General Conference Begins: Can the UMC be put to good use?

Can we be molded into a shape that is of use to God and our world?

Glass-blowing and faith

Across the street from First United Methodist Church of Seattle is the Chihuly Museum of Glass, which houses amazing works of art, boats, chandeliers, bowls, glasshouses, garden flowers, you name it…all made with blown glass by artist Dave Chihuly.  

I attended a glassblowing demonstration where some of their artisans stuck molten glass on the end of poles, heated them up, and then inflated them with air, forming them into amazing shapes like the ones on this blog post. The key is heat. Heat is important to artists: whether you are sculpting iron in Africa, swords in Japan, clay bowls by native peoples in the southwest USA, or casting bronze in China, heat is an essential component for those types of artistry.

One of the artisans said when the glass is hot, it can become anything and as it cools down, it limits what we can do with it. If you are making the molten glass ball turn into something useful, you have to act when it is hot. The artisan shared a meaningful sentiment: when things cool down, they become limited; while they are hot, the options are endless. 

A Hot Fortnight

United Methodists are a people with a hot passion for the Gospel. Our original ancestors were deplored by locals for singing too loudly, and our founder John Wesley “became more vile” by preaching in fields rather than stuffy Anglican pulpits. Our worldwide faith is filled with meaningful, diligent liturgy in some areas and loud, rambunctious Pentecostal experiences in others.

And so it is little wonder that contemporary United Methodists choose an intense 10 days to do meaningful sculpting of our common life: writing our polity and upholding our doctrine at the General Conference, which begins as of this writing on April 23rd, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.

We have to strike while the glass is hot. Artisans recognize that glass can become anything when it is hot. Likewise, when things are still in flux, when our brains have plasticity, when United Methodist people of faith gather together, we can mold our common life into something useful. We have limited time until the glass hardens and we are stuck with what we have…for four more years at least.

Our common hope for those centered on the health and wellness of worldwide United Methodism is that we seize the moment and mold United Methodism–through hot topics and heated conversations and warm rooms–into a shape that is useful.

Crafting a Useful Shape

There are almost 1100 petitions, which, in small and large ways, shape United Methodist polity and doctrine. Most of them will be considered in smaller legislative committees with 30-80 delegates each, and the majority placed on “consent calendars” because of their high support or rejection. The big topics will have floor debates because they can significantly impact the church and transform it into either a useful shape or a leaky vase that is of no good use.

There are early signs that United Methodism is ready to be molded into a better shape, with favorable takes on worldwide regionalization by a critical body (more details as they are officially reported later) and incredible organizing energy from a progressive and centrist coalition that has reached alignment on a lot of topics. After a season of shameful disaffiliations and the effects of the disastrous 2019 General Conference and the global pandemic, United Methodists seem ready to be a renewed church, though we won’t know until the closing bell.

But there are also impurities in the system. Glass-blowers and metalworkers heat up their craft not only to shape it, but so that impurities can be identified and removed. Likewise, bad actors at General Conference can slow down the proceedings, misdirect conversations, and sabotage relationships. These can freeze our process and have the fortnight fizzle with us stuck with a shape that is of no use. The bad actors would celebrate this broken outcome because they can bank on discontentment to exit more people and property from United Methodism.

So pay attention this week, whether on the ground in Charlotte or on the curated livestream, to what actions warm us towards each other with the hope of crafting a meaningful common life together…and what actions seek to slow us down and freeze us out of a future with hope.

We are in a moment like blown glass, heated up, fired up, and the potential directions we can go are immeasurable. My hope is that we end up creating something useful to God to transform the world through making disciples of Jesus Christ.

Keep up with General Conference

If you want daily proceedings and commentary these two weeks, try these channels for my perspective:

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@umjeremy
• Mos Eisley (Twitter): https://www.twitter.com/umjeremy
• WhatsApp Channel: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaVOzjSG8l57OHKHA22o

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