PREPARING FOR ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2023

Much of the work of conference leadership has been laser-focused on preparing for Annual Conference, which will be held next week at First UMC in Colorado Springs. Annual Conference is a time when clergy and lay members of the Mountain Sky Conference gather to help us order our life for the coming year. We will worship together, engage in mission, share in bible study, engage in learning workshops, approve new candidates for ministry, adopt a budget, remember those saints who served God and now rest from their labors, and renew old friendships and make new ones.

I have been watching reports from Annual Conferences across the country. I have been struck by the joy and hope that has been expressed across the connection. As we move past the heartbreak of disaffiliations, there is a renewed commitment to our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. There is a desire to deepen the United Methodist connection. There is a vision for who God is calling us to be that is contagious, captivating clergy and laity.

In these few days before we gather, I will be in deep prayer for our time together. I pray that the winds of the Spirit will carry us safely to Colorado Springs and that those who will be attending via zoom will feel the connection we share.

I pray that everyone who is a part of annual conference will find joy knowing they are a part of something lifegiving and will rediscover we can do more together than we can apart.

I pray that someone will find Jesus tapping them on the shoulder and hear him say, “Come, follow me.”

I pray that we will offer one another generous grace as we commit to listening to one another, even when there are sighs too deep for words.

I pray that we will do what United Methodists are told to do from the time they enter Sunday School: to leave a place better than we found it (whether that place is First UMC, Colorado Springs, or each session we are a part of).

The words that continue to surface in my prayers are these: Grace. Joy. Connection. May these words guide our time together.