Okay, friends, what have we learned? First, General Conference is hard. It is emotionally, physically and spiritually taxing. It demands a Herculean amount of concentration and effort, sifting and sorting and making sense of thousands (literally) of pages of very tiny print of churchy legalese. And it is not perfect. We […]
I have endeared myself once again to the powers that be. When asked about my impression of the Plan UMC, I described it as “a resurrection of the General Council on Ministries with its delusions of grandeur fulfilled,” and some took offense. Well, sorry about that, but what we adopted […]
I am as divided as my General Conference on today’s protest by the Lesbian/Gay /Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) nonviolent demonstration at GC. Here is proof positive that non-violence can still be disruptive. Whether it was effective is another matter. As for me, I donned a rainbow stole this morning for a while… then […]
Anyone in any kind of planning process knows that a normal and natural progression is from “what we want” to “what we need” to “what we absolutely can’t live without” to “what we can live with.” We arrived today at the final exit — and what we can live with […]
from the Gospel According to Bob, Chapter 9, vss. 1-31 (this is a spoof, not the real Bible…) 1 “Yea, verily, I say unto you,” said Jesus, “God will attend to your petitions, and will give you what you ask in my name.” 2Robert, also called Bob, perked up. “Our […]
Okay, here’s an idea. We keep paying lip service to our commitment to young leadership and the need to attract and receive more young people into the church. So, for the remainder of General Conference I propose we take two votes on major issues: first, we take the vote of all […]
I have heard the rumor that General Conference costs the UMC $1,500 a minute. Framed in terms of investment, this is problematic. What value are we getting from this investment? So far, we have changed little. The tinkering we have managed to date is nominal at best. No set aside […]
I love my church, and there are very few things it does that both anger and hurt me. In specific terms, I hate it when my own church hates — when it goes out of its way to judge and revile and hold God’s children in contempt. We affirm their […]
What would it take to move us from the “general” to the “specific?” We have been told by our bishops that this General Conference is not about preserving the institution — but if not, what is it about? We are here, primarily, to plow through literally hundreds of legislative petitions […]
Let me share a frustration. Our church needs radical change. Our church needs new structures and processes. Our church needs time to focus on identity, purpose, and priorities. Our church needs a serious focus on leadership effectiveness and incisive processes for evaluation and accountability… and General Conference is poorly designed to […]
United Methodeviations 