Devotional from Pastor Dave April 24, 2024

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church is meeting this week and next week in Charlotte, NC. This global gathering of United Methodists typically meets every four years to establish priorities and shape our denomination’s life together and our witness to the good news of Jesus Christ. This year’s conference is really the originally scheduled 2020 conference that was repeatedly postponed because of the pandemic.

There are over 1000 proposals that will be considered at this year’s General Conference, so there’s a lot of work to be done. A couple of the most prominent proposals include a plan for regionalization that would allow different regions of the church around the world to adapt their policies and procedures to their particular contexts and also a revised and updated draft of our Social Principles that speak to the contemporary issues and challenges facing the church and the world.

What can you do as the General Conference is conducting their work? Three things:

First, we would like to invite you to pray for the General Conference as they are doing their important work, which is all aimed at helping our churches accomplish our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Here are some specific ways you can pray:

• Pray for our fourteen lay and clergy delegates from Holston Conference.
• Pray for the more than 800 delegates from all over the world.
• Pray that all that they do is done in love.
• Pray that they conduct themselves with mutual respect.
• Pray for wisdom and discernment as discussions are had and decisions are made.
• Pray for the bishops who are presiding during the conference.
• Pray for the worship teams and leaders who are guiding the work of the conference.
• Pray for all the staff and volunteers in Charlotte who are serving in so many ways.

Second, we invite you to stay informed and follow the news from the General Conference. You can see the schedule, watch the livestream, and read reports at www.resourceumc.org. You can also stay updated on news from the General Conference at umnews.org.

Third, you can keep the “General Rules” that we have been exploring in worship this month, these three simple rules that John Wesley developed back in the 18th century for Methodists:

(1) Do no harm, (2) Do good, and (3) Stay in love with God. These rules to live by should always characterize our life in Christ and our love for God and for others as for ourselves.

As always, if you have any questions about the General Conference in general or how its decisions will impact Signal Crest in particular, please reach out to Pastors Dave or Bill.