Bishop Julius C. Trimble is the Resident Bishop of the Indiana Area of the United Methodist Church.

Bishop Trimble has the personal mission to encourage all people with the love of Jesus Christ to rise to their highest potential. It is his commitment to his personal mission that led Bishop Trimble to create the “To Be Encouraged” Podcast along with co-host Rev.Dr. Brad Miller.

Bishop Trimble says, “I am compelled by Jesus to share with you an encouraging word or two about Jesus, theology, the Bible, the pandemic, the environment, racism, voting rights, human sexuality, and the state of the United Methodist Church.”

To Be Encouraged with Bishop Julius C. Trimble is to be published weekly and is available at www.tobeencouraged.com and all the podcast directories.

https://www.inumc.org/bishop/office-of-the-bishop/

**Episode 115: Reflections on Retirement: Encouraging Words from Bishop Julius Trimble on Faith, Love, and Service

Join us for an inspiring episode of *To Be Encouraged* as Rev. Dr. Brad Miller sits down with Bishop Julius C. Trimble to discuss his remarkable 16-year tenure as a bishop in the United Methodist Church, his thoughts on the denomination's future, and his upcoming transition out of the Episcopacy in the state of Indiana. This rich conversation provides heartfelt insights on the importance of love, preaching, and enduring faith in the face of challenges. Here are three key takeaways from the episode:

### 1. The Power of Love and Community

Bishop Julius C. Trimble emphasizes that the core of United Methodist preaching—and indeed his own ministry—rests on the twin pillars of love for God and love for one’s neighbor. This foundational belief has been the driving force behind his leadership, especially during times of societal unrest and personal discouragement. He reflects on the overwhelming support and prayers from church members, particularly following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Trayvon Martin, underscoring the importance of collective encouragement and communal bonds in fostering resilience and hope.

### 2. Enduring Through Challenges

Rev. Dr. Brad Miller delves into how Bishop Trimble has managed moments of discouragement over his long career. Bishop Trimble speaks candidly about the difficulties faced by the United Methodist Church, including the impact of the pandemic and issues related to disaffiliation. His approach to overcoming these challenges involves drawing strength from personal faith, a robust support system, and the encouragement he receives from the community. He also acknowledges the evolving state of the church, highlighting the recent general conference’s positive steps toward inclusivity and the ongoing need to address mental health concerns within pastoral leadership.

### 3. A Vision for the Future

As Bishop Trimble prepares to step down, he shares his optimism for the future of the United Methodist Church under the leadership of Bishop Malone. He talks about the importance of cultivating joy and a vision for a brighter future, expressing his belief in the church’s enduring legacy of grace and service. Bishop Trimble encourages the community to continue looking for “glory sightings” or signs of God at work in their daily lives. He concludes the episode with a prayer, calling for kindness and hospitality to flourish in the world.

### Tune In

Don’t miss this episode of *To Be Encouraged* for a profound conversation that blends personal reflections with actionable insights, driven by Bishop Trimble’s enduring commitment to faith, love, and community. Join us as we explore the vital themes of leadership, change, and the power of shared belief in shaping a hopeful future.

Hello, good people, and welcome again to the To Be Encouraged

podcast with bishop Julius c Trimble. This is the podcast we

look to offer an encouraging word to an often

discouraged world, and I'm your co host, reverend doctor Brad Miller. Bishop

Trimble, welcome, to this podcast. We're in a season of transition for you, are we

not? Yes. We are, Brad. And, I'm so glad

to be able to continue the ministry of encouragement even in

the midst of personal trans and professional transition,

because I think we're at a point in the history of our country and the

world where there's no shortage of

discouragement. Oh, yes. So we really need to kinda up the ante on

on places and portals for encouragement. So welcome

to our listeners, and it's good to see you, Brad, and be with you, Brad.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, the one of the the lots of

transitions in our country, politically and socially and

all kinds of ways, but there's the the personal transfer transition

for you is that, not too long from now as we record this

in July, you'll be transitioning out of the Episcopalcy

in the state of Indiana, Indiana Area United Methodist Church into another

stage of life. And so let's just talk a little bit about what this

transition means for you as you retire as a bishop and move on to some

other things and not retiring out of ministry, what some of the transition

points are all about. And so why don't you just take us through this a

little bit? Tell us about some of the decisions you made here in the last

year or so to that why was this the right time to make a

transition for you? Well, Brad, 16 years

as an active bishop in the United Methodist Church, I think, is really

a is a full career for me as far as that

particular assignment and appointment. As an ordained

minister, I have 42 plus years in the

United Methodist Church. Prior to being a bishop, a local church pastor

and a district superintendent, and then a local church

pastor before being elected bishop. I'm really pleased that

I've been able to really continue to be a pastor, if you will, Brad

Yes. Pastor of pastors, a pastor

of congregations, both in the state of I Iowa and both most

recently, the last 8 years in the Hoosier state of Indiana.

So when I think if people ask me what are you most proud of, I'm

kinda often a little bit uncomfortable with that terminology. But I think I'm

very pleased that I've been able to still be a pastor and a

preacher, as well as an administrator, if you

will, of an annual conference, and to be in relationships

with laity and and clergy. When I first was elected a

bishop, I didn't think I thought I would really be totally separated

from the relational aspect of ministry. And while it is

very different, I sit in a different seat. I have general

church responsibilities. I've traveled to Africa and to the Holy

Land multiple times in the last 16 years.

But I still have individual relationships

so that I can demonstrate that people what people wanna know that

you care before they care how much you know. Oh, indeed. And so to be

able to demonstrate as a pastor and as a bishop that I

care about the gospel, I care about the ministries of

the church, the mission of making disciples and transforming the world,

but I also care about individuals and individual congregations.

Let's just take go with that for a minute, the relationships, what you mentioned.

And so let's talk about that relationship. You mentioned

pastoring and preaching. Let's just take the pastoring and the relationship part there.

And you mentioned some kind of how important that was to you. Give us some

examples of how you've experienced that

in a local church or some other ministry setting during your

episcopacy where you were just really fulfilled or knew there was a god moment

happening of pastoring that took place? Can you

Well, recently, recently, I visited one of our

pastors who who had major surgery. A a somewhat

it was somewhat an emergency surgery. And I was able to

do that really right as we were right as we were

preparing for for annual conference. So to be

able to still do that, that's not my primary

responsibility. Superintendents visit pastors when

they are able and pastors visit other pastors and lay

persons. But I was able to because my schedule

permitted. And I knew that this pastor would welcome a visit. It was

somewhat a surprise to the pastor that their bishop would show up, but I've

had a chance to do that on a number of occasions. And it just

reminded me that I still am a pastor

and and how important prayer is. So I had an opportunity to pray. I counted

it a privilege to do that. That's not my primary role as a

bishop, but it's still, to me, a relational

role that reminds me of both of the grace of God

and the importance of people knowing that you care about them.

It remind you a little bit of why you got into this

field in the first place, this world of ministry? Well, yeah, it reminded

me of my call, and and it reminded me of the

mentor that I had when I was going through the process the steps of ordained

ministry in the United Methodist Church who reminded me, love the

people and preach the gospel. And if you're not willing to visit the

people, don't expect them to love you back.

So so I have always, you know,

felt that one of my strengths was the ability to demonstrate to

people that that if I could be present with them, that I would

welcome that opportunity. Well, I think when you treat people with a day to day

and respect and embrace the grace that you could

just good things happen for everybody involved as opposed to any

kind of a kind of professional title or anything along

that line if people, as you said, don't care what you know until they

know how much you you care. But you also mentioned something else there that I

think is an important role that that you have played as

a bishop and as a pastor, but that's what you mentioned being a preacher.

And I know the recently, I've been able to hear you preach a couple of

times at annual conference and then a jurisdictional conference where

you really laid out basically some really found a foundational things about your

faith and how and how that relates to your

role in United Methodist Church and the whole circumstances of the

church right now. Tell me about preaching the power of preaching and

maybe the last two sermons. But any, the power of preaching, how you've seen that

lived out. Because as a bishop, you're not preaching in the same church every

week, but you're preaching a lot. Tell me about how that preaching

role has grown for you as a bishop. Well, I

think preaching is, can't be, can't

be underrated, if you will, or underappreciated.

It's people people give you the privilege of actually paying attention

for a period of time as you try to make plain

a biblical story and truth, but also

relate that to real life to to to to real

world problems and real world opportunities for ministry and mission.

So I believe, you know, as we embrace our general rules in in

in the United Methodist Church, doing no harm, doing good, staying in love with

God, that is somewhat a foundational piece of preaching

as well. So we have been created as as the the

gospel says and the Ephesians says, you know, we have to

created by god to do the work that god did, and even greater works shall

these we do. So we've been created to do good works, but I also say

we also have been created to do not just good, but also to do

justice. As Micah says, you know, what does the Lord require?

Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with God. So the

pre my preaching and preaching, I think, should really reflect

both the fact that we have been called to do

good out of the blessing that God has for us and the

multiple stories in the bible of those who

believed and followed God, how they were faithful, and

also how we can be faithful to help people not just get ready for heaven,

as I say, but also to reduce the amount of hell that people

experience here on earth. That's where that's where the the

meshing of doing good, proclaiming good news,

and doing justice. In fact, some have

said that justice is love lived out in the

public square. So as many theologians most

recently, I've been reading Paul Chilko, has said that, you know, the

corpus of being United Methodist is the love of God,

the love of God and the love of neighbor. So love of God and love

of neighbor pretty pretty much would be most of the

backbone of the preaching that I've had a chance to The juxtaposition of

that is Paul says about, you know, you hold the keys within hell and heaven

and hell. Preaching that comes into play, doesn't it? And the living life in the

church, that is that intersection of heaven and earth.

Absolutely. And I love that. I think you've done it so well and a

powerful preacher, and I know you really lifted up the name of Jesus in your,

in your jurisdictional, sermon. And in your sermon that you

gave at annual conference really emphasized, you know, that, you

know, God's place in the church and your role in that. And,

I just could you just say a word about Jesus here in our conversation here

about how fundamental that is to everything you are about

as a bishop, not only in your role as bishop, but as a pastor and

in whatever comes next. I can't remember where I read it. Maybe you can help

me with this, Brad, but I think it's an Howard

Thurman story. It may have been in his autobiography, Head and

Heart. But I do remember the story, and and this this is not a direct

quote of the story. But he talks about preaching in India

k. And that he had a valet after he had spoken to a crowd

of of of Christians. In India, he had

a a a boy who was serving kind of his valet

and the person who was taking care of him. And so after

he got through preaching and speaking, he came back and the the boy was

bringing his coat to him, and he was weeping. And

Thurman asked the the the young man and says, well, did

people not understand my preaching? He said, no, they understood you. He

said, was there something wrong or did people not receive it? He said,

no, you were well received. Said, well, what is it? You know, why are you

weeping? And the and the young young boy said to Howard

Thurman, I wanted to hear you say his name again.

And the name being Jesus Christ, the name of Jesus. And that is

a powerful story. And if I I need to refound exactly

where I read that quote, but I do know it's a Howard Once you got

into it, I recognized the story and just the power of the name of Jesus.

I know you emphasized that in your recent messages. And I just

think it's important in my mind, Bishop, that as we

go through some of the convoluted stuff we've gone through in the church, in

politics, and everything else, the discouraging things in

life, and we talk about some kind of pragmatic matters of how to

be encouraged and how to make progress, it certainly is is

certainly is vital that we, you know, adhere to the keep the main thing

the main thing. Absolutely. The name of Jesus. And I

think it's due you know, from my perspective, you you really bring us all

back around to that on a continuous basis. And I just

thank you for that, and I think that's a good

thing moving forward. And I know it'll be a part of your mission in ministry

moving forward, as well. Well, the first mission statement of

the church was Jesus Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord

indeed. Yeah. And so so I think we while we

do while, I I know

things are not as often as simple as we make them in through our

words. And sometimes our words limit us in our ability, really,

to appreciate the fullness of God's grace and mercy and

love. And and the fact that it's not just Jesus' name,

but who Jesus was, what Jesus did, his

life, his ministry, and his impact on others, you know.

How how many stories do we have to hear about

forgiveness to know that Jesus was was

was central in his understanding and his teaching that we

are not only to be forgiven, but to forgive others. Yeah.

And the teachings of Jesus, respect and dignity, justice,

grace, all these things, come into play, and and that's part of been

part of your role as the episcopal leader in Indiana

and Iowa for the last 16 years. 16

years. That's quite 16 years. Man, how'd that happen, That's what I was

saying. How'd that happen? How did that happen? What do how would you

kinda evaluate that 16 years, kinda

where you started, and, you know, what kind of trembling of the

heart perhaps you had coming into it 16 years ago, and how

it's advanced and how you've lived it out. Give us just a little bit of

a timeline of how your life has changed in

16 years as being a bishop of United Methodist Church? Thank you,

Brad, for the question. You know, because it it it

causes me to to reflect on what was I

thinking when I said, yeah. I think I really do wanna

offer myself as a candidate to be

elected bishop because the possibility great possibility was I

would not be a bishop. And so it's not there's no guarantee that that was

going to happen. And I and when I reflect on that, Brad, what I

think about was I knew that I loved the

United Methodist Church. I loved g first of all, I loved Jesus,

and and and I wanted to continue to be grow to

become a more mature Christian. And I felt in my

leadership role as a pastor and previously

as a superintendent, I think I have something to offer

a larger, how can you say, a larger community

of United Methodist and Christians. I'd like to be part

of that conversation, part of that leadership servant

leadership team, if you will. Basically, I'm I'm an

introvert, but I'm so enmeshed in the

life of the church that I've been able to

not not be not being not

being an introvert, not allow that to become any kind of,

handicap, if you will. So I treasure time on just

being with family, not being, you know, being I go to movies by

myself sometimes. I've done that long before. I mean, I like to

go to movies into the theater. Love going to the theater with my wife and

so forth. But I felt that I could

offer something because I already had a

mission statement of encouraging. I said, well, what if I had more people

that I could impact through the ministry and mission of encouragement?

And the lord made it possible for me to do that by being elected a

bishop. Now did I know I was going to Iowa? No. I didn't.

Did I know that I was gonna end up in Indiana? No. I

didn't. But I did know that wherever God would

put me, there would be good people there, and there'll be great

opportunity there, and that has been the case. That's awesome.

Well, you've had that mission statement of being an encourager all that

time. And, yet at times, I'm sure you've had some

discouraging moments during that 16 years. And so how have

you been able to take either your personal faith or some resources for

some other people, mentors or

colleagues or family members or others to help to be,

encouraging to you during some of those discouraging times during your

episcopacy? Well, there's been there have been some discouraging times,

Brad, and and you know about them because some of those times

we've we've lived through those times together. You know,

the you know, after George Floyd was killed, I was buried

I was depressed after that because it took me back to a time, actually,

when I was in Iowa and Trayvon Martin was killed

in Florida. A lot of people don't talk about that story much but I

remember that because I was in my office and I was meeting with 1 of

the pastors And the pastor said to me said, Bishop,

I've just been thinking about praying for you, thinking about you because of

Trayvon Martin. And first of all, it took me by surprise, but what that

pastor was saying to me, you're an African American, and I know you're the father

of 2 African American young men, you know, at that at

that at that time, one of them was in in in

still in college. Or maybe, yeah, one of them one of them was still in

college just just, well yeah. He

2nd year in college. So and that person,

that pastor said, ministered to me by saying, maybe they noticed

that, you know, I was really kinda upset trying to figure out what I was

gonna write as a bishop after this. Did I wanna weigh

in on every time somebody got something injustice

happened. And I really appreciated being ministered

to just by that someone noticing

that I could be reflecting on that. And I use that as one

example, but I could talk about the the protracted period of the

pandemic. You know, I got some messages that weren't very

kind. You know, your who gives you the authority to tell the

church not to worship, all kinds of

things that weren't weren't, you know, there there weren't a lot of people

were supportive of that. But the most thing that I I really wanna

remind people was that people have been praying

for me ever since I was elected a bishop. Brett, well,

you're probably saying how do I know that to be true? Well, I have cards

Yes. That people send from churches and

individuals. All of them are not even from Indiana or are even

United Methodist. Chains, they Church prayer chains and individual

pastors and laypeople who will say, bishop, you know, I

read your article. Or, bishop, you know, we pray

for our pastor today or I've gone to congregations for

Sunday and see my name in the bulletin. Bishop Julius

c Trimble on the prayer list. Yep. And my answer my answer to that

is don't take me off the prayer list. Well, I think it's cool.

I want to I've I've maybe this happened to you. I have no

bishops and or superintendents who've gone to churches, you know, on

surprise, you know, and see their name and seen seen their name there. And

that's that's a cool thing. It That's a cool thing. Yeah. Well, in that

whole process, you mentioned, you know, about the pandemic. You mentioned about some

of the unnice notes that you you got. But, you know,

we had to deal with some pretty profound difficulties in our

whole denomination. You know? Goodness. Disaffiliation

and everything goes around that. The d word. The d word.

Disaffiliation. Yeah. Well, you it used to be the discipleship. Now all of

a sudden, now the word is disaffiliation.

So, yeah, that was a that's been a difficult period for for

particularly for many of our churches because it Well,

that that led to the day of division and the right division

and all kinds of things, didn't it? So so I I I'm glad

we're we seem to be mostly past that period.

Not to say that they're not the churches won't still have other

challenges, but there has been some separate we are a

smaller denomination. We already were,

decreasing just by natural death

rate and and and lack of significant

growth in many places with professions of faith.

But our our witness is no less important today than it

was a 100 years ago. And I think we ought to be

reminded of that. And I intend to, even in retirement, to

remind people that our witness, your witness, my witness is no

less important today than it was yesterday or

100 years ago. Well, that's part of keeping this,

legacy of of of grace and service

and what you mentioned here. You know, love God, love others, and or

stay in love with God. All a part of who we are and we've

navigated in your Episcopal Episcopal time,

you know, COVID and political unrest,

all this kind of thing, and division churches, some pretty some

pretty profound things, and I just wanna congratulate you for getting for getting through it,

man. You did it. You did it. And so what

having with that framework, as

you welcome a new bishop to Indiana to follow

you, how would you and we'll talk more about her in just a

second. But how would you just kind of frame the state of the

church in Indiana in particular and kind of as a

whole and this really seems to be really transitional

pivotal time of 2024. State of the church.

Well, I'll let let me start with the Indiana and then go to the wider

church, and I'll frame it from the last two themes we've had at our

annual conference. In 2024,

our theme was cultivating joy. But let's go back to 2023.

2023, we framed our annual conference in June of

2023 around the theme praying forward.

So I would say that, you know, as I finished up my

time in Indiana, it was praying forward

and then post this affiliation, if

you will, cultivating joy. I think nobody wants

to I heard this years ago. Nobody wants to join a church or

a movement that lacks joy, that lacks a

sense of hope, that lacks a sense of purpose and relevancy.

So no one wants to join an organizational movement

that is defined by its problems. But everybody

is open to hearing a movement that's defined by

possibilities and a vision for a brighter future. And I

think what that's where we are now. And and

I'm I really appreciate the fact that our most recent conference

was based on the theme of cultivating joy, one of

the fruit when we think about the fruit of the spirit. Yeah. Indeed. Indeed.

So that's kind of how our heroes in Indiana, the

church as a whole. We as a church as a whole actually, I

had to come back to Indiana, Brad, and and make a confession.

Prior to general conference that began at the end of April and

was in the 1st part of May, I had said and I said this for

several years. I said general conference is overrated. I said don't

expect anything great of significance. I

said, most of the great things God will do through the church will

be through local churches, districts, and annual

conferences, maybe. But I said general conference, we it's

legislative. We vote. We have great worship. We have

legislation. But but there's not major

shifts that we've seen. You know, a lot of studies we've but I

was wrong. This general conference, there was

a spirit of Christian conferencing that I had not experienced

since I had been a delegate. This is before and since I've been a

bishop. Now there was still diversity.

There were some glitches here and there. Some of the people from

Africa didn't get their visas and transportation in time.

So we didn't have all of the delegates who should have been there

from from outside of the United States. But

the spirit was great from the opening worship to the preaching

and even to the legislation that took place. And

so that was a good thing, especially in

comparison to we had, what, 6 years, maybe more than that, between

general conferences And the certainly, the ones we had before that, the

last 2 before this last one Chaos. Right? Oh, yeah. Well,

yeah. Yeah. It was one where we our our

restrictions became onerous

and and and became, these are my words,

somewhat oppressive when we instituted, you know, penalties

and so forth for persons who were exercising their

their their faith witness, particularly around welcoming the

LGBTQ community. And at this general conference, we

removed restrictive language. We adopted updated

social principles. We embraced the

expansion of Episcopal leadership on

the continent of Africa. We affirmed our commitment to mission.

We we sent forth deaconesses and

missionaries. So there was a spirit of celebration

and, and as as the, general secretary of

archives and history said, for the first time in over 240 years,

United Methodist no longer have any discriminatory

language in our book of discipline. That's pretty profound. That's pretty profound. Do we

no longer discriminating against women or

persons of color or persons based on their gender identity or

their sexual orientation. That that's awesome. So I was glad to hear

you talk about the state of the church there. Let's just talk for a minute

in this transition moment as you leave the episcopacy,

here in Indiana and get ready for a new bishop to come in. What's left

undone? What did what do you want to see done that you didn't quite get

there at or anything that any loose ends here? Oh, there'll be plenty of

work for a new bishop coming in. Yeah. You know, how do we adjust to,

fewer churches? We made a decision at annual conference to go to

5 districts. You that work still has to be

done. You know, how do we lift up a

concern that that that has come in recent months? It's it's come

before. It came during the pandemic. Around the mental health

of our pastoral leadership. The the

the sense that people have in the wider society

of ice isolation. You know, we have more presence on

on our smartphones than we do in our one to

one conversations. Right. So how do we address that? That so

coming in now, you know, how a new bishop will have to, you know, address

how do we really experience building what we've often called in

Indiana, you know, life together? Lots of opportunities for a new bishop. Right. Right.

Well, let's talk about that new bishop. Tell us who our new bishop is

and maybe how it came about that this person is gonna be, with

us in Indiana before too long? Well, United

Methodists are a denomination of conferences.

Indeed. Yeah. We so we have conferences in the local church. You

know, we have our church conference, a charge conference. Then

we have a meeting once a year called an annual conference where all of

the church representatives from all of the congregations come together

for worship and legislation and voting on a

conference budget. Then we have general conference that's

supposed to meet every 4 years. Of course, it was postponed due to a

pen to to the pandemic. And then after general conference, we

typically have what's called a jurisdictional regional

conference that meets. And it usually meets primarily

to elect bishops to replace those who are retiring. So we

just had our North Central Jurisdictional Gathering

in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Wonderful

gathering, great hospitality by the folks in in the

Dakotas and and with help from Minnesota. They they

they hosted us well. And that's where I was formally

retired, Brad. So at our jurisdictional conference,

bishops who are retiring are formally retired in the sense

that the comp the jurisdiction votes to approve your

retirement. Kind of how your relation to the church is matriculated through the

jurisdictional conference. Yeah. I was I was elected at a jurisdictional

conference, and I was retired at this most recent jurisdictional

conference along with a colleague, friend, Bishop Palmer from

the West Ohio Conference. So that so but part of the

the at the last day, usually, the the last day

of worship, there is the announcement of assignments.

So we've already this is we previous to that, we'd

already retired 2 bishops. So we didn't

we were assigned to the to the retirement. No actual elections took

place were just to reassign Just a reassignment. So the announcements of re

reassignment were on the last day, Saturday of

the jurisdictional conference. And the Indiana conference

was assigned Bishop Tracy Smith Malone,

who previously had served for 8 years

the East Ohio Conference, which in fact

was a conference that I was elected a bishop from that conference.

So she Tell us a little bit about Bishop Malone, what

your reaction was to her appointed to Indiana,

Any background? Help us, from your perspective, to get to know her just a little

bit. Well, I can say this, that I've known Bishop

Tracy Smith Malone for a very long time since she was

a junior in junior high. And I've obviously

known her. I was I was the presiding bishop who announced

her election in 2016 when she was elected

a bishop of the church, United Methodist Church. She's a

native of Chicago. She's also a a graduate

of Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, where you and I,

Brad, are graduates. Now she has a doctorate from

United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.

And she and her husband have 2 adult daughters.

She's a great preacher and I think something of

note is the fact that she is the newly elected

president of the council of bishops. So she has major

responsibility by being the president of the council of bishops and

she will also be the residential bishop for the Indiana

conference. She's familiar with Indiana, at least

Indianapolis, I know, because I think I believe she and her husband both have

family members who live in the Indianapolis area or Indianapolis.

And she has, preached here before, you know, for

clergy women event. And I have

witnessed her work in the council of bishops,

her leading as the president of the board for the

Commission on Status and Role of Women. So she's well known

throughout the United Methodist Church and and ecumenical circle

circles, the first African American woman to

be the president of the council of bishops. And I believe

she's the first woman that we will have had to serve the

Indiana conference as our residential bishop. She

brings great enthusiasm, a great preacher, a

noted teacher, and a great organizer. And,

one of her greatest gifts, I believe, is she's a great communicator

and a great listener. And so I think people are gonna quickly

both appreciate and fall in love with the leadership of bishop

Malone. You sound you sound excited. I'm excited. I'm excited

for Indiana. I'm I'm excited. I feel like a kind of

an elder brother to her. And so I I feel like,

you know, the church is in good hands, and I think the council of bishops

with her leadership is in in good hands. And she will she will

require a lot of support here. What kind of opportunities and what kind of challenges

are gonna be before her as you see it here in Indiana for her to

what what what is she stepping into here? Well, I think she's stepping

into the continued season of transition that

Indiana's part of. You know, what does the future hold for

for, as I said, you know, reducing the number of districts?

You know, we have what is our long term financial

sustainability for our conference and our investment. What is gonna be

our major investment in continued new ministries, fresh

expressions and new ministries? So there are any number of things that she

will how will she be able to navigate

relating to the institutional institutions? We have 3

universities, IU Health, other things that

will, you know, demand or request a portion of her

her time and her leadership, and she'll have to make those decisions

as to where she wants to put her priorities. Yep.

Well, I so I'm certain that there will be welcoming events

of various sorts and opportunities for this transition to

take place. But, I think we live in a time, bishop,

where and where bishop Malone is gonna have to more or less hit

the ground running because there's a lot of things to do here. And and I

know you'll you'll be a part of the support team to be helpful to her

even as you move on to some other things in your life

and and ministry. And I'm sure she'll I know your your theme

is to be encouraged. I'm sure we'll have some idea of her kinda

theme in her life and her ministry as we get to know her. We'll look

forward to having that that conversation. Well, bishop, let's just

kinda bring it around to this. What kind of things would you like to share

to the people of Indiana and beyond

about lessons learned, god moments as being

a bishop as you kinda make this transition and not too long

from now, you'll be, off to new opportunities. As as you make this

transition, what have you learned? What's god taught you? What kind of kind

of word of grace do you wanna give to people? I had

a conversation good conversation with pastor Samuel, one of

our pastors here in the Indiana conference, and he was asking me

to reflect on this question as well. You know, what are what are my

reflections and lessons lessons of success,

if you will, or lessons that have that I've learned. 1 of one of

the things I wanna say to the people of Indiana is I hope we would

continue to pay attention to glory sightings. Yes. And when I say

glory sightings, I'm I'm not the originator of that term. But glory

sightings are where we see God at work just like we we

were in a, you know, a little while ago talking about, you know,

the glacier glacier parks. Yes. And the various

beautiful things that you have to travel to. Let's but there are glorious

signs that when we wake up in the morning, we don't often pay attention to.

I saw a cardinal on our front porch a couple of days

ago. I mean, this beautiful red cardinal, and it looked

like the the the cardinal was literally visiting our house for a

moment for some reason. And I thought about I said, look at

God. I said, the beauty of diversity of of all of

creation, sometimes we don't pay attention to. So I would

hope the people of Indiana would continue to look for glory sightings

along the way. When you wake up in the morning, as you go about

your life, as you go about your ministry, you know, where do you

see God at work in creation, in

relationships, in opportunities for mission and ministry and

pay attention to those glory signs? The second thing I would say is I'm

quoting from Paul Chilcote in his book, but what if the United

Methodist Church were known to be the most loving

church in the world. And I would add most loving

and welcoming church in the world. We're not

knocking any other faith expressions of churches, but what if we were

known and people would ask us, what what what's what's there's something

about those people And I think we can do that in Indiana

if we if we really make up our minds to do that. Well, I, for

1, is pastor in Indiana for quite a few years,

have appreciated your loving and welcoming spirit as our bishop and look

forward to more good things for for you to come in the future. We'll talk

more about those in another episode of 2 Be Encouraged. But,

thank you for being our bishop. And can you close this episode with a

prayer? Absolutely. Loving God, we give you thanks and

praise for the beauty of holiness, for the beauty of creation,

for cardinals and robins and sparrows.

Lord, we give you thanks for for for flowers and grass and even

for weeds that we can't identify. Lord, we ask that you bless us,

oh god, in this moment in history, lord.

Bless us, oh god, that we might pay attention to how we might

bring more kindness and hospitality to a world that so

desperately needs to know that you are loved and that

we are loved. In the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Amen. And we do thank you for listening to the

2 Be Encourage podcast with Bishop

Julius c Trimble, the podcast where we look to offer an

encouraging word to an often discouraged world.