Roots of Peoples United Methodist Church
Part 61 Promise and Direction
This edition of Roots has reached a milestone in that if each of these additions to the Peoples News Letter had been included on a monthly basis this would begin the Sixth Year of its journey to attempt a meaningful history of the history of Peoples Church. Begun prior to the Sesquicentennial Celebration in January of 2003 it is still the writer’s intent to include significant events in the life of Peoples before publishing all of them as a book. At the same time as we have been collecting general history of Peoples we have also been putting together a somewhat more definitive history of the pastors and their families that have served Peoples and a listing of those members of the parish who have entered the ministry from Peoples. We have also solicited brief family histories of both living and deceased contributors to the church and we also expect that we will be able to include all of the memorials that have been given to the church to honor members of the church family. It is not to late for folks to contribute to the family history segment since that portion of the book-to-be is perhaps yet another year away. Anyone who has interesting stories about people and events in the life of the church that has not shared them with me, I would still appreciate receiving them for inclusion in the final book. I do hope that to this date you have found the Roots column on the blog and in the Newsletter meaningful in understanding how heritage of a church family plays a vital role in its present directions.
While our previous episode in the life of Peoples seemed quite gloomy because of change and loss, the ship did not sink. As a matter of fact and course, Peoples was represented quite well at the New England Conference. Diane Yosua and John Cadman were the churches voting delegates to the Conference. Melissa Yosua, Dan and Matt Yosua, Katie Yosua, Justin Harvey and Chris Brann represented the youth of the church extremely well. Reverends Andrea Harvey (Youth Coordinator), Priscilla Dreyman (Spiral Arts) and Wanda Stahl (Church Growth Coordinator) and our new pastor, Reverend William Beddie were all ministerial representatives with ties to Peoples. Diane was the writer of the conference report to Peoples on that occasion and for the 2000 Peoples Annual Report. One of the major issues that presented itself for the first time was the issue of Inclusiveness/Reconciliation on the issue of Homosexuality. In her report, Diane was somewhat aghast at the political tactics that were used by the Reconciling Task Force which presented to the body of the whole a New England Declaration. Diane reported
that they declared that homosexuality is "a good gift from God and is compatible with Biblical teaching which at that time was still considered to be a stand against what is written in the United Methodist Discipline. While the issue had been presented before and it would be again it has proved to be rather contentious each time.
Diane also mentioned how absolutely proud she was of the involvement of so many Peoples’ youth in the proceedings of the conference. Melissa Yosua was the Vice President of the New England MYF and Matt and Dan were active as they have been since with the technical and computer operations of the Conference. During the year 2000 the youth raised over $7000 toward youth ministries of the conference by challenging all of the member MYF’s in what was known as the Penny Challenge. It just so happened that the Tri-state District of which Peoples is one church won the year-long contest that ended at this the 2000 Annual New England Conference. Another method of raising money that the youth concocted was to have a bigger than life size cardboard mockup of Bishop Susan Hassinger that was used to encourage conference attendees to have their picture taken with her. Finally Melissa and other members of the youth cabinet presented a bill to the assembled delegates to support a Conference-wide youth leader. After presenting their message to the Conference, voting delegates approved the creation of such a position.
In the Church Profile that was drawn up by the Staff –Parish Committee and concluded on April 20, 1999 the following questions were answered about the future of Peoples. Where is God leading the church? What are its goals? To these questions the respondents wrote: "Over the past few years, many feel we as a congregation have lost track of where God was leading us. The primary goals of the church at the present time are to more intentionally focus on nurturing the spiritual life of its members through Disciple and other small groups within and beyond the congregation and improve communication within the congregation and to the local community." "What kind of leadership skills does the church need to meet its short and long term goals?" was then responded to.
The response to this question was as follows: "Restoration of some degree of tradition was one inclusion. Normality after a really tumultuous four-year period in the life of the church was another of the suggestions." As we look back on these suggestions from the perspective of time and as the Cabinet also did we were looking for someone as pastor who would lead and listen to a diversified congregation by age and interest. Someone who would be expected to lead, but also to share that leadership with lay members of the congregation.
District Superintendent Donald Rudalevidge introduced Reverend Doctor William Beddie from the former New Hampshire Conference and who had pastored a number of churches in New Hampshire to Peoples Staff –Parish Committee. In Bill’s introduction to us he said that he would be a "back to basics" preacher on Christ Jesus and his words in the Gospels. His preaching would carry the basic message of developing a personal relationship with God through Jesus from whom all God-centered changes take place for individuals, the church and the community.
Fred Yosua became the leader of the Church Council when Lisa Alexander stepped down. Fred was well organized and called all leaders of groups to develop Mission and Vision statements. This was a direct follow-up to the directions that had been presented by the Focus and Implementation Committees. In addition he proposed that all leaders and groups using their new mission and vision statements develop action plans that would be followed up through the Church Council. Some were reluctant to do this, but this was an excellent suggestion for making each task group or formal group accountable for their existence. As long as Fred was leading the charge for accountability it worked and worked well. While we had gone through some relatively, at least in some peoples’ minds, nonproductive years it was the work of folks like the Yosuas that kept things perking.
In our next episode we will take a short break from our local history. We will take a look at some of the changes that had taken place in the greater United Methodist Church. We will also look at some of the features of worldwide news at the beginning of the Twenty first century.
Part 61 Promise and Direction
This edition of Roots has reached a milestone in that if each of these additions to the Peoples News Letter had been included on a monthly basis this would begin the Sixth Year of its journey to attempt a meaningful history of the history of Peoples Church. Begun prior to the Sesquicentennial Celebration in January of 2003 it is still the writer’s intent to include significant events in the life of Peoples before publishing all of them as a book. At the same time as we have been collecting general history of Peoples we have also been putting together a somewhat more definitive history of the pastors and their families that have served Peoples and a listing of those members of the parish who have entered the ministry from Peoples. We have also solicited brief family histories of both living and deceased contributors to the church and we also expect that we will be able to include all of the memorials that have been given to the church to honor members of the church family. It is not to late for folks to contribute to the family history segment since that portion of the book-to-be is perhaps yet another year away. Anyone who has interesting stories about people and events in the life of the church that has not shared them with me, I would still appreciate receiving them for inclusion in the final book. I do hope that to this date you have found the Roots column on the blog and in the Newsletter meaningful in understanding how heritage of a church family plays a vital role in its present directions.
While our previous episode in the life of Peoples seemed quite gloomy because of change and loss, the ship did not sink. As a matter of fact and course, Peoples was represented quite well at the New England Conference. Diane Yosua and John Cadman were the churches voting delegates to the Conference. Melissa Yosua, Dan and Matt Yosua, Katie Yosua, Justin Harvey and Chris Brann represented the youth of the church extremely well. Reverends Andrea Harvey (Youth Coordinator), Priscilla Dreyman (Spiral Arts) and Wanda Stahl (Church Growth Coordinator) and our new pastor, Reverend William Beddie were all ministerial representatives with ties to Peoples. Diane was the writer of the conference report to Peoples on that occasion and for the 2000 Peoples Annual Report. One of the major issues that presented itself for the first time was the issue of Inclusiveness/Reconciliation on the issue of Homosexuality. In her report, Diane was somewhat aghast at the political tactics that were used by the Reconciling Task Force which presented to the body of the whole a New England Declaration. Diane reported
that they declared that homosexuality is "a good gift from God and is compatible with Biblical teaching which at that time was still considered to be a stand against what is written in the United Methodist Discipline. While the issue had been presented before and it would be again it has proved to be rather contentious each time.
Diane also mentioned how absolutely proud she was of the involvement of so many Peoples’ youth in the proceedings of the conference. Melissa Yosua was the Vice President of the New England MYF and Matt and Dan were active as they have been since with the technical and computer operations of the Conference. During the year 2000 the youth raised over $7000 toward youth ministries of the conference by challenging all of the member MYF’s in what was known as the Penny Challenge. It just so happened that the Tri-state District of which Peoples is one church won the year-long contest that ended at this the 2000 Annual New England Conference. Another method of raising money that the youth concocted was to have a bigger than life size cardboard mockup of Bishop Susan Hassinger that was used to encourage conference attendees to have their picture taken with her. Finally Melissa and other members of the youth cabinet presented a bill to the assembled delegates to support a Conference-wide youth leader. After presenting their message to the Conference, voting delegates approved the creation of such a position.
In the Church Profile that was drawn up by the Staff –Parish Committee and concluded on April 20, 1999 the following questions were answered about the future of Peoples. Where is God leading the church? What are its goals? To these questions the respondents wrote: "Over the past few years, many feel we as a congregation have lost track of where God was leading us. The primary goals of the church at the present time are to more intentionally focus on nurturing the spiritual life of its members through Disciple and other small groups within and beyond the congregation and improve communication within the congregation and to the local community." "What kind of leadership skills does the church need to meet its short and long term goals?" was then responded to.
The response to this question was as follows: "Restoration of some degree of tradition was one inclusion. Normality after a really tumultuous four-year period in the life of the church was another of the suggestions." As we look back on these suggestions from the perspective of time and as the Cabinet also did we were looking for someone as pastor who would lead and listen to a diversified congregation by age and interest. Someone who would be expected to lead, but also to share that leadership with lay members of the congregation.
District Superintendent Donald Rudalevidge introduced Reverend Doctor William Beddie from the former New Hampshire Conference and who had pastored a number of churches in New Hampshire to Peoples Staff –Parish Committee. In Bill’s introduction to us he said that he would be a "back to basics" preacher on Christ Jesus and his words in the Gospels. His preaching would carry the basic message of developing a personal relationship with God through Jesus from whom all God-centered changes take place for individuals, the church and the community.
Fred Yosua became the leader of the Church Council when Lisa Alexander stepped down. Fred was well organized and called all leaders of groups to develop Mission and Vision statements. This was a direct follow-up to the directions that had been presented by the Focus and Implementation Committees. In addition he proposed that all leaders and groups using their new mission and vision statements develop action plans that would be followed up through the Church Council. Some were reluctant to do this, but this was an excellent suggestion for making each task group or formal group accountable for their existence. As long as Fred was leading the charge for accountability it worked and worked well. While we had gone through some relatively, at least in some peoples’ minds, nonproductive years it was the work of folks like the Yosuas that kept things perking.
In our next episode we will take a short break from our local history. We will take a look at some of the changes that had taken place in the greater United Methodist Church. We will also look at some of the features of worldwide news at the beginning of the Twenty first century.
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