General Conference and General Motors

I was asked on Sunday the following:

Why do Methodists love their committees so much that they would gather for a full week of committess? It seems like that many Methodists could do good works and charity instead of sitting around and talking.

Indeed, the questioner is correct, we could take that week and thousands of people and do good works and acts of charity. But we wouldn’t be getting all the jobs done that are required of us as the Church of Jesus Christ…

How is that? To parallel why General Conference for the United Methodist Church matters, we have to compare it to another General: General Motors, that is.

It’s been said that the car company General Motors has two jobs.

• The obvious one? To make cars.
• The other one? To be a company.

This car company has to focus not only on getting cars made, but also how to conduct themselves and interact as a company of people dedicated to Job #1.

We could then say that the Christian church United Methodist Church is like that. We also have two jobs.

• The obvious one? To make disciples of Jesus Christ.
• The other one? To be a church together.

This Christian church focuses not only on creating disciples, but every four years we come together and decide how to conduct ourselves and interact as a fellowship of believers dedicated to Job #1.

May we these next two weeks come to a working arrangement and a grace-filled polity as we work on Job #2 in order to better pursue Job #1.