A Devotion for a Family Meeting

As many of you may know (and many others may also not), a Special Session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church begins this Saturday, February 23 and runs through the 25th in St. Louis, Missouri. The purpose will be to receive and act on a report from the Commission on a Way Forward, authorized to examine paragraphs in The Book of Discipline (which outlines the law, doctrine, administration, organizational work and procedures of The United Methodist Church) concerning human sexuality and to explore options to strengthen church unity.

I bring this to you, my staff, knowing that many of you are United Methodist Church members or attendees, and that some of you find your church home in other denominations. But the work of Disaster Recovery that we do is marked by the cross and flame, the emblem of the people called United Methodists. Though it may seem like this Conference and other legislative/business of the church dealings doesn’t impact your daily work and lives, it’s important information. I think it’s imperative that we know what is happening within the denomination that we represent – the business of the family, if you will.

And it’s important that we know what’s going on, not so that we can bicker or choose sides, but so that we can continue to be people of prayer, people of mercy, and people of grace.

Our clients may not know what’s going on in the business of the family of the UMC. They may not care to know. And within our staff, I know there are a wide range of opinions and hopes for what will happen at this Conference and what the future of the denomination should look like.

I trust that we can remain united in the main thing: our main task and central role is to make real the love of God as we help to empower lives, families and communities in their disaster recovery.

Whatever the outcome of GC 2019 is, whatever plan passes or does not pass, on February 27th, we will all wake up and continue the work of recovery, the work of God’s Kingdom, the work that we are not left alone to do. Whatever the future holds, as Wesley said,

“The best of all is God is with us.”

I leave you today with a prayer written by a lay person in our conference who offers this prayers for the upcoming General Conference gathering. Let our prayers rise to the God who created each of us, and who calls us each beloved:

(written by Rachael Sumner, Associate District Lay Leader FLUMC AC District)

Almighty God, Creator of all things, in times of uncertainty, You provide certainty. You are the One we can turn to and depend upon to calm the waves. We find ourselves in an anxious place, and the resolution is unknown to us at these times.

We lean into You, Father, asking for Your wisdom as we seek to work out our differences and determine the best way to proceed as a church. We pray for Your Holy Spirit to breathe a fresh wind into the General Conference and into Your church inspiring us in ways only You can.

Please help us all to put away any preconceived notions of what we might think to be the best path and to earnestly seek Your will. May we build relationships and seek ways to live with and love one another that is pleasing to You.

And may the result of this time together build up the mission of transforming the world through the love of Your son, Jesus.

AMEN