The mission of the Central Texas Conference is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. This is a mission that was given to us directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19). Making disciples of Jesus Christ is also the committed focus of the conference’s Wildly Important Goal (WIG) – a 10-year goal adopted by the conference in 2017. This mission, which is driven by what is known as the “Big 3 values” of keeping Christ at the center, focusing on the local church and clergy/lay leadership development, is at the core of everything we seek to do in the Central Texas Conference.
However, in the year 2020 — a year of chaos and change brought about by the COVID-19 global pandemic — every church in the Central Texas Conference, has had to adjust, readjust and adjust again in order to find effective ways of achieving that mission and staying connected to their mission field while observing all CDC- and government-recommended medical and social-distance practices. Since the first “shelter in place” orders in March, the creativity and perseverance of the Central Texas Conference clergy and lay leadership has been put the test – tests that have been passed with flying colors time and time again. The churches of the Central Texas Conference have been and continue to be a remarkable witness to our communities of the love of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
It was with that same creative and committed spirit that conference leadership and the Annual Conference planning task force took on the challenge of deciding when, where and how to convene the 154th meeting of the Central Texas Annual Conference. After several unsuccessful attempts to schedule a time and place to safely come together, it was determined that the only feasible and responsible way for the conference to meet and complete its Disciplinary requirements was via an online meeting. At 10 a.m., Sept. 19, 2020, Bishop J. Michael Lowry looked into a video camera, greeted the more than 600 clergy and lay members who had joined the 2020 Central Texas Annual Conference meeting via a Zoom webinar and gaveled the one-day business meeting to order.
The meeting began as all gatherings should, with a time of praise and worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. White’s Chapel UMC, the original host-church for the 2020 conference, provided the music via video and several members of the Cabinet led those gathered online in scripture readings, prayer and reflection. After worship, the organization of the conference commenced. The first order of business was to vote to suspend the standing rules of the Conference, which indicate a physical quorum must be present in order to meet and vote in a legal and binding manner. The motion to proceed with a virtual session of the Annual Conference was passed by a 98% vote allowing the Annual Conference to take the following actions…
Reports of the Board of Ordained Ministry, which held its annual Clergy Executive session via Zoom on June 15, Nominations & Leadership Development (which included electing the new quadrennial conference lay leader Darlene Alfred) and the Core Team were approved.
Included in the vote on Core Team Report was the Forward to a New Spring plan – a plan designed to restructure the conference in such a way as to allow more of the conference’s resources to be moved closer to the local church level. The Forward to a New Spring plan does not represent a new direction for the conference. Instead it is an evolution of the Exodus Project strategy approved by the conference in 2011. The churches, clergy and lay leadership and staff of the conference remain firmly focused in its mission and Wildly Important Goal to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Forward to a New Spring is simply a strategy that allows the conference to deepen its focus on teaching, coaching and resourcing local church disciple-making efforts, reduce conference-level supervision and administration and redirect financial resources to the local churches and leadership development efforts. The primary changes to the conference structure included in the Forward to a New Spring plan are:
• Redrawing of District Lines
• Reducing the number of District Superintendents from 5 to 3 and combining districts into District Areas for supervision purposes
• Creating District Discipleship Teams to serve the churches in each District Area (DS, Assistant District Superintendent, Discipleship Coach, Student Discipleship Coordinator and District Administrator)
• Restructuring of the Conference Service Center and the Reduction of some conference-level employees.
82 percent of the conference voted to approve the Core Team Report and Forward to a New Spring plan (14% against, 4% abstaining).
A conference budget of $7,096,328 was passed by an 87% margin (12% voted “No” and 1% abstained) after lengthy discussion and motions to amend. The $7.1 million budget represents a 29% reduction from the $9,969,253 allotted for the previous year in response to an ongoing downward trend in Connectional Mission Giving receipts and in anticipation of the financial situations facing the conference churches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three important resolutions were also considered and passed by the Annual Conference.
• The resolution for the Juneteenth Holiday, which makes June 19 (Juneteenth) an official Central Texas Conference holiday, was passed by 91%;
• The resolution on Racial Consciousness, which will seek to engage a conscious awareness of and actions to address the absence of African American clergywomen, clergywomen of color and members of ethnic minority groups whose voices are unheard in leadership in the conference, passed by an 81% margin; and
• A resolution to transfer Center City UMC and Star UMC into the conference from the Rio Texas Conference. A resolution to discontinue several conference churches was also passed.
Due to the abbreviated and virtual nature of the 2020 Annual Conference meeting, several annual awards and acknowledgements – such as the Harry Denman Evangelism, One Matters Discipleship and Bishop’s Preaching Excellence awards, conference scholarships and the retirements of conference clergy – were not formally recognized during this year’s online gathering. However, since our mission/Wildly Important Goal (WIG) is at the center of all that the conference does, time was set aside to recognize churches who went above and beyond in their efforts to make disciples of Jesus Christ in new and creative ways. The Rev. Mike Ramsdell recognized the following churches who were presented their “WIG Awards” earlier in safe, socially distanced ceremonies with their district superintendent: Brock First, Coleman First, Arlington Wesley, Cedar Park, Hubbard First, Wortham First, Moody First, Mart First, Brownwood First, Lifepoint, Smithfield, Corsicana First, Round Rock First, Temple St. James and Waco Central.
After a long but fruitful online business meeting, Bishop Lowry gaveled the 2020 meeting of the Central Texas Annual Conference closed a few minutes after 5:30 p.m. While that concluded the official business of the Annual Conference, there was still one more vital and wonderful task still to be done: the Commissioning and Ordination of the clergy.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, in a service with extremely limited in-person participation and following heightened safety protocols, five persons were commissioned as Provisional Elders & Deacons, four were ordained as Deacons in Full Connection and five Elders in Full Connection were also ordained by Bishop Lowry in full membership. All Central Texas Conference clergy who were commissioned and ordained during this service were duly considered and elected in a special online Clergy Executive Session held June 15. Also, as a courtesy to the Great Plains Conference, Bishop Lowry ordained one of their members who is currently assigned to a children’s hospital in the Central Texas Conference as a Deacon in Full Connection.
— Vance Morton, communications director, Central Texas Conference
However, in the year 2020 — a year of chaos and change brought about by the COVID-19 global pandemic — every church in the Central Texas Conference, has had to adjust, readjust and adjust again in order to find effective ways of achieving that mission and staying connected to their mission field while observing all CDC- and government-recommended medical and social-distance practices. Since the first “shelter in place” orders in March, the creativity and perseverance of the Central Texas Conference clergy and lay leadership has been put the test – tests that have been passed with flying colors time and time again. The churches of the Central Texas Conference have been and continue to be a remarkable witness to our communities of the love of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit.
It was with that same creative and committed spirit that conference leadership and the Annual Conference planning task force took on the challenge of deciding when, where and how to convene the 154th meeting of the Central Texas Annual Conference. After several unsuccessful attempts to schedule a time and place to safely come together, it was determined that the only feasible and responsible way for the conference to meet and complete its Disciplinary requirements was via an online meeting. At 10 a.m., Sept. 19, 2020, Bishop J. Michael Lowry looked into a video camera, greeted the more than 600 clergy and lay members who had joined the 2020 Central Texas Annual Conference meeting via a Zoom webinar and gaveled the one-day business meeting to order.
The meeting began as all gatherings should, with a time of praise and worship of our Lord Jesus Christ. White’s Chapel UMC, the original host-church for the 2020 conference, provided the music via video and several members of the Cabinet led those gathered online in scripture readings, prayer and reflection. After worship, the organization of the conference commenced. The first order of business was to vote to suspend the standing rules of the Conference, which indicate a physical quorum must be present in order to meet and vote in a legal and binding manner. The motion to proceed with a virtual session of the Annual Conference was passed by a 98% vote allowing the Annual Conference to take the following actions…
Reports of the Board of Ordained Ministry, which held its annual Clergy Executive session via Zoom on June 15, Nominations & Leadership Development (which included electing the new quadrennial conference lay leader Darlene Alfred) and the Core Team were approved.
Included in the vote on Core Team Report was the Forward to a New Spring plan – a plan designed to restructure the conference in such a way as to allow more of the conference’s resources to be moved closer to the local church level. The Forward to a New Spring plan does not represent a new direction for the conference. Instead it is an evolution of the Exodus Project strategy approved by the conference in 2011. The churches, clergy and lay leadership and staff of the conference remain firmly focused in its mission and Wildly Important Goal to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Forward to a New Spring is simply a strategy that allows the conference to deepen its focus on teaching, coaching and resourcing local church disciple-making efforts, reduce conference-level supervision and administration and redirect financial resources to the local churches and leadership development efforts. The primary changes to the conference structure included in the Forward to a New Spring plan are:
• Redrawing of District Lines
• Reducing the number of District Superintendents from 5 to 3 and combining districts into District Areas for supervision purposes
• Creating District Discipleship Teams to serve the churches in each District Area (DS, Assistant District Superintendent, Discipleship Coach, Student Discipleship Coordinator and District Administrator)
• Restructuring of the Conference Service Center and the Reduction of some conference-level employees.
82 percent of the conference voted to approve the Core Team Report and Forward to a New Spring plan (14% against, 4% abstaining).
A conference budget of $7,096,328 was passed by an 87% margin (12% voted “No” and 1% abstained) after lengthy discussion and motions to amend. The $7.1 million budget represents a 29% reduction from the $9,969,253 allotted for the previous year in response to an ongoing downward trend in Connectional Mission Giving receipts and in anticipation of the financial situations facing the conference churches due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Three important resolutions were also considered and passed by the Annual Conference.
• The resolution for the Juneteenth Holiday, which makes June 19 (Juneteenth) an official Central Texas Conference holiday, was passed by 91%;
• The resolution on Racial Consciousness, which will seek to engage a conscious awareness of and actions to address the absence of African American clergywomen, clergywomen of color and members of ethnic minority groups whose voices are unheard in leadership in the conference, passed by an 81% margin; and
• A resolution to transfer Center City UMC and Star UMC into the conference from the Rio Texas Conference. A resolution to discontinue several conference churches was also passed.
Due to the abbreviated and virtual nature of the 2020 Annual Conference meeting, several annual awards and acknowledgements – such as the Harry Denman Evangelism, One Matters Discipleship and Bishop’s Preaching Excellence awards, conference scholarships and the retirements of conference clergy – were not formally recognized during this year’s online gathering. However, since our mission/Wildly Important Goal (WIG) is at the center of all that the conference does, time was set aside to recognize churches who went above and beyond in their efforts to make disciples of Jesus Christ in new and creative ways. The Rev. Mike Ramsdell recognized the following churches who were presented their “WIG Awards” earlier in safe, socially distanced ceremonies with their district superintendent: Brock First, Coleman First, Arlington Wesley, Cedar Park, Hubbard First, Wortham First, Moody First, Mart First, Brownwood First, Lifepoint, Smithfield, Corsicana First, Round Rock First, Temple St. James and Waco Central.
After a long but fruitful online business meeting, Bishop Lowry gaveled the 2020 meeting of the Central Texas Annual Conference closed a few minutes after 5:30 p.m. While that concluded the official business of the Annual Conference, there was still one more vital and wonderful task still to be done: the Commissioning and Ordination of the clergy.
On Sunday, Sept. 20, in a service with extremely limited in-person participation and following heightened safety protocols, five persons were commissioned as Provisional Elders & Deacons, four were ordained as Deacons in Full Connection and five Elders in Full Connection were also ordained by Bishop Lowry in full membership. All Central Texas Conference clergy who were commissioned and ordained during this service were duly considered and elected in a special online Clergy Executive Session held June 15. Also, as a courtesy to the Great Plains Conference, Bishop Lowry ordained one of their members who is currently assigned to a children’s hospital in the Central Texas Conference as a Deacon in Full Connection.
— Vance Morton, communications director, Central Texas Conference
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