This last year saw theLay Leaders and Discipling Team of the Yellowstone Conference building on activities begun in previous years and strengthened by new leadership and connections.

  • The Discipling Team is populated by the Conference lay Leader, Three District lay Leaders, up to twelve Associate District lay Leaders ( one for each circuit)and representatives of the conference teams which work with and for laity (BHECM, Congregational Development, Camping, Youth, United Methodist Men, United Methodist Women). Our task for the last seven years has been to work with these teams in ways that support and facilitate the ministries of laity. The expectation given to the discipling team was that the teams would report regularly to the Discipling team which would work with them to coordinate our actions and report regularly to the Board of Stewards. There have been many times in these years that a team would need to bring information and requests directly to the board of Stewards. Given our geographical separation and the demands of our various teams, finding ways to coordinate our tasks has been difficult. Gathering all together in one place has not worked. Too many were missing. Phone Conferences have been more successful. Most successful has been sending the conference lay leader to meet with conference teams to listen and carry information to the Discipling team as a whole. We expect to continue this pattern in the future.
  • Carlton (Butch) Bennet joined us as Conference Director of Lay Servant Ministries. He continued to build a data base listing local and certified Lay Servants (formerly known as lay Speakers) begun by Jane Lee Hamman. His goal is to offer listings of lay people who are qualified to fill pulpits by virtue of their commitment to this expression of discipleship and by their training in this ministry. Butch has also built a page on the YAC website informing clergy and laity about training and Spiritual Formation opportunities available in our conference.
  • Butch Bennett wrote and is distributing a new guide to lay servant ministries, A Pastor’s Guide to Lay Servant Ministries. We all hope this guide will aid in advancing missional ministries of the local church laity by informing their pastors about the many forms that these ministries can take.
  • The congregational Development Team has been revitalized with new membership and with a mandate to create new Christian communities and to revitalize existing UM churches within our borders. Several of our members have taken part in these efforts by contributing to plans for training laity to build new communities. These efforts will continue into the next several years and will include spiritual formation led by Brenda Baker Anderson of Bozeman, who recently finished the Upper Room Spiritual Formation Academy and is pursuing her calling to lead retreats.
  • We have found a person to chair the Christian Education Committee. Don McCammon will serve as chair. This committee has contributed to the New Faces for New Places efforts will continue to do so. The committee also has granted scholarships to two of our laity, Don McCammon and Nancy Flint, generating matching funds from the GBOD for their attendance at the Spiritual Formation Academy.
  • We hosted a pre-conference briefing in each circuit this year. These meetings were forums for the Conference Trustees to instruct us in a new plan for minimum insurance standards for our churches. The Wyoming churches of the big Horn District met with the Rocky Mountain conference churches in a “District” Meeting that included the pre-conference Briefings. This meeting made real a goal of holding longer spring District Meetings in each of our Districts that will include good worship and good fellowship as well as briefings and instructions. We will work toward that goal in the coming year.