CONFERENCE MEANS TOGETHER [Sun, 6-30-24]

BEYOND WINTER: Irrelevant Musings of an Old Man—CONFERENCE MEANS TOGETHER [Sun, 6-30-24]

 

There wasn’t much question about who our pastors will be next year, at St. Mark’s Above the Smiling Teeth. [1] Our bishop reappointed Jimmy and Mary Beth for another year. No surprise. The Methodist method of appointing pastors these days works on the principle of, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Of course, some breaks occur, and the bishop has to make an appointment to fix them. Pastoral vacancies occur because preachers retire or take sabbatical or medical leave or take a different job. Sometimes a preacher and a congregation need a change because they just don’t work well together any more.

It used to be that the bishop moved every pastor every two or three years. Keep preachers and congregations on their toes. Also, if a congregation got a preacher who didn’t fit, they knew they could relax. That one would be traded in for a newer model next Annual Conference.

Not any more. No moving to a new place every June. Not enough preachers for that. For several years, conferences have been retiring 8 preachers for every new one ordained. If the church is satisfied, let sleeping congregations… well, sleep.

The annual conferences of the United Methodist Conferences recently concluded. Even in my early days of “conferencing,” the highlight of the week was the very last thing, when the bishop read out the appointments for the next year. It was the highlight because you didn’t know until you heard your name where you would be preaching in the next conference year. Now the reading of the appointments is pro forma. Everybody knows who is going where.

The double use of “conference” is a bit confusing. An Annual Conference is a get-together, for a few days--for worship, and business, of all the congregations and church institutions within a particular geographical area, and appointing the pastors for the next conference year.

The word “Conference” by itself means all the stuff the church is and does within a particular geographical area. For instance, I am a clergy member of The Illinois Great Rivers Conference, which is the whole state south of I-80. Above I-80, it’s the North Illinois Conference.

The annual conferences were far more congenial than in recent years because most of the folks opposed to including gays have “disaffiliated” and were not there. Exclusion/inclusion is almost always the hottest topic for any church group, be it people or doctrines or methods.

From the time of John Wesley on [1700s], there have been annual conferences, getting together to worship and encourage one another. Until 1939, they were called “the annual conference of preachers.” Lay “delegates” or “members” became part of the annual meetings in 1939, when The Methodist Protestant [1], Methodist Episcopal [ME], and ME South denominations merged into The Methodist Church. [TMC]

The ministry has always been a strangely lonely profession, especially in the early days in America when circuit riders were out on their own, far distant from any of their “brethren of the cloth.” When Methodism was just a movement of preachers and congregations, the preachers needed to get together on their own, to worship together and to encourage one another. Thus, the annual conferencing.

But by 1939, the denominations had started orphans’ homes [because of the great flu epidemic of 1918], hospitals, colleges, seminaries, publishing houses, campgrounds. The denominations needed to do business as well as fellowshipping at those annual meetings. Those institutions were too important to be left to preachers alone. So, the advent of Lay Members.

In these days when it is popular to say, “I am spiritual without being religious,” it is important to remember that spirituality on your own, without others, is narcissistic, not spiritual. The church is where the spirits—lay and clergy--gather to be spiritual. Conferencing.

John Robert McFarland

1] St. Mark’s UMC in Bloomington, IN is located on the hill above Buccetto Pasta & Pizza. “Buccetto” means “smiling teeth.”

2] The MP Church did already have lay delegates at annual conferences.