The Great Plains Conference met for the first time on the campus of Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina for its annual conference, June 5-7.
The theme was “Loving God,” based on Deuteronomy 6:5, the first of a three-year set of themes based on the greatest commandments that were shared by Jesus.
Bishop Gregory Palmer kicked off the conference with a highly charged and powerful sermon for opening worship challenging both the clergy and laity not to accept the status quo.
“We’ve got this notion that we want to go to church, and we don’t want to be disturbed,” said Bishop Palmer, who retired in 2024 after serving the Iowa, Illinois Great Rivers and West Ohio conferences.
Bishop Palmer challenged those at the conference to love their neighbor, their neighborhood and their entire community.
“What if The United Methodist Church said, ‘We’re gonna love the zip code, and we’re going to know everybody by name’?” he asked.
Palmer, who in retirement serves as the executive secretary of the Council of Bishops, received a gift from Bishop David Wilson: a custom-made pair of Converse sneakers with the United Methodist cross-and-flame on one side and the episcopal logo on the other, similar to the pair Bishop Wilson had made for himself last year.
Plenary speaker Dr. Ashley Boggan returned to the Great Plains after addressing the Orders & Fellowship clergy gathering last year with “historic context for a Wesley way of discovering God.”
Boggan showed three pictures of the founder of Methodism, all looking extremely stoic.
“We don’t exactly see a joyous person,” she said. “John realizes he has joyous moments, but not abiding joy.”
Boggan dug into Wesley’s journals from 1735 to 1791 — “My therapist assured me this is normal,” she quipped — where he named the day and time he “submitted to be more vile.”
Being vile, causing trouble and upsetting the system, were Wesley trademarks, said Boggan, whose book, “Wesleyan Vile-tality: Reclaiming the Heart of Methodist Identity” was released in April. She signed copies in the Mabee Center lobby following her presentation.
Bishop Bruce Blake gave the sermon for the ordination service that closed the conference.
Frequently intoning “clanging symbols and noisy gongs” from 1 Corinthians 13:1 and the concept of agape love, Bishop Blake told ordinands that they’re carrying on centuries of tradition, from Biblical times to Methodist circuit riders.
In speaking about the circuit riders, Blake said, “All they had was agape love, and lo and behold that was enough.
“Faith and hope were not enough,” he added. “They had to be wrapped in agape love.”
Bishop Blake served as episcopal leader of the Dallas and then Oklahoma areas from 1988 to 2004, following a faith journey that included 10 years as senior pastor of Derby Woodlawn UMC and four years as president of Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas.
While in Oklahoma, he served as a mentor for Bishop David Wilson.
The retired bishop said he was grateful for the time he was spending at the 2025 Great Plains Annual Conference.
“What a day of memories this is for Blake,” he said.
In the business portions of the conference, clergy and lay members voted on four constitutional amendments considered for ratification by the worldwide church. Besides the more than 1,000 people in attendance at Kansas Wesleyan University, each of the Great Plains’ 10 districts had remote sites for Friday, June 6, only so it would be easier for retired pastors and lay members with mobility and/or travel issues to participate the day of voting on the amendments. A total of just more than 100 people participated from the remote sites.
The annual conference took one action related to the 2020/2024 General Conference by approving a resolution to create a caretaker of God’s creation coordinator position. Other resolutions — all of which passed by large margins — included support for expansion of Medicaid in Kansas; taking a stance against Christian nationalism; making a change to the conference’s parental leave policy to ensure new parents have 13 weeks to be with their families after a birth, adoption or other family-changing event; creating a task force to promote a transition to clean energy for all churches; and affirming the World Methodist Council and World Council of Churches’ call to end genocide in Palestine.
The annual conference voted to approve the closure of 11 churches, eight of which were in Kansas and three in Nebraska.
Clergy and lay members approved a 2026 spending plan of $14.4 million, down about 5% from the 2025 budget but flat to a revised spending plan the conference staff enacted earlier this year.
Ordination statistics
- Total ordained: 15
- Average ordained age: 40
- Ordained deacon: 2
- Deacon average age: 32
- Ordained elder: 13
- Elder average age: 41
- Number commissioned: 16
- Total average age: 45
- Commissioned provisional deacon: 5
- Average age: 45
- Commissioned provisional elder: 10
- Average age: 45
- Associate membership: none
Conference statistics
- Membership stands at 143,054, down 4,620 from the previous year.
- In-person worship attendance stands at 45,011, up 5,697.
- Church school attendance stands at 10,238, down 986.
- Professions or reaffirmations of faith for 2024 were 1,973, down 65 from 2023.
- Adults and young adults in small groups for 2024 were 27,992, up 1,019 from 2023.
- Worshippers engaged in mission for 2024 were 31,455, down 2,731 from 2023.
Todd Seifert, director of communications for the Great Plains Conference