General Conference Begins Today

General Conference, the once-every-four-years meeting, begins today, May 10, in Portland, Oregon. It is the top legislative assembly and the only body speaks officially as The United Methodist Church. 864 delegates elected by their annual conferences will consider 1044 petitions. Half the delegates are clergy and half are laity. Bishops lead the sessions, but have neither voice nor vote.

This United Methodist meeting gathers brothers and sisters in Christ from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. In addition to the legislation and times of worship, there will be many celebrations, including what we have accomplished through Imagine No Malaria. More than 1 million mosquito bed nets have been distributed and more than 250,000 people have been diagnosed and treated. Many lives have been saved!

During the 11-day session, there will be many issues discussed and voted upon as our church continues to be shaped.

There are several proposals to restructure the ministries of the general church. This is actually a large, important issue to be dealt with, but is it interesting to most people in local congregations? Probably not. The reality is, a huge amount of time and energy and money was spent on restructuring the general church four years ago. In the end, the Judicial Council ruled it out of order. I hope we don’t make that same mistake again.

There is work being done to make The Book of Discipline a truly global book. The Discipline is our book of order for how we live together. It regulates the manner in which local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are organized. The book sets policies regarding the local church, church membership, ordination, administration, property and judicial procedures.

With members from Africa, Asia, and Europe, along with North America, we have diverse cultural contexts. We have to figure out how we live together in a global community, and we, especially in North America, have to see that while we are dwindling, The United Methodist Church outside of America is growing. This work won’t be finished this year but rather will be presented to General Conference in 2020.

Regarding bishops, who are currently elected for life, a group of lay persons is calling for limited tenure for bishops. After serving one eight-year term, a bishop would be eligible to be elected (again) for another eight years. In some of the Central Conferences (the groupings of United Methodists outside the United States), some bishops are elected and then must submit themselves for re-election four years later. Some even go back to serving as a pastor.

Similarly, a lay group is trying to change our system of guaranteed appointments for clergy. One critique bluntly states that this so-called security of appointment protects ineffective, unfruitful clergy.

The bigger problem, however, may be our system. These are interesting conversations, but it will be very difficult to change our system for bishops and the guaranteed appointments for clergy. A change requires a two-thirds majority vote at General Conference. Then, it must win a two-thirds majority of the total voters at each of the annual conferences, too. This isn’t impossible, but quite difficult. Much more likely are the significant changes proposed for the ordination process for elders and deacons and standards that are more rigorous for local pastors.

A new hymnal is being proposed. If approved, work would begin right away. The 2020 General Conference would need to approve it, so the release of the new hymnal could be as early as 2021. Our current hymnal debuted in 1989. The new hymnal would be Internet cloud-based and printed on demand with each congregation customizing its selections. That is, there would be a core of a few hundred hymns and other worship resources. Then we—Salem—could also select from supplemental resources and choose what to include in our hymnal.

The issue that seems to get the most attention is human sexuality. The subject of homosexuality has been debated at every General Conference since 1972 after the merger that created our current denomination. Currently, our Social Principles state that all individuals are of sacred worth but the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. It defines marriage as between a man and a woman and bans clergy from officiating at same-gender unions and United Methodist churches from hosting such ceremonies.

There are numerous proposals to remove this language or add less-restrictive language. Others call for upholding the current language and denominational standards. Still others are proposing ways for us to live together gracefully in our differences.

I invite you to pray for our brothers and sisters gathered in Portland and for our church. We are a connectional church. Whatever happens there does affect our local congregations, including Salem.

You’re welcome to follow along at www.gc2016.umc.org. News, blogs, resources, videos and photos about everything happening at General Conference are available in this central location as well as the live stream whenever the conference is in session.

I serve on the Episcopacy Committee for our Annual Conference. At our meeting this past month, I asked our bishop, Julius Trimble, about General Conference. He said, “When it’s done, the sun will still rise, we’ll still be The United Methodist Church, and God will still be God.”