| Superintendents urge churches to move past maintenance By Melissa Lauber UMConnection Staff Pastors must be willing to itinerate, congregations need to become more inclusive, and all United Methodists must move beyond maintenance ministry,  the Rev. Edwin A. Ankeny told members of annual conference in the District Superintendents annual report. Ankeny, who is dean of the Cabinet, drew applause from annual conference members at the Renaissance Hotel June 8 when he claimed too many Baltimore-Washington Conference churches make their structure a focal point. The unfortunate thing is that much of what we claim as our ministry is our buildings, Ankeny said. We are becoming, as someone has said, the frozen chosen, caught as it were, in our own sphere of maintenance. Churches who are not making disciples should assess their ministry, he said. If you are not receiving new members then be honest enough to admit you are at a maintenance place and prepare a proper way to bring it to a close. Ankeny also offered a challenge to the pastors, asking them to remember their ordinations, when they promised to itinerate when called. He encouraged them not to use excuses from their personal lives, even good and valid reasons. Sisters and brothers of the clergy, if you cannot itinerate then have the courage to say so and find another arena for ministry rather than the itinerant one, Ankeny said. The district superintendents also offered a word of warning and encouragement to the laity, urging them to become more truly inclusive. Almost every church profile that is returned to us says, as one of its characteristics, We are warm and friendly, said Ankeny. What we have come to discover that means is that we are warm and friendly to those who are like us, look like us, talk like us, and in most cases, are indeed us. This lack of inclusiveness is sometimes apparent in the appointment process. Unfortunately the church your church and mine, said Ankeny, is not what we declare we are. We are not inclusive, we do not have open pulpits. He encouraged churches to look beyond the differences that separate people and embrace diversity. Would to God it were being said of us, Look how they love one another, said Ankeny. In his address for the district superintendents, Ankeny also: - Stressed the importance and value of apportionment giving;
- Asked that all pensions and medical assessments for clergy by paid on time; and
- Gave thanks for the ministries of local pastors and retirees who serve churches.
In highlighting the work of local pastors, Ankeny stressed the need for more young women and men who are willing to commit a lifetime to the ordained ministry. Throughout his address, Ankeny lifted up images from a story of a cat. This cat, he said, was caught in a tree. At the base, two people observed the situation and tried to work out a rescue plan. They bent back the branches and the tree tipped down only to have it catapult up again. Whoom, the cat flew into space, said Ankeny. Later, one of the cat rescuers met a neighbor in the grocery store, buying cat food. Do you have a cat? she asked. It was the strangest thing, the neighbor said. She and her husband were sitting in the backyard when all of a sudden a cat landed at their feet. Look, the neighbors husband said, the Lord has sent us a cat. Ankeny urged annual conference members not to get caught like the cat, hurtling through alarming and confusing times. Instead, he urged them to ask three questions that can direct their future: Why do I need, why does the larger church need, and why does my specific church need Jesus? | 
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