come to Church.

It was a very enjoyable experience to share the opportunities available at Broad Street United Methodist Church (even on a very hot day!)

-- Anna Hughes

Music & Religion

In high school a good friend invited me to go with his family to the Lutheran Church for the eleven o'clock Christmas Eve Service. The service was something I never experienced before. Softened sanctuary lights, the organ playing, and full pews were the setting. When the postlude music finished, the robed choir descended from an upper level, singing as they came, candles in hand making shadows around the room. Some of the hymns were familiar and others I did not know. Their vested and collared pastor led the service with the congregation joining in singing age-old liturgical responses, including the creed, and I was filled with a sense of holy mystery.

As a young pastor, arriving home from our late Christmas Eve service, weary and drained, I found Ellen and the children in bed, and toys to assemble scattered around our living room. Snapping on the TV I saw the Christmas Eve Midnight Mass from St. Peter's in the Vatican with the Pope presiding. The haunting Gregorian chants caught my attention. Again I was pushed beyond my intellectual religious approach and filled with a depth of wonder that all my training in theology, philosophy, reason and logic could never match.

Certainly sound theological markers are terribly important, especially to those of us immersed in the prevailing modern mood. Jesus did say we are called to express our sense of the mystery of God with all our heart, strength, soul and mind. For many of us, faith would not be a serious option if it demanded we sacrifice our reason and intellect. And in my active pastoring I tried to focus on the concerns of persons in the pew who felt uneasy with faith grounded in traditional forms of literalism and pre-modern worldviews.

Yet as necessary as our intellect may be it does not bring to us a deep sense of the presence of awe, wonder and mystery to which we give the name, "God." Some of the Psalms of the Hebrew Bible have notations about the text telling the tune in which the congregation is to sing the Psalm during worship. So music enhances the words. For many of us, music does this for us. In the presence of music we go beyond our critical reason and fling ourselves into the grace and wonder to which music points.

Music's effect on us calls to trust this Presence as something grounding and sustaining our life. We are called to take the anxious steps into the next moment without being given exemption from all the threats and sufferings of life. Music lures us beyond a literal approach to scriptures and creeds, faith dependent on a God who intervenes to deliver us from all our troubles, a God who must be praised lest God pout, and a God who assigns our nation to a privileged list. Music can invite us into a mature faith with all its rich delight amid the struggles accompanying any maturity we experience.

This is why music is so central to our worship. This is why the quality music presented and experienced at Broad Street makes our church so attractive. Of course the preaching, the prayers, the study, the dramatic presentations, the service and mission involvements are also places where the Holy Presence is experienced. Not all of us experience the Presence in the same way. But music has performed this ministry to the church in all its centuries and certainly will continue in this way until the end of time. We quench our thirst for the Holy in so many ways, especially in our rich music here at Broad Street.

 -- John Ball

Game Nights

The next Young Adult Game Night is scheduled for Friday, July 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Be watching upcoming issues for details!

Questions or suggestions for future game nights?  Please contact Ken Schoon or Christian Paul at office@broadstreetumc.net.

-- Ken & Christian