For those of you who don’t move in United Methodist circles, the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church will be in session this week at Grove City College. Some two-thousand United Methodist clergy, laity, and guests will gather to worship, deliberate, and discern. Hopefully, we will all behave with considerably more decorum than the dude in the photograph that precedes this post. (After all, everybody knows that a man should never wear gold with his Speedo until after the Fourth of July. Duh.)
So, I would like to pose a few general questions to those of you in blogland who will be attending this year’s Annual Conference:
How are you praying for Annual Conference this year? What are your expectations? Beneath whatever layers of cynicism may have developed within you over the years, what do you hope to experience in this year’s time of conferencing? Where do you expect to find the Spirit most at work? How do you prepare yourself spiritually for this yearly event?
I ask these questions because I am genuinely curious. I also ask them for the purpose of heightening my own sense of holy expectancy and to hold myself accountable for my attitude, since I am often guilty of approaching Annual Conference with the mindset of “business as usual.”
Save me, brothers and sisters! Bring me to fresh enlightenment! Share with me your percolating thoughts about our upcoming time at Grove City College!!
May all good things be yours (like Speedos and large religious jewelry).
My speedo is packed.
I’m looking forward to connecting with friends, which always seems a high point of the week. I’m also looking forward to seeing two of my children in action…Christian as a delegate and Kate as a page.
Additionally, I am enriched when I find the time to corner some folks and have some fine theological conversation. These conversations often happen in unexpected places at unexpected times, but I am almost always challenged and given food for thought.
I’m also looking forward to Friday’s premiere of “The Incredible Hulk”.
My first Annual Conference felt a lot like J. K. Rawlings’ description of arriving at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry. Ordinary people were streaming from all directions toward the main building. Although ordinary seeming, they all had a mystical element to them a connection to the holy. To see them all gathered for a single purpose was thrilling. I try to remember that as I sit through committee sessions and other less exciting times. I love Annual Conference for the opportunity to connect with friends and see how God has unfolded their lives in the past year. And, this year I bring with me a sense of exile and invisibility that comes from working beyond the local church. Ambivalence has tipped the scale on my excitement factor.
I just saw this post so I’m reflecting back on Annual Conference. I really hope you still exercised during mealtimes because that picture is all too real for some clergy and I would hate to think you’ve lapsed in your physical fitness that much since I saw you last! The hair is another story…I can only comment on the hairyness of Presbyterian pastors.
Seriously, I hope that it was a time of good reconnections, good reflections, and good togetherness for the Western Pennsylvania conference. I still look back on my time at those conferences as beneficial in my understanding of the United Methodist faith, and I’m grateful for the time that we got to spend together at them.