The Kansas-West Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church

Being a Christian means belonging to God. God is big--so big we use words like infinite and omnipresent to describe God's nature. God is without limits and is always everywhere.

More than that, we Wesleyans believe that God's most important attribute is love. In fact, God's very nature is love. Among all the verses in the Bible, we treat 1 John 4:8 as basic to understanding who God is. John 3:16 indicates that God loves the whole world--not just one group.

From the beginning of the Christian movement, the disciples understood that the good news about Jesus needed to be shared with everyone. Based on Christ's command in Matthew 28:16-20, they sent missionaries from Jerusalem and Galilee to other parts of the Roman Empire. Some accounts say they made it as far as India.

As the centuries passed, Christians continued to send out missionaries. In the 19th century, the Protestant churches became energized by the missionary idea and sent missionaries all over the world. Those missionaries preached the gospel, and people were converted. Our forefathers and foremothers in the faith formed Evangelical, United Brethren and Methodist churches in many countries. Hospitals were founded. Schools were formed. They did in those places what Christians usually do: evangelized, discipled, worshipped, fed, healed and served.

Over time, some of the United Methodists in those countries chose to become separate churches. Today, we refer to them as "Affiliated Autonomous Churches," which means that they are affiliated with us by history and doctrine, but they are self-governing. The Methodist churches in Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, Brazil, India and many other places fit this description. We United Methodists relate to these churches in a variety of ways, one of which is through the World Methodist Council.

But many others remained as part of the United Methodist Church. Beginning in the 1880s, they were grouped into central conferences, which were an intermediate level between the General Conference and the Annual Conference. The church in the Philippines and in Africa is growing, while in the United States and Europe, it is declining. Nevertheless, the United Methodist Church is one church serving Christ in more than 38 countries. We are united by sharing the same doctrine, mission and discipline. All of us are accountable to the actions of the General Conference as contained in the United Methodist "Book of Discipline."

As an example, when I went to Poland three years ago, I preached at a United Methodist congregation there. I was introduced as one of their bishops.

Part of our mission and ministry money (apportionments) supports Africa University in Zimbabwe.

The democratically elected president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is a United Methodist lay person, and she will address our General Conference later this month. At General Conference, almost 30 percent of the delegates will be from outside the United States. This means that the decision taken there will be made on a global basis.

One of the proposals on which I have worked for the past two years is a way of deciding which decisions are made globally, which are made by central conferences and which are made by annual conferences. For example, our doctrine is decided globally, while ordination and the starting of new congregations are decided by the annual conferences. Part of the genius of United Methodism is that we have a connectional system that connects us for mission in many different ways.

I am proud to belong to a church serving God all over the world!