Part-Time Youth Ministry Leader

Position Announcement

Ayden United Methodist Church is seeking a part-time Youth Ministry Leader to serve, lead, teach, mentor and motivate the youth of our church in their walk with God. Primary responsibilities include planning and leading Sunday evening youth fellowship for middle and high school youth, as well as coordinating special youth activities. The Youth Ministry Leader will work collaboratively with the pastor, parents and leadership team to implement a strong and engaging youth program. Applicants should submit resume and two letters of reference to Ayden United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 335, Ayden, NC 28513 or email: aydenumc@gmail.com

 

For a full description of the position, click here.

A UMC.org Feature by Joe Iovino*
April 19, 2016

As a United Methodist, you are probably aware that General Conference, the once-every-four-years official meeting of the church is happening in Portland, Oregon, May 10-20, 2016. What may be far less clear, however, is what happens there and what it means to your local congregation.

2008 United Methodist General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas
The legislative work accomplished at General Conference that impacts life in the local church. File photo of the 2008 General Conference by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.
Work
The best-known aspect of General Conference is the legislation. General Conference is the body that determines direction and speaks officially for our denomination. 864 delegates elected by their annual conferences will consider 1044 petitions. Half the delegates are clergy and half are laity. Bishops lead the sessions, but have neither voice nor vote.

Amendments to The Book of Discipline that guides the work of local churches, pastors, annual conferences, general agencies, and bishops, are adopted. Delegates also vote on resolutions that give the official positions of The United Methodist Church on social issues which are published in our Book of Resolutions.

The General Conference covers a wide array of issues that affect all levels of our church. A small percentage of them receive a great deal of attention. Others will pass or fail without much fanfare, but will have lasting impacts in the life of our local churches.

At the 2016 General Conference legislation will be presented and debated on human sexuality, the budget of the general church for 2017-2020, a more global church structure, the ordination process for our pastors, formation of a hymnal revision committee, and more.

Whether widely publicized or not, General Conference legislation directs our work globally, regionally, and locally in our congregations.

Read a summary of proposed major legislative issues.

General Conference receives reports, votes on legislation, and passes a budget, but it is more than a business meeting.

The General Conference sessions are the only time The United Methodist Church gathers from across the globe in a single location. In that sense, it is something akin to a family reunion—albeit a ridiculously large one. When we come together every four years, we take the opportunity to worship, remember, and celebrate.

The Cantemos Youth Choir of the North Georgia Annual Conference leads worship at the 2004 United Methodist General Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Worship at General Conference represents many cultures and worship styles. File photo of 2004 General Conference by Paul Jeffrey, United Methodist Communications.
Worship
When the United Methodist family gathers, we come from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. We come together as one in our faith in Jesus Christ and our love for The United Methodist Church. There are, however, a variety of languages and cultures represented.

The worship of General Conference celebrates our unity and diversity.

Eleven worship gatherings and nine opportunities to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion are offered during the 11 days. Additionally, the Rev. Laura Jaquith Bartlett, worship and music director for the 2016 General Conference, told United Methodist Communications that at the end of each day, “We’ll send [the delegates] out into the night resting on the wings of the Spirit.”

The worship reminds us that we are part of something much larger than our local congregation. We are a connectional church, united to do wonderful work across the globe. We will share on billboards, trains, and elsewhere around Portland that united in faith, millions serve God and our neighbors.

Watch General Conference: The Global Church Worships to learn more about worship at pervious General Conferences, and plans for 2016.

Imagine No Malaria booth from the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida.
General Conference is a time to celebrate the ministries of The United Methodist Church. United in faith, we serve God by serving others. Photo by United Methodist Communications.
Celebration
On Wednesday, May 18, at 9:48 a.m. (PDT), The United Methodist Church will celebrate one of those ministries by which we have helped millions. Imagine No Malaria has greatly contributed to a coordinated international effort to eradicate this preventable disease. Through the efforts of this amazing ministry, more than 1 million mosquito bed nets have been distributed and more than 250,000 people have been diagnosed and treated. That is reason to celebrate.

You can watch the Imagine No Malaria celebration, and the rest of the General Conference session live at GC2016.UMC.org.

The 2016 gathering will also take time to celebrate important milestones that have had tremendous impact in our congregations.

This General Conference marks the 60th anniversary of the ordination of female pastors. The 1956 General Conference of The Methodist Church granted full clergy rights to women.

The gathered church will also begin celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Disciple Bible Study in 2017, and the 150th anniversary of United Methodist Women in 2019. Both of these ministries have been instrumental in the spiritual growth of so many members of United Methodist congregations.

Act of Remembrance at the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida.
Some of what we remember at General Conference is difficult and we repent. File photo for the Act of Repentance at the 2012 General Conference by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications.
Remembrance
General Conference is also an important time to remember our history.

At General Conference 2016 United Methodists will pause to remember Francis Asbury. Asbury was the first bishop in our Methodist heritage. Born in England, he came to America to form and lead this new church. Under Asbury’s leadership Methodism grew. This year is the 200th anniversary of his death on March 31, 1816.

While we celebrate Asbury, we also remember painful parts of our history, of which we are called to repent.

At General Conference 2012, The United Methodist Church participated in an Act of Repentance toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous People. General Conference 2016 will receive a report of one of those specific acts known as the Sand Creek Massacre.

In 1864, a regiment of the US Cavalry, led by Methodist preacher Colonel John Chivington, killed nearly 200 people living in a Peace Camp at Sand Creek in the Colorado territory. Together we condemn these events, pray for forgiveness, and seek to repair relationships with the families of the victims.

General Conference 2016 in Portland, Oregon logo
The theme of General Conference comes from Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” Logo by United Methodist Communications.
Therefore, go…
The activity of General Conference can seem far removed from our home congregations, but that could not be farther from the truth. The work, worship, celebrations, and remembrances at General Conference are the activity of all the people of The United Methodist Church.

“The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs.” General Conference meets every four years to facilitate this work happening in each of our churches.

Invitations can be exciting or daunting, depending on the event to which we’re invited and the one making the invitation. Each year, as we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, the invitation is made to our congregation to observe and keep a Lenten discipline. We are invited to enter into those 40 days as a time of spiritual preparation for Easter as we recall the great devotion of Jesus who suffered, died and was raised again. This is one of the oldest continuous traditions of the Christian faith, and it is also sometimes the most misunderstood.

It is true that these disciplines often take the form of prayer, fasting and self-denial, but these are not the goal of Lent, and they sound like the sort of invitation we might dread. The truth is we are invited into such disciplines not to prove our devotion, but to give us a gift. And this gift is the space and opportunity to examine our relationships with God and others, to repent, and to restore us to newness of life. This Lenten season, I want to offer you a very concrete Lenten discipline that I hope will do just that.

As a way of encouraging each one of us in our individual prayer and devotional life, I am inviting you to participate in a daily devotional series called “Mercy, Passion & Joy” based on the writings of C. S. Lewis. Devotional books will be distributed at our Ash Wednesday service and will be available in the narthex throughout Lent. And for families with children, we have an additional option entitled “Upon this Tree” that offers a short reading and activity to mark each day.

The invitation to a Lenten discipline all too often feels like receiving an invitation to an event you know you should attend, but don’t really want to. This year, consider yourself invited to something better. Through these devotional books, you are invited spend time every day in prayer and devotion with God with the encouragement and knowledge that your brothers and sisters in Christ have been invited to do the same.

In recent weeks I’ve had a lot of conversations with all sorts of people about Ayden United Methodist Church and the one thing I keep repeating is that, in many ways, this is a completely different church than the one I was appointed to four years ago. Over the past year I have seen a growing passion in this congregation: a passion to know and worship God more fully and a drive to serve others and reach out into our community. I have also seen a recognition that if we do those two things well, we will build the sort of Christian community that will more closely resemble the Kingdom of God.

The year has been full of new activity and new faces with several new families (young and old) joining our fellowship. We have received two dozen new members since last charge conference, eleven of which were baptisms and nine of those were professions of faith. Every week we have new faces visiting with us in the congregation and I regularly note that nearly a full quarter of our congregation is under the age of eighteen. All of this is a miracle. All of this is the work of the Holy Spirit.

As I counted off the weeks of ordinary time this year, (the weeks between Pentecost and Advent) at some point I began giving thanks that this past year has truly been a year of Pentecost. Just as in Luke’s recounting of the early church in Acts 2, the Spirit of God has blown through this place. The Gospel has been proclaimed in word and deed and this church has come alive in worship and in service to the point where we are recognized not just as a building, but as a presence in our community.

We continue to feed under-served youth through our Backpack Buddies program and vulnerable older adults through our partnership with Meals on Wheels. Our members staff the Ayden Christian Care food pantry and others find time to read with children in schools. We have sponsored free family fun days and trunk-or-treat activities and have been an active presence in community events, parades and festivals.

The other thing I keep saying in conversations about our church is how absolutely delighted I am with the ministry going on at AUMC. I am delighted that it is the ministry of the church, and that God is constantly raising up leaders to accomplish the work that needs to be done. I tell people that I am certain that we are merely seeing the first fruits of God’s work in this place. It is evident to me that AUMC, as a congregation, is well positioned to grow over the next few years and that if we continue to live into our mission statement, of “Loving God, Serving Others, and Building Christian Community,” God will supply all that we need to make that happen.

The Rev. Jim McConnell