Kerry Wood, host 0:10

This is the Pursue Holiness Podcast, an official podcast of the North Carolina Conference of the Global Methodist Church. We are engaging in scriptural holiness, applying it to everyday life so that we can have the new life in Jesus springing forth so richly and powerfully within us that all we are and all that we do accurately reflect the true character of God. Thanks for being with us today. Hello, friends, welcome to the second episode of the Pursue Holiness Podcast, the official podcast for the North Carolina Conference of the Global Methodist Church. I'm Carrie Wood, happy to be your host today. And with me I have two guests that are very key to what is happening here in North Carolina for our denomination. I have David Banks, who is the conference superintendent, and Carrie Howard, who is the associate conference superintendent. They are co-workers in Christ together. So I'm so glad to have both of you with us today. And I would like to start off just to have each of you tell me a little bit about your faith journey. What are the highlights that God has moved in your life? David, I'll start with you.

David Banks 1:23

Well, thank you, Carrie. And certainly it's uh nice to be with you. And for those who are listening, uh, thank you for the kindness of giving us some time. Uh, highlights in my faith journey, there are many. Uh, I was not uh raised with a strong understanding of the Christian faith. In fact, I was in my twenties when I learned that my parents actually read the Bible together every day of their marriage. Wow. But I had no knowledge of that. Uh my sense of uh my home uh in my early days was we were Christians, but but in much of that uh that was not something I I was consciously assimilating. Uh my so my conversion would certainly be a pivot moment, uh a genuine highlight. I I was a high school senior, I had some unseemly characteristics to the practices in my life. I had struggled with whether or not I believed there was a God. I I decided for a little bit I was an atheist, and yet if I because of the unseemly things in my life, there were moments I found myself as an atheist praying when people are shooting at you. Uh it's amazing how you might pray. Uh they but the reality is that I ended up at a an outdoor Christian festival, worship service. It was designed to to draw in high school seniors and other uh teenagers and young adults. And while at the festival, when I realized that I'd gone to something that was Christian, that was very offensive. But like many kids, it didn't take very long to discover other uh teenagers and young adults with similar discomforts. I I uh recommended it was outdoors, maybe a thousand, fifteen hundred people sitting on a lawn, a stage, and a preacher preaching, and I convinced about 15 or more unruly teenagers and young adults to play tag through the the setting while the preacher was preaching.

Kerry Wood, host 3:42

Just a little distraction.

David Banks 3:45

Uh John Wesley would have known what to do with some of my things, but but as I'm running through the congregation and we're having fun, you're it making noise, making a distraction, all I can say an invisible hand struck me, just knocked me. And when that moment happened, and I felt a physical hit. Now, you know, as a at that age, I was six feet two, I grew another inch, when I was in college, six feet, everyone sitting on the ground. It's not like I ran into somebody, but but when that moment happened, I immediately felt a sense of embarrassment for what I was doing. I had not had a sense of conscience since I was probably thirteen. Wow. And and and when I talk about my unruliness, I was a criminal in my unruliness and had no conscience for my criminal behavior. And and the people suddenly were very unattractive. So I I slipped, slinked away, and on the margin of this crowd, I saw a young lady I knew from high school sitting on a blanket by herself. I just slipped down, sat down beside her. And then I I just went through this inner torture, this turmoil. Don't know what the preacher preached. I know he was talking Christian stuff about Jesus, but I'm struggling. When the evening is over or the service is over, um the night before I I had people try to witness to me and leave me in the kingdom and my vulgarities, uh repulse them. This night uh I'm thinking, somebody come talk to me. Tell me what just happened to me. And and there's a little crowd up at the stage with the preacher and the um the spiritual sub people of spiritual substance. And a fellow turned and started to walk away, and he saw me, and he walks up to me and said, 'They just told me I should tell somebody.' So I'm gonna tell you, I just became a Christian. I said, What'd you do? And he said, uh he couldn't tell me. Yeah, so but we left uh to go get something to eat, and to for him to tell me over and over again, three, four times, talk me through it. Finally said, I should take you back there and you could talk to the preacher. I went back with him and uh and and the preacher had Jesus this, Jesus that, and I didn't wasn't interested in that. I wanted to know what happened to me. Now, in the the shortened the story, because there's a lot to it, uh my my ride disappeared. I was riding my brother, older brother, you know how they are. He disappeared. So this fellow was giving me a ride to my house, and somewhere between getting in his car and getting out at my home, a change occurred. The best I can say is even in by the time I got out, I didn't understand the cross, I didn't understand how sinful I am, uh I didn't understand anything about atonement. But what I had what I figured out from getting in that car to when I got out is that Jesus is real and he is greater than I. And I don't even know if it was a conscious prayer, but maybe the maybe some level it was the heart the heart can make decisions that the mind catches up on. Right. But I knew when I got out of that car that I had decided to serve him. And the first thing I did, I'd been given a Bible when I was in second grade, and I knew it was somewhere. I had no idea where it was. So the that the first thing I did is I found that Bible, opened it up, and read the whole book of Proverbs that night. So so that that's my conversion, and it it re will remain an incredible high point. Sure. Being being introduced to the body of Christ. I didn't know people could go into a Christian meeting. Uh I didn't know there were Christian colleges, universities, seminaries. I learned that there was one in the world, so I applied to go there for college. It was like, wow. Of course, I was naive, uh seriously, I I didn't know what so many people know. And uh meeting my wife and who just deeply loves Christ, uh called to ministry. You know, there there uh uh I was working in the construction of the Sharon Harris nuclear power plant when I got a call saying we want you on our church staff. It's time for you to do God. Actually, it started off, it's time for you to do God's work. I want you on my church staff. And that a church would take me on because I saw a call that I had not appropriated and let me learn to be patient and kind enough to tutor me in gospel ministry. There are highlights in grace day after day after day after day, and I have a thousand stories.

Kerry Wood, host 9:19

Sure. Well, that it's such a powerful way of describing God is always acting, and then we respond to God's actions, and that's very clearly what God has been doing for you is saying, Okay, David, here I am. And then you've stepped back and said, Okay, Lord, I I hear you. I don't know what next, but here I am back. And that's just beautiful because so many of us, that's what our our our experience is is like. So thank you for sharing that. Uh Carrie, how how about you? What is the way that you want to uh describe what God has done for you?

SPEAKER_03 9:56

Oh, wow. Uh because uh first off, thank you for having us and and thank you for the opportunity to share the testimony. And and David always love hearing new parts of of anybody's testimony to Christ. So I appreciated that. I think a lot of people have heard me say that I I am half Jewish, half from half Christian family. My mom was Christian, uh, my father was a Jew, and um we were being raised, my brothers and I were being raised as Jews, but we didn't go to church or to the synagogue. I mean, maybe a couple times a year to either one of them. But I have a couple of great memories that really describe God's provenient grace. And it's good to think about this because God was initiating his holy love in in ways that I I can only look back on. Uh, one of those was in the backseat of the car with my cousin, who was uh, we were going to his bar mitzvah. So he was telling me about all that he had gone through. Now he was maybe eight years old. I I don't I don't even know if I was eight yet, but uh he was describing to me the scriptures that he had to learn and uh then telling me his name that he would receive. And part of his name uh was shalom. And I said, Well, what is that? And um he said, Well, God's peace. And he said, I just really wanted to take that on to uh have have my name represent the peace of God. Well, I I knew peace sounded good. And in the context of it being God, that God gives us this, uh, was the first time in my life I I had a real sense that this was something that was good and good in his life and would be good in my life. So we get to the synagogue, and I had another just awakening moment. And uh it was when the um the rabbi brought out the the Torah, and so he's uh he's going around. Now the men were separated from the women. And uh so he he brings that around. And when he he comes to the women, all of the young girls, even the other women, they they were taking their scripture books and putting them on, you know, their worship books, and they would touch that, or they would give a kiss uh on the tips of their fingers and touch it. And you know, I wanted to run down there. I didn't have anything, I didn't know what the Bible or the scriptures were. I mean, this was my first encounter. My mother said, Do you want to go down there? And I didn't feel like I belonged yet. But, you know, to this day, and I'm a lot older now, um, you know, many decades later, it's like in my heart, I knew that that was one of the most special words. And so when I did become a Christian, uh, which was my mother uh renewing her life to Christ and got us into the church. Now I had a grandmother on her knees every night, uh and I witnessed that when I would ask her what she was praying for, and and she said, Well, I pray for you and your family. Uh so uh I lived to see those uh those prayers answered. When I I did give my life to Christ because I had heard the the message. My mother got us into church or got me into church anyway, and we went to revival services. It was during Holy Week. I was about 12 years old. The pastor preached a heartfelt but very well researched message on exactly what Jesus Christ went through on that good Friday and how he carried the cross. And after having been beaten and the the lashes, without ever hearing much of the gospel at all, I knew that that was for me, that it was personal. The great love of God that he had been pouring out, a lot of little things in life just came culminating, you know, here I blubbering, you know, like if Jesus, you have my life. Uh, I never looked back, not that I've been anywhere near perfect at any time, but I I never looked back. I gave my life to Christ that Christmas. So later that year, I received my first Bible. And I remember my mom saying on Christmas Eve, we had gone to Christmas Eve service, but she said, Okay, Carrie, here's what you need to read in your Bible and uh to to read the Christmas story. So, you know, all of that, um Luke chapter two and Matthew. And so I I I read that uh and have been a lover of the Bible ever since, but but you know, wow, God, you did all of that, you know, again for me. So I could tell you a lot of stories. I could, I could move on about how God calling uh to the church. I was in the church all the time, uh couldn't get enough, any kind of Bible study uh have been in. Uh my husband is a pastor, my two older brothers gave their lives to Christ, they're both pastors, activity serving God through the church. And in whatever I do, I love to um to be available just to talk about Jesus. But um, another challenge that I was given when I was about uh 15 was uh to read the Bible every morning. So in high school, I started getting up early in the morning, way before going to school, and reading the Bible. So I I've committed myself to the study. And uh so I finally answered God's call to become an ordained pastor about in in the last couple of decades. I can never get enough of telling so many different aspects of the testimony of where God has uh initiated with his holy love, uh, as our conference theme is. And uh my response, he is faithful, he is good, and I could go on talking about that, but I'll stop.

Kerry Wood, host 16:41

That's great. So just a quick follow-up to both of you. As you began this process of entering into a life of faith in Jesus, were you connected immediately into a Methodist movement or was it something else? And if it was something else, when and how did you become Methodist?

SPEAKER_03 17:03

I'll go first here because it it was United Methodist. Um and how that happened was I I believe my grandmother had been part of the Methodist church, but it was actually the closest church to our house when she would visit us in the summertime and uh forced us to go. But those ladies, they stayed on my mama. And when my older brothers were in high school with their kids and they would work around my mom, they they said, You got to come to church, you need to recommit your life. So uh, as far as being a Christian, that's all I've known.

David Banks 17:45

My route was um uh well, it took me a little while. I I guess I'll put it that way. You know, 1972, a lot was happening. The Jesus movement had moved to the East Coast. At that time, I was, even though I grew up mostly in California, we had moved to North Carolina, Jesus movement showed up. It was partly because of the Jesus movement showing up that this outdoor event occurred. I hungered quickly to discover people who identified themselves as Christians. Anybody. If you'll if they say or they identify that they're Christians, I wanted to know them. I was hitchhiking home from work. I worked for a um uh commercial plumbing company. Uh got picked up in the early 70s. There people were putting stickers on their cars that showed a finger pointing upward and maybe had the words one way. Well, the fellow who picked me up on his on the glove compartment of his truck, he had a sticker that had the finger pointing up in one way. So I asked him, Are you a Christian? And he said that uh yes. I said, Well, I just became one. Now, if you'd if he had pushed me about what that meant, I would have told my experience, but I still had a lot, I just didn't know what it meant. He said, Well, I'm going to a Bible study tonight. Would you like to go? This was a Bible study made up of um mostly young adults. Probably most of the people were 17 to 25, and turned out he was teaching it. Some of those people in that Bible study took me under wing and began to show me the ropes. Discipleship, in one sense, maybe simply uh uh giving someone time and showing them the ropes of how to know and love and grow in Christ. Uh, my parents were in a Methodist church, so I started going over there some, but I most but I really went back to the church that was behind that outdoor event. So that was Southern Baptist. So I had a few acquaintances in the Methodist Church through my parents. Sometimes we'll go there, was going to the Southern Baptist Church. When I went to the college, I got invited to a very conservative, independent Baptist church. And there was a lot of charismatic experience and Pentecostal experience in this season. And in some ways, my move to Methodism was reactionary, more like I don't agree with that, I don't agree with that, I don't agree with that. And by discovering what I didn't think fit my limited sense of my growing Christian faith, I was I began moving. So when I was 21, I think, maybe 22, I joined a United Methodist Church with a uh a wonderful evangelical pastor. He kept tabs on me in many ways, and he's the one that called me when I was 23 and said, We want you to be on our church staff. When I married Jerry, Jerry was Southern Baptist, but I was already working on the church staff. When it became clear we were gonna both head the seminary, we put on the table again. Well, we can find our home. And God just didn't let us leave Methodism.

SPEAKER_01 21:23

I'm very intentionally Methodist. Amen.

Kerry Wood, host 21:27

Well, for me, I don't want to make this all about me, but just as a point of connection, um, I grew up in Texas as a very, very devout Baptist family. I mean, we had Baptist roots going all the way back for over a hundred years. Uh, when I met my wife and we began dating, uh, she had grown up mostly Presbyterian and uh Methodist. And a big part of our early dating experiences were all about trying to unpack what each other believed and the vocabularies and everything. And as we said, well, we know God is. Has called us to be a husband and wife. And so when we get married, we're just gonna not worry about a denominational label. We're just gonna go wherever God sends us. And God kept sending us into a United Methodist church every time we were in a position in our family to do that. And so when I quit running from that call to ministry that God had put on me when I was four years old, the big question I had to ask was, okay, am I really Methodist, or have I just been putting on the Methodist sweater? And, you know, it's really the Baptist still in me. That's when I discovered John Wesley's writings directly and began to read his sermons and the notes and the letters. You know, like you, David, that was where it was like, oh, this makes so much sense. So many of those things that that I had questions about, concerns about from what I'd grown up with. A lot of that just got answered. And so I too am an intentional Methodist and very proudly so.

David Banks 22:58

Yeah, when I was 28, the pastor of the church where I was serving as a youth director handed me first volume of the critical edition of Wesley Sermons and told me it's only honest to read Wesley if you're in the Methodist church. That's another one of those high points that I could have pointed to. The handing me a volume of his sermons and beginning to read the sermons. Very much so.

Kerry Wood, host 23:26

So, David, you were part of the United Methodist denomination that was on the east side of North Carolina. Carrie, you were part of the Western North Carolina United Methodist. So describe a little bit about what it was like during those early days of bringing people together for the Global Methodist Church as it was beginning to be formed. You know, what was it that you saw of God doing things, bringing us towards the one conference of North Carolina as Global Methodists? What was it that you found hard? What was it that you found easy? And what was it that surprised you the most?

SPEAKER_03 24:08

Um, hard because the Western North Carolina Conference did not have a very easy process of disaffiliation. And they did not have any churches that were allowed to disaffiliate before the middle of 2023. Now the eastern side had over 200 churches, if I'm remembering correctly, that were ready to go on January 1, 2023. I was the Western North Carolina person and had one foot in with the Global Methodist and one foot out or still back in with my friends and where my and my family, uh my my husband and oldest son, uh, and I had already been relieved of duties. Um and um so but my heart in my mind, because we were still, I was still going around and helping churches with the disaffiliation, even while helping to onboard uh churches and pastors to the idea of being global Methodists, to building the conference. And uh again, it was it it was um just a difficult process to to watch the I mean I really hate looking back and calling it the fighting, but it was the the trials that all of our clergy friends were having to go through, uh the churches that uh had you know, they had to go through the vote, they had to go through uh all of that. So it it was difficult to watch, but it was difficult to the the meetings and and all that that needed to be done. And then I I I tell you, there was this invisible barrier, but the line between the North Carolina Conference and the Western North Carolina Conference. I I it was probably just me, but I think it was a spiritual thing too. The further east I could go, I felt the weight lift. And with every meeting on the eastern side, especially the further into the east of North Carolina that I could go for uh whatever the meeting was, whether it was for a conference, uh, whether it was to a pastor's meeting, I felt the joy, I felt the revival. And I would go back home and tell our Western friends, it's gonna get better. You're gonna feel the pressure and the weight relieved. I know you will. Just please hang in there. And we I prayed with so many people and more people than I knew. I've still been finding out people who were praying for me uh all of these years. And so that's the joy and the good, and it's still going on. Uh and I I think the surprise to me was the first cabinet meeting, and and mind you, we had some on the cabinet from the western side under a cloak of secrecy because they were not disaffiliated yet or they were in process. Okay, but they were giving input still for the cabinet, and we were projecting together the churches that that would be onboarded. So I I think the surprise was how quickly the two sides of North Carolina became one body in recognition of who we serve, Jesus Christ, love of the church, and in that fellowship of you are my long-lost brothers and sisters, that there's just been this invisible wall between us, and now we're together when we didn't have to think about you know all the hardships and and and expectations that had been, but we were looking to something new. That was the beautiful thing to hear people from the east, people from the west saying to each other, you know, I don't want to do without you anymore, ever again.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

And so a joy, uh, something even more beautiful than I would have expected. Uh, and so that was just the greatest surprise. I think David and I have worked well together right from the start. Uh, you can you can disagree, we can talk about that off of the off of the microphone. But I mean, just right from the start, I was accepted. Um, uh, I think we knew that the whole western side as soon as they came in, that they would it they wouldn't be behind at all. Um, you know, that that uh God has been so good, I think, to unify and bring together in ways that I know I didn't. I couldn't have done it. God did it.

Kerry Wood, host 29:34

Amen. Anything you want to add, David?

David Banks 29:38

I think one is thank God for the TCAT, T transitional conference something team.

SPEAKER_03 29:45

It was the group that put advisory advisory teams put the annual conference together.

David Banks 29:51

And I was not part of that team, and neither was Carrie. I don't think you went to any meetings yet before we stepped in after considerable work had been done when we were approached about the possibilities of our position. And the TCAT had done wonderful work, and one of the things that they were very mindful of is this calendar was different for the two conferences, so that however we began, we had to begin in a way that actually formed the conference but made room for the churches yet to come. And when we were brought in, uh I guess really in October form or November when we were formally uh accepted in our role. I think maybe December 1st was our formal, Carrie and me, our formal beginning, that there was an expectation because the the East had kept secret the all the names and the numbers of the churches that were disaffiliating. So we were guessing. We were trying, there were people trying to uh find out through the rumor mills. So Carrie and I were told in October, November that maybe 80 or 90 churches would be coming in to the conference or disaffiliating and coming in. And then in early November, maybe first or second week of November, when the North Carolina Conference published the names of the churches, it it was a I don't know, I don't remember the number, 300 in some churches.

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Yeah.

David Banks 31:30

Uh or somewhere close to that number, near 300. I think initially on January 1st, it was about 180 that actually came in on January 1st of 2023. And over the next several weeks, there were another 20 or 25. That was a surprise to us. We had we were trying to plan for how to work with about 80 churches, and we we had almost three times that many with within a couple of months, at the same time, beginning to plan how do you draw in the churches in the first, I don't even know if you can call it wave. The West was so painfully challenging, but the first ones coming in in maybe the first quarter of 2023, how do you make room? And there were struggles I expected, and there were things I I didn't expect, to be sure. But also in this early time, there was the the joy in the possibilities was indescribable. But for almost every church on the east and the west, there was also grief in what was lost. The the suffering, the getting out, or the friends that left. For persons like myself, I at that point in time I've been serving United Methodist Churches since 1978, and had uh was leaving a system that had recognized my call and given me opportunity to preach, that had blessed me with every appointment that I ever had, every church I ever served. So we had this joy for where we were going and the new possibilities with a a more what I would call a more faithful Methodism, but great grief. And we were all struggling with this in the times. But what can we say? God, who is faithful and true, met us in those days, took us, and none of us had ever created a conference, much less a denomination. Right. Uh God took us by the hand and still holds our hand. God is faithful, God is true, and to God goes praise and glory and honor, to be sure. Amen.

SPEAKER_04 33:57

Yeah, amen. Yeah.

Kerry Wood, host 33:59

Well, I came to North Carolina in January of 23 from Ohio. And so I I didn't know any of the kind of that that background history of the the East and the West sides and all that they went through. But what I can say is that the the power of welcome, the the power of expectancy of of how God was using us all together, uh it just blew my mind. And and I just felt the swift moving, fresh spirit blowing among us. And now that we're you know halfway through 2025, thinking back to 2023, I am blown away by how far God has already taken us.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

It's the truth. I I say to people often, you know, we're not what we were just three years ago, and and yet we're still not what God is calling us to be. And and that's really exciting. And and I want to say, David, you brought up the TCAT, and uh we do owe a lot, one, to the leadership and the foundation that Jerry Lewis laid with the TCAT. And to that, we'll be always grateful in North Carolina. And the TCAT formed with equal members from the West and the East. That was a beautiful thing. They started forming and forging that unity uh and that the Holy Spirit movement uh together before you know I knew who was going to be on it, uh, you know, from the West, and you know, actually uh nominated them to be there. I had no idea I'd get called back. I purposefully stayed away at that time. Uh, but but anyway, all that to say that's another place God was doing something miraculous before we knew what we would be in 2025.

Kerry Wood, host 36:02

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So we have uh our our next annual conference coming up here uh very, very shortly. And talk a little bit about how gathering for annual conference has changed as global Methodist versus what you had experienced in previous denominational life. Uh, what would you say is the highlight of a global Methodist annual conference? What does that feel like? What should people be excited about?

David Banks 36:31

Yeah, uh what a challenging thing to have to answer. We uh from from the from the get-go, we we believe conference is a means of grace. And yet for some of us, I don't want to be so bold to say it's all of us, but for some of us, and probably a very lot of us, we didn't experience conference as a means of grace, particularly, at least for for some years. You know, when I first went into took my first appointment, I went to my first annual conference in 1979. So so I have a lot of experience, but in the those those early days, we we actually all ate together and cultivated a sense of conversation that did have a sense of means of grace. But in the last 20 years or 25 years, maybe even 30 years, that had so departed. And annual conference was very uncomfortable experience and very painful and certainly not connecting, it was dividing. But coming into the Global Methodist Church, what I I began to do is read the material about the role of conference since John Wesley, and and went to again reading the early Wesleyan materials, but also reading academics around that, discovered that conference typically had three purposes: to inspire the soul in Christ, to continue to revive the fire of the spirit in the soul of the participants, secondly, to connect persons in by by the use of conference as a means of grace, and then to organize what the inspiration and connection was generating in terms of the ministry of the gospel. So early on, I began using those three terms that that we have to keep the order right, we can't take inspire and make it an add-on. We can't take connect and make it an add-on. We have to inspire, connect, and then do the business that gives you an organizer issue, you won't have longevity. It'll be a burst of flame and it'll die out, and we want longevity. So trying to come to annual conference each time from our, I don't remember what we call the first session, the organizing session, but we had a different name for it. But our first session, and then to our session to elect, and our second session, and now this third session, realizing that if people come and their souls aren't offered the full opportunity of the Holy Spirit's work, if they come and they don't build relationships in Christ and interconference, then anything we do in decision making is ultimately fruitless. So we've tried to give attention to those two. You can't force people to know each other, but to try to set an environment where people love Jesus, love each other, and are then able to go to work. So that's that's been part of what we've been trying to do. And and hopefully we'll keep learning how to do it better. But but like the early Methodists, when you read the the those those general minutes, in one of the first conferences, they asked the question of maybe I'm not even sure what year it is, so it's not the first, it's maybe eight or nine years in. How can we make conference more more effective? And they said we need more time. Well, we certainly have found that, not that we're going to do what they did, they jumped to like nine days. Where we're but we are gonna start on the Wednesday this year, because these priorities are so valuable and add to that the elections for general conference. We we need more time. Yeah, Carrie's been more in involved than I in some of the the details of the planning of conference. So she can she can tell you some of the joyful work that's been there.

SPEAKER_03 41:03

Yeah, oh absolutely. Um, you know, the seeking the Lord together. Uh I can't tell you how many all three conferences uh over these past three years, though. First conference being we we called it the convening and that's it, right? The themes, just praying together. The the theme would be something that would speak uh to the hearts and minds of those across the conference. And uh this year, holy love was lifted up to to be the theme and really getting back to the root of our theology. And we wanted people right away to know what we meant by holy love, adding the tagline God initiates, we respond. Because the annual conference, as David said, if this is a time to inspire, connect, and organize, well, God is in all of that. And God has been pouring out his love and helping us to continue to move forward. Uh, I I don't even want to go backwards and compare to what it was in 2022 for me behind that. Um but let's just say that annual conference has been about worship, connecting to God, having opportunity in many, many different ways, even through the business of the annual conference, to respond to God's call to what he is calling individuals to, churches to, and us as a unified conference. And I I feel like this has been so different from former experiences. And I know that the team for the annual conference planning team, it comes up frequently that we want to always pray and act in such a way that we we do capture that that inspiration uh of the Holy Spirit, the the connecting through the love of Jesus Christ. And then the the the organizing, that those are the things that we need to do. It will enable all of us, all the churches, all the individuals to to respond to God. And uh so we're trying to give plenty of opportunity for that. But the worship and the connection, I've seen in our annual conference what connection that really is.

Kerry Wood, host 43:52

Yep. And our our bishop, Bishop Jeff Greenway, has uh done a lot to encourage us to. Say, hey, be here for the entirety of the conference, including for the experience of the ordination service. And I really do appreciate that because to me, the ordination service, it really ought to be in many ways the climatic event because this is where we are solidifying what we have been, what we are, and what we hope to be. So, how would you describe what the ordination service will be like to encourage our folks to stick around and be a part of that on Saturday?

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Well, one of the exciting things is our our bishop, Bishop Jeff Greenway, he will be preaching, and uh there will be opportunity to respond to uh your your call, what God is calling uh on your hearts. And I think too, it's really good for the whole conference since uh one coming for ordination. They started in a local church, they received that call in a local church. The local churches ought to be there. The people of the church should be there to respond and support these folk coming through the and to to cheer them on because they have come through their educational process, uh, they've met with the board, they they have uh studied to be approved. God called, and it's it's a way of saying we are responding to God by welcoming uh them and uh appreciating all of these people into this connection in their next steps. And uh I I just think that it could be a very exciting time. And again, just to celebrate what God is doing in our conference that He should call these people to Ford. And any of us who are clergy should remember our ordination uh at those those times to remember yes, God called and uh what a special time that was.

David Banks 46:19

I can probably respond to your question on two different tracks. One is previously I increasingly was away from the ordination service because there was this growing sense in my soul over a number of years that there was betrayal of the gospel. So one track is to say, come and see a body of Christ wanting to be faithful. The other track is when I stand on Sunday morning in and I've been in I don't know, 70 different churches, and most of the churches are using the creed, a creed, sometimes Nicene, sometimes apostles. But when I stand with these churches, say I believe in the Holy Catholic Church or the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, I do. If you read our articles of religion or a confession of faith, we have no definition of church without a called and ordained leadership. And when we come to the ordination service, we're coming to one of the moments, and I'll put a finger on another moment, but one of the moments where we are uniquely the body of the Christ, body of Christ under the headship of Jesus. There is no group but a true church that can do what we do on Saturday and ordain. And you can't underestimate biblically or in the practice of the historic church what laying on of hands and the impartation of the Holy Spirit means. And to willfully choose to be away from that in a context where we're trying to be so faithful to the gospel, is a sad choice. So it's like, come in, the water, jump in, the water's fine here. This is the new day. And when you think of the the our our understanding of the application of the means of grace is I'm gonna have a similar experience at conference when we take communion together, right? The world can gather in similar types of meetings, but only the church can have communion, and only the church can have a biblical ordination. And those those are self-defining for us, and and those will be holy moments for me in our time together.

Kerry Wood, host 48:56

Great. So what is the you mentioned we need to elect delegates to the the next general conference? So share just briefly what does that look like? How many delegates are we electing? Um, what is the process that we will go through?

David Banks 49:11

I think we're electing 12 clergy and 12 lay. Now the number actually may change, so we're gonna elect more than that, but we've been assigned 12 clergy, 12 lay as delegates, three clergy, three lay as alternates, and then we're gonna elect reserve because our number possibly could change to 13 or 14 going to general conference. It won't be less than 12. So we're going to be electing an additional four clergy and four lay as reserves. Now, last time we had some people because of personal matters, health, or family matters who had to drop out of going to general conference. So the reserves also help us fill in in that possibility. 12 delegates, three alternates, four reserves, clergy, same for lay.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

Correct.

Kerry Wood, host 50:04

And that'll the voting will be interspersed throughout our sessions.

SPEAKER_03 50:08

That's correct. And what will happen is the first vote for the laity will begin at the laity gathering on that Wednesday night, on Wednesday, June 25th. Uh, and uh the bishop will be there, he will preside over the elections, and then he will come to the clergy session, which begins at seven o'clock on that Wednesday night, and the clergy will take their first vote. We have the uh voting grid in the workbook, which will be out soon, but you'll definitely have it uh at annual conference, and we will have uh all the all the clergy are assigned, at least all of the eligible clergy are assigned a number. We have lay folk who have self-nominated and they have a number. Uh the process begins right off the bat. But uh what we're hoping is by having the self-nominations out there already, but also the process has been out on the conference website and it's been shared. Our hope and and our instructions too have been that the conference uh members would be praying regularly. And we are calling for uh conference-wide fasting on at least the Sunday before annual conference. I believe many of us fast weekly in in anticipation of this or just for the conference, regardless. There, there are many who said we've been praying, we've been meeting together with our circle groups or in our church, and people have it on their prayer list in the church uh to to be in prayer.

Kerry Wood, host 51:52

That's wonderful, wonderful.

David Banks 51:54

Every general conference is significant, and and over the history we'll we'll see that, though I'll I doubt I will see all but all of them over the history, but this one builds on the one in Costa Rica. Constitution is still open and can be further improved. Other things in the life of our church we couldn't handle in Costa Rica will be handled, so there's still a formative or I don't maybe even a convening sort of sense to this one. So we do hope persons are very prayerful for this because the two, the Costa Rica and the South Africa together will seal a lot of our foundation, and then conference moves to an every six-year schedule. Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 52:44

And the beauty that the Global Methodist Church, just from the location of our general conferences, says we want to live into and live up to our title, global. Costa Rica was wonderful. They have prayerfully considered and found uh to to go to Johannesburg. I just appreciate and feel good about the connection and the global aspect.

Kerry Wood, host 53:12

Yep, absolutely.

unknown 53:14

Yeah.

Kerry Wood, host 53:14

So is there anything else that we're hoping to accomplish at our annual conference? Is there any other big piece of of organizing work that needs to hopefully be accomplished?

David Banks 53:25

Well, and we are trying to get past mom and pop and get more organized. Yes. So so, in one sense, the some of the voting types of things is we are moving to disperse responsibilities and authority. So we hope to come out of conference with a new church development team that's elected, a church vitality team that's elected, a local partnership group that's elected. So there's a lot more taking of decision making out of the conference leadership team and dispersing it to the gifts and strengths of others in the in the annual conference. We do have a uh possibility and the invitation to join into a defined partnership with Uganda. So that'll be before us. Uh, I'm actually very excited about that. Unfortunately, it's hard to get visas for persons in Uganda to come to the U.S. We had hoped that the conference superintendent and one other would be with us. Unfortunately, those two will not be with us.

Kerry Wood, host 54:30

So you mentioned Costa Rica. We we had that that convening conference for the for the global church in uh September of 2024. All three of us were fortunate enough, blessed enough to be able to be there in in different capacities. And I was totally just the the power of the Holy Spirit, and you you mentioned David, Holy Communion. Revival broke out in the middle of a Holy Communion service while we were in Costa Rica that is going to be forever a highlight for me in my own experience and never thinking that denominational gathering could do what that did. Is there anything else out of the Costa Rican experience that you would like to lift up as kind of a preview of, hey, folks, this is what God's going to do yet again in Johannesburg?

David Banks 55:22

I'll say two things shortly, and then Carrie can say a lot of things long. The opening worship service. I always believed conference could be like that. That will be till the day I die. The closest thing I think I've ever experienced to what I expect to experience when I'm before the throne with people of every tribe and nation. It was incredible. The second thing for me was in the consecration service when Bishop Mark Webb cited the Nicene Creek. That moment was holy and it prepared me for what we were doing in the consecration of those bishops. It was incredible.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

Yes. It had me. The communion service was the most beautiful I have ever participated in. There were other things being in the same room with others that I have seen only on a little Zoom screen from nations all over. I saw the committee. I was on the uh Episcopacy of Superintendency Committee. And uh, you know, that that could have been one full of many changes or contention. I saw and witnessed and was a part of having ideas brought to the table, wanting to make revisions, prayerful consideration of all of that. People lay down their desires of what they wanted. That's what I always thought conference could be, not just the worship part, but when we have truly holy conferencing, and this is how I can assure anyone listening that we have bishops who have truly rended their hearts, their whole soul, their whole mind to love God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength because of how that whole process to election occurred. And then the election of bishops themselves. And again, the holy conferencing, you know, y'all already talked about the beauty of the worship, but when there was this business that I've been to jurisdictional conferences in the past when bishops were elected, and there was no contention. And the beauty of again recognizing our global nature and taking care of that matter in a unified, heartfelt manner across the general conference. Right. You know, there was nothing that wasn't good except for the nights went too long and there were so many things to do. They packed it, but every bit, anybody uh who is uh going to be there and be a part of this, yes, it's work, but it is beauty, beautiful and a holy work. The connection building, the grace of God that we saw, and the the hearts that we got to meet and connect with will always be a highlight, a church highlight uh of sorts, or just a highlight of my life.

Kerry Wood, host 58:56

Very good. Thanks for for sharing. Is there is there anything else as we wrap up this conversation that that you would like to share with our North Carolinian uh global Methodists?

David Banks 59:06

Thank you for the opportunity. I I might wait for a future podcast because there really are many things. God's at work in our midst. Yeah, praise be to God. We have a lot of challenges in some of our churches as they're learning a new life together. I I hope we're very prayerful for one another.

SPEAKER_03 59:29

I think that I would say to um reiterate what what David has said. One, the North Carolina Global Methodist Church together, the conference has made me love and appreciate the church even more. I tell people, even on the hard days, I love serving our churches. I love all the good things. Uh I love God more because I see the good things that are happening. And for those in even in our global Methodist Church who aren't experiencing that yet, I would say, hold on and keep seeking the Lord because you you will. The the fire of the Holy Spirit is moving. This continues to be a movement. And in some cases, the ground is tilled up very uh it's difficult ground to till up. In some, it was already ready for the harvest. And in some areas, we're still tilling and we're still finding either the church or people, those the called are finding their place. So hang in there with us. Help us to help you be connected, not only to the Lord, maybe in a new way, but to each other, where you can be inspired and connected well uh across the conference. So we'll be excited to see you at annual conference. And we we are preparing very hard uh for for that, uh, but be in prayer for us. And thank you, Carrie, for this opportunity. Yeah, we'll look forward to to speaking more uh and having more opportunities to to talk in the future.

Kerry Wood, host 1:01:09

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, Carrie, I'm gonna put you on the spot and ask you if you wouldn't mind. Would you do a prayer just to bless us as we close this conversation and we get ready to have our folks gathering together in Winston-Salem?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:24

Sure. I'm always glad to do that. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your love that you initiated on us and that you uh lavished on us, that you would call us your children and that you give us that opportunity through the grace of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Jesus, for facing the cross and for being our salvation. And Lord, we know how hard it is to stop once we get going when we think of all the good things that you have done, of all the many ways you have called out to us. And maybe we didn't get it then, but now our eyes are open and our ears are hearing. So, God, prepare our hearts across our conference, right here with us, that we are prepared to hear you, to see you, to experience you in new ways, to encounter your holy love that is perfect in all ways. And God, you're already preparing and already there with our annual conference, with the events, and in the years to come. And so we praise you and thank you that uh the Holy Spirit is already working that connection and that our hearts will feel, and when we are together in one room, that our hearts and everything within us will leap for joy because we sense the spirit in one another already at work. God, cover um the safety of all of those traveling in, uh, all of the aspects of the annual conference, from from the lights and the microphones uh to the prayer groups and every presentation. May you receive the glory, Lord, as you initiated, may we respond well across the board and may we uh renew our call, renew our lives and service to you. Uh we love you, Jesus, and again thank you that you are Lord and Savior. You are risen and coming again, and we look forward to you, to seeing you and meeting you, and meeting you with one another in Jesus' name. Amen.

Kerry Wood, host 1:03:51

Amen. Thank you so much to both of you. I I will say personally that I have come to deeply appreciate the the heart that each of you uh present to us in your leadership, that you have have given us what is probably the best way to start as Global Methodist in North Carolina. God has put you in the right place at the right time. Thank you for your willingness to serve the Lord and serve our church this way.

unknown 1:04:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

It's a pleasure, and we appreciate you, Carrie.

Kerry Wood, host 1:04:26

Friends, I hope you have enjoyed this conversation today with David Banks and Carrie Howard, our leaders for this annual conference in North Carolina of the Global Methodist Church. You will be able to see them in person at our annual conference next week, and you will see me at the annual conference as well. I am gonna have a table set up somewhere in the main hallway before we go into our meeting space. Please stop by and let me know a little bit more about what's happening in your neck of the woods. What is God doing? Give me a chance to get a little bit of a snippet of your story, and those will become part of a future podcast. If you have enjoyed this, I hope that you will leave us a five-star rating. If you'll share this with folks to let them know hey, we have a new podcast, Pursue Holiness, and you really need to listen. And that way you will help us to grow our audience, be able to spread the word of what God is doing in our church. And it is such an amazing story. It is a story worth sharing. So I hope that you will do that. Subscribe so you will find the connections to each episode as they post. And thanks so much for listening.