Spiritual Infrastructure in Building A Beloved Community for 2022 (Special Announcement)
In Episode 56 of The United Methodist People Podcast, with Reverend Dr. Brad Miller, the topic is building the new year of 2022 with Spiritual Infrastructure in the Be Encourage segment, Bishop Julius C. Trimble.
Bishop Trimble outlines entering into the new year of 2022 with a vision of partnership to build a beloved community with spiritual infrastructure. Spiritual infrastructure is composed of such elements as prayer, accountability, and faith.
Brad and Bishop discuss Jeremiah 29:11 regarding God’s plans for the church moving into 2022. The discussion revolved around God delivering us for our new season and it's going to be a good season.
It was announced that Bishop Trimble will be launching his own podcast in January 2022 “Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble”
The trailer is available now at https://be-encouraged.captivate.fm and the podcast will be available on Apple Podcasts and the other podcast directories.
Rev. Dr. Brad Miller closed the last podcast episode of 2021 with a word of appreciation to the guests and listeners of the United Methodist People Podcast and a quote from John Wesley.
“As for reputation, though it be a glorious instrument of advancing our Master's service, yet there is a better than that: a clean heart, a single eye, and a soul full of God. A fair exchange if, by the loss of reputation, we can purchase the lowest degree of purity of heart.”
John Wesley
Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is found at https://be-encouraged.captivate.fm
Transcript
The United Methodist people podcast with
Brad Miller:Reverend Dr. Brad Miller, we are setting a vision and goals and
Brad Miller:dreams for 2022 on the Be encouraged segment with Bishop
Brad Miller:Julius treble, Bishop, welcome to the podcast for 2022.
Bishop Julius Trimble:Thank you, Brent, Happy New Year to
Bishop Julius Trimble:all who have joined us, and those who will be receiving this
Bishop Julius Trimble:blessing of encouragement.
Brad Miller:Bishop, I want to give you a scripture and let's
Brad Miller:just kind of start from there about casting a vision for the
Brad Miller:year 2022 We've come out of, I just think we have to be honest
Brad Miller:that the year 2020 and 2021 were kind of rough years for a lot of
Brad Miller:folks, and the world and even our United Methodist Church. And
Brad Miller:if we're not going to, you know, we're not going to sugarcoat to
Brad Miller:2022 will have its challenges, but we can start the year with a
Brad Miller:big plan. And Jeremiah 2911 says, For I know the plans I
Brad Miller:have for you declares the LORD plans to prosper you and not to
Brad Miller:harm you, plans to give you hope, and a future several key
Brad Miller:words there a bishop prosper, no harm, hope and a future. Give us
Brad Miller:some hope in the future. My friend give us a sense of what's
Brad Miller:next.
Bishop Julius Trimble:Let's think about the context of this
Bishop Julius Trimble:idea of the prophet Jeremiah speaking to those who are in
Bishop Julius Trimble:exile in Babylon. Many of us feel like we've been in exile in
Bishop Julius Trimble:this what some have called liminal space, protracted, COVID
Bishop Julius Trimble:season, you know, a restricted travel, restricted worship. So
Bishop Julius Trimble:the Prophet, Jeremiah says, I know that it's been tough. But
Bishop Julius Trimble:God has got good news for all of us, that get what God has
Bishop Julius Trimble:promised for you is not what you are experiencing on your worst
Bishop Julius Trimble:days. So what I would say to people as we journey into 2022,
Bishop Julius Trimble:is that your worst days are never the, the part of the plan
Bishop Julius Trimble:that God has for us, God, what God has for us is abundance, but
Bishop Julius Trimble:God has for us is, is is framed with a foundation of hope. What
Bishop Julius Trimble:God has for us is for us to prosper, and to be productive
Bishop Julius Trimble:and fruitful. So that we can realize that you may have been
Bishop Julius Trimble:we may have been in exile, like the children of the Hebrew
Bishop Julius Trimble:children in Babylon. But right now, God is delivering us for
Bishop Julius Trimble:our new season. In fact, I say to that to the folks I work with
Bishop Julius Trimble:most I say, this is our season, and it's going to be a good
Bishop Julius Trimble:season.
Brad Miller:And we a lot of times, that's how we choose to
Brad Miller:make it isn't a bishop, it's how we approach it ourselves. And so
Brad Miller:I'm going to ask you how you approach a new season a new
Brad Miller:year? What are some thinking that you have about either
Brad Miller:personal goals? Or maybe goals for the church or, or a vision
Brad Miller:moving forward? And what are some of the things you just
Brad Miller:think can't happen or could happen or on your heart mind as
Brad Miller:we enter this new year? I think,
Bishop Julius Trimble:you know, I make personal goals and you
Bishop Julius Trimble:know, people call them new year's resolutions. I like to
Bishop Julius Trimble:call them write down goals. But I also want to call brand
Bishop Julius Trimble:partnership goals. Yes, I think some of the greatest goals we
Bishop Julius Trimble:can make are things that you and I can agree to. So So for me,
Bishop Julius Trimble:2022 is one of the visions I have the vision I have for 2022
Bishop Julius Trimble:is partnering with others, to build bridges to Beloved
Bishop Julius Trimble:Community. We can't just leap from sorrow to victory. But I
Bishop Julius Trimble:think we can build bridges and and you might say what, Julius
Bishop Julius Trimble:Trimble? I don't know that you've been to school for bridge
Bishop Julius Trimble:construction? Well, I think they just they did pass last year.
Bishop Julius Trimble:What's it called the they act to the add money to build bridges
Bishop Julius Trimble:and roads and
Brad Miller:the stimulus program for the economy? And so
Brad Miller:yeah, it's it to build bridges
Bishop Julius Trimble:and roads is the infrastructure. Yes,
Bishop Julius Trimble:absolutely. That's that that's a word. So I think we need to
Bishop Julius Trimble:build our spiritual infrastructure. How about that
Bishop Julius Trimble:bread?
Brad Miller:I love it. I love it. Let's go to beloved
Brad Miller:community,
Bishop Julius Trimble:and whether we start with that. We
Bishop Julius Trimble:start with prayer. Jeremiah started with prayer. Nehemiah
Bishop Julius Trimble:started with prayer. In Second Chronicles, you know, we get the
Bishop Julius Trimble:admonition to pray if my people who are called by my name will
Bishop Julius Trimble:humble themselves and pray it doesn't say humble themselves
Bishop Julius Trimble:and write out a plan says humble themselves and pray so I think
Bishop Julius Trimble:we really ought to invest in and if you join me, Brandon, we can
Bishop Julius Trimble:get folks to join us and building our spiritual
Bishop Julius Trimble:infrastructure. We just came up with that on this project while
Brad Miller:you and I might just write a book together on
Brad Miller:that, my friends, spiritual infrastructure, I love that
Brad Miller:phraseology, because it means this infrastructure means
Brad Miller:connecting right in infrastructure in the physical
Brad Miller:sense means roads and bridges, and the the surfaces that we
Brad Miller:need to live, you can't live without those things, you have
Brad Miller:to have those. And that's foundational. That's like a
Brad Miller:building has to have a foundation. You can't build a
Brad Miller:skyscraper without deep, deep foundation. And so that's what
Brad Miller:we're talking about here, this spiritual infrastructure. It is
Brad Miller:not only by the way between Christian to Christian, I'm just
Brad Miller:taking off here on my own little tangent here, Bishop, you allow
Brad Miller:me as long as you in Christian to Christian or church to
Brad Miller:church, it's to church to the community is to church, to the
Brad Miller:educational system, to the healthcare systems, to the
Brad Miller:business community, to the political systems, everything
Brad Miller:has to be interconnected. Do you agree and, and maybe that's be
Brad Miller:part of these, these dysfunctional partnerships that
Brad Miller:you're talking about here?
Bishop Julius Trimble:Yes, everything has to be
Bishop Julius Trimble:interconnected. I think there's an African term, I learned it,
Bishop Julius Trimble:even in a more more demonstrative way, when I
Bishop Julius Trimble:traveled to Africa University. And we stayed in what was called
Bishop Julius Trimble:Ubuntu center. And Unbuntu is an African word I think, in
Bishop Julius Trimble:southern Africa. That literally means that we are I am because
Bishop Julius Trimble:you are, we are all connected together. So part of our part of
Bishop Julius Trimble:our understanding of what we can do together is that you can hold
Bishop Julius Trimble:me accountable for what I say I'm going to do if I say I'm
Bishop Julius Trimble:going to be walking three days a week, and we talk three days a
Bishop Julius Trimble:week, and you say, Julius brother tremble, you haven't
Bishop Julius Trimble:walked at all from what I can tell, then somehow we broken
Bishop Julius Trimble:that accountability. And that partnership goal has not been
Bishop Julius Trimble:achieved. So next week, has to be a better week than the
Bishop Julius Trimble:previous week. I love this, we need to keep our keep our cups
Bishop Julius Trimble:filled with hope. Our cups have been holes have been poked into
Bishop Julius Trimble:our cups. So a lot of our hope and our enthusiasm, as leaked
Bishop Julius Trimble:out are drained out. And so I think in 2022, we really need to
Bishop Julius Trimble:fill our cups and get some new sturdy cups and fill them with
Bishop Julius Trimble:hope.
Brad Miller:But it says right there clearly, from the
Brad Miller:Scripture, we read, claims to give you hope, and a future and
Brad Miller:a future. So just a couple that you're encouraging man what
Brad Miller:gives you hope and encouragement as we head into this year, what
Brad Miller:are some signs of hope?
Bishop Julius Trimble:For a disciple signs of hope is that
Bishop Julius Trimble:people are consistently saying they feel God's presence and
Bishop Julius Trimble:God's call upon their lives. One of our superintendents last year
Bishop Julius Trimble:was hosting a charge conference on Zoom. And someone responded,
Bishop Julius Trimble:they that they want to answer God's call on their life to the
Bishop Julius Trimble:ministry. So I am inspired by the fact that their folks still
Bishop Julius Trimble:answering God's call on their life for full time Christian
Bishop Julius Trimble:ministry. I am hopeful when I see people being creative in the
Bishop Julius Trimble:ways in which they are continuing to work on things
Bishop Julius Trimble:like dismantling racism. I'm encouraged when I see people
Bishop Julius Trimble:deciding that their great gift can be the gift of generosity,
Bishop Julius Trimble:blessing others with the resources that they have.
Brad Miller:Great way for us to start our year of 2022 Bishop
Brad Miller:but haven't just given us one kind of I was gonna say closing
Brad Miller:thought but let's like term it that way. This give us a
Brad Miller:beginning thought for the year, a launch thought, if you will.
Brad Miller:And then let's let's pray into the new year. Can you do that
Brad Miller:for us?
Bishop Julius Trimble:Absolutely. hear something that I read from
Bishop Julius Trimble:a book entitled trust by Amy Valdes Barker. Jesus cares about
Bishop Julius Trimble:us and Jesus has the authority to deliver on what God has
Bishop Julius Trimble:promised. Oh, how true that is. That's a connection to Jeremiah
Bishop Julius Trimble:2911. Jesus delivers on what God has already promised. A future
Bishop Julius Trimble:filled with hope, a future filled with life a future filled
Bishop Julius Trimble:with abundance and purpose. So I'm trusting that God is
Bishop Julius Trimble:faithful, and I'm trusting God help me through the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Julius Trimble:Be faithful as well.
Brad Miller:Awesome. How about a prayer for us to get this year
Brad Miller:started?
Bishop Julius Trimble:But God we give you thanks and praise
Bishop Julius Trimble:for a new year. We give you thanks and praise for the
Bishop Julius Trimble:opportunity to brace justice and dignity and solidarity and
Bishop Julius Trimble:partnership as we pursue faithfulness to God. Oh God, we
Bishop Julius Trimble:thank you for being true to your words. You promised never to
Bishop Julius Trimble:leave us nor forsake us. You have plans for us. May we abide
Bishop Julius Trimble:and live into those plans for us? As one pray, prayer was
Bishop Julius Trimble:prayed many years ago. Your Will God nothing more. Nothing less.
Bishop Julius Trimble:Nothing. else in Jesus name. May we be a blessing and 2022
Brad Miller:Our guest today on the United Methodist people
Brad Miller:podcast on the Be encouraged segment talking today about
Brad Miller:spiritual infrastructure for 2022 Bishop, Julius tremble.
