News

'Playbook' for new conference presents changes for congregations

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas communications director Patrick Lencioni’s recent book, “The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business,” calls leaders of organizations (churches included) to have a playbook — a simple document outlining the answers to some predefined questions. The Great Plains Area Transition Team’s Plan of Organization draft can be viewed as an oversized playbook outlining missional priorities for the newly formed Great...

Staff positions announced for Great Plains Area

Bishop Scott Jones recently announced a number of appointments and staff assignments for the Great Plains Area. Effective July 1, 2013, Rev. Nancy Lambert will be the area director of Clergy Excellence and assistant to the bishop. She will serve as the staff leader for the Nebraska Conference in Lincoln. At that time, Rev. Carol Roettmer Brewer will become the associate director of Clergy Excellence for the Great Plains Area.  She plans to retire in 2014. The Great Plains Council on...

Transition team presents draft organization plan

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas communications director The Great Plains Transition Team presented a draft plan of organization for the new annual conference to clergy at the 2013 Joint Called Clergy Session Jan. 16. “It’s a work in process,” said Rev. Gary Brooks, team member and Wichita East District superintendent. “The draft posted online last week is our best guess of where we need to be headed right now.” ...

Transition team releases draft organization plan

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas communications director United Methodists in Kansas and Nebraska are getting a first look at the plan of organization for the new Great Plains Annual Conference. A draft of the plan was posted to the Great Plains Episcopal Area website Jan. 10. Key areas addressed so far include mission shares (apportionments), structure and staffing in addition to naming missional priorities and the call of the new annual conference. Opportunities for feedback are scheduled throughout...

Jones' assignment to Great Plains Area celebrated

By Martha Gadberry A service celebrating the assignment of Bishop Scott Jones to the Great Plains Episcopal Area was ushered in with bells, choirs, lay people and pastors from across the new area at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 29. Jones served the Kansas Area for eight years before being named bishop of the new Great Plains Area. The podium rocked with a praise band from Lincoln Trinity UMC, as nearly 375 Kansans and Nebraskans raised a joyful noise unto...

Kansas conferences become part of Great Plains area

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas communications director Sept. 1 marked the beginning of a new era in United Methodism in Kansas and Nebraska when the two states and three annual conferences became part of the new Great Plains Episcopal Area. Previously, the Kansas East and Kansas West conferences shared a bishop as part of the Kansas Episcopal Area. The Nebraska Conference had its own bishop. The United Methodist Church uses an episcopal system of governance, which means bishops provide the top...

One-conference momentum continues

By Kathryn Witte, Nebraska Area communications director Momentum for the formation of one new conference continued during the June 22 Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team meeting at Centenary United Methodist Church in Beatrice, Neb., as team members met to map out next steps. Members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team meet to discuss the next steps in combining the Kansas West, Kansas East and...

Jones assigned to Great Plains, conference boundaries approved

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas Area communications director During its meeting July 18-21 in Oklahoma City, the South Central Jurisdiction unanimously approved boundaries for the new Great Plains Annual Conference and assigned Bishop Scott Jones to serve the new area. Bishop Scott Jones presides over the South Central Jurisdictional Conference July 20 in Oklahoma City. (photo by Lisa Diehl) ...

Great Plains Area bishop to be assigned at Jurisdictional Conference

The bishop of the new Great Plains Episcopal Area will be assigned this week during the South Central Jurisdictional Conference July 18-21 in Oklahoma City. The Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West conferences will become the Great Plains Episcopal Area Sept. 1, 2012. The South Central Jurisdiction was scheduled to elect three bishops to replace four retiring bishops. Combining the Kansas and Nebraska episcopal areas eliminated the need to replace all four. However, another bishop may be...

Nebraska, Kansas United Methodists approve one-conference proposal

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas Area communications director, and Kathryn Witte, Nebraska Conference communications director On June 9, Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones and Nebraska Bishop Ann Sherer-Simpson simultaneously announced the results of a vote to combine the current three United Methodist conferences in Kansas and Nebraska into a new conference Jan. 1, 2014. Susan Brown and Rev. Kenton Van count the results of the ballots cast...

Transition team to present one-conference motion

By Lisa Diehl, communications director Rev. Gary Beach, second from right, makes a point during the March transition team meeting. (photo by Lisa Diehl) The Nebraska- Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team spent its final face-to-face meeting prior to the 2012 Annual Conference sessions refining its reports and reviewing lingering questions about the proposal to create one new annual conference. The team met in...

Called clergy session receives positive feedback

By Kathryn Witte, Nebraska communications director More than 250 surveys were returned from the 750 attendees of the Nebraska Kansas Episcopal Area Joint Called Clergy Session Jan. 17-19. “Hope in the Face of Change 2012” was a success according to the evaluations submitted. Overall, the feedback was positive. Clergy enjoyed getting to spend time with friends and colleagues, getting to know pastors from different conferences, learning what the three conferences have in common and...

Small-membership church dream team begins its work

By Lisa Diehl, Kansas Area Communications director A dream team established to envision vital ministry for small-membership churches in the new Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area met July 22 at Red Cloud, Neb. More than 70 people from the Kansas East, Kansas West and Nebraska conferences gathered together to share ideas and visions for vital small-membership congregations. The team was named by the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team to begin thinking through how resources may be...

Great Plains recommended name for the new episcopal area

The Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team made its first recommendations for the new episcopal area and the possible new annual conference Oct. 3 and 4 at its meeting in Wichita. After listening to the report of the Six-Issue Team*, named to reflect the big issues they are working on, the group agreed to recommend the new episcopal area be named the Great Plains Area when the three conferences come together under one bishop Sept. 1, 2012. The group also agreed to recommend a new...

Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area transition work continues

By Kathryn Witte, Nebraska Conference Much work lies ahead over the next few months in preparation for 2012 annual conference sessions in Kansas West, Kansas East and Nebraska. The 2012 sessions will include a binding vote on becoming one new annual conference. “For two years, we have been discussing how best to become one episcopal area,” said Kansas Area Bishop Scott Jones. “Many people are excited about creating one new conference, and the five-finger votes said we should...

Rendle shares context for team's recommendation

Rev. Dr. Gil Rendle, senior consultant with the Texas Methodist Foundation and consultant to the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team, set the stage for the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team’s report in his second plenary at the 2011 Kansas East Annual Conference. Rendle was the featured speaker at the conference June 8-11. “A reasonable place for me to begin is with the Council of Bishops’ Call to Action,” he said. “The Call to Action is...

Challenges have faith groups asking same questions

Rev. Dr. Gil Rendle, senior consultant with the Texas Methodist Foundation and consultant to the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team, said he works with several other faith groups, but what struck him is that the conversation is the same across all the faiths. Rendle was the featured plenary speaker for the Kansas East Annual Conference June 8-11 at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. “The world we now live in goes beyond our reach,” Rendle said. “We are...

Three conferences express support for moving forward as one

 The count is in, and the majority of people who cast ballots at the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West annual conference sessions are in support of creating one new annual conference for the United Methodist Church in the two states.   Members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team met June 13 at Grace United Methodist Church in Topeka to review the responses to the five-finger ballots cast at the 2011 sessions of the Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West annual...

Transition team endorses 'bold' option

The Kansas East Conference members of the Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team presented the team’s proposal to create one new annual conference for Nebraska, Kansas East and Kansas West. “After hearing Gil [Rendle’s] words, I think we all understand that we are now in a time of great transition,” said Rev. David Livingston, team member and pastor at St. Paul’s Lenexa United Methodist Church. “The question before us today is not whether we will...

Explaining the five-finger vote

The Nebraska-Kansas Episcopal Area Transition Team decided at its April 7 meeting that they will not be forwarding a motion during the 2011 annual conference sessions (in the Nebraska and Kansas Areas) as originally planned. Instead, the team will ask for a show of support for the one-conference concept. Once feedback from the March 13, 2011, webcast was evaluated, the Transition Team determined using the Rev. Gil Rendle’s “five-finger vote” to gauge support...