About 200 United Methodist pastors from churches throughout the state will be in Lawrence for a three-day meeting that begins today.

The annual Kansas Area Seminar on Professional Ministry – organized by the United Methodist Church in Kansas, through its Kansas West Annual Conference and the Kansas East Annual Conference – runs through noon Thursday at the Lawrence Holidome, 200 McDonald Drive.

The meeting’s theme is “Freeing the Captives: Finding Relevance, Refreshment and Resurrection for Tomorrow’s Church.”

Attendees will earn 12 hours of continuing-education credits, applicable to the minimum of 20 hours expected of pastors each year. Attendees also will get a chance to bowl tonight at the Jaybowl in the Kansas Union at Kansas University, and find time Wednesday night to catch the KU-Oklahoma State basketball game.

Unlike last year’s meeting in Manhattan – when organizers received tickets for a Kansas State game at Bramlage Coliseum – attendees will be fending for themselves in Lawrence.

“We’ll just have to watch it on TV, just like all the other Jayhawk faithful,” said the Rev. Amy Lippoldt, pastor of Woodland United Methodist Church in Wichita, chair of the task force that organized the meeting.