Annual Conference 2007 - the REALLY important things...
Okay - four days of sitting in a folding chair at tables with 1200 other people is probably nobody's idea of a good time... But I thought Annual Conference was really good this year. If you don't know what Annual Conference is, well here's the Wikipedia article that really won't help explain it - but suffice it to say that it's when all the pastors and representative lay people from all the United Methodist churches in Western PA get together for "holy conferencing."
So, it was a good weekend. The worship was inspiring (even if I was told one too many times that I needed to be "discerning" in the process...argh), the legislation was civil, the elections to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference were...really drawn out...but pretty civil as well... I only heard one person say one time that "the cabinet is a bunch of idiots..." and we really only got railroaded once on a vote, and that was to give money to "third-world" pastors for their pension. (here's what happened. Cokesbury gave us a check, I think it was maybe $6000, not sure the amount - anyway, someone said, "I move that we give that money to the pension fund for the Central Conference. It was seconded. The bishop said, "All those in favor raise the green card. Opposed the red. And the motion succeded. Now, I bet you'd like to know what you just did..." Some people were offended by the process there - since they then showed us a brief video to tell us "what we just did" instead of showing to tell us "what we ought to do" before the vote...but since that was the only vote that I think was like that, I guess I can live with it). Who would have thought that the budget would pass without a single person speaking in debate? Who would have thought that the Israel/Palestine study legislation would have caused us to take 1/2 an hour to vote on? (okay, Steve called that one...) Yet, in the end, it was a good weekend. I feel like we were more together as Conference than we have been in years...
But that's not what I cared about this weekend...
I put 550 miles on my new Honda Pilot this weekend because I believe that Annual Conference is an important event in the life of our churches and because I believe that I have an obligation to attend, and I WANT to attend conference. But I put all those miles on my car because there was something more important to me this weekend.
Rachel graduated from kindgergarten Friday morning. Okay, it's not the hugest milestone that she'll pass - maybe in the grand scheme of things it is really a pretty forgettable moment in her life except - except that daddy drove 2 hours to see her and then drove 2 hours to get back to his "meetings" because there was nothing more importat to him that Friday morning than his little girl's graduation. I gotta get the pictures off Lori's camera or the video posted on YouTube or something. You should have seen her in her cap and gown. I was so proud to be there for her.
So I drove back down Friday at lunchtime - did more "conference stuff" Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning. But Saturday at 11:00 I again got in my car and again drove 2 hours back home to see Rachel in her first Violin Recital. Yep - I drove 4 hours round trip to see her 40 second rendition of "May Song" which I've been hearing her (and helping her) learn for the past 4 months. But it was worth every minute of the drive to see her eyes light up (and Elie's) when daddy came in the room (I didn't tell them I was coming - Lori, who is clearly more clever than I am, figured it out, but I swore her to secrecy).
Okay, so I might have missed some important things - but I didn't miss the REALLY important ones. Actually, the day they tell me I have to choose the church over my family is the day they get my credentials.
So, yeah, Annual Conference was pretty good this year. But I had a GREAT weekend.
So, it was a good weekend. The worship was inspiring (even if I was told one too many times that I needed to be "discerning" in the process...argh), the legislation was civil, the elections to General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference were...really drawn out...but pretty civil as well... I only heard one person say one time that "the cabinet is a bunch of idiots..." and we really only got railroaded once on a vote, and that was to give money to "third-world" pastors for their pension. (here's what happened. Cokesbury gave us a check, I think it was maybe $6000, not sure the amount - anyway, someone said, "I move that we give that money to the pension fund for the Central Conference. It was seconded. The bishop said, "All those in favor raise the green card. Opposed the red. And the motion succeded. Now, I bet you'd like to know what you just did..." Some people were offended by the process there - since they then showed us a brief video to tell us "what we just did" instead of showing to tell us "what we ought to do" before the vote...but since that was the only vote that I think was like that, I guess I can live with it). Who would have thought that the budget would pass without a single person speaking in debate? Who would have thought that the Israel/Palestine study legislation would have caused us to take 1/2 an hour to vote on? (okay, Steve called that one...) Yet, in the end, it was a good weekend. I feel like we were more together as Conference than we have been in years...
But that's not what I cared about this weekend...
I put 550 miles on my new Honda Pilot this weekend because I believe that Annual Conference is an important event in the life of our churches and because I believe that I have an obligation to attend, and I WANT to attend conference. But I put all those miles on my car because there was something more important to me this weekend.
Rachel graduated from kindgergarten Friday morning. Okay, it's not the hugest milestone that she'll pass - maybe in the grand scheme of things it is really a pretty forgettable moment in her life except - except that daddy drove 2 hours to see her and then drove 2 hours to get back to his "meetings" because there was nothing more importat to him that Friday morning than his little girl's graduation. I gotta get the pictures off Lori's camera or the video posted on YouTube or something. You should have seen her in her cap and gown. I was so proud to be there for her.
So I drove back down Friday at lunchtime - did more "conference stuff" Friday afternoon and evening and Saturday morning. But Saturday at 11:00 I again got in my car and again drove 2 hours back home to see Rachel in her first Violin Recital. Yep - I drove 4 hours round trip to see her 40 second rendition of "May Song" which I've been hearing her (and helping her) learn for the past 4 months. But it was worth every minute of the drive to see her eyes light up (and Elie's) when daddy came in the room (I didn't tell them I was coming - Lori, who is clearly more clever than I am, figured it out, but I swore her to secrecy).
Okay, so I might have missed some important things - but I didn't miss the REALLY important ones. Actually, the day they tell me I have to choose the church over my family is the day they get my credentials.
So, yeah, Annual Conference was pretty good this year. But I had a GREAT weekend.
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