A View From the Pulpit

Article for the May edition of The Parish Visitor:

As many of you know, last week marked the beginning of the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. This year General Conference is being held in Houston, Texas with the theme, “A Future With Hope.” General Conference is the top governing body of the church and lasts for 10 days. Decisions made at General Conference, and only decisions made at General Conference, speak as the voice of the church. General Conference meets every four years and after each General Conference there is a new United Methodist Book of Discipline published with the changes that have been made.

As a connectional church, the decisions made at General Conference affect us. General Conference is made up of lay and clergy delegates from every Annual Conference in the United Methodist Church around the world. If you have access to the internet, there are updates throughout the day on the various proceedings and worship services that are going on. For daily updates as well as live coverage of some events, go to: www.gc2008.umc.org. Also, two of our younger alternate delegates have a blog in which they are detailing daily events, often as they occur to help keep folks updated on what is going on. Their blog site is: stephandjanatthegc.blogspot.com/. From their blog you can also reach the blogs of several other Kansas East delegates.

One highlight I noticed today on the General Conference website was an appearance by a young girl who had raised $10,000 for the “Nothing But Nets” campaign to wipe out malaria by giving mosquito nets to protect people from the mosquitoes while they are sleeping.

As United Methodists we are a connectional people. Through our church structure we can visibly see the body of Christ in action. As we work together, we can do so much more than we can do alone. Please join with us in prayer for the delegates to General Conference as they prayerfully consider the many pieces of legislation brought before them. And may the strength that comes from such a great gathering be felt back here at home, as we benefit from so many people coming together in worship and prayer to discern the future direction of the church. The folks at General Conference are immersing themselves in the theme, “A Future with Hope.” It is that future that they are helping to shape: a future with hope for you and for me and for our children and our children’s children.

May you know that the future that God has in store for us is in fact a future with hope. And may we work to discern that future here in our local United Methodist Church, while delegates are discerning that future for the church as a whole.