In her State of the Church address, Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball on Saturday afternoon called on Annual Conference attendees to continue showing love to all, despite “messiness” in the church.
“In the midst of the messiness, what I want to press upon you is that the word of God continues to go forth and persevere,” Steiner Ball said.
“There are people that live and continue to dwell in deep pain and deep hurt, and they need the comfort of Christ. They need the healing of Christ. They need the hope of Christ, and if we pause our ministry over some church messiness, then there are people who are not getting the hope and healing light and life that they need,” Steiner Ball said.
She referred to the day’s earlier Memorial service, in which Rev. Jake Steele spoke about Dorcas and how her loved ones remembered not her words, but what she had sewn (and sown).
“It’s not necessarily about what we say, it’s about being present with the love of Christ,” Steiner Ball said. “It’s about what we do and the actions we take to help people know that they are valued and valuable, that they are loved, and they have something to contribute.”
The bishop pointed out several examples of ways churches in West Virginia continue moving forward, sharing the glory of God by doing things like supporting those with substance use disorder, opening warming stations, and housing refugees from Ukraine.
She celebrated increases in the numbers of first-time guests and baptisms, but she pointed out that 66 percent of people within the Conference region are not involved in any type of religious congregation or community.
“There’s a mission field ready for harvest,” she said.
Steiner Ball also pointed out that those actions are taking place at a time when “approximately 50 congregations have made the decision to close” in West Virginia.
About half of those are churches that had come to that end of their lifecycle, meaning those churches were no longer sustainable based on attendance and finances. Steiner Ball thanked those churches for their legacy, noting that many of them had donated remaining assets to local missions.
Twenty-four churches closed in order to separate from the United Methodist Church. None disaffiliated, she said.
“We have been able to work alongside congregations to do what they desire to do in the midst of that messiness,” she said, thanking Melissa Shortridge for walking churches within the Conference through the decision-making process.
The West Virginia Annual Conference ended 2022 with 958 churches.
“As we reach the end of 2023, we expect that number of churches to be closer to about 910 churches, probably,” Steiner Ball said, explaining that when a church separates through closure, there is no deadline date.
“We are in a time of transition in the United Methodist Church, and that transition time itself is neither good nor bad. But the choices we make in the midst of this transition can either be a crisis or an opportunity to reach more people in the name of Jesus Christ in known ways and new ways.
“My prayer for the West Virginia Conference is that we will choose the path of opportunity, knowing the best of all is that God is with us and the promise of Christ is that Christ will be with us, walk with us, protect us, and bless us, even to the end of the ages.”
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To read more news from the 2023 Annual Conference of the West Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church follow this link.