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Easter 2020 was very unusual to say the least according to Indiana Area Bishop Julius Trimble.  Bishop Trimble was Rev. Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Be Encouraged by the Bishop on the United Methodist People Podcast.  Bishop Trimble shared how he spent his Easter attending four online worship experiences and recording an Easter sermon which was aired on television and online on Easter Sunday.  Of course the coronavirus pandemic caused the closure of almost all United Methodist Church buildings for Easter leaving most churches to worship in some sort of lifestream form. Bishop Trimble shared some of the key points from his Easter message:   -To not be afraid. -To come and see. -To go and tell.   Bishop Trimble then pointed to the ways that the church need to respond to impact of the pandemic on the future of worship, missions and ministry in the UMC.  He said in order to sustain ministry moving forward it will take strategic prayer and planning that will mean the church will need to be more effective and efficient in a new day post pandemic.   In order for new strategies to be implemented Bishop emphasized that collaborative effort need to ramped up and that kindness needs to become as viral as coronavirus.    Bishop Trimble closed his conversation with Brad by giving a devotional thought about caring for one another moving forward as our brother and sister’s keeper and offering a prayer of encouragement.   The United Methodist People Podcast is published by Rev. Dr. Brad Miller as a means to strengthen the connection in the United Methodist Church through conversation and commentary.   April 13, 2020   Rev. Dr. Brad Miller   inumc.org Brad Miller 0:00 Be encouraged with Bishop Julius treble. I'm Reverend Dr. Brad Miller, your host today are in the United Methodist people podcast and we are privileged to talk with Bishop treble here on the day after Easter. We are talking on April 13 of 2020. Today after Eastern So, Bishop, good morning, and how was Easter for you? Bishop Julius Trimble 0:21 Happy Easter granted, Easter was different. That's an understatement. I cannot recall any time in my life, having not been in church on Easter. That may have happened, but I don't recall that happening. And it was unusual. But it was also glorifying in the sense that that the message is still the same Jesus Christ is risen, risen indeed. And I heard that proclaimed on four different occasions on Easter because I was able to connect online with various worship services three through three United Methodist and one Africa. Methodist Episcopal worship service out of Cleveland with a former Associate Minister of mine. Brad Miller 1:09 Wow. So you got to Chris and various things you did. You're also they were experiencing how some churches are handling doing live streaming worship and things of this nature. And so we're trying to understand how to do that type of thing itself. But you also had the opportunity to share an Easter message yourself over Easter and it was televised in some local areas. Tell us a little bit about what it was like for you to preach on Easter, given the circumstances? Bishop Julius Trimble 1:39 Well, it's always I counted a privilege to preach anytime, Brad, especially on Easter. And frequently bishops don't often get invited to preach on Easter in the local congregation. But on occasion, there is an opportunity to to share the message of the risen Christ so that I was counted as a privilege. This is this is An unusual moment in history. We know that because the message I preached was pre recorded in a sanctuary that had three people in it. So not being physically together on Easter, the going in and out of churches is somewhat contributing to the dissonance and the and probably the discomfort that we have. Because part of the resurrection, Sunday is often the gathering and the fellowship that is that's associated with that, the emphasis on children and so forth. So it was a glorious Easter to proclaim the message of the risen Christ. And yet I recognize that many people, they experienced the Easter even though they had an opportunity to see it on television or online, they probably experienced something. Something was missing in that in that experience. Brad Miller 2:54 And so that's part of what we've got to try to navigate and figure out now but the message I want to touch on your message Just a minute because I think there are some points that I think are helpful to us and not from your Eastern message itself. And you really emphasize a couple of things that I thought were important to not be afraid to not be afraid. That's a Bishop Julius Trimble 3:14 big thing. That's a big problem. And at this moment, in fact, I've heard from several people, including some of my relatives who live across the country that never would have been able to hear me preach. Had I've been preaching in the local church in Indiana. And their response was, thank you for the message, especially the reminder that comes from Jesus and the angels at the tomb. And, and the whole of the gospel for us not to be afraid. I don't believe that, that this virus has caught God by surprise, nor any other crisis that we face. And God's message consistently is the same. And Jesus really hones in on that. In fact, I think that is part of the blessing of Easter is from not be afraid, life and death have been cared for by God. Brad Miller 4:05 And, well, if we really, truly, truly believe in the resurrection, then the matters of life and death itself are behind us. And now we move and move when we move forward. And that's part of what I wanted to talk to you about today. But I also know a couple things, things that your messages wanted to touch on, that I think are important to, to, to carry through with it not be afraid part is you said about to come and see that this is for us to discover for ourselves, the personal meaningfulness of this. Bishop Julius Trimble 4:34 Paul writes in First Corinthians, Dr. Bread, that, that if Christ has not been raised from the date our preaching is in vain. So I think the cornerstone of the gospel and our cost per message is that that the risen Christ God raised Jesus from the dead and And though we were not there on that first Resurrection Sunday, if you will. Because of the gospel, and because of the the lifeblood of the church, we're able still to come and see that God is present with us that God has been raised from that. And if, in fact, our, if God was Jesus was not raised from the dead, our preaching would be in vain. And we will be found to be false witnesses to the gospel that we that we claim to that we proclaim without apology. So I think we can still come and see. And maybe it may have been different, different, difficult yesterday on Easter, for people don't really see that message, because they're not doing it in the sense of the same community of being with people to celebrate. But the message is still the same. And it's still very powerful for us to come and see. And that is, that is what it means for us to walk by faith bread. Yes, yes. For us to walk by faith. Brad Miller 5:55 Well, it's helpful to have that affirmation and confirmation I was privileged to be go to the whole Atlantic cup. times and I went to the Garden Tomb is still empty, isn't it? The tomb is still empty. Bishop Julius Trimble 6:06 Whenever we come back I call my mother my wife can attest to this. And I, because my mother has long wanted to go to the whole van and not been able to do that. And I tell her, tell her she always wants to know if we get back safely. And then I say I'm calling to give my report that the film is still empty. And we say that with laughter but it's really sure yes, of faith as Brad Miller 6:29 well. Was that part of coming see to affirm and confirm this and I think there is maybe some even metaphorical understanding when in our churches were empty in terms of their physical buildings this Easter. Wow. And yet, Christ was still there, right. And crisis. Oh, there's cries of crisis, the church not not isolated to that building. But also the church dispersed into the various homes are places that people I know that in my online message, I had some people connected with me who were would normally connect with our with our Bishop Julius Trimble 7:01 with. I'm hearing that story all across Indiana. I'm sure that's the same case across the country and across the globe. There was a virtual choir that United Methodist choir that. I don't know if you saw that discipleship ministries, and I did. I did. Awesome. Awesome. It was just just wonderful to see that. So there's a lot that can be done with technology. But I think we also need to acknowledge some people probably were not able to connect. Brad Miller 7:28 Oh, yes, yeah. So this is our challenge moving forward. And it goes with a third point your message just wanted to touch on that you you said in your Eastern message to go and tell it's still our responsibility in spite of whatever obstacles are here to share the good news moving forward. So Bishop Julius Trimble 7:45 I'm back a little bit. If you think about the, the John's Gospel of the resurrection that that wasn't the focus of my preaching on Eastern Matthew, but if you go to the to the post resurrection appearance, Jesus calm To the disciples who are locked up in the house, they, in one sense, you could say they were on a state stay at home, they were in a stay at home and comes and says peace steel. So this notion that the church only is the church when we're gathered is really a misnomer because the church has always been on the move. And I think our message to go and make disciples our mission as United Methodist and as Christians is to share the gospel that we have been that we have received. So the golden tell is that it doesn't change based upon the Coronavirus we still have to find ways to go and tell the story entered entered priests sometimes if without using words, just witness and buyer compassion Brad Miller 8:51 will be can be the church gathered in and the church scattered as well done thanks. Don't get spread until we scatter them out there. So let's let's talk now Bishop about where we go from here. Easter is something we can for all Christians for all pastors, we all look forward to it. Yes, this was an incredibly different odd, strange Easter. And yet, it's still a high point for us. And now we have to sustain we have to live as the eastern people moving forward. And this may be a bit of a challenge because this Coronavirus thing has not been just a few week thing. It is an open ended type of thing and we we just don't know where we're going to go with this. And so let's, I just like to speak a little bit to where wherever the church can move forward now as we look to sustain kind of a new way of life and I'm talking about issues of worship, like we've talked about here a little bit and also pastoral care missions. A whole ball of wax give us some of your thoughts about how to sustain this new way of church. little longer term here, Bishop Julius Trimble 10:02 I think we really got to have to really enter into a period of a strategic prayer and strategic planning. The Indiana conference already had established with Blue Ribbon task force at our last annual conference. So we were, we are already in the process of looking at how we can be church differently, more efficiently and effectively going forward. Little did we know, we didn't know at all that this, this early strategic planning work would be impacted by us being forced to stay at home for a period of time. I believe that the corona virus isn't going to last forever. But it would have disrupted disrupted our church life in such a way that we really are going to have to rebound from it, but also adapt so that we go forward using more digital platforms, calling on people like yourself Dr. Brad Miller, who has been doing podcasts for a while to expand our message and our witness, find ways in which we can do increased online giving, we will be able to get back together, it's gonna be a matter of weeks, possibly months, but certainly a few more weeks at least. So what does that mean for us when we come back, so I think local congregations and certainly annual conferences as we are going to have to engage in a period of sustained strategic planning and adaptation to the new reality for the church life, fresh expressions, which are really ministries that are not just just traditional worshiping in the sanctuary ministries, I think is going to have to expand. The fact that our economy has has been rocked and unemployment is at a record all time high right now. impacts everything that we do in the church. We minister to people who work, minister to people who have families minister to people who are unemployed, minister to people who are underemployed. And so what does it mean for us? A nonprofit 501 c three charitable, Christian movement that's dependent upon offering to continue to go forward. So I think there's gonna be a rapid increase of churches being able to do online giving, and online stewardship education. And there also has to be a way for us to kind of break down our our silo mentality and ministry. He talked, I've been talking about this for years breath, but I think we're going to be forced to in in the immediate future, to find ways to collaborate in ministry ministry that we do as as well as outreach, but also ministry as well, what we're doing relative to worshiping and our ability to do things on digital platform's? Brad Miller 13:01 Well, as you mentioned, it believes that we're just going to be much more nimble and much more adaptable to new models of ministry, collaboration, churches working together, leadership, teams, various things. And we're going to have to implement, you know, we could talk about talking about talking about it, but some of this is going to be implemented, because we're going to have churches and clergy and situations that are going to hit a crisis here if they're not here for not already. So we have to have to do that. So let's talk a little bit about some decision making that kind of needs to go into process you've and this might be helpful to to our listeners as well. And that has to do with annual conference and about regarding when we meet, for instance, you know, you have asked us not to meet as churches through the month of April. And so that leaves open ended the month of May, for instance, and there's a lot of talk when when other from health officials and so on about the wisdom of that When can we expect some sort of decision or some sort of a leading from your office regarding that because here we are. We're this. We're midway through April now. So churches will need some direction on that. And then can you speak to that a little bit about the decision making process regarding our churches from the Congress perspective? Bishop Julius Trimble 14:19 So further beginning from the beginning of this Coronavirus pandemic and the way it has impacted Indiana, I've said this on a number of occasions. We want to make good decisions that we have control over after we prayed about it and deliberated. Do it as quickly as possible. Because some decisions won't be made by us. by us. I mean, the bishop, the church leadership, local pastors, and we saw that happen. Sure enough, not long after I said that, of course, others were saying that. Then governors began to institute stay at home orders and we're trying we try to listen to the doctors And scientists and health professionals in our governor and follow their follow his lead. I think it's not wise for us to anticipate going back to worship at the end of April just because that's already been said. So mine, I anticipate in the next week or so the next seven to 10 days at the latest of announcing my recommendation or whether or not we received a request or mandate or another executive order from our governor, whether this has to be extended into May, meaning to stay at home, no gathering of worship. We will be meeting this week, the annual conference sessions committee, at which point I will make a decision relative to postponing our annual conference and when we will host that annual conference. For example, they may it may be that that groups are able to meet in June but it may be requested that large groups not The meeting right away. So our annual conference isn't, you know, is a meeting of about 2000 people close to 2000 people. So that's different than going back and meeting for your church council or leadership team meeting, attended meeting. So we will that decision will be made this week about annual conference date. We've already found out our General Conference is postponed to 2021. And will soon hopefully we'll still know the exact date for that Brad Miller 16:33 about jurisdictional conference so that you know, with the lucky bishops with so Bishop Julius Trimble 16:37 yeah, all of the all of these things are up in the air and will be postponed and as soon as decisions are made will be made, and information will be made available quickly. So probably this next week or these next two weeks. Announcements will be made about proposed worship times are coming back together as well as certainly annual conference people in the In the conference, we'll hear hear from their Bishop about. Brad Miller 17:03 Well, I just think it's just one of the things where we just, you know, need some direction. And I think we need to be prepared for either for any possibility, really, you know, it seems to me we have to be prepared for any possibility and I've been taking some direction from I don't fear from the Stockdale paradox or not, but basically where you where you deal with the brutal facts at hand and still move forward with with faith. And I think that's where we have to be, but if we want Bishop Julius Trimble 17:32 honesty, people want honesty, we have heresy, Brad Miller 17:36 we need transparency and clarity and leadership and Bishop, I thank you for that. I just want to say that right now, we don't always get that from all the leaders that we deal with in the political realm or other realms. But we need that we crave that right now. And our people crave that from us, clergy and as well. So that's some some things there that are there going on. You Anything we need to know that you might have regarding some of the local church functions? I'm thinking about? The we've got a lot of information recently about the cares Act, the payroll, protection processes, anything new information on that, that you may have for us. You know, a lot of recruits are applying for that who we haven't heard anything yet. Bishop Julius Trimble 18:20 I don't have any new information, I would say stay tuned to our conference website. Our director of administrative services, Ian Hall is excellent. He's really on top of these kinds of things and is in communication with other church treasures across the country, and the general council on Finance and Administration. I'll be talking with our Director of clergy care services, Reverend Mike or around how we how do we expand our outreach and adapt, adapt to caring for clergy and clergy families during this time? Of course, we already were set up some conferences don't have this benefit, but we already set up where we have a clarity Care Services and persons can call and, and anonymously get support pastoral care support and counseling through connecting with the Reverend Reverend Michael Warner, so I'll be talking with him just to see given this this is a different environment. What do we need to be paying attention to if if anyone's been watching the news? We know that there's just some difficult things happening. Oh, yes. Yeah, we just lost a police officer here. Oh my gosh, Brad Miller 19:27 yes. That was a Bishop Julius Trimble 19:30 disturbance. Yeah. Brad Miller 19:30 That was right in the neighborhood of the church. I serve By the way, so it's in my neighborhood. So very just tragic. Yeah. So you know, but God is still God in the midst of all this right? Absolutely. Bishop Julius Trimble 19:45 God is still God and Christ is risen. And so what, Brad Miller 19:49 what, what words do you have just in the last few minutes together here Bishop what kind of words do you want to share what's on your heart today, maybe a scripture or a leading or an excellent As you may have had, or good or bad, but just share with us what's on your heart now for just a minute or two. Bishop Julius Trimble 20:06 I think we need to still continue to look to the hills from whence cometh I help someone 21 I help comes from the Lord. But we should not also look to the Lord who will grant help and your answers Hill. But remember that we are our brother's keeper, our Sister's Keeper. So this notion of a loving God and loving neighbors, not just something to be taken as a biblical cliche. I think I think this is a this is where the proof is in the pudding. They will know we are Christians, by our love by our love. This is a time for us really to, to demonstrate that in the ways in which we can and recognize that we can't do that. In in large gatherings at this moment, but one one on one. We can continue to demonstrate the love of God in real practical real time ways, I pray people will do that and be encouraged as they are doing that. Brad Miller 21:07 Yes. And that is certainly part of your role and what you do well is to be encouraged and we are here to, to be encouraged by you, Bishop and we want to encourage you as well and thank you for your service. And can you close our time together with prayer my friend, Bishop Julius Trimble 21:21 I'd be glad to pray and I would invite persons who hear this podcast and know that they can reach us and and that we'd love to hear from them. If you have questions that you'd like to be me to respond to in future podcasts. be more than happy to hear from you Lord God, we thank you for the gift of Easter. And now we are to live in this Easter tied this Easter post Easter period oh god in which we proclaim the risen Christ. God you made a promise and kept that promise. And you were promised to be with us through the end of time until the end of time. Or Lord, we know that there are people who are hurting because they are unemployed. We know there are people Who are hurting Oh God because they've lost loved ones. We pray for God for our police officer in Indian Indianapolis, Brianna Lee Brianne least, and for her family and for those who mourn her loss, we pray to God for those persons who who have not been able to connect online and worship for them to know God that they are loved beyond measure. gratis Oh God, the capacity to make kindness more contagious than the Coronavirus and we pray all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our risen Savior. Amen. Brad Miller 22:35 Man. Thank you, Bishop Julius tremble and you've been listening today to be encouraged with Bishop Julius tremble. It's my pleasure to be with you. I'm Reverend Dr. Brad Miller. Let me just leave you with these words from john Wesley to always do all the good that you can Transcribed by https://otter.ai