By: Phil Carver
The Northeast District sponsored a training event last month at First United Methodist Church in Jesup. Jackie Bradford, the superintendent, announced that Dr. Lilian Gallo Seagren and Dr. Gideon Gallo, a sister and brother team, would be coming to the district on Saturday, October 14 to “help us explore the Gospels to discover what we can learn about making disciples.”
The Iowa Conference has embraced a Wildly Important Goal (WIG) to see that “All United Methodist churches in Iowa will have a process of intentionally forming disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world by the year 2020.”
Fifteen leaders attended the event in Jesup. They focused on what a disciple is, in order to help their churches design a process for developing their members more and more into the likeness of Jesus. A disciple, their presenters noted, is a learner who has a confession and conviction about who Jesus Christ is and a commitment to the mission of the church in a community of faith shaped by the example of Jesus.
Leadership development is a major focus of the Northeast District budget in 2017. Apportionment gifts of $13,400 are dedicated to the district from the apportionment gifts of the United Methodist churches of Iowa.