“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” — John 10:10 (NRSVA)
Autumn has clothed Ohio in radiant beauty. Golden leaves drift quietly to the earth, fields yield their harvest and the gentle winds carry whispers of Thanksgiving. Even as the leaves fall, unseen buds are preparing for another spring. In all creation, God is lovingly present, sustaining life through the mystery of grace.
Thanksgiving invites us to recognize this sacred presence. We give thanks not simply for what we possess, but for the God who has loved us before we knew how to love. Our Wesleyan faith calls this prevenient grace – the grace that goes before us, planting seeds of salvation long before we recognize their harvest.
This season, I find myself reflecting upon that mystery with overwhelming gratitude.
I am a living harvest of the missionary faithfulness of Ohio Methodists 140 years ago.
When William B. Scranton and his mother, Mary F. Scranton, carried the gospel to Korea, they were sustained by the prayers, sacrificial offerings and missionary dreams of faithful Methodists, including those in Ohio.
I do not know the names of those who prayed or gave. I do not know whose hands placed a modest offering before God, trusting that it might bear fruit in a distant land.
But God knew.
Through their faithfulness, the gospel crossed the ocean, took root in Korean soil and eventually reached a young boy who came to know Jesus Christ as his Savior.
That boy was me.
Before I understood the history of those missionaries, God’s grace was already preparing the salvation of my soul. And now, more than 140 years later, I have returned to Ohio as a bishop, serving alongside the spiritual descendants of those who helped bring the gospel to my homeland.
What an astonishing mystery of grace!
The seeds planted in Ohio became a harvest in Korea. Now, by God’s grace, part of that harvest has returned to Ohio to plant again.
Every congregation I visit, every story of faith I hear and every life transformed through Christ reminds me that God’s mission is never confined to one generation. Grace travels farther than we imagine. Love bears fruit beyond our lifetime.
Remembering the Past, Planting God’s Future
With this gratitude, I invite all approximately 970 congregations across our Ohio Episcopal Area to participate in the special mission appeal for the Scranton Memorial Mission Center and Church in Seoul, Korea.
In partnership with the Seoul Annual Conference of the Korean Methodist Church, we seek to honor the legacy of approximately 860 Methodist and United Methodist missionaries who served in Korea, offering their lives in faithful witness to the gospel.
Yet we are not simply building a monument to the past. We are planting a living seedbed for tomorrow’s mission.
We envision a place where young disciples discover their calling, emerging leaders are equipped, global friendships are strengthened and new generations are inspired to carry the gospel throughout Korea, Asia and the world.
The river of grace that once flowed from Ohio to Korea can now flow outward again, carrying the living water of Christ to new shores.
Jesus reminds us, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few” – Matthew 9:37 (NRSVA).
The fields are still waiting. The Spirit is still calling.
I pray that every congregation, whether large or small, will become part of this unfolding story. Every prayer matters. Every gift becomes a seed. Every act of generosity opens a possibility that only God can fully imagine.
Those who supported the Scrantons could never have imagined the lives their faithfulness would touch. Neither can we fully imagine the future harvest of our offerings today.
But the God who planted the first seed remains faithful.
Stewardship: Our Joyful Confession of Grace
Christian stewardship begins not with financial obligation, but with gratitude.
“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” – Psalm 24:1 (NRSVA).
Our lives, our families, our congregations, our resources and the beautiful creation entrusted to our care are gifts of God’s love. We are not their ultimate owners. We are their stewards.
We do not give to earn God’s grace. We give because God’s grace has already claimed us.
Our offerings are therefore more than financial transactions. They are acts of worship, expressions of gratitude, and living testimonies of faith.
Paul reminds us that “God loves a cheerful giver” – 2 Corinthians 9:7 (NRSVA). Such joy is not measured by wealth but by the freedom of a heart that trusts God’s abundance.
This is also the sacred meaning of our United Methodist connection.
Our apportionments are not merely institutional bills to be paid. They are a shared confession of faith, a covenant of love and a tangible expression of our participation in God’s mission.
Through connectional giving, local congregations extend their ministries far beyond their own walls. Together we nurture disciples, develop leaders, establish new faith communities, respond to suffering, and share the gospel throughout the world.
As Paul teaches, “You are the body of Christ and individually members of it” – 1 Corinthians 12:27 (NRSVA).
No congregation lives for itself alone. We belong to one another.
As this year draws to a close, I lovingly invite every congregation in East and West Ohio to fulfill its apportionment commitments with faithfulness, gratitude, and joy. I recognize the challenges many churches face and honor the sacrifices already being made. Yet our connectional covenant calls us to trust one another and share responsibility for the mission Christ has entrusted to us.
When we fulfill our shared commitments, we do more than balance budgets. We strengthen Christ’s body and help sustain the ministries through which God’s love reaches the world.
Our special offering for the Scranton Memorial Mission Center and Church is another beautiful expression of that same faith. We have been blessed to become a blessing. We have received grace so that grace may flow through us.
Called to Abundant Life
Jesus declares, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” – John 10:10 (NRSVA).
This is the heart of Christian stewardship.
Christ did not come merely to preserve institutions. Christ came to bring life – life restored by grace, enriched by love, liberated from fear and transformed by the presence of God’s kingdom.
True abundance is not measured by possessions. It is discovered in loving God, serving our neighbors and sharing in God’s redeeming work. Therefore, stewardship embraces our whole lives: caring for creation, welcoming strangers, nurturing children, accompanying those who suffer and reaching those who have not yet experienced the love of Jesus Christ.
Across Ohio, I see churches courageously planting new seeds of faith, embracing their neighbor and discovering fresh ways to share the gospel. These are signs of the Spirit calling us beyond institutional survival into the joyful work of God’s kingdom.
The church does not exist simply to sustain itself. The church exists so that the world may experience the abundant life of Jesus Christ. As we move toward a more united future for Methodism in Ohio, may we rediscover that sacred calling. Our greatest legacy will not be the buildings we preserve or the resources we accumulate, but the lives we nurture and the love we share.
Let Our Thanksgiving Become a Living Offering
Dear beloved sisters and brothers in Christ,
Somewhere in Ohio 140 years ago, faithful Methodists prayed, sacrificed and gave what they could. They planted seeds whose harvest they would never see. And here I am – a living testimony to their generosity. How could I ever regard such giving as a small thing?
This Thanksgiving, I invite every congregation to renew the joy of Christian stewardship: to fulfill our connectional apportionments faithfully, to participate generously in the Scranton Memorial mission appeal and to offer our whole lives anew to the mission of Jesus Christ.
Let us make this our common confession:
We give with joy because we have received grace.
We build with love because we belong to one another.
We answer God’s call because Christ has given us abundant life.
We do not give out of fear, but out of gratitude. We do not serve merely to preserve the church, but to share the life of Christ. We do not enter the future because we know the way, but because the risen Lord walks before us.
We have been harvested by grace. Now we are called to sow grace. May our gratitude become generosity, our generosity become mission, and our mission become a river of abundant life flowing from Ohio to Korea, from our local communities to the ends of the earth and from one generation to the next.
May the seeds we plant today become tomorrow’s harvest of faith, hope, and love.
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” – 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NRSVA)
With deep gratitude,
Bishop Hee-Soo Jung
Ohio Episcopal Area
The United Methodist Church
