“Bobbi Kaye Jones is my SUPERintendent” – a note to newbies in Austin

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post was originally created in June of 2011 as a followup and final post for the 2011 ACToday publishing season.  Unfortunately, real ministry got in the way and it was never posted.  Now, approximately 7 months later, we are excited to finally release this belated welcome-to-Austin while also reiterating the gratefulness we feel for the leadership in this district as we received news that Bobbi Kaye Jones will be moving into a new phase of ministry in the Austin District as the senior pastor at Tarrytown UMC.  As was true in June, we wish everyone well in ministry and see the Spirit at work all around (and we’re not just talking about Project Runway All-stars).  Looking forward to a wonderful time gathered together in June! 

P.S. Start reading up your fashion/trend/celebrity news now so you’ll already be in the know for Annual Conference.  We hear coral and teal are in for the spring – what will summer bring us?

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Though Annual Conference is over (how has it already been a week?), we at AC Today are still revved up and reeling at the same time, knowing also that many people are moving to new appointments this week.  You may be shocked to hear that AC Today is staffed by person(s) who do not work for AC Today full time.  This is partly because AC Today is not a for-profit publication.  In fact, our staff is largely comprised of professionals in ministry.  For those who are moving into the Austin District, or perhaps for those readers out there less acquainted with the Austin District, one of our staffers would like to share something with you:

This is not my first time to live in the Austin district, nor to be in ministry with the district.  But I began work at my very first pastoral appointment this week (a little earlier than some), and have had the joy to receive excitement and opportunity from so many members of my new congregation.  Everyone wants to share a piece of their work with me as I try to settle in, seemingly unboxing books continuously and rearranging the furniture in my office, finding post-its in the supply closet before dates and codes and deadlines get away from me.  It has been a blessing to feel so much energy flowing in and around me from so many people as I step into ministry here, drawing me out of the miring part of perfunctory business, but I will also admit it has been a weensy bit overwhelming, too.

Before attending my first staff meeting, our office assistant found me a UM Program Calendar (I’m a calendar and list kind of girl), which I had clung to desperately as a youth director in my earlier days.  You know which one I’m talking about, with all the special Sundays listed and the lectionary written in and special tips for planning month-to-month.  I looked down at my desk to see what I should take with me to staff and saw, with a squeal of glee, the face of Bobbi Kaye Jones.  I said aloud, “I know her!” and thought silently ”how cool!  There she is!  And Bobbi Kaye Jones is my superintendent!”

Friends in ministry, I feel compelled to tell you that Bobbi Kaye Jones is my SUPERintendent.  If you don’t already know what I mean, you will.  I am excited to tell you that you are joining a place of profound ministry, prophetic and risk-taking in nature, a place whose people live into abundance faithfully even as the doors close to a charge.  Here is a place where the young prophesy and the old dream dreams.  We like to keep it weird like that in Austin.

After all, the world (and many who are looking for restoration instead of reformation) would tell you that the young don’t know enough to tell anyone anything of importance, that they’re mired in being wired and only care about aesthetics.  And in a world which would also cram fear and scarcity down our throats, the old (and now the young) are taught to live for themselves and either hoard up resources or use up everything, including our very precious Earth Creation.  I mean, why dream anything when the old are merely meant to get older until the old die?

No, here in the Austin District, with the leadership of our SUPERintendent, and her super staff, we do the weird thing, the unworldly thing, and encourage our young to prophesy and our old to dream dreams.  There is not just a spirit of a movement in Austin, there is THE Spirit moving in Austin, God pouring the Spirit out upon us, as weird as that sounds.

What does collegiality look like in SWTX

In the first clergy session this year, Lynn Barton spoke as the head of the order of elders on the topic of collegiality and how our conference is known for doing collegiality well. In fact, it’s why he transferred into our conference. It’s true – our conference is thoroughly collegial. Just look at all the clergy couples we have! How much more collegial can you get? There’s Mark and Leighanne Brechin, Ricky and Beverly Burke, John and Linda Elford, John Feagins and Raquel Cajiri Feagins, Emet and Sue Huntsman, Missy and Ryan Jenson, Bobbi Kaye Jones and David Gilliam, Danielle and Adam Knapp, Roy and Janet May, Ron and Linda Jean Myers, Barbara Ruth and John Wright, David and Valli Seilheimer, Judith and Ken Sellers, Laura Lopez-Silva and Johnny Silva, Leslie and Kit Tomlinson, Valerie and Eric Vogt, and who knows where else collegiality may be blooming.

But what does it mean to be collegial with your spouse? What does that look like on the ground in practice? How do you balance church/work with home life when everyone knows that church/work is your life as a pastor? When are you known to one another as colleagues and when are you just known as Shnookums or Babycakes?

Perhaps we can look to some of our own professional (life)partners for guidance in how to balance. Our very own clergy body language specialist (she’s grown up with clergy in the family) will tell us what the following photos reveal about life as a clergy collegial couple.

Our expert says, “We see a lot of non-verbal communication here in this photo of Rev. John Wright and Rev. Barbara Ruth.  Some might think that the way John rests his chin on his hands implies that he is already tired during the morning session.  In actuality, his hands almost make a heart shape, trying to communicate that not only does he love his wife of almost 35 years, but he loves liturgy and systematic theology as much as his first time at annual conference.”  And when asked what Barbara’s non-verbal cues say about life as a clergy couple, our expert says, “The way she has interlocked her fingers indicates how much she still enjoys interlocking their professional endeavors as much as the rest of their lives.  The way she has her elbow touching his says ‘Go get me a diet coke with lime.’”

And looking for another clergy couple’s guidance via body language analysis, we have a photo of Rev. Missy Jenson and Rev. Ryan Jenson (and their celebrity daughter Addison):

 

As far as our expert can tell, “the way Missy has angled her body toward her husband is indicates not only her liking for him but her appreciation for his ministry as well.  I believe her hair is shorter than last year which of course says both ‘I may be young but I am serious about my work’ as well as ‘When I think of the future with Ryan I feel that whatever years God gives us together will always feel short to me.’  And as for Ryan’s body language, you can see that his hand is nearly over his heart, showing how he feels as though his wife and his ministry is what strangely warms his heart.  The other arm holding Addy just says that he’s a baby hog and wouldn’t let the photographer hold the baby.”

So it seems that the most collegial of us see success in the combination of loving their ministry/work and loving their loves.

Celeb Sighting/Audacious Maneuver

Word on the beach is that Addison Jenson, double PK (and PK^2) and soon-to-be 5-month-old, is making a late but vigorous run for the delegation to jurisdictional conference.  Not concerned that her name hasn’t been brought up earlier in the conference, nor that she is technically not a lay delegate from any particular charge, Miss Jenson has been sending around a photo of herself in an audacious maneuver to garner both the significantly younger, the womb-bearing, and the grandparently vote.

Note the clever twist that she has printed her own cross-and-flame super-cute pink shirt, as though people might not know how thoroughly favorably she views the UMC  and how important it is to her (let’s be real, it pays for her meal ticket and even for weekends away at her grandparents’ house).  The more you look at the picture, the more you’ll agree that though her smile may be toothless, we at AC Today are not convinced that her photo campaign is without bite.

Celebrity Sighting/District Superintendents (TJLU): Laura Merrill

Earlier today, Laura Merrill, superintendent of the McAllen district, was spotted at the clergywomen’s luncheon in the upstairs lobby area moments before being elected as the head of the clergy delegation.  Congratulations, Rev. Merrill!  We have lots of awesome leaders who have come out of the SWTX conference and it was exciting to see you at the luncheon, even more exciting to know you’ll be headed to General Conference as the head of clergy.

Now, for the other half of this post: District Superintendents… They’re Just Like Us!

It can be tempting to think celebrities live a life full of strange pursuits and practices, with all kinds of great and grand and glittery and glamorous things.  No doubt, a company car sounds great.  But then, you know, you do have to drive it all over the district.  For charge conferences, no less.  Think about how much you like going to your own charge conference and now imagine going to all of them in the district.  That company car isn’t looking so great, grand, glittery, or glamorous anymore, is it?

But rather than convince you that district superintendents are poor things to be pitied (we did just give them a raise in the last business session, I think), the thing you should realize is that district superintendents are neither lamentable nor lofty.  In fact, they’re just like us.  Or, I guess you could think of it as we are just like celebrities.  See below Rev. Laura Merrill, superintendent and head of the clergy delegation to general conference in 2012:

She’s just like us!  Not only does she check her voicemail between sessions, but she wears sneakers with professional attire.  How cute!  How just-like-us of her!

Show your Stripes

Ladies, the men of SWTX have a style tip for you:

STRIPES!

Just as you can go bold with color, you can go bold with patterns.  In fact, this season fashion forward folk are saying that stripes are in and can be combined and mixed.  “With stripes, you don’t have to settle for one design at a time.  Pile them on (the more varying widths, the better) and show your cool, quirky side,” (SELF magazine, April 2011 p. 143).  It’s like colorblocking (WHICH IS ALSO IN) but with stripes.

I have been hard-pressed to find women in stripes this year, but the men of the conference are all over stripes.  Granted, they aren’t mixing and combining stripes, but they’re unafraid of this much-lamented pattern.  The old myth that stripes just point to width is no longer accepted.  Stripes can be chic, preppy, quirky, nautical (we are at the beach after all), colorful, and of course bold.  Ladies, let’s get in the game and show our stripes.  No pressure to go with Prada, though these stripes are pretty:

Reese Witherspoon on the UMC

When asked if coming to Annual Conference ever gets old, Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon reportedly said:

Um, no.  It’s a wonderful celebration of, you know, a community of people I feel really lucky to be a part of.  And, um, and it’s just, it’s fun, too, you know.  It’s wonderful to see everybody get dressed up and enjoy their time and be celebrated for their work, which is extraordinary… And you get to run into people you don’t see that often that you’ve worked with over the years and that’s nice.

Oh.  My bad.  She was talking about the Oscars.  But still, it sounds a lot like the sentiments many have about Annual Conference.  Let’s have some fun, celebrate the work of God we all strive to do, and maybe get dressed up if you feel like it.

Summer in BOLD

According to the April 2011 issue of SELF magazine, the B in LBD this summer stands for BOLD (p.145).  To put it in theological terms, one might say the trinity of fashion is color, color, and color.  And as Bishop Dorff has said, “Now is the time” [to be bold].  Don’t be afraid of mixing patterns and bright colors.  In the past, you may have heard the world wasn’t ready for shades alongside the color wheel.  You were meant to “coordinate” with opposites on the wheel.  Go ahead and do that if you’d like (we at AC Today are especially fond of shades of blue with a pop of yellow).  However, this season we think it’s nearly sinful to believe you can’t wear neighbors on the wheel.  Now is the time to wear pink with red.  Or blue with purple.  Or orange with yellow.  But don’t go for pastels, be bold!

Speaking of bold people, Ann Curry celebrated her first day as co-anchor on the Today Show this morning.  Known for her bold journalism and personality – Ann was the first to report on the refugee crisis caused by genocide in Kosovo in the late 1990s and has traveled to the Sudan 5 times, trekked to the South Pole and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, taken on in interviews Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Elmo of Sesame Street, and was the first in her family to attend and graduate from college.  But check out how bold she was this morning:

Bold!  Gorgeous!  Fun!  Fashionable!

Congratulations, Ann, and thank you for the past 14 years on the Today Show, too.  Now in addition to bringing us breaking news in the morning, you’re breaking down erroneous taboos in fashion.  Can’t wait to see what you wear tomorrow morning.

AC Today is happy to see that the Methodists of the Southwest Texas Conference are on top of this trend (and if you aren’t, now you know).  Yesterday, Rev. Barbara J. Ruth and Rev. Dr. Kim Cape were seen embracing not only each other as friends but a similar bold color combo:

These august clergywomen are making June look good in pink and red.  If only we could get them to wear both together.

Fear not, SWTX Methodists, be bold.  “With a one-two punch of saturated color, you’ll be a chic knockout” (SELF magazine, March 2011 p.123).  And, in fact, it makes look brighter and peppier when you’re secretly tired from travel and early morning communion services and conference business sessions.  After all, it’s summer and we’re at the beach.  Show us your best and your boldest in the next 3 days and we’ll be keeping a close eye to report in on the fashionistas and fashionistos of SWTX.  These are the colors the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in them, no?

2011: Creating a Culture of Culture

Welcome back to AC Today!  As the clergy, laity, and anyone else who just loves being Methodist in the Southwest Texas Conference get together again in Corpus Christi, AC Today is excited to bring all the celebrity news, pictures, style and more (Methodist-like).  We like to think that alongside the culture of growth everyone is talking about, we’re trying to create a culture of culture.  Where to eat, what to wear, who’s who and who’s new: we want to know and we want you to know, too.

Check back in with the blog as we chronicle the culture of culture

ACToday: Who wore it better?

We’re not sure there should actually be a vote… but it’s amazing how many celebs show up to major events wearing the same thing, and we’re just curious what the readership thinks as to who wore it better:

or how about some of the newly stole-d?

…perhaps the tallied percentages will be posted next year in ACToday 2011 : )  Thanks for reading!

Celebrity Sighting! Jennifer Aniston!

Is that beloved Friends castmember and generally gossiped about celebrity Jennifer Aniston visiting the Southwest Texas Annual Conference?!?!

Oh, whoops.  It’s not.  That’s newly commissioned member of the conference, Abby Parker, which is just as exciting and a lot like spotting a celebrity.  But you can see how we confused her with Jen: