Annual Conference

I've been in Annual Conference all this week. This has been referred to by Todd Craig as watching C-SPAN, which is about right. Annual Conference is the annual meeting of the United Methodist pastors and lay leaders in the Oklahoma Conference. It is considered the business meeting of the UM connection, but there is little business to be done, it is rather all reports on the status of various ministries in OK. I've sat through many, many 5-25 minute reports on the status of various things such as campus ministries, camping ministries, United Methodist Women/Men/Youth, committees on race and reconciliation, the Black church, the Hispanic church, the rural church...

Wesley called annual conference a means of grace, that is a way we encounter God's grace in our lives. He called this experience "holy conferencing." I can't imagine that our current practice is similar to Wesley's holy conferencing experiences. I don't feel refreshed by the annual conference experience, instead I tend to be put in a foul mood. Yet, there are many pastors and lay leaders who tend to love this experience.