It finally happened. I had only thought about buying an iPad and wasn’t even serious until I found out that you can take an iPad through security at the airport without removing it from your briefcase. That benefit, plus the lighter weight, convinced me that it was time to make the investment. So last month I went to the Apple Store and ordered my iPad.

Now the iPad has many of the same features as an iPhone and a computer, but it is not the same. So there is a learn- ing curve. Every time I pull out the iPad, I have another question.

This is where I confess that all these electronic gadgets scare the heck out of me. I am always afraid that I am going to hit a button and everything I have written and saved will vanish into outer space.

So unlike younger folks who just play around with their device until they figure it out, I make the short trek over to the Apple Store and ask my questions.

What I have noticed is that I really like going to the Apple Store. When you walk in, you are warmly greeted.

The staffers listen to my silly questions without a sign of snickering. They quickly determine whether they can answer my question and if not, they personally take me to someone who can – and they always mention that if the problem is too complicated for them, they will take you to see the “genius.”

Luckily, I have not had to go to the holy of holy area. Once I get my question answered, I feel I am a little more knowledgeable and more proficient with my iPad.

I also leave the store with a smile on my face for I have just experienced being welcomed, informed, inspired and treated with respect. The staff immediately made me feel that I was one of them — a member of the iPad generation.

I wish that visitors and church members felt the same way. What if we welcomed people, and I mean really welcomed people, to our churches on Sunday morning?

What if we helped them get situated in the sanctuary (visitors are always afraid of sitting in someone’s seat), we actually escorted parents to the nursery with their children, and really engaged them in meaningful conversation and tried to answer their questions?

What if our churches could measure up to the standards of the Apple Store? What do you think?

Richard Hearne is Lay Leader of the North Texas Conference, which stretches from just this side of Bogata to just that side of Burkburnett. E-mail him at rbhearne@sbcglobal.net.

Summer Reading features interviews with United Methodist authors.

By SHERON C. PATTERSON
Editor

It’s an easy mistake to assume that a novel called The Dead Saint is a tome dedicated to one of the ancient, bearded forefathers of the church, especially if the author is a retired bishop’s spouse.

However, with Marilyn Brown Oden, spouse of former North Texas Episcopal leader William B. Oden, the dead saint is an assassinated New Orleans Saints football player tangled up in international intrigue. Oden is a prolific award-winning author who has penned 11 nonfiction books, including Hospitality of the Heart, AbunDance, Joyful Living in Christ, and her first novel, Crested Butte.

Oden’s book grabs readers by the lapels and takes them on a high-energy, thought-provoking run from Café Du Monde in New Orleans to the Balkans. There are twists and turns, NATO encounters, assassins and jazz funerals. Matters of faith are woven through the novel and show up in the wide-ranging cast of characters, including Bishop Lynn Peterson, her college professor husband Galen, U.S. President Helena Benedict and Bubba Broussard, the 6-foot-5, 250-pound Pro Bowl linebacker.

“The characters took on lives of their own,” Oden laughed. “ I’d get up in the morning not knowing where they were going or what they would do. It was fun.”

She said she began writing at Café Du Monde in 1995 while living in New Orleans, where her spouse served as Episcopal leader in Louisiana. The couple is now retired in Santa Fe, N.M.

Oden visited with the UMR by phone to talk more about The Dead Saint.

Why did you leave nonfiction to write fiction?

With fiction, I could approach missional things in a way to make more of a difference. You get a glimpse of things you never would have considered before. Fiction is a gateway to mission in our hearts.

In this book, there are a few places where I did plant some seeds. These were not moralistic seeds. I was not preaching, but I was planting.

The book is full of intriguing details from the political conflict in Eastern Europe. How did you gather these?

I have been a part of official visits to refugee centers in the war zones of Bosnia-Herzegovina. And I assisted with United Methodist projects in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, the Czech Republic and the Slovac Republic.

How do your characters help you get the missional theme across?

If you fall in love with a character, whether it is Lynn the Bishop or Bubba Broussard the football player, something that they say or do may inspire you. That is seed-planting.

How is your writing a ministry?

I do not feel whole unless I am writing. I would not waste my time writing something that was purposeless. I must be faithful to this gift. I could not justify all those hours unless it was missional.

By SUZANNE STABILE
Special Contributor

Most of us know that Christianity is going through a time of enormous change.

The church is struggling under undeniable shifts in the culture. Old denominations are losing members, nondenominational communities are on the rise, and many followers of Jesus are gathering in cafes and coffeehouses, parks, bars and homes.

Estimates say 35 percent of all Christians today are emergent, including many who attend house or community churches, those embracing neo-monasticism, those leaving “organized religion” completely, and a large group who are searching.

Emerging Christianity is not a worship style, a program, a way to save dying denominations, nor can it be packaged.

If we, as a church, are to re- examine our call as followers of Christ, we need a place to begin that provides us with common ground.

To that end, Life in the Trinity Ministry will hold an experiential workshop examining “The Four Cornerstones of Emerging Christianity.”

The conversation Sept. 30-Oct. 1 will focus on four basic tenants: classical spiritual disciplines, authentic Christian community, social justice and the historical Jesus.

An ecumenical group of leaders, many of whom have been examining Emergent Christianity for the last decade, will show new ways of looking at and understanding the role of the church.

They include Brian McLaren and the Revs. Nadia Bolz-Weber, Joseph Stabile, Fred Schmidt, Courtney Pinkerton, Bill McElvaney, Robyn Michalove, Larry James and Dr. Doug Slawson.

Participants will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding and practical knowledge through small group encounters and selected focus on one of these four tenants. We invite you to please join us.

In the midst of the fear and confusion many of us feel surrounding the decline of mainline denominations, the questions are many, but so is the excitement.

Sessions start at 6 p.m. Sept. 30 at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas, with the Oct. 1 location to be announced then. For more information, see www.lifeinthetrinityministry.com.

Susan Stabile is a lay member of Cochran Chapel UMC.

Thirty-two people came to the opening service July 17 of First UMC Rowlett’s new faith community, New Day Garland.

They shared a simple meal at the new apartment of the Revs. Ceciliah Igweta and Jacob Keega. After the service and holy communion, the group blessed the home and ministry of the couple.

New Day is part of a growing network of missional micro-communities based on prayer, hospitality and justice. New Day began within The United Methodist Church; other mainline churches have adapted the model to their traditions.

The New Day Garland group meets from 5-7 p.m. Sundays at the Crestridge Apartments, 3200 W. Walnut St., Apt. 203A, in Garland.

It is led by Igweta, a graduate of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. She is an ordained minister in The Methodist Church in Kenya (MCK).

Keega is a second-year student in Perkins’ master of theological studies program. Also an ordained clergyman in the MCK, he served for three years in two regions as a circuit minister in charge of mission and evangelism and the Methodist Youth Fellowship.

L. Marvin Guier, III

The Northwest District Office has moved to 2304 Midwestern Pkwy., Ste. 205, Wichita Falls, TX 76308.

The phone numbers will continue to be 940-767-6621 and 1-800-497-8163, and the email address, nwdistrict@nts-online.net, will remain the same.

The new office is about one mile south of Highway 82 (Kell Boulevard) at the corner of Taft Boulevard and Midwestern Parkway in the First National Bank of Wichita Falls building.

The Sherman office of the Northwest District has been closed, and the new space better meets the needs of the consolidated offices.

Alan Heath, executive director of First UMC McKinney, has been named chief executive officer of the United Methodist Reporter, effective Aug. 15.

Heath has extensive experience in the publishing industry, primarily with Taylor Publishing Co., based in Dallas. His background also includes doctoral-level class work in journalism, and he taught journalism, graphic design and photography at the college level early in his career.

Alan is a longtime member of Kavanaugh UMC in Greenville and has served in a variety of lay leadership roles.

For more information, see www.umportal.org/article.asp?id=8069.

More than a century after its humble beginnings as a home for unwed mothers, the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio has made a giant high-tech leap and now offers embryo adoption.

“The world is changing,” said Helen Huff, director of adoption services.

“We wanted to give families more options. Imagine giving birth to your adoptive child,” she said. “There are lots of embryos out there, and more and more are being adopted.”

According to Methodist Mission Home literature, “there are an estimated 500,000 embryos frozen in clinics across the U.S.

The embryos in the clinics remain after a family has successfully gained a child. The question of what should be done with the embryos does arise. Couples facing this question find peace in placing their embryos in a loving adoptive family.”

Methodist Mission Home executive director Jennifer Sample calls the move a continuation of the home’s “tradition as leaders in adoption.”

“Our board endorsed including embryo adoption within our adoption ministry, which includes domestic infant, international, older child adoptions,” she said. “Embryo adoption allows the adopting family to begin the adoption journey with pregnancy and childbirth.”

The Methodist Mission Home has placed 5,700 children for adoption over the years.

DeSoto pastor to preside over event in Nashville

By SHERON C. PATTERSON
Editor

North Texas Pastor Ouida Lee’s national reach will be evident at the assembling of hundreds of African-American clergywomen in Nashville, Tenn., over the Labor Day weekend.

The Rev. Lee leads the Black Clergy Women of The United Methodist Church, a national group that identifies, develops and supports African- American United Methodist clergywomen.

The conference’s theme is “Restoring the Joy: Leading the Church Through Transforming.”

“We selected this theme because our world is changing and it is important that clergywomen are prepared to meet the needs of our mobile, techno-savvy society,” Dr. Lee explained. “It is imperative that we remain on the cutting edge.”

Nationally known leaders will share ideas and issues that face African-American clergywomen. Speakers include noted theologians Dr. Katie Cannon and Dr. Renita Weems. Dr. Cannon wrote Black Womanist Ethics; Dr. Weems authored Just a Sister Away.

Conference attendees also will focus on the “Call to Action” and the “Tower Watson Report.”

For Dr. Lee, guiding a national organization and serving as senior pastor of Church of the Disciple in DeSoto is a full plate.

“It has been a labor of love and is facilitation, cooperation, collaboration with clergywomen across the nation,” she said. “The United Methodist Church is so uniquely organized that my work has been somewhat simplified because the Black Clergy Women’s group works through the Jurisdictions and local caucuses.

There are women who are so concerned that the Church remains vital and continues to do the work of Jesus through disciple-making.”

“There are unique challenges that face women of color in our church,” she said. “The voice of strong African- American women who have emerged through struggle and preach with power is often not valued. Our worship styles are often omitted, and the preaching of the gospel from positions of liberation is coached into silence. Our charisma is devalued and stigmatized.”

Dr. Lee said that in addition to positive gatherings for clergywomen of all races, there remains a need for a specialized group. “I am aware that we are members of a diverse church and am very appreciative of that, but there still exists the need for expression, nurture, strengthening and preparation for moving into the broader context in ways that are effective,” Dr. Lee explained.

By SHERON C. PATTERSON
Editor

The North Texas Conference United Methodist Women recently concluded its 39th annual School of Christian Mission, with the theme of Haiti, at First UMC Richardson.

The North Texas Conference was not alone, with more than 20,000 people participating in the Methodist Schools of Christian Mission, making them the largest adult Christian continuing education event in the United States.

In the NTC, about 185 women and men attended 12 different morning, afternoon and evening classes during the week, running July 18-21.

They came from churches that inclued Quinlan, Irving, Henrietta, Sulphur Springs, Rockwall, Highland Hills, Garland, Terrell, Coppell, Blue Ridge and Dallas.

The UMW joined with the NTC Center for Missional Outreach to provide identical classes in a retreat setting July 22-24 at Austin College in Sherman that attracted men and women, children and youth.

“We United Methodist Women are making a difference, and we have quite a history,” said Wendy Campbell, communications coordinator of the group.

“Our foremothers spoke out for justice when they organized against lynching in the 1930s,” she said.

“When hotels in St. Louis would not house black women coming to the 1942 assembly, our foremothers changed their plans and went elsewhere. By speaking out for compassion and against hate today, we will help bring about the changes supported by The United Methodist Social Principles and the Charter for Racial Justice, the changes we all hope and pray for.”

The School of Christian Mission Dean Team included Dana Harkey, dean; Dr. Mary Nickson, assistant dean this year and dean for 2012; Barbara Weaver, associate dean; and Wendy Campbell, who, in addition to being communications coordinator, has been elected to the 2012 West Gulf Regional School Planning Team (basically serving the South Central Jurisdiction).

For more information, see ntcumc.org/umw or write umw@ntcumc.org.

Photo by: Sheron C. Patterson

Here are Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe’s suggestions for vitalizing congregations:

Be who God has created you to be. We in The United Methodist Church must determine who we are as a denomination and who we are not. We as pastors and leaders need to avoid the trap of comparing ourselves or our ministries with others!

Embrace the crisis experience. Know that for God to do a great work in our church, we will need to go through some changes to learn something new.

See God’s greater vision beyond crises. Not only can we learn from crises, we can connect with new people. Get to know not only the people in your congregations. but also outside the church walls.

On-site learning locations

The 12 NTC churches that served as models for vital congregations are:

• Casa Linda
• Christ’s Foundry
• Faith (Corinth)
• First UMC Dallas
• Grace Avenue
• Highland Park
• Korean Central
• Lovers Lane
• Munger Place
• Oak Cliff
• St. Luke “Community”
• St. Luke “Community” South Campus