2010 Winter Katalyst

KATALYST NEWSLETTER OF RECONCILING MINISTRIES NETWORK

VOL. 27 NO. 1

WWW.RMNETWORK.ORG

How Do You Grow a United Methodist Church? by Rev. John Oda, RMN Board Chair The mission of the United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. This means, in part, that our churches must grow in membership. I recently sat down with two young adults and talked about how they might grow the United Methodist Church. Sarah Zils (left) and Jessie Moore are the Youth Directors at Davis UMC. I began by asking them why they originally came to Davis UMC. Sarah was quick to respond, “We came because the church was reconciling. We literally looked up gay friendly churches on the internet.” Jessie added, “And it was more than just us being gay. I wanted us to be in a congregation with people who held the same values as us. I would not want to worship in a place where people used the bible to condemn homosexuality.” Sarah continued, “As a gay person we face adversity in our society. We know that some people don’t think we are OK, so it was imperative to us that we attended a church where people believed that we were children of God regardless of our sexual orientation. That’s why it’s so important that churches that are reconciling say Out Loud that they are reconciling, so that the public knows.” As teenagers Sarah and Jessie attended a conservative church. They were taught in youth group to Continued on Page 6

WINTER, 2010

Growing to Strike “Incompatibility” in 2012

By Rev. Troy Plummer

If you take a statisticians approach to the reported votes of annual conferences, you can see two things. That the vote totals will be far short of the necessary 2/3rds needed to change the constitution of The United Methodist church, AND that the US annual conferences achieved a simple majority for the All Means All changes. Working for justice can just tear you up. It hurts when justice is delayed when now is already too late for many of our friends. Some of you shared this with your reconciling staff: “It felt like General Conference all over again. We couldn’t even muster a simple majority here.” “We passed All Means All by 2/3rds, but I thought our vote would be much higher.”

“The gay hate language was so hard to hear, it just tore my heart open again.” These calls were supported and enhanced by the experiences of other reconcilers: “I thought I was the only one and 40% voted for change here, I need to find them.” “Fear-mongering videos made me see red; then I realized that our opponents equate all with gay. That made me smile. All does mean gay and everyone else too!” “My straight friends amazed me with love and passion that brought healing I didn’t even know I needed.” Though the All Means All vote did not reach the super-majority needed, we still made progress proclaiming Christ’s Continued on Page 6

Sarah Zils (left) and Jessie Moore Winter 2010 • Katalyst |