 I think one of the things that I love about the United Methodist Church is this idea of theological humility, this idea that you can exist in one denomination and be able to disagree with one another. Now, granted, there is obviously a stream of orthodoxy, but on the outliers, we can see differently and still worship the same Christ. I had the opportunity to teach a class called Speaking with Integrity in a Divided World, and we had these completely rich conversations where we disagreed with each other on hot topics, but the amount of respect that was included in the conversations was just inspiring for me to see. And I was the one teaching the class, and I was learning from them about what it actually looks like to respect one another when we don't see eye-to-eye on certain topics. I think one of the things I love the most about the Methodist Church is how we sit kind of in the middle of everything. I love getting to meet couples, and one was raised evangelical, and the other was raised Catholic, and they're trying to figure out where they're going to go to church, and they find this beautiful medium in the Methodist Church, and they come to a better understanding of their faith through us, and they have a better relationship. I think that's one of the coolest things, the coolest interactions I get to have. We know, asking me about what I love about the Methodist Church is kind of like asking me, what is it that I love about my country or my family? I was thinking about how could I not love the place that has nurtured me? How could I not love the place where I came to know Christ? How could I not love the place where I learned that beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loved me unconditionally no matter what? And it's, I can't imagine being anywhere else, I'm a Wesleyan to my bones, and it's kind of like with the paraphrase what Peter said to Jesus, where else could I go that I would hear this type of message of unconditional love and unbounded grace in the words of eternal life. I love the theology of the United Methodist Church. I was not raised in the United Methodist Church, and that's really what brought me into this denomination was the theology, and by that I mean our ability to hold intention, scripture, experience, reason, and tradition to manage all of that together, that you don't have to leave your brain at the door to be a United Methodist. I really appreciate that. What I love about the Methodist Church is it's where I found the grace of God. When I was in second grade I started in Cub Scouts and the local Methodist Church was the charter organization for that, and so my mom and I started going to church at that Methodist Church and they taught me about the love of Jesus, they taught me about what it means to be a ministry and to be a disciple and follower of the teachings of Jesus, and they gave me the opportunity to hear God's call in the ministry on a mission trip with our youth group. And so the United Methodist Church has been important to me for as long as I can remember. What I love most about the United Methodist Church is its commitment to meeting people where they're at and giving them opportunities to follow Jesus in a way that are practical and accessible. I don't think it beats people up, I think it opens the doors and welcomes people in and invites them on a journey with Jesus in a way that I don't see happening in other churches. Just our robust connection at Lism, so one of the things that's been the most amazing about my journey in the ministry is to see the ways that people who have mentored and shaped my life have also crossed paths with other people and have mentored and shaped their lives and now we're doing ministry together or crossing paths and hopefully shaping other people's lives as well and so just to see the way the Holy Spirit continues to work in and out of this network of relationships has been amazing. I think the United Methodist have, and Wesleyans in general, have the best articulation of who the God is that we serve and the God of love and the God of grace and I think that theology gets articulated in really beautiful ways in our church and I think that's something that we're doing really right. I think my hope for the United Methodist Church particularly as a young clergy person is that as we seek the lead of the Holy Spirit and maybe finding a new expression of what lies ahead of us that we don't neglect and forget what's gone before us. I think one of the things I hope for us is that we just continue to find ways to reach out and interact with people. I have so many relationships outside of the church with friends who've been burned by the church or have just negative perception and I love getting to kind of help redefine in their minds what church can be and when they're just blown away by it I get to say well this is just who we are as a Methodist, it's like I'm not something special, I'm part of this whole larger organization that's all like this and helping them reorient their minds around what a Christian can be, I kind of hope that we continue to do that as a church, I kind of hope that we continue to find new ways to reach out to people who otherwise wouldn't want to be a part of any sort of Christian faith. I have very high hopes for the United Methodist Church, what I'm trying to learn is how to let go of what I think that future, what I would like for it to look like and to let it unfold perhaps the way God is intending it to unfold. Like a lot of us I put so much effort in trying to get the one church plan passed and like so many of us I was very disappointed when that did not happen. But I have been amazed within days after General Conference I saw the way the Holy Spirit was working in the church, it's like the Holy Spirit woke this church up and I have seen the Holy Spirit working in this church since then in ways that I have found amazing. So my hopes for the United Methodist Church is that we find some way to structure ourselves however that might look like where we can have holy spaces that would be inclusive of all people and that includes the LGBTQ community so that we could go forward in a place where everyone can find a holy space where they are accepted and welcomed and loved and celebrated. My hope truthfully for the United Methodist Church is that we would always put our mission above our model, that we would be so in love with God's vision for the world in Jesus's intent for creation that we would do whatever it takes to remove all barriers for people coming into the church. I'm very excited about the work that the church can do in the areas of education and healthcare. We have ties to strong institutions of higher education. We have a healthcare system that's really world renowned and my hope is that we can use those kinds of ideas to really be present and solve some of the world's ills. My hope for the United Methodist Church is that it will find a way despite all of the challenges that it's facing. To prioritize its mission, to really focus on and get back to the essentials of helping people become disciples of Jesus. Move forward towards full inclusion in the church. I also hope that we could, it would be great if we could consolidate the book of discipline down, make it a little bit shorter and more digestible. I think, especially given our current situation, my hope, which I know I share with a lot of folks, is that we can be the mainline church that stays united despite our disagreements, that we can be a people and be a church where people are allowed to disagree about things as long as we stay focused on our central message. I think the future of new spaces within United Methodism, within the church in general, a majority of that is going to be in the digital space. I really think that creating new spaces in the next generation is going to be asking ourselves how can we continue to engage people who aren't showing up on Sunday mornings, whether we like it or not, how do we engage those people who are coming to our services maybe once a month or even less than that? I have no idea what those spaces are going to be. I hope that I just get to continue to go have lunch with people and have drinks with people and get to hear, you know, we're kind of wanting to grow in our faith in this way and letting those spaces be defined by those kinds of conversations. I don't know, I hope we get to continue to do cool and innovative things, though. I love that we live in a day and age of social media and that's kind of changing the game. I love that I get to see Game of Thrones updates by Jonathan Grace, like a pastor is posting about things like that. I hope that our spaces are defined by what's going on in the world and how we're connecting the world with us as real people as pastors. In the history of the church it seems like at each generation the Holy Spirit opens our hearts to some group that we have failed to include fully into the life of our church. In the past it's been based on race or gender. More recently we wrestle with LGBTQ issues. In the future, who knows what the next generation of Christians, how the Holy Spirit is going to open their eyes to ways they're being exclusive in ways that we just don't even see it right now. And so we need to go forward not only to have our open hearts and open minds and open doors, but we need to also have open eyes so that we can see where those new spaces are going to be. We can see who's not in our congregations and we can see where we need to be creating those holy spaces so that everyone is able to experience the inclusive love of Jesus Christ. My dream is to plant congregations for the United Methodist Church, new churches. I think next generations of people still want worship, but it needs to be compelling and engaging and speak to the desire they have to be brought into a transcendent experience, a place in which it feels like thin space between heaven and earth. As I've approached ministry that's been my goal as well, just to be absolutely accepting, not in some cheap, universalist way, but in a way that shows the love of Christ to the people around us, that says we have this great news to share with you and it's for all people and to include all people in that. One of the things that we try to do with the Grove is to remove the obstacles and barriers that prevent people from coming into a relationship with Christ. I think it's easy to over engineer church and it's easy to over engineer what we're asking people to do, but I think the simplicity of discipleship is something that I think the Methodist Church does well and so when I think about creating new spaces, it's how do we create spaces that help people in a very practical and simple way become disciples of Jesus. Honestly, one of my passions is exercise science and working out and participating in CrossFit and CrossFit competitions and I've seen the way that community forms around that avenue and so I'm continuing in my spare time to kind of explore the intersection of Christian faith and exercise science. I think maybe the answer, at least for me and my ministry, is focusing on the people that are already around us, that are nominally Christian, but have not been involved in a church in a long, long time and reconnecting with those people. I think is really where our growth is going to happen.