26 October 2009 by Gail Carter.

How so?  Check out the Gift Card program!  It’s being used by over 300 Glen Mar families for everyday purchases which creates a steady stream of free money to support ministries right here and around the globe!

The primary feature of this program is that it COSTS YOU NOTHING extra.  You pay face value for any card (for retailers that you already use) - - Glen Mar buys the cards at a discount averaging 5%.  There are over 400 merchants in the program - grocers, gas stations, entertainment, travel, clothing, books, home improvement, restaurants, and more.  Actually, almost 50% of cards purchased to date are for groceries - Giant, Safeway, and SuperFresh - - -  everyone buys groceries!!!!

The free money that is generated helps many ministries INCLUDING OUR OWN OPERATING BUDGET (saving us $2700 so far).  Benefits right here at Glen Mar include not only the Operating Budget, but our landscaping materials, the Dunkin’ Donuts treats for Sunday morning, gas for mission trips,  $5000 in scholarships for mission trip youth & adults…………even our communion bread!!  Reaching into the world, we’ve contributed $6,000 recently to UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) to support disaster relief in Asia……..just as an example!  Many local ministries are supported also, such as Grass Roots and ministries in Baltimore & Fort Meade.

If you haven’t participated in the program yet, the holiday season is a great time to try it out!  there are even American Express and VISA cards available without the service fee ($5.95) required to buy the same card at many retailers.  Please visit www.ShopWithScrip.com for program information or a list of merchants.  If you want to order cards in advance, register as a Glen Mar supporter using enrollment code AF 17656D14184 (case sensitive).  When you order by Monday of any given week, the cards will be delivered to you at church on the following Sunday.  Just pay for them when you pick them up!

As a final incentive, the profits you generate are a tax-deductible donation to the church (IRS ruling in July 2009).  Now every time you shop, you can be creating a small tax benefit.  There is no additional record-keeping for you - - - Glen Mar tracks every purchase.

Stop by the gift card table on Sunday in the Gathering Area.  You’ll be glad you did!!

Gail Carter, Lay Leader

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4 September 2009 by Gail Carter.

The popularity of the “Got Milk?” ads is not only effective, but funny & eye-grabbing!  Seems to me that GlenMartians should publish a few, except that instead of milk being on the lips of every featured person, it should be fruit: the fruit of Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-taking Mission/Service, and Extravagant Generosity.

There are so many obvious sources of fruit in our church already - - - the Gift Card program, the Greeters, our Sunday morning worship, etc.  These are obvious and highly visible so they come to mind immediately.  BUT, what about the others?  What about those of which we never hear a resounding AMEN! or see at busy tables in the Gathering Area, or see identified by brightly colored shirts? 

How many other examples of our focused Practices exist and are being lived out in the body of Glen Mar?  We want to celebrate the least known as well as the most obvious.  

What are fruitful practices that you see in your life at Glen Mar?  Are they within your ministry, or acts that you see around you?  Is it a group, or even just one person?  We’re looking for enlightenment for that which we may be unaware or have overlooked.

Please email me (layleader@glenmarumc.org or gamarcar@verizon.net), drop a note in the Open Mailbox (literature rack in the Gathering Area), put a note in Pastor Mary Ka’s mailbox (across from the kitchen), or email her (maryka.kanahan@glenmarumc.org).

We are looking forward to hearing from you!!

Gail Carter, Lay Leader

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6 June 2009 by Glen Lauber.

It’s the last day and we have a lot to do. I had breakfast with Melissa in the staff dining room.

The UMConnection Daily on Friday’s events is available.

We approved the trustees report and then began to debate a resolution on dialogue on many aspects of sexuality. There were a few amendments proposed, some accepted, some rejected. The amendments are not yet available for me to report accurately.

There were proposals not considered because they were submitted late and we ran out of time. Had there been time they would have been considered.

I left at 10 a.m. once the business was concluded. Following the business was an observance for clergy and clergy spouses who died in the preceding year, and ordination.

It was a good conference. They are always exhausting, and sometimes it’s hard to see what was accomplished. There is a web page where one may review the entire conference.

That’s all for this year.

Glen

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5 June 2009 by Glen Lauber.

It’s Friday morning, and I am tired. Last night went late and, of course, it took me a while to relax in order to sleep. See the UM Connection Daily for today to get a synopsis of yesterday’s events and actions.

We will have to vote on the amendments, again, because a class of pastors, known as, “Local Pastors,” were allowed to vote and should not have been. It was a curious discussion about the amendments last night. Frankly, while I was out of the country I did not have the time or energy to study either the amendments or their background. I learned that they 23 amendments concerning church organization were proposed by the Council of Bishops. As a result, Bishop Schol offered remarks, with the consent of the body, on what the council says the amendments mean. It’s too much to go into here, but most of the amendments appear to increase flexibility for organizing the church around the world, not actually reorganize it. Those in opposition suggest that this will result in different regions adopting different doctrines. The bishop emphasized that those kinds of changes are reserved solely for the General Conference, and therefore no regional group could change them for their region.

Here are some snippets one should know, about which I am not writing:

·      This is the 225^th annual conference for this part of the church; that means the first one was held in 1784 (Lovely Lane, in Baltimore, creating the denomination)

·      Twenty-six pastors are retiring with 638 years of experience, include former Glen Mar pastor, Rev. Donna Martin

·      White House Religion Liaison, Paul Monteiro, spoke Thursday night and participated in a panel discussion on community ministry

Today we will here reports from the Discipleship and Stewardship parts of the conference (including voting on the budget) and celebrate our partnerships with parts of the church in Zimbabwe, Latin America, Korea, and Russia. Other legislation will also come before the body.

Well, nothing super remarkable about this morning. We heard an interesting discussion by Rev. Jessica Duckworth, a professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, about Young Adult Ministry (18-35). Andy was taking notes. One note I wrote was that churches with about 30% or more people age 35 or younger attract young adults.

Also, the body approved a motion to target the proceeds from the sale of a district superintendant parsonage to starting a new church, and Hispanic ministry.

We celebrated retirees, those who will be ordained Saturday, those who were commissioned and two new local pastors. We also celebrated those whose appointments were changing. That included John and Mary Ka.

One of the speakers today was Erin M. Hawkins, the General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion & Race, based in Washington, D.C. She spoke powerfully of story and the language we use to tell the story. She asks us to consider if our story as individuals and church hamper us or help us move forward. She also asks us to consider whether the language we choose to use in our stories reflects hope or hurt.

The budget (page 46) was adopted, but not before some strenuously urged adding some items in their personal agendas without a plan or suggestions from where the money would come. They were referred to the Council Finance & Administration, which will consider, in consultation with the bodies responsible for those programs what to do about the proposals.

We also approved, with some amendment, revisions to the policies that guide decisions on how many staff persons a church can afford (page 61).

It was a long day. Al and I had dinner at 8 p.m. and I was asleep before 9:30 p.m.

Glen

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4 June 2009 by Glen Lauber.

Well, here I am. It’s 7 a.m., Thursday, and I’m in the hotel lounge waiting for breakfast with Andy. Arrival at the Waterfront Marriott in Baltimore yesterday was uneventful. There are very few places in our region that can accommodate roughly 1400 people, and allow them to meet in one room and satisfy accessibility requirements, and some of those are prohibitively expensive.

Today there will be a meeting of all the clergy and a meeting of all the laity. Worship, a speech by the bishop on the state of the church, more worship, and a speech by Paul Monteiro, the president’s religion liaison. In addition, the conference will consider various pieces of legislation. We will debate and vote to ratify 32 amendments to the Constitution of The United Methodist Church approved by the General Conference of the church last year. Most of the amendments address the global nature of the church. At present the church in the United States dominates the church in other parts of the world. These amendments propose that there be a balance in the church around the world. While at first blush this might seem an obviously good thing to do, not everybody agrees. The arguments against it have merit.

For a review of conference preparations and pre-conference news, see the UM Connection Daily for Thursday.

I am not the only one here. Glen Mar sends four lay people to the conference as members of the conference. As such we vote our consciences for the good of the whole region. Why four? It’s not based on size relative to other churches, but rather on how many ordained clergy we have. Our ordained clergy are Andy, John, Al, and Ruth, who are members of the conference, not Glen Mar. Our lay members this year are: me, Dottie Byers, Karol Hess, and Lynne Phillips.

The laity session was so-so. The speaker, Joseph Robinson, Jr., was average. We heard the usual reports from the United Methodist Women, United Methodist Men, the Lay Speaking leadership and Young Adult Council. Nothing remarkable happened. Lunch was a nice fish dish.

Sadly, I will miss the entire afternoon while tending to family matters. I should be back for the evening session. Tomorrow’s conference daily newspaper should be able to fill you in.

Well, I got back in time for the elections of conference officers for the next year. Andy, Al, Dottie, and I went to dinner. After dinner we approved the consent calendar and discussed the 32 proposed amendments to the constitution. After an hour of questions and speeches we completed our ballots and adjourned for the night.

Glen

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3 June 2009 by Glen Lauber.

Last year I decided to get with it, and blog. I chose the Annual Conference of the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church. Take a deep breath before you say it. I will make the same attempt this year, trying to post each day’s events either that night or the next morning.

Two important publications for following events are the Pre-Conference Booklet and the Annual Conference Booklet. The second has updates from the first and material not found in the first.

It will be an important record for Glen Mar of this important convention. As Lay Members of the Annual Conference from Glen Mar, we are charged with keeping you informed about conference business. It is my hope that these blog entries will satisfy that requirement. I will also post links to each daily edition of the UMConnection, published Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

I’ll be in touch.

-Glen, Church Council Chair and Lay Member to Annual Conference

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6 May 2009 by Gail Carter.

You’ve been heard, and we want to hear more! 

A new communication feature is being initiated and you’re invited to participate.  This week, there will be an “Open Mailbox” situated in the Gathering Area.  It’s not fancy……just a white cardboard container with a blue mailbox printed on it.  The Open Mailbox blank forms will be in the mobile kiosk for you to jot down ANY question or ANY comment you would like to be addressed.

You will receive a response to your submission within 5-7 working days.  I will make every effort to empty the box at least twice a week and distribute your comments/questions to the proper ministry head for response.  In some cases, I may be able to respond myself, in which case you will be hearing from me immediately.

PLEASE take advantage of this opportunity!  There isn’t any excuse for concerns to go unheard or questions to be unanswered.  Remember that, no matter how insignificant you may think your ideas/concerns are, your voice is important.  Many times something that is important to you has not even been thought of by others.  So………..go for it!!!!  Any topic is fair game.  Let us know what is bothering you, what you’d like to see happen, what you’re wondering about, even rate your level of satisfaction with our new space.

We’ll be looking forward to hearing from you!!!

Gail Carter, Lay Leader

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14 March 2009 by Gail Carter.

Is there anyone not affected by the economic downturn??  If you’re looking for a new job, or just afraid you’re about to lose your current one, I’ve found some really helpful websites to investigate!  Are you in a technical field?  Try krop.com or dice.com.  How about available executive positions? Go to theladders.com, 6figurejobs.com, or vault.com.  If you have a finance background, there’s careerbank.com and efinancialcareers.com.  The health care industry posts jobs on biospace.com and healthcareerweb.com.  Not into the 9-5 grind?  Hourly jobsare listed at snagajob.com and employmentguide.com.  Other sites include idealist.org (non-profs), jobing.com (regional opportunities), workinretail.com (obvious), and vetjobs.com (veteran’s skill sets desired).   If all else fails, try findarecruiter.com, i-recruit.com, or onlinerecruitersdirectory.com.  They’re all worth a shot!!  Good luck

If you’re hearing a “call” to serve on a new Glen Mar team, consider the Finance area!  Don Lee is our new chair of Stewardship and would certainly be happy to hear from you.  There are a couple of new finance areas also:  Planned Giving/Endowment Fund and Alternative Fund Raising.  Jeff Carter will be implementing these two very important facets of our ministry base soon and is currently looking for folks to serve.  Please consider giving Jeff a call at 410-531-6563 if these areas are of interest to you.  The Church Endowment Fund will provide opportunities for expressions of gratitude and discipleship and is established to provide permanent financial support to expand Glen Mar’s mission statement.  The Alternative Fund Raising ministry will coordinate timing/rollout of alternative fund raising venues and explore grant-writing options for Glen Mar. 

Speaking of jobs - - we’re all going to find it hard to say goodbye to John Nupp at the end of June; however, we do have the joy of welcoming Mary Ka Kanahan (yes, “Ka” is spelled correctly - but sounds like “Kay”!!!) into our midst on July 1.  Mary Ka will be our new Associate Pastor, taking John’s place.  She is currently at Pleasant Grove UMC in Reisterstown where she serves as pastor.  She actually began her ministry journey at Bethany UMC  as Lay Ministry Coordinator, helping members of that congregation identify their spiritual gifts and guiding them into laity service.  Following that assignment, she led a coaching ministry in Ellicott City where she specialized in growing spiritual leadership in individuals and organizations by helping them define their ministry and stewardship goals.  Her most recent assignment, before Pleasant Grove, was at Asbury UMC in Washington, DC .   Mary Ka has two sons, one (Brian) at Howard Community College and the other (Matthew) at Mt. Hebron High School.  She will celebrate her commissioning to the Baltimore Washington Conference this coming June.  Her qualifications are a perfect match to the requests we outlined to the Bishop earlier this year.

And in other news……………if you’re looking for some funny church stuff, check out Rev. Dean Snyder (pastor of Foundry UMC in DC) on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  His appearance was in conjunction with the BWConference’s welcoming campaign surrounding the inauguration of President Obama, and his report on the First Family’s search for a new church.  Find it at thedailyshow.com - -  - click on “videos”, then select “Jan. 28, 2009″ in the timeline. 

Keep your eye out for upcoming Glen Mar University offerings!!!  One of them is going to be a Sign Language Class.  WooHoo!  Really looking forward to that.  Continue to check out the entire website for program updates and what else is going on around GMC.

Peace to all of you during this Lenten Season!

Gail Carter, Lay Leader

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13 February 2009 by Gail Carter.

We’ve got lots of things coming up during the season of Lent!  Our Lenten Initiative Bible Study begins during the week of 2/23.  You can find out more by checking out the Community Life page here on the website or by contacting John Nupp at john.nupp@glenmarumc.org.  There are service projects attached to this bible study, so we’re not only serving our congregation, but the community in general.

On February 17, there will be a kick-off meeting for the new Special Needs Ministry.  This is a new and much-needed addition to our list of small group opportunities that will not only raise awareness, but assist us as we become more and more inclusive as a large church.  Email Donna Stinchcomb at donna.stinchcomb@glenmarumc.org to get involved in this worthwhile and exciting ministry group.

United Methodist Communications is offering a free online course in Web Mininstry.  Go to http://web.umcom.org or contact Cheryl Hemmerle at 888-278-4862, or training@umcom.org.  The leadership at Glen Mar is making strides every day to fine-tune and contribute to our website to make it not only more user-friendly, but a valuable tool for information and recruiting.  If you are tech-savvy and have ideas about our website, you may consider starting a Web Ministry Group here at Glen Mar.  A great example of how it’s done can be found at http://ginghamsburg.org/.  This is just one church (in Ohio) that’s had success with a web ministry.  You can contact me (layleader@glenmarumc.org) or John Nupp (john.nupp@glenmarumc.org) with your thoughts.

Check out the Sanctuary Choir offerings on March 29th.  They are combining with Severna Park UMC to present portions of Messiah at the 9:30 service.  Portions of that offering will be presented at the 8:00 service with a small ensemble.  On March 22, Glen Mar’s choir will travel to Severna Park UMC for the same program.   Ash Wednesday - February 25 - will be another service offering beautiful music and handbell pieces.  Singers are always welcome to come join the choir for rehearsals!  Contact Carrie, our Minister for Music (carrie.grams@glenmarumc.org).

Don’t forget to come out on Tuesday, 2/24, for the Pancake Supper/Silent Auction, sponsored by the Youth Ministry.  This is always a fun night!!!  Check out the Youth Webpage for further info.

We’re still investigating possibilities for offering another service.  Have an idea or request??? Register it with Mandy Sayers (mandy.sayers@glenmarumc.org), she’ll be glad to hear from you!!!

Blessings to all in this season of Lent!

Gail Carter, Lay Leader

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24 May 2008 by Glen Lauber.

Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center, Oxon Hill, MD

May 24, 2008

Good morning from the shores of the Potomac River. We finished business this morning, resolving two leftovers from Friday and two potentially controversial issues all in the spirit of holy conferencing. The conference wrap-up is available on the conference website.

First, Bishop Schol presented a compromise on the BOOM nominations issue (see entry from day 2), which was accepted by the body. The BOOM executive committee and the cabinet agreed to add four more members.

Once that was settled balloting for endorsing a candidate for bishop commenced (see entry for day 2 on issues opened that day). Using the process agreed to on Friday, four nominations were made from the floor. Members of the conference voted for either the delegation-endorsed candidate, four candidates nominated from the floor, and “no nominee.” With 66 percent required for endorsement, a candidate was selected on the third ballot. The Rev. Peggy Johnson of Christ UMC of the Deaf in Baltimore (the delegation’s choice) will be the candidate for bishop from our annual conference when the jurisdictional conference convenes in Harrisburg, PA in July.

What remained were three petitions: a motion to change the pension system, one to encourage support of pregnancy centers, and another to support the continuation of dialog teams on sexual orientation and gender identity (see the pre-conference journal pages 58-60). The pension resolution failed and the other two passed with small amendments.

That afternoon, 18 women and men were ordained as Elders (like Andy and John) and one woman was ordained a full member Deacon (like Al and Ruth). There were also 15 provisional members who were commissioned (people working toward ordination).

The next session of annual conference will be held June 4-6, 2009 at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in Baltimore.

By and large, this was one of the better annual conferences. It was a good moment for holy conferencing. The bishop set the tone from the start of the conference that gave the Spirit priority over agendas. That became evident this morning when all the controversial issues came to a head. Tomorrow I might have some reflections to share.

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