First Impressions of General Conference

by Robin Blair

Got up even earlier (!) get to a 7 a.m. breakfast hosted by the folks who publish the magazine, Good News, claiming they are the magazine for ‘United Methodist Renewal.’

My first impressions were that this is well funded and well organized.

I stepped off the elevator at precisely 7:01 a.m. expecting a coffee/danish presentation, and was greeted with over 500 people seated at tables set with the full breakfasts they had acquired at two long buffet lines. The noise level in the room was fairly high, so I just watched for a few minutes to learn what folks were interested in, what I could observe in their moods and read nametags as folks passed by from my standing spot against the wall.

The speakers began, with various announcements and a Powerpoint presentation of Christian song lyrics that a fellow was singing from his position on the dais seated at his electric keyboard filled the room as folks were invited to eat their morning repast. There was an opening prayer that invited God’s presence and the victory for not just the United Methodist Denomination, but also the salt and light for redemption of the world, Amen. I wondered about the ‘victory for the denomination’ language, just think I will dwell on that for a while. I wandered and invited myself to accept the invitation of some food – I had some bacon. I like bacon once in a while.

A gentleman got up after a few minutes to invite donations to the plates, explaining this was an expensive enterprise. He himself was going to put in $200 as an offering for the good work and expensive breakfast Good News has provided.

Next order of business was the update on petitions in which this organization feels it has a stake – and a pastor named Tom Lambrecht, who is on the board of the Good News magazine, was sharing information. He went through petitions one by one from various legislative committees as to the tenor of the recommendation from each committee to the main sessions. There is much on the heart of anyone who cares about the United Methodist Church and its voice in the world.

We are a denomination with a history of social justice and freedom from oppression; there are varying voices in this conference that lay claim to that theology with very different ideas of what its interpretation should and could be. This article is not going to inform you of the varying positions, but rather how folks are simmering in the soup that is made of so many different ingredients called United Methodists.

What impressed me about this breakfast meeting, was its organization, and political agenda. I felt as if every issue that had come to the podium just a little while ago, created an urgency of ‘winning’ and ‘not losing’ and ‘what was at stake in the numbers.’

There was even a Senator from Indiana, Patricia Miller, who spoke on the importance of the upcoming Judicial Council elections – as the most ‘important thing we are going to do here today.’ She even went so far as to present recommendations from the Good News folks as to whom to vote for to see that their concerns were tended to in the political process.

Now, I understand a little bit about political process and realize that strategy is important, but, when I obtained the piece of paper that offered the names of people for whom to vote regarding Judicial Council (I don’t really like being told who to vote for – tell me about the people and their hearts instead…) I notice there is not prayer, no Jesus, no God – the only word that that differentiated this piece of paper from anything else on a governmental slate, was the word church, once.

It does not invite a prayerful attitude upon voting, it does not invite a sense of humility.

As the senator continued, she invited those at the breakfast to ‘stay with it’ – don’t let down your guard for one moment, stay with it. If you think one vote doe not matter – remember that Hilter picked up something with one vote (I was flabbergasted that Hitler was brought into a conversations as though to place imagery of a wedge between UMs – we are all the same family here folks) and that Texas entered the United States with one vote separating it from non-inclusion, so one vote was important. This came from Senator Miller.

What was missing for me in all of this rhetoric, was the Spirit of the Living God. To be fair, there were prayers offered here and there, there was some language that reminded me I was at a conference for the church, but it was all about the agenda for the politics.

It seemed only important to win, period. I suppose that it could be said folks attending here would perhaps know everything they needed to know about how they are representing their God, but I still wondered if the invocation of the Holy Spirit had been the first thing our of everyone’s mouth, then maybe I could have felt the ‘love.’ I think I could have been at any political rally for any candidate, legislative issue etc…in our local, state or federal government, rather than seeking the spirit in our interpretation of the scriptures as a way of life.

This makes me sad; how about you?

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