UMC General Conference 2012: Amid Anxiety, Methodists Urged to Model Peace of Jesus

(UMNS Photo/Heather Hahn)Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, president of the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops.

With nearly 1,000 delegates of the United Methodist Church starting an 11-day General Conference on Tuesday and decisions about revitalizing the denomination causing anxiety in some, a leading Bishop's recent message urged Methodist leaders to overcome that by looking to Jesus Christ's example of peace in a time of adversity.

"There seems to be more apprehension swirling around this event than at any time in recent history," he said Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, President of the Council of Bishops, said in sermon to fellow bishops gathering in Tampa, Fla ahead of the quadrennial legislative conference last week.

"We will be making decisions of historic importance about structure and governance and decline and change and positions and principles and mission. Little wonder there is so much anxiety!"

The denomination's "Call to Action" last year came amid expected precipitous declines in membership due to an aging population and a recent financial crisis. Members have been called to grow vital congregations by making disciples of Christ, with some structural changes in the denomination requiring legislative changes being voted on in the coming weeks of the conference.

Goodpaster noted the delegates – a mix of elected laity and clergy - are being called to consider various issues.

- "We continue to have conversation about the role of our retired colleagues in the life of the Council, knowing that simply raising the question has caused divisions and created tensions.

- "We continue to work toward vital congregations and the mission of the church, knowing that not everyone is on the same page of what to measure, how to measure or even if we should measure!

- "We continue to think about how we lead the church as a "council" and whether a new way of organizing and reforming the Council (with or without a non-residential bishop as president) will lead boldly into the future."

To help overcome that anxiety, he called on bishops to extend the peace of Christ to their laity "as story tellers," noting that during the general conference "we do have the opportunity in many venues to tell the story, to remind this General Conference that the Gospel is the story that shapes us and redeems us and sends us into a world that has lost its story."

A second way to overcome that anxiety, he said was "by being a non anxious presence."

He noted Jesus exhibited that in a room filled with disciples after the Resurrection.

"He provided exactly what that fear-riddled room needed, a calm assurance of the promise that the had made before: I will be with you; I will not leave you."

"Notice the non-anxious Jesus does not reprimand Thomas, nor criticize him for his absence or his questions."

He said they also can overcome that anxiety "as those who reclaim John Wesley's vision of Christian conferencing."
He says Jesus did not lecture the disciples or scold them but "touched their hearts."

"They were renewed through the power of the resurrected Christ in their midst, a kind of holy conferring that transformed their lives," he said.

Copyright © 2013 Ecumenical News