By Rev. Eric Van Meter*

Click here to watch a video of the message.

Bishop Bruce Ough’s Episcopal Address on Friday morning encouraged the Dakotas Annual Conference to live expectantly by claiming and putting into practice the dynamics that led to vitality, growth, and missional passion in the primitive church.

Photo: Bishop Bruce R. Ough encourages Dakotas United Methodists to live expectantly during the 2017 episcopal address. Photo by jlynn studio.

“Our journey toward vitality is producing much kingdom fruit,” Bishop Ough said. “There are many signs our congregations are growing in our capacity to love God and neighbor, reach new people, and heal a broken world.”

As evidence of this fruitfulness, he pointed to metrics drawn from Robert Schnase’s Five Practices of Faithful Congregations.

In terms of radical hospitality, the Dakotas Conference saw a 5.7% increase in preparatory membership and a 28.6% increase in professions of faith from 2015 to 2016, as well as a 2.5% increase in the number of children and adult baptisms. The Bishop lifted up ReNew UMC in Kenmare as an example of a radically hospitable Acts 2 congregation.

Similar growth was evident in passionate worship and intentional faith formation. From 2015 to 2016, average worship attendance in Dakotas churches grew by 1.1%, marking the sixth consecutive year of growth. Remarkably, 63.3% of professing members participate in weekly worship.

Engagement in mission grew by 36%, as measured by congregational member and constituents actively involved in service. Nearly 175,000 people were served through community outreach, justice and mercy ministries, community daycare, and education ministries. This represents a 60.7% increase between 2015 and 2016. Of special note in this regard, according to Bishop Ough, is Watertown FUMC, which serves through outreach to hungry children in their community.

The numbers for intentional faith formation were mixed at best. While the Dakotas Conference saw an increase of 3% in Sunday school attendance, there was also a decline in the total number of persons in all Christian formation groups.

Finally, extravagant generosity is evident in the Conference’s continued increase in giving, up 5% to over $6.1 million in the previous year. Miracle offerings have generated over $600,000, which includes funding for Bakken Oil Rush Ministries, Imagine No Malaria, and the Elisha Internship Project. At the time of the Bishop’s address, over$3.5 had been given or pledged to the Thrive campaign.

All of these provide evidence of the Spirit’s work among us, but the infusing of the Spirit goes far beyond just numbers. The work of the Spirit is to fill what Pascal called the “God-shaped emptiness inside us.”

“We are incorporated into God’s mission—we become a part of God’s reconciling, transformative mission—through the Holy Spirit living within us,” Bishop Ough said, adding that his unceasing breath prayer is simply, “Come, Holy Spirit. Come; fill me.”

Standing in the way of such fullness, however, are any number of things that might crowd the space in which the Spirit might work. Fears, doubts, and feelings of insecurity block God’s ability to flood churches and leaders with imagination. Deceit and resistance to change stifle God’s purposes. Exclusionary practices, prejudice, scarcity, and complacency also keep God’s people from living fully and joyfully.

But, Bishop Ough insisted, hearts that are filled with the fullness of God can’t help but overflow with love, to the benefit of all. Bishop Ough echoed the imagery used by Junius Dotson on Thursday morning.

“When the God-shaped emptiness that only God can fill is filled with the fullness of God, everything is turned upside down.”

Click here for a complete pdf of Bishop Ough's Episcopal Address.

Click here for a printable pdf file of Bishop Ough's prayer card for Living Expectantly.

*Van Meter is the campus pastor at Dakota Wesleyan University.