I have been reading many bogs in the past week about General Conference, the national body of the United Methodist Church that meets every four years– big stuff.  Blogs are a fantastic way to get news from afar.  Many are less than objective, of course, but you get a rich kind of overall picture that traditional journalism simply can’t grasp.  There was one post I read today from a member of our own dlegation, Mark Conard.  Check it out; I’m seriously honored to be serving literally just down the road from him in Hutchinson.

http://www.7villages.com/post.asp?p=42977&i=1353

As the Associate Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Hutchinson, KS, I write a weekly article for the newsletter article. I invite both members of the church and other visitors to my blog to share their thoughts!

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Pat has talked about the upcoming international gathering of United Methodists known as General Conference.  It happens only every four years, and it is where we as a denomination set our course, determine our priorities, and take care of our business.  Of the eight delegates from the western two thirds of Kansas, two are from our church, Pat Ault-Duell and Kim Moore.  By the time you read this, they will be in Forth Worth, TX engaged in this important work.

Many people have attended United Methodists churches for some time, yet have never heard the term we use to describe how our churches and people relate to one another: connectionalism.  We don’t see ourselves as individual churches minding our own business.  Instead, we strive to have a rich connection between every church and among all our denominational organizations.  The result is that many diverse resources and viewpoints are brought together and we all end up being closer to God for it.

I think this is a wonderful concept, and a good example for how we should live our lives.  For the next two Sundays while Kim and Pat are away doing this work on the national level, we are going to explore what it means for our “everyday lives” here.

I also plan to bring up any major issues from General Conference and talk about anything that makes the national news—it’s part of who we are as a church, and it’s important to be informed.  If you want to stay updated through the week, visit http://umc.org.  As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on my blog, http://ministrygeek.net.