Cookies are a big part of General Conference. I don’t know when it began, but the host conference always asks their churches to bake millions of cookies, which are then placed three-to-a-bag and distributed all during conference to keep delegates on a sugar high. I try to be selective, and only eat the really good cookies….

Today, we expect to have the controversial votes in issues of sexuality and other social issues. These issues tend to be the most divisive and contentious. Word is that some new wording is being recommended by the legislative committees, so it will be interesting to see what eventually gets passed.

Last night, the General Conference received an address from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia. She is the first democratically elected woman president of a country in Africa. She also attended a United Methodist School growing up and considers herself a product of the United Methodist Church. She shared some of the challenges that exist in Liberia, and some of the ways the church is making a difference. I thought she was impressive, well-spoken, and also grateful and powerful. Clearly, she is an important and visionary leader, facing an enormously difficult situation, but driven by a powerful vision of what might be possible for her country and her people. It was inspiring!

The first week here (which is now a distant memory) was largely spent casting a vision for our church. The vision that was cast was hopeful, positive and emphasized our strengths. The vision came from a variety of places, but there were some consistent themes.

The bishops outlined “Seven Vision Pathways” that describe the best of who we are as Methodists, and offer avenues of promise for the future. These pathways are:

1. teaching the Wesleyan model of reaching and forming disciples of Jesus Christ;
2. strengthening clergy and lay leadership;
3. developing new congregations;
4. transforming existing congregations;
5. ending racism as we authentically expand racial and ethnic ministries;
6. reaching and transforming the lives of new generations of children; and
7. eliminating poverty in community with the poor.

In addition, the General Secretaries identified four areas of focus for our ministry. These areas of focus:

1. Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world. The church must recruit young people for ministry and provide them with the skills necessary to be effective in this new time of opportunity. That includes women and people of color the world over. Similarly, we must offer leadership training for lay people who are in ministry in countless ways.
2. Creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones. If we are to remain faithful to our commitment to transform the world, we will reach out with genuine hospitality to people wherever they are. We will make them feel welcome as we start new faith communities, seek to renew existing ones and inspire faithful discipleship.
3. Engaging in ministry with the poor. As an expression of our discipleship, United Methodists seek to alleviate conditions that undermine quality of life and limit the opportunity to flourish as we believe God intends for all. As with John Wesley, we seek to change conditions that are unjust, alienating and disempowering. We engage in ministry with the poor, and in this, we especially want to reach out to and protect children.
4. Stamping out killer diseases by improving health globally. Conditions of poverty cause illness and death. The lack of access to doctors, nurses, medications and appropriate facilities is deadly, especially among those who live in conditions of poverty. But the diseases of poverty are not inevitable. We believe the people of The United Methodist Church can play a significant role in educating others about diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, and treating and preventing their devastating effects. 

It’s interesting to notice the overlap – leadership, new churches, a serious focus on global poverty. Not a bad agenda for the global church – but I wonder about the local church. Can a local congregation really relate to these areas of focus? Thinking about Hartford, where I serve, the idea of engaging in ministry with the poor is exciting – if we understand that the poor are not simply “over there” but also “right here.” Poverty in Hartford should be a central focus of my congregation – and I would wager that many other urban congregations in the United States are on the front lines of poverty as well. An emphasis on children in poverty is also important, but we must not forget that such children are growing up in our communities, attending our schools. Fighting poverty begins at home. What if our General Conference created structures, agencies, and funds to encourage and facilitate a focus on ministries of poverty that bring urban or rural congregations into mission with their suburban counterparts to bring a variety of resources together for a truly effective engagement with poverty?

Some of you may recall me talking about Adam Hamilton, Pastor of Church of the Resurrection. Adam is one of our most creative and thoughtful pastors, and he’s started offering some real leadership for churches across the denomination in terms of books he’s written and resources he’s created. I cornered him today and shamelessly asked him for a photo.

More later….

For those of you who are unfamiliar with General Conference, I thought I would offer a bit of a primer – sort of General Conference 101.

First of all, General Conference is the highest legislative body of the church. Composed of 1,000 elected delegates from around the world (half lay and half clergy), the conference is the only body that is empowered to speak on behalf of the entire church. The conference meets for a couple of weeks every four years.

The main business of the conference is to respond to 1,600 petitions that have been submitted by local churches, individual Methodists, church agencies, and task forces. The most important petitions are ones that affect the Book of Discipline which is the church’s book of law. The General Conference is the only body that can make changes to the Book of Discipline.

The first few days of the conference are devoted to worship and preaching (with amazing music) and reports from task forces and committees. Then, legislative sections are organized. The legislative sections are smaller committees of delegates that divide up the petitions in order to negotiate, rewrite, and recommend adoption or rejection. If more than 90% of the legislative sections concur on an action with respect to a particular petition, it is placed on a consent calendar for the entire conference to adopt at a general plenary session. If less than 90% support an action, then that petition will be dealt with directly on the floor of the general plenary session. The more successful the legislative sections are in building consensus, the faster things go.

Yesterday and today has largely been devoted to this legislative process. Because the reports are not final until they are approved by the general plenary, there is no official news to report. Once the legislative sections start finishing their work, the general plenary will be able to adopt consent calendars and debate petitions. That should get started early next week.

All sorts of groups and organizations have an interest in manipulating and influencing this process, and so they have people here who function as lobbyist. Groups hand out material, organize displays, offer public witness and generally try to state the case for their cause.

Needless to say, the first few days are far more interesting (and less depressing) than all the lobbying and voting. I’ve enjoyed hearing our bishops preach and cast a vision for our church. It can truly be inspiring – at least for the moment – but the legislative process eventually starts to chop away at my inspiration. If you have any questions about how General Conference works, leave me questions in the comments.

Today is World Malaria Day. Bishop Thomas Bickerton just announced a grant of $5 million from the United Nations to support our partnership in the Nothing But Nets campaign.

The money will seed a fundraising and educational campaign to raise over $100 million for programs in Africa to fight malaria. This is part of our denomination’s focus on global health and poverty – and it is one of the pieces of good news that our church is sharing today!

So I haven’t had a chance to update much. I will try to grab some time tonight. Opening worship last night was interesting and well done. An estimated 6500 people were in attendance, which was about 1100 people more than last General Conference’s opening worship. The energy was high, and the music, organized by my friend Mark Miller, was excellent. UMC of Hartford folks will remember that we have sung one of Mark’s hymns in our church. Some of Mark Miller’s compositions were performed, as were works from The Faith We Sing and The UM Hymnal.

I’ll post more later….

General Conference is getting started today. For some reason, the conference seems a little more low key than in the past. I have yet to see the political machinery get into gear – and usually the activists are the first on the scene. I’m sure that the various factions will be well represented soon enough, but their absence so far is noticeable.

This afternoon, a group of bicyclists from Houston rode in as part of a fund raiser for the Nothing But Nets campaign. Called Nothing But Sweat, the riders raised over $150,000 to fight malaria world wide. The bishops from the Texas and Ivory Coast conferences were on hand to celebrate. I snapped a few pics, but my camera battery has died…which is sad, eh? But I’ll keep posting my pics in my Flickr account as I get them uploaded.

We’ve been gearing up for events tomorrow and later this week. Stay tuned, as the fun is about to begin.

By the way, you can find out a bunch more basic info about General Conference at the Official General Conference Website.

Yesterday, American Airlines cancelled my flight from Hartford to DFW. They put me on the 6:00 a.m. flight this morning, which meant I needed to get up at 4 a.m. Now I am tired.

Fortunately, my flight this morning went without a hitch and I arrived right on time in DFW. Got checked into the Hotel and went over to the convention center to get my bearings. The Fort Worth Convention Center is pretty big, if a bit old, but we certainly have more than enough room. My hotel is conveniently located, but there weren’t enough hotel rooms in downtown, so many less fortunate people have a commute.

Tomorrow, things really kick off with the opening worship service and a few preliminary reports. I’ll try to snap a few shots of that for you. I’m putting photos (with descriptions) up on my Flickr account. You can see them all here. Next on my agenda today: go to sleep.