The details

The 2002 Annual Conference Session was a time of "repentance and reconciliation," with particular focus on the repudiation of race-related sin.

> Tuesday, June 11

The annual gathering of delegates from North Georgia's United Methodist congregations began Tuesday afternoon with a Communion service. Dr. Gil Watson, pastor at Northside UMC in Atlanta, reminded the more than 2,000 delegates that although they may have come from diverse backgrounds, they meet at a common table: the table of Jesus Christ.

In a show of support for our military, and in recognition of the important role of the chaplaincy program in the military services, North Georgia Bishop Lindsey Davis called on United Methodist chaplains to lead opening prayers for each of the Conference business sessions.

At the start of Tuesday afternoon's session, Chaplain (Col.) John Brinsfield asked that God would "[b]e with the 200,000 men and women of our armed forces who serve today in difficult and dangerous places.... Grant that their sacrifices of themselves, their futures, their families, and sometimes their lives may lead to a lasting peace."

Given world events since September 11, 2001, the traditional opening hymn -- "And Are We Yet Alive?" -- took on a new poignancy:

Augusta Mayor Bob Young, an Episcopalian, welcomed the delegates to the "Garden City" and called on them to be active in advancing the Kingdom of God in the places where they live and work. "I challenge you, when you go back to your community, back to your neighborhood, see what the needs are there and see what you can do to contribute to being a builder of the Kingdom of heaven in your town."

Mayor Young

The mayor, who during his term of office has held a series of discussions aimed at improving race relations in Augusta, read an official proclamation supporting United Methodist efforts toward racial healing and harmony:

"With the United Methodist Church providing leadership on this important issue, we can truly become one nation under God. The City of Augusta supports your mission and encourages our citizens to pray for your success."

Laity report
Later Tuesday afternoon, the Conference Board of Laity presented the Laity Report, which included details about a new leadership training program, Leadership UMC, which will identify and train 48 new leaders in the Conference each year.

The report also featured information about the new Lay Revitalization Team program. Board member James Smith said the program would help "the people called Methodist... reclaim our history and our heritage. We were at one time the greatest soul-saving movement on the face of the earth -- and we want to see that happen again."

As part of the Laity Report, Joe Kilpatrick, president of the North Georgia Conference United Methodist Men (UMM), said the UMM is focusing on "the conversion of men" and "their movement into holiness, so that we can correct some of the disorder that we find in society."

Joe Whittemore

He noted the creation of the Pathmakers program, aimed at building effective men's ministry in the local church, "including involving men in small group participation."

In concluding the Laity Report, Conference Lay Leader Joe Whittemore thanked Bishop Davis for his emphasis on the role of the laity in ministry.

"I have never known anyone, lay or clergy, who has more of a heart for laity involvement than our bishop," he said.

New structure
Approval of a proposal for improving the Conference's ministry structure rounded out the first business session. The new structure (see chart here) replaces the 30-year-old Conference Council on Ministries with new Office of Connectional Ministries that will coordinate four ministry program teams: Advocacy, Witness, Outreach, and Nurture.

Also created under the new structure is the Vision Forum, responsible for articulating a vision for ministry to guide the Conference.

The new structure is to be fully implemented by July 2004.

'Pentecostal Pilgrims'
Bishop Ernest Lyght of the New York Annual Conference preached the Tuesday evening ordination service, at which 29 clergy were ordained as full elders and three as deacons. In a sermon titled, "Pentecostal Pilgrims," he declared that the empowering work of the Holy Spirit is essential for truly effective ministry.

"The Holy Spirit is the fire that burns up the dross in the believer's life and ignites him or her for God," he preached. "We need Pentecostal pilgrims in the United Methodist Church," Bishop Lyght said, asking clergy and laity alike, " Have you been baptized by the Holy Spirit?"

After the sermon, Bishop Lindsey Davis inquired of the ordinands, "Are you persuaded that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain all things necessary for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, and are the unique and authoritative standard for the Church's faith and life?"

As part of the liturgy, he also charged them to uphold the "doctrine and discipline" of the United Methodist Church, and to commit themselves to accountability within the Church.

In his prayer for the new elders, Bishop Davis asked God to give them "the grace and power they need to serve You in ministry."

> Wednesday, June 12

Wednesday morning opened with enthusiastic praise led by Dr. Lisa Allen of Central UMC in Atlanta.

This year's Bible teacher was the Rev. Sammy Clark, retired chaplain of Oxford College. Teaching on Philippians 1, Mr. Clark noted the Apostle Paul's admonition that believers "stand firm in one spirit" (v. 27). This, Mr. Clark said, means that believers must be united a team. "[A] team has to have one goal -- and in [our] case the goal is witnessing for Christ."

Carolyn Moore, minister of discipleship at Athens First UMC, led the morning prayer sessions, noting that "[t]here's nothing more important than prayer" in shaping the work of the Conference.

Among those who came to the microphones to pray during the Wednesday prayer session was Lee McNeil, associate at Tuckston UMC in Athens. Lee prayed that believers in the North Georgia Conference would "have one common passion: Jesus Christ" and that they would be "hungry to bring joy to [the Father's] heart."

Insurance plan
Much of the business on Wednesday morning focused on financial issues. Delegates adopted a $21.2 million budget for 2003, and approved changes in paying for clergy health insurance (needed to bring the Conference into compliance with IRS regulations and rulings of the UMC's Judicial Council).

Laity luncheon
This year's Laity Luncheon featured an address by Judge John Minton Jr., a Circuit Court judge in Kentucky and lay leader of the Kentucky Annual Conference.

John Minton

Mr. Minton, who also serves as president of the Southeastern Jurisdiction Association of Conference Lay Leaders, encouraged North Georgia's lay delegates to mature in the faith through "constant and disciplined attention" to Scripture reading, prayer, fasting, Holy Communion, engaging in works of mercy, and meeting in small groups for encouragement and accountability."

Through these practices, he said, we open "ourselves to God's grace" and "find the greatest possibilities for [personal] transformation."

Church development
The highlight of the Wednesday afternoon business session was the report from the Office of Church Development. The Rev. Clay Jacobs, director of the office, described 2001 as "a banner year for reaching previously unchurched people" in North Georgia through new churches and other ministries aimed at reaching growing populations and diverse cultures and languages.

Delegates heard about new churches in Richmond County, Hall County, and Cherokee County, as well as about a Korean campus ministry and a Spanish language outreach in South Hall County. Other outreaches include five congregational missions in metro Atlanta targeted, respectively, to immigrants from Haiti, Liberia, Vietnam, China, and India.

Bishop Davis

Reaching people for Christ "is what the church is all about," Bishop Lindsey Davis said, responding the Church Development report.

He told delegates that the North Georgia Conference had grown "by 7,404 persons" in 2001. "That's the largest net growth in membership of any other Annual Conference in Methodism in North America," he noted.

"I think that is pleasing to God. But I also believe God is not satisfied with it," the bishop said, urging churches to do the work of evangelism.

Campus cult
Another report on Wednesday, from a Conference task force created in 2001 to study the impact of cult activity on college campuses, publicly identified that Atlanta Church of Christ as a cult. Part of the International Churches of Christ founded in Boston in 1979, the Atlanta Church of Christ already has been banned from a number of college campuses, including that of Emory University.

The task force will continue working to alert UM churches to other cults active at colleges in North Georgia.

Repentance service
The focal point of the week came Wednesday night: the Service of Repentance and Reconciliation. Aimed at bringing healing to wounds inflicted by historic (and present) racial prejudice and misunderstanding, the service featured live and video testimonies of white and black United Methodists telling their own stories of hurt and healing, insensitivity and repentance.

"It's important for our church to be accurate reflection of the gospel -- and we cannot do that, we cannot be Christlike, as long as we hold some of the attitudes that we have in our hearts," Bishop Davis noted in a pre-service video.

During the service, whites declared their sorrow over giving assent to a cultural ethos that has treated blacks as inferior. Blacks confessed to nursing animosities and suspicions toward whites, rather than seeking to reach out in the spirit of Christ.

Dr. William Turner of the Duke Divinity School urged blacks and whites to let go of the past and forgive, thus creating an environment in which God can move freely among us.

"Forgiveness is a release of power. In forgiveness, the power of the Holy Ghost is released in our lives. It's power that enables us to walk in a new way, power to walk in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ," he said.

The service included a series of appropriate Scriptures, including Ephesians 4:31-32:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

The hope for achieving such a Christlike attitude was best stated in a lyric from a duet sung at the service: ""Through His grace, through His power, we will overcome by the blood of the Lamb."

> Thursday, June 13

Carolyn Moore

The morning worship and Bible teaching time was highlighted by another wonderful prayer session, led by Carolyn Moore of Athens First UMC.

She asked the delegates to "pray for a strong witness" to be given to UM churches throughout the Conference.

"I ask you pray specifically for freedom from the things that bind and oppress our churches and prevent them from being a strong witness; things like bureaucracy and politics, fear and unbelief, self-centeredness, anger, disunity. Pray that our churches will be a beacon of light in their communities."

Youth report
Later Thursday morning, Brittany Hanie, president of the North Georgia Conference Youth began the Youth report by proclaiming, "I love Jesus Christ!"

She went on to warn the delegates that increasing numbers of youth "are not looking for truth in Christian churches, [but] are instead exploring new age religion, alcohol, drugs, gangs, sex, suicide, and a host of other hopeless arenas to satisfy their need for love and direction."

The Conference Youth president then pointed out another painful reality. "From all accounts the Christian church, not only our denomination, is aging at an alarming rate. We can no longer see ministry to teenagers as a 'nice program' to have in our churches and Annual Conference. We are losing the souls of countless teenagers and jeopardizing the future of our church," she said.

Heath Pressley, student minister at Mt. Pisgah UMC in Alpharetta, explained that the Conference vision team is working to address the situation Brittany described. "[We] have begun crafting a strategy for making disciples out of irreligious teenagers -- and, in fact, we see our mission as equipping the local church to make disciples out of irreligious teenagers," he said.

"We believe that if churches can create a culturally relevant 'container,' they can enter the teen world, reach teens that are smoking dope under the bleachers at the high school football, introduce them to Jesus, allow them to grow in Christ to the point where, yes, they serve in ministry for the Lord."

Allen Todd

Allan Todd, youth minister at Providence UMC in Fayetteville, declared that youth ministry isn't just important, it is essential. "If a person does not become involved in a church by age 18, there's a [only] a 5 percent chance that [he or she] will ever become involved as an adult," he said.

"[I]f we aren't doing our job with young people, with children, [the likelihood is that we will never reach for Christ most] of the people around us."

'Outside the Box'
The afternoon worship service on Thursday focused on the necessity of evangelism. Bishop Earnest Lyght of the New York Conference reminded delegates that a church which has lost its passion for evangelism has forsaken its calling.

"The mandate from Jesus is to make disciples, and this United Methodist Church of which we are a part has claimed disciple-making as our primary task," he said.

He called on the delegates to practice evangelism "outside the box," outside "the four walls of our churches."

"Jesus said 'Go,' not 'Sit.' John Wesley said that the world is our parish, not the church building!"

Bishop Lyght also reminded delegates that be effective in evangelism, the church must have a Christ-centered, biblical message, and must claim the power of the Holy Spirit.

Bishop Lyght

"Evangelism outside of the box is characterized by Pentecostal power. And you get to the Pentecostal power by first experiencing resurrection power..., which means that you got to come to grips with the empty tomb," he preached.

"If you're sitting around having theological arguments about whether the tomb was empty, you've missed it!" he said to cheers and applause. "If you're sitting around having theological discussions about the virgin birth, then you've missed it!"

The New York bishop urged clergy and laity alike to alter their lifestyles and their church programs so that evangelism could be given priority.

"Go to the places where people gather and tell the good news about salvation," he said. "Get our of our boxes. We had enough meetings. Get out of our churches. Preachers, get out of your study. Shut the computer off. Get out of our comfortable homes. And get out of our traditional practices. In the name of Jesus, go make disciples!"

'Issues of Christianity'
Late Thursday afternoon, delegates held a time of "Christian conversation" to discuss the previous evenings Repentance and Reconciliation Service, and to talk about "where we go from here."

A delegate from the Atlanta-Decatur-Oxford District suggested that every member of the Conference would do well to pray the prayer found in Psalm 139: "Search me, O God, and know my heart.... See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Another delegate, Derek Porter, pastor of Harmony UMC in Troup County, noted that the true issues in reconciliation aren't about race, but about the nature of the gospel. "The issues we deal with are not 'black and white,'" he said. "They are issues of Christianity. I must look at my brother as God looks at my brother."

Laity service
At the Laity Service on Thursday evening, Tony Ortiz, a member of Red Oak UMC in Stockbridge, preached from Psalm 100.

Tony Ortiz

He exhorted delegates to have "a passion for the Lord," and for the work of reconciliation. "You can't go about this halfheartedly," he declared.

During the Laity Service, former Gateway** member Tom Coley was honored as the Athens-Elberton District layperson of the year. Tom is now a member of Hartwell First UMC.

> Friday, June 14

In the Friday morning prayer session, Carolyn Moore of Athens First UMC urged the delegates to pray "toward the things of the Kingdom." Referring to Jesus' model prayer in Matthew 6, she said "whatever is happening in heaven [is] what we ought to be praying for on earth."

She encouraged delegates to "pray your kingdom dreams for your church, for you community, for the people to whom you minister, pray God's provision for the place you go home to."

Resolutions
Much of Friday morning was devoted to debating resolutions offered by local congregations, various ministry groups, and individual members of the Conference.

Resolutions approved by the delegates included:

A resolution establishing a Conference committee focused on ministry with people living in poverty; A resolution encouraging churches to participate in Kairos and other prison ministries; A resolution calling on the UMC General Conference to join worldwide support for persecuted Christians.

The conference session then moved toward a close, with a series of routine reports and resolutions.

Appointments
Just before adjournment, Bishop Davis read the list of clergy appointments. Each district lay leader prayed a prayer of blessing over the clergy appointed to serve in his or her district.

The North Georgia Conference will meet in Augusta again next June, before returning to Athens in 2004. The 2005 gathering will be at Ben Hill UMC in Atlanta.