Iowa annual Conference Report by LuAnn Benge

This past weekend, I attended the United Methodist Iowa Annual Conference for the very first time.  In all honesty, I was not sure what I should expect as made the journey down to Ames for this event.  Having been a Methodist for several years, I have heard many stories about the variety of situations that go on at Conference, and some of those stories were good and some not so good.

So, when I was asked by Varina to be their delegate to Annual Conference, I was excited to have the opportunity to experience this for myself.  I must say, it was an uplifting experience for me.  I did not feel down hearted or oppressed or even angry.  In fact, there were several moments throughout the conference, especially during the worship services when I felt spiritually uplifted.  It was a wonderful moment when we could all lay our differences of opinion aside and worship the Lord our God and honor Him with praise and singing.  It was a beautiful thing and I am glad I was there to be a part of it.

As always, we had several amendments to vote on this year.  I tend to not get too involved in the political side of our church, so I may not have grasped the full meaning of these amendments. However, I will do my best to explain them to you today.

In the United Methodist Church, we have a constitution, which is what our Book of Discipline is taken from.  So, whenever constitutional amendment is approved, then that means the Book of Discipline will be changed accordingly. 

The first amendment was one that, if approved, would allow anyone who came into the church and took that church’s membership vows to become a full member of the church and would have the right to work in the church such as the Sunday School or Youth Group leader.   In some ways, this is not a bad thing, but in some way it is, because it completely depends on the person who is taking the vows.  As an example, there is a church in our conference that is facing a very serious problem.  There is a couple who lives down the street from this church and they have three sons who are in their early to mid 20’s, I think.  All three of these young men are registered sex offenders and one of the men is coming to this church.  The pastor of this church is doing his best to work with this young man and allow him to come to church and worship the Lord.  At the same time, the pastor is also doing his best to work with the parents of children in that congregation, who have a certain level of fear in regard to this man.  At this point, they feel safe because the pastor has some control…meaning the pastor does not have to allow this man to become a member of the church if it means the church may not be safe….this deals with the safe sanctuary policy all United Churches are required to have in place.  However, if this amendment were to pass, then this young man could join the church and then request to be a Sunday School teacher or Youth Group leader and the pastor would be powerless to stop him. 

On this amendment, I think I can see both sides.  While I agree that our churches need to be safe and we need to have a level of security in place, I also believe in the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ.  We have all made mistakes and we have all fallen short of God’s glory.  Yes, some of us have fallen much harder than others, but we have all been there.  I believe that when Jesus took our place on that cross, he did not do it just for the good people in this world….He did it for all people in this world.  And, if a person who realizes where he or she went wrong in their life wants to come to church and get their lives right with God, then I am in favor of that.  I think about Paul, who was called by the Lord on the road to Damascus and became a powerful figure in Christianity, and Paul was a murderer of Christians prior to this. I can almost guarantee you there would have been some Christians who would not have wanted Paul at their Sunday School picnics!  But, at the same time, I can understand the other side of this and the fear some of the parents and children might have with such an offender sitting next to them in the pew.  But I think that pastor is handling this situation well and I feel that he is praying diligently for God’s guidance, as should we all where matters like this are concerned.  In our conference, this amendment was voted down.

There were several other amendments, but the next one I want to talk to you about is actually a group of amendments which some called the “segregation” amendments.  These amendments were suggesting that instead of having one general conference or world conference as we have now, we should separate ourselves from other countries, such as Europe and Africa and allow them to have their own conference, or regional conference, and we would have our regional conference.  Africa is becoming a powerful voice in the United Methodist Church.  Their churches are growing at a phenomenal rate.  In fact, there were several people at conference who made the statement “Africa is growing so well that perhaps they should be sending missionaries to the US, instead of us sending them to Africa”!  Some also commented that “Africa also holds true to the traditions of John Wesley, upon which the Methodist movement was based”.  I think it is important for us to hold onto our traditions and pass these on to our children.  In doing this, we would keep the United Methodist church alive.  If we were to separate ourselves from the other countries, then it would be the end of our church as we know it. 

But, even so, Africa does not want to be separated from the United States.  They want to be combined with us, as they feel this is best for them and for our church as a whole.  I think this is true as well.  Being together in one general conference is what makes us the United Methodist Church.  If we separate, in my opinion, we would need to be called something else.  These amendments were unanimously voted down, so it was the consensus of the conference that we should remain one general conference as well.

Other amendments dealt with local pastors being able to vote as well as the minimum number of delegates each annual conference is allowed to have.  And there were several legislative issues that dealt with budgets, etc.

Overall, I enjoyed the conference and I was satisfied with the way the voting went.  It is amazing to me the vast amount of diversity we have within our conference.  We have liberals and conservatives and let me tell you, I was inspired by the zeal with which each side defends its stance on what they believe and why they believe it. 

I had the opportunity to hear several people speak at conference, including the Bishop, Julias Tremble, Conference Lay Leader, Norma Morrison, the Conference Artist, Ted Lyddon Hadden and Dr. Wesley Daniel, who is the District Superintendent of the Central District.  Each of these individuals has different viewpoints.  For example, Ted Lyddon Hadden is a liberal, while Norma Morrison is a conservative.  They would not agree on much.  But, what they do agree on and what the common theme was throughout this conference is that God loves us.  He loves you. He loves me. He loves our neighbors. He loves the good and He loves the bad.  He extends his grace to all who will receive it.  We have the choice of choosing to receive his love or to reject it.  Unfortunately, there are some in this world who do not know God’s grace.  They don’t know of His love.  But, we can take Jesus to them.

However, in order to do this, we must first have Jesus in our lives.  He must be the ruler of our hearts in order for us to pass His love on.  In his sermon, Dr. Daniel said “You cannot give what you do not have.  That would be like trying to come back from somewhere you have never been”.  Isn’t this the truth?  If we do not have Jesus in our lives, how can we share him with others?  That would be impossible to do.

I know that we have our Book of Discipline for our church, and while I am fine with that, I have often mentioned to Carl that for my life, the Bible is the Book of Discipline that matters the most.  In this book, I have every guideline I will ever need for my life.  You have heard the question, “What would Jesus do?”  Well, this book tells me what Jesus would do.  It tells of his love, his life, his death and his resurrection.  What a joy is it to share this with others! 

In the Bishop’s sermon he noted that we have a choice in life; we can tell others about Jesus, or we can sit our lives out.  I don’t want us to “sit this one out”.  There are people here in this community, in this state, in this world who need a Savior, and may not even know it. We need to make disciples for Christ.  In fact, that is the mission statement of the United Methodist Church “The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world”. 

I feel that if we want people to come to church, God will give us the people. They may not be what we thought they would be, they may not look like we thought they would look, they may not have the backgrounds we wanted them to have, but He will give us the people.  In Matthew 7: 7-8 we are told to "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened”.

The fields are ripe for the harvest.  So, I pray that we can all take the mission of our church to heart and go forth and make disciples of Jesus Christ…and together, we can transform our world.    Amen.