Review of 2012 General Conference Highlights-Part 2

Welcome back to Lift Up Christ and our continued review of The 2012 General Conference of The United Methodist Church!

The old secular phrase is that beauty is in the eye of the ‘beholder’. What one believes is a ‘highlight’ may not be what another agrees is a highlight. Many changes took place with budgets, new people elected to various church leadership positions, including the election of Bishop Rosemarie Wenner from Germany as President of the Council of Bishops. She is the first female Bishop elected from the Central Conferences. As important as the changes in church structure are-even more important is the issue of spiritual transformation.

Christ calls each of us to see highlights in the light of transformation by The Holy Spirit. So as GC unfolded between April 24-May 4th I asked-”O God show me highlights that reveal Your transforming power within people”. I lift up these following examples as highlights that illustrate Spiritual Transformation:

1. Over the last four years the United Methodist worldwide has started twelve new churches each month for a total of 610 churches increasing the worldwide membership of The UMC to over thirteen million members;

2. There are over 1730 seminarians in United Methodist seminaries; and at this GC a new line in the world service apportionment includes five million dollars for theological education in Africa and a new line includes seven million dollars for the same in the USA. This is hopefully about not just educating ‘church’ leaders, but the Holy Spirit creating ‘spiritual Christ centered‘ leaders for tomorrow;

3. To date The UMC has raised $20.2 million to support the denomination’s Imagine No Malaria campaign and has made a significant impact in hundreds of thousands of lives. Last GC in Dallas/ Fort Worth malaria claimed a life every 30 seconds. Now four years later this “Nothing but Nets” effort has reduced the death rate from malaria to one life every 60 seconds;

4. We the UMC have continued to work with the poor of the world in all kinds of anti-poverty programs. In fact a good number of new congregations within the UMC family come from very poor countries.

The United Methodist Church worldwide is to be commended for its ministry to the physical needs of the world’s peoples. Yet the startling spiritual reality is that we can help save people from malaria and a host of other social evils, yet without knowing Jesus Christ as Savior, possibly the same people end up in hell. Yes ministering to physical needs is absolutely part of the Gospel mandate; yet we are not just a social club, we are to share the news that salvation is only found in Jesus Christ (Acts 4:12).

For me the highlights were not as much in the numbers, or system changes, or new spiritual leaders but in the reality that once again GC maintained a Christ Centered Holy Spirit Focus on the Wesleyan basics of personal piety and scriptural holiness. After a lot of debate and prayer the delegates voted to maintain scriptural holiness on a whole slew of important issues. From my time four years ago at GC in Texas, I sense now four years later that praise God there is an increased biblical literacy among the delegates of GC.

The second major highlight of this GC is that the worldwide UMC is still in spiritual unity! Yes parts of the UMC body are not happy with certain votes that were taken but the fact is that the delegates sensed that they have more in common then they have in differences. The emphasis on making disciples for Jesus Christ is spiritually reawakening our denomination’s spiritual roots. Let me illustrate.

During GC everyone was treated to some outstanding spiritual artwork in the foyer of the massive convention hall. One of the images created by the young artist was that of a powerful spiritualimage in that of a butterfly. A sign of spiritual transformation; a reminder of Jesus’ Resurrection. What do you notice though about this image? Look closely. You notice that the right wing of this beautiful creature is almost severed. My interpretation is that this creature is wounded and almost not capable of flying-but praise God it is still flying despite its wounded condition. As I was photographing this I heard a couple next to me discussing. They had delegate name tags on. One said to the other “what’s with the broken wing on the butterfly?”. The other responded: “Oh that’s the UMC in the western jurisdiction.” Ouch, oops.

For me though the top highlight throughout GC, was the visibility of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Whether it was in worship at Hyde Park United Methodist Sunday April 29th, or the ending of GC, it was the cross that captured my heart and soul. Now the cross is not new to any of us but in a post modern culture where there is no such thing as absolute truth, the cross is as controversial as ever. For some the cross is nothing more than an image of male testosterone gone wild, an image some would say that does not depict the atonement of Christ for the sins of the world but just a sign of violence. Yet the cross where GC gathered I would like to believe communicated to most of the people a symbol of the crucified Lamb of God Jesus Christ-The one and only Savior of the world.

Isn’t it comforting to know that everything shall pass away with time, but the cross and Jesus Christ are the same yesterday, today, and forever!

Stay tuned. Tomorrow..it’s about the disappointments of The 2012 General Conference! Blessings to you and yours!

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The above post was written by the Rev. John Hunsberger. Hunsberger serves as Pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ritzville, Washington. You can read more of his reflections on the 2012 General Conference at his blog linked below.