The Discernment Team has met twice since forming in mid-October. The last meeting was held on October 26th at 6pm.
The first meeting included each person introducing themselves and answering the questions: 1) How did you first come to Wilmore UMC? and 2) What do you love about our church?
Pastor D. then led the group through a teaching on discernment in order to set the tone for what the team’s work will be about. Part of the teaching included looking at Acts 15 – the story of how early believers overcame great disagreement to eventually establish that one did not have to be Jewish first to be a Christian. Acts 15:28 has been adopted as a kind of theme verse for the discernment team: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.”
The second meeting began with a devotional from 1 Samuel and seeing how Eli and Samuel learned to discern the Lord’s voice. Samuel’s response became the team’s prayer that evening, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
After the devotional, Matt Hadley led the group in an exercise to establish in the primary question the discernment team will be working on. This included naming the many issues surrounding our church and our denomination – both large and small. The question adopted for now is, “What will be Wilmore UMC’s relationship be to the United Methodist Church?” The team understands that the question may change a little as more conversations are had in the coming weeks.
Please continue to pray for this team, their work of discernment, and our church. The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, November 10th at 6pm.
Discernment Team Members: Sheila Lovell, Matt Hadley, Andrew Baker, Kim Sayre, Susan Brabon, Mel Noah, Jay Endicott, D. Merricks (ex-officio)