By Greg Yee, Superintendent, PacNWC
It was good to be together last weekend for our 131st annual meeting and our second ever one online. Thank you Yakima Cov for hosting the team and for contributing such worshipful music and expert technical support. You were perfect hosts! It was good to be in your space as the conference family gathered.
I felt so many different emotions as our meeting culminated a long challenging year for us in our 75 churches and for our clergy serving in other settings. I felt our collective exhaustion and ongoing disorientation. It was an eventful, even traumatizing year that forced us to ask probing questions about ourselves.
Who are we when we take away Sunday mornings? Are we disciple makers? Do we care for and love our neighbors? How have our hearts shown where our actual citizenship lies? How big is God? There were so many questions we faced and still face.
I also felt our collective joy as we broke off into small groups and so many of us shared about how God surprised us, how we took leaps of faith into new ministry opportunities, and how we saw transformation. We shared about strangers showing up to church online, many becoming regulars, and even some becoming members. We shared about conversions, reconciliation, collaborations, and many baptisms!
Truly, God’s word goes out. It goes out into the realities of brokenness and pandemics. God’s word goes out and does not return empty. We literally saw this reality when our entire society was shut down. Our churches were physically empty. But even though, God’s work was effective and we were blessed to witness his miracles.
On that note, if you were not at the AM, check out this clip from the full recording where I interview Rev. Grant Christensen from Grace Cov, Bremerton. Grant shares his testimony of exactly what I’m quoting from the prophet Isaiah (55:11). God’s word went out and came back abundantly. Check it out. You’ll be blessed!
We also added 2 new member churches this year. St. Thomas Cov, Salem and Bread and Wine Cov, Portland. It’s great to add to our efforts in our southern state. I also shared that we are in various stages of conversations with four established churches that are exploring adopting into the Covenant. They are very diverse types of ministry settings that will beautifully add to our shared mission.
We shared about a lot of opportunities that are coming this year in the conference and at the camp, but our next event is a big one. We are offering our first ever, Justice Institutes that will be online on June 5th. We have an incredible line-up of anointed speakers that include Jamar Tisby (Racial Righteousness), Eugene Cho (Homelessness & Poverty), Randy Woolley (Doctrine of Discovery), and Sheila Wise Rowe (Recovery). It’s encouraged to hear of churches that are organizing their entire church to participate. Let’s all continue to take a learning posture and lean into intentionality with these key issues affecting our communities that we are called to serve. Register here.
There is so much more to share: current quarterly focus on prayer; Cascades Camp summer programming; Youth Journey to Mosaic in August; partnership with the Southeast Conference; large individual donations helped send over 70 church staff families to camp to recharge, and so much more. Please be sure to check out our virtual ministry faire here for many other resources.
I am grateful for the confidence the AM had to re-elect me to a third four-year term. I continue to be humbled by this call. I continue to pray that the conference team and I would faithfully serve and support you into greater faith and fruitfulness and that God would multiply our shared mission.
May God continue to speak through us. May his word go out from us. May his word be vividly demonstrated through our actions and commitments. In this new year, may God’s word go out and come back with surprises and with joy.
May our confidence be the same as Paul, And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns (Phil1:6). God’s got much in store for us!
[Click Here] to go to the 2021 PacNWC Annual Meeting Resources Page