By Nick Strobel
Bruce McClellan, Caroline Close and I drove up together to the 155th session of the California-Nevada Annual Conference in Sacramento. David and Anne Scott and Marty drove up the day before. The theme this year was ``Listening to the Spirit's Call''. That call can be in various forms and for various tasks to build up the kingdom of God. We are all called by God to ministry in some way according to the gifts and talents given to us by God. Some are called to ordained ministry and others to laity ministry in our places of work and play. We are ALL called by God!
One thing you can count on at Annual Conference is excellent worship. I wish more of the Wesley folks would go to Annual Conference to experience the worship services. The services have been planned for several months by a lot of very creative people. There is a lot of singing (imagine 1200 to 1500 voices singing together!), praying, listening, and communing. The worship at the Annual Conferences highlight the great diversity in our conference. Friday's service was led by the Korean-American churches. It was a celebration of the Korean Centennial mission in America. The Korean Caucus Praise Team led the opening music of 20 minutes of praise music. Using guitars (regular and electric), drums, piano, and great voices, they led us in uplifting praise music we all knew (in English!). After that was a traditional Korean drum procession. A joint choir of 50+ voices sang a Korean translation of Don Besig's ``We Will Keep Our Faith Alive''. Sometime I'll have to give Margaret Grant the music they used (Korean text and all) without any word of warning just to see the expression on her face J.
Eugene Lowry was the conference speaker. He has a passion (and gift) for preaching and jazz music. On Thursday afternoon he played jazz music on the piano while he talked about Christianity and jazz music. In his research, he has found that jazz music actually grew out of the African-American church. Man, can he play!
At Annual Conference we get to see the various ministries and people our apportionments support. United Methodism is a connectional church. We all work together in this conference, nation, and world to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people and create disciples of our Savior. Our apportionment money goes to that work. The primary way that new churches can get started is through the money and prayers already established churches give to the conference and General Conference. The primary way that such things like campus ministry can happen is through the money and prayers already established churches give to the conference and General Conference. If you want to see the great things that the United Methodist Church is doing in our state and our nation, go to an Annual Conference.
In college, I researched and studied the theology of John Wesley. I made a conscious decision to remain in the denomination I grew up with because the United Methodist Church is firmly rooted in the Bible and in a personal relationship with Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit and the United Methodist Church takes seriously the call by God to help and love our neighbors, even those who would persecute us. I found that John Wesley's theology was the most logically and spiritually consistent of the Christian denominations. Also, very important is that because the Methodist Church grew up with the United States, the United Methodist Church values the thoughts and experiences of us as individuals. We are an inclusive, grace-centered church of believers who follow Jesus's example of inviting everybody to the banquet table prepared by God. We do this because we have studied the Bible carefully ourselves with our hearts and minds (we don't rely on what others say the Bible says), because we pray to God ourselves (we don't rely on other ``specially-gifted'' people to pray for us), and because we listen to the Spirit's call ourselves (we don't blindly and uncritically follow those who say they and only they have heard the ``true'' call). Sure this democracy we have in the United Methodist Church is messy but I truly believe we have found the best denomination.
The Annual Conference sessions I've been to in Oregon-Idaho, Pacific Northwest, and California-Nevada confirm that belief for me. I see that in the various reports, presentations, displays, legislative committees, fellowship, and worship. Sure there are things that need improving and there are controversial discussions (some I hear about from the pastors), but even (or especially) with the area or event where the conference or a member of conference has fallen short, there is thoughtful discussion and prayer with a genuine desire to correct the mistake and do the right thing.
Here are the items that we discussed and voted on:
We also voted on the delegates to General Conference 2004 (the international gathering of United Methodists held every 4 years) and Western Jurisdiction Conference (also held every 4 years and at which bishops are elected). The number of UMC members in our conference has decreased so we elected only 5 lay + 5 clergy delegates for General Conference and 5 lay + 5 clergy delegates for Western Jurisdiction. Our delegates will have a harder time at influencing the outcome of General Conference because of our reduced membership and the fact that we are one of the lowest apportionment-paying conferences.
The text of the resolutions and the results of the elections are available on our Annual Conference website at www.cnumc.org.
Faithfully,
Report put on website on July 17, 2003