It's Begun
The flight from Ithaca to Phili to Dallas/Ft. Worth was smooth. Even the luggage arrived!
The picture on the is of the mobile hanging in the lobby of the convention center we're meeting in (just so you know I'm really in Texas!) [I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so check back later.]
General Conference began with worship Wednesday evening. It was a powerful experience: massed choirs, lilturgical dancers, video displayed on enormous overhead screens, banners and the combined voices of 6500 Methodists filled the auditorium. Bishop Jance Huie of the Houston Area preached on the conference theme of “ A Future with Hope.” Bishop Huie named some of the enormous challenges facing our church in these days: declining membership, worldwide poverty and disease, wars and global warming. She said while 1st Christians were known by the way they loved one another, 21st Christians will need to be known by the way they manifest hope in God’s redeeming work in the world.
After worship, we had initial business to conduct: establishing the policies and rules we’ll use to do the rest of our work. We got done around 11 p.m.
Today has been a powerful day, too. The morning was spent introducing the 4 areas of focus around which our denomination will orient its life in the years ahead: developing principled lay and clergy leadership; planting new churches and renewing existing churches; working with the poor to eliminate poverty; and irradicating the diseases like malaria and AIDS. A pretty ambitious agenda. I’ll speak more about this tomorrow.
The picture on the is of the mobile hanging in the lobby of the convention center we're meeting in (just so you know I'm really in Texas!) [I'm having trouble uploading pictures, so check back later.]
General Conference began with worship Wednesday evening. It was a powerful experience: massed choirs, lilturgical dancers, video displayed on enormous overhead screens, banners and the combined voices of 6500 Methodists filled the auditorium. Bishop Jance Huie of the Houston Area preached on the conference theme of “ A Future with Hope.” Bishop Huie named some of the enormous challenges facing our church in these days: declining membership, worldwide poverty and disease, wars and global warming. She said while 1st Christians were known by the way they loved one another, 21st Christians will need to be known by the way they manifest hope in God’s redeeming work in the world.
After worship, we had initial business to conduct: establishing the policies and rules we’ll use to do the rest of our work. We got done around 11 p.m.
Today has been a powerful day, too. The morning was spent introducing the 4 areas of focus around which our denomination will orient its life in the years ahead: developing principled lay and clergy leadership; planting new churches and renewing existing churches; working with the poor to eliminate poverty; and irradicating the diseases like malaria and AIDS. A pretty ambitious agenda. I’ll speak more about this tomorrow.
posted by Pastor Bill | 7:32 PM
|
1 Comments
