By Shawn Gilgore, Director of Communications Ministry
The 2018 Bishop’s Retreat for Clergy Families was held January 15-17 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center. The retreat was a time away for clergy and their families to be able to re-center on God and to learn more ways to be fruitful for the people of the Susquehanna Conference. Keynote speaker was Rev. Tom Berlin, lead pastor at Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia. Rev. Berlin’s theme for the retreat was, ‘Bearing Fruit: Ministry with Real Results.’
Monday evening’s opening worship, which was on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, featured guest preacher Rev. Greg Milinovich, pastor of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College. His message spoke to the mission statement of the Annual Conference: ‘To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.’ “It isn’t just something we say,” said Milinovich. “It’s about living the way Jesus lived and loving the way Jesus loved … if we love in action, we march toward freedom.
“Fifty-three years ago, Dr. King spoke in the town that I serve, State College, Pennsylvania, using a refrain that night that has brought hope to many people in the years since. He said ‘Yes, we shall overcome. Because the arc of the moral is long, but it bends toward justice.’”
Later in his sermon, Milinovich found a rallying call for all of us to come together in Christ. “It’s the brokenness of Jesus in unconditional love. It’s in that, that the community of faith could have a common purpose – they could rally around something – a guiding force, a unifying power that would bind them together. That in the darkness of death and despair, in the utter darkness of the death of Jesus, we meet the one who is the light and who is love … and there is nothing that can separate us from that love.”
In the teaching sessions, Rev. Berlin took steps to make sure that we think about the United Methodist Church the right way. He asked, “Share some statements that sum up your experience with our church. Hear the word ‘our’? Notice that I didn’t say ‘your.’ Your means, ‘They own it.’ Our means, ‘We are in this together.’ And if you ask ‘Is it really that important?’ Yes, it is. Words are important … I’ve learned story after story from the members of my church who told me how God had used them. I learned stories of hardship. I learned things that I had to work through, and I learned things not to do.”
“You need to know your creation story,” said Berlin. “If you know your creation story, you can use that to get your church toward its future. You can get to a future that is consistent with your past, and your church’s values you care about the most will be reflected in a future that we make together and that is based on your past. And it should bring hope.
“Methodists value some things: vital worship; they love music; they love preaching; they value knowing God, and they love the corporate aspects of that; meeting in small groups to study the Bible together and to go deeper in their faith. And Methodists have always been people who love to bless their community. We have always been at the center of the community so that Christ can be at the center of our communities.”
