Dear church,

This year we celebrated thirty years in our building on the corner of Hanley and Ramsey. We benefit from previous generations who saved and planned and labored for the building we currently have. It is sacred ground for our congregation, the physical place where we gather to connect with each other and God. It is also an important gathering place for our neighbors! Every week we share our building with children, seniors, and people everywhere in between for the purpose of education, enrichment, and community.

Not long after we moved into our building, we purchased the empty lot next door. Over the years there have been all kinds of ideas on how to use this gift of extra land. In recent years, church leaders have felt a holy urgency around developing this land for ministry that matters. How can it be used to bless and serve our community?

Last spring select members of the Coeur Team completed a discernment process with the Inland Northwest Presbytery's church land development team. This gifted group of people guided us through a process of thinking about the theology of land stewardship, assessing the strengths of our congregation, and considering the needs of our community. We looked at examples of churches around the country who have developed their land for mission. We learned about how our land is zoned and the rich possibilities for development. We even looked at some architectural drawings to help spark our imaginations!

This is where we landed as a team: We believe our empty lot is not our backyard but God's backyard. The Coeur Team feels unanimously convicted that the time has come to get out of God's way and let Him do something big with His land.

So, we are now bringing the discernment process to you! For the next month you are invited to participate in a land development listening circle. In these circles we will consider together what our faith has to say about land stewardship and dream about how our empty lot might be used to bless our community. Do we feel called to build affordable housing for local workers? A static shelter for homeless families? An intentional living community for seniors and foster youth? Something else entirely? What is the Holy Spirit saying to us? The point is to listen to God and listen to each other.

In November we will invite some key leaders in our community to dream with us. We will also take some time to talk to people in our surrounding neighborhood and hear their ideas. This listening process will culminate in a charge conference vote on December 8. The motion: To give permission to the Coeur Team to contract with the Inland Northwest Presbytery's church land development team on helping us design a development project.

Our first listening circle will be Wednesday, October 2nd during Brown Bag (11:30am). Anyone is welcome to attend! Other dates and times will be listed soon. (NOTE: You only need to attend one listening circle.)

You may feel really excited by this process! Or you may have a lot of questions and concerns. However you are feeling, I encourage you to participate in a listening circle. The goal of the circles is not to design the project, but to listen together for what the Holy Spirit is saying. Do we feel called to say "yes in God's backyard"?

Grace and peace,
Pastor Amanda

Dear Church,

For the last year, I have prayed about how to address this challenging election season as a church. We are a politically mixed congregation. I also hear over and over again how tired we are of the polarization in our country. Our world seems to be consumed with division – often typified in the colors red and blue. 

I do not "preach politics," meaning I do not discuss candidates from the pulpit and I rarely discuss specific policies. I do believe, however, that the Gospel is inherently political, meaning that it is concerned with the application of political power toward God's vision of a just and merciful world. And I also believe that the Christian political witness begins and ends with us as individuals. Is our commitment to the Gospel transforming how we engage with each other in the political sphere?

Rather than stay in our monochromatic silos, the Golden Rule in scripture (Luke 6:31) challenges us to engage in conversation and seek to create whatever common good we can with our relatives, friends, and neighbors who we might consider to be on the “other side” politically and ideologically. As we attempt to come together, the idea is not that we are obliterating either one or trying to change each other, but rather we discover the beauty that can be created when we work together to make the world a better place. The “purple space” is where we cultivate kindness, compassion, humility, respect, and love for one another and for the good of all the world, no matter what.

Our Christian character is the starting point for our Christian witness. This Sunday we will begin a five week worship series and Campaign for Kindness intended to help form us in that Christian character. Whether we identify as red, blue, purple, or none of the above, we are all called to be people of kindness, compassion, humility, respect, and love. These are the characteristics of a citizen of the kingdom of God, which is our eternal nationality.

See you on Sunday,

Pastor Amanda

Opportunity knocked

The last month has presented innumerable topics for this newsletter, for example, the election of two new bishops and President Biden's decision to withdraw from the presidential election campaign (there are parallels). And my article about dandelions is still someplace on a back burner. But when I realized how badly I had missed answering the door when opportunity knocked, I knew what to write about. As Senator and Baptist preacher Ralph Warnock reportedly observed, “There’s a sermon everywhere”.

Opportunity knocked. I failed to answer.

To set the stage:

A few years ago, my wife Florence and I were asked if we might be able to come to San Antonio over a long weekend to stay with two of our grandchildren while our son and his wife were out of town. While Ian’s absence was related to his duties with the U.S. Army, Susan’s was related to her with their parish.

Ian, Susan, and their oldest son, Matthew, have all participated in ACTS Retreats, and Susan is on the leadership team for the women’s ACTS Retreats at their parish. ACTS is an acronym for Adoration, Community, Theology, and Service. Undoubtedly guided by the Holy Spirit, this lay-inspired program grew out of the Roman Catholic Cursillo, the original “three-day movement,” itself a lay-inspired program. (The Walk to Emmaus is the United Methodist adaptation of Cursillo.)  Not restricted to Catholics, ACTS Retreats, given by parishioners for parishioners, are patterned after the early church as described in Acts 2:42-27, “The Fellowship of the Believers”.

Act I:

When we arrived in San Antonio, we found Susan busy assembling bracelets that would be given to participants in the upcoming retreat. Generally known as “Fisher of Men” bracelets or “ACTS Retreat bracelets”, these bracelets function as a reminder to the wearer of their commitment to their faith. They are a visual cue to live and act in accordance with the Gospel, embracing the idea of being ambassadors and witnesses of their faith. As the aphorism, often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi, goes, “Preach the Gospel. If necessary, use words.” As Susan explained all that, I thought, “Now that is pretty neat, actually.”

Act II. Scene I:

Fast forward a couple of years and we are again in San Antonio for, again, close to the same reason. This time, however, we meet Susan as she and the other leaders and participants return to their parish for Sunday Mass. After worship, we are invited to have lunch with the retreat team, participants, and their families. At lunch, a number of folks came by our table to say hello, and I noticed that many of them, especially the men, were wearing Fisher of Men bracelets. Remembering Susan’s explanation of their meaning, I mentioned to Florence that, “I like that bracelet.”

Act II. Scene II:

As luck, or fate, would have it, we were in San Antonio near our anniversary, and (I should have figured this out!) Susan and Florence went shopping. Yup, I was surprised (and a bit taken aback) to receive a truly beautiful Fisher of Men bracelet as an anniversary gift. While this particular style of bracelet is associated with the ACTS program, it certainly is not “restricted” to those who have participated in an ACTS Retreat. Its symbolism applies to all persons of the Christian faith. So, I was especially appreciative of Florence's (and Susan’s) thoughtfulness. But there was a small problem.

Act II. Scene III:

The small problem was in the quality of the gift. Not that I didn’t (or don’t) appreciate that, but that I could foresee getting it pretty well scratched, tarnished, and generally beat up in everyday wear – even not wearing it doing chores around the house. So, remembering that Susan had been assembling bracelets for the retreat, I went shopping for supplies and assembled my own “everyday wear” Fisher of Men bracelet. It serves the same purpose visually—much like a silicone wedding band, for example, serves in lieu of a gold wedding band—reminding me to “Preach the Gospel” and witness my faith.

Act III: Or “The Big Fail”:

Recently I was out and about, running errands, and wearing my “everyday wear” Fisher of Men bracelet (which is not much in the way of fine jewelry!). I was paying for a purchase at a local supply house when the clerk said, without any gibe, “Nice bracelet”. Opportunity knocked. I didn’t open the door. A chance to witness my faith. But all I said was, “Thanks.”

Epilogue:

I’ve had a chance to do better since “The Big Fail”. And I hope I have.

In talking to Matt, whom I stopped to tell that the fence he was building was a work of craftmanship, when, in the course of the conversation he asked (with some hesitancy) “What church do you go to?”. Or the clerk at the glass company who had a half-dozen pennies with a die-cut cross punched from them on her desk. Or the cashier who noticed the aluminum cross I keep in my change purse (given to me and others during Bike2DC by a fellow in Asheboro, North Carolina, not the least bit hesitant to share his faith.)

In our United Methodist membership vows, we renew our Baptismal Covenant and pledge to faithfully participate in the life and ministries of the church through our prayers, presence, gifts, service, (Emphasis added). “Witness” was added by the 2008 General Conference to highlight the duties associated with church membership of mission and evangelism; and, to remind us to live out our vows publicly, resisting evil, injustice, and oppression, serving as Christ’s representatives in the world.

We laity do have, after all, “… primary responsibility for the growth and vitality of … [the church]”. (Just look, for example, at, although Roman Catholic, how Cursillo and ACTS evolved.)

Whether a talisman like that aluminum cross, a visual reminder like my Fisher of Men bracelet(s), or in simple conversation with some stranger like Matt, that opens the door, I hope you will strive to be “a light onto the path”, showing love of our neighbor, and sharing the good news of God’s grace.

I know I need to try harder. I hope you will as well.

John Townsend
Inland Missional District Lay Leader

Be There, or Be Square

Do you remember that injunction, “Be there, or be square”?

It apparently has been in use since the 1940’s, and has several shades of meaning, from “if you are not ‘there’ you are not ‘cool’” to “if you are not there, you will be left out”, and as a “playful invitation to encourage someone to attend an event or participate in an activity”.

And that is what this is, an invitation, albeit a serious and heartfelt one, meant to encourage you to attend, and participate in the special called church conference on Sunday, June 23rd, immediately following worship.  The purpose of this church conference is to review the budget as established by the Coeur Team, set the pastor’s compensation, and solicit input on church security, more especially becoming a weapon-free zone, and employing a security service to provide armed security. District Superintendent, Daniel Miranda, will be presiding.

Here are the particulars:

•Budget Review: As covered during the All-Church Meeting on April 28th, the Finance Team has diligently worked to prepare a budget for the church’s fiscal year July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.  The proposed budget discussed on April 28th, included reductions in staff hours and a proposed reduction in the pastor’s compensation of roughly 10%.

While The Book of Discipline assigns to the church council (in CUMC’s case, the Coeur Team) the responsibility for “establish[ing] the budget on recommendation of the committee on finance and ensur[ing] adequate provision for the financial needs of the church” (¶ 252. 4. c)) every member of the church has in a sense “a say”.  We have “a say” indirectly in our giving, especially our financial giving, and we have “a say” more directly in establishing the pastor’s compensation, since that is a part of the budget.

That indirect “say”, our estimates of giving, or “pledges”, has been taken into account by the finance team in preparing the budget to be presented to, and voted on, by the Coeur Team.
This is the budget that will be reviewed with the whole body of the church on June 23rd.
Also included in the budget to be reviewed on June 23rd are additional reductions in staff hours, expenditure of reserves, and a reduction in estimates of historic “un-pledged giving”.
Most importantly, however, is the inclusion of a reduction of the pastor’s compensation.  This is where the professing members of the church have a direct “say” in the budget as the pastor’s compensation is set by the charge conference, and in this case, by the church conference.

In a rare form of leadership, Pastor Amanda has volunteered to reduce her compensation in order to meet the church’s budgetary needs.  This reflects not only “leading from the front” vis-á-vis reductions in staff hours, but also the reality of the “indirect say” we have made through our pledged giving.  To make this change requires the church membership to “set the compensation”. We will do that at the June 23rd church conference.

•Church security: Data compiled by The Violence Prevention Project shows that: 31% of mass shootings occur in “the workplace”; the vast majority of mass shootings in houses of worship occur in the Southern states; and, of the nine locations identified as places where mass shootings occur, six are more frequent than houses of worship. Nonetheless, the recent arrest of a local person who had been radicalized and had apparently targeted houses of worship, brought concern for church security back to the forefront.

As a result, several things have happened. We have re-implemented the practice of keeping the doors locked, with access granted by the office staff, after viewing the security camera image. We have ensured that the front doors are locked at the time worship starts, and have stationed a volunteer in the lobby to allow access to late comers, as well as for “screening”. We have locked, and kept closed, the doors to the worship space (emergency exit is still possible) to further reduce access. Our safety officer has contacted the Coeur d’Alene police, who have assured us that the measures we are taking are reasonable.

We have, in collaboration with three other United Methodist Churches, formed a “church security collab” to develop church security guidelines. Led by a lay member of Spokane Valley UMC, guidance from the US Department of Homeland Security, and our insurance carrier has been, and is being, reviewed and incorporated into the guidelines.

A part of that effort is consideration of becoming a “weapon-free zone”. This is a long-standing discussion. The United Methodist Church included it in The Book of Resolutions in 2000, and at least one major denomination includes it in their rules for the use of church facilities.

While additional research is needed concerning Idaho State law, the Coeur Team thinks it essential to get at least a general sense of the congregation’s feelings around becoming a “weapon-free zone”.

Additionally, the Coeur Team thinks it is essential to get a sense of the congregation’s feelings around the idea of employing a security service to provide armed security. A member of the congregation has brought forward a concern for security related to:
•the radicalized person,
•CUMC’s open and inclusive “All Means All” face-to-face with “North Idaho’s history of white supremacy and right winged radical groups” as illustrated by “recent incidents”,
•the “ongoing political divisiveness in our community” possibly exacerbated by the upcoming elections, and
•Idaho’s gun laws which allow concealed weapon carry without a permit by anyone 18 or over.

They have proposed, therefore, that CUMC “contract with a local security company to provide an armed (concealed), plain-clothes security guard” who would be stationed in the lobby on Sunday mornings. In support of this proposal, they have found a donor willing to underwrite the cost up to a maximum of $4,000.  

We have reached out to our insurance company to learn how this might affect our insurance costs. The insurer has responded and while they did not quote any specific price, it is clear that they will require an extensive review of any security plan we put in place, along with other information, that involves an armed security service. We have also done some cursory looking – via internet searches – and have learned that, generally, insurance costs can range from the low to the high thousands of dollars. These costs have not been included in the proposed budget.

In addition, we will contact local security firms to get a sense of the services they provide, an understanding of the training and experience of their personnel, as well as the insurance they carry, and references.  

In summary, on Sunday, June 23rd, immediately following worship, District Superintendent Daniel Miranda will preside at a special called church conference. Its purpose is to review the budget as established by the Coeur Team, set the pastor’s compensation, and solicit input on church security, more especially becoming a weapon-free zone, and employing a security service to provide armed security.

Be there, or be square!

John Townsend
Chair, Coeur Team

This week members and guests of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference will meet online and in person at Central Church in Richland, WA, June 13 to June 16 for its 151st regular session. A successful Clergy Session was held on May 29, and members gathered to discuss legislation this last weekend at Focus Sessions held online Friday and Saturday.

Pastor Amanda will be attending the conference in-person alongside John Townsend, our Inland District Lay Leader. CUMC's annual conference lay members are Michael and Janet Keffer. They will join the conference online. Rev. Dawn Beamish will preach in Pastor Amanda's place on Sunday.

You can watch much of our Annual Conference Session live on the PNWAC website at https://pnwumc.org/ac2024! Click here to see the schedule of events and learn what will be livestreamed. You can also view conference materials, including legislative updates and worship materials, on the Downloads page.

As they do their work, lay and clergy members will explore our conference theme, “Being Well,” which builds on the 2023-24 theme of “Go and Do Likewise.” The Gospel of John, chapter 4, verses 4-17, is our grounding scripture. Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth wrote in his call letter, “Being Well is our call to be as Christ would have us be in this time and space. Being well emotionally, physically, spiritually, and ecologically is a daily pursuit.”

Some expected highlights

This year’s annual conference sessions will open on Thursday, June 13, with worship and an episcopal address from Bishop Bridgeforth. The bishop will also help guide four opportunities for members to consider ministry values and goals as they look toward future opportunities to collaborate for better outcomes and greater efficiency within the annual conference and across the Greater Northwest Area. To allow space for these conversations, the bishop has announced that members will consider the budget at a special session later in the year.

In a laity session following the opening plenary, lay members will elect a new PNW Conference Lay Leader, with Nancy Tam Davis stepping down after eight years. During the conference, members will also approve nominations for a host of other positions on conference boards and agencies for the upcoming quadrennium.

Rev. Elizabeth Ingram Schindler and Skylar Marston-Bihl will deliver their report on the historic (and postponed) General Conference 2020 on Friday afternoon. The first-elected delegates will highlight the significant legislative changes the General Conference enacted and some of the work that lies ahead. They are reporting on behalf of the delegation that returned from Charlotte just over a month ago.

Members will receive updates and reports from conference boards, agencies, and area-level ministries. One celebration will be a new partnership between the GNW Area and Mary Johnston Hospital, a United Methodist hospital in Tondo, Philippines, where most patients are poor. The partnership is one of three offerings that members will have an opportunity to support.

Kristina Gonzalez will report on the innovation and vitality work happening across the GNW Area. A significant portion of her report will focus on the Equity Training that has been ongoing over the past six months. Members will take some time to recognize Gonzalez for her decades of service in the conference as she has announced her retirement early next year.

The body will also consider 14 recommendations submitted during the spring. Among the petitions are several typical pension-related actions, a recommended increase in moving expenses for pastoral leaders, the approval of three church closures, two petitions asking the body to lean into environmental stewardship, one focused on clergy wellness, and finally, a revision of the conference rules.

After a short plenary on Saturday morning, members will have the opportunity to participate in support of a community Kids Run sponsored annually by the host church. At the same time, a Ministry Fair returns for the first time since Covid-19 disrupted many conference traditions.

On Saturday afternoon, the body is anticipated to finish its legislative work by reading ministerial appointments and assignments, marking additional celebrations and adjourning its business. If time is needed, members may hold an extra session before worship on Sunday.

Closing with worship

Throughout the weekend, members and guests will be blessed with several opportunities to pray and worship together beyond the opening worship. Rev. Katie Ladd, pastor at Queen Anne UMC, will offer the message during a Memorial Service on Thursday evening, during which we will remember significant passings over the past year. On Friday morning, Cascadia District (OR-ID) Superintendent Rev. Tim Overton-Harris will join the body to offer a devotion. Later that morning, members will celebrate the retirement of pastoral leaders with Rev. Sheila Marie, retiring local pastor of Redeemer UMC in Kingston, WA, offering the message.

On Sunday Morning, the Annual Conference will conclude with a Service of Commissioning and Ordination with the Rev. Dr. Lydia Muñoz, executive director of the National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, preaching. Members and guests will invite the Spirit to join them in blessing new leaders and sending all out to bring the Gospel of life to the communities in which God has embedded us.

Thank you to Patrick Scriven for this excellent summary!

Defining Moments

An acquaintance of mine, for whom I have a measure of respect, posits that there is a “defining moment” for every generation.

I suspect there is a nugget of truth in that idea. And with the corollary that institutions and individuals are further defined by events or “moments”.  

Reflecting upon those ideas and the events of the last month, I thought about defining moments. Some are fairly obvious and are enshrined in national holidays­ Juneteenth, for example. But they can be hard to connect with personally if, for no other reason, they happen outside of our individual connection to them.

My grandmother, Lida Helen, was born in December 1890 and lived until January 1986. Her father died when she was an infant, and she was raised, along with her siblings, by her mother. Her lifetime spanned the Battle of Wounded Knee, the Spanish-American War, both World Wars, the Korean conflict, and Vietnam. Her lifetime witnessed the first controlled, sustained flight in heavier-than-air aircraft and the moon landing. She raised her family during the Great Depression. She was witness to the assassinations of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, as well as the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. The swearing-in of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor – the first woman on the Supreme Court – happened during Helen’s lifetime, as did Nixon’s resignation, the Cuban missile crisis, the atomic bomb, and the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

I am not sure, with a list that dramatic (and not including advances in medicine – the Salk polio vaccine being only one), what could be claimed as her generation’s defining moment. I suspect that the Great Depression would be a strong contender.

Certainly, for my parents, and especially my wife’s, the Great Depression, during which they were children, and the Second World War, were defining. There is no question – as I look back on it – that my parent's stewardship of material things and their financial management was influenced by growing up in the Great Depression. There is no doubt that within the broader context of the Second World War, my mother-in-law’s experiences as a civilian prisoner of war and later association with the Philippine resistance shaped who she became and how she approached life.

Events like these, primarily experienced by a generation as they grow up, give each generation its “generational personality” and shape the values of that generation. Values that they then bring into their families, workplaces, and third places.

The “Baby Boomer” generation (1946-1964) could certainly point to the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, the Kennedy and King assassinations, the moon landing, and the Kent State shootings as defining moments. I’d offer that John Kennedy’s Inaugural Address inspired countless individuals to “ask not” and established a conviction and moral tone that, as a country and a people, the United States would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship,…”.

Those defining moments, or “influential events”, that create a generation’s personality and give it its values are many and varied. There is little question about their effect on a generation’s “worldview”. (For example, those graduating from college this year have never known a time without airport security measures – a direct result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.)

There are other, smaller, but perhaps no less dramatic, events that shape generational and personal “values”. Grandmother Helen, whose father and father-in-law were both Methodist Episcopal ministers, most likely had values and expectations for her church that were influenced by the 1939 reuniting of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church (South), and the Methodist Protestant Church to form the Methodist Church; and that body’s 1968 merger with the Evangelical United Brethren Church (which also ended the segregation of African American congregations into a separate Central Jurisdiction).

My parents (and I) may not have paid much attention to those as they happened in our lifetimes, but they certainly influenced our views of “church”. The “glory days” of attendance swelled so that a second, then a third Sunday worship service was added along with Sunday night meetings of MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship – an outgrowth of the Epworth League which, incidentally, had been founded at Grandmother Helen’s church) which was where you were on Sunday evening as a youth.

Events like those, experienced as we grew up and as we had families, events, and experiences that shaped our generational personality and our worldview, have given us our “generational personality” and formed the values we bring to our third places (like church), are also sometimes stumbling blocks.

I may be a proponent of John Kennedy’s “ask not” and think the idea of “pay[ing] any price, bear [ing]any burden, meet[ing]any hardship” has merit – although I wonder if it might have led us to Vietnam (a question I’ll leave to historians).

Likewise, the ideas of “church” being those swelling Sunday morning congregations, MYF meetings stretching the room capacity, and the hiring of another associate pastor can get in the way of what church is today. And how we respond to the reality of that.

We have just witnessed events in our nation’s life that are historic. And in our denomination’s life as well. They will be, in their own way, “defining moments”.  

While the just-completed General Conference may well be considered “historic” for its removal of “harmful language”, there remain discriminatory provisions that need to be addressed.

We will see a Resolution at the upcoming Annual Conference about “Setting Pastoral Work Expectations”. The expectation, growing out of those “glory days” when the hiring of another associate pastor transferred the work of the church to the professional clergy, is not a sustainable model for the future.

Every generation has defining moments. What will define our lives as Methodists and our churches in the years to come? I look forward to accompanying you on that journey of discovery.

John Townsend, Inland Missional District Lay Leader

Video Summary of General Conference from United Methodist Communications
This is a great place to start to learn about what happens at General Conference and what made this conference a historic event.

Summary of Major Legislative Actions Taken at General Conference
For a full summary of the major legislative actions taken at General Conference, click this link. Below is a brief summary of the major areas of legislative action:

Regionalization Petitions Approved - Regionalization represents an effort to put the church's different geographical regions on equal footing and to make the General Conference less U.S.-centric. The current Central Conferences and the U.S. would become regional conferences, with the same authority to pass legislation for greater missional impact. This petition changes our denomination's constitution and requires approval from two-thirds of the annual conferences before it can become official.

Removal of Restrictive Language Related to LGBTQ+ People - The General Conference voted by overwhelming majorities to remove from The United Methodist Book of Discipline discriminatory language and bans related to ministry by, with, and for "self-avowed practicing" gay and lesbian people. The Book of Discipline is now neutral on human sexuality, allowing space for differences of belief across our diverse global church. The decision whether to officiate same-sex marriages now rests with individual clergy and local churches.

Apportionment Percentage Decreased - In an effort to balance funding important connectional ministries through the general church budget and supporting the local church during financial challenges due to the pandemic and disaffiliations, delegates approved a compromise regarding apportionments. Conferences will shift from their current base rate of 3.29% to a base rate of 2.6% for 2025 and 2026. This means our apportionments in those years will be lower and a little more money will remain with our congregation.

Adoption of Revised Social Principles - Delegates approved the first overhaul of the denomination's Social Principles in nearly 50 years. The Social Principles, contained in both The Book of Discipline and The Book of Resolutions, are statements that reflect official United Methodist teachings on a wide range of topics. They are not church law but are intended to inform United Methodist witness on issues of the day with biblical foundation.

Disaffiliation Policy Ended, Reaffiliation Measure Approved - Delegates removed Paragraph 2553 from The Book of Discipline, ending the special disaffiliation policy that was added by the special 2019 General Conference. They also required annual conferences affected by disaffiliations to develop grace-filled policies for reaffiliation of churches that want to rejoin the denomination. CUMC has never intended to disaffiliate. We are committed to maintaining a strong United Methodist witness in the greater Coeur d'Alene region.

Western Jurisdiction to keep 5 bishops, must transfer 2 from other jurisdictions
After several days of long discussions, the Interjurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy shared that there will be no episcopal elections this year. Their report recommended a total of 32 bishops in the United States, with the number of bishops in the Western Jurisdiction staying at five. Two of our current five bishops are set to retire this year and will be replaced by transferring two bishops from elsewhere in the connection into the Western Jurisdiction. To learn more about how this will impact the Western Jurisdiction, click this link.

This Sunday we begin a three-week series on living as Easter people based on the First Epistle of John. The season of Easter, or Eastertide, can be difficult to navigate. On the one hand, there is the ongoing unexplainable joy of resurrection and the hope of new life. On the other hand, there is the inevitable feeling of “So, what?” as we notice that the world seems pretty much unchanged or perhaps even worse. This is exactly where we need to begin this series: “So, what? Christ is Risen!” That was our shout on Easter morning. What difference has it made, is it making, and will it make in our lives day by day? That is the question we are asking in this series for the beginning of the Easter season. To guide us through this series and to help us answer this vital question, we have the First Epistle of John. This letter can give us insight on life after Easter and how we might be witnesses to the kingdom, even as we wait for the fulfillment of the promise. Join us on Sunday mornings at 10am (in-person and online) as we live as Easter people.

I thought I had the topic for this month’s newsletter article figured out.

I was going to write about dandelions. Seriously.

But then a wealth of athletic events happening at the same time in Spokane created a shortage of hotel rooms. Consequently, some of the competing teams had to be housed in Coeur d’Alene. And then they had to walk to a restaurant.

Most of the nation knows what happened then. Not the best way to make the six o’clock news. Not the ideal way to get noticed.

More disturbing, or at least interesting, was the resultant rush by civic leaders to declare, “That’s not who we are.” And even more interesting, the pushback on that claim that appeared in the “Letters to the Editor” section of The Spokesman-Review, Spokane’s daily newspaper, on April 2nd.

But what does any of this have to do with us? Certainly, none of us harbors the kind of overt racism that was on display in Coeur d’Alene when those visiting athletes and their supporters were walking to dinner. (There is a small touch of cynicism, perhaps sarcasm, in that statement, in case you missed it.)

Perhaps we don’t. Hopefully, we don’t harbor that kind of overt prejudice. But what about the more insidious, silent, accepting kind? The kind that claims that “we’ve made great strides”, as sort of a euphemism meaning “let’s not talk about this, things are OK, don’t rock the boat, besides these things take time after all that’s not who we are”.

Given the university from which I graduated did not admit Black undergraduates until 1956, and where I do not recall having any classes except one with any student who was not white (and that one student in that one class was Asian), but where the current student body, although still predominately white (about 2/3) is slightly more than 8% Asian and just above 6% Black or African American, and where 12 of the 16 member varsity men’s basketball team are Black (75%), I think it could be argued that, yes, we have made at least “strides”, although I am not sure how “great”.

As true as that might be, it is neither a reason nor an excuse to ignore the obvious fact that not only overt racism, as was displayed in Coeur d’Alene – despite later claims of “That’s not who we are!” – continues to exist, or to brush aside that more insidious silent, accepting kind.

While we are challenged to confront both the obvious and the subtle forms of racism, we are also challenged to confront our own unrecognized, perhaps ingrained, even prejudicial, views.

According to news articles about the initial call to the police and about body camera video from the Coeur d’Alene police officer who responded to the report of the racial slur incident, the reporting party said, “You can’t control what the hillbilly white trash people do.” In itself, a statement that contained at least a bias and one that, depending on who offered it, could be contested as “racial”. (As well as a statement that could tend to – and perhaps did – detract from the veracity of what was reported.)

This is not an easy task. Self-reflection rarely is.

Our challenge is to examine ourselves individually and collectively. To look for our hidden bias and prejudice, and to address those (hopefully we won’t be seeing un-hidden bias and prejudice!).

Our challenge is to find the better way forward toward a more just and egalitarian society and world. Our Conference is expending a considerable amount of resources targeted at the “E” in Bishop Bridgeforth’s “M.I.L.E” – our M.I.L.E. (See links at the end of this article.)

While “eliminating” may be a Sisyphean goal, that does not mean we should not be striving for it, any more than Jesus’ statement that we will always have the poor among us should be an excuse for not striving to eliminate poverty.

I challenge each of us to look deeply, sincerely, and critically into our own hearts and heads and the hearts and heads of our respective churches for those places where there are biases and prejudices. And to do the hard work of addressing them in such a way that we truly can “love our neighbor”.

John Townsend
Inland Missional District Lay Leader

https://greaternw.org/news/equity-cohorts-across-the-gnw-begin-the-work-of-eliminating-racism/

Our Easter offering this year will 100% support the 2nd Harvest Mobile Market. Mobile Market brings healthy food directly to high-need communities throughout the Inland Northwest. Since 2006, the Mobile Market has provided fresh produce and other groceries at no cost to families, children, and seniors experiencing food insecurity. Last year Mobile Market served over 900 people at CUMC alone. Mobile Market is scheduled to come to CUMC on June 6, September 17, and October 29. Once more the United Women in Faith are challenging us to meet or beat their donation of $2500. Last year we more than doubled the amount! Can we do it again? You can make your Easter offering online at cdaumc.org/give, mail a check to the church with "2nd Harvest Easter Offering" in the memo line, or bring a check/cash on Easter Sunday. This matching challenge will run through the end of the Easter season (May 12). Thank you for your generosity!

Dear church,

Last week, Fred Asher, Sherry Graham, and I spent three beautiful, wintry days at Clearwater Lodge in Newport, WA. We gathered there with five other churches for our second Resilient Church Retreat. The Resilient Church Project is a two-year program funded by the Whitworth Office of Church Engagement with the aim of helping churches explore the marks of resiliency as we navigate our rapidly changing contexts. Together we are identifying our church's strengths and assets, as well as opportunities for engaging our surrounding community, as we think about how to cultivate our faith tradition for the next generation.

As an aging congregation, this is a critical topic that needs our attention and effort. We are proud of our Methodist heritage in Coeur d'Alene and are seeking the Holy Spirit's wisdom and guidance on how to preserve that heritage in our community while also reaching new people with the Good News of Jesus. This winter we received our Resilient Church Report, a culmination of the research our Resilient Church Fellow, Courtney, did this summer. The Coeur Team is in the process of engaging this report in the direction of reevaluating our mission and vision statements at CUMC. Copies of this report, as well as our Resilient Church History Report, will be available starting this Sunday. If you would like a copy sent to you, please call or email the office.

The main recommendation of the Resilient Church Report is that our congregation focus on outreach. The report encourages us not to limit this outreach to young families. Instead, we are called to do the work of building relationships with our neighbors, discovering what their gifts and needs are, and then considering how our church can support those gifts and address those needs.

Last week's retreat concluded the Discovery Phase of the project and began the Discern Phase. In this phase we are working with a former city planner to better understand our neighborhood and community demographics. We expect to receive this data later this spring. This data will be critical in helping the Coeur Team design an outreach strategy.

While our church faces many challenges, a gift of this project is that we are not alone. While the churches in our cohort are diverse in terms of size, resources, and demographics, all six are facing similar questions of identity and community engagement. We are grateful for the knowledge that we are gaining through this project and the imagination for the future that is being cultivated. Fred, Sherry, and I request your prayers as we journey into the next phase. If you have any questions about the reports or the project in general, please feel free to talk to any one of us.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Amanda

Though we often avoid exploring the places in our lives marked by shadows and
darkness, these challenging moments can be ways through which God leads us out of dark times into the dawning of new opportunities and fresh starts. In his own journey from the wilderness to the cross, Jesus experienced moments of gathering shadows and distinct darkness. But for those of us who know how his story ends, we celebrate that at dawn on that first Easter morning the miracle of his resurrection brought the light of eternal salvation into our world!

During this season of Lent at Community UMC you are encouraged to join Jesus on his journey to the cross. In worship we’ll explore together the “shadows” that hide in the corners of our lives, confront the darkness of death at his crucifixion, and celebrate the empty tomb on the dawn of Easter morning! Worship on Sundays at 10 am in-person or online at https://cdaumc.org/worship and youtube.com/@cdaumc.

He was an old hippie. At least, he appeared to be.

My wife Florence and I had taken a trailer load of “green and clean” yard waste to the transfer station/recycling center—mostly tree branches from limbing pine trees. We’d backed the trailer in and started dragging and tossing the branches off it into the “green and clean piles.”

I don’t recall the amount of material we had, but it likely was a half-ton or more. So, it was not the easiest of jobs, especially for my petite wife, to shuck the branches off the trailer – no matter how carefully one stacks them, they seem to magically become intertwined and interlocked.

Backing in next to us was a similarly loaded full-sized pickup truck. Two fellows got out and started pulling off branches and tossing them into the “green and clean” piles. The younger of the two looked perhaps in his 40s, about six feet tall, around 200 lean pounds, with a dark, well-trimmed beard and a baseball cap. His older companion, probably a half-foot shorter and quite a few pounds lighter, wore a headband and a tie-dyed t-shirt. More sinewy than his bulkier co-worker, with gray hair pulled into a ponytail, he was, by all appearances, an old hippie.

The two of them made fairly quick work of the top half of their load, then got a firm grip on the tarp upon which they had piled things and slid the rest of the truck. All the while, my wife and I were dragging and tossing.

After rolling the remaining material off the tarp and tossing it into the bed of their truck, those two fellows simply stepped over and started tossing things off our trailer. “Many hands make light work” was never more true. Fairly quickly, we had a manageable-sized load, and the “old hippie” and his companion grabbed the tarp my wife and I had placed under our load of “clean and green” and said, “Pull the trailer out from under it.” So, I did.

We rolled and pulled the tarp from under the debris as my wife got the broom to sweep the trailer deck. What likely would have taken us another 20 to 30 minutes was done in half the time or less, thanks to the helping hands of those two strangers.

We offered our sincere thanks, to which that old hippie said, “Think nothing of it; glad to help.”

That probably does not seem all that remarkable. But it happened again! Not exactly the same. But close.

Same trailer, same kind of a load of “clean and green,” with the addition of a whole bunch of deciduous tree leaves that had, unfortunately, gotten wet and, therefore, had become quite heavy, backed into nearly the same spot.

This time, the pickup was on the other side and had only one person. He was opening large trash bags of leaves (his were dry!) and dumping them out. My wife and I had gotten the tree branches tossed, and enough of the wet leaves pulled out with rakes that I thought I could roll the tarp over the remaining leaves and off the trailer.

It seemed like a good idea. And it was. Except those leaves had not only gotten wet, but they had also gotten a bit frozen. Consequently, there I was, up in the trailer, trying to lift and roll that load of soggy, partially frozen leaves off the trailer and getting nowhere. That’s when jumping up into the trailer and lifting and rolling beside me was the fellow who had been untying and dumping bags of leaves. Together, although it was a struggle, we got the rest of the stuff off the trailer.

My wife, thanking him profusely, started towards his truck to help dump leaves, but he politely refused her help.

Wow. Two times, two heavy loads of material, and strangers simply coming over to help. Neither time did they need to do that. And no one, my wife and I included, would have thought less of them had they not.

But the significance of it all was driven home to me a few weeks later in the grocery store.

Florence had had some foot surgery, so although ambulatory, it was easier if I did the grocery shopping. (I don’t mind shopping for groceries, but it is without a doubt easier for her to do it rather than answer repeated phone calls to get clarification on whether the “mushroom soup” she has listed is the generic brand, the house brand, or the name brand. Or whether “walnut halves” from the bulk section are okay rather than the packaged name-brand ones.)

I managed to make it through the list with only two or three phone calls and was looking for a check-out line that was not too long. I found one and queued up. A couple of folks pulled their carts in behind me, and two were in front of me. At the conveyor, a woman was unloading a cart and looking back at the line as she did so. Then, a woman rolled her cart to the end of the line, and the woman at the conveyor called to her. A brief conversation occurred between the woman at the conveyor and the person next in line, the next person saying, “Well, why don’t you call her up here.” After which, the woman at the conveyor called the woman at the end of the line to bring her cart forward.

In other words, essentially skipping ahead or “cutting in line,” although obviously, or at least apparently, they were shopping together.

Both women were profuse and overwhelmingly thankful to the person who had said, “Why don’t you call her up here.” And he, in turn, turned to the rest of the line and said, “Thanks for being understanding; they are shopping together.”

The man behind the “Why don’t you call her up here?” responded, “Sure. Think nothing of it. It doesn’t cost anything to be nice.”

Wow! What a joyous message that was. “It doesn’t cost anything to be nice.” Just like those fellows simply coming over and tossing “green and clean.”

Sure, doing so “cost” them (and those of us in the grocery line) a little time. And some energy shucking and tossing branches. And yes, I’ve seen folks scammed out of upgraded seats on airplanes with “I’d like to sit with my girlfriend; I don’t know why the airline separated us.” But that isn’t what was happening. It was simply “being nice,” and it didn’t really cost anything – but it made a big difference in the lives of someone else.

I have no idea whether any of the “being nice” folks in these stories thought of their actions in terms of expressing their faith. And I certainly don’t have an inkling of their faith expression – or if they have one. But I think there are some biblical injunctions that can be considered applicable. And while many of them express what our actions should be towards “foreigners” and “strangers”, Jesus, is clear that whatever we do for one another we do for Him, and what we fail to do for one another we have failed to do for Him.

I once heard that “you can make more friends with a snow shovel than anything else.” Yes, it might “cost” a little more time and effort, but it doesn’t cost anything to be nice.

As we enter the New Year, one which is sure to be filled with vitriolic speech, crass and “mean-spirited attacks on individuals and groups”, let all of us resolve to remember that we can have “courageous conversations” about contentious subjects. Our discussions can be civil and courteous. We can love our neighbor – even if we disagree with them.

We might not be on the national stage, or even a local one, on a televised debate, or in a town hall meeting, arguing for or against something to the county commissioners or the local library board or even expressing an opinion at the church conference. But in our daily lives, we will interact with people at the transfer station/recycling center, grocery store, barbershop, or hair salon. In each of those circumstances, we get to choose the image of our faith that we reflect and project.

It is my hope that I remember that and that “it doesn’t cost anything to be nice.”
 
John Townsend
Inland Missional District Lay Leader

John Wesley listed "holy conferencing" as one of the means of grace, by which he meant believers gathering to worship and pursue the will of God together. 2024 is a big year of conferencing in The United Methodist Church!

Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth has officially called the 151st session of the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference for June 13-16 in Richland, WA at Central United Protestant Church. Annual conferences are regional gatherings of local United Methodist congregations; the PNW Conference includes WA and the panhandle of ID (as well as a few churches in British Columbia). The theme of this year's conference is "Being Well," based on the story of the woman at the well in John 4:4-17. Bishop Cedrick has set health and wellness, in all its many forms, as one of the mission priorities of our conference. CUMC's lay voting member of Annual Conference is Michael Keffer. Any member or friend of CUMC is also welcome to attend as an observer.

Annual conferences in the United States are organized into jurisdictions. Our conference is part of the Western Jurisdiction, which also includes the Alaska, California Nevada, California Pacific, Desert Southwest, Mountain Sky, and Oregon Idaho conferences. Each annual conference elects delegates to their jurisdictional conference, which meets every four years to set mission priorities and elect bishops. The Western Jurisdiction Conference will be July 10-13 in Spokane at Spokane Valley UMC. There will be opportunities to volunteer at this conference, so stay tuned!

The big conference this year is the General Conference, a gathering of United Methodists from around the world. The General Conference meets every four years but, because of the pandemic, it has not met since 2016! The General Conference is the only body that can set official doctrine and policy for The United Methodist Church. Each annual conference sends lay and clergy delegates; our lay delegate is Skyler Marston-Bihl and our clergy delegate is Rev. Elizabeth Ingram Schindler. This General Conference marks a critical turning point in our denomination as we emerge from a long season of church disaffiliations. General Conference will meet April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, NC. Read more about the General Conference here.

During Lent we are encouraged to:

1. Give up something,
2. Start something, and
3. Do something for the community of God.

If you are looking to start something, consider joining the Read a Chapter a Day Challenge! Across our connection United Methodists are being challenged to read a chapter a day from the Gospel of John during Lent. (February 14-March 24)

Reading the Bible is one of the essential spiritual practices of disciples. United Methodists put the Bible to work. In congregational worship, we read from the Bible. Through preaching, we interpret its message for our lives. It forms the background of most of our hymns and liturgy. It's the foundation of our church school curriculum. Many of us use it in our individual devotional lives, praying through its implications day by day. However, we admit that there's still vast "biblical illiteracy" in our denomination. We need to help one another open the Bible and use it! As you are reading each chapter, ask yourself these four questions:

1. What did this passage mean to its original hearers?
2. What part does it play in the Bible's total witness?
3. What does God seem to be saying to my life, my community, my world, through this passage?
4. What changes should I consider making as a result of my study?

A drop-in discussion group with Pastor Amanda will be offered on Sundays after worship beginning February 18th.

This Lent you are invited to go deeper with our Lent worship series, Song of the Shadows (based on our District Cantata), by joining our all-church Lent study. Author and pastor Thomas Steagald encourages you to explore the similarities between your spiritual journey and the journeys of some of the people Jesus met and ministered to on his way to the cross. As Jesus bravely enters the thickening shadows of conflict and rejection, you'll be led to explore shadows in your life and discover the power of Christ's love to set you free from sin and the fear of darkness.

Each of the six chapters contains six daily readings that end with thought-provoking questions or calls to action. Day 7 of each chapter encourages you to rest and reflect on the week's theme, and to pray for yourself and others.

Books can be purchased from Amazon, Upper Room Books, and Cokesbury.

Small groups meet at the church and in homes. Church groups are open to anyone and meet Wednesdays at 11:30am and Thursdays at 9am, starting the week of February 11. For additional days/times contact the church office.

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)

These words of Mary, which we read in worship this week, remind me of you and how you and our congregation are living out the Gospel message.

First, this letter is one of appreciation. Your gifts to the ministry of Community UMC this year have magnified God in so many ways. A few highlights include:

• Celebrating one full year of our monthly Messy Church worship service, where we are sharing God’s love with children and families.
• Commissioning our Congregational Care Team, a group of lay people who have trained to extend the church’s care to the ill and homebound.
• Our first ever Serve Sunday, where fifty church members worshiped with their hands through service projects supporting our local mission partners.
• Another successful season of hosting the 2nd Harvest Mobile Market in our parking lot. At each event more than three hundred households were blessed with free and nutritious food.

 
Second, this letter is asking for a year-end gift. We know there are many worthy organizations seeking your support. We hope you will remember Community UMC in your charitable giving this season. Below are two ways you can give at year’s end to support our ministry in Coeur d’Alene and beyond.

The Community Benevolence Fund

 Our Community Benevolence Fund is turning one year old on Christmas Eve! This special fund serves vulnerable neighbors through one-time benevolence payments for food, rent, utilities, transportation, clothing, and other incidentals. (continued next page)
One need this year really stood out. D (we are using an initial for privacy) had not had a new mattress in twenty years and could not afford one on her fixed income. When she was diagnosed with cancer and began chemo, her old mattress became very painful to sleep on. Through our Benevolence Fund, we were able to purchase a new mattress for her. D gives thanks to God for the generosity of donors to the Benevolence Fund who made a difficult time a bit more bearable.

Our Christmas Eve offering will go entirely to the Benevolence Fund so we can continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus when our neighbors need emergency financial assistance. You can give to this offering at one of our Christmas Eve services (10 am and 7 pm). You can also give in advance by addressing a check to the church with “Benevolence Fund” as the memo or give online at cdaumc.org/give – choose “Benevolence Fund” from the menu.

The General Fund
 
The church’s General Fund pays for the day-to-day operations of our ministry. If you have benefited spiritually and relationally from the ministry of Community UMC this year, I invite you to make a special gift to our General Fund. A quarter of the church’s annual income usually comes in December, which means we depend on year-end gifts to help us meet our budget. We are good stewards and strive to use your gifts to extend our ministry beyond our church doors so we can see the kingdom of God manifest in our neighborhood and city. You can give to the General Fund by addressing a check to the church with “General Fund” as the memo or give online at cdaumc.org/give and choose “General Fund.”

Remember the words of Mary? My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Through your generosity your soul magnifies the Lord. Your spirit buoys my spirit. Thank you for your gifts! And if you cannot give financially, your prayers are a blessing, too.

Wishing you and yours the peace of Christ this Christmas,

Pastor Amanda Nicol

P.S. Don’t forget! We are having Christmas Eve services at 10 am (followed by a Christmas Brunch) and 7 pm. I look forward to seeing you there. Bring family and friends.

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” (Psalm 126)

What does it look like to live as those who dream? The prophets, the psalmists, John the Baptist, Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, the shepherds, and the Magi—they were all dreamers. They received, discovered, and responded to God’s dreams for the world. In Advent and at Christmas, we step into the mystery and awe of God’s dreams and pray they shape our reality.

Join us for worship this Advent-Christmas season as we seek and sow God's dreams for the world! Because Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday, we are starting Advent this Sunday (a week early). Worship this season will include special elements like lighting the Advent wreath, singing the Psalter, beautiful artwork, and worship led by our children. Also, save the date for our Longest Night/Blue Christmas Service (December 21st at 6:30 pm) and Christmas Eve Services (December 24th at 10 am & 7 pm).

This Sunday we will pass out devotionals to accompany our worship series. If you worship online and would like a copy, please contact the church office.

This week is the All Hallows Triduum of All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Day, and All Souls' Day. During this season we remember those people who have gone ahead of us into glory and the example of faith they set for us while they were alive. For the next three weeks, we will explore the marks of sainthood in worship:

November 5: Clothing of the Saints (All Saints' Sunday)
November 12: Stories of the Saints
November 19: Thanksgiving of the Saints (Thanksgiving Sunday)

Join us for worship this month as we remember the everyday saints in our lives and embrace our own call to sainthood. Sundays at 10 a.m., in-person or online on Facebook, YouTube, and our website.

 Join a small group for our all-church Advent study, Keep Watch with Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers. Sign-up sheets are in the church lobby. Groups will meet for 4-5 weeks beginning in late November/early December. Days/times will be set by the group hosts.

Keep Watch With Me: An Advent Reader for Peacemakers is a collaborative daily devotional featuring diverse contributors: black, white, LGBTQ, Latinx, Palestinian, incarcerated, Native American, Australian, Americans, Irish, South African, clergy, laity, activists, authors, organizers, and more. The season of Advent, as the church prepares for the birth of Christ, is a penitential season of reckoning with our need and the needs of the world. Keep Watch With Me offers stories, reflections, prayers, and spiritual practices to sustain and challenge the faith of those who work for justice and peace, and long for the coming of God with us.

You can order a copy at Cokesbury or your preferred bookseller. If you would like the church to order a copy for you, please let the office know by Thursday, November 16th.

We all live somewhere. We all have neighbors and a neighborhood—whether we live in a rural, suburban, or urban context. I live in an apartment complex, which means I have neighbors above, below, and on either side of me!

God is clear about how we should relate to the people and place right around us. In Jeremiah 29, God commands the Israelites to promote the common good of the city to where they have been exiled. "Pray to the LORD for it, because your future depends on its welfare" (v. 7). Even in a period of Israel's history when they were displaced from the Promised Land, God expected them to care about their neighbors. Likewise, even while we are citizens of heaven, Jesus has commanded us to love our earthly neighbors as ourselves. In the church we frequently use 'neighbor' as a theological term, rather than a geographical one - a neighbor is any person God has called us to love, which is to say, every person is our neighbor! But God has also given us geographical neighbors. Sometimes we do good for far flung neighbors to the exclusion of our immediate neighbors. But there may be people living right next door to us who could benefit from a reminder of God's love.

For the next four weeks, we will be focusing on what it means to be the church in our neighborhood(s) - the neighborhood where our church building is located, and the neighborhoods where each of us reside. The Body of Christ is both far flung and hyper-local - just like our God! We are called to help build the kin-dom of God on earth, and the best place to start is by loving the places where we live. We hope you'll join us on Sundays at 10am, in-person and online at cdaumc.org/worship, as we practice pursuing the good of our neighborhood(s).
Grace and peace,

Pastor Amanda

I got to wash windows. I know, the phrase “I don’t do windows” has been around for a long time. It’s even part of song lyrics.

But I got to do windows. And that was a big deal. The relatively small town where my family lived had one gas station when we moved there. Burk’s Sinclair was owned by the Burk brothers, John and Morry. A few years later, Art Tidwell opened a Texaco station. My parents split their business between the two stations, as I imagine most of the town did. I had worked at both by the time I graduated from high school.

My first paycheck came from Art Tidwell. I had hung around the Texaco station so much as a pre-teen that the older guys who worked there put me to work. I claim it was my second job – my first being an entrepreneurial independent contractor. In other words, I had a newspaper route. For the morning paper. And that’s why I hung around the Texaco station. Keeping my Schwinn bicycle in top condition. So, the older guys figured if I was going to hang around, I might as well be put to work.

Back then, you didn’t pump your own gas. Rather, you pulled into the service station, where you were immediately surrounded by people providing service. One fellow came up to your window and asked, “Fill it up with Ethyl?’ while another opened the hood of the car and checked the oil. Yet another started checking the tire pressure. And the fourth guy (yes, they were all “guys”) washed the windows.

Washing the windows was an important part of the service. And the part that could turn an otherwise satisfied customer into an unhappy one. Checking the tire pressure and adding air if needed was easy. Checking the oil (and other fluids as those came into being) wasn’t hard. Pumping the gas required some skill, as there were no auto-shutoff nozzles. You had to listen carefully for the sound of the tank filling up.
But streak the windows? That was something you did not want to do. Washing windows was not the first job they gave you. When you got to do that, it meant they trusted you to do a good job. At least to my pre-teen mind, that is what being assigned to wash the windows meant. The guys, all older than me by several years, trusted me to get it right. To get the windows clean and not streak them in the process.

That memory came back to me several times during Annual Conference. In Bishop Bridgeforth’s opening worship service sermon, he spoke about “mirror talk” and “window work”. (If you have not heard Bishops Bridgeforth’s Annual Conference sermons, you owe it to yourself to do so. Especially his sermon to our Annual Conference about Lay Ministry Enhancement.) It occurred to me, as I initially listened to that sermon, and as I have listened to it again, that doing good “window work” requires that we wash our windows.

Back when I got to wash windows for customers of Art Tidwell’s Texaco station, most cars did not have a window washer feature, even though they had been an option for General Motors since 1946, with Chrysler and Ford introducing them a few years later. Why pay for that option when someone was going to wash the windows every time you got gasoline?

If you have ever driven with dirty windows or hurriedly washed the windows while you filled up at your favorite self-service station and driven off with not really clean or streaked windows, you know how important clean windows are.

If you have ever lived in a house with a “lot of glass” designed to bring the outside in, you know the remarkable difference when the windows have been cleaned. We don’t see the dirt on the windows; it just accumulates. We don’t intentionally streak the windows; it just happens. But either way, it dims our vision. It interferes with the clarity we need to be safe or reduces the connection of the inside to the outside – which is why there is a lot of glass in the first place.

Our ability to love our neighbor, to go and do likewise, is like that too. Doing our window work is impeded when those windows are streaked or have become slowly dirty. Analogous to the boiling frog metaphor, we collect dust on the windows incrementally, so we don’t notice it. Or our windows have been streaked so long we think it’s textured glass (must be Tiffany!)
Doing our window work will be much easier when our windows are clean and un-streaked. But washing the windows will take work:

• getting rid of years of “we’ve always done it this way”,
• realizing that, guess what, having compassion and caring for the congregation is not a task limited to the pastor,
• seeing a need in the community (or in the church) and acting to address it without forming a committee to study it,
• coming to the realization and acceptance that “all music was new once”, even those favorite old hymns – so maybe there is something to this new “praise” music,
• letting go of a ministry that has run its course and putting our shoulders to the wheel of the non-profit that does whatever that ministry is way better than we ever did it anyway.

The list can go on. But you get the point. If we are going to do “window work”, we’ve got to wash the windows. Washing the windows was an important part of providing service to those customers at both Burk’s Sinclair and Tidwell’s Texaco in my hometown. Washing windows is an important part of our ability to do the window work of going and doing likewise.

There isn’t a lot of room for “I don’t do windows” if we want the church to be relevant. It’s time to quit the “mirror talk” and start washing, to be accepting of opening ourselves up to listening for what God is calling us to be and to do. Then getting it done.
Reportedly, there was a late 1960’s advertisement with the line, “I don’t do windows.” Which was followed by “But Windex does.” *
 
Be the Windex.
 
John Townsend
Inland Missional District Lay Leader
 
P.S., If you have not seen and listened to Bishop Bridgeforth’s “M.I.L.E. Annual Conference sermons, you can find them at:
 
https://greaternw.org/m-i-l-e-2023-annual-conference-sermons/
*Windex is a registered trademark of SC Johnson & Son, Inc.

Mark your calendar for Serve Sunday on July 30! We will be worshiping that day with our hands and feet by serving our neighbors. After gathering at 10:00 am for a brief time of music and devotion, we will participate in short service projects that support several of our church's mission partners and ministries. Projects include:

• Organizing a clothing closet at Children's Village
• Leading a hymn sing at Orchard Ridge 
• Touching up the paint on our Head Start preschool's storage shed
• Cataloging our Head Start preschool's picture book library
• Assembling UMCOR hygiene kits
• Weeding the Community Garden
• Writing encouraging notes to our homebound members and Benevolence Fund recipients
• Organizing the Children's Ministry closet

Please sign up for projects before July 30 so we know how many people to plan for. Sign up sheets are in the church lobby or email office@cdaumc.org with your preferred project.

Day one of our 2023 Pacific Northwest Annual Conference Sessions was bookended with worshipful experiences with thoughtful messages. During the opening worship service, Bishop Cedrick D. Bridgeforth continued a series of messages he has offered to the conferences of the Greater Northwest Area. We then shared communion and took a short break. Laity session: The Bishop opened up with his brief history, especially noting that August 20th is his birthday. He spoke about wearing his class ring to remind him of where he came from. The Bishop really supports the Laity. He worked on a pilot program for student pastors when he was still at Claremont in 1999. He was appointed to a part-time student Local Pastor in south Los Angeles St. Paul UMC. He ended up at Bowden Memorial UMC. He also opened the session for questions. After worship, there were numerous presentations by committees and we voted on items that the focus team had already approved.  It was obvious that the attendees respected the committee’s judgment.

The second day was a plenary full of legislative work, celebrations, reports, and other recognitions.  The morning also included recognition of the gifts and witness of certified lay ministers; Hispanic lay ministers, home missioners, deaconesses, and licensed local pastors.
Just prior to lunch, retiring clergy members were celebrated at the 2023 Pacific Northwest Annual Conference Session. In her message, Rev. Karen Yokota Love congratulated retirees while lifting up their good fortune to have arrived at this stage. The afternoon included reports from several conference boards and agencies, highlighting their work. The Board of Ordained Ministries introduced the candidates for provisional and full membership, who were subsequently asked the historic questions by Bishop Bridgeforth and prayed over by retired Bishop Mary Ann Swenson. Church and Society announced this year's Peace with Justice and MLK, Jr. award recipients, and Archives and History marked several significant ordination milestones before celebrating Fern Prairie UMC and its 150 years of ministry. Three districts – Puget Sound, SeaTac, and Seven Rivers – had their appointments read on Wednesday.

During the final plenary members and guests celebrated the commissioning of two provisional elders, the ordination of one deacon, and several elders. Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth honored retiring Faith Foundation NW Executive Director Tom Wilson with his first Bishop’s Award.
Conference members passed the proposed budget for 2024 with the assurance that the Conference Finance and Administration board would be working with the Treasurer’s Office to provide more clarity in future years. Appointments to extension ministries were read, and dates and a general location for the 2024 annual conference were announced – June 13-16 in the Seven Rivers District. Retired Bishop Mary Ann Swenson delivered the sermon after an introduction from Bishop Bridgeforth, sharing her impact on his ministry and reminding PNW members of her connections to our conference.  The day concluded with a shared GNW Closing Worship. All of the Bishop’s wonderful sermons are now available to watch on the Conference website. We enjoyed spending time with CLM/LL John Townsend and Reverend Amanda and getting to know them better. The campus was beautiful, and we especially loved the big sequoia trees.  FYI, the food was surprisingly good, and definitely suitable for hungry college students.

Respectively submitted by:
Michael and Janet Keffer
Lay Delegates to 2023 PMW Annual Conference.