While we prepare our children for their classes, teachers, administrators, and a vast array of staff prepare buildings, classrooms, and lesson plans. They review the safety and security of the school buildings and playgrounds. Today is a good day to stop and think about all that goes into providing our children with a safe and welcoming environment for learning. Today is a good day to thank those who do this work.
Read MoreThe sacrament of the Lord’s Supper unites us beyond denominational lines and draws us back into the basics of Jesus’s teaching and witness as he fulfilled God’s promise of salvation for all of creation.
Read MoreThe upcoming Annual Conference registration deadline (May 28) is approaching quickly, and we are working hard to have everything ready for the June 6 opening session. Who comes up with the annual conference theme, coordinates the venue, runs the registration, creates the worship services, orchestrates the agenda, keeps us on track, decides the music, schedules the presentations, designs the slides, edits the videos and more?
Read MoreWhen I was first introduced to the United Methodist Church following college, I was drawn in by John Wesley’s balance of personal and social holiness. In our Wesleyan tradition, it is not enough to read the scriptures, pray and worship – we are called to live out our faith in witness to Christ’s love through acts of mercy and justice. It has always been difficult to walk this fine line of spirituality and engagement, but today it has become even more precarious. Our world is polarized, and suspicion and incivility are all too common.
Read MoreFor United Methodists in Northern Illinois, home is often those places where we gather to reconnect, reenergize and remember that we are in this together. As we turned the calendar to 2023, the Northern Illinois Conference welcomed our new bishop and launched more in-person gatherings than we have held for the last three years.
Read MoreThis month’s NIC Reporter is filled with images of welcome. In the conference these days, we are driven by welcome. You only need to look at the conference calendar to see all the ways in which we are engaged in welcoming Bishop Dan Schwerin as our new episcopal leader. From an Installation Service (on Sunday, February 26th) to Days on the District (the first two weeks of February), to a card shower of notes and well wishes, we have extended a welcome to Bishop Schwerin.
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