John Louk

General Conference, our global family reunion that speaks officially for The United Methodist Church, just concluded last night. This was a specially called session of 864 delegates (half lay, half clergy) from all over the world to discuss and act on the report of the Commission on a Way Forward over the issue of human sexuality. Two of the plans presented had the most support: the Traditional Plan as well as the One Church Plan, which was endorsed by the Council of Bishops. The One Church Plan would have given each local congregation and pastor the authority to make their own choices regarding same-sex weddings based on their cultural context. In an emotional, contested, rancorous, yet majority decision, the General Conference chose the Traditional Plan. The vote was 438 to 384 (this doesn’t equal 864 as some of the international delegates did not make it to St. Louis because they didn’t get visas). The chosen Traditional Plan basically keeps the current language in our Book

Each year, in assessing the state of Salem, we take a look at some benchmark statistics. As of the end of 2018 our membership now includes 276 professing adults. We also have 70 baptized infants and children— so 346 total.  This past year 3 members died, and we received 16 new members. That means we have received 130 new members since arriving at our current location a little over eight years ago! Additionally, we have 83 active non-members. So we could say we actually have 429 people who are a part of Salem, however, it’s likely the case that we have an equal amount of our members who are inactive. It’s unfortunate when members become inactive. We have to spend time and energy to help them become active again or to withdraw their membership, since they’re not upholding their membership vows. One of the important things we did this past year was hire more staff, getting the right people in the right positions to lead ministries and people. This was part of our goal to impl

I need to tell you the end of the story. For our worship series in December, Nine Months , we read through the entirety of Luke chapter 1 and almost all of the second chapter. We heard about the angel, Gabriel, visiting the old priest, and the young virgin, telling them they would soon have babies. We heard about John the Baptist’s birth, Jesus’ birth, the angelic announcement to the shepherds, and the presentation of Jesus in the temple, where Simeon and Anna, faithful people waiting expectantly for God to act, shared in the joy of Jesus’ birth. Now here is the rest of the story in Luke’s second chapter. Once, when Jesus was twelve years old, Mary and Joseph took him to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival. They did this each year. When the celebration was over and they started for home, Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t know. They thought he was with their group of travelers, but when they couldn’t find him after the first day of their journey, they frantically