By Steve Schlichter
[July Spirit, Crystal Springs UMC of San Mateo]

July 19, 2006

As your lay representative to the Annual Conference, it is my duty to spend about three days there in the middle of June. The Conference is a mixture of worship, celebration, taking stock, legislation, and socializing -- the latter often the best part.

The bad news is that the larger Church continues to decline in number of churches, in attendees at worship, and in money coming into the Conference with many churches not paying full apportionments. We voted to close three churches this year. I heard little agonizing over why this is happening, even though it is clear that the Conference worries about this. Perhaps they do not want to face the answers.

Now, I am no expert on why churches decline, but it is clear to me that whatever we are doing we are not giving the Word in a manner that is relevant to the public or to those leaving the church. Some would say it is the liberal bent of the church. While the church does lean that way, I am not convinced that is the reason.

One of the good features of the Conference is hearing the success stories of churches that are making a difference to their congregations and to their community. Some have great missions. The Conference program VIM, Volunteers in Mission, has recently been sending teams to Mississippi and Louisiana to clean up messes from Katrina. Several people from there came to thank the Conference and to share their stories of the hardships faced.

In 2002 our church sponsored a resolution called "Just War and Terrorism," which was passed. Unfortunately, the requirements of this resolution were ignored. I am in the process of trying to carry it out with the help of willing folks. Our first item of business is to gather the names of all the Methodist service men and women in our Conference who have served recently or who are on active duty, and then publish their names on the Conference website.

I was impressed this time with the quality of the dramas in the worship services. Usually their message is very vague and the actors under-rehearsed. Such was not the case this time.

One of the celebrations was the 50th anniversary of full rights for women pastors. The drama and several of the testimonials of the difference they have made in the life of the church were very good. However, I did not see the relevance of five 14-foot puppets of women pastors which were paraded around.

The resolutions this time were the usual, except for some of the administrative ones. The one to change the pension plan to make each church pay the full cost of their pastors' pension was defeated. Not sure this was the right choice, but it would have cost us another $2,000 per year.

One of the main subjects of resolutions was gay rights. Proponents are preparing the way for the General Conference of 2008, where California-Nevada hopes to give the gay community more rights. Other resolutions were against the death penalty, against Israel, against global warming, and against the war in Iraq. You will be pleased to know the Methodist church is for peace. Don't get me started on what their definition means. The sorry part is that no one will listen to what we say. Their way of engaging an issue is a guarantee of failure. Somehow, many of these resolutions assume that our government, big business, etc., is at fault for the ills of the world. Repressive regimes are rarely cited. Nor are reasonable solutions suggested.

Last year our church proposed, and had passed, a resolution to require that the Conference publish an annual report updating the results of any passed resolutions. The report was published, but the updates were basically useless. Very few details could be found.

After seven Conferences, as usual, I saw the better side along with the ineffective side of the Methodist Church.