Getting to Know Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball

Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball

I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I am excited, honored, and humbled to be called to come alongside you in the mission and ministry of Christ as together Bishop Moore-Koikoi and I serve together as episcopal Spiritual leaders for the Susquehanna, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia Conferences. I look forward to this collaborative journey with you as God does a new thing! I can already sense the movement of God’s Spirit as Bishop Moore-Koikoi and I have our weekly meetings to pray and prepare together, for new relationships with clergy and laity, and journeying together in new ways to become even more effective in making Disciples of Jesus Christ, growing vital congregations and leaders, and Building God’s Kingdom. 

My vision for the Church is to be a dynamic network of faith communities passionate about sharing the hope, love, and life of Christ. What I envision is a group of collaborative followers of Jesus Christ who truly capture the meaning of what it means to “Go!” I envision a group of followers of Jesus Christ who understand that they have a gift so great in Christ that they cannot keep this gift to themselves; a community that understands that the Church’s most critical mission is to reach out, go out, and genuinely, authentically, connect with and invite those who are not yet part of the faith community. This vision will only be fulfilled as we discover and learn how to better equip and empower leaders to fulfill, and to lead others to fulfill, both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

How do we do this? Equip and Empower for the current, post pandemic and future generations? We give opportunities to grow. We connect people with new ways of fulfilling the Gospel story. We explore and test new strategies and structures and learn how to delegate, empower, collaborate, and share. We break down walls, build bridges, and work to make the artificial boundaries we have erected between peoples, districts, conferences, licensed, ordained, and lay, more porous. We engage scripture. We model our own lives after the example of Christ. We celebrate and share the story of Christ wherever we find ourselves, without apology. We do the work of God. We point out where God is already at work and join God there – no matter where “there” is. We constantly ask the question: “How will [this] make disciples of Jesus Christ?”

As I join with Bishop Moore-Koikoi and with you in this exciting adventure with Christ I pray that each of you, clergy and laity, will be open to what God is saying to you about your call and responsibility for making Disciples of Christ and building God’s Kingdom. I pray that you will allow the river of God’s Spirit to flow through you and overflow from you to your local church, community, and the world. I am praying and invite you to pray with me for God’s transforming power to be experienced and received in ways that will bring resurrection to your lives individually, the churches where you worship, and to the larger community of faith!

Thank you for the warm and wonderful welcome you have given to both Bishop Moore-Koikoi and to me, as we have begun some of the transitional work and meetings! Thank you to all those persons who are prayerfully preparing for this new opportunity and way of ministry and leadership. Thank you for all your prayers in the midst of transition! I would especially like to thank Bishop Park. I am grateful for the time he spent with your two new bishops sharing the gifts, the mission, and ministry of this Conference. 

Please keep both Bishop Moore-Koikoi and I in your prayers as we continue to transition, listen, and to discern God’s voice and God’s Will. God is doing a new thing! It is exciting! It is renewing and invigorating! Yes, it is a bit anxiety producing – however – that just means that God is in the midst of this. When God gives us a vision that seems greater than we are, we do not have to fret. God has assured us that the bigger the vision God gives (and we embrace), the more power God promises will pulsate through us, so that in Christ, we become more than able to fulfill the vision. Our prayers, our searching should never be for small visions, but for great ones. Big visions are not occasions for doubt and discouragement. No, big visions are occasions for joy and rejoicing because the power is on the way! 

Susquehanna Conference, God’s power is already moving among you! I am looking forward with joyful anticipation to joining with you and with Bishop Moore-Koikoi in that movement. 

Grace and Peace.

Getting to Know Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi

In March 2021, the Northeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops announced that Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball and Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi will provide episcopal leadership and coverage of Susquehanna, West Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania Conferences during the interim period of September 1, 2021 through December 31, 2022 due to the postponed General and Jurisdictional Conferences. Get to know our new bishops by viewing this video and through the following letters.

Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi

The first Pentecost Day was so astonishing it almost overwhelmed the thousands of people who were gathered together. Indeed, God did a new thing as God, through the rush of the wind, poured out God’s Holy Spirit over thousands of diverse people; and the church was born. That rush of wind was such a seminal experience in the life of the church that 2,000 years later, not only do we commemorate that singular day, but we spend an entire season celebrating God’s gift of the Holy Spirit for the work of the church. Pentecost extends from May through the start of Advent in November.

Sometimes as a result of the typical summer programming lull in many churches, we don’t take full advantage of this time in the liturgical year to really celebrate and praise God for the new thing that God did for the church. This year, I am going to be more intentional about celebrating Pentecost in my personal devotion time, and I invite you to do the same. I encourage you to commit to praying, throughout this season, prayers of thanksgiving and praise to God for Pentecost. 

Here is one of my prayers for us all:

Almighty God, the only One who can impart the Holy Spirit like a rush of violent wind and tongues of fire, we thank you for all you have given to your church. We praise you for the gift of diversity that you blessed and made holy on that first Day of Pentecost. Thank you for the times that your Spirit breaks through our humanness and causes persons who come from different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and perspectives to speak to one another in ways that lead to understanding, commitment to a common mission, and the conversion of others. 

Forgive us for the times we have sneered at and judged those whom you have gifted with the desire and ability to listen to and understand the other. Forgive us for the times we have squandered, ignored, been afraid of, mistrusted, or otherwise misused these and other gifts you have given us for the building up of your church. We thank you for your patience with us, God. 

O God, we ask that you ignite in us the same level of joy and awe those first churchgoers felt because of the presence of your spirit among them. Help us to continue to be or to become overwhelmingly, obnoxiously, astoundingly excited about being members of the United Methodist Church. Help us to feel the same urgency felt by those early converts who were “cut in the heart” and asked Peter and the apostles what they should do in response to their experience with your Holy Spirit. 

God, to You we give all honor, glory, and praise. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.  

One reason I want to be more intentional about celebrating this year is because I believe it is the providence of God that we will be embarking on our experiment in episcopal coverage for Susquehanna, Western Pennsylvania, and West Virginia during Pentecost. Bishop Steiner-Ball and I come to Susquehanna from different regions with diverse experiences, distinct expectations, and - because of all of the acronyms that we United Methodists use - different languages. We will need a little Pentecost to do this to work.

Because of my faith, I expect God’s Holy Spirit will come to us and we will be able to understand one another, be in awe and wonder of God, get excited about discerning what God would have us to do, and commit to doing God’s will. Bishop Steiner-Ball and I already experienced a little Pentecost when all three cabinets gathered in Hershey the second week in June. We were encouraged and invigorated by our connecting and planning. We are anxious to do God’s will.

So I will intentionally be praying for Pentecost to be fully experienced in these three annual conferences so that thousands might ask of us, “What must we do to be saved?” 

To God be the glory.