It is the time of year when United Methodists begin to plan for the big gathering of the year ~ Annual Conference. Our Vermont Pre-Conference Meeting was last Saturday. Four of us from Faith UMC drove down to Barre to review the pending legislation and orient ourselves for the work ahead. The Pre-Conference Booklet is extra thick this year with several Resolutions for consideration for General Conference 2012 and biographies for potential delegates for General and Jurisdictional Conference.

Sometimes all of the hard work we must do at Annual Conference seems like just that ~ hard work! I've even wondered if it would be beneficial to take a year off now and then to rest! But in the midst of the piles of resolutions (with their inevitable amendments and amendments to the amendments) the work we do on a District and Conference level is important. For one thing, Annual Conference keeps us accountable. At Annual Conference we ask ourselves questions such as :

~ what is important to us?
~ where is God calling us to focus our resources?
~ what direction do we want to go in as a Conference?
~ what input do we want to have in the work of the General Conference?

Of course we can't always agree on everything. Yet we always know that we will gather again and can, with the guidance of the Spirit, continue the conversation.

As a church in the Vermont District of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, we have similar hard work to do. The questions I listed above are not just important on the Conference level, but on the local church level as well. What is important to us? Where is God calling us to use our resources? What direction do we want to go in as a church? What input do we want to have in the work of the wider church?

Gathering in worship, in study and in Council we have these important conversations, hold each other accountable and do the hard ~ yet rewarding ~ work of the church.