The Perry First United Methodist Church hosted last Sunday the annual Charge Conference of local United Methodist Churches for this area.
Participating in this charge conference were congregations from Perry, Rippey, Fairview, Minburn, Dexter, Redfield, DeSoto and Redfield.
Rev. Dr. Heecheon Jeon conducted the conference. Jeon recently assumed the duties of district superintendent of the Iowa Central District, replacing former Superintendent Rev. David Wessner, who returned to ministering at the First United Methodist Church of Knoxville.
The purpose of the charge conference is for United Methodist Church congregations to approve members to the various committees required by the denomination, approve budgets, approve lay speakers and leaders, nominate those interested in ministry and give reports on what ministers’ congregations are participating in and challenges that they face.
All of the congregations present faced the same concerns with aging and declining membership.
Deke Rider, who works with Wesley Wood Camp and Retreat Center, reported on camps. There are three United Methodist Camps. Participation in camps is steady and an increasing number of visitors are not United Methodists. According to Rider, 60 percent of the visitors are not United Methodist, and 25 percent are unchurched. This is is a great opportunity to minister to these people, he said.
Rippey member Angela Hansen-Abbas also serves as the district lay leader. She discussed the Lay Leader program and talked about her work with area youth with the Rippey UMC youth group. She has been the leader for 14 years.
The group recently participated in Reggie’s Sleep Out, in which the group slept outside over night in Des Moines. Each year they also participate in a mission project in another city. This past season they did mission work in Chicago.
Hansen-Abbas also discussed the Healthy Church Initiative led by Naomi Sea Young Wittstruck. This program helps congregations evaluate their ministries and make their churches healthy and functional.
Rev. Paul Burrow discussed the blessings of each church in the Perry, Rippey, and Fairview Parish. Perry contains many committed people and participates in assisting many people in need. Diversity is also a blessing and challenge as we face a community that is nearly 50 percent Latino.
Rippey is committed to many missions. Fairview has the blessing of faithfulness. Dedicated members continually work to spread God’s word and care for the church members and building.
Pastor Rosa Sota stated that the Latino service is full of love and is growing.
Rev. Dr. Heecheon Jeon gave the keynote message. He stressed that we need to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God. We must reach out into the world to spread the word of our Lord, he said. We are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
We cannot just minister in our church buildings, Jeon said. We must interact with the outside world. We must have ministry outside the box. We need spiritual leaders.
St. Augustine said hope has two beautiful daughters, anger and courage. We need to use these to get involved with the outside world.
Until 1968, people came to the church. The Church was a major part of family and personal life. Over time, participation in churches declined and became less important.
Today the church must communicate with four or five generations at the same time. This has never occurred in our history. Each generation needs to be communicated with differently, and this is a challenge with this many generations in the church.
Many younger people say they are spiritual but not religious. We need to learn how to speak to younger generations.
Society is also changing. Perry is 50 percent Latino. In Des Moines, 100 languages are now spoken.
The church is a reflection of the neighboring community. The church is the people. It is hard to compete with Jordan Creek and video games.
