IN LAYMAN'S TERMS

In the fourth of a five-part series, Rev. Amy Lippoldt provides some education and great insights into the global nature of The United Methodist Church. As a member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, Amy has been exposed to many parts of the worldwide aspects of the church that aren't easily seen from our pews in Kansas and Nebraska.

Some apologies before you start listening: A bad cable was discovered — but not until the editing process. The process used to eliminate the high-pitched hum that was throughout the interview recording resulted in poor audio quality from Amy's microphone. However, listeners can still hear her analysis of the issues coming before the General Conference.

In the third of a five-episode series previewing General Conference of The United Methodist Church, Rev. David Livingston shares his thoughts on three widely known priorities for progressives and centrists, as well as some details from his travels to the African continent to meet with delegates there.

Our five-episode series previewing General Conference of The United Methodist Church continues with Lisa Maupin, the lay leader of the Great Plains Annual Conference.

In this discussion, Lisa shares her reflections on what have become known as the "3 R's" and shares other insights on topics surrounding the General Conference, scheduled for April 23 to May 4, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The first in a five-episode series on the upcoming General Conference of The United Methodist Church features Rev. Dr. Mark Holland, the co-founder of Mainstream UMC. He kicks off the series by explaining three priorities his organization has set for the conference, which starts April 23, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina. 

The priorities are regionalization, removal of restrictive language involving LGBTQ+ persons from the Book of Discipline, and stopping further disaffiliations from the denomination.

The Nebraska United Methodist Foundation has a series of grants to help local ministries get started, expand and augment their reach to their communities.

This episode tells the stories of three ministries assisted by these grants in Nebraska — an entrepreneurial idea at Connection Point in Lincoln, children’s and youth curriculum for The Vine United Methodist Church in Scottsbluff, and a different way to help Brady UMC in the North Platte area worship without a pastor.

Learn more about the Nebraska foundation.

Members of the Great Plains and Louisiana conferences of The United Methodist Church took part in a four-day civil rights immersion trip to the areas around Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama, in July 2023.

It was the idea of former Great Plains Clergy Excellence Director Rev. Dr. Dee Williamston, now bishop of the Louisiana Conference. She and Bishop David Wilson of the Great Plains — the first Native American bishop in the denomination — teamed up to lead the group on an educational experience that expanded minds, filled hearts with love — and most importantly challenged the emotions of all who took part.

This is the third of a three-episode series on the trip.

It’s Black History Month, and so this In Layman’s Terms podcast is providing a three-part series on a trip made by members of the Great Plains and Louisiana conferences to the areas around Montgomery and Birmingham, Alabama — both places that played significant roles in the civil rights movement.

The trip was a civil rights immersion trip to help educate, inspire and stir to action followers of Christ. One of the goals was to give people the tools they need to combat racism and to push for equity in our society.

In this second of three episodes, I think it’s important that we explore the emotions that people felt on the trip — and what has continued to resonate with them since coming home.

In July 2023, a group of clergy and laity from the Great Plains Conference met up with fellow United Methodists from the Louisiana Conference for a civil rights immersion experience. Over the course of four days, the group lived the history of Alabama.

Our group spent much of its time in Montgomery. We saw the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and walked in the parsonage where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King lived. We spent the better part of a day at the Legacy Museum, a mission of the Equal Justice Initiative (or EJI). It’s an amazing museum that uses the latest in technology to help tell the story of racism — from kidnappings in the African continent to the often-deadly voyage to North America to the brutality of slavery. It also explains the injustice of Jim Crow laws and addresses the modern-day inequity of mass incarceration.

Our group saw the bus station where Freedom Riders were beaten, walked a memorial dedicated to honoring the lives of the numerous people lynched over the years, including right here in Kansas and Nebraska.

We traveled to Selma and walked the bridge where Dr. King, John Lewis and others were abused by white supremacists, including police officers.

In Birmingham, we talked with people who are members of 16th Street Baptist Church, where four girls were killed by a bomb. And we toured the Civil Rights Institute, which tells the story, decade by decade, of the push for equity in this country.

February is Black History Month, so I wanted to share some of the stories from our trip. I wanted to provide an opportunity for listeners to feel the emotions, embrace the potential for change in our country by hearing the stories of people — Black, brown and white.

And, in this concluding episode of the three-part series, I wanted to convey the ways people believe they have changed — And their hopes and dreams for how our world can change … for the better.

As we continue our lessons from the Ark, we'll explore what it means to persevere. We know we'll face storms in life, so how can we be prepared? And how can we endure? Thankfully, we can lean on the Holy Spirit as our traveling companion.

As we continue considering lessons from the ark — as learned through other passages in scripture — we come to compassion. Just a little of it, along with encouragement, can go a long way toward lifting up others.