Impressions from General Conference

It's interesting how many people I know or, at least, who are familiar to me this time around.  I was at Fort Worth and felt a little out of place--since I wasn't a delegate.  This time I am happy to be here in a support capacity and feel the energy. 

I  love connecting and re-connecting with some of the staff people I worked with last time.  These are the folks who make it all happen.  They have almost uniformly positive attitudes and servant hearts.  I am having fun people-watching and catching snippets of conversation here and there.  Mostly it's things like, "When did you get in?" "Do you know what room we are in?" "So good to see you again!" etc.  Some folks are already grouping and looking like they are having serious conversations, but most are just enjoying the day, the reconnecting, and the beautiful weather. 

Those of us who are working as Recorders or Transcribers (or both!) have had our training and the newbies are trying to pick the brains of those who have done this before.  Some of the trainees are looking a bit worried about what they have gotten themselves into. 

There are some very serious issues coming up in the next few days and a tremendous amount of work to be done.  The legislative committees don't even start to work until Thursday morning and have to be completely through by Saturday evening at 9:30.  As it stands now, whatever they don't get to just won't be gotten to.  There is no provision for staying until all the petitions have been looked at, so the committees will have to prioritize their work.  This is a new rule, so we are not sure what the effect will be, but as for now, that is the way it will be done.

Be praying for the delegates as they begin their work and the support staff as they try to provide a calm working environment and smooth process for the delegates.

The next 11 days will be challenging and could potentially have a great impact even on local congregations.  This afternoon, however, I am looking forward to opening worship.  I expect it to be inspiring and I am praying for an outburst of the Holy Spirit.  As I said in a reply to another blog:  "Even United Methodists can have a Pentecost!

Blessings from Tampa,
Martha