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Words from Bishop Farr about General Conference
We are in General Conference season. I am writing this six weeks before traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the postponed 2020 General Conference at the end of April. As I think about and pray for General Conference, Jeremiah 29:13-14 (MSG paraphrase) comes to mind.
“When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. “Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.”
Above all else, I hope we seek God amid all the changes facing The United Methodist Church at this year’s General Conference.
From the beginning of the Methodist movement, conferencing has been an important part of our development as a church. Conferencing together has its roots in Biblical times. Early followers of Jesus who lived in different places and had a variety of cultural norms and beliefs about Jesus came together in a Jerusalem conference. Since that early gathering, the global church has produced many councils who prayed and sought the Lord’s leading and guidance. They created covenants that clarified their understanding of what Jesus meant and how the church of their day should operate. Today, we still repeat some of the same agreements reflected in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds found in The United Methodist Hymnal.
Methodists have been conferencing every four years for a very large part of our history as a church. Our conferencing typically answers three basic questions:
- What should we preach?
- Where should we preach?
- How should we practice ministry?
Like the old organizational process of form and function, we spend a lot of time on what form our theology and ministry should follow and how we should function together. Our Book of Discipline is probably one-third form and two-thirds function.
I’ve attended five General Conference sessions through the course of my ministry. At the General Conference, we speak at least 10 different languages worldwide (there are four official written languages). Typically, we worship, encourage and reconnect. We pray, we sing, and we have many holy conversations. We agree and disagree on how these conversations should go forward. Yet we are a church that reads the Bible, looks to the leading of the Holy Spirit and holds our doctrinal and general rules in common.
At the same time, portions of the Book of Discipline can be expanded or changed as a reflection of the continued evolution of the church. In 1941 Karl Banth, the great German theologian, reportedly said, “The church should always be reforming, always renewing” a saying derived from St. Augustine. In other words, the church must continually reexamine itself to renew itself.
We Methodists do our reexamining out loud and in front of everyone. It is often messy and slow. However, our commitment to conferencing allows us to continually take another look at ourselves around our form/theology and function/practices. I value this form of self-governance of our church. We collectively walk together to find our way forward, even when disagreeing.
I invite you to pray for the General Conference session as we clarify our mission and revise our rule of life in faith together for the United Methodist Church. Remember that we are a part of Christ’s universal Church, clergy and lay, and together wemake new disciples for Jesus Christ.
Let us have a generous spirit among our strong convictions and be reminded that we are not a society of saints where everyone must be pure and holy and agree to belong. Rather, let us be a school for sinners where all are welcome and provided with grace and love and who are aimed at loving God, loving others and doing all the good we can.
When you hear news from the General Conference, please check the source, because we live in a society filled with misinformation. Please be patient as we reevaluate how the information you find affects the Missouri Annual Conference. Remember, we are not a confessional church, where we must be of one mind to belong. We are a diverse church united in our love of Christ and others.
In Christ,
Bishop Bob Farr, The Missouri Conference
of The United Methodist Church
Clergy Delegation Leader Rev. Andy Bryan shares insights on how the Missouri Conference delegation has prepared for General Conference and what some of the main themes of the denominational meeting might be. Read more →
Click here for more info about General Conference: https://www.resourceumc.org/-/media/umc-media/2024/03/14/16/33/guidetoprayer_gc24_english-c.pdf
Click here to download a prayer guide for General Conference: https://www.resourceumc.org/en/churchwide/general-conference-2020
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