Why I’m not afraid of General Conference

I’ve been thinking a lot about John Meunier’s question “What would it take for us to trust each other?” in this final week before our United Methodist General Conference. I have real reservations with what seems like a corporate world attitude about the solutions to our problems as a denomination. I have all sorts of critiques to level against the various proposals being considered. But I was convicted of something this past weekend at a wedding of two dear friends who are both Methodist pastors that was co-officiated by our conference’s beloved director of ordained ministry Beth Downs. Sitting around the reception table with dozens of other Methodist pastors, it really hit me that the Virginia Conference is a family, and we will continue to be a family no matter what happens next week in Tampa at General Conference. I’m not afraid of Tampa because compassionate, brilliant human beings like Beth Downs will be down there representing us.

In the name of the Thinktank, Consultant, & Bubble sheet

The United Methodist Church is about to have a very significant international meeting called the General Conference where major changes are being considered that a lot of pastors like me are anxious about. I’m actually most concerned about an initiative that has already been adopted called “Vital Congregations.” Depending on the outcome of other proposals, Vital Congregations has the potential to do to the United Methodist Church what “No Child Left Behind” did to the public school classroom where I taught. I am not trying to impugn the motives or hard work of those who developed it. I’m sure that they were prayerful about it, and I imagine they sang praise songs to open their meetings and hopefully looked to the Bible for guidance (and not just the reports of church consultant industry thinktanks). But the way this initiative is being communicated makes it sound like United Methodism has replaced Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with a new Trinity –the Thinktank, the Consultant, and the Bubble Sheet.