Annual Conference 2005 - Sunday Daily Snapshot Page

Kids sang, wiggled, and clapped during the children's activities.
Photo by Hannah Edwards

During the lunch break, conference attendees enjoyed the temeperate weather.
Photo by Regina Roberts

This moonwalk provide "out of this world" fun for the youngest conference goers.
Photo by Hannah Edwards

QUOTES OF THE DAY
“Use our actions to feed the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ.” – Moderator Jim Hardenbrook, giving a prayer to open the first business session of the Conference

“The very heritage that once set people free to follow Jesus has now imprisoned us.” – Galen Hackman, senior pastor of Ephrata (Pa.) Church of the Brethren, in the Sunday morning sermon

“I trust that another president...will stand before your grandchildren and great-grandchildren in another hundred years.” – Eugene R. Roop, president of Bethany Theological Seminary, reporting to the delegate body on the school’s centennial

“Where is our distinctiveness, our identity, our ‘concept’?” – Stewart Hoover, a professor at the Center for Media, Religion, and Culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder, speaking on “Religion in the Media Age” at the Messenger Dinner

OVERVIEW OF THE DAY
A Clergy Women’s Breakfast began the day at Annual Conference, along with a Spiritual Formation session on “Praying the Scriptures.”

Preacher Galen Hackman gave the message for the Sunday morning worship, with Frances Townsend as worship leader.

In business, new fellowships and congregations were welcomed, the ballot was presented, and delegates addressed the new business item “New Mandate for the Review and Evaluation Committee.” Bethany Theological Seminary gave a presentation on its centennial. The afternoon’s multimedia presentation, “Alive ’05–Making Glad the City of God,” was a new feature of the Conference, focusing on ministries of Brethren individuals, congregations, and the denomination.

Activities for children, junior highs, and senior highs preceded and following worship.

Meal events included luncheons for five of the six Brethren colleges–Bridgewater, Elizabethtown, Juniata, Manchester, and the University of La Verne. McPherson College held an “Alumni Meet and Greet” in the early afternoon. “Messenger” magazine held its annual dinner. Mutual help and networking groups also met over lunch and dinner times, and the Brethren Revival Fellowship sponsored a Prayer and Fasting Session.

Insight sessions were offered on a variety of topics including a session for pastors only on the Brethren Medical Plan, and a listening session by the General Board’s Stewardship of Property Committee. A New Church Planting Reception, Bible studies, and an ice cream social rounded out the evening, along with a coffeehouse and open microphone session for young adults.

Frances Townsend lights the Christ candle during Sunday morning worship.
Photo by Regina Roberts

THE SMILE OF GOD: SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP
“What does it mean to experience the smile of God?” asked Galen Hackman, senior pastor at Ephrata (Pa.) Church of the Brethren, after telling the assembled Brethren how great it feels to receive a smile from his granddaughters. “What does it mean for you personally, congregationally, and denominationally?”

Reminding the congregation that since Brethren are now nearly 300 years old, we should know what makes God smile, he added, “I’ve had this gnawing sensation that God has stopped smiling on us. He has stopped smiling because he’s not pleased with what he sees. That is an audacious thing to say. I’m not totally sure why I feel this way in this spiritual gut of mine, but it’s there. I’m not able to shake it.”

Despite the many references to Jesus in prayer, choruses, and songs, Hackman said, “I believe in many ways we have forgotten who Jesus is... We have created a Jesus of our own image.” He called on Brethren to rediscover the Jesus of the gospels, who raised the dead, fed the 5,000, stayed with sinners, and shed his blood to sacrifice for us all.

“We’re not sure Jesus wants to change let alone that he is able to change us,” he said, calling to mind the story of Jesus calling the woman at the well to believe in him and turn away from a life of destructive behavior. Hackman compared the downward plight of our own denomination in comparison with the Latin American and African Brethren, and suggested that the fact there was nothing major to discuss in Peoria when Brethren have lost so many members is “one reason God has stopped smiling on us.”

He suggested that none of the ministries that Brethren hold dear make Jesus smile. Only making disciples matters. “God might be smiling, but not on us,” he said.

“We must know and proclaim the biblical Jesus in culturally relevant ways,” Hackman said, and took churches to task for using pianos, organs, classical music, the King James translation of the Bible, and preserving the heritage of the Church of the Brethren.

He concluded “When we really get serious about radically following after Jesus…then we might once again feel the warmth of God’s smile on our lives and on our church.”

Worship leader Frances Townsend, pastor of Onekama (Mich.) Church of the Brethren, was joined onstage by two other members of the congregation to perform a skit titled "Ten Stitches to Community." The actors were Christina Campbell and Winifred Toledo. Copies of the skit are available upon request; e-mail ocob@jackpine.com.

FACTS AND FIGURES
Total attendance: 3,249, including 856 delegates
Worship attendance Saturday evening, July 2: 2,848
Offering received Saturday evening: $7,459.68
Worship attendance Sunday morning, July 3: 2,985
Offering received Sunday morning: $12,067.69

Members of the 2005 Annual Conference news team, a ministry of the General Board, contributed to this report: Regina Roberts, Jesse Reid, Hannah Edwards, and Sarah Kovacs, photographers; Kathleen Campanella, Karen Garrett, Jill Kline, Frank Ramirez, Frances Townsend, Sarah Leatherman Young, and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, writers; Amy Heckert, technical support; Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford and Becky Ullom, editors.

219th Annual Conference Peoria, Illinois July 2-6, 2005