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The theme that echoed all week — multiplying disciples — ran straight through the last business session of the Great Lakes Annual Conference. After opening in heartfelt, bilingual worship and prayer, the body turned to the work of forming leaders, stewarding resources, and caring for one another, all with an eye toward multiplication. Rev. Shane Frederick, Board of Ministry Chair, was the first to present with their vision for raising up the next generation of clergy. As the Conference has grown — adding new churches and new candidates at a remarkable pace — the question, leaders explained, is no longer simply how to process candidates, but how to form healthy, faithful, Spirit-led leaders for the long haul. Their answer rests on three convictions: regionalized mentoring, where calling is discovered locally and nurtured in relationship; centralized formation, where candidates learn alongside peers under shared, high expectations; and a common mission across the Conference. The board announced its first-ever ordination retreat in early 2027 and named the heart of the work plainly: healthy churches depend on healthy leaders, and healthy leaders are rarely formed alone. Bishop Webb then gathered those preparing for ordination to answer John Wesley's historic questions — "Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?" — reminding the body that these questions, first written for laity in the class meeting, are meant to be asked of one another again and again. The Conference also paused to honor Aaron Kesson, who recently returned from serving overseas for eight months. Kesson serves in the Army Reserves as a chaplain and GMC pastor. Bishop Webb expressed gratitude for Aaron and his leadership and presented him with a Great Lakes challenge coin in recognition of his service to our country's fellow military chaplains and service members. Generosity and transparency marked the Finance and Administration reports, brought by chair Don Wolfgang, who opened with Malachi 3:10 and a word of gratitude for the conference's faithful giving. With reserves having grown to roughly $973,000 — well beyond what the fiance policy intends — the committee proposed lowering the connectional asking rate from 3 percent to 2.5 percent, introducing a sliding scale that adjusts the rate automatically as reserves rise or fall, and drawing down reserves to fund ministry now rather than letting them sit idle. The 2026–27 budget, built for the first time on three years of real data, projects about $1.9 million in income, including the drawdown of reserves. "We've heard all week about multiplication and church planting," Wolfgang said, "so we want to put our money where our mouth is" — and the budget did just that, nearly doubling church-planting support from $55,000 to $80,000, strengthening conference staff, and expanding clergy development. Members also adopted a new clergy moving policy built on a shared "sandwich" model among the receiving church, the incoming pastor, and the Conference. The nominations report turned the focus back to gifts and people. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 12, leaders invited members to turn to a neighbor and say, "You are a gift," then thanked the many who serve on boards, committees, and teams, and introduced a new leadership discovery tool to help connect people to conference service. Even the leftover books became a lesson in multiplication, as members were invited to carry extra copies home and become "multipliers" in their own ministries. Looking ahead, the Conference will return to Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana, next year.

By Rev. Susan Roehs  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8 Friday Focus: We have the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine what it would have been like to experience the Holy Spirit as Peter and the other disciples did on that first Pentecost? Take a moment to picture your church’s sanctuary. It’s Sunday morning, and people are gathering for worship. The call to worship is read, and then “All at once there was a sound from heaven like a powerful wind. It filled the house where they were sitting. Then they saw tongues which were divided that looked like fire. These came down on each one of them.” Acts 2-3 How would you react? How would your congregation respond? Would it be your first time feeling the Holy Spirit during worship? I hope not. I hope you, like me, call on the Holy Spirit to fill your sanctuary each Sunday. I call on Him because I want to lead worship in His power. A service led by the Holy Spirit is never dull. As much as I would like to experience the Holy Spirit as the apostles did in Acts 2, I know that is unlikely. But the outpouring of the Spirit was never meant to be just for the people in that first-century meeting place. The Holy Spirit continues his work in Christ’s church. Believers are still filled with the Holy Spirit and have access to his power. That power enables us to fulfill the Great Commission. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we will go in faith to make disciples who will go and make disciples. It is the purpose of the church and the task of believers. With the power of the Holy Spirit, the Global Methodist Church has already become an international movement. The Holy Spirit’s power will continue to multiply the church through us. One of the tasks that has been put before us is to “spread scriptural holiness across the globe.” When we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and the power of the Holy Spirit to work in us, we will multiply disciples, spread scriptural holiness, and witness the gospel spread to the ends of the earth. Father, we thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit. Guide our lives and our actions that, with the help of your Holy Spirit, we will be witnesses to your perfect love, grace, and mercy. Spur us to go and make disciples. Show us how to teach them to obey your commands. And when we baptize them, fill them with the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dave Ferguson is the founding pastor of Community Christian Church, a multi-expression missional community. Ferguson highlighted the importance of whole-person health. Every day, he assesses his relational, physical, spiritual, and mental health and suggests we practice the same. It is impossible for an unhealthy leader to produce healthy followers. However, healthy leaders will create a lasting impact on the lives of others. Ferguson made the point that every Christ follower is to be a disciple and multiplier for the Kingdom. I appreciated his definition of disciple as “someone who hears from God, then does what God told him to do.” I have never heard the term defined so simply and yet thoroughly. Further, a multiplier is “a healthy disciple-making leader who champions reproduction.” We multiply what we are and what we do. He emphasized that disciple-making happens through relationships. As you invest in people one-on-one or in small groups, they learn to invest in others. And eventually you will see your fruit growing on someone else’s trees. Most importantly, church multiplication is possible in any church, through any disciple, and in every context. We don’t need to have all the answers, a master’s degree, or a large budget; we just need to make ourselves available to God. We don’t even need to be good at math; God will do the multiplying for us. Bishop Mark Webb thanked Ferguson for his message, then added that a multiplying culture is so intertwined with the Great Lakes Annual Conference and Global Methodist Church that he has told churches, “If your church isn’t willing to MULTIPLY disciples and MULTIPLY churches, the Global Methodist Church probably isn’t for you.”

During the Wednesday evening worship session, Bishop Webb challenged conference attendees to move from focusing on what we don’t have to offering what we already have to Jesus. “The Kingdom of God advances not through abundance, but through our surrendered trust in the provision of God,” Webb said. “The concept of multiplication is nearly impossible when we remain more concerned about keeping our doors open and more concerned about keeping people with us rather than focusing how to make disciples and the sending those disciples to make more disciples.” John 6:1-15 recounts a multiplication story for the ages. When faced with feeding a large crowd and his disciples in a panic about lack of resources, Jesus already knew what he was going to do. After the vast crowd sat down, Jesus took what they had, gave thanks, he broke the bread and fish into pieces and instructed the disciples to distribute to those who were seated as much as they wanted. The scriptures go on….so the disciples filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Webb enthusiastically reminded the assembled group; there was more left over than when they started. “The miracle began the moment the problem was surrendered,” he said. Multiplication happens when we move from focusing on what we lack and move to offering Jesus what we have and surrendering what we have to him. The same Jesus who fed 5,000 is still saving, still feeding and multiplying today. He is asking us to believe again, dream again and trust him.

Rev. Dr. Scott Pattison spoke Wednesday morning during opening worship, encouraging the assembled members to live into our Great Lakes Annual Conference Culture Statement. He began by sharing where we came from and where we are now. In four years, the Great Lakes Annual Conference grew from humble beginnings with 4 churches and 6 pastors in Indiana to 313 churches across four states and 532 clergy. He reminded us to continue our growth; it will be necessary to live in a culture of experiments and failures. It requires a vision of churches as life-saving stations. Further, Pattison emphasized the need for our churches to be multiplying churches. He says, “Our primary job is to try to see where and how God has been working and to partner with him in bringing people to redemption in Jesus.” In the past, our priorities have been to fill pews and to keep our doors open. But that is not the commission we were given by Christ. As a young movement, the Global Methodist Church can change how we’ve done things in the past and to see a future filled with multiplying congregations and a healthy culture. In this new era of Methodism, Pattison promised accountability in shared ministry, asking us to watch over one another in love and work hard at building trust in our personal and professional relationships. By developing a culture of multiplication in the local church, the Great Lakes Annual Conference will continue to grow even faster than it has over the last four years and will keep its focus on living in God’s Kingdom through the Local Church.

One conviction ran through every report and recognition at this year's first business session of the 2026 Great Lakes Annual Conference: we are called to multiply disciples. From the strategic plan to new ministry endowments to a gift from across the world, members saw how God is using this connection to raise up new disciples, leaders, and churches. The Strategy Team set that tone with its "Forming for the Future" highlight report ( REP-05 ). Drawing from Isaiah 64:8 (NLT) — "We all are formed by Your hand" — team members Rev. Ben Palmer, Rev. Patricia Tristan, Ellen Harbin, and Rev. Tyler Best reintroduced the plan's simple architecture: five formation areas (Cultural, Discipleship, Leadership, Local Church, and Missional), twenty-five concrete goals, and a three-year horizon, all resting on the Conference's culture statement. Forming disciples and leaders, Palmer reminded the body, is exactly how a movement multiplies — and the Annual Conference exists to strengthen the local church where that multiplication actually happens, not the other way around. Patricia Tristan then celebrated early fruit. Chief among the wins was Mission Match — "You were made for more than a pew" — a tool created with goal champion Mark Schroeder and team member Todd Hartnell of Asbury Church in Madison that connects disciples eager to serve with congregations already living the Great Commission. She also highlighted the Conference's two missional partnerships with the Ethiopia and Oasis conferences, inviting members to Q&A sessions with Dan Miller and Anbessu Feyissa. The whole body stood to affirm the strategy team and goal champions, and members were invited to join the work at strategyteam@greatlakesgmc.org . Multiplying disciples requires raising up those who will lead them, and that was the heart of a moving "Formed and Sent" campaign presentation on ministerial education. Rev. Bob Phillips, a senior status elder and retired Navy chaplain, framed the challenge around Jesus' own words — the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few — then shared a remarkable blessing: the Lilly Endowment has granted the Conference $250,000 to establish a fund helping certified candidates with the cost of their education, with a second $150,000 offered as a dollar-for-dollar match. Every dollar pledged over the next three years will be matched up to $400,000, doubling the impact to $1.2 million. Before the session even began, one church and two individuals had already pledged $30,000. Click here to contribute to this new campaign today! Rev. Arthur Collins, Discipleship Team Lead, highlighted the many ways it resources congregations to make disciples: accountable discipleship, Christian education, stewardship ministries, camping, and the School of Lay Ministry, whose fall 2026 schedule will be available in early August. The team also brought updated guidelines for protecting children, youth, and vulnerable adults ( PET 03 ), including the Conference's MinistrySafe partnership and sample policies churches can adapt. After a thoughtful, good-humored debate, members refined the language on recording devices in private spaces before approving the report. On the practical side, Interim Dean of Cabinet Rev. Stan Pegram presented updated clergy compensation guidelines ( REP-06 ), anchoring 2027 in a full-time minimum of $46,700 — an 11.2 percent cumulative cost-of-living increase since 2024 — under the banner "healthy clergy, healthy churches." Members also joyfully received Grace Global Methodist Church of New Albin, in the far northeast corner of Iowa, a visible sign of a movement still growing. The sessions closed with a gift from beyond our borders. Brothers and sisters from the Grain Coast Conference, which includes Liberia and Guinea, presented a handmade map as a token of friendship — a reminder that the call to multiply disciples reaches across the globe, and that God is at work far beyond our own.

By Rev. Susan Roehs Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matt. 28:20 Thursday Focus: Jesus will be on the journey with us. Often, when I share with someone about a time when God spoke quite clearly, almost audibly, to me, they will say that they wish they were as holy as I am. Or they will say they wish their prayer life were deeper and more consistent so that they could hear God as I do. I want to remind them what Jesus tells us here, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus is not waiting to be summoned like a genie in a bottle; He is with us always. We will feel his presence when we acknowledge his presence. I discovered this over my years of daily prayer. There was a time when I prayed as if I were typing an email to God. I would offer my praise or make my requests, then when he got into the office, he would read and respond to my message. I’m not sure when the transition occurred, but I moved from the idea above to realizing that God was listening to what I was saying and responding on the spot. Sometimes I heard the answers to my prayers as I prayed them, other times I understood he had acknowledged my request and would give me more details later. Yesterday, in my devotion, I shared how important it is that we not only ask Christ to be our Savior but also make him our Lord. The presence of God is most evident when we give our whole lives to God. When we surrender our own will to God’s will, his presence becomes more evident. I think yielding everything we want for everything God wants removes a screen that makes God’s presence visible. I recently read a quote from C. S. Lewis that I think would be appropriate to share here. “We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.” WE must surrender our will and remain awake to Christ’s promise that He will be with us always. There, we will find the courage to go and make disciples as Christ has commanded. He will always offer us a way to do what He calls us to do. God, you have always been with your people. You were with Israel when you led them into the promised land. You were with your servant David when he was being hunted in the wilderness. You were with those first Christian disciples as they began the task of starting your church. And we can be confident you will be with us as we set out to multiply your church. Lead us clearly, making known each step we need to take, and make your presence evident to us as we reach out to you. In Christ’s holy name, amen.

By Rev. Susan Roehs  Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Matt. 28:18-19 Wednesday Focus: It was a command, not a suggestion. The word in this passage that I think we, as the church, seem to skip over is “go”. We would much prefer to wait in our pews until someone chooses to join us there. The church building is a safe place, one where many churches invest the bulk of their budgets. Church improvements and maintenance are expensive, but we think that if we create the perfect environment, “they will come.” But lost people aren’t looking for a building to inhabit; they are seeking hope, friendship, and answers to their many questions and problems. In a world where AI, social media, streaming worship services, and online dating, the church can offer something different. If we go , as Jesus commands, the opportunity to make disciples is endless. Opportunities that won’t walk through our front doors. The second concept that can get lost when talking about the Great Commission is the word disciple. Jesus didn’t tell us to make Christians; he said to make disciples. John Wesley illuminated Christ’s commission when he wrote, “The church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples.” What’s the difference between converts and disciples? I believe the difference is that Christians are people who believe in Christ, but disciples are fully committed to Christ. The rich young ruler could be described as a Christian; he believed that Jesus was the great teacher, and he was moral, faithful, and generous. He fell short of being a disciple of Christ when he wasn’t willing to give up all he had to follow Jesus. For the Global Methodist Church to multiply, we must develop disciples. Men and women who accept Christ as not just their Savior, but more importantly, their Lord. Church multiplication requires members who are willing to go wherever God leads them and do all that God calls them to do. The future of the church will depend upon our willingness to leave our buildings and go and make disciples where they are. Lord, it is so easy to sit in our comfortable churches and wait for the lost to come to us. But that is not what you have called us to do. Embolden us with courage to step out of our church doors and share your great love and redemption with people who may not look like us. Open our eyes to see the lambs who have strayed. Fill us with your perfect love so our hearts will not rest until they hear from us the greatest message there is. Amen