Legislative Committees and Holy Conferencing

Much of my last three days has been spent as a Marshal serving legislative committees of the General Conference.  I have served Judicial Administration, Superintendency, and Church and Society 2 (CS2).  As I posted below, much of the work of General Conference is done in legislative committees as they take the thousands of petitions, sort through them, sometimes accept them, sometimes reject them, sometimes bundle or acceptance or rejection, and in a process where the committee breaks into sub-committees to look at the petitions, to read every petition and give each its due.

It is hard and difficult work.  The delegates must talk to each other to create not just a legislative or political consensus.  What they are trying to do is to do Holy Conferencing, where the Holy Spirit is part of the process and each person's contribution is valued and appreciated.  

The delegates must do this around all the hot-button issues, with visitors, who are concerned about outcomes watching and taking notes.  The hope is  for both the delegates and visitors to find a way to live in community together and this has happened in many cases.

The interesting thing about Holy Conferencing, not just in legislative committees, not just at General Conference, is that it is what the church ought to be about, at every level, from individual Bible Study right up to General Conference Plenary.  So why aren't we?

It relates to what I have experienced so far.   A lot of what happens here is vitally important to the life of the local church.  The relevance of all of General Conference, from worship to plenary to committees to celebrations does have a place in the life of the local church.  Whether or not it gets there has to do with those of us who are here and our attitude towards General Conference.  Either we believe it is our personal and private experience; or it is the celebration of the Church of Jesus Christ, alive in the world, the future of hope.

Maybe power of Holy Conferencing is bigger than cell phones and maybe it is the whole church reaching out to all the church!

Today, I will be serving in the visitors area, so it should be an easy day for me, after two extremely late nights of counting votes and delegates in CS2.