Even in the church

Lee is at the movies tonight so I've spent the evening on the internet searching to find out what is going on at General Conference. I've found some great blogs (all from Kansas!) and was intrigued to learn that special interests are found even in the Methodist Church. This is from a blog by Rev. Mark Holland from Trinity UMC in Kansas City.

"Bishop Janice Huie of the Houston Area gave the sermon and she was AWESOME! She is the current president of the Council of Bishops and she is really a leading voice in the church. She reminded us that there are 1,000 delegates representing 11.4 million United Methodists in 128 conferences, in 48,000 congregations, in 50 nations, on 5 continents. I wrote that part down, and I may still not have gotten it right, but something like that. She talked about the special interest groups dividing our church, some who believe they have cornered the market on “righteousness”. But, she reminded us of Paul’s message that all fall short of the Glory of God. She also talked about “marshmallow faith” that looks good and tastes sweet, but when it gets too close to the fire, it drips off the stick onto the ground and burns up. We have to have real faith in Christ. Wow."

Rev. Holland continues:

"apparently, the super conservative Good News movement has purchased ALL 250+ central conference delegates (those from Africa and Asia) cell phones to use during General Conference. Allegedly so they can text message them who to vote for…during the Judicial Council Elections. This is not all that surprising as they have already circulated their list of preferred candidates. And, as delegates walk into their committees, the Good News hands everyone a list of every petition and how to vote on it. (I am not making this up!) How easy is that? Even W could be a delegate here…but I digress."

Special interest groups, even in the church!

This quote is from a blog by Jenny who is making a documentary about United Methodist young clergy.

"No other denomination allows its members to petition the entire church body. I listened to the first ever Young People’s Address and was so proud to be a United Methodist. We can be hard on ourselves because we don’t see as much change as we desire. But when we step back and see what God is already doing, it’s incredible. United Methodist people gave 57 billion dollars in the offering plates over the past 4 years!"

I love being United Methodist clergy, okay - now, off to bed!

A trip to Fort Worth

Today the Smith family attended our first General Conference of the United Methodist Church! The General Conference is the only entity that can speak for the United Methodist Church officially. There are 1000 delegates from all over the world meeting in Fort Worth for the next 10 days to look at legislation for changing policies in the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Lee had off today so the entire family went to see what it was like! It really was cool. General Conference meets every 4 years and the last time it was in this area was 40 years ago!

There were lots of displays from the different Methodist groups talking about what they do. And then we saw lots of friends there as well! The different legislative committees were meeting so we just walked around the convention center looking at all of the things to see.

Then, we went to my dad and stepmom's and Madeleine played in a box filled with styrofoam peanuts. She had a great time!

The Art Show!

Madeleine is blessed to be able to go to the Weekday School at Lovers Lane UMC where I serve as Associate Pastor. Madeleine really loves it. Tonight Madeleine's school had their annual Art Show. The theme was Planet Art and here is the project that Madeleine's class did, paper mache birds. I asked Madeleine how she made it and she said, "paper mache". God bless her school, she would have never learned how to paper mache unless they had taught her. Madeleine's bird is the blue one high up in the tree.

Fancy Madeleine

Madeleine's favorite new book is Fancy Nancy , about a girl who loves to dress up and be fancy. Here are two of her outfits from today. Thanks to Rev. JoNell Lindh for the beautiful flower crown. I visited JoNell's church last week for a workshop on the 5 Practices of Fruitful Congregations. I saw a new park on my way and we visited today. We had to take a potty break and JoNell's church was right around the corner! JoNell gifted Madeleine with her latest fancy accessory.

Big Sister and Baby Brother

Aren't they adorable!

I promise he does do other things besides jump...

I'm not sure what they are right now, but there must be something...

A Trip to Grandma's!

Grandma Phyllis (my stepmom) is wearing Madeleine's new hat, Madeleine had to bring both - her new hat and her new crown!