February 2024

There are a number of churches creatively designing their outdoor spaces as community gathering spaces with picnic shelters, community gardens, labyrinths, walking trails, and playgrounds. In a community with fewer children and more senior citizens one church has held VBS for grownups.

We have all been hit by divisiveness within the larger culture and disaffiliations from the UMC. I continue to be in awe of churches bravely venturing into courageous conversations. Some are claiming their identity as theologically traditional churches with a commitment to the United Methodist Church and others are claiming their identity as open and affirming congregations. Some churches are discovering in these conversations that their commitment is to be a place where people can respectfully engage in difficult issues, appreciate that there are differing viewpoints within the congregation, yet remain committed to be in worship, ministry, and mission together. My experience has been that the churches that have engaged in these challenging conversations and decisions and kept their focus on the mission and ministry of the church do well before, during, and after having these courageous conversations.

My prayer is that the peoples and churches in all of our communities acknowledge the weariness and heartaches of the last few years, that we give breathing space to name our loss and grief. And that we also claim those places where God is doing a new thing. We have much to celebrate. Churches are acknowledging that life isn’t what it used to be and finding creative ways embrace God’s dreams for their future.

What a Difference a Year Makes

by Judy Hill, Treasurer

My first attempt to write this article centered around my personal experience of the disaffiliation of my local rural church where I had been a member for 43 years. I would be glad to share that but have moved on as a United Methodist with another congregation. After a recent zoom meeting I decided to share the story of our district.

February 2023 the Trinity District was facing the disaffiliation of 1/3 of our rural churches and frankly we were just holding on but knew these would be approved at Annual Conference in June. The uncertain future for the district couldn’t be ignored as we prepared for changes by continuing to do God’s work,  

New District new boundaries, new churches and new name as described on our website: https://www.mtnskyumc.org/e-sc-colorado

The Eastern/Southcentral Colorado (ESCO) District covers more than 50,000 square miles of God’s Creation in Colorado. Our people live from the border with Nebraska in the north to the borders with Oklahoma and New Mexico in the south, and from the border with Kansas on the east to the San Juan Mountains and Pikes Peak (Sun Mountain) in the west. From cities to small towns, our people live on the plains, in the mountains, and in valleys. We know Jesus walked all these terrains, as well, so we celebrate that he is right at home—today, right now!—here with the people called United Methodist in ESCO.

February 2024 What a difference a year makes!

This week as I disconnected from a district zoom meeting I was filled with peace and anticipation as the spirit -filled time of “getting to know us” closed with prayer. Plans for our 1^st in person/virtual gathering have progressed with enthusiastic leadership of a revived District Superintendent, and dedicated co lay leaders.

Theme for March 2 district gathering is “Joy in the Journey”

 Theme Scripture: Nehemiah 8:10 (CEB) “Go eat rich food , and drink something sweet” he said to them ,” and send portions of this to any who have nothing ready! This day is holy to our Lord  Don’t be sad, because the joy from the Lord is your strength!’

 The ESCO district is alive and will celebrate with Bishop Karen Oliveto opening the day with worship and hope with joy. It will be a time of sharing and sending as we move from sadness to joy.

Living in Foreign Lands

by Orrinda Stockton, Spiritual Director

Psalm 137 (NRSV)

Lament over the Destruction of Jerusalem

1 By the rivers of Babylon—

   there we sat down and there we wept

   when we remembered Zion.

2 On the willows there

   we hung up our harps.

3 For there our captors

   asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,

   “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How could we sing the Lord’s song

   in a foreign land?

When I was a kid, there was a wooden bowl of rocks and agates that sat on a shelf in our living room. One of the rocks was solid white and shaped just like one of those big hard-shell, Brach’s marshmallow Easter eggs. I don’t know how many times I kept going back to that rock during our Easter morning egg hunt trying to turn it into one more egg for my basket. I was doomed to disappointment. And I couldn’t just laugh it off and confess that–once again–I had been fooled–by a rock. It wasn’t as if that rock mysteriously appeared at Easter–it lived in that bowl. It simply went unseen until it masqueraded as something it wasn’t. What that rock did was to give me a rather jaundiced view of the world at a very early age.

That highly colored view helped form my snarky, slightly irreverent approach to life and demanded that I find out why things happened and how things worked. The fact that I was exploring a scientific method did not provide me with a good defense when I took my mother’s watch apart. Or when I experimented with whether my grandmother’s piano sounded different if I hit the keys with my fingers or with the gnarly, chewed off eraser end of a pencil. Those poor women had no idea what they were dealing with. In a sense, I lived in a foreign land.

The Israelites had rebelled against God and ended up being captured, taken into slavery in Babylon, and their temple destroyed. The prophet Ezekiel was one of the exiles from the Babylonian deportation. The people of Judah were taken in several major waves ending in 587 B.C. Ezekiel is thought to have been carried away with the second group, along with King Jehoiachin. Think how frightening it must have been to see their king captive along with the best and brightest young men of the day–of course, in that culture the women didn’t count. The Israelites (as one commentator put it) sat around singing the blues, dwelling on one disaster after another. And yet, in the same place that others sang laments, Ezekiel saw fantastic (and at times, gruesome) visions from God.

Ezekiel 1:1 (NRSV) In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel goes on to describe not only his fantastical vision, but also the task God sets him. He is warned by God that these exiles are hard-hearted rebels and that Ezekiel should not allow himself to get sucked into their wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth. He is to carry warnings from God to the people of Judah and it doesn’t matter if they listen to him or not. God will sort it all out. Ezekiel, with an attitude similar to that of Jonah when told to go to the Ninevites, went kicking and screaming to carry God’s warnings.

We are living in foreign lands–lands of social upheaval, civil unrest, war, increasing unease due to a lack of integrity among some of our elected officials. Our church is fast approaching a time when everything will look foreign. How do we as the church see ourselves responding? Will we hang our harps on the willows, lamenting? Or will we work to offer a fresh vision of God?

Let us pray: Gracious and loving God, show us a path through these foreign lands that are just over our horizon. Give us strength for the journey and love and compassion for those who travel these unsettling times beside us. Be with us now as we consider how to continue to be in ministry both now and in the uncertain future. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mental Health

by Randy Wall, UMFA Chair

Some of you who take time to read this know me at varying degrees of familiarity. Some of you simply know that I am the chairperson of the United Methodist Rural Advocates. Others of you also know that I am a United Methodist elder who is a pastor in the Western North Carolina Conference.   Still, a few of you may know that I am a husband to one wife and a father to 4 daughters and grandfather to 8 children.  What few if any of you know is that I am a licensed clinical mental health counselor in the state of North Carolina.

My journey to becoming a licensed clinical mental health counselor began back in the 1990’s when I was serving as a pastor in a rural community in the mountains of North Carolina.  There was a couple in the congregation who actively attended the church with their young son.   Bill (as I will call him)  had done well working for a nationally known company that many of you would know if I told you its name.   He had quickly risen through the ranks and become a store manager. Yet, their marriage was in peril because he faced a serious problem. He was addicted to cocaine.  Bill had began cocaine use at a party and it became a way that he dealt with the pressure of his corporate job. In a short time, Bill’s marriage was in jeopardy and his job had an uncertain future. As their pastor,  I was on the front lines  of it all as they both sought my help.  I soon discovered that though I cared about Bill and that couple my seminary classes had not equipped me to have the skills  to offer Bill and his family the help they needed but was limited in that rural community. I then began the journey to getting my counseling degree at Appalachian State University and  becoming a licensed clinical health counselor.    

I tell that story not to impress you with my degrees or training or even to advocate for every pastor to become a licensed clinical mental health counselor, but to make this point: there are many people who sit in the  pews of our churches who need mental health care for a short time or a long time but community resources are sometimes limited  especially in rural communities. 

This is an election year here in the United States as people will head to the polls in the Fall to elect a President, congressional representatives, state offices, and local offices.   One of the things I am listening for  is to hear national, state, and local candidates who will earnestly work to provide more mental health resources particularly in rural communities. People like Bill might need that care, and  perhaps you or someone you care about will too.

United Methodist Rural Advocates

  New or Emerging Young People’s Ministry Awards

     The United Methodist Rural Advocates are now offering five (5) $500 New or Emerging Young People’s Ministry Awards to United Methodist rural, or town and country churches within the United States. The winners have been chosen. Look for more information in the April Newsletter on who these winners are and the ministries in which they are involved.

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