2008 North Texas Annual Conference

Hello!

I have just gotten back from the 2008 North Texas Annual Conference. This year's conference was good and uneventful, which is not the worst thing in the world! We had several productive moments, legislatively speaking. The conference endorsed (with minor amendments) a statement from MARCHA regarding discrimination against Latin American and Hispanic Americans as well as another piece regarding the current current environment created by our country's immigration woes.

One of the best parts of conference for me is catching up with my colleagues. In nearly every annual conference, somewhere near the beginning of the conference they will sing Charles Wesley's hymn "And Are We Yet Alive."

Here are two stanza's from Wesley's hymn:

And are we yet alive, and see each other's face?
Glory and thanks to Jesus give for his almighty grace!

Preserved by power divine to full salvation here,
again in Jesus' praise we join, and in his sight appear.

What troubles have we seen, what mighty conflicts past,
fightings without, and fears within, since we assembled last.

It was always something of a wonder in the early days of the American Methodist Church when conference came to see who, in fact, was still alive. The ministry was then (and in different ways still is) very dangerous. The average life expectancy of a Methodist Circuit Rider was three years in the early days of the American Methodists. If they didn't get killed on the circuit by natural causes they would often die of "unnatural causes." This year was the third year that I knew several of deceased pastors and spouses. Thankfully, most of them died of old age. Unfortunately, that trend will only go up as the average age of Methodist clergy is 52 years of old. As a 30 year old, I'm afraid my odds of witnessing many of them passing is pretty high.

We need more young clergy in the worst way.

On that front, our conference has placed The Rev. Dr. Andy Stoker in charge of recruitment, which is a glorious and blessed choice! Dr. Stoker is a man of great faith, incredible intellect and great passion for doing the work of God. Plus, he's young! The more candidates for ordained ministry he can come into contact with the better!