[RMC News] Good News About 2008 Annual Conference

[Roe, Ben]

GOOD NEWS ABOUT ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 2008!
The theme for this year's Annual Conference is, "The Church for the Rest of Us."

We will welcome a very special guest this year.  Diana Butler Bass is the author of the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us.  She will present to the entire Annual Conference session on Thursday morning and evening, June 19 and on Friday morning.

In a time when much church news is difficult and challenging, Diana Butler Bass launched a three year study of 50 churches across the country and what she discovered is good news!  She states that, "There is a new kind of mainline congregation developing in the United States that's moderate to liberal theologically, that is taking Christian practices seriously, and these churches are experiencing an unnoticed vitality."  Most often, she says, "They are constructing an alternative to the norm.  They're not the most famous congregations in the country.  Most of them are midsize, they don't have really famous pastors; they're not megachurches. . . .  There's a cultural push that's making them relevant in the lives of younger adults. . . . .  There are congregants in their 20's and 30's in addition to congregants in their 70's and 80's.  They think about who they are; they think about what they're doing; and they reflect on Christian tradition in very significant ways. "

In Christianity for the Rest of Us, Bass discusses Ten Signposts of Renewal:   hospitality, discernment, healing, contemplation, testimony, diversity, justice, worship, reflection, and beauty.  No congregation exemplifies all of these, but many churches excel in one or more of the signposts.

She presents a hope-filled, but realistic assessment about the future of mainline churches.  Our quest as laity and clergy working together will be to learn about the signposts and then to consider how they might apply to the congregations and the Conference of which we are a part.

Dr. Bass holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University.   She is the author of six books on American religious practice.  From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality and the book, Christianity for the Rest of Us was the result of that study.  She is currently Senior Fellow at the Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.  She is part of Sojourner's Progressive Religious Communicators Group and is a regular contributor to Jim Wallis' blog.  She has taught at a number of colleges and seminaries.  

Best of all, she is a committed lay-person and an active church member who lives with her husband, Richard Bass, and her young daughter in Alexandria, Virginia--and she speaks in terms and about concerns that all of us can identify with and understand.


Preparation for Annual Conference

Here are some suggestions for activities for congregations and individuals  to consider in advance of Annual Conference in June.

Study

	*	Copies of her book, Christianity for the Rest of Us are available in paperback at the Hampden Avenue Cokesbury in Denver at a 40% discount-only $8.37.  Books can be ordered by contacting Cokesbury at 303 761-5070 or at 877 222-1439 (toll-free.)

	*	Consider doing a book-study as a staff and/or congregation during Lent or sometime this Spring.   An additional set of questions is available at her web-site.  (See below.)

	*	We can begin to form questions such as:
What are the strongest signposts in our congregation(s) today?

		Which ones would be the most challenging for our church or our denomination to implement and why?

		How can we resource these signposts in our church and in our conference?

		Publicize

	*	We can publicize her web-site at www.dianabutlerbass.com.   We can make copies of her book available to members of our congregation and leadership groups within the congregation soon and explain that the author will be leading us in a study at Annual Conference.

	*	We can provide a copy of her book for each delegate who will attend Annual Conference this year and invite them to read it before they attend.  

Pray

	*	We can pray about what might come from a positive, promising view of the role of the church in our lives and in our world.

Please begin preparing for Annual Conference and its theme of "The Church for the Rest of Us" right now so that we are ready to be enriched and encouraged as we gather in June.

Grace and peace,
The Education Committee of the Rocky Mountain Conference Board of Discipleship

--------------------------------
via
Ben Roe
Information Administrator
Rocky Mountain Conference, The United Methodist Church
ben at rmcumc.com  303-325-7046  800-536-3736x146 
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