The following is a summary of some of the legislation from General Conference that is of special interest to evangelicals, along with some comments.

General Conference is over—that we know.  General Conference actually ended on Friday, May 2, as scheduled, beating the midnight clock.  That is good.  What is not so good is that in the rush to the end numbers of...

RACE TO THE FINISH

AN EXHAUSTING DAY

SEVEN DOWN AND THREE TO GO

Running The Gauntlet

THE JUDICIAL COUNCIL, RESOLUTIONS, AND LEGISLATION

THE LORD’S DAY AT GENERAL CONFERENCE

We are now in the third day of General Conference.  We have worshiped together, shared communion together (twice), spoken at length of good things happening in the church, and spoken to numbers of people in the...

So far, so good!  With a massed choir, pomp and ceremony, and references to transforming the world for Christ, the 2008 United Methodist General Conference opened at Fort Worth Wednesday evening (April 23).  About 6,500...

For almost all United Methodist churches it is assumed that persons who serve on church staffs should be Christian believers.  It is difficult to be in ministry in the name of Jesus Christ if some on the ministry team do not...

The single most important decision facing the 2008 General Conference (GC) may be the election of Judicial Council members.  GC must elect two lay and three clergy for eight-year terms. 

Why is this so...

It is hard to believe that one pastor's decision in Virginia about the meaning of membership would suddenly plunge the UMC into a possible constitutional crisis.  A man attending Rev. Ed Johnson's church desired to become a...

THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURNS

If church growth were to be measured by the number of resolutions a denomination passes United Methodism would long since have passed Southern Baptists, Roman Catholics, and everyone else in...

For the past twenty years The United Methodist Hymnal  (UMH) has served as a source of unity within United Methodism.  Despite a number of divisive forces at work in the denomination there have not been  major...

Perhaps no other issue before the 2008 General Conference has the potential to impact the future of United Methodism more than the report and the proposed legislation from the Task Force on the Global Nature of the Church....

When the Judicial Council upheld the bishop’s decision that a transgender pastor (Rev. Ann Gordon of Baltimore-Washington Conference who became Rev. Drew Phoenix) remains eligible to serve a church, it presented United Methodism...

What shall be done with the Ministry Study?  The study takes up 32 pages in the DCA and represents lots of time and money and energy.  The hope was that after many other study commissions and years of discussing how...

The Council of Bishops and the Connectional Table are asking General Conference to consider separating U.S. United Methodists organizationally from United Methodists in other parts of the world. (See the proposals on p. 437...

1)    HOMOSEXUALITY

(Five different legislative groups, mostly Church and Society)Despite the fact that numbers of groups have indicated that homosexuality is not the most important issue before the 2008 General...

A petition before General Conference that was introduced simultaneously in a number of annual conferences would add a clause to para. 214 in the Discipline stating that no person shall be excluded from the United Methodist Church...

In October, 2007, at a conference in Memphis, the Rev. Jerry Kulah delivered an unforgettable message to the United Methodist Church.  Rev. Kulah is the District Superintendent of the Monrovia District in Liberia.  His...

The Council of Bishops has submitted a petition to General Conference that would change the mission statement of our denomination.  Currently paragraph 120 of our 2004 Book of Discipline declares simply that "The Mission of...

A General Conference petition to expand the mission of the church would add the words “for the transformation of the world…” so that the mission statement would read: The purpose of the annual conference is to make disciples of...

One of the intriguing proposals before General Conference asks for a new Committee on Faith and Order which while functioning with the authority of an independent committee would nevertheless reside under the auspices of the...

The audited financial statements of our United Methodist general boards and agencies present some interesting information.  As of the end of 2006, our general boards and agencies had unrestricted net assets of over $292...

Bishops and others working with General Conference are to be commended for urging a new tone of civility in the debates leading up to and during General Conference.   In a nation where political, social and religious...

The General Board of Church and Society will ask you at General Conference to replace the current Social Creed (paragraph 166) with a new one (P. 197 of Volume 2 of the advance DCA).  There is nothing wrong with the new...

The single most important decision facing delegates to the 2008 General Conference may be the election of Judicial Council members.  General Conference must elect two lay and three clergy for four-year terms.

Until...

The appeals have gone out that civil discourse and holy conferencing prevail at the 2008 General Conference, and that the conference not get bogged down on controversial issues that might divide us—like homosexuality.  The...

Within the next week each delegate to General Conference will receive a copy of a new book entitled, "Reclaiming the Wesleyan Social Witness: Offering Christ."  I reviewed a galley copy several months ago and commend this...

One of the fears that some American United Methodists seem to have with the growing membership and influence of the Africans is that African presence will one day work to re-prioritize the way United Methodist programs are set...

The amount apportioned for the Ministerial Education Fund (MEF) in the 2005-2008 quadrennium was over $113 million dollars.  The average UM seminary is receiving over $1 million per year from this fund.  Yet, we have a...

 One of the intriguing pieces of legislation that will be before the General Conference would amend para. 334 so that “guaranteed appointment” for pastors would no longer be a right but a privilege.  ...

As the cost of seminary education grows more and more, graduates face ministry with burdensome debt.   One report indicates that a year at Chandler is now costing in the $30,000 range. 

This was never supposed...

One of the most divisive issues facing society, as well as the church, is the issue of abortion.  While many people, on either side of the abortion issue, would like for the Social Principles to state more firmly either a...

As Yogi Berra would say, "It's going to be deja vu all over again."  The General Board of Church and Society (GBCS) will attempt to remove from the Discipline any critical language regarding homosexual activity.  In...

The United Methodist Church has had a proud history of supporting marriage.  Our denomination has celebrated Christian Home Month, Mother's Day, Marriage Encounter, and Marriage Enrichment.  We have preached against...

As usual, abortion will be a major issue at the upcoming General Conference.  The official UM standard (par. 161J of the 2004 Book of Discipline) declares that "our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us...

Much has been spoken and written about the crisis in ministerial recruitment.  For numbers of people, evangelicals and others, a major part of the problem has to do not just with the confusing and in many ways demeaning...

Members of the 2008 General Conference will be asked to accept a new version of the Social Creed for the denomination.

The very first version of the Social Creed (for any denomination) was adopted by the Methodist Episcopal...

The United Methodist Church is changing!  The liberal dominated Western

Jurisdiction has lost about half its membership, even though it includes

some of America's fastest growing states, like California and Arizona. ...