Monday night was United Methodism class again and once again it was an opportunity to be stretched and forced to face some realities as well. We were talking about our founder’s (John Wesley) understanding of Christian conferencing as a means to get closer with God. Our modern Charge Conference (local church annual meetings) and Annual Conference (big meeting of United Methodist in a local region) have their origins in the idea of Christian conference- I say origin because when the class pressed me a bit about what Christian conference is really like, I said the class we were sitting in much more so than what happens most of the time in big “business” meetings where theology and mission are words used but the focus is getting the business done.

I was more than pleasantly surprised by Charge Conference this year. (I might add that so were all of the members who came to Charge Conference!) We did a grouped conference with three other churches roughly our size. We worshiped together, had 5 minutes of business, and shared ideas that had worked in our congregations so that we might learn from one another. We came away energized and encouraged by the ideas and work of ministry in other churches and our own. If that is the future of Charge Conference, then I have more hope for the revival of Christian conference in United Methodist circles than I did before.

To be fair, I think Christian conference is easier to make happen on a smaller scale, in a local congregation when people debate and discern God’s direction and discover new truths about faith they had not seen. Get 50, 100, 3000 people in a room together and it’s hard to do much but read reports and celebrate Robert’s Rules of Order. Of course, God can work in anything, in any place. Re-learning Wesley’s approach to ministry and his principles which guided the founding of the Methodist Church can help to keep us honest and perhaps remind us of who we are and can be as God’s people in the world who have chosen to be called United Methodists.