My friend and online community pastor at White's Chapel UMC, Kyle Roberson, once gave me the nickname of the "armchair delegate" when talking about my role in the the General Conference 2016. In all respect to Kyle, I am redirecting that title to these series of posts about my experience with the General Conference 2016 of the UMC.
The first thing I wanted to share is what I have come to understand about the future of the Central Texas Conference. Long story short, the General Conference may choose to make the South Central Jurisdiction (SCJ) one Episcopal Area smaller than it currently is. That means the SCJ has to consider the possibility of loosing one bishop. In anticipation of this action, a task force was created called "Mission 21". Their task was to consider and recommend to the SCJ ways to function with one less bishop. You can read their entire report here in case you wanted to see it all.
What is interesting to me is that the Central Texas Conference (CTC) faces the possibility of being redrawn in some form that will forever change the way the CTC looks and functions. While I do not know what the task force will recommend I find it uprisings that so little of the work of this task force has been discussed within the CTC. Even if there is little that the conference can input into the process, it is not beyond the imagination of the Church to join the work of the task force in the form of prayer.
The work of this taskforce is not over, nor has their been any action of the GC to force this action at all. Meaning that there is no merger or re-drawing lines of the SCJ at this time. Will you join me in prayer for this task force and their recommendations to the SCJ, if so called upon to make such a recommendation.