Today was a day of challenge and disappointment. It has taken me several hours to decide how to address this. So I will start with a couple of observations:

First, early in my ministry, I worked with a pastor who had suffered through a terrible time as pastor of a very unhealthy church. The church was what is commonly known as a clergy-killer, and his Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (personnel committee) routinely blamed him for everything wrong with the church. After he left that church, it was a friend of his who gave him a small plaque that he placed on a shelf in his office. It read: “For God so loved the world that he did not send a committee.”

The second thing that occurred to me today, as I witnessed the continued harm done to our LGBTQ brothers and sisters, was this simple truth as found in scripture: Jesus was crucified by a majority vote of those present and voting. I don’t say this as a diatribe, but I do believe that the majority doesn’t always get it right when it comes to justice for the “least of these.”

Background

It probably helps to have a bit of education of what happens in the General Conference. As I explained in my previous blog post, the General Conference adjourned as a plenary session yesterday and put on the hat of a legislative committee. That means that the work done today will be reported back to the plenary session tomorrow (which just so happens to be the exact same people who functioned as the legislative committee today but with slightly different rules).

Again, I know this sounds a bit strange, but Methodism isn’t for the faint of heart. Just because we saw something seemingly defeated today doesn’t mean that it is completely without hope tomorrow. As I told one of our members with whom I was texting today, supporters of the One Church Plan are on the ropes but not completely down.

The plan known as the Traditional Plan goes forward as the “preferred” plan of the legislative committee, but the plenary session still must address the other plans that were sent forward with the label “non-concurrence.” When a committee votes a petition or plan as “non-concurrence,” each of those plans may have a minority report. It is expected that the One Church Plan will have a minority report. It is also likely that a motion will be made to convert the minority report into the primary resolution. If that passes, then we could still adopt the One Church Plan.

The truth is, this scenario is unlikely given the opposition, especially from our African, Eastern Russian, and Asian delegates.

The plan known generally as the Traditional Plan will likely go forward … BUT the legislative committee voted to forward it to the Judicial Council (the church’s “supreme court”), who, it is anticipated, will find much of it to be unconstitutional. The teeth that the more conservative sisters and brothers would like to have in it will unlikely be enacted as legislation because of constitutional issues. The teeth I describe here come in the form of accountability and serious consequences for those who are LGBTQ clergy or those who otherwise act outside the parameters of the United Methodist Discipline.

Without those teeth, there are many who threaten to exit the denomination. That will still be a big topic for tomorrow’s work.

Today’s Blessing

Today, however, brought a blessing. As the body was considering the motion to refer all of its work to the Judicial Council for review of its constitutionality, a young man by the name of JJ Warren, took the floor to speak for the motion. He is a lay delegate from the Upper New York Annual Conference, and what he said brought me to my feet and then to my knees.

His speech (only 3 minutes long) was powerful. When the church has so often denied people their voices, it is a powerful thing when they find their voice. For those who did not hear it on the live feed, you can find it by clicking HERE.

After you have seen this, you will understand. All I can say is, “With Christ, all things are possible.” It is true … God loved us enough not to send us a committee.

For full information on the proceedings of the General Conference, click HERE.

The daily record of the General Conference is called the Daily Christian Advocate, and you may find it by clicking HERE.