It’s 12:35 a.m. Thursday morning – the benediction was offered at the opening service of General Conference just over 2 hours ago. Bishop Janice Huie pronounced that we were “in recess” until the next session which begins in less than 8 hours. Bill Arnold (my roommate) and I decided we could wait until morning to get a bite to eat, so I’m ready for bed.
It was noted that today marks the 40th anniversary of the uniting of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, forming the United Methodist Church. Over these forty years our membership has declined almost 3 million, but that was not mentioned tonight. In fact, I have heard or read very little about the evangelistic mission of the UMC. Added to our mission statement to make disciples of Jesus Christ are the words for the transformation of the world. Some may debate that addition at GC, but I can live with it. However, I have difficulty living with the fact that we talk so little about leading people into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Seems to me that Jesus is the Transformer of lives and all of creation. I’ll keep listening, and hoping, and probably waiting to hear that Good News from our leadership.
We begin meeting in legislative committees tomorrow afternoon. I will be serving on the “Conferences” committee that is considering proposals to re-structure the UMC and reduce the size of General Conference. Should be very interesting. Stay tuned.