Just some thoughts

As I sit waiting for the evening session of legislative committees to begin, I thought I’d share some brief thoughts about the conference so far:

• Communion is best when done often and with lots of bishops surrounding you.
• Even though it’s warm in central Texas, it’s cold in the convention center!  Bishop Fisher, upon seeing me in shorts and sandals, said to me, “Boy, did you think it’d be summer in here??”
• I have the BEST delegation in the whole connection.  (I don’t mean to brag, but it’s true.)
• Mark Miller and Marsha McFee are an amazing worship team - Who else puts “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing” lyrics to Dave Matthews music??
• I think I have just seen the largest Cokesbury store known to United Methodists.
• And lastly, UMs love to debate.  We debate the motion, then the amendment, then the amendment to the amendment and then where the commas should go!

Now we’re heading into a three hour-long legislative committee session.  I won’t be out until at least 11!

I’ve got hope!

So, in a weird series of events, I am now able to connect to the internet in the convention center! I shouldn’t be able to since it is restricted. But, as the saying goes, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you,” so I’m not complaining!

This morning’s session was really great.  Lately I’ve been very frustrated with the church, both the denomination and the church universal.  It’s mainly because of the institution’s general sense of antipathy, especially for matters of justice.  It angers me to see churches and denominations becoming so status quo, because that’s not what the church is supposed to be.  I envision the Church being a prophetic voice speaking out for justice and reaching out to the marginalized, yet I rarely see this.

So, it was really inspiring to be at General Conference this morning when many speakers discussed the potential for the future of our church.  The discussion and presentations focused around our denomination’s newly-established four areas of focus: engaging in ministry with the poor, developing Christian leaders for the church and the world, improving global health and growing and transforming congregations.  To me, hearing about these four focus areas revived my faith in the church.  It shows that we, as a denomination, are working to bring justice and mercy to the world and challenge the status quo.  It was a great moment for me, because I saw the church standing up and reclaiming its true calling.

This morning was also the first ever young people’s address at General Conference.  The five speakers also challenged the church’s current sense of apathy.  They called us to be a church that is more inclusive, more active towards seeking justice and more concerned with seeing our commonalities over our (strong) differences.

I’ve had lots of doubts in the efficacy of the church lately, but this morning reassured me over it.  This morning I saw the UMC begin to reclaim the Wesleyan sense of movement and dare I say, begin to  embrace the Social Gospel again.  It reaffirmed my faith in the church that I’ve grown to love. It made me realize that, though it may trite, that our church really does have a future with hope.

More to come later.  I’ll be blogging again soon!

The Beginning of an Adventure

Today was exhilarating, amazing and exhausting all at the same time!  I’ve been anticipating this day for a long time - since last June, basically. I think it’s safe to say that it didn’t fall short of my expectations.

Today was, obviously, the opening session of General Conference.  Shortly before the session started, I entered through the “Delegates Only” doors and walked onto the floor.  As soon as I was in, I broke out into a huge smile.  It was an amazing feeling, experiencing General Conference as a delegate for the first time.

Worship was great.  It is probably one of the most amazing worships I’ve experienced.  (But I couldn’t enjoy it completely because I have a feeling that all of the community we, as a body, shared will probably blow up in a few days and dissolve into partisan bickering.  Even though we talk a lot about Holy Conferencing, I still have a fear that it will denigrate into arguing.)

We also adopted the Rules for the General Conference tonight. I thought this would be an easy, quick process, but there was a lot of nit-picky debates, questions and amendments.  We started adopting the Rules shortly after 9pm (central) and didn’t finish until almost 10:30!

As much as I thought tonight was long, it will be nothing compared to tomorrow - our first full day.  And since it’s almost 2 am, I really need to get some sleep!  Good night everyone… I’ll blog again some more tomorrow.

(Note: I brought my camera, but forgot the cord so I won’t be able to upload any of my pictures in this blog. Sorry!)

Get Ready, Get Set, Go!

The last few weeks have been so crazy! Getting ready for General Conference is time consuming, and combined with finishing up schoolwork, I’ve been very busy. Toward the beginning of the month I made a long to-do list of things that needed to be finished by today, April 22. Now there’s only one thing left on it: pack.

Now that all of the schoolwork’s out of the way, I can finally get excited about going. I’m excited about meeting new people from across the connection, seeing old friends and, of course, debating and discussing the future of the church.

My goal is to blog at least once a day, reporting the latest legislative updates and as a forum to reflect on the day’s proceedings. Sometimes you’ll get the news, sometimes you’ll get my commentary. I guess it depends on what I feel like at the time!

Anyway, I hope you’ll read regularly because whatever happens there, these next two weeks in Texas are going to be interesting!

-Kurt