Raise a Hallelujah: 2025 Episcopal Address
Through story and examples, Bishop Lanette shared a glimpse about who she is and why she leads the way she does. She shared an Advent tradition of choosing a letter from a box or basket and then talking about people, whose name starts with that letter, that you would like to share a table with. This year she chose the letter “J.” She would share her table with three people named John: John the Apostle, John Wesley, and Johnny Cash.
“They are all about love. When the Apostle John was leaning into the end of life, his word was brief, ‘love one another.’ At the end of John Wesley’s life his words were, ‘best of all, God is with us.’ Johnny Cash said, ‘I am ready to see God.’ That is at the core of who I am,” shared Bishop Plambeck.
She shared how, as a bishop, sometimes people see you as something that is extra ordinary. But bishops are ordinary people who believe that they are saved by grace and love of God, and they are passionate about The United Methodist Church.
“I have a vivid memory of my biological father, kneeling in front of me and my sister, explaining to us that he needed to leave and would not be our dad any longer,” said Bishop Lanette. “Through God’s amazing grace, God placed the right people in my life, that I might through them come to know how much God loves me. My God would never kneel in front of me and say that I will never be your parent. We never have to worry about God stepping out on any of occasion.”
At Morningside College, she fell in love with the Wesleyan tradition. She found that, “The goal of our faith is not to get to heaven but to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to the people on earth.”
John wrote with intimacy, spirals, to share the light and love of John. His language was one of love. The flesh and blood kind of love. John teaches that God is love.
“I love that Jesus. Where there is Jesus there will be justice. Where is Jesus there will be community. Where is Jesus there is hope, there is peace, and there is love,” said Bishop Plambeck.
Built on the Means of Grace
Annual Conference is a gathering born in the past, modeled by John Wesley.
“As Christ followers in the Wesleyan tradition, we know that annual conference is not just another meeting. This is our season. This is our family reunion. Our time of holy conferencing. Our time together is filled with means, upon means of grace,” said Bishop Plambeck.
John Wesley taught that God's grace is unearned and that we were not to be idle waiting to experience grace, but we are to engage in the means of grace. The means of grace are ways God works invisibly in disciples, hastening, strengthening, and confirming faith so that God's grace pervades in and through disciples. As we look at the means of grace today, they can be divided into works of piety and the works of mercy.
“In 1744, John and Charles Wesley convened a group to confer about doctrine, discipline, and discipleship in a conferencing spirit to reach others,” Bishop Lanette Plambeck recalled during the 2025 Episcopal Address. “As Christ followers in the Wesleyan tradition, we follow the model of John and Charles Wesley. We are in holy conferencing and gathering as a family. It is a time filled with means of grace.”
In gathering and holy conferencing, Wesley discovered the power of REACH: Resource the saints, equip the leaders, align the mission, connect the circuit (the people), herald the hope of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
“We, as an annual conference also exist to REACH. We want to resource the saints, equip leaders, align the mission, connect the conference—the people, and herald hope, just like Wesley,” shared Bishop Lanette.
Navigating current challenges
The past quadrennium brought challenges to the Dakotas Conference with the pandemic, a General Conference that was delayed three times, disaffiliations, and interim bishops.
“We navigated feelings of betrayal, grief, and confusion. We wondered what would be next for our conference,” stated Plambeck. “We rejoiced when seventy-five percent of the churches in the Dakotas Conference chose to remain United Methodist.”
Referencing the opening verses of the theme scripture, 1 John 4, Bishop Plambeck also named the challenges we face in our nation and world — personal, systemic, or ideological—that stand in opposition to the truth and meaning of Christ’s incarnation.
“I want you to remember this U.S. Army veteran loves God. We live in an age in of anti-Christ. The first book of John makes it clear that we should love the marginalized—the immigrant, the poor, the lonely, the imprisoned," said Bishop Lanette. "The Church must resist—not with fear—but with clarity and bold love."
Bishop Lanette acknowledged the financial challenge before the Dakotas Conference — to cut $500,000 from annual expenditures.
“We are finding creative, Spirit-led ways to make that happen,” said Plambeck. “We have been re-imaging our staffing model here in the Dakotas. We are innovating new ways of ministry, outreach development, and programming across the conference. We are visioning new ways to seek resources.”
“We are seeking new ways to embody Christ in the world,” said Bishop Lanette. “This last quadrennium, we did not lose our song. We still sing Hallelujah. We chose to bear witness to something greater, the saving witness of Jesus Christ, Hallelujah, thanks be to God.”
We Raise our Hallelujah
Hallelujah is Hebrew. Alleluia is Latin. Hallelujah or Alleluia means “praise the Lord.”
“We raise a hallelujah on the good days and the not so good days. We raise our hallelujah when we are in community and when we are isolated,” said Bishop Lanette. “We can raise our hallelujah when the hard stuff happens in this world because we know that God is working.”
The Dakotas Conference will raise a hallelujah to the future by living out the Gospel of 1 John.
“If John Wesley had a favorte book in the Bible, it was the first book of John. He said it is the Gospel in miniature. If we want to read the concise edition of the Bible, read 1 John—the love of God,” explained Bishop Lanette. “We love because God first loved us. Those who say this is not true are liars. We need to reanchor and raise our Hallelujah.”
Handouts with the Five Love Languages of United Methodists —Diakonia, Koinonia, Kerygma, Didache, and Leitourgia — how spiritual descendants of John Wesley love bold, serve joyfully, and lead courageously, along with the mission, vision and guiding scriptures, were distributed to all participants.
Bishop Lanette shared that Dakotas will raise our Hallelujah through Conference Ministry Architects (CMA), The four CMAs are:
- CMA for Renewal—The focus will be evangelism, faith formation, church revitalization, discipleship systems, and witness.
- CMA for Justice and Advocacy—The focus will be poverty response, civic engagement, legislative witness, peace initiatives, environmental and economic justice, and community outreach.
- CMA for Call and Development—The focus will be generational ministries—Gen Z, Gen Alpha, the Millennials, leadership development and culture of call.
- CMA for Strategy and System Design—The focus will be governance, generosity, innovation, and organizational leadership.
The next three years the conference will live into a campaign—We Raise Our Hallelujah!
“I want to lead so that you so that you desperately fall in love with God, and so that you can’t help but share the good news of our God at work in this world,” said Bishop Plambeck. "Friends, God is love. We want people to know and love God. Let us raise our hallelujah!
