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by Rev. Carlos Ramirez

Happy New Year, Oklahoma Annual Conference! I am Carlos Ramirez. Since July of 2024, I have served as the Director of Communications for our Conference. Perhaps you have caught some of the videos we made during the General Conference, Annual Conference or our monthly podcast: Circuit Update. I am looking forward to serving you all and seeking ways to amplify the voice of your local congregation, making our conference stronger.

Reformatting the news

During the last part of 2024, the Communications team has been hard at work in order to provide the best possible information and materials that you, in the local church, can use. With this in mind, we are reorganizing our content and the cadence in which each publication is produced.

The Contact is the Oklahoma Annual Conference historical news outlet and it will continue to be. Yet, instead of the Contact serving as a weekly publication, the Communications team will produce monthly issues. The reason behind this change is to provide a robust edition that can be used for sermon preparations, Sunday School class material, small group studies or personal faith development.

Each Contact will follow, to certain degree, the Christian and secular calendars addressing the major milestones in each month (i.e., Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, etc.). We will have an array of collaborators, including a monthly article from Bishop Laura Merrill.

You will also be sure to find an article or articles that remind you of the Five Dreams our conference has discerned to go about the work of United Methodists in Oklahoma: New Churches for New People, Revitalized Congregations, Communities Impacting Poverty, Healthy Clergy Leading Healthy Congregations and New Leaders for an Emerging Conference.

You, our most important contributors

We will not stop having a weekly publication. You will still receive a weekly update as to what is happening locally, in your district, our conference, or nationally and internationally. This weekly publication will be delivered as an e-newsletter. All through 2024, you submitted many articles to be published on the Contact Weekly. This will continue -- not as a PDF publication, but as a newsletter. The content will continue to be the wonderful day-to-day blessings God is doing through you, the local church, in your local communities.

We cannot stress enough how important your participation and your updates are. Please keep sending your news and newsworthy announcements to editor@okumc.org. This weekly publication will be known as OKUMC Connection. Please think of this platform as our Conference bulletin board (with a few limitations)!

We will continue to produce the podcast, Circuit Update. The purpose of the podcast is to highlight ministries and leaders who are doing important work. We will also interview collaborators who can give us further insights into the important celebrations of each month. You can see the actual footage of the podcast through YouTube. Look for the Oklahoma Annual Conference channel and subscribe. You can also listen to the podcast through Spotify or Apple Podcasts. We also encourage you to subscribe so that you can receive the latest episode and be up-to-date on what is going on in and around our Conference.

As you can see, the communications ministry is hard at work in order to be a megaphone that heralds what Jesus is up to in your local communities, in our districts, in our conference, in our country, and in the world. We want to be a partner and a resource to you in the local church.

GOOD news

I think, many times, we are bombarded by bad news. Almost every time we tune in to the news, something upsetting or depressing is at the top of the newscaster’s list. I think it is very easy to be inundated by bad news and to become cynical about the state of our local communities, our state, country and world.

Yet, how many times do we hear about all the GOOD that is being done in the name of Jesus every single day? There are food pantries open every day in different parts of the state. There are church alliances in small towns providing gifts to people who need some help with bills or gasoline.

There are countless groups meeting in our churches that seek to alleviate addiction and domestic violence. Other groups meet to mentor and tutor children and youth so that better opportunities can be opened to them. Other groups cook and prepare meals for people experiencing homelessness or that are homebound. Other groups knit shawls that the pastor uses as he or she prays with somebody in the hospital.

Other groups either make toys or collect toys for children during the Christmas season. Every Sunday (or any other day designated for communal worship) we gather to celebrate what God has done in us and through us. We celebrate all the GOODNESS God has poured out all around us.

There may not be much breaking news about this, but the work is done nonetheless. We, the Communications Ministry of the Oklahoma An- nual Conference, want to shout from the rooftops what every United Methodist congregation is doing in order to bring about here on earth the Kingdom of Heaven. We are looking forward to working alongside you and to announce all the GOOD God is doing through the United Methodist Church in Oklahoma. Do not hesitate to reach out to me at cramirez@ okumc.org. May God continue to bless us all!