Illinois Great Rivers Conference 2025 Journal-Yearbook
Christian life— you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and your neighbor as yourselves. Our new tag line (from our Mission, Vision and Strategy document) puts it this way: “Be loved. And be loving.” As United Methodists and as the progeny of John Wesley,
we are called to be loved by being grounded in the love of God. Wesleyan understanding of God’s grace poured into us in love.
Friends, this understanding of ourselves -- an understanding centered in the grace of a loving Godv-- is reflected in the baptismal vows that we recognized today, and with which we began this service. All of us, through the sign-act of water, remember that we entered into covenant with God and with the Church and that part of that covenant was to accept the grace of God offered to us in Jesus Christ. Washed in the cleansing waters of our baptism, we remember that we accepted the freedom and power that God has given us, through grace, to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves. Through the sign-act of water, we remember that we promised to confess Jesus Christ in our words and in our actions, and to put our whole trust in his grace in union with the Church which Christ has opened to people of all ages, nations and races. We, are a people born of grace who are called to center God’s grace in our self-understanding and in our day-to-day living. Do we know who we are?And do we know where our hope lies? Paul tells us that our hope lies in God and in God’s grace, not in ourselves. “We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory,” writes Paul. Our hope lies in God’s grace, not in what we achieve or don’t achieve--not in how many churches we have, or in the size of our member- ship--not in the heftiness of our budgets. Friends, we have lots of work to do to increase the vitality of our local churches and to increase our impact in the world for Christ. And we are doing that work. We are engaging in discipleship programs in local churches as we learn how to “See All the People.” We are starting new ministries and fresh expressions of church. We are making disciples on our college campuses through our Wesley Foundations. We are nurturing disciples and building up our youth through our camping ministries. We are reaching out to our communities and providing what people desperately need through Midwest Mission, or through church-run food banks, clothing pantries, community gardens and all kinds of ministries. We are being the hands and feet and heart of Jesus. And we are transforming the world. But still, undoubtedly, by the numbers, we are smaller than we used to be. And in a culture where every soft drink must be supersized, and every burger a triple decker, being a little bit smaller messes with our minds—and we despair and rehearse narra- tives of decline. Friends, it is not just disaffiliation that has brought us to this place. We have been rehearsing narratives of decline for decades. We have been rehearsing stories about how we are shrinking because our country has become more secular and soccer games are on Sundays.
Leadership Reports 217
Powered by FlippingBook