Happy Easter Thursday St. Lukers,

You didn’t forget, did you? How are you doing living into your daily resurrection work? Every day is a chance for you and I to live into MORE of what it is to be resurrected with the power of Christ to reveal God’s love, grace, and justice all around us.

Sunday in worship we had a powerful visual of what that looks like with our children. During our message for all ages, our worshiping congregation chanted the word “can’t” – because a lot of us look at our daily life and think we just “can’t” make a resurrection difference, or we “can’t” make ripples that reveal God’s Kingdom.

But the children were told to run through the congregation, looking us in the eyes, and saying the name “Jesus.” Once a child looked at us and said Jesus, our “can’t” turned to the name of Jesus, and we were then told to look at a neighbor and share the name of Jesus with them. Very quickly a room full of “can’t” turned into a room full of the name of Jesus – all of us unified in his power and through his name.

This week, we will imagine what MORE we could do as a resurrection church if we were unified in speaking the name of Jesus and love. Listen to Rev. Dr. Ebby Arnold’s podcast episode (available wherever you get your podcasts) connecting the vision of God’s church in Revelation with the work of the early church in Acts 4:32-35. If our power is the work of creating with one another, how does unity come through the sharing of our lives? We will see you in worship on Sunday as we seek to be St. Luke’s on Purpose, living resurrection for our city.

Grace and peace,

Jenn.

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General Conference Update

One of the ways we are unified and connected in the Body of Christ is through our global denomination of the United Methodist Church. For the first time since the special called General Conference of 2019, we will be gathering as a General Conference in Charlotte, NC from April 23 through May 3. After COVID cancelled our regular meeting of General Conference in 2020, much has happened in our denomination. A new Traditionalist denomination was begun, and 30% of churches or clergy left to live into a separate gathering who serve a more literal view of Scripture. This is the first gathering of 862 delegates, half clergy and half laity, given the task of working toward a new understanding of the United Methodist Church (click here for a helpful infographic).

We want you to be informed as much as possible before the sessions begin. We want to provide ways to engage in prayer for all the delegates, including those from Florida, which includes our own Alice Williams, and even offer ways of watching worship and the plenary session (which take place during week 2 of the Conference). We have great interviews with Florida Conference Lay leaders Alice Williams and Derrick Scott chatting about what General Conference is, what happened in 2019, and what we HOPE will happen in 2024 (click here to see videos of those conversations or listen to the “Your Week with St. Luke’s” podcast episodes wherever you get your podcasts). These special episodes drop every Thursday.

Florida Bishop Tom Berlin also hosted a webinar with our top clergy and lay delegates sharing more information that you can watch by clicking here. This webinar explains our structure, how General Conference works, and the three R’s that many have been working for to create a more inclusive UMC: Regionalization, Revision of Social Principles, and the Removal of exclusive language and the Traditionalist plan. Bishop Berlin will also be sending daily updates, and the Florida Conference has information that we will link to our website for you to have better understanding. Stay tuned for more updates.