My Church Work |
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| My Experience | Local Church - District - Conference - National | ||||
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| My Emphases | Heritage/History - Communications - Lay Ministry | ||||
Current Church Positions:
Local Church: historian, webservant, SPR member
Conference:
webservant, CLM chair;
come June, I will be the LSM director and a member of the Commission on Archives & History
National: 1st alternate delegate to Jurisdictional Conference
| MY EXPERIENCE |
| Local Church [My thoughts on my local church] I began my work in church leadership when the pastor asked my wife and I to head up the singles ministry in the late 80s. Being a newly married couple with small children, that was not the best fit for us and we soon had to bow out of the position. It taught me right off the bat that you should work in areas that fit your gifts. Whenever I take spiritual gifts tests, I always score highest in administration and knowledge. We then became involved with youth leadership. In that capacity, I served in just about every youth leadership position that was possible: youth counselor, youth choir director, youth Sunday school teacher, and youth coordinator. While I advocated for the youth for years, my thinking is that perhaps we focus too much on youth and should devote more attention to other age groups. My mother had been asked to be historian. Her task, as told to her, was to keep a scrapbook through the year. When I recognized (in the early 90s) we’d be celebrating our 150th anniversary in a few years, I began research into our church history. I succeeded my mother as historian and set about writing our church history. Other than about two pages of history that was done over 50 years ago, our history was scattered in shoe boxes here and there. I conducted a number of interviews and visited the archives at Centenary on numerous occasions to put together a 100+ page book on our history (available online). I have continued in the historian position for most of the years since then. Around that same time, I served as lay leader. Typically, our lay leaders have been older men that attended meetings to give advice. I actively pushed for many programs and ministries in the church. One example is visiting shut-ins. As lay leader, I made a practice of visiting shut-ins and bringing them gifts. This later led to the position of caring ministry. I also pushed for the more Bible study, which was later implemented with the Disciple series. Frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm of our leadership and membership to become more involved in ministry, I took a break from local church work. I began my service as a lay delegate to annual conference while lay leader in 1995. I continued in that capacity for most of the next 12 years. At the end of Rev. Lawson’s tenure, I took on the role of evangelism chair. I tried to hold a lay witness event to provide a spiritual boost to the church, but had to cancel it when the church leadership lacked confidence in the event leader. I managed to accomplish some things, like developing a greeter program and a church website and a visitor’s brochure. But I ultimately failed in getting the congregation to take a bigger part in sharing the Gospel. Due to my positions, I have served on the council/board for the last 20 years. In my capacity as lay leader and lay delegate I have also served on SPR and finance for about half that time. I have also served on various other committees over the years. I am currently serving as church historian. I am a member of the 2010 class of SPR. I also still maintain the church website, which I first created in 1997. I tried to give it (the website) up in 2006, but no one was found to handle it so I still maintain it on a limited basis. |
| District My work with the district started when I was asked to be the district Lay Speaking chair in the mid 90s. I continued in that position until accepting the role of conference LSM director in 2000. I was also asked to be the district historian (before the conference eliminated that position). I served as Associate Lay Leader for three years. In that role, I was involved in the process to establish the first District Ministry Team in the Acadiana District. Though I declined a position on that initial team, I later served as DMT chair for two years. In my various district leadership capacities, I led numerous meetings and training sessions on leadership and lay speaking courses. Due to the travel required for Acadiana District leadership (since most meetings are held in Lafayette), I later stepped down from my district positions. When I have not been a local church delegate to annual conference, I have served (and continue to serve) as a district lay delegate to annual conference. |
| Conference Since 1997, I have created and maintained the Louisiana Conference website. For the first few years, I did the job (and took care of the expenses) as a volunteer. Then the conference started covering my expenses. Urged by several national church leaders, I asked the conference to make mine a paid position. For the last few years, I have been a paid staff member of the conference. In my capacity as conference webmaster, I have also done additional work (giving courses/seminars, advising others, handling the bishop’s email list, etc.). In the mid 90s, I approached the conference Commission on Archives and History for support with a history project. After writing our local church history, I became aware that historical information on UM churches was being lost. I visited all of the Acadiana District churches to photograph them and gather their histories. I approached the Commission for funding to create a Historical Register of all Louisiana UM churches. They agreed to the proposal and I began work on the other districts. I was selected to become a member of the Commission on Archives and History for the 1996-1999 quadrennium and was elected vice-chair of the Commission. For the 2000-2003 quadrennium, I continued on the Commission and was elected chair. In 2004, I presented the completed Historical Register to the Annual Conference. Other projects included creating an history website for the conference (which I continue to maintain) and posting online all 1200+ memoirs (obituaries) of pastors from our conference journals. I have been asked to return to membership on the Commission for the 2008-2011 quadrennium. I also led in the creation of the Louisiana Conference UM Historical Society and served as its first president. For the 2000-2003 quadrennium, I served as conference director of lay speaking ministries. I pushed districts to hold 4 courses per year, follow the rules as given by the Discipline, and maintain accurate directories of lay speakers. The basic course curriculum which I developed is still in use today. I have been asked to be the conference LSM director for the upcoming 2008-2011 quadrennium. In 2005, I urged the conference leadership to develop the Certified Lay Ministry program as outlined in the 2004 Discipline. I became a leader in the effort and was asked by the bishop and mission cabinet to chair a committee to develop the program. While we set up basic parameters, we are waiting for 2008 General Conference legislation to proceed. If the program ‘survives’ GC intact, we look towards implementing the program later in the year. |
| National I was involved in the formation of the Association of Conference Directors of Lay Speaking Ministries Directors organization when I was conference director for LSM. I served on the Executive Committee of the ACDLSM. I was asked to serve as the first Communications Chair for that organization. In that capacity, I created and maintained the lay speaking ministries website. I turned over control of that website to someone else when my tenure as conference LSM director ended. Since I was asked to be conference LSM director for another term (2008-2011), I will be resuming my activity within the ACDLSM. I was involved in the discussion to create an alternative route to certification in communications. When the program was developed, I was in the first class and was the first person in the country to receive certification in communications by that alternative program. Technically, I would be classified as a professional lay minister with a certification in communications. I am currently the only person in the Louisiana Conference with that certification. I was elected as the first alternate lay delegate to the 2004 jurisdictional conference. There were 7 general delegates and 7 jurisdictional delegates elected ahead of me. For the 2008 jurisdictional conference, I was again elected as first alternate lay delegate. Since our conference’s numbers had shrunk, we were allowed fewer delegates (5 general delegates and 5 jurisdictional delegates were elected ahead of me). Personally, I think it’s a credit to our church that we have someone elected to the delegation (out of 125,000+ lay members in the conference). We had never had a lay person from FUMC Houma in the delegation before. |
| My Emphases |
| Heritage/History It is important to understand our heritage. We shouldn't live in the past, but knowing about it will help us to appreciate what we have and will help us in making decisions about the present & future. |
| Communications We should utilize modern technology as a tool to help us in making disciplies of Jesus Christ. The internet isn't the answer to everything, but it can be useful in passing along information and in communicating. |
| Lay Ministry For hundreds of years, doing ministry was the responsibility of the clergy. Actually, every Christian has a responsibility to be a minister. That ministry can take on many different forms, depending upon the gifts of each individual. |