Saturday, January 12, 2008
Tinney Chapel at District Training Event
Photos by Angela Wylie.
Click on any image to view in larger format.
It’s a first for the North Texas Conference:
Each individual church in an entire District paid 100% of its apportionments!
“No other District in our North Texas Conference (NTC) has ever done this before,” declared Rev. Dr. Keith Boone, Superintendent of the Paris-Sulphur Springs (PSS) District, who had recently verified the historic accomplishment with Marvin Guier III, NTC Treasurer and Director of Administration.
“Not only did our District pay out, for the 13th year, 100% of its apportionments," he added. “But, this time every church in the PSS District paid its own way. I am so proud of you, of your faithfulness and of your fruitfulness.”
District Superintendent (D.S.) Boone made his dramatic announcement at the annual PSS Training Day, Jan. 12, where the theme of the day was “Faithful and Fruitful,” and was hosted by First UMC, Sulphur Springs.
District Lay Leader Ben Bennett opened the event with greetings and prayer.
Rev. Boone preceded his announcement and message by reading Scripture from John 15:1-8. His message focused on Jesus’ admonition that He is the True Vine and we are the branches: “Those who abide in Me, and I in them, bear much fruit.”
The D.S. recalled his own personal heritage: “I’m a cradle Methodist,” he explained. “Both my granddaddies were Methodist preachers, and I was baptized into the life of the church when I was about 6 weeks old. I wasn’t able to make promises to God as an infant, but that didn’t mean God was not making promises to me. So I have always felt that God was very close.
“I believe we’ve been given the tools and the resources for the Great Commission: To go and make disciples,” he added. “To go to all. Not just to pick and choose who to share the Gospel with.
“Rather, to be faithful and fruitful in that task,” emphasized Rev. Boone. “I believe that being faithful will build fruit. I believe, with all my heart, that this Scripture is a text about community. It’s about abiding in Christ. We are not the vine. We are just branches, but hopefully, we are among those fruitful branches.
“I believe with all my heart that we don’t form community: Rather, community forms us,” declared Rev. Boone. “Worship is not about what we want. Instead, God is the subject and the object of our worship.
“God has given us every tool, and every seed that is worth sharing or worth planting,” he added. “Every congregation, I believe, can be vital, vibrant and visionary. Both small membership churches and large membership churches can be powerful agents for change.”
How to do that?
Rev. Boone believes the answer is to be found in a book that he has chosen to guide the coming year of ministry in the PSS District: Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, by Bishop Robert Schnase (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2007).
“This book will help us form practices for vital, vibrant and visionary leadership in the life of the church,” says Rev. Boone. “Our charge conferences in the fall of 2008 will be shaped around these five practices: radical hospitality, passionate worship, intentional faith development, risk-taking mission and service, extravagant generosity.
“This book provides a way to shape practices of the life of a congregation,” concludes Rev. Boone. “And, let us not forget that the ministry is not ours. Rather, it is the ministry of Jesus Christ.”
