CONFERENCE MONDAY UPDATE
Welcome to the 2015 Iowa Annual Conference daily update

Don't miss a single image from the 2015 Annual Conference. Take a look at our Conference gallery on Flickr.
Sunday legislation

One legislative action item was adopted at the Sunday session of the 2015 Annual Conference. 

 

Section VI: 

Report of the Workforce Design Task Force - Action Item #600 

Adopt the Design Team Report and, 1) Authorize the Bishop to appoint a 'Healthy Conference Implementation Team' ...; 2) Authorize the Implementation of the "Pathways" as a two year interim mode of operation ...; and 3) Authorize the Bishop to hire an Adaptive Process Coach ... approved in a 909-153 vote.  

 

Full text of resolutions can be found on the Iowa Annual Conference website HERE.

 

2016 General Conference election results

No clergy delegates were elected in the third General Jurisdictional Conference ballot. The third laity ballot yielded no delegates as well. The third vote was taken Saturday evening and the results read Sunday afternoon at the Annual Conference Session.

 

In ballot four from Sunday, there was no election in either the clergy or laity ballot.

 

The fifth clergy ballot resulted in the election of Rev. Katie Dawson elected, with the laity electing Becky Hereen in ballot five. 

Ballot six was completed, with results to be announced Monday.

 

Discipleship comes in different languages and forms of love - Retirement service

God's invitation for his disciples to follow him is not new, Rev. Lilian Gallo Seagren told the retiring clergy celebrated at the 2015 Annual Conference Session retirement recognition service. They were summoned after the resurrection to love, she said.

 

"Peter and the others were invited to relive this "Follow me" with an invitation to love," Rev. Seagren said.

 

Thousands were fed and satisfied with little bread and fish very near to the place where Peter faced the stormy Sea of Galilee. 

 

"Come, follow me. Love me," Rev. Seagren said. "Tend and feed my lambs."

 

Acknowledging the hurt is necessary in working toward unity - Laity Address

The Iowa Annual Conference's Lay Leader spoke candidly about the predominant dividing issue within the Methodist church today in her laity address during the 2015 Annual Conference Session, offering suggestions on working toward unity.

 

"God gives us each minute of our life and gave us Jesus to follow," Margaret Borgen said, first sharing an anecdote from her youth.

That lesson she was taught as a young girl had a big impact on her life, she said.

 

Recounting how the lesson was imparted, she illustrated how messages received in childhood shape lives.

 

Borgen said she knew by eighth grade she would be a follower of Jesus, and she recognized that being Christian had to do with all of her life, relationships and decisions. 

 

"I had to live life differently," Borgen said, "treat people differently."

 


The Iowa Annual Conference celebrated 21 individuals in their next level of ministry at the 2015 Annual Conference Session with the Service for the Ordering of Ministry.

 

The Reverend Rodger C. Prois, Bishop of the Western Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, offered the ecumenical greeting for the Sunday morning service.

 

What does it mean to be in full communion, he posed to session attendees, and what more can we be doing to achieve unity?

 

The church is most active and effective when it's outside the walls and working with other communities, he said.

 

"We do not have to stand alone in silos anymore," said Bishop Prois.

We are the church, he continued, whether following Methodist or Lutheran teachings.

 

Conference Artist's Statement
"My work as a visual artist depends on your willingness to see," explained Conference Artist Rev. Ted Lyddon Hatten as he thanked the Annual Conference attendees for participating in the artistic process with him.

"It is a conscious act on your part." An artist, teacher, and theologian, Rev. Lyddon Hatten likes to work in a field known as "visual homiletics," in which he uses visual art as a way of deepening our encounter with both the gospel and with each other. For Annual Conference, he has created just such an experience based on the late Bishop Rueben P. Job's book Three Simple Questions. 

 

Upcoming events
Monday: Communications Breakfast - Tools for Increasing Church Vitality
Monday, June 8th, 7:00 am in room 101. Learn with experts from the United Methodist's Communications team about how to make a vital congregation and why that's important. First 50 registrants receive free breakfast but all are welcome.

Monday: A Faithful Church and a Healthy World
book signing 
Bishop Trimble will be doing a book signing on Monday, June 8th, 12:00 pm at the Treasurer's office.
June 7, 2015 Recap
In This Issue

#IAUMC15
 

 
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Thank you for taking time to complete the 2015 Annual Conference session evaluation. Your feedback is valued as we work together to have an excellent experience. Please complete this survey by Friday, June 12, 2015.

 

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