Anyone who knows me knows I am not much of a fan of the Annual Conference of our denomination. Part of it has to do with the generally more liberal (I don't use the word "Progressive" because I'm not sure the positions taken by those who claim the nomenclature are actually advancing much except for the continuing decline of our church), stance of that body, but much of it is due to my wife's love rubbing off on me. I just don't like being away from her. Yesterday before I left for the ride to Syracuse, we drove to Hamburg together for a doctor's checkup (fyi, everything's fine). I had stuff to do around home, but I just like being with her. Being away is like only half of me being here. If it were a scenic ride, or hanging out with people we both know and love, I would love having here here. But she knows almost no one from the Conference, and would not have a fun time sitting through the meetings, so it's better for me to miss her than to have her here, not enjoying herself.
The forty-plus years I've been coming to Annual Conference have had their benefits. I've gotten to know and appreciate people whose perspectives on life and faith are vastly different than mine. Forty years ago, I would likely have written them off as apostate unbelievers. I could possibly do that today with some of them today, but I've made some wonderful friendships that have enriched me and helped me see things in ways that wouldn't have been possible before.
And there are those times between the formal sessions where we just sit and talk, building friendships that will, Lord willing, last for years to come. We have some great people, most of whom know how to disagree without being spiteful and vindictive. I've often said that if we spent half our time at conference just talking with each other, and the other half worshipping together, we wouldn't be wasting so much time on issues that pit us against each other adversarially. Any time a vote is taken, there are winners and losers; the whole process is designed to polarize people. Why we ever adopted this model for what we call "Holy Conferencing" is beyond me. It often ends up being far from holy, and with precious little conferencing. Maybe someday we'll be smart enough to change the way we make decisions. Maybe if instead of offering a quick prayer before we take a vote, we spent the entire time praying, we wouldn't even need to vote. Maybe the Spirit would descend as at Pentecost because we finally prayed our way through to be of the same mind. Now THAT would be a Holy Conference!
It hasn't happened in my lifetime, but who knows? If enough people get tired of our inertia, we might just try something new (or would it be old?). Until then, I am grateful for the opportunities to worship, talk, and pray, even if we don't do enough of it. After all, we are Methodists, and Methodists are as Wesley put it, "going on to perfection." We haven't yet arrived, but hopefully, we aren't just sitting still. If I can be thankful for Conference, at least I know that I'm not sitting still.
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