The Rev. David Livingston reminsces about his first pastoral appointments during a sermon at his installation service as superintendent of the Southeast Nebraska district of Great Plains Annual Conference. (Photo by David Burke)
Great Plains Conference | Sept. 17, 2021
LINCOLN — Rev. David Livingston took on centuries of doubts about the church by lifting up the good work he’s seen in southeast Nebraska in the sermon for his installation service as district superintendent on Sept. 14.
Livingston, who began as Southeast Nebraska District superintendent on July 1, has already visited 58 of the 67 churches in the area, and said he was impressed by the work they’ve done in fighting hunger, serving in justice ministries and a growing number of baptisms and professions of faith.
The new district superintendent also is well known among U.S. United Methodists beyond the Great Plains Conference as a leader in progressive efforts to create full inclusion of LGBTQ persons in the UMC. He was a Great Plains delegate to the 2020/2024 General Conference.
“Help me understand how we’re a dead church when there’s so much life in those 58 churches,” he said during his sermon. “For a church that’s dead, there’s an awful lot of life in southeast Nebraska.”
Livingston has been to large and small churches in the district, the latter including Hopewell, a country church southwest of Sterling that’s accessible only by a series of gravel and dirt roads.
“Help me understand how we’re a dead church when there’s so much life in those 58 churches. For a church that’s dead, there’s an awful lot of life in southeast Nebraska.”
– The Rev. David Livingston, newly installed district superintendent
“You know what I found in Hopewell? Well, I found hope,” he said of the 20-person congregation. “Oh my gosh, that congregation is alive.”
A veteran of 27 years of preaching, Livingston’s scripture for his installation sermon was Ezekiel 37:1-10, also known as the “Valley of Dry Bones,” and the same verses he used for his first sermon.
Livingston recalled his early days as a summer intern in the former Kansas East Conference, traveling with four other college students to perform a variety of tasks in the churches, including preaching and Vacation Bible School.
At the end of the summer, he remembers thinking to himself, “You know I wasn’t very good at any of those things, but I wasn’t horrible. But with a lot of work and God’s grace, maybe I can do it after all.”
Livingston recalled the mishaps at his first appointments, including snafus with candles on Easter morning and sermons he regretted preaching.
“I remember all those sermons that I preached over those first two years where I felt like the benediction should just be an apology,” he said. “‘Thank you for listening to me. I appreciate it, and I promise to do better next time.’”
In what he frequently referred to as “the Livingston version of the Bible,” he said he felt like Moses – “the pre-burning bush Moses” -- when discerning his calling.
“There are a lot of good reasons I’m not the right person for the job. I’m a nobody,” Livingston said. “I don’t know enough. People won’t listen to me. He finally runs out of excuses.”
The United Methodist Church, and Christianity as a whole, have as many doubts as Moses did and as he did, Livingston said.
Changes brought on by the pandemic, disaffiliation, General Conference indecision and the “Nones and Dones” — those who never went to church and those who have given up on it — have driven the narrative during the past 25 years, he said.
“I don’t want to be a downer, but I get it. The numbers don’t look very good, right? There’s a lot working against us,” he said. “If you’re looking from the outside in, I totally get why it looks like we’re dead.”
The churches he’s seen during his first 2½ months as district superintendent have given him hope.
“If we really are dead, then I need somebody to explain how The United Methodist Church in Waverly feeds 100 households a month,” he said, beginning his list of southeast Nebraska churches and their good works. “Help me reconcile that with us being dead. I can’t do it.”
Livingston’s ceremony at Lincoln Horizons Community UMC was largely informal, with no robes and acoustic music by the Horizons worship band.
Bishop David Wilson, who offered Livingston the cabinet position in January, had known the 52-year-old since 2012, during the Great Plains episcopal leader’s first candidacy for the position.
“I’m just so pleased he accepted the job,” Bishop Wilson said. “He’s already doing a wonderful job.”
During the service, an offering was taken for ConnectioN Point, the district’s mission hub, per Livingston’s suggestion.
“I think that says a lot about the type of DS he’s going to be,” said Rev. Katherine Ebling-Frazier, director of the ministry. “Despite what we’re seeing out there in the world, connection is still happening, and the spirit is alive. That is an amen moment.
“I get to remember we’re not dead yet,” she added.
David Burke is content specialist for the Great Plains Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. This article is republished with permission from the conference website.