Church Conference, General Conference, holy conferencing, what’s that all about?
Holy conferencing is how we come together, led by the Holy Spirit to reach consensus as a body of the church. The conferences at all the various levels of the church, from General Conference to Charge or Church Conference, allows each body to speak and act for United Methodists in their official decisions at appropriate levels.
When I was younger, I thought how democratic we are, but in fact as I study the history of the early church much of what we do in our holy conferencing is consistent with the practices of the first century CE churches.
I confess, at some point during my life in the Methodist denomination, I would wonder what it was all about when I would see an announcement in our church bulletin or newsletter such as the one you may notice in this newsletter announcing our upcoming Church Conference in October.
This seems to be a good opportunity to share with you my understanding of what we will be doing at Church Conference this year.
First a Church Conference is very similar
to what is called a Charge Conference. The biggest difference is that voting members of a Charge Conference are only the Board or Council members of the church, whereas a Church Conference extends voting to all professing members of the local church.
At our upcoming meeting on October 18, we will be planning and voting on issues dealing with the leadership and administration of our church in 2023, care of our membership and community, our finances and facilities.
Even if you are not a professing member, if you are part of our family at Faith, we invite you to register to attend. We are all called to use the many gifts God is blessing us with for the upbuilding of his kingdom and this is a time to celebrate what we are doing together and seek where God is calling us to go as his church family here at Faith.
Blessings,
Pastor Peggy,