First Day of The GMC General Conference

Day 1

Excited delegates gathered in the entry hallway.
One of the things that made me happy was to see immediately 2 people who were in and Exponential Multipliers Learning Community with me.

Worship started with the Apostles' Creed. At the 2016 General Conference, the UMC could not agree to make the Nicene Creed part of our doctrine.

To sing "And Can It Be" with 500 people who really mean it, who believe it, to be with people who know their sins forgiven by the immense and free grace of Jesus Christ.

I need to add one more thing to my hopes for the GMC Conference that I wrote about in my last post: that lay people would lead the church. The clergy union has been too strong for too long. So lay people, rise up and lead!!

Bishop Scott Jones challenged us, as Joshua challenged the Israelites crossing the Jordan, to consecrate ourselves. What are we committing to? What are we living for? And this blessed me.so much I hollered Amen, he said we need to consecrate ourselves to entire sanctification.

Bishop John Wesley Yohana reminded us the Bible is the inspired Word of God and should not be twisted by human beings

Bishop Mark Webb reminded us of the original vision of Methodists in America, to spread scriptural holiness across the nation... for us, it is the world. We have to let go of anything we love more than God. The Greay Commandment is our call.
We are committed to:
The Lordship of Jesus Christ in our individual lives and our life together
The Authority of scripture in every part of our life.

I am fascinated that two of our Bishops have evangelism as their primary gift.

Some folks were not able to come bc they could not get visas in time or for other reasons. Central African Republic, Tanazania, Democratic Republic of Congo... but they joined by zoom. What a blessing.

Bishop Robert Hayes was a UMC bishop; he is a Bishop emeritus for the GMC. He was clearly moved to be able to preside over the conference.

We had a powerful time of prayer, a real crying out to God for His power and presence. It was a Korean style of prayer, where everyone prays at once.

The Worship has been incredible. The GMC is united in worship and doctrine. We have some differences in organizational preferences, but I think a church united in worship and doctrine will prevail.

It is interesting to see so many people here who were kept out of leadership in the old system.

These are exciting times! As I have spoken with folks I know and have just met, and the conversations have gone something like this: "How has it been, joining the GMC?" And the answer is something like, "it has been great for me personally, and for our local church."

I have now come across 4 people who were in an Exponential Multipliers Learning Community with me.

A very powerful moment: the GMC now has a formal relationship with the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica.  There are Methodist groups around the world that are looking to work together. What strangely powerful days!

You can tell I did not edit this much. I wanted to give you a sense of things here. It is a blessing to be here. It would be worth travelling to worship like this!