Kansas East Annual Conference

I'm wrapping up a long week and ready for two weeks of vacation. First, some thoughts about the Kansas East Annual Conference that ended yesterday:

Positives
- Adam Hamilton's plenary sessions were fantastic. What was even better was the Conference embracing Adam as a leader within the Conference and the UMC. After years of jealousy and irrational concerns (it was just 5 years ago that Adam was slighted in General Conference delegation elections even though Resurrection was the sole reason we had the number of delegates we had that year) Adam was warmly welcomed and deeply appreciated. I believe 50 years from now when people speak of the revival of Methodism in the first half of this century Adam will figure very prominently.

- Young lay and clergy were among the most active voices. I am concerned that we need more collaberation between younger and older members, especially clergy, but I am excited by the participation of younger people who have energy and good ideas.

- Adoption of a tithe model of apportionments. This isn't THE Biblical model of giving as advertised by the CFA chair. I think he oversold it some, actually. But I think it is a very postive step forward, both as a way of controlling spending and budgeting and as a way of helping us to explain to our churches why we pay apportionments. I spent a few minutes at the beginning of worship today talking about a few things that happened at Conference and when I mentioned this one there were lots of nodding heads like "that makes sense. Now I understand."

Negative signs -

- I felt like there was still too much top-down leadership. CFA seemed to recomend that we not read the budget, just the summary of it. (every time I preach on me I try to remind people that we are very open with our finances and everyone is welcome to see how we spend money). Even though I like the new apporionment system there should have been more conversation about it before Conference. We were given a copy of a staffing plan for unfunded positions but I'm not sure it's a good plan and there was no chance for debate of it (thanks to Neal Gately though the plan may be changed next year)

- There was more discussion about the location of AC next year than the Constitutional Amendments. What's our real priority?


Reasons for Hope for the future
- Bishop Jones gave us clear priorities for our future as churches in the Conference. We really need these objectives to shoot for. Thanks Bishop!
- There was a hopeful, energetic, and cooperative spirit.
- There was a strong willingness to change (apportionments, location, and amendment conversations all showed this spirit.)

I left Conference feeling very positive about the future of Methodism in Kansas. I hope those of you reading this who were there felt the same. Let me know what you thought.