AC2010 Plog Part 1

Well, today I will finally start typing out my hand-written Annual Conference journal and notes. What follows are my notes with editor’s (that’s me too) notes and comments in red italics.

Keep in mind; these notes include notes about Conference, personal observations, and various other happenings while I was in Birmingham. Enjoy.

AC2010 6/3 pm

It’s 9:30 Thursday night. I just got into town, checked-in to the hotel, bought some snacks. I walked to a gas station adjacent to my hotel and bought Pop Tarts, Frosted Shredded Wheat, and 2 Diet Mountain Dews. I left one of the Dews in the hotel refrigerator. Now I’m sitting in my king sized bed watching Family Guy. But only because I haven’t found the Braves game yet.

Apparently I forgot my black spiral notebook. It’s the notebook I’ve written my AC notes in for the last 3 years. This year I’ll use my new green and black composition book.

Found the Braves. They’re up 1-0 in the 2^nd. I love west coast games.

I’m done for now. Time to read over some of the pre-Conference info and watch some baseball.

The Braves lost. I didn’t sleep much or well. I hate sleeping in hotel beds. I especially hate sleeping in hotel beds when I’m by myself. It’s lonely.

6/4 am

I’m early. Way early. Worship doesn’t start for another hour. That should give me plenty of time to inspect the contents of the bag they handed me on the way in the building. Oo! Crayons!

I’ve decided I will keep a running tab of cell phone rings. More to come…

Gathering music should start soon. I must look like the most anti-social person here. Sitting here staring at a notebook. Pen in hand. Ear buds in my ears. I strive for nonverbal that scream…”Don’t talk to me.”

Once again, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here in shorts. As it turns out I was not, in fact, the only one there in shorts. Later in the day I noticed a man, probably in his 60s, wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and a ball cap. My kind of guy. We exchanged a knowing nod.

Wow, the opening music is loud. I had to turn The Shins up (they are a band).

Age wise I am way in the minority. I figure I’m in a group of about 10% who are under 40. That includes clergy and lay delegates. As lay delegates go I’d imagine I’m in the youngest 5%. It’s a room full of 50+ers.

This guy sounds like he’s pretty good. I guess I’ll turn Duncan Sheik off and listen to him.

They are using the same cross from last year that I liked so much. I noticed this year that it definitely is a dove descending on top of the cross. The wood on top is a different color. I’ve adjusted my sketch from last year accordingly.

I like contemporary style worship more than traditional. But there is nothing better than old hymns sung with passion! “Oh how I love Jesus! Because he first loved me!”

My main complaint against P[raise] & W[orship] music is the lack of depth. “Jesus is beautiful.” “Lift up your name.” I want to write moving songs with depth. Songs with meaning – Head & Heart songs. I need to work on those more often.

Willimon just called the Conference into session.

“Serve the least, the last, and the lost” – opening prayer. I wish I could remember who prayed this. So I can try to attribute it to them when I use it in a song. Great line.

One vote down - the ‘bar’ is set.

Looks like our conference shrank by 2112 members last year. About -1.5%. We just voted to close 4-5 12 churches. I didn’t write the number down as we voted. I tried to remember it, but was wrong. Then someone alluded to the “12 churches we voted to close” a little later, so I changed the number. Attendance in the conference is down 2.1%.

As I sat there I crunched some numbers. (Where did that phrase originate? “Crunch numbers.” How exactly does one crunch numbers? I wonder if it’s similar to “chewing the fat?”) And now that I’m here with access to the Dashboard (the conference’s numbers reporting system) I’d like to make some observations. Edgemont has taken a little heat this year because of falling attendance. Our attendance in 2009 was down 6% compared to 2008. That is, obviously, more than the conferences 2.1% decrease. But our membership grew by 5.1% in 2009 while conference membership declined.

Here’s my other observation. According to the Dashboard, membership in the North Alabama Conference grew by 1.9% in 2009. The attendance numbers are closer. The Dashboard shows attendance down 1.4% instead of 2.1%. I have no idea what any of that means. Just making observations.

Worship – Rev. Marcus Singleton preaching

Let me start off by saying that this was by far my favorite part of day one. Some of the best preaching I’ve heard in a long time (no offense intended Eric.) This guy was good. A lot of my notes from this part are quotes from his sermon. Some of it is paraphrased.

“Has all of God been invited to church? We allow God and Jesus in to comfortable places. So comfortable we forget they are there. We forget the Holy Spirit.” We had pretty much this same discussion at our small group meeting last week. I’d go so far as to say we tend to be Jesus focused. We leave out God and to a greater extent, the Holy Spirit. I like this next quote he said we tend to think of the Holy Spirit as – “Some mojo.”

“We have supplanted the Holy Spirit with church growth models.” I diverge from him a little here. I don’t think this is what he was saying, but what I hear there (and have heard) is that planning is not allowing the Holy Spirit to work. I completely disagree. I think the Holy Spirit works in our planning as much or more than outside of our planning. I get what he is saying here though. We don’t invite the Spirit to work in our plan. We expect the plan to do the work. In that case we are giving ourselves way too much credit.

Santa Claus just walked past me.

“We are set apart to live and serve as God’s chosen.” Here goes someone else using my words. This was my point a few weeks ago regarding the “10 Ways Christians Act Unchristian” article. We are set apart. We should be different than the rest of the world. Not better per se but different. More generous. More willing to help our neighbors. Less judgmental. More loving. More accepting. More tolerant. More gracious and merciful. That’s not to say that non-Christians are not those things. They are. To a greater extent than ‘God’s Chosen’ much of the time.

“H.S. makes us uncomfortable.”

“How can we fulfill God’s purpose with out H.S. leadership?”

I really like this next image. Such a great metaphor. “God’s spirit hovers like a helicopter. Shaking shimmying, waiting for someone to act.” “We wait and wait and wait. What are we waiting for?” We’re waiting on God to act. God is waiting on us in order to act through us.

“We sit and say ‘Move me.’ To God. To the preacher. To worship leader.” “Create in me a new heart. Renew my spirit.” “Lord, I surrender. I submit.”

“Numbers are the difference between Gehenna and Paradise.” I wish I could remember a little more context on that quote. His point was that numbers are in fact important.

Aside – It really pisses me off to see people get up and leave in the middle of a sermon. I know we don’t all agree, but come on. And he was a freaking clergy person!

From this point on I felt like he was speaking directly to Edgemont UMC.

“When we set the Spirit free it doesn’t matter if we contemporize or traditionalize worship.” “We are not filled with the Holy Spirit but with a spirit of survival.” “The H.S. will move non-risk to risk takers. The way we’ve always done it to let’s just do it.”

“The church is for God’s glory!” This is as opposed to being for our glory.

“We need to become reacquainted with the leadership of H.S.” “Leader and church spirit-led.”

Pray for Edgemont to be spirit led.

That last part was my comment. I wrote that at the end of his sermon. And I meant it. All of you Edgemont folks reading this (and any others who are the praying type,) let’s pray for Edgemont to be a spirit led church. From top to bottom. From our pastor to the kids in the nursery. That is my prayer anyway.

I pray that Edgemont become reacquainted with the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I pray that we surrender our desires and listen to the guidance of the Spirit. I pray that we submit ourselves to God’s will for this congregation. I pray for a new heart and a renewed spirit for me and for our congregation. Remove the “spirit of survival” and give us a spirit of action. I hope that we are moved to act to step out and become risk-takers. I pray that we move beyond “That’s how we’ve always done it” to “Let’s do it.” Holy Spirit lead us!