{"id":601,"date":"2012-04-29T13:13:34","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T20:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=601"},"modified":"2012-04-29T13:13:34","modified_gmt":"2012-04-29T20:13:34","slug":"keep-our-umc-bridges-connected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/keep-our-umc-bridges-connected\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep Our UMC Bridges Connected!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to Exploration 2003 when I was a senior in high school. I don\u2019t know why I felt called to go as <\/em>I l<\/em>ook back now, but I went. I remember enjoying the trip out to Chicago with my friends, but being disappointed with the event.<\/p>\n

You see, when they gave us the option to take a pic in the cardboard cutout clergy, I chose the Deacon, not the Elder<\/em>. When I went to Exploration, I came home a little discouraged since Deacons weren\u2019t really mentioned and it just focused on Elders.<\/p>\n

I feel called to ordination through The United Methodist Church as a Deacon, so I find them very important. Deacons are the people who bridge the church to the real world, stepping out into ministries beyond our church doors. They are a rarely used source of wisdom within our churches, though they are so vital<\/em>. Deacons may not have the \u201cmagic hands\u201d, but they walk outside of the church building, connecting with those who do not enter our doors.<\/em><\/p>\n

Deacons can be school teachers, run homeless ministries, be pastoral counselors, work for a general board or agency, and so much more!<\/strong><\/em> They can be in a church or outside it. Their work is their unique ministry.<\/p>\n

One of the resolutions going to General Conference is, \u201cAppointments of Deacons and Provisional Deacons to Various Ministries<\/a>\u201d. This would change Paragraph 331 in our Book of Disciple. Why would this matter?<\/p>\n

This resolution gets rid of Secondary Appointments for Deacons. Well, what is a Secondary Appointment you might ask? When a Deacon\u2019s Ministry is outside the church (as majority of them are), it gives them another appointment with a local church. They participate in worship (if being utilized), leadership within the church, and are supported by the church\u2019s SPRC. I believe that this is taking away the bridge between the Deacon\u2019s Ministry and the church.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though my current ministry settings have been within the church , I know that I will someday have a job outside of the church. I want to have a bond between myself and my charge conference. Secondary Appointments give Deacons that connection. Why would we get rid of that?<\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Flickr user F H Mira, Creative Commons.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to Exploration 2003 when I was a senior in high school. I don\u2019t know why I felt called to go as I look back now, but I went. I remember enjoying the trip out to Chicago with my friends, but being disappointed with the event. You see, when they gave us the option […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[60,40,10],"class_list":{"0":"post-601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conversation","8":"tag-deacons","9":"tag-pnwumc","10":"tag-gc2012"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/5019343521_044ecc9477_z1.jpg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-9H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}