UMconnect--03/26/08

End of life conference, April 1-3

Approximately 250 end-of-life professionals from across the state will convene in Lincoln for the Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Partnership's (NHPCP) Annual "Living a Good Life...at the End of Life" Conference, held April 1-3 at the Embassy Suites Hotel. This conference coincides with the 25th anniversary of NHPCP as the state's hospice association.

The event is the premier regional conference for those caring for patients and families with chronic illness or at the end of life. Attendees will include physicians, nurses, therapists, social workers, administrators, counselors and advocates, as well as J. Donald Schumacher, PsyD, President and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Sessions cover a variety of end-of-life topics including pain management, ethics, bereavement care, dementia and music therapy. Visit http://nehospice.org to view the full conference schedule.

Conference sponsors include:
Nebraska Hospice and Palliative Care Partnership
Alegent Health Hospice
Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center
HPC Foundation for Hospice Care/AseraCare Hospice of Nebraska
St. Joseph Villa Homecare & Hospice
HoriSun Hospice Community Foundation
Ticket to Work Palliative Care Program
Faith Regional Health Services
McCook Community Hospital
Methodist Hospital Home Health & Hospice
Nebraska Hospital Association
Prairie Haven Hospice
Visiting Nurse Association

Please call Tracy Rathe, communications coordinator, at 402-477-0204 or 402-429-1104 (cell) to arrange an interview.
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Omaha St. Andrew's UMC offering lay speaking ministries training

St. Andrew's UMC is offering a basic lay speaking ministries class on Friday, April 4, from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. The Rev. Nancy Davis is the training leader. Dinner on Friday night is on your own, but a light breakfast and lunch will be provided on Saturday.

The cost is $35, which includes the text book and food on Saturday. St. Andrew's UMC is located at 15050 W. Maple Road, Omaha, NE, 68124.

Please register by March 28, 2008, as we need a count to plan meals and order/mail the texts. Class size is limited. Mail your checks payable to "Missouri River District" with the registration form to: Lay Speaker Training, c/o Missouri River District, 2418 E Street, Omaha, NE 68107.

If you have any questions, please contact Kurt Stecker at 402-556-2433 or e-mail kstecker@stpaulomaha.org or Bob Aderholt at 402-752-3317 or e-mail bobmary@windstream.net.
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Global Youth Service Day, April 26

What happens when you mix multiple youth groups doing risk-taking mission and justice work and put them to work in community gardens? Find out on Saturday, April 26, at Global Youth Service Day.

Your youth group is invited to "Play in Our Dirt" for Global Youth Service Day, April 26. Join other youth from the Missouri River District as we engage in hands-on mission and justice work in this worldwide day of youth service. Teams of youth and adult sponsors will play in the dirt of the Big Garden, building new sites and preparing garden beds in various locations around the metro-Omaha area. The registration fee is $15 per youth and includes lunch and commemorative t-shirt.

This event is sponsored by United Methodist Ministries--Missouri River District, the Big Garden and the Missouri River District. See attached flyer and registration form more details.
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Peacemaking Workshops XXI

This year's featured speaker is Rodney Petersen scheduled to appear Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m., at First United Methodist Church, located on 50th and St. Paul St. in Lincoln.

Dr. Petersen has worked throughout the world studying how faith groups both contribute to regional violence and also foster reconciliation. He is executive director of the Boston Theological Institute and an ordained Presbyterian pastor.

Dr. Petersen's address is titled, "Four Terms that Stand Together: Forgiveness, Reconciliation, Restorative Justice, and Community/The Church."

The workshop will also be on Saturday, April 5, from 8:30 to 11 a.m., at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 12th and "M" Streets.

For more information, please all First UMC at 402-466-1906.
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New members fill the front of the sanctuary on Sunday at the Gretna UMC.

Exciting news from the Gretna UMC

The Gretna UMC had an exciting Palm Sunday Service that was also new member Sunday. Twenty-seven new members joined the church community. Gretna UMC member Catherine McGowan said, "Pastor Mark Holland is doing a wonderful job of helping our church family reach out into our neighborhood to many new and interesting people."
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Spring retreat scheduled for April 26, Centenary United Methodist Church, Beatrice

A retreat entitled "A Light Unto My Path" is scheduled for Saturday, April 26, at the Centenary United Methodist Church, in Beatrice, Neb., located at 6th and Elk Streets.

Parking is located on the north side of the church; an elevator entrance is located on the east. Registration and coffee begin at 8:30 a.m., with the retreat beginning at 9 a.m.

The Rev. Lila Bottolfsen will lead the retreat, and a catered lunch will be available for $6.50. Please pre-register, and make checks payable to the Blue River District UMW and mail to: Deanna Holland, 9048 E. Hoyt Rd., Filley, NE 68357.

Registrations are due April 11. All are invited, including your pastor.
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Every Woman Matters Foundation to host a night of fun, ceremony, food, live bands and a silent auction to benefit women in the Every Woman Matters Program.

The benefit will be held Friday, April 11 from 7 p.m. to midnight at the PlaMor Ballroom, located at 6600 West "O" Street in Lincoln. The cost for the event is $25. To purchase tickets, call 402-471-0158 or visit the Web site at http://www.ewmcelebration.com. The schedule for the evening may be found in the attached flyer below.

Every Woman Matters is Nebraska's Early Detection of Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. It was established in 1990 through federal legislation and is administered by the Nebraska Health and Human Services System Office of Women's Health. Clients are served with the help of a wide network of partners statewide, which include clinics, hospitals, labs, mammography units and other health provider facilities. Over 183 women in Nebraska are helped every week to obtain low-cost or free breast and cervical cancer screenings and diagnostic testing through the program.
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Join us at Comeca for our annual craft camp, April 9-12!

Please see the registration form and list of available classes below for more details.
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Do you have an upcoming event for mission coordinators, Christian educators or children's ministry leaders?

The General Board of Discipleship Ministries Division has United Methodist Children's Fund packets and will be happy to send you multiple packets for distribution. Contact Mary Alice Gran toll-free at 877-899-2780, ext. 7143 or via e-mail at mgran@gbod.org to let her know how many you would like--please include the shipping address. We will get them to you soon.
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General Board of Discipleship financial officer/treasurer Foye Webb to retire

Foye Webb, treasurer and chief financial officer for the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship, will retire effective December 31, 2008.

Webb's tenure with GBOD began in 1996, as the executive director of the Division on United Methodist Men, following a 22-year career as an audit executive with the federal government's Defense Contract Audit Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General.

"GBOD has been blessed by Foye's energetic and widespread knowledge of all things financial. His commitment to excellence and detail has undergirded the board's commitment to the highest level of fiduciary responsibility," said the Rev. Karen Greenwaldt, top executive for GBOD.

Though being the CFO was not what he was initially hired to do, Webb has shepherded the GBOD Financial Services Office for 12 years, the annual financial audit since 2000, and served as convener for the General Agency Treasurer's Table since its inception in February 2004.

Webb played a key role in creating Africa Upper Room Ministries, serving as treasurer of its Board of Directors and liaison with GBOD's indigenous representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"It was exciting and an honor to be involved with the birth of Africa Upper Room Ministries. The church leaders that I have had a chance to work with across the world have just been amazing," said Webb. "Working with bishops in Africa, Europe and the Philippines−that never would have happened had I not come here. It's remarkable to me."

Webb oversaw the expansion of GBOD's facility maintenance staff and services to include the GCFA and Scarritt-Bennett Center. He also facilitated the sale of over one million dollars of excess agency real property to generate additional ministry funding and negotiated the lease of unused agency property. Webb increased revenue nearly three times that of the existing lease and oversaw facility renovation projects in excess of a half million dollars, without debt.

He has been a trustee since 1999; an elected treasurer and member of the Executive Committee of the Foundation for Evangelism since 2005; member of the GCFA Investment Committee since 2000; and GBOD liaison with the United Methodist Church Foundation Funds Management Committee since its inception.

"Foye has seen his work as much larger than that of financial services. His wide-ranging abilities have insured the creation of partnerships across agency and organizational lines, bringing efficiencies and quantities of scale into place which has saved GBOD and the church hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Greenwaldt.

Webb says that the agency was in good financial condition when he arrived. His mission was to maintain the organization's financial soundness and place of respect throughout the church.

"We'd always had a really good reputation among colleague agencies in the church. I wanted to maintain that healthy relationship," he said.

A member of Belmont United Methodist Church, Webb has served as Spiritual Formation Committee chair, Stephen Ministry Leader and Team Coordinator, substitute Sunday school teacher, Administrative Board member and Annual Conference delegate.

Webb also represented the Nashville District on the Tennessee Conference Spiritual Formation Committee, and is nominated to become a member of the Conference Committee on Finance and Administration.

Webb attended Wesley Theological Seminary and was an ordained deacon and a probationary member of the Holston and Virginia Conferences. Webb and his wife, Carol, have two children and four grandchildren.

He plans "to be retired" and enjoy his children and grandchildren, while being in service to the local church and community.

GBOD will launch a search process for Webb's successor in the next few weeks.
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2008 Nebraska Cooperative School of Christian Mission

Registration forms and information for the "Living the Sacred" themed 2008 Nebraska Cooperative School of Christian Mission are now available. During two different sessions, July 25-30 in Grand Island, Bishop Ann B. Sherer will be teaching this spiritual growth study this summer. Other teachers include the Rev. Sharee Johnson, Rev. Timothy Byington and Rev. Lyle Schoen.
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Thinking about a new hymnal--global and multicultural songs

It is obvious that the day when a single official denominational hymnal could meet the needs of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is long passed. Our church is so large, so diverse in so many ways--language, culture, heritage, worship practice, liturgy, geography, and not least of all, musical style--that a single hymnal simply cannot serve us all. Today we have three official UMC hymnals and numerous supplemental songbooks. The article below discusses the global and multicultural content of The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) and what may happen with legislation for a new hymnal for the United States.
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Thinking about a new hymnal--a hymnal for African Americans

Along with a proposal for a new United Methodist hymnal for the United States, General Conference will also consider a proposal for a four-year study into the need for an official hymnal with hymns, songs, liturgy, and worship resources for Africana people in North America. Africana is the term used to name those people of African descent who have come to settle outside of Africa, especially in the United States. There are Africana United Methodists in the United States who have come here from Africa, South America, the Caribbean and elsewhere, including the many African Americans descended from slaves. The article below discusses the proposal for the study and what it intends to accomplish.
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"There are people who haven't liked anything that has happened in the church, ever. Why they return is a profound mystery."−The Center for Pastoral Effectiveness of the Rockies

Named by most clergy who have attended as "the most valuable continuing education experience" they have ever had. There are six, three-day retreats scheduled over eighteen months in Utah and Wyoming and eight retreats over ten months in Colorado. The center was created to maintain ministers in ministry. Interested? Read on.

There is a little book you might like to read entitled "Ministry is a High Calling, Aim Low," by Kurt Schuermann. On page 18, you will find this quote, "There are people who haven't liked anything that has happened in the church, ever. Why they continue to show us to be miserable is a deep and profound mystery." Perhaps you have a few in your church. These people tend to really show their faces whenever we, as clergy, try to make some changes in the church. These changes, of course, were what we were "hired" to do by those who "hired" us. These same changes could get us "fired" just as easy. But it isn't so much about what they are saying that is really important; it is how we can learn to respond to their reactions. This is not easy, however. It takes an incredible effort not to strike out at these adversaries, hide out in your office, or find others in the church to whom you can tell what happened−let's say that none of the above is the healthy answer. So what do we do? This is what is addressed at the center.

As you begin planning your continuing education for the coming year, you might want to consider The Center for Pastoral Effectiveness of the Rockies. The center, now in its' ninth year, has 290 clergy alumni from five different denominations in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Kansas.

Beginning July 21-23, 2008, the sixth series of the center for Nebraska will begin. It includes six, three-day retreats scheduled over eighteen months.

For more information, talk to your Nebraska Center Representative, Kelly Karges at kjkarges@hotmail.com or visit http://www.pastoraleffectiveness.org. You may register by sending an e-mail to the Rev. Bill Selby, center mentor, at integrity4u@comcast.net.
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