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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Glimpsing the future at annual conference Andrew C. Thompson, Jun 27, 2007
Andrew C. Thompson
By Andrew C. Thompson Special Contributor
Most delegates to annual conference experience a conference-within-a-conference.
There is the annual conference session itself, with its reports, awards, worship and debates. All delegates are a part of that: from the more exciting parts like the ordination service, to the less-so like the seemingly endless litany of reporting from committees and organizations.
But then there is the conference you really want to attend. It includes seeing old friends and joining in impromptu conversations about the life of the church. It involves using your time away from the everyday routine to think creatively about ministry. And it involves hoping, really hoping, for the future of the Methodist people.
This conference-within-a-conference is called to mind each year when clergy and laity gather to sing the great Charles Wesley hymn, "And Are We Yet Alive?" Even with the bureaucracy that creeps in at the annual conference session, there is still real excitement at being together once again.
My own conference-within-a-conference took place over an eight-hour span on the Monday of the Arkansas annual conference session. It began when the bishop invited the new clergy who would be ordained and commissioned later in the week to stand before the conference for recognition.
As 21 men and women made their way to the front of the room, one word popped into my head: "reinforcements."
With all the talk about declining numbers of clergy -- especially young clergy -- it was encouraging to see so many who were answering the call to ministry in our conference. And most of those 21 faces were young faces, another sign of hope.
Later that same evening, close to 30 Gen-X clergy, seminary students and spouses gathered for a meal to discuss the future of the church. The meal itself has become an annual event for us, but this year, it was followed by an outdoor, Spirit-led worship service that lasted late into the night.
Over and over at this Gen-X gathering, we kept coming back to the question of how we might become the church we believe God wants us to be.
We know that our culture has generally become less hospitable for the church in the last 40 years. The wailing and gnashing of teeth over the UMC's declining numbers can become a distraction, but it does offer one instructive example: Society at large has become post-Christian; the church is no longer a "given" for most people.
So numbers decline because people don't feel compelled to be Christians. Nor do they feel compelled to raise their kids as Christians. My generation is living in the midst of this cultural sea change. And those gathered at the Gen-X dinner deeply want to do something about it.
We cannot have a Christian society, despite nostalgic desires for something that never quite existed in the first place. But we can at least work toward having a Christian church. And no, that term is not redundant.
Here's what was exciting to me about my conference-within-a-conference: I think I saw my generation starting to embody the church God wants us to be during that eight-hour period.
When 21 mostly young men and women answer the call to ministry by pledging their fidelity to God and the church, the church is renewed. When 30 Gen-X'ers gather to talk passionately about the future of their church over a shared meal, the church is renewed. When believers gather to sing praises to God late into the night, the church is renewed.
Acts 2 says that after the first converts to the church were baptized they "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
I saw all those elements of the apostolic church on that day -- right there in the middle of an annual conference!
The key will be what we do between now and next year. How will we stay connected, and how will we continue to commit ourselves to more intentional Christian living?
Andrew C. Thompson
