General Conference and a Way Forward

It's been a long time since I have blogged - well over a year, as the time stamp suggests.  I have found myself praying and listening and watching and reading for months as our UMC General Conference prepared for their meeting.  I have prayed for liberals and conservatives, orthodox and progressives, and what keeps coming back to me is this:  why aren't we talking about Jesus?  It was a question I asked in my sermon on Pentecost, or perhaps even a plea:  what would happen if we talked about Jesus more, and listened to the Holy Spirit?

I am grateful to not be a delegate to the 2016 General Conference.  I had been approached and asked if I would run, and the Spirit prompted me to say no.  I don't envy a single of the almost 1,000 delegates who are gathered in Portland, Oregon.  Both in the legislative committees that met this past week, and the plenary sessions now, my sense is that we spend a lot of time talking at one another, and not really with one another.  And for good reason:  we do not know one another.  Yes, we know the people in our delegations (hopefully), and we may know a few others across the connection, but most of those gathered in the room at the convention center probably do not know 10% of the people who have come together to make decisions about our polity, doctrine, and our future.

I don't imagine that we'll see a lot coming out of Portland, but here's my proposal.  I suggest that every annual conference elect their delegations for the 2020 General Conference at their 2017 meetings.  Rather than having a debriefing session for General Conference in 2020, that we pair a US conference with a central conference, and that the delegations would meet together in the fall of 2017, spring and fall of 2018,  and the spring and fall of 2019, with at least two of the gatherings happening on each others' soil.  For a week at a time, these delegations live in intentional community, and share their stories of how Jesus has saved them, how God has transformed them, and where they see evidence of the Spirit's movement in their lives.  There should be no other agenda than to discover the risen Christ in one another.  When these intentional communities gather for the next General Conference, their work would translate into legislative committees.  Each legislative committee should have a representative from each conference, and each day, the legislative committees should spend their mornings asking those some questions - how has Jesus saved them; how has God transformed them; and where they see evidence of the Spirit's movement in their lives.  Afternoon and evening work could then be spent on legislation, but only in light of the presence of the Trinity in the lives of those present.  Perhaps we could also do that work after worship during plenary sessions.  I wonder what might happen if we would organize ourselves in that way - as disciples of Jesus Christ, rather than as legislators.  Perhaps we might see a glimpse of the Kingdom of God - even at General Conference.