Pristine prairies, clear blue skies and mild temperatures made the third day of the NUMB Ride very enjoyable. The 54-mile trek took riders from Stapleton to North Platte, traveling just four miles just south of Tryon. Riders rode highways 97, 92 and 83.

Beautiful day, beautiful scenery, beautiful ride-NUMB Day 3

A group of riders called the "animals" for how they take on the road often maintain an average daily speed of 20 mph or more.

Riders speed along at more than 20 mph

Good friends and family enjoy each other's company on the ride to North Platte. SAG stops offer opportunities to catch up with friends and meet new ones.

Good times

Riders take time on the road to enjoy conversation and friendship. Some riders take the ride very seriously and choose to speed along, others take a more relaxed approach and stop to take photos of landscapes and other sites.

The NUMB Ride camp breaks between 5 and 6 a.m. each day with breakdfast beginning at 6 sharp. Rhona Witter joins the rest of the group in breaking camp. Folks woke in Brady to a heavy dew and a foggy first few miles.

NUMB Day 2-Brady to Stapleton

Just outside of Brady heading on Highway 30 to Gothenburg (the beginning of the 68 miles Stapleton), fog met riders with beautiful scenes of water, fog and sun.

Breathtaking scenes part of NUMB day to Stapleton

So with little sleep the Brady UMC crew that provided dinner Sunday night, rose bright and early to prepare ham and eggs, sausage casserole and a sweets and fruit table filled with breakfast delights.

Brady UMC provides ample fuel for day two

About every 10-12 miles a support and gear (SAG) stop enables riders to regroup, refresh water bottles, have a snack and sometimes receive needed repairs.

Support and gear stops provide needed back-up

Mark Frey (left) and Bryan Rooney (right) volunteer to grill steaks for the Stapleton Community Center-sponsored dinner for the NUMB riders on Monday night. Homemade pie and a $10 steak made for favorable reviews from attendees.

Stapleton puts on steak dinner

About 128 riders plus all the support and gear personnel total about 140 participating in the 2009 Nebraska United Methodist Bide Ride for Hunger. As of Sunday night $38,521,86 had been pledged to support hunger projects. Pledges can be sent to NUMB in care of the Nebraska United Methodist Conference at 2641 N. 49th St., Lincoln, NE 68504

Riders experience mild weather on first day of NUMB

A steamy presentation of pancakes, sausage, juice, coffee, cinnamon rolls and more were served to riders before setting out on the first day's ride. District Superintendent Brian Kottas, while not in this photo, helped dish up the morning feast.

Day 1 began at the Ogallala Fair Grounds with a hearty breakfast

NUMB brings together people. Sometimes old friends reconnecting, other times folks meet for the first time a strike up continuing friendships. The fellowship and comraderie associated with the NUMB Ride is special.

NUMB friends reconnect

Mild weather accompanied riders on the 70+ mile ride from Ogallala to Brady. A flat Highway 30, a slight overcast sky and little wind made the trip one of the more enjoyable of NUMB recent history. Most riders camp while others take shelter inside the school, a camper or a local host family.

Tent city arises in Brady after mild weather day

The Brady United Methodist Church led by Pastor Janie Freeman put together a delicious evening meal of ham, cheesy potatoes and a variety of salads and deserts to the delight of road weary riders.

Brady church provides dinner spread to hungry riders

AC resources, news and information

Check out the PowerPoints, Daily Messengers, General Conference Amendments vote tally and stories from the 2009 Annual Conference Session by clicking on the Web banner on the left side of the home page.

Tom Watson delivers Lay Leader Address to Annual Conference Session

Delivered on Friday to the body of the Annual Conference Session.

Good morning, Bishop Sherer, members of the Annual Conference and guests. I fluctuate between being intimidated and excited about an opportunity to speak to all of you about my thoughts and observations concerning our church at this place in time. First let me say that this first year as your Conference Lay Leader has been a real learning experience for me, and an honor. In addition, let me express my great thanks to Lavina Schwaninger, our immediate past Conference Lay Leader, for her service to the church during the previous 8 years and in particular for her great help to me during this past year.

Also, thanks to Melody Adams, Associate Conference Lay Leader, for her help during this year. Melody is not able to be with us here this year because she is at home recovering from cervical spine surgery. She said she thought I was a pain in the neck, but discovered that it was caused by something else, I'm just kidding.

Last year at Annual Conference you received a report and adopted the recommendations of the "Transition Team". As I have realized during the time since last Annual Conference, this has been the actual transition year. Putting into place and action the plan adopted a year ago. You have heard the first reports from the Common Table and from the three teams, I am not going to repeat that report. I will share with you some of my personal observations concerning the Common Table and Teams, if you promise to understand that these are purely my sense of things.


First, I would say that it is probably obvious to any observer that we are still in process in working out all of the details of operating under this structure both in terms of Disciplinary requirements and just practical function.

On a very positive side, I believe I have observed a far higher degree of engagement on the part of all of the members of the Common Table and each of the Teams than I had perceived in previous years when we operated with the Council on Ministries. I believe there may now be more people with a far better understanding of who is doing what in and on behalf of the Conference and to what degree of effectiveness. I believe we are well on our way to a greater degree of accountability in all areas of Conference work, and that is already apparent in listening to the Teams as they have worked with the various areas of ministry.

Our mission comes directly from Jesus, and as articulated by the last General Conference, is to "Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World". I will say to you that I think that the work and ministry plan of each of the three Teams is, in a real sense, aimed at a particular aspect of making disciples. In a very simplistic view which I would caution, is not to be considered in any way limiting, I would suggest the following:

The Congregational Transformation Team - has as one of its primary areas of focus the task of helping us in our local churches reach new believers. That might be by a renewed vigor and focus within our churches or by the formation of new faith communities.


The Leadership Development Team- has as part of its areas of focus the task of helping us in our local churches to foster and facilitate the spiritual development and growth of persons as disciples. And further to help persons identify their gifts and develop skills in leadership which may be exercised within the local church, at the district, conference and general church level.

The Risk Taking Mission and Justice Team- has as part of its area of focus the task of helping us in our local churches and as a conference to put discipleship into action to transform the world.

Now, let me turn to my more philosophical view of where we are as the church and where we might need to make adjustments. Our mission, once again, is to "Make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World". Now, what I have to say next might sound strange since this is an Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, but the stated mission is not to make members of the United Methodist Church, but to make disciples of Jesus Christ. We would hope, in that process, that people find the United Methodist Church a welcome and appropriate place in which to become and grow as disciples. There is, however, a difference between making disciples and making members.

My thoughts as to what we need to be working toward in our churches coincides in large part with our emphasis at this Annual Conference, Radical Hospitality. I would urge you to pay particular attention to what Bishop Schnase has had to say on that subject. In general I believe we need to work on an attitude adjustment, especially we in the laity. I believe we need to work toward being more "outward" thinking and not so much inward.


There is a need for us to be reaching out to and ministering with and to those who are not already within our churches. There is a great temptation and tendency to work primarily, if not entirely, with those who are already within our walls, or those who stray through our doors of their own accord.
I say this to us as laity because for many of us, we must realize that the task of making disciples is not just the pastors' mission. In Ephesians 4 we are told that some were given to be "pastors and teachers", to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. So, part of the work of ministry is building up the body of Christ, and I would argue that reaching others is at least as much our responsibility as the pastors', maybe more. If, at this point, you are mentally arguing with me, that is ok, it is probably good, but I invite you to think about it. Think also about how we, as laity, begin to assume responsibility for making disciples and for the condition of our Church.
Evangelism, the "E Word", is really out of vogue in the church today. I know that for many people that word is very negative, it calls up images that you do not want to be associated with. However, I don't care what term you want to use, letting people know the good news of Jesus Christ is a primary task of those of us who already consider ourselves to be disciples, developing disciples. Perhaps we need to engage in some self-examination. In her book, Unbinding the Gospel, which, by the way, I highly recommend to each of you, Martha Grace Reese describes many in the Mainline Protestant denominations as "Evangelism Cautious", I believe that would describe many, if not most, in our churches today. Further, Ms. Reese says that there are two all-important questions we each need to ask ourselves.


The first is:
"What difference does being a Christian make in your own life?"

It strikes me that we each must have answered this question for ourselves as a pre-requisite to any sharing or our faith. If I don't know what difference Christ makes in my life, what do I have to share about that? I would venture a guess that many of us have not given serious thought to the answer to that question. So, I would urge you to do that and would invite you to encourage others you know to do so as well. As I said a moment ago, before we can share our faith, we need to be able to identify what we have faith in and why.
The second question is just as important as the first as far as sharing your faith, it is:
"Why does it matter to me that other people become Christians"?

As Ms. Reese indicates in her book, the answer to that question may vary greatly from person to person. However, it is almost certain that if it doesn't matter to you that other people become Christian you have very little motivation to talk to anyone about Jesus Christ. Remember, we are to be about making disciples of Jesus Christ, not church members.
These are questions we each need to answer for ourselves and then we can deal with the next crucial question:
What would motivate you to help another person become a Christian and begin a life of relationship with God made known to us in Jesus Christ?

In my view, we have avoided this issue and this vital mission for far too long in our churches. We have relied on persons seeking us out and coming to us, and not only is that not happening very much, but some of us have been going elsewhere as well.

Let me encourage you, when you return to your local church, to engage your Lay Leadership/Nominations Committee and those persons who have primary responsibility for your Disciple Making Plan. Encourage those folks to read Bishop Schnase's book and to pay particular attention to the chapter on Radical Hospitality. Encourage them to read Unbinding the Gospel and to begin to seriously consider how we encourage and teach and motivate ourselves and those around us to take seriously the call to "make disciples of Jesus Christ". I think we have got to get over any thoughts we have that sharing our faith in Jesus Christ, in speaking with others about God's role in our life, is just something that "fundamentalists" do. I realize that in this room we come close to running the gamut with regard to theological understandings and bent, from "orthodox" to "progressive", but each of us should and must deal with the questions posed by Ms. Reese.

We can no longer operate the way we've always done things, an old and familiar term we hear a lot is to "think outside the box", well, in thinking about "Radical Hospitality", I am encouraging you to begin to "think outside the building" as well, and make intentional efforts to talk to, engage, reach out to those persons in your community who do not have a church home and who may not know Christ.

So, in keeping with something I have learned from Bishop Sherer, you have two reading assignments, Martha Grace Reese's Unbinding the Gospel, and Bishop Schnase's Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations.

Let me conclude with a summary in verse.

The church has used a slogan
Open hearts and minds and doors
It doesn't translate very well
If that attitude's not yours

If you don't see new faces
Walking up and down the halls
We're likely not inviting
Those who live beyond these walls

Our church must feel welcome
To the strangers at the door
And if it's not I guarantee
They won't be back for more

Next time in church just look around
Anyone there you don't know
If not, I'll say this plainly
Then you've got some seeds to sow

It's all about faith sharing
That job is yours and mine
Living out discipleship
In word and deed and sign

When strangers come to your church
I hope you have believed
It's not the sermon they'll recall
But how they were received

We tend to do the church thing
Aimed at those already in
Not seeking those outside our walls
May be our greatest sin

We need to go where people are
But that makes such a fuss
We've got a grand church building here
So let them come to us


Unbinding of the Gospel
Is evangelism bent
WE think that's the preacher's job
But each of us is sent

Two questions we must answer
Each one of us must know
'Cause if we don't it's pretty sure
Our church ain't gonna grow

What diff'rence does it make to you
That Christian is your name?
If it really doesn't matter
Playing church is just a game

The second question's similar
Can be hard as a rock
When talking 'bout the "E" word
It's the key that turns the lock

What diff'rence does it make to you
That others Christian be
If it really doesn't matter
Then you'll never get to "E"

The church's role is thwarted
No matter how it's sliced
If you don't see th'importance
Of knowing Jesus Christ

	Cheryl Hemmerle from the United Methodist Communications leads a discussion during the Weaving a Web of Change workshop in North Platte on Saturday, May 16. Attendees traveled from Kimball, MCook, Omaha, Lincoln, Manhattan and Topeka, Kan., to learn about employing effective Web ministries in their congregations.

Weaving a Web of Change workshop attracts 30 in North Platte

Texting the Lord's Prayer. Using the Web as a connectional ministry tool. Thinking about church as a inclusive, diverse and 24/7 experience on the Web.

These are just a few of the ideas considered during the day-long session focusing on the best ways to use the World Wide Web and other Web-enabled electronic media tools to further the ministry of a congretation.

One key element in planning is meeting people where they are. Think about all the various target audiences represented in your church and community. Web ministry needs to address the various needs of each target with meaningful ministry options and connections.

The Web is a place where people can be invited to participate in levels that are most comfortable for that individual.

The church Web ministry is also place where volunteers can be enlisted from the membership to help make it effective. Who better to plan and implement a Web strategy than the people who use it?

For example if a congregation is full of small children, the Web ministry might include information on parenting and grandparenting. This resource could include tips on how to incorporate Sunday School learnings all week through.

Other target audience needs can be met in the same way. How can Facebook help facilitate a more vibrant youth group.

When starting new ministries in your community, is there a need for a second language on your Web site?

The Web ministry team is challenged to design a Web site that relates to the day-to-day life of the church. For example, in a down economy, the church Web site might offer job listings.

The Web can also offer a seeker a safe, non-threatening place to explore their faith. Does your Web site offer information about what you believe in? Does the Web site communicate the culture of your congregation.

Web ministry tools such as texting, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking vehicles offer many ways to reach out to seekers and those exploring their faith journey.."Web ministry can be a portal for those who might be disenfranchised from the church," said David Wolf from Central City.

Hemmerle led the group through several discovery discussions addressing everything from the appropriate roles Web ministry can take to identifying the characteristics of a congregations various target populations. The discussion generated ideas and new ways of thinking about traditional challenges of doing church and about meaningful participation.

Weaving a Web of Change is a resource offered from United Methodist Communications. More communications and technical resources as well as online course material is available on the Web site www.umcom.org.