Gen Con 2008

I wanted to take a moment while it’s still fresh to blog about my time in Orlando as Melissa and I attended the Wesleyan Church’s General Conference. I went to the conference very excited and very curious to see all the ins and outs of the business portion of the conference. I left uplifted, encouraged about the state of the Wesleyan church, and greatly refreshed for ministry.

For all the talk about the conference bar electing our first woman G.S… there were actually two other things that stood out to me that were, just as, if not more important than that decision.

1) Holiness Forums. Education and the Ministry hosted three Holiness forums. They were fantastic. The first forum was an excellent theological perspective given by Dr. Chris Bounds that examined the various Wesleyan views of Holiness. This was significant because there were three views given… the Short Way, the Middle Way, and the Long Way. The Short Way was identified as the official position of the Wesleyan church… but Bounds went on to detail how John Wesley had more of a Middle or Long view of holiness. Dr. Bounds said something very powerful towards the end of his talk… and it is in my estimation that if this statement can be taught and modeled by our leaders and pastors… along with being understood by our congregations… it has the capacity to change our churches through and through. He said: “The end of holiness is not the death of sin… the end of holiness is love.” Powerful stuff.

The second forum was on corporate or atmospheric holiness. Dr. Jim Garlow was the keynote speaker and his talk was both moving and powerful. He gave his personal testimony and it was so raw, so authentic… it brought me to tears at various times. He made some great suggestions about how to build atmospheric holiness… including making better use of the Eucharist and the Apostle’s Creed… as well as promoting simplicity. He talked for an hour… maybe more… and I never felt like it went long.

The third forum was on social holiness. Both speakers did a great job. I felt that these forums were the highlight of the entire conference. They really reinvigorated my passion for our holiness distinctive in the Wesleyan church. I was reminded why this distinctive remains an important one to hold on to and I was reminded why our theology of holiness needs to be taught clearly, often and well. This was very important for me.

2) Change in our membership. The conference voted that each local church could decide whether or not they would use an updated version of Community membership. Community members were given the right to vote on all church issues with the exception of the reception of Covenant members. There was much debate on this issue… which was very intriguing to listen to. This was a great step taken, in my opinion. Covenant membership is still required for elected and some appointed positions… but now Community members have the right to vote in all local conferences. This will be very helpful in my context at Wheaton Wesleyan. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

I applaud the Wesleyan church for electing Jo Ann Lyons. This is a great statement and affirms our tradition of ordaining women into ministry. Some people think that this election will make a huge difference for our denomination. We shall see. I have some opinions about this… but I’ll reserve those for another post in the future.

All in all, Melissa and I had a fantastic time at conference! Barring any emergency… I will make it a point to be at all future General Conferences. We were able to connect with old friends and be refreshed for ministry in our personal context.