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General Conference Briefing

West Ohio Delegation Leaders Briefed Last Week in Ft. Worth

With the 2008 General Conference less than ninety days away, the leaders of the West Ohio Conference delegation, and the conference communicator, attended a briefing last week to help them prepare for what could be a groundbreaking and grueling global event. 

See a full list of delegates. 

Rev. Greg Stover, clergy delegate from the Ohio River Valley, George Howard, lay delegate from Capital Area North, and Lisa Streight, WOC Director of Communications, spent three days preparing for and learning how to navigate the upcoming conference.  ...read more about the briefing agenda.

Rev. Stover, pastor at Armstrong Chapel UMC in Cincinnati, was a guest panelist during one of many presentations.  As designated by the 2004 General Conference, a task force  has been working on a new 2008 Social Creed, leading up to the 100th anniversary of the 1908 Social Creed.  Rev. Stover and some members of the task force presented the new creed to the delegates and communicators last week.  ...read more about the new social creed.

According to Rev. Stover, “the new social creed lifts up what we believe God values, inviting us to imagine what life will be like on earth and in heaven when God’s values are truly realized.  The creed is an end vision—we may not all agree on specific responses or plans to reach this vision, but the new social creed gives us something we can all say yes to.”

Attendees received updates on several other petitions coming to the floor as well as a tour of the conference arena.  Special presentations and panel discussions offered advice on what to expect at the upcoming conference, how to handle the press, and overviews of the four areas of focus: 

  1. Developing principled Christian leaders for the church and the world;
  2. Creating new places for new people by starting new congregations and renewing existing ones;
  3. Engaging in ministry with the poor;
  4. Stamping out killer diseases by improving health globally.

  ...read about the four areas of focus for the next quadrennium.

Communicators went to special sessions designed to help them prepare for news media and the use of technology at the conference.  The newsroom will have audio and video streaming available, along with RSS feeds, a daily news wrap up, areas for press interviews and work areas for communicators to send stories back to their conferences.  The Daily Christian Advocate will also report and print a daily news summary.

Delegation leaders went to special sessions on the "Guidelines for Holy Conferencing - What God Expects of Us" as a blueprint for conference conversations.  The guidelines are a set of 10 principles focusing on respect, civility and mutual understanding, as well as ensuring that diverse voices are heard in the consideration of legislation and resolutions.  John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, believed in the use of Holy Conferencing as an organizing and governing principle. As a method of discerning God's direction for the church, Holy Conferencing sets United Methodists apart from other organizations.  ...read more about holy conferencing.

To learn more about United Methodist General Conferences and what happens there, read General Conference 101.